Ch 5
Five months latter
-Martoel POV-
Aww home sweet home. Time to get to work on this walking thing.
My mother and I just got back from Shiris house. I learned something amazing from mother, the thing is that that Shiri is a girl. I never thought to ask and finally after jumping on each other every time we saw each other, mother scolded me about treating girls better. I tried to not jump on Shiri the next time we met and she thought that I hated her when I didn’t try to get on top of her. So after that we went back to jumping onto each other as we tried to prove who was stronger.
Shiri has gotten much better at collecting mana into her body, to the point that she can even start to control the mana inside herself and move it to specific parts of her body. But we don’t have much mana so it’s hard to see if it actually does anything. Also I’ve learned that mana is different in each person. Shiris mana is like the mana at her house and my mana is like the kind at my house. I wonder if the mana you first absorb is the one you become the most attached to?
Ahhh man I have so many questions and none of them are getting answered. I want answers but I can’t get them until I can move about and speak.
Oh looks like it’s time for mothers training. First she stands me up, and then I have to grab her hands so I don’t fall. That’s when the training starts I ether bend my legs down while mother helps me down or I have to hold my legs up off the ground when she lifts me. Fir the first few days Jager had to help us by holding me up while mother moved my legs until I understood the concept. And every now and then mother pulls my arms away from my body and holds me up for extended periods of time before letting me down. When we first started I would always hurt in my arms and legs then loss control and pass out. But now I have decided to start to train my mana at the same time.
“Well Martoel, it seems to me that you are getting strong enough to kick up your training a notch.”
“Oh no. no no no”
I see mother pull out a stick with some string on both ends of it. She puts it around my legs and ties it tight.
Then she grabs my arms and lifts me off the ground.
“Let’s get you big and strong soon without your father. That will teach him that I can’t raise a warrior.”
Stupid father why do you have to say things that make mother give her an evil glint in her eye. Or should I thank you for making the training harder. Hmmm I think that I’m going to be mad at you for a while father until I’m used to this training. And might as well make it harder for myself and absorb mana while we train still. Ahh why is getting strong so painful.
…
A month latter
…
The training is hard I have since gone from lifting a stick to lifting a stick half my size to lifting two small rocks to two big rocks, I don’t think I could lift anything bigger so I hope this is the last thing tied to my legs. I even have to drag them around the house when I crawl around, and if I walk mother gives me bigger rocks to use. The only time they come off is when father is about to get home or we go over to Shiris.
I have continued to absorb mana as I trained which made me pass out more frequently but also let me grow in strength faster. I can now stand indefinitely without weights on and can move about easily. Mother even added a new training method for me, I now have to push sticks and logs to the fireplace in the kitchen or living room. She got this idea when I picked up some sticks and brought them to her. That’s what I get for being helpful.
Today was a darker day with fluff covering the heavens. Mother was watching me walk a little ways in front of her. She thought I was strong enough that I could handle walking outside. The first few times I fell but after that I grew to love being outside, although mother doesn’t let me go out often.
As we walked I felt a new type of mana stream floating around me. I started to absorb it as we walked. The mana was full of energy and vary harsh and jagged, jumping up and down from between the ground and the heavens. As I absorbed more and more mana the fluff in the heavens grew bigger and darker. I wonder if this will cause the lights to appear.
“Booooom!”
A grand white flash of light shot across the sky and struck the ground with an amazing sound. I stopped moving and looked at it in aww, as my mother started to run towards Shiris house. Where are you going mother?
Well you know where I am so you can come back when you want me. I just sat there staring at the heavens waiting for the light to come again. As I waited the heavens decided to drop the white cold drops from the sky.
Well it’s not coming very fast, I thought as I waited for the light to come back. Well I guess I should absorb more mana as I wait. Once I began to absorb mana again I felt the familiar chill that came with the mana I had absorbed the most in my life. Then I felt a powerful surge of mana shoot through me and then nothing.
-Marte POV-
When the thunder sounded the only thing I could think of was get Martoel out of danger.
So I ran. I ran all the way to Naeves house without a moment of hesitation. It was in sight but it wasn’t close.
Once I got there I burst through the door. I was out of breath and breathing deeply, hunched over hands on my knees.
“Hey Marte. Did you decide to leave Martoel at home today. Shiri won’t like that.”
I reach behind me to where Martoel usually sat on our walks to Naeves. But he wasn’t there.
Oh no where’s Martoel, where is my son.
“Oh no. No no no no.”
I turn around immediately just in time to see the second bolt of thunder shoot down towards the ground, towards where I had just come from.
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I freeze for a second in utter terror. Then I run.
Be alright my son, please be alright. Please be alright. I thought over and over as I ran faster than I could have ever imagined.
Then I saw him, lying next to a scorch mark on the ground the size of a horse. He lay there motionless ice shards scattered around him. Covered in black while his clothes and hair where smoldering. There lay my amazing 11 month old son, the son that next stopped amazing me, the son who never cried except when he was truly hungry, the son who wanted to be as big as I was, and the son that understood me even though he couldn’t respond. There he lay not moving a muscle or laughing or smiling at me whenever our eyes met. He just laid there motionless.
I run to him with tears in my eyes and fall to my knees next to him. I pick up his head and cradle it in my lap.
“Oh son no. you can’t go yet not, you have so much to live for. You haven’t even been outside on your own, or gone to meet the elder, or seen your father and brother work. You haven’t even been able to respond to us even though you tried so hard or walk with us when we went into town together. So you can’t go now, you can’t there is so much more for you to do.”
I wept and cried as the storm raged on slowly moving away from us. As if it had regretted its actions. But I just sat there and cried over my son who must have died from my lack of attention.
But then his shoulder started to grow just a bit adding a triangle around the mark that we could barely call a wolf howling at the night. The mark started to glow a faint white color, that light then spread around his body shining through the burn marks and clothing on him.
And then I saw it, I saw him grimace as if he was in intense pain and struggling to survive. He was alive, just barley but that was enough. Then I heard a voice coming from every direction say.
“Your son will live, so make him a home to live in.”
The voice sounding like a caring mother reluctantly giving her son away to someone she didn’t trust. I looked around and no one was there. And it only continued to snow around us as my son grimaced and twitched on the ground. I knew that we had just been blessed by a goddess, and when I find out which one I will thank her daily.
“Thank you Goddess. Thank you.”
“Marte. Marte where are you? Marte.”
I heard Naeve calling. But my voice wouldn’t come out. And so I sat there and cried tears of joy tears of grief and tears of gratitude. As I sat there in the snow over my son, my breathing, living son who caught a glimpse of Helheim and came back. I realized that my son would indeed be strong, but with that strength he would have to face demons.
-Martoel POV-
Aww another vision. Wait everything is black and I feel nothing around me not even the cold or the heat.
"Have I died?"
"Is this how we move toward death?"
“No child this is not death. But you are not alive ether. At least not your body.”
“Who are you? Where are you?”
“Aww little one it hurts that you have forgotten. But no matter there will be time for new memories later.”
“Are you the women I see in my visions?”
“I do not know. I don’t go into visions of the humans’ race.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To hear your voice child. And to teach you something that will help you move forward in life.”
“Really? Then what could that be?”
“Awww, still as impatient as usual. But no matter. I will teach you about mana. Not what to do with it but
what it is.”
“Its energy even I know that.”
“Haha but it isn’t just energy little one. No mana is much more then energy.”
“Then what is it?”
“Mana is energy you are right about that, but it is more. Mana is the energy of the cosmos that makes living things live and makes them change. And there isn’t just one type of mana there are many types that are constantly being made and changed over time. The most abundant types of mana are water, earth, fire, and wind. Then there are the more refined types of mana like ice, metal, combustion, and thunder. And finally there are the evolutionary mana types of poison, light, dark, and blood. Humans have only ever been able to have abundant and refined mana, and even that they were limited on what they could do with it. But beasts have tendencies of producing evolutionary mana at very small quantities that make them very effective at killing. But they live in places where humans have never been able to reach. Now the mana you just came in contact with was thunder mana. You have also ben refining ice mana ever since your soul met your body. And you only just recently got into contact with water mana. No one your age has ever been in a constant state of absorption of mana or of such quantity. But that might not be a good thing. Who knows I’ve never seen it before so I guess you’ll live with those consequences on your own.”
“Wait what?”
“Oh you didn’t get that. Well you have already been gone for some time so I guess you’ll have to figure out what it all means on your own little one. I wish I could continue to talk but your body will be destroyed without your soul being there anymore.”
“Wait I didn’t understand a thing and now I’m going back. This is so confusing.”
“Oh little one you have no idea. And don’t forget to make that home for yourself. Only then will you truly find peace.”
…
“Hey Martoels waking up. Mom Martoels waking up.”