Kayne was still trying to work out what all the fuss was with those glass orbs. He suspected it had something to do with magic and was some kind of test.
He wasn't sure if he had passed, but the strange looks on his parents' faces and what he could gather from their conversation didn't fill him with confidence.
The trio left Anton's and looped back around the water's edge, passing by a bunch of children splashing around in the lake nearby and looking to be having fun. He couldn't help but smile at seeing their antics as he concluded that being sent to this place didn't seem so bad.
It looked like some of the children could do some magic, as he noticed one of the older boys hurling balls of water through the air to pelt a couple of the smaller nearby kids. He couldn't wait to grow up and learn some magic of his own if it was possible.
If the glass orb was a testing device, and the two lights were related to space and time, could he become a space wizard?
They took a different winding path through the small village, and he was grateful that it was all bathed in the shadows of nearby cliffs and houses. Despite being well wrapped up, he didn't want sunburn on his tender skin.
This time, they looped around the inside of the palisade wall and headed into what looked like some large warehouse on the other side of the village. The sizeable one-story building appeared to be a woodworking workshop if the scattering of sawdust was anything to go by.
Kayne knew he was correct when one of the two chubby identical twins appeared from a doorway to converse with his parents as he looked around.
"... extend it out a little. I thought we could square it off; that way, we could add two new rooms at the back. That should give us the space we need for now, and I can look at adding another floor above later." His father, Marcus, said as Kayne joined the conversation midway.
"Well, that shouldn't be an issue. We put in solid foundations from the start, as you always said you were considering adding a second floor later anyway. Lykus and I are busy with a few projects for the next week, but after that, we should be able to get started if that works for you?" The large man inquired as he waved his hand through his hair, causing all the sawdust covering him to fly off to the side into a nearby pile. Kayne noticed his father was unsurprised at the casual use of magic.
"Lysias, are you slacking off again?" The other twin said as he walked out of the building and nodded to his parents.
Kayne wondered how anyone even told them apart, with their similar names. He sighed at the silly pair as they traded barbs, and they reminded him a little of Tom and Rick. He couldn't help but smile at them both as his father cut them off.
"Before you two idiots start throwing punches and upset my son, let's work out how much we owe you." His mother laughed as Lykus held Lysias in a headlock. Or was it the other way around? Kayne considered, trying to distinguish the pair who seemed also to dress the same.
"Well, three gold and fifty silver should be enough to cover the cost of the work and materials," the one in the headlock muffled out as he struggled to get free.
His father, shaking his head in embarrassment, dug out an old-looking leather pouch before unfastening the string around the top and producing four gold coins in the shape of a heptagon. The currency also had a hole cut out of the centre in the same shape as the outside of the coin.
"With the extra fifty silver, is it possible to move the outhouse and connect it to the side of the house? We can run it down to the underground river for sewage like before and install a metal grate to prevent anything from crawling up this time.
"The last thing I want in the middle of the night is something slimy crawling up my arse again." His father said with a shiver at the end, and Kayne knew that must be a story worth hearing.
"Sure, seems fine to me." One of the twins said, stifling a grin. He had let go of the other twin and was straightening his clothes out, even though they were already a mess from the playfight.
His parents paid the duo the coins and exchanged goodbyes before heading back out of the village and over to their house. The sun in the sky was dipping towards the blurry mountains in the distance, and Kayne figured it would be night soon. He couldn't help but think of sleep as a yawn overcame him.
The trip back to their house was short, and Kayne guessed it was roughly half a mile from the village gate. He wondered why his parents had chosen to live outside the village.
He didn't see why they couldn't live inside since they stored the animals in the barn at night anyway. Perhaps they liked the space and being closer to their livelihood. From what he could tell, it was a very picturesque location.
The evening went by uneventfully. Kayne got fed, changed, and washed before being allowed to play on a fluffy rug in the corner of the living area filled with his new toys. The play mainly involved him trying his best not to fall asleep and instead using the time wisely to build up his muscle strength by moving around as much as possible.
As he was moving around, he thought about what he could do to work out more and smiled as a silly thought crossed his mind. He couldn't help but imagine Gizmo from the Gremlins movie working out as he pictured himself doing weight as a baby.
Eventually, he must have drifted off to sleep, as when he next awoke due to hunger, he seemed to be in the dimly lit bedroom. The light seemed to be coming from the main room, and he guessed the door was left open a slither so that his parents could listen out for him.
He closed his eyes in thought, debating if he should cry out and alert his parents, whom he could hear talking in the other room, to his hunger or sleep more. Having decided that he needed all the food he could get to grow stronger, he opened his eyes, ready to imitate another baby cry, but the cry came out strangled at the sight of what was standing next to his cot.
The ghostly shape had appeared right next to him again. He watched as it slowly raised its hand, reaching to touch him on the head. The apparition was again still distorting in places and looked like a mix of washed-out shades of grey.
The only colour he could see still belonged to its eyes, which, this time, looked like someone had dropped a mix of vibrant colours into a large tub of white paint. He quickly averted his gaze, not wanting to be transfixed by them a second time.
"Come." The spectre whispered. The voice wasn't abnormal but sent a shiver down his spine anyway.
The rising hand seemed to take forever, and Kayne almost thought it was a massive effort for the ghost. He noticed the brows on the face of the spirit scrunched up in annoyance before it flickered out of existence, only leaving behind a barely audible sigh.
Is it because I died myself that I can see ghosts now?
Deciding that being with his mother and father equalled safety, he cried out, alerting them to his needs. He got fed and rocked to sleep in his mother's arms as she sang a sweet-sounding song, allowing his frayed mind to settle.
The rest of the night went by uneventfully, apart from him being woken up again in the early hours to his parents going at it in the bed next to his cot. He wasn't sure if he should give them a thumbs up for their virility or try to form a mental block and black it out.
He even tried to put his little fingers into his ears to stop the quiet moaning noises, but all he accomplished was proving his non-existent dexterity. He wasn't a prude by any means, but he had already decided to treat this young couple in his mind as the parents he had never gotten to have. Instead, he just decided to blank it out as he went through his plans, trying to ignore the building crescendo in the background.
I'm unsure what is more embarrassing, this or crapping myself constantly. How am I supposed to look at them the same in the future?
He shook his head a little before moving on to distracting thoughts and eventually falling back asleep.
The next couple of days went on at a much more uninteresting pace, as he never got to leave the house, apart from spending time outside watching the world go by with his mother in the mornings. He got a better look around the area a few times, with his mom taking him out for short walks, seeing the animals grazing in the nearby fields, and watching his dad and others work here and there.
There was an odd conversation with people passing the area and those working fields nearby. Still, he could not gather much information other than that he was a cute, handsome boy and hated having his cheek pinched. He wasn't interested in the average village gossip and ongoings like his mother and wanted to see more magic.
The only exciting things he saw were the glowing crystals his father fastened inside some wooden lantern-looking posts before nightfall. These lanterns seemed to be all over the house outside, and he guessed they liked to keep things well-lit and thought no more of it.
He did notice that the crystals seemed to need a recharge as they got left out in the sun during the daytime. He couldn't help but wonder if they were some solar-powered, magic light source used in this world or a form of higher technology-based ingenuity.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Kayne had been giving a lot of thought to this new world he had found himself in, especially the magic aspect of it, as that was the part that fascinated him the most. So far, he had been unable to produce any results at his attempts to cast a magic spell, and he had been trying everything he could think of to fire one out.
The people he had seen doing magic around the farm always seemed to be able to do something different, so he suspected that people must have some innate gift they are born with. He knew he had undergone that testing the other day and suspected his talent might be related to time and space.
Kayne wasn't ashamed to admit that he had tried to use time magic to force himself to grow up faster, even going so far as to strain himself with the effort, causing a smelly accident that cut his dreams of wizardry short.
With the studies he had done back on Earth, He knew a little about the development of infants, as biology and the sciences were an interest of his. That is why he was pretty surprised with his progress these past few days.
He had expected to be predominantly blind and useless for a long time to come, but instead, his vision had improved rapidly, and he could now see well into the distance.
Moving around only improved slightly, but he could look around more effortlessly and roll onto his sides. He would have attributed the increased mobility to being an experienced driver in a new body, but that didn't explain his eyesight.
It seemed that this world was full of mysteries to be solved.
His improved eyesight finally allowed him to get a better look around the land he now called home, and he was stunned at the beauty surrounding him. During his arrival, things had been quite hectic and over with quickly, so he had only had fleeting glances to work with. Now, he could look around and take the scenery in clearly at a leisurely pace.
The first thing he noticed was the surrounding mountains. The valley or basin seemed surrounded on three sides by large mountains.
The side next to the village was the tallest by a slight margin: the vertical cliff with the waterfall. While still quite steep, the two other sides were more tapered.
They all seemed made up of that white-coloured rock he had noticed during his trip to the village. The mountains were full of tall trees in many places, and it reminded him of the Rockies in North America. It was very picturesque.
The only thing that made it any different from back home were the leaves of the trees themselves, as they were more of a teal colour than green.
The geography of the flat area where his house and the village sat seemed weird to him. It was unnaturally even as if a giant had stamped flat a section of the mountain range.
A sea of lush green grass dotted by a mixture of pretty-looking wildflowers covered this flat area. The villagers divided the remaining space into square fields for the various animals and crops.
If he had to guess, the flat area seemed six miles long and one mile wide. It was longer from the waterfall in the west to the forest at the eastern exit, creating a rough oblong shape if looked at from above.
Having been able to look from the air for a short while had helped him get a better sense of the area, and he knew that a large forest started at the exit and expanded away from Mysthaven village.
Knowing that he was on the northernmost continent, he had expected snow and miserable weather, but it had instead been quite surprising. The weather was lovely, with warm heat from the sun all day and a subtle cooling chill from the wind. The mixture gave a very refreshing feeling when outdoors.
When he arrived, he saw that the northern continent had a lot of white patches that would have been snow, so he expected cold weather to come eventually.
It was the afternoon on the third day when a visitor to their home finally broke the monotony of his new schedule. The woman and young girl they had met in the village came over to visit his mother and himself.
The woman went by Eleni, and his new playmate, the daughter, was Rhea. The woman was quite average-looking, with brown eyes and hair. Nothing made her stand out; he could only think of the word plain when he saw her. The daughter, who had her hair tied up in a short ponytail with some string, just looked like a smaller, snottier version of Eleni.
"Wow, he is so handsome," Eleni said again for the fourth time as she held him in her arms and looked down at him with a big smile.
"I wonder who his parents were. There is nothing around these parts. Isn't that why we settled out here?" The simple woman said as she continued to fuss over him.
"I don't know. We have been unable to find anyone nearby, and the watch at the pass didn't see anyone come and go. It's all quite bizarre," Kayne's mother replied, sighing afterwards.
A sentry, that's interesting. I won… wait, what! I'm adopted?
He had assumed that Valeria and Marcus were the birth parents of this new body, and finding out he was adopted just piled more questions onto his already taxed mind.
"There was a nameplate with the name 'Athanatos Keraunos' written on it we found on him. We had debated heading into Kallipolis to see if we could gather information, but we thought better of it. If they had to leave him, it must have been for a good reason, and we don't want to stumble into trouble. If his parents or whoever left him here could sneak into the valley undetected, they must be quite powerful." His mother looked slightly worried at the thought he saw but quickly hid it away with a soft smile.
"Besides, it might sound selfish, but I don't want to give him away. I know it has only been a few days, but I can't help feeling connected with him already. Just look at him. He is always so alert with those big bright eyes." His mother cooed at him as she gently reached out and rubbed his face.
Kayne thought about his adoption. He had already decided to treat his new parents as his own, so the news didn't change much. He was curious about his biological parents but decided to carry on as usual and be the best son he could for his adopted parents, who had showered him with love and affection from the start.
It was still early days, but he was happy here so far.
The thing he was most interested in was his new self's background. He silently promised to investigate once he was older and get some answers to honour the original owner of this body.
The pair of women turned to village gossip, so he tuned them out after a short while of listening to what he deemed useless information about other villagers.
If he could learn magic somehow, it would give him something to do as he could focus on training that as he grew up. The novelty of being a baby was slowly wearing off for him, as it was pretty dull.
"Mummy, I play with baby and little Blackie?" A cute little voice interrupted his musings, and the grown-ups, as the little girl sitting quietly with his toys on the rug, spoke up. Her words were pronounced wrong, but he could make it out at least.
"Sure, sit down so you can play together." His mother answered for the pair as she stood up and took him from the other woman and over to the fluffy white rug, where he got placed down in the middle of it. It had a mix of all his wooden toys on top of it that the twins and others had dropped off for him to play with.
After being placed, he noticed that Eleni was doing something strange with her hands in the background, having stood herself. She made a rapid-fire series of gestures before ending with her two hands connected in a diamond shape, her thumbs touching at the bottom and her fingers at the top.
He watched curiously as a small mirror-like flat surface appeared to expand from the gap between her fingers and thumbs until a half-metre diamond-shaped mirror hovered silently in the air before her. The mirror began to ripple before a large black cat appeared, jumping out with a snap as the mirror shattered and vanished.
His mother didn't pay the woman any notice, making sure he was okay before she returned to her seat as the pair sat back down and continued to chat. The large black cat that had appeared looked around slowly and sniffed the air before walking over to the young girl and brushing up against her.
The cat had strange, smouldering orange eyes that looked like lava flowed through them. It was about the size of a large house cat, and Kayne could smell burning as it drew closer to the young duo. The fur was a mix of dark orange and black, with black being the primary colour.
It almost looked like someone had dipped an orange cat in a pile of soot. The young girl stroked it as it glided past, raising its tail in enjoyment at the petting. After a few more strokes from the girl, it approached him and sniffed around at him. He decided not to make any sudden movements and let it check him over, noticing its sharp white teeth as it yawned before moving away.
The cat then curled up on a corner of the rug with a look that said 'Don't bother me' to them both before closing its eyes and resting.
Ouch, fuck! Not again.
Quickly looking down, he saw the young girl nipping him on the foot.
What is it with my foot?
He was sure the girl had bitten his foot when they had first met, and now she was pinching it. He was genuinely confused about what her problem was and forgot there wasn't much of him to nip but his feet.
Well, she is only three or four years old. I shouldn't blame her.
He clamped down on his rising anger, knowing it was just a naughty young girl.
He had noticed that whenever someone did something to annoy him, his first instinct was to lash out in retaliation and make them pay somehow. Back on Earth, he had never been quick to violence or anger, so it baffled him why he was now simmering with the need to get his own back on the girl.
The logical part of his brain was telling him the right things, that it was just a child and that she didn't know any better. Deep down, it was a different story. It was as if a fire of vengeance was burning and wouldn't get sated by rational thinking.
The girl continued to prod and pull at him with heavy hands as she felt his head and tugged on his limbs, even nipping him again at the side. This new stab of pain caused another surge of wrath to flood over him as all he could do was stare at her curious little face as he flailed his limbs about in anger, trying to get her away.
He was able to get himself back under control when the constant straining and moving caused him to evacuate his bowels, releasing a foul smell that caused the girl to scrunch her nose up. Seeing the disgust on the girl's face caused his anger to decrease a little at the sight, so he started to let out his fake cries, broadcasting his need to be changed.
Kayne's mother scooped him up and carried him into the bedroom. She placed him in his cot, which doubled as a changing area. The cot had a latch, allowing the bottom side to fold down for easy access. Kayne's mother unfastened the blanket and cloth diaper that he was wearing.
As she began to clean him up with water magic, Kayne saw the young girl peering over the edge at him. She was only visible from the top of her head, but her two large eyes were unblinking as she watched.
Seeing the girl again brought his anger from her little attacks surging back as all reason fled his body, replaced by the clarity of action. He knew what to do at that moment as he opened the floodgates.
Time seemed to slow down as a yellow stream left him. He watched as it arched perfectly through the air, landing directly on her head. A look of confusion and uncertainty flashed through the girl's eyes for a second before they opened wide in horror and recognition.
With a giant wail, the girl turned and ran out of the room to her waiting mother. The built-up anger and rage dissipated as if someone had thrown a bucket of water onto a small fire, quenching it.
All that remained was a question that bounced around his head before he finally got a hold of himself.
What the hell was all that about?