Favia dusted the nonexistent dirt from her only decent white (decently white was more like it) shirt. Today was an important day. Today was the day she will be taught hunting. Which may make the white shirt look like a waste, but she didn’t think there would be any actual hunting, and she wanted to make a good first impression.

It was a present for her 14th spring. She pestered her parents for years for this, since she was little, they were apprehensive towards the idea at first, they thought she’d forget about it with time, but after she turned 12, she seemed to become absolutely convinced that it was her only future. They finally gave in. She however, didn't exactly know how to feel about it. She wanted this, sure, she was happy to get it, but… That weird memory kept bugging her. At the back of her mind, it kept telling her that the world was so much bigger, how could she be satisfied with just this much? Being a hunter in the village suddenly lost a lot of its coolness, ever since she had that dream. And it spoiled the fun somewhat. But she was determined to pay it no mind. Today was an important day!

…

“So, we’re going to start with the basics. A thing you must know before you’re allowed to hunt by yourself, and that will help you regardless of if you’re going to stick to the profession” Said the hunter, he was her father’s friend. He owed a favour to her father, which is why he agreed to teach her. She was a bit ashamed at the last part, but quickly pushed it down

“What is it”

“Magic.”

“Magic?”

“Yes. Magic. You see, there are monsters in the forest, And while they don’t normally wander this close to the village, one can never be too safe. There are monsters deeper in the forest that even I can’t deal with, and you need to be able to escape, otherwise, there is no place for you among the hunters”

“So, first thing I’ll try teaching you is jumping higher. It’s pretty basic and not dangerous, while easy to see the results, so it’s good for practice.”

“Now, you need to concentrate. Imagine yourself jumping high. Like, twice as high as normal. Think about it as if you’re making a command to the world. And when it listens, you’ll know you’ve taken a first step towards improving the control over your mana” He said in a lecturing tone.

“Ok!” She was excited, and at that moment, no weird dream or memory could take it away. It was magic! She knew she was going to learn at least a bit at some point, but it wasn’t anything for some boring chore, it was exciting.

‘So, I need to jump’ And she soared through the air about two metres high.

“Woaaah!” She couldn’t help but cry out, as she flailed her hands helplessly through the air.

“Oh-ho… That’s quite a jump for a first try. Usually it’d take at least a few minutes or even hours of trying to even jump at all. I see that you have potential with magic, if nothing else.” He said, as he moved to catch her.

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‘What was that!?’ But even as she thought that, she kind of knew the answer already. She just didn’t want to believe it yet. Because it took quite a lot of joy out of magic, and she desperately didn’t want to surrender yet another thing to the memories.

…

Favia breathed out quietly as she took aim. The young deer was eating unsuspectedly, unaware of the danger lurking within shadows just a few metres away. Normally, she wouldn’t be able to get this close without being noticed, but the magic helped greatly with that. Even if she knew it wasn't actually magic. It was still incredibly helpful and quite fascinating to actually wield such power. And her understanding helped her use it much more effectively than most, which she was grateful for. It just grated her somewhat that it wasn’t actual magic. And that, quite probably, there was no such thing as actual magic in the world.

She loosened the bowstring, and the arrow flew forward, piercing through the deer’s side, and injuring it’s lungs and heart. The heart was quite a hard target to hit, but her experience and magic allowed her to do so pretty reliably. The deer let out a pained cry, as it tried to run, but couldn’t, instead collapsing on the grass.

“Fuuuh… That should be enough.” She said to herself. She was quite relieved. The area where the villagers were allowed to hunt wasn’t big, and deers rarely wandered in. There were deeper parts of the forest, unclaimed by the baron, but they were dangerous, and she wasn’t allowed there. She was reprimanded quite harshly for going there last time, so even if she felt like she was strong enough to venture in, she decided against it. Which meant she was limited to a small patch of the forest that they were allowed to hunt and forage in.

As she was approaching the deer, though, she suddenly noticed something at the back of her vision. She immediately threw herself on the ground. She saw a big wild cat land a few metres diagonally in front. Except it was glistening unnaturally and had sharp spikes sticking out of its spine. It hissed at her, and prepared to pounce once again. Not wasting time, she jumped back on her legs and took out a knife she was going to use to skin the deer.

‘It’s not supposed to be here!’ She thought. The monster cat pounced straight at her. She sidestepped its outstretched claws – as she slashed at its side with a knife, sending it to tumble on the ground. It was not really hurt, though. Its skin being unusually tough, it wasn’t even bleeding. Not willing to give it time to recover and attack her again, she threw her knife at it. ‘Pierce’ she commanded in her mind, simultaneously willing the knife to fly straight. The monster let out an angry cry, but it was too late. The knife pierced its neck deep and quickly silenced it forever. Or rather, that was what was supposed to happen. What actually happened though was that the monster screamed, and the wave of condensed magic knocked the knife out of its course. ‘Now that is not supposed to happen at all!’ She fought this kind of monster before, they were one of the weakest around, they had no special abilities. Meanwhile, the monster was not wasting time, it had already recovered from the blow and was on its legs, looking cautiously at her. Which was another thing it wasn’t supposed to do, but it hasn’t really surprised her by this point. She slowly put her hand behind her back, where she had another knife. ‘If it can knock it out of the way, when I throw it, I just need to stub it from up close’. The staring contest with the monster proved to be rather short lived, as its blood thirst won over whatever made it pay caution. It pounced once again. This time, though, Favia was much more prepared. She waited a moment, before side stepping at the last possible moment, and planting a knife in its side once again. ‘Pierce’. The blood spluttered, some ending up on her hand, but most missing her, thanks to the monster's momentum.

‘I need to notify the village immediately. It’s bad news.’ She pulled the knife out of the neck of the monster, and picked up the corpse with her right hand.

“Ugh, it’s heavier than it looks” the deer corpse was left lying there…