CH7

-Martoel POV-

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Eight months latter

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Over the past few months I have been able to regain all the strength and have finally started to train with the training weapon. My weight bags are full of so many rocks that it’s getting hard to close. I know that mother and father are preparing soothing else for me to put in them but I don’t know what that is yet.

Last month mother gave birth to a little girl. They decided to name her Perla. So far Perla doesn’t do much other than sleep and get mothers nectar. I asked if I could have some once and mother told me that it was something that only little ones can have. But I won’t give up one day I will taste that nectar again.

Shiri now understands mana and is focusing on gaining control over water mana instead of exploring other mana types like I have. She can move the mana around her body with some extra effort now and is figuring out how that benefits her. I have continued to absorb the ice mana around the house as I train just like I used to. I can hold much more then I used to be able to and can even feel the type of mana that is dominant inside me. Ice usually rules inside me and takes the water mana I gain at Shiris house and turns it into ice mana. But every once in a while after I get extremely tired another type of mana can be sensed inside of me. While I don’t know what it is I’m afraid that it will take over and destroy me.

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Four months later

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Last month Shiri had her third birthday. I missed the first two when I was unconscious and was training to get stronger. When I asked her what she wanted as a present she just told me to be there the entire day. So I asked mother if it was alright to go before the sun went down. She refused letting me go alone and went with me instead. We left in the early morning before the sun was up and after the sun went down. We waited for father and Brother Jager to be home so we could be safe in our travels. Perla was wrapped in layers upon layers of cloth much like how I was and carried the same way. She had sparkling eyes when we walked to Shiris house. I think I must have looked like that when I was that little.

Mother has finally given me the first weight for my training weapon. It has become hard to even loft it now. But I refuse to take it off and make my training easier. Every once and a while father stays home and watches me practice out in the front yard. He usually shakes his head with a slight grin on his face. I asked him why was laughing at my training. All he said was that it’s suck a waist to not be allowed to know, whatever that meant.

I do mainly swings for my training, or at least try to, a few overhead swings, diagonal swings, side swings, and sometimes backwards swings to get a better grasp of space. Brother Jager says that next month father and mother will start to teach me other necessary things for my survival. He doesn’t say what I’ll learn or why I need to learn it, other than it’s for my survival.

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Six months later

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Father and mother gave me these heavy metal balls to put in my weight bags last month saying that it was a present for learning so fast. I don’t think that’s true but it will help get me in the end so I don’t complain. But for the past five months they have taught me about any things. Starting with things that they said where necessary for survival, they taught me how to make a fire and a simple shelter as well as how to skin an animal, not well but enough so that I could get to the meat. They taught me about the berries and plants in the forest near our home and how to track down animals to hunt for food. They emphasized the importance of cooking meat and boiling water, they also warned me about the beasts that live to fill their bellies and smell food from miles away.

Then a month ago they started to tell me about the world that we know about. They talked about how every day and night is one day and that every thirty days is a month and that every twelve months is a year. They talked about the four seasons that last four months each, the freezing time, the ever frost, the great thawing, and the growing time. Each month is called by the number it is in the year. I was born in the third forever frost so I have to be stronger they said.

They also taught me about what we know about Havre. So far there are four continents that we know of. We live on the northern one named Valin. We don’t know the names that the other people use for their lands but we call them the dry land, the far land, and the ever green. There are many small islands in the middle of the four lands, we call the sun islands. They say that is all I need to know for now and will learn when I get older what those lands think of us.

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Brother Jager has decided to train with me on day’s father says he doesn’t need him. On those days me and brother draw a circle in the ground that is about three of him and take almost everything off. He will wear a fur pelt around his waist that looks much like a shorter version of mother’s dresses. At first I teased him and then father hit me saying only real men need only their hands to fight. I still didn’t get it but I went with it and ware only a pair of pants when we fight. We fight with everything we have and I always loss. After each fight we talk for a moment about what the other can do better. Mostly I get instructed by brother on what I can do better.

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Five months later

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Father has finally told me what it is he goes into town for every day. He is a smith that makes many different things out of metal. Brother helps him most days and has gotten quite good apparently. I asked if I could start to work with them only to be told that once I was older father would make me be a smith even if I didn’t want to be one.

Shiri has learned many of the same lessons that I had. Her father came back and taught her many things while he was here. I still have never seen him since the lessons and the training took up so much time that the first time I saw Shiri in a while was on my birthday, which was the only day I could rest. But Shiri has continued to advance her mana while mine has stayed rather stagnant in comparison other than the large amount I can store inside of myself. She has grown to be able make her mana take the strain off of her body and lets her regain her energy faster.

Perla has been able to stand on her feet without much of a problem and trys to walk around the house. Mother hasn’t done the training that she did with me but Perla is growing quite well. Whenever I have time I play little training games with her so that mother doesn’t know I’m training Perla. I like to help her walk around and make her jump or fly. But these are just slight variations on what mother did with me. I hope mother doesn’t figure out that I’m training her or I can kiss my meals goodbye.

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Eight months latter

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I have been working with our other neighbors the Stolvang’s with their animals every other day in order to have work experience. Mostly I watch over the sheep. The sheep are about the size of two grown men on all fours. When there shaved they have body’s as big as logs. And I’m supposed to make sure none of them have escaped. That means I have to count them all one at a time. I am really good at counting all the way to thirty seven. Also Mr. Stolvang has taught me simple math as well as how to barter effectively without losing your buyer and making a profit. He is a very smart man and has five other young helps and three men to help him watch his fields. I have been able to befriend all the people that work there and am trying to learn the most from them that I can.

While working with him I have earned 50 copper. Every time I get paid I put it in my chest in my room. There is only a bed and a chest in my room because I’m usually doing something else outside.

Perla has started to make noises now, they aren’t full words yet but there getting there. She continues to grow at a fast rate that surprises me. She has grown enough that I can now see her observe all her traits. She has golden brown hair and aqua blue eyes with pudgy red cheeks, but the pudginess might be because she’s a baby still. Her hair is curly and kept at shoulder level by mother. She looks quite big to me but is still a baby in my eyes.

Mother has been getting worried recently and keeps quizzing me on all the things that I learned from her and father. She has also started to tell me about the area around the town and outer houses. To the west there is the ocean where we have a small community of people that say they are a part of our town even though it takes half a day to get there. To the north there is the great mountain and wilds forest, people call that the untamed land. To the east there is a less dense forest full of less dangerous beasts and eventually a larger town, it takes a few days to get there and the roads aren’t very safe apparently. To the south there is a smaller mountain known as the vault. In it the town has started to mine for resources. This started a few years ago and has done fairly well but we keep those minerals for ourselves and build ourselves up more. We are fairly isolated so we rely on what we make and what is found by those who go out and hunt for supplies for months at a time.

My fifth birthday is in three months. I wonder if that is old enough for my father to let me work in his forge. Maybe this year I’ll get a real weapon. I doubt it though I haven’t even asked for a weapon. Maybe I should. I mean I can’t train effectively with my training weapon anymore I have been using all its weights for the past six months and carry it around every day. I even have all my weights in my weight bag and can still move like I would normally. I even absorb mana while I train and I barley break a sweat. Well whatever, what comes will come and I’ll overcome it.