The rain had stopped but all the villagers' hair was still wet. They all evacuated under the elder's order to the top of a small hill almost 3 miles away. Where they could see what little remained of their village. Even before they saw it, they knew what state their home was in, looking at it from afar truly showed just how much of a miracle it was that they were still alive.
In the centre of the village, Fishy stood holding the baby Destroyer that was trapped in the old man's house, waiting for the mother to arrive. The baby didn't squirm or struggle, it gently rested in his hand calling out to its mother.
Whilst he waited, he thought back to what the elder taught him hours before.
"These books are all we have. I've read them hundreds of times but they mean nothing to me."
The elder passed Fishy several dusty books all with worn-out pages and edges. Just like before, the writing was strange to him but he could read it as if it was normal.
"Magic and beasts." Fishy read the title of the top book aloud.
He quickly flicked through it scanning it quickly thanks to the techniques he learned in university. He gathered that magic existed in the world he was trapped in, he possessed it but didn't know how to use it. 'The mana of a person equals how strong they are. The larger the mana pool the access to more abilities they can have'. It was a rather strange rule that didn't apply to every situation, it was more of a rule of thumb.
"This isn't helping," Fishy said as with all the books spread open to various pages around him, just like his desk back home.
"Everyone has mana, right?" He said talking to himself since the elder had evacuated. "So that means even I have mana, even the elder has mana. There is no mention of needing a tool like a wand or a staff… so how does it work?"
He flipped back and forth and even tried to stick his hand out to create basic spells like making fire or water. He couldn't complete the simple tasks the book laid out of him and was unable to replicate the feeling he felt when fighting the Hand Golem.
"ERG!" He screamed scratching his head, unable to sit still. "This is so frustrating!"
He read it again and again. He read the same pages and was easily able to recite it off the top of his head if needed. But that didn't help him.
"Alright, let's take it from the top." He said to himself again. "Everyone has mana. I have mana. There are spells. Anything can be a spell…" He continued to read. "But not everyone can use the same spells… OF COURSE!" he cheered as if just solving the meaning of life.
"It makes sense for people to be better at certain types of magic, like a fire mage or an ice mage. And even one race like orcs or elves could be better than others at some types of magic! I just need to find out what my type is."
He flipped to the fronts of the books looking for the one that would help him the most.
"Types of magic… page 256…" He flipped to the page that was filled with a large chunk of text, unable to know how long he had left he quickly tried to work it out with the little details.
"Types of magic… blah blah blah… elements… blah blah blah… species magic… beast magic… creation magic…"
He stopped reading and looked again at what he just read.
"Is my magic beast magic?"
He read the section on beast magic but something inside him told himself that he was wrong. Even as he read it and it reminded him of the powers a druid would typically have, he could tell it wasn't that.
He knew he couldn't complain and instead shut the book happy with assuming that it was beast magic as he was out of time. He stepped outside and grabbed the baby Destroyer that was still trying to dig back home. Holding it gently in the palm of his hand.
"Come on out…" Fishy said with a trembling voice. "You just want to live, right? so do these people… but someone is going to have to go… and we may be selfish but it'll have to be you."
Fishy continued to wait with his eyes dashing about the village. His feet were firmly on the ground waiting to feel the tremble of it breaking through. It wasn't long before he started to feel it.
The villagers all looked on down at Fishy who started to back away through the village. Clara, as well as the triplets, were praying for his safety.
Sweat poured down Fishy's throat as he saw the familiar purple beast break into the sky. All of its eyes didn't bother searching as they were already looked onto Fishy.
He gently placed the child down under in between his legs but didn't crush it, only stopping it from moving. He held his hand out just like he did back then, hoping that he could figure it out. He thought back to the chapters he memorised.
"Chapter 3, Mana detection… no that's wrong." He said getting anxiety at the worst moment. "Chapter 4, Controlling and using mana..."
He read through the text, visualising it in front of his eyes whilst not letting the Destroyer that swam through the clouds getaway. The Destroyer looked down on Fishy but couldn't attack as its child was below. Like any parent, it wanted to keep its children safe, and right now it couldn't.
"What's it doing?" Tim asked Clara as he watched from her shoulders.
"It's scared, obviously," Tom replied.
"Maybe it's peaceful?" Tam replied.
"I don't know," Clara responded.
"It looks like a parent." The elder said from Clara's back. "It will keep circling the village, tearing apart the clouds until its child is safe."
"You might be right."
Fishy's hand was attached to the Destroyer. Everywhere it moved, so did his hand. No matter how long he kept it up, nothing was happening. Eventually, the child started to squeal in pain, causing the mother to let out a deafening high-pitched roar. That could be heard throughout the world.
All the villagers covered their ears but Fishy listened closely. He slowly removed his foot from the young Destroyer and let it go.
"There, I've let him go," Fishy said as if holding a conversation with the beast. "We can't both occupy the same land. I don't know about this place but there must be more land out there. There must be other Destroyers like you where you can all live in peace. We just want the same thing."
Fishy sat down next to the young Destroyer gently rubbing it's tiny head, not expecting it to be as smooth as it was from a scaled beast.
"I don't mean harm." He said digging a hole in the gravel to let the young Destroyer go through, "We just want to live."
The Destroyer continued to circle the village before letting out another roar, this time it sounded as if it was trying to understand what it was hearing. Fishy listened to the roar as if he was satisfied with what he just heard, falling to the ground as the child dug through.
The Destroyer wasted no time going back underground and within seconds coming back out again at the other side of the village. Its long purple body flew through the skies away from the village with several other children flying away with the mother supporting them. Like a flock of birds. Each of the eyes looked at Fishy as if they were smiling back.