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When one is born, they are born with innocence and curiosity towards life, that is the whole point of being a child. To experience new things, develop character and above all be prepared for the future, and I am no different. In the last year in this new world, I’ve felt that my personality has begun to change, my outlook on life has become more positive and I have learned new things every day. For example, I have parents who truly care for me, even though I seem a bit different from the other children they do not think of me as strange. These whole year has been fruitful in regards to my body, gaining complete control of my limbs and neck, as I struggled to move at first but now I do just fine.

I sometimes wonder if they would still love me if they were to find out I am no child at all. I obviously try to keep an appearance of childishness but I'm not perfect but sometimes I feel like I am back in prison masking my true self.

Even though I'm hard-pressed for information, I have learned the complex language after a year of watching some kind of television device that looks more like a mirror. They call this mirror, glass mirage and when I threw one of the damned wooden blocks at it by accident, the mirror began to speak and show images out of the blue and I almost had a heart attack, my mother seing me so attached to the glass mirage let me watch the broadcats about all types of things almost every day, the programs are mainly propaganda to the state and documentary type programs and through those I’ve discovered not only how to speak and read but also that I’m in the Edden Kingdom, a peacefull and economically advanced kingdom in the enourmous Continet of Merio. The planet seems big and the distances between countries are massive enough that traveling from one point to the of the Continent would take almost three years.

Almost four weeks after I arrived, I also learned that my father’s name is Orven son of Orden, and my mother is called Signy wife of Orven, and as such my name is Ragnar son of Orven. I have relatives like my aunt that are from the Borhil clan but we still consider ourselves family.

This country is ruled by the clan heads and those form an assembly of people that is called The council of Edden. My father’s father, to which I only met almost a month after being born is one of those clan heads. Strict, severe and very stoic a complete opposite of my cheerful and bright father, who likes to play with me at childish games.

The addition of magic has made my days less boring and uninteresting as I train my control. Apparently, without a totem given by the blessings of the God named Isha, any high-level magic would go out of control and possibly kill the caster, so I'm focusing in controlling the particles that nowadays swivel to a noticeable extent when I will them. Magic, to the understanding of this Kindom’s scholars, is inherently engraved when we are born as it concentrates on people with more or less potential. For example, I can feel that my mother is surrounded by the particles to an absurd amount of numbers and that she does it unconsciously. I for once think that we have a different type of brain from the humankind. Some kind of gland in the brain that allows us to meddle with the physical world to a molecular level.

Thinking those complicated and extense thoughts I am startled by my father's quick embrace as he went behind my back to catch me unguarded. "Did I scare you, my son?" He laughs rowdily as he smiles towards me.

I can’t help but smiles back and nod at his words saying. "Yesh." My teeth underdeveloped and simple sentences making me a fool, but it can’t be helped as it would be strange for me to speak fuller and with more complexity.

"My son is a genius little boy, truly the son of I, Orven!" he praises me as he laughs even harder and put me back on the ground. "To be able to speak so well at such young age, a miracle I say!"

Rowdy as always my father boast towards no one, while I watch the scar that crosses his left eye from up towards down making an even bigger impact on the light blue color of his eyes. While looking up I realize that my father is truly tall, he also wears his hair short and has a swimmers body. But after having only bad male role models in my previous life, this type of childish father isn’t bad at all.

At that moment my mother enters the room and reprimands my father for speaking too loudly and beacons me.

"Come to mommy my child, we have to go. It’s your first time outside so be nice." She smiles.

"Wer go?" I ask my mother while being picked up in her embrace.

"We’re going to the tournament, baby." then she turns to my father. "Are you sure your parents are fine taking care of him?"

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"It’s fine, my mother will take care of things." My father then camps his face. "This annual tournament to showcase power is stupid, I would rather spend my time at home training or with my lovely wife and son."

"You know these things are mandatory." She hurridly exists the room with me in tow. "If we were to miss it, your father would probably disown you, and then we would be clanless."

The conversation sparks my interest but my father just closed himself in thought and my mother simply hurries to the front door.

Once we go outside I am greeted by a sunny day with chirping birds and mild temperatures. I haven’t been outside of the house, not for the lack of trying as I can now crawl and walk almost for a minute, I’ve wondered outside the playroom only to be caught by my mother.

I try to bask in the sun but I’m soon put inside a carriage with no horses. We start to move as my father talks about every little thing that comes across out the window, about threes I can’t pronounce the name or birds that are rare or beautiful.

The journey takes us almost two hours, and as we advanced from our rural mansion to the city it became clear that this part of the Kindom is used mostly for growing crops and cattle. I wonder why we live so far away from the city but I don’t voice my question and as such, time passes and we arrive at the biggest gate I’ve ever seen.

Made out of some sort of crystal, the gate looks magnificent as the run-rays shine through the almost opaque color of the walls, guards stand all around the wall and others in the road to enter asking for permits or tax fees.

The carriage comes to a halt in the long line formed mostly of traders, when something draws my attention. A trading caravan with horses is lined up to exit the city and the man speaking to the guard has a short stature, and by short I mean that the man is the shortest person I’ve ever seen in this world. Although I haven’t seen much of this world if I saw this person in my last world he would have been considered to be a dwarf with around half the stature of a normal grown man.

I approach the window climbing over my father, who looks at me curiously when I point to the person and ask loudly. "Wat is he?"

My father follows my finger to the man in the other lane and says. "My boy, that is a Dwarm and he belongs to the race of Dwarmen, they are the best traders and smiths in the continent. They also have the second biggest numbers in terms of population." My father says as he answers my question with complicated words that I somehow understand to an extent, seeing my complicated frown he smirks.

"Don’t tease your one-year-old son, Orven!" She points an accusing finger at his chest. "He is still learning and he has plenty of time to do so."

My father pales and stutters as he looks at my mother. "I-i was joking my love, he needs to learn what a joke is as he is always frowning with worry."

I frown? I didn’t know this…

We move along the line with this mysterious carriage of ours, the carriage makes me feel uncomfortable as there is no driver nor animals polling them to which I do not understand the mechanics behind yet. We reach the checkpoint and my father flashes a metallic object and the soldier and he immediately stands at attention doing a military-style salute and we begin to advance again.

As we enter the city I begin to see European style houses and apartment blocks, people roam the streets in mass and to my surprise almost all of the people have a different type of ears and skin complexion that me and my family have, some a white as snow, some glow red, and other have pitch black skin. Mesmerized by the amazing different types I start looking for more differences, like eye color and body sizes.

My thoughts are cut short by the view of an imposing mansion, and by imposing I mean big like I’ve never seen before.

Our carriage is guided inside through the big gates and to my surprise my father hardens his face losing all traces of playfulness. My mother noticing this and speaks calming words using magic, and my father’s clenched fists start to loosen up.

"Thank you Sig, but I just truly hate this place, I wished I'd have bought a house even further from this place," he says to my mother. "It brings such hateful memories."

Seeing this I tilt my head in though, the meaningful hate spoken by my father’s words reminds me of my time in prison and that very memory brings me sadness. How can people with such amazing powers be afraid of yet another symbol of oppression?

We exit the carriage and are taken by a maid to an ample living room where I am greeted by true lavishing furniture and decoration, all in golds, whites, and reds. I remember reading a book on the Italian renascence and this was the exact same feelings of opulence.

We sit down and my mother informs me that we are to wait for my grandparents. The first meeting with my grandfather was a total disaster, he was cold and distant and I didn’t show much effort towards bonding. After a while, I hear steps coming down the entrance hall and I climb up the sofa to look behind me. What greets me is a couple with almost forty years of age, but I know now that to be deceiving and that age matters very little after I learned that my race, ‘The higher Elf’s’ live for a long time, and when I say long, I mean for thousands of years.

We greet each other as my father glares at his father and my mother makes small talk with my grandmother, she seems like a fairly nice person, she isn’t exactly oozing with joy to see me but she is polite as she greets me in an awkward manner, speaking to me as if I was a grown man.

After the hurdle of forced and awkward chit-chat, while enjoying a little matiné [1], we are escorted to our carriage and head towards the venue of the tournament. We arrive and I am separated from my parents as it seems they are going to fight in this showcase of power for the face of the clan. We walk toward the assigned seats in the viewing booth and my grandmother faces me with a cramped expression. "Child, do you need anything, food or water?" she asks as if I’m nothing more than a horse.

To which I replied shaking my head toward her. I sigh as I think of the feeling of awkwardness in the room. But everything goes away when the announcer makes his way towards the center of the stadium, and climbs up the stairs and starts to speak without the need of a microphone.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are here in the 584º meeting of the clans, to show us who is the most hardworking and prodigious of all the clans for this past five years. I remember everyone that in this tournament there will only participate the higher clans, and it is a death free zone where no single participant will be able to die as we have the judges and other strong members to stop the fights if they become too violent."

"AND NOW, WE BEGIN THE 584º ANNUAL TOURNAMENT!"

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