Even after the woodcutters left it still took some time until there was visible life in the settlement.
There were sounds from all of the mobile homes and actually I could have [looked] into the ones that are in my field of perception but I refrained from it.
I suppose it is rude.
If it was the other way around I wouldn't want someone to spy on me like this.
Wait a moment.
I waited, but because I did this as a frightening thought crossed my mind I couldn't get angry at me.
What if someone else could perceive their surroundings in the way I did? And what if they have an even wider field?
Oh no!
What if it is a normal method in this world?!
The Humans could have seen me all along and are just trying to deceive me so they can kill me without a way to escape for me!
I started to hyperventilate and had to press my hands over mouth and nose to stop breathing.
Calm down!
2… 3... 5... 7... 11... 13... 17... 19... 23... 29... 31... 37... 41... 43... 47... 53... 59... 61... 67... 71... 73... 79... 83... 89... 97… 101… 103…
Yes that's it.
Counting prime numbers really helped.
Good me.
I am just getting scared for nothing.
If this kind of perception is normal, then I should have noticed some signs of it much sooner. I only didn't think about it sooner because there was nothing that gave me a reason to do it.
Yes, this sounds logical, thank you rational me.
Also; I am only able to do that because of the time I spend in a black World which I totally don't remember.
Ah, of course. That was so obvious that I didn't notice.
Calmed down I pulled my arms back into my clothing and chuckled silently about my own dumb thoughts. What a scaredy cat I am.
Okay, enough of that. Back to my reason for being here;
there was now an action.
But not much.
A woman opened the door of the house closest to me and walked out.
She seemed old like a great-grandmother but I didn't want to guess her age. I am pretty polite today.
The woman stretched a bit in front of her home and took a few deep breaths of the morning air. Even thought she looks very old her movements are swift and fluent.
Go Granny! Stay fit and they will never get you!
...eh?
Where did that came from?
I will just pretend it never happened.
The Granny began to walk from house to house.
Knocking, waiting, greeting, chatting with the inhabitant, greeting the child that came outside too, waving and then onto the next house with the child.
And there it just repeated itself.
Like that she assembled seven children who now followed her as she seemingly walked back to her house.
The youngest kid was a little girl around six or seven years old, while the oldest was a boy who I would estimate age twelve, maybe thirteen.
I pondered a bit while they were walking and chatting.
Hmm…
…
Ohhh~
I got a conclusion!
This must be school!
Damn you lucky children I want to switch.
Let me go get some classes too and you can relax here in my place for that time.
Actually… Even if my body has the proportions of an emaciated adult my size could count as a child…
STOP right there, silly me!
I won't go out and get killed just for school.
It is tempting though… nah, it's not.
But if they really have some kind of school going on now then I have to neglect my manners and peek into the Granny's house…
Or not..?
Where are you going?
…
Uhmm…
I would really appreciate it if you stop and go somewhere else!
Nonononononono!
The woman and the group of children just passed her house and now they are walking straight towards me.
They can't know I am here!
I suppressed the impulse of jumping out from under the bush and just start running away.
If I do that they will definitely know that I am here.
Just keep calm.
Don't breathe…
Don't move…
Just pretend I am not here.
…
Thanks twelve it worked.
The group came dangerously close but they stopped at the small rivulet.
There is no way they can see me.
Not that they even try, actually.
The children are all looking at the woman with something like awe in their gazes and she herself turned sideways so that she could see the water and the children at the same time.
She talked in the language that I don't understand and seemed to emphasize her words with gestures.
The younger children soon started to look encouraged if not even frightened but a few smiling words seemed to relive their thoughts.
In comparison the older kids seemed eager to do whatever they are supposed to do now.
As long as it is nothing like Imp-hunting I am quite curious now too.
The woman clapped her hands together to get everyone's attention. Don't worry, Granny I am all there.
She lowered one of her hands and pointed her palm to the ground. With her other had she started to draw something small into the air, aiming at the rivulet.
All of my attention was focused on her movement, soaking in all the Information I could get.
The "drawing" only needed a few small gestures. She then swiftly lifted her first arm - the palm now upside down – and made a throwing gesture towards the oldest boy.
In complete sync with her movement a small stream of water rises from the rivulet, formed a little arc above her head and splashed down onto the kid.
Seemingly satisfied with her work the elderly woman took a relaxed stance again while the children started to laugh about the soaked boy. He seemed a bit perplexed but not discouraged in the slightest.
Could you please stop enjoying yourself and do it again?
Maybe with an explanation that I could understand too?
That would be really nice of you.
The woman clapped again once and the laughter stopped.
She said a few words and then made a showing gesture towards the water.
The children seemed to understand and all got a few steps closer but took some distance between each other. Maybe they don't want to end up like the boy just because the one next to them felt a bit mischievous.
With seemingly no further instructions they all started to make some gestures pointing towards the water.
I had feared this…
The happiness when I noticed that those kids are with the old woman to learn magic was nearly too much for my brain but at the same moment a thought sneaked into my mind.
What if they already know the basics and are just learning more now?
Then I won't get a chance to learn with – or more like from – them.
Sadly this seems to be the case.
Even the youngest child could create some unnatural waves in the water in front of her and the older ones are in kind of waterballoon fight already.
They each summoned a ball of water out of the rivulet and let those hover over their held up hands. When everyone who could manage to do that had a ball ready they just throw them et each other and try to dodge at the same time.
It actually seems really fun but this doesn't help me the slightest.
The woman just took a seat in the soft grass and watched the children. Every now and then she said something that sounded like a name and one of the Kids, whose water control got a bit slippery, reacted to it.
The kid then didn't do anything special but seemed a bit more concentrated and then it's control over the water became stable again.
Nuuu~ please tell me what you just did.
But of course they won't…
After about half an hour in which I didn't got the slightest clue what to do now, the old woman called a name again and this time added some more words.
One of the younger Kids responded with an exhausted voice, stopped their training and walked over to the woman to sit next to her and chat.
Hmmm…
The small boy seems a bit exhausted but some of the other children seem so too. So why does he have to stop?
I watched him closely.
Just from the looks there is nothing different to the others and judging by obvious exhaustion the smallest girl should stop too.
So what is different?
…
Oh?
...OH?!
I nearly let out a sound and had to concentrate so I won't move out of surprise.
I can't see anything special about the boy but I can [see] something quite different on him.
He seemed… hungry?
That is not quite the description but it works.
If this boy was a car then his fuel was nearly empty and he needed to refill.
Ahh! I am to fast with my thoughts I need to put them in order.
But I am so excited!
Huuuuu~~~
In my mind I breath in deeply.
Fuuuuhhh~
And out…
Okay, all better.
So, where to begin?
Ah yes at the stuff that should be what I was missing.
So, when I concentrate on the children I with my weird perception I notice that all of them are [breathing] with their whole body. Something like Air but completely different is circulating in all of them and when they start concentrating it somewhat leaks out from every part of them.
With sheer concentration they take a small part of this and bring it into shape with the drawings in the air. The shape then connects with the water and moves it.
So is this the basic to use magic-stuff?
This weird not-Air?
…
Wait a Minute!
I counted till 55 until I noticed and forced myself to stop.
I know a word for this stuff!
In my beloved book, magic needed a source and that was called mana!
So this stuff should be it, right?
That was so obvious, how did I not notice?
Maybe because I pretend to remember nothing and just suppressed it? Nah…
I observed more just to confirm it. I can't move at the moment to confirm my new theory so every bit of information until I can is pure gold.
Now concentrating not only on the movements but on the air – eh, mana – too, it became all to obvious how to do it… in theory…
After about 20 more minutes two other kids seemed to be depleted of their mana but it took a few more minutes until the woman called them out.
Does that mean she can't [see] it the way I do and just judges by her experience? Well then I tip my imaginable hat for you, Granny.
As the time goes on and another girl had to stop I shifted my attention to the old woman.
Every now and then she made a small drawing and a sip of water jumped out of the rivulet to hit the oldest boy who still played around with magic. It seems like a test to see if he would loose concentration but he actually rarely did.
I nearly noticed to be honest.
The old woman was way to fascinating. The amount of mana in her is not to be compared to any of the children and whenever shoe does something she doesn't [leak] that much.
Does that mean she has a better control and is more efficient like this?
If that is the case then the most talented of the Kids is the youngest girl who surprisingly didn't have to stop yet, even thought she doesn't have this much mana in her.
Unn~
I ponder a bit.
If my conclusion is correct then does that mean the older a person gets, the more mana they have?
Then I, who is just about two years old shouldn't have much mana by now.
I am kind of afraid to check it out yet so I push this bother onto a future me.
At the moment I just want to learn more and then maybe try it out myself later.
…
I didn't learn much more.
The only thing I would assume that it could be true is, that the movements and gestures are just to create an image for the shape one wants the mana to be in.
The reason for that is, that the oldest boy – who managed to hold out longest next to the small girl – nearly copied the movements of the old woman in perfection but his results are far from able to be compared with hers.
An hour after the first kid had to stop the woman clapped again and the remaining two stopped training at once. Both seemed exhausted beyond belief but at the same time quite proud of themselves.
The woman stood up and started to talk in a lecturing sound.
Uhm may there be a version for foreigners?
No..?
Okay…
Sad…
After a few minutes of explaining and answering questions from the children they all started to go back to the settlement were they split up and everyone walked their own way.
I don't care what they do.
They play around? Don't care.
They mingle with each other and other people in the small village? Don't care.
They get into their homes when amazing and appetizing smells filled the air? I don't care.
They welcomed the woodcutters back and had a nice big campfire until late at night?
…
I DO NOT FUCKING CARE!
Just go to bed and shut it!
I want to come out and try what I learned already!
Can't you be a bit more considerate?
…
Obviously they can't.
The "little" campfire-party got on for a few more hours until the last ones finally decided to go to bed too.
I waited…
A bit more than forty minutes and then all the people in my field of perception gave of the same feeling. They should be asleep now.
And yes: I peeped so I could confirm this. But I have a good reason for it, okay?
Finally I emerge from the bush but still stayed in cover behind it.
I am quite nervous to be honest.
I could have looked at myself the whole time I was waiting but I refused to do it.
Why? Well; what if I don't have enough mana to do anything because of my age?
I told myself that I should only check when the humans are out of the picture with no real reason.
But all this waiting made me more anxious.
Ahhh… not good.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes.
Here goes.
Even though I can't see I can feel and [see] everything in my field of perception.
And there in the center is a small figure. A weird creature that I never looked at, because I feared that it would bring back unwanted things…
I swallowed my anxious thoughts and concentrated on the creature that was me in the same way I observed the children and the woman today.
Uhm… what?
Like; WHAT?!
There is… nothing.