"Were finally back home." I exhaled, collapsing to one knee under my exhausted young body.
The deep imprinting slapping of my fathers footsteps twisting and grinding in the slowly solidifying ground, stomped out the crickets that tweaked in the moonlight. My father, who had hoisted multiple hides of the Weredears on his shoulder, grabbed me with his empty hand and slumped me back onto my feet.
"C'mon, it's literally only ten steps till the door. If you're going to collapse, do it on the floor in the house." He smirked with a toothy grin.
"You're right." I persisted forwards and slowly pushed the wooden door open. It's creaking resounded through the house that was silently lit with burning candles that uttered whispers with their weaving flames.
Thumping steps sped in the direction of our door.
"My boys!!" My mother jumped at the two of us, tears creeping from he eyes. Her onyx hair swivelled behind her and fell forwards into the two of us. The smell of rose naturally filled my nostrils, as her face snuggled close to mine, her cheeks burning fiercely in a rose pallet and her dimples distinctly on show.
"Were back, mother." I spoke, embracing her. In my past life I had plenty of contact with other physically be it intimately or not, but I never once felt the other persons emotion infecting me like a virus as much as this.
"Yes, were back, darling." My father comforted my mother who giggled in a really flattering manner.
"C'mon then, let's go inside." She insisted, dragging me by my hand.
We finally settled in the living room recounting our epic tale of desperate times and times of our bravery. My mother made sure to ask if my father was okay instead of me, knowing that I'd somehow fair much better. It was certainly strange how she didn't doubt my capabilities, but I chose to dismiss it for the time being.
Sigh...
A deep gasp escaped my mouth as I laid on my bed, that was neatly made, and closed my eyes. The steaming water droplets still partially lingered on my skin and especially my hair.
"I really should cut my hair soon. Maybe I'll grow it out later, but if I keep growing it for the time being, when I reach twelve, my hair will be longer than my body and that...would look just outright ridiculous."
I then stopped my meaningless thoughts. I sat up on my bed and crossed my legs. The cold air that swept in from my slightly opened window began coalescing around me. I delved further into the centre of my crux and began dispersing great amounts of mana through my body as quickly as I could, refining the process each time.
"I'm much too slow. Mana manipulation is possible to train to the highest levels even as a child. So the fact that I'm still so far behind my older self says a lot. Maybe once I assimilate with the other elements, I will have gained even more improved and matured control over the mana."
The speed I moved my mana through my body was very fast, but still no were near where I should have it. In my previous life, where I was less talented, I surpassed these results by incredible measure. Maybe at an older age, but that doesn't matter. What matter is the achievement and the goal. Constantly rotating mana through my body and responding to all the elements instinctually without me having to think of it, whilst I'm asleep, and manipulating the mana cultivated inside of me and the ambient mana around me at all times. That is the level that I have to get to match myself previously. Being able to use the smallest amount of mana to still use it with so much precision and harnessed composition of the spell to destroy mountains. That is what I'd have to get to to officially surpass myself in terms of mana manipulation.
"Maybe acquiring spacial magic would also be a bonus. To fully announce the world of my presence." I decided and turned the candles of by suffocating the space near it, draining it of all oxygen in that one space.
I will use magic from now on to do everything. Until I establish my connections to each element and access that spacial element. I tucked myself into my bed with the use of wind magic and began circulating a constant amount of mana through my body at all times, even in the unconscious state.
"Huh, where are you off to this early in the morn-?" My mothers voice reached out from the kitchen as she saw me glide down the stairs effortlessly. Her voice cut off as I ignored her question, beckoned by the nippy weather that spread through the air and into the house fleetingly before my father shut it behind me.
"What's with this kid? He just got back yesterday and he's already going out again?" I unmistakably heard my father solicit to my mother, even from the distance I had already made. The mana constantly traversing through my body, enhanced all my senses 24/7 meaning I heard, felt and sensed everything whilst I was asleep and that obviously persisted through to this morning. It felt rather intrusive, but it was something that I constantly made use of to listen on people's weakest moments. It was vital though, to know everything about everyone surrounding me. Being prepared is one of my rules.
'Fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.' This is something I always applied two meanings to. The first being obviously, if you don't prepare then you might as well prepare to see yourself fail. The other however, I associated with preparing for the later stages even in failure. Maybe you prepared well but still failed. Did you fail to prepare? No, but clearly it wasn't enough to overcome, meaning your loss should at least prepare your next moment were you will prepare to prevail. That's why I'm hoping for a lot of failure. Not meaningless failure, but failure that will help me prepare.
Eventually, I settled in a tree, not too far away from our home but fairly distant at the same time. I held onto one of the branches and leaned forwards, embracing the soothing feeling of the gust drifting round objects and sweeping the fallen leaves dyed in a deep tangerine and maroon. I calmly grabbed the hilt of my sword strapped to my back, as it was too big for me to carry on my waist, and loosened my muscles before sliding my arm back down and settling into a meditating position.
Intense, broad breaths leisurely smoked from my mouth in a warm breath. The intensity of my mana spiked correspondingly to the pattern and the rhythm of my breathing.
"Water, gravity, illusion and poison are lacking from my arsenal. Which means, I'll start with water first. It will only be right." I pushed myself to my feet with a stream of wind and arched my feet like I was standing on my tip toes, shaping a violent burst of fire from my feet sending me like a flying projectile in the direction of the nearest lake, breaking visible air currents in the shape of spiked cogs.
The eruption managed to eradicate most of my journey, but left me falling at great speeds.
"As you approach the ground, swiftly actuate both a secondary explosion and then streams of air to end you sliding across the ground." I explained to myself, self absorbed in my descent formulising an articulate plan. My scarlet eyes burned with great fire and lit in the deep crimson of the mana flowing through my body and converging into the destructive flames.
"Now, EXPLODE!" My scream pronounced with the use of my diaphragm as the wind from my lungs flattened out in that one outburst, ripping my chords simultaneously as I squeezed out the notes.
The dirt catapulted from the ground and the smoke set in a cloud that masked my emergence that swayed -- guided by the currents that smoothened my landing and set my boots to grip onto the grainy mud that had yet to settle but at least wasn't as schmaltzy -- and then manifested frozen terrain in my wake.
I gripped my hand into a fist, sensing the sensation pouring heavily in my body, like an addictive drug circulating, that intoxicated my mind.
I casually marched into the middle of the river and sat in the middle. The coursing water mana particles swarmed from each side. A clear sensation that palpably steered my sense and the mana present in my crux, naturally attaching its signature and etching its element in the depths of my body. It wasn't a hard thing to grasp. Once you've done something once, repeating it becomes a process that is activated by repeating the steps and conditions of the first time and manipulating them to appear at will.
The water around me slowly revolted and swayed, gathering more rotation, speed and power with each flux that congregated around me. Animals inhabiting the previously tranquil waterbed now flew up in the sinkhole gathering around me. I gathered onto one of my knees and allowed my hand to reach out to the water, its frenetic spirals formed into a more organised composition, stretching out in a thin forearm that spun together to finalise the fingers that spread widely ready to receive my hand. Upon having so, it elegantly pulled me up. My gaze remained stern and with one adjustment, the vortex split into two equal walls of liquid.
My steps imprinted themselves on the rocky bottom that was drowned by the water and rustled pleasantly with the birds chirping. Both my soles touching the grass on the other side, was an instinctual sign for the water to collapse back in together, crashing and sending as large waves as the depths of the water that flourished there.
My hand danced in an pausing nature, water slowly manifesting in chains round my hands and then falling back as I sent a high pressurised whiplash cutting through the water and the land below it.
"As I thought. It won't take me too long to acquire the other elements. My real challenge will come in restoring the speed and practicality of it as well as mastering my mana control to a level I had never ever got it to. Let's continue."