It’s late at night, the day before my first solo adventure. But I’m not studying terrain or sharpening weapons. I’m being cradled.
“You promise! You have to promise!” Mother yells while squeezing the life out of me.
“Promise! HACK! Double promise even!”
Mother presses her cheek into the top of my head, but this position has other issues. As a baby, breastfeeding kept me alive, and my body’s instincts drowned out any awkward feelings. But today. I’m remembering that I was older than her when that all happened.
I squirm to position better, but I don’t want to use force with Mother. “Safety first! If I ever feel scared, I’ll run straight home!”
Mother’s voice quiets. “Don’t go far. And you really ought to bring some knights…”
I lift a hand and stroke just above my Mother’s right ear, then match her volume. “I’ll be safe, Mother, and the knights have families to spend their evenings with. I’ll be back home with a new recipe for you to try before you know it.”
***
Before the sun is even out, I’m past the first mountain south of my family’s estate. I’m in beat-up black clothes, and considering this area is hardly mapped, I can cut loose.
BANG
Magic shooting from my feet shatters the ground, and wind rips at the skin on my face. I dive between trees, atomizing small branches, then focusing my senses.
There are plenty of trees before the next mountain, so I can set up a nice spot here. I jump between magic footholds back towards the first mountain, then spread my previously held-in magic.
I condense the magic until it’s harder than the rock of the mountain, then press it forward.
CRACK CRACK CRACK
The rocks split, and I manipulate earth magic to push the carved area out, revealing a classic triangular house shape. I condense more magic to carve stone out for a door, then place it over the entrance.
Not bad for a thirty-second house; I’ll just need to carve more stone into bed and butchering platforms. But before my next trick, I want to up my disguise.
I jump back down to the training area and make a pool of reflective water, then mix my magic into the air and push it towards my head. On contact, my hair triples in length.
Hmm. I look homeless, but I don’t think anyone will recognize me. To business then.
SLICE SLICE SLICE SLICE
I clear an area of trees, replicating a little football field, then jump from end to end un-
BOOOOOOOOOM
My fucking ears!
THUD
My ass hits the ground as I clutch my head.
“Stupid ass… bitch ass… sound barrier…”
I lie flat on my back and heal my ears. The wind at that speed hurts everything. I’ll have to condense magic around my body and especially around my ears for protection.
But what I really want to do - is fly.
“HUP! Round two!”
I let magic flow out, then condense around me like a body suit, with just a little hole to breathe through. More magic wraps around my back, and I aim straight for my ass.
WIND!
“TOO MUCH!!!”
I shoot up at forty-five degrees, but I’m ass over tea-kettle.
Less wind!
Fuck me, I’m dropping like a rock.
Medium wind!
“Woah… right there… steady…”
WAHA! I’m fucking floating. I’m about even with the first mountain’s peak, and below me… below me…
“Blargh… I’m gonna puke…”
I cut the magic, and crater into the ground. I can’t even hold my magic in properly, so I use what’s coming out to make cold water and fill the crater with it.
“Oh, I don’t like heights. But flying is so cool.”
I’ll try this again later. And maybe pushing myself around with condensed magic will feel better than wind.
Back at the cave house, I sit on the cold stone floor. I place my hands down to steady my spinning world, but I feel something. My errant magic seeps into the rocks below, but a few layers down, it gets far harder.
I push more magic and close my eyes to form a picture of what’s below me in my mind. Far below me, my magic’s reaction feels familiar. There’s something that reflects a lot of it.
Earth magic can’t move something so far through such dense rock, but I might be able to make a tunnel. Magic rolls off me and starts to condense in a line between me and my goal. I work it back and forth, breaking up the rock, until earth magic starts budging the target.
I hold my hand over the tunnel and pull hard. Stone turned to sand shoots up, then a baseball sized lump flies into my hand, and I turn it over.
“Gold?”
It’s a decent lump, but it’s not pure. There’s dense stone mixed in. Hm, most people make things explode with magic. Maybe if I jam some in the weaker rock will just atomize? Magic flows from my fingers and slams into the mix. It vibrates th-
BANG
The rock explodes, taking most of the skin on my right hand with it. If I weren’t so diligent about infusing my body with lines of magic every night, my whole hand would probably be gone. Most of the stone turned to dust in the explosion, but lodged in the floor and wall in front of me are two fairly large chunks of gold.
I use healing magic to recover the skin on my hand, then pull the gold pieces from where they’re lodged. The first chunk is roughly the size of my thumb, and the second is twice as big.
I don’t know how much this is worth, but I’m going to need to check every mountain I stop at. If I can find gold, gems, or even spell stones, my life will get a lot easier.
***
Day two.
With my planned training out of the way, I’m free to explore as much as I want today. I fly up into the air until I find the height that makes me want to vomit and get a lay of the land between camp and the ocean.
There are a few more mountains before I hit the water, which means a few more chances to find gold. I spend most of the morning searching the rocks and have some great finds. Two more little pieces of gold, a small diamond, and on the last mountain, I find several small spell stones.
I’ll have to make trips further east and west to better search the mountains, especially for this last peak. With enough spell stones, I can make something incredible even by my old world’s standards.
I make my way to the edge of the water, and the view is breathtaking; below me is a rocky coastline stretching to the horizon on either side. And in front, nothing but pure blue ocean. It doesn’t smell that salty either; it’s probably like the west coast ocean I knew in my last life.
If I remember correctly, that means this ocean water is going to be cold. But that doesn’t matter; I’m going for a swim.
I dive from the cliff into the water with a splash. The water isn’t frigid, but it isn’t comfortable. I swim down to about fifteen meters and across the ocean floor when I run into something unexpected – a crab.
I set up camp on the oceanside mountain that night, but I make my house area a little smaller on the off chance a boat passes by near the shore. I even bring my little crab friend back with me. He’s getting cooked in some boar fat I brought, so I don’t think this friendship will last.
I haven’t really made any friends in this world. I have my family, and when Oliver is a little older, maybe we’ll be friends. Shayna and I are close, but she’s like my third mom or a very involved aunt. I blame class society; unless family visits or some noble is in town to see Father, I don’t get the chance to meet many people.