Chapter 2
Currently, what I assume was one year since my arrival has passed, and now I am facing my greatest challenge yet. Passing through a big monster.
You see, with my current size, I can do nothing more than crawl around. Which represents a kind of challenge in my exploration of the glade. Foreseeing the inevitable, mother has posted a few wolves, which I came to know as Fenrir as my bodyguards. And now the large female I named Lily, is blocking my passage.
“Come on Lily I wanna go there!” came my pleas. Wholly ignored by the large dog blocking my way and looking utterly bored.
For you see, there’s a large wall with inscriptions in the other side, but to reach over there you have to pass through the pond. Which I’m forbidden to.
“C´mon you oversized doggie!” as I fluffed her long fur. Action who earned me a prompt lick in the face.
As my adventure was going nowhere, I heard a call.
“Rhea my dear. Stop bothering the Fenrirs and come here with your mother!”
Yes. Since I first began to speak, lady Haltia made me call her mother. At first, I was a little reluctant to do so. But since she’s done so much for me, I’ve came to accept it. And it’s not like I’m not fond of her. She showed nothing but endless patience and affection so far. In its odd naked in the woods way. The name “Rhea”, she chose for me. Which is a great name, seeing as I had no desire whatsoever of ever uttering my old name again.
As I made my way crawling towards the central mound where she currently stands. I was greeted by a smile and a big kiss. As always, she was absolutely beautiful. Like a goddess of nature and power. You could almost see the immense amount of magic around her, making her glow in a soft light.
“My daughter. What is it that you want so much to see?” She asked as up I went into her lap.
“Mother. It’s been boring. All I do is play with the puppies. I want to read about the magic!” I said, trying to make my best pouty face.
“So I heard. But isn’t my cutie yet too young for such things? I have every intention of teaching you in time. For now, perhaps you want a story? You’re very smart for your age, aren’t you?” Said the beautiful elf holding me.
She proceeded to tell me about the nature’s spirit. Also called mana. The energy that connects all things and all souls. What we call magic, would be the intent of our souls manifesting into the world through physical pathways. And the more in tune with mana you are, more does your very organism becomes mana itself. Transcending mortality and becoming one with mana.
Haltia herself left me shocked when told me she herself was mostly a manifestation of the forest’s mana, and lived what amounted to hundreds of lifetimes. It left me thinking if perhaps I would also live that long. I mean, life in this world has been very good to me so far. I wouldn’t mind spending more time with mother.
So far, most of her stories have been about the nature. And like how people lived separated from it. Each parable about its importance, and the people who forged fire and rejected the forest’s bounty. Putting it all in the context of mana, it made so much more sense.
She also tells me how the humans, and other tribes live in disharmony. Hurting themselves and turning their noses to the true mana. Perhaps one day when I’m older I’ll travel to their lands and see it for myself. I would need some clothes first of course.
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Being too small to really explore. I really don’t get much to do when Mother isn’t around. Something about maintaining the forest it seems. So, I’ll try to do the most stereotypical thing I could do. Try and learn magic! Behold the power of the year-old mage! (Still twenty-nine years too early to become a wizard though)
Sitting myself in a comfortable position with my back on Lily’s comfortable fur. I’ll try and feel the mana.
Slowly as I start to concentrate, I begin to feel something like a mass all around me. It’s like an impossible color, or perhaps a sense you simply didn’t know you had. You could feel the whole glade awash in its color. Naturally concentrating among living things.
Concentrating on the Fenrirs. I could see a different ball of light inside them. Like covered in flames and patterns, it seemed to extend its tendrils to the rest of their bodies. Is this the soul?
Looking down, I focused on mine. But unlike the others, mine was huge. Covered in blue flames and weird patterns. It was like a large mechanism in the center of my being. It was beautiful.
Mother told me magic is the soul’s intent manifesting upon the world. So perhaps if I start from there, I can make magic. Slowly I began to detach a tendril from the whole and direct it to my hand. As soon as it reached, I tried willing it turn to water.
Just as suddenly as a small gush of water began pouring from my hands, A head splitting headache assaulted me and I fell unconscious.
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When I came back to. I was assaulted by breasts. No choice but to drink then. Mother must have returned when I was down for the count.
“You tried to use magic, didn’t you?” Said the pouty elf.
“I commend you for learning how to feel mana by yourself. But trying to do magic without knowing the patterns is dangerous. It could rapidly deplete your internal mana and even cause damage to your soul”.
I had no idea this was so dangerous. Damage to the soul? What’s with the impossible difficulty? Wonder how the first mages did it without killing themselves.
“For you see. To guide mana from your soul and the act of manifesting it into magic, it must be done into specific patterns related to the magic you want to cast. Forcing it may cause damage to your pathways.”
“You see these patterns around my skin? They’re runes. The very manifestation of the pathways I use to cast different magics imprinted into my body. It helps guide, and strengthens the power of what I cast. Not that it’s really necessary for me.” She said as she stroked my head.
“When you’re ready, I will begin to engrave the first runes into you. And in time, you will do this yourself. But for now, you must promise not to cast magic without my supervision ok?”
I looked up and saw the kind of frightening motherly smile that doesn’t allow for any smidgen of disagreement.
“Now drink up my daughter. Maybe soon I will take you with me to the forest. You should learn what to expect outside.”
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A few days later, just as promised. Mother will take me outside.
“Now be a good girl and behave” She said as she put me on top of Lily. By now I always tried to keep my mana sense activated. That’s how I saw small tendrils of mana leave the dog and attach themselves to me. This way, it was like I was attached to the Fenrir, having no need for stirrups or any kind of securing.
“Onwards my faithful steed!” I said as I played around. Which elicited a good hearty laugh from the elf currently preparing to leave.
“You always say such crazy things, don’t you? Now come, we have work to do.” She told me while we began to move out. Closely followed by a procession of Fenrirs.
The first thing I noticed when we left the glade, was a huge dais elevated from the forest floor, with what it seemed like a throne covered in leaves and flowers and an altar below. The whole space was surrounded by dilapidated columns covered in green.
“What is that mother?” I asked curiously.
“That was a place built for me a long time ago. Many tribes used to come and pay tribute to me at the time in search of the forest’s bounty.
In time, they turned their backs to nature in search of easy power. And eventually forgot about me. There is almost no tribe that still remembers about Haltia, or the gift of true mana.” She said with a sad look in her eyes.
This got me thinking about how much time she has been here alone. And how much it must have meant to have found me. Her attachment makes sense now. For certainly even a forest’s spirit must get lonely.
Continuing our travel, she made occasional stops to gather fruits. And to let the wolves hunt their prey of rabbits and boars, these ones immediately taken by one of them back to the glade and the rest of the pack.
By noon, we arrived at a clearing beside a cliff. The tall elevation let me see for the first time the extent of the forest. It was kilometers of green in all directions, surrounded by gigantic mountains covered in snow, or the sea in one of its sides. I imagine it would take days and days to truly arrive somewhere else. We were truly outside civilization.
As we stopped so mother could feed me, she began to tell me about the view.
“This is the forest of Emesh. For thousands of years have I been its guardian. It is here in nature, that the worlds mana is purified. Without it, there is only stagnation and death.” She said with a look of hardened determination.
“For that is the mission that the Goddess gave me. And one I intend to fulfill till the end of my days.”
As I sat looking at the scene in front of me. I began to sense the massive and complex mana that was flowing through the forest. Like a huge weather system, it seemed to take a life of its own. I was shocked by the inherent beauty and complexity of it all.
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Later on, as we continued to move through the trees. There was something strange in the air. The mana, usually a myriad of colors, mostly blues and greens. Began to look darker and stagnant. Almost like a shadow. Haltia’s expression also took a turn serious as she too felt the difference.
Before I could ask what is this about. I saw them. Disgusting creatures of sickly green skin and humanoid format. They made me nauseous, as their very existence was somehow “wrong”. Are these the stereotypical goblins?
As soon as they saw us, they began to howl and screech. And proceeded to run towards us in rage. Their scab covered skin and lack of clothes made for a disgusting sight.
Before I could reel back in fear, mana surged from Haltia, and a wind blade surged forth. Mercilessly decapitating the creatures where they stood.
Continuing forward. Mother burned their bodies in a single stroke.
“These creatures are what happens when mana is corrupted. It forms into confluences that spawn all kinds of foul creatures.” She proceeds to explain.
“The greater the confluence, the stronger the monsters that come forth.”
As we moved further into me murky mana. More and more monsters spawned. All promptly and effortlessly dispatched by Haltia. As we suddenly arrived at what seemed to be the source. A vortex made of shadows.
My accompanying elf then focused on the confluence and began to emit mana, somehow countering the disgusting vortex in front. Like a violent chemical reaction or as if it had a consciousness of its own, it seemed to fight back. But that wasn’t enough, and it soon began to recede till it faded.
“This is one of my duties” she said. Looking no worse than before.
“To maintain the nature’s spirit, such confluences must be eliminated. For their continued existence brings disaster to the world. They consume the world around them and spawn stronger and stronger monsters.
To use mana, is to be part of nature and its cycle. To steal mana, is to turn its back to the world and by time, generate further confluences.” She said as she proceeded to grab me in her lap again.
“Usually, one would think you’re much too young to receive this kind of knowledge. But I have a feeling you have more wisdom than you let it show.” She continued as I gave her a sly smile. Which was reciprocated with a wink and a big kiss on the forehead.
“You being found in a large confluence of pure mana was of no coincidence. I know not why the goddess deemed to present you in my path. But I have a feeling fate has big plans for you.
Or perhaps not. And I simply gained a cute daughter as a gift. Just know I will always love you.” She laughed.
Somehow, not the monsters or the blood or even the horror show of mana I just saw. But this was what made me cry in screams. Like the toddler I currently am. It was like a set of weights had been set off from my back.
As I continued to cry myself to sleep. Mother began carrying me home. I guess that was the first time I truly thought the glade, and the forest as my home.