The day continued, and he went through the motions with a focus on his two priorities. These were raising his acting to a minimum standard, and his healing. The heal was boosted by fate first thing in the morning and at night, but never during the day. The initial unstable construction of the spell form improved every day by slight degrees. When examined, it was becoming more consistent and getting closer to the smooth, perfect lines he remembered. While he was sure he was making progress, the injury that he actually healed did not support that hypothesis. There was no identifiable improvement in its overnight state, even if the morning cast showed the wound visually improving. He was starting to wonder if the morning successes were not, instead of an evidence of healing, only a surface effect. There was a possibility that the apparent healing was coming at the expense of the tissue below the visible cut.

He nibbled on his lower lip and shut his eyes. If that was the case, then he might be creating a stop bleeding spell rather than a healing ability.

The next morning Pa slept in, and after eating he and Bir joined up with a wider group of kids to play obstacle tag at the greenhouse once more. Almost two hours later, they went for an additional snack, basically timing a food raid for the back end of breakfast.

Tom stopped in shock when he entered the dining hall.

Pa was sitting at their normal table with five older kids surrounding him. The girl with the white streak in her hair was the cause. She held a foul-looking concoction and was offering it to Pa with a broad but all-too fake smile on her face.

Tom could feel the anger rapidly building inside him.

Next to him Bir released a burst of fate, and it shot straight at the bully who had stolen her pastry. Based on how quickly it had been launched he doubted it was a deliberate action. That meant it would be less efficient than the prank she had performed on snotty Ma and her parents. The diffuse cloud hurtled at its target.

Then stopped.

It was like it was a magic attack striking a defensive shield. Fate that had been invisibly following the older girl activated and negated everything that Bir had sent.

The ten-year-old resisting fate was only a minor surprise. This was what he had expected to occur when the adults had been targeted.

Bir stamped her foot, which caused him to look at her sideways. Not only was she a prodigy in her ability to use her fate, apparently she could see it as well. In the tutorial, it had taken Tom decades to develop that skill, and this girl had done it before she was five. If little Ta had not possessed memories of her using it pre-ceremony, he would have suspected she was reincarnated too, but those memories existed.

This was not a new phenomenon. She was a genius, and at this thought more notes appeared on Tom’s ‘to do’ list. Given her aptitude, he was going to turn her into a powerhouse while he developed himself.

She huffed next to him. “Adults are easier.”

A blond skinny girl in the group patted Pa on the back forcefully and stabbed a finger at the mixture of juices and other stuff they had brought over. Tom guessed along with the innocent stuff it probably had raw eggs, curry, and hot sauce.

They were about to force him to drink it. “No.” Tom snarled his fury rising. A four-year-old against a pack of older kids. Pa had no chance.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

This was unfair!

The blond had a hand hooked around Pa’s lips and her other was lifting the cup toward his mouth.

Weaponless, he charged.

This situation had to be fixed. He had to crush them and show them who was the boss.

The girl with a white streak in her hair, the ringleader saw him coming and rolled her eyes:

“Giant dragons, boy. Give it a rest.” She moved to intercept him.

In Tom’s mind, she was the enemy. This was her fault. The head charge had been a dismal failure last time. So, he adapted his approach.

In the split second, he had to think; he figured if you were weaponless and wanted to hurt something, you kicked it with as much momentum and force as you could muster.

He sprinted at her and launched. His technique broke apart immediately. The proportions of leg to height were off and his muscles lacked the explosive reaction time he was used to. Years of having to occasionally switch to martial technique mid battle, often when already injured, let him compensate for his body’s weaknesses. By sheer skill, he got airborne, his leg up, and somehow, he even managed to be on target, heading straight for her knee. Unfortunately, he was still four. The attack was weak and slow, and she sidestepped casually to avoid him.

He missed.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked. A weight slammed into his back and the air was blown out of his lungs. A single hand pinned his two arms, and a knee pressed into his back, making it a struggle to draw in air.

Tom tried to throw his weight around, but it was futile. He was thoroughly beaten.

The raging anger cracked and faded. He still hated her and didn’t know why she had targeted Bir and Pa, but the rabid need to attack her had receded.

“Are you going to behave now.”

He nodded, and then she got off him.

It took him a moment to gather the composure to get up. By the time he was ready to do so, the group of older children had left.

Bir helped him stand, and he did so while still struggling to breathe normally. “She’s a mean girl. She hurted Ta?”

Tom hesitated at that question and assessed his body’s state. He was slightly winded, but nothing else was overly sore. She could have done a lot more damage to him, and easily so. In fact, the lack of additional pains spoke to care not to injure him more than anything. She was, after all far stronger and heavier than him but all she had done was restrain him for a few moments.

“I’m good,” he answered in a state of confusion. All she had done was restrain him. Just the impact of landing after the missed kick should have left him more hurt than this. The only explanation was that she must have held him back slightly and prevented him from landing too heavily. Such care was at odds with her earlier blatant bullying. It was possible that she was worried about the consequences, but there were no adults around. Once more, he had the disturbing feeling that there was something unknown influencing the situation.

Pa, meanwhile, had half risen to come to their aid, but then stopped, torn over the prospect of abandoning his food versus helping his friend. The automatons could be overly proactive if you left plates unprotected. That threat and probably the lack of escalation had made him stay where he was.

They went over to him.

“Pa are you okay?” Both Tom and Pa could clearly see the mounting indignation in her face. Her cheeks were red and there were no adults in the room. A full meltdown would do nothing. Tom searched for a way to pacify her.

“She didn’t hurt me,” he insisted.

“And I didn’t get hurt.” Pa said quickly. “They made me a special drink.”

Bir glanced skeptically at the creation in question. Her brows wrinkled briefly in confusion, then her lips pursed, and she shuddered slightly as she imagined actually having a sip of the horrible-looking thing.

“Special drink is good.” With visible reluctance Pa picked it up and took a sip like it would prove his point. There was a brief look of distaste that was skillfully hidden. “It looks bad, but yummy.” Pa gave her a forced smile.

Bir did not seem to notice. “I’m worried the mean girl hurt you.”

“She didn’t.” When Bir wasn’t looking, Pa grabbed his water cup and drained it. Almost like he wasn’t realizing he was doing it, he pushed the foul looking drink a bit away from him and then shifted it a little further.

“I’ll make mean girl leave us alone.” Her anger was rising again.

“Were you here for food?” Pa asked brightly. “You’ll have to be quick breakfast finishes soon.”

Bir nodded and hurriedly rushed over to get food before the automatons activated and cleared it up.