Four years passed, and Aisrin only saw the inside of a cave. What surprised him was that the pups also grew slowly, like humans. Compared to Earth and Elrims canine species, these wolves were beyond strange.
At this point, all the pups could speak, Aisrin could as well, long before the pups, but decided against actually speaking, as he didn't want to receive more talks about his abnormality.
"Children, gather around. It's time to learn about mana and magic." Frill called the pups over. Aisrin pretended to not understand.
"Come on Red!" One of his 'sisters', nudged him along towards Frill. They called him Red on account of his hair. Another of the few appearances he still had, that he was used to.
'Alright, I get it Sira.'
Aisrin sat, entirely out of place amongst the giant wolf pups.
"Before I begin today's lesson, can any of you explain what mana and magic are?" Frill began. Aisrin retained knowledge from another world, so his understanding was better than the pups, at the same time as it was flawed.
"Mana is the energy that all creatures have except humans. Magic is the energy output using mana." Sira answered, her tail wagging.
"Correct. Today, I'll explain how to utilize the mana inside you. Right now, you all have mana orbs. Mana orbs are?" Frill continued her lesson.
'If I weren't already used to these odd situations straight out of fantasy novels, I'd never believe wolves could have a school like setting. Nor would I believe that four year old, equivalents, could speak so fluently and intelligently.'
None of the pups answered Frill's question.
"Mana Orbs are present only in those who are young and untrained in magic use. As these orbs mature they become Mana Cores, and circulate mana throughout the body. As the Core matures, a red line, circle, square, triangle or whatever shape best suits the user, forms on the body somewhere.
Depending on where this shape is located, also depends on the user's attributes and strengths. Mine is on my chest, Frills is on her inner thigh." A familiar males voice answered instead. Aisrin looked towards the entrance, but was entirely confused as to what he saw.
The voice obviously belonged to the male wolf that saved him years ago, but it wasn't a wolf, instead a young man in his early twenties. His hair was white and long. His eyes were vibrant green and stern looking. His features were distinctly elvish as well, the difference was the wolf ears on his head and the tail on his backside.
"Jira, I was just about to explain how to circulate their mana." Frill greeted the man.
"Good, how long has it been here? Let's see.... twenty..... so four years right?" The man named Jira asked.
"Indeed. Now, children, as you can see, Jira is in human form right now. This is a type of magic called, Forma. Almost all creatures can use this at a basic level. Very few can master the Forma magic. This helps us blend in as Beastmen. A very useful magic to avoid persecution by humans." Frill took this opportunity to explain the magic.
'Humans never change, no matter the world. Persecuting those who are different.'
"Have you settled on a name for the boy?" Jira asked Frill.
"No, the pups have settled on calling him Red, but he doesn't come when called." Frill answered.
"Because he doesn't understand our language. I'm going to attempt speaking to him in Common." Jira told Frill.
'Common? But I understand just fine.'
"Ahem, Red?" Jira spoke to Aisrin, a eyes turned to him. Aisrin looked at the man, deciding on whether or not to speak.
'I'll just ignore for now.'
Aisrin looked back at Frill with the same expressionless look he permanently had.
"Unfortunate, he doesn't seem to understand that either." Jira stated with a hint of disappointment.
"A shame, truly. But, we will just have to keep trying later. Let me finish my lesson. Now, children, I'm going to teach you the proper and safe method of utilizing your mana orbs. First, I want you to find the orb... I'll assume you all have found them, next, try to make the mana inside the orb swirl. This allows the chaos inside to organize and become easier to manipulate.
As it swirls drag it out and run it through one part of your body and return it to the orb. This allows for a track to form in your body, each track is unique to each creature, no two are the same. You will repeat this process to every part of your body.
Now, it's not going to be permanent, as it is still developing, but the more you practice, the easier it'll become until you can do it subconsciously." Frill instructed well. Aisrin was making full use of this information and it was working.
The familiar and comforting felling of mana circulated his body. He almost wanted to cry. He sat there and circulated the mana in his body until he felt he could keep it circulating on its own.
It didn't, but he still forced himself to keep the circulation. The lesson continued for another hour before Frill dismissed the pups. They immediately dispersed and began playing around and practiced their circulation of mana, trying to prove that they were better than eachother.
Aisrin sat near a wall and tried to circulate and do other things simultaneously. It was mentally straining for him. Jira and Frill walked out of the cave, Frill was still in her giant wolf form while Jira still looked humanish.
'This is so bizarre.'
*
Two more years passed and Aisrin succeeded in having mana continuously circulate throughout his body subconsciously. The pups still needed to force theirs to circulate, but they were able to do so quickly and instantaneously.
Aisrin practiced nighly with magic, deep inside the cave where he wouldn't disturb anyone. He found that he could use all his spells at a basic level. The most joyful part was that he didn't need to announce them at all.
He also noticed his strength was abnormal for his age, entire different from the six year old he was in Elrim. This strength was triple that. He could climb the walls of the cavernous cave with ease, and when he fell, he sustained minimal damage. In short, his body was abnormally durable and resilient.
"Children! It's time for your lessons!" Frill called out through the cave. Aisrin sprinted quickly from the deepest part of the cave before slowing down around the mid beginning and entered the lit area of the cave, where they all normally stayed.
"Where were you Red?" Sira asked Aisrin as soon as he came within sight. He ignored her. All the pups could now retain the Human Forma. It only required a one time activation, and didn't need to be continuously fed mana to retain. So instead of a giant dog, a little white haired girl with wolf ears and a tail greeted him. Her eyes were a bright teal color, different from the vibrant blues and greens of her siblings.
"Today's lesson is on hunting. You a will be exiting The Cave of Distortion today. The time outside may be different from in here. It could be early morning or late at night." Frill was a busty milf.
There was no other way to describe her. She was mid forties in looks. But, like attractive forties. She held a mature aura that appealed to the older minded Aisrin. She had the same white hair, wolf ears and tail like all the others, and her ice blue eyes caringly greeted all of them.
But her figure was top tier. Her hourglass shape that women on earth would kill for, always had Aisrin staring.
"Jira has kindly provided human Orting for each of you, so please put them on." Frill continued and showed the children eight sets of clothes. The boys fought over sets of clothes, arguing that they'd look cooler with them then the others. The girls easily chose theirs and continued on.
Aisrin found the only set not fought over and set to dressing himself. He was massively relieved to wear clothes again. It consisted of a plain black tunic and tanish cloth trousers. A pair of cotton like socks and underwear, brown leather boots and some leather armors. Theater gloves, a left shoulder pad, grieves for his legs and right arm as well as a belt with sheathed that held a simple iron dagger.
'Perfect.'
"Oh, that looks pretty cool on you Red." Derma, one of his 'brothers' commented. Ausrin resisted the urge to nod in agreement.
"Okay. Now that your a dressed, Jira will guide you out and teach you hunting and gathering. Please do not stray from his side children." Frill warned them. Jira nodded and motioned for the group of eight to follow him.
Aisrin was excited to finally exit the stuffy cave, so he had a slight smile on his face, unbeknownst to him. This garnered him some surprised looks from his 'siblings' and 'parents'.
"He seems excited." Jira chuckled.
"Its the first time I've seen an expression that wasn't gloomy and plain." Frill stated. The comments ended there and the group left the cave and entered the forest beyond. They were expecting noon or mid day, but instead got early morning. The chill of autumn hit them all and the children shivered slightly.
Aisrin was too excited to care or mind the cold air. He looked around in excitement and took deep breath of non cave air, enjoying the fresh crispness instead of the damp and earthiness air of a cave.
'Finally.'