Chapter 11: Elder enlightened one, please educate me

"Hhhhhuuuuu. Hhhhhuuuuu." I feel slightly dumb doing stupid breathing exercises, but this is for the sake of magic! I calm my mind through some classic, good old deep breathing and try to see the mana around me, but it's all black. I can't see anything. How can I see the mana with my eyes shut?

…wait, who said I had to see the mana? Did I just assume that? I really need to get rid of those human tendencies of mine. Let's see, if I'm not supposed to see the mana, should I focus on my other senses? Which one would be the best in this situation. Feeling? Yeah, that sounds right. I need to feel the mana, feel it.

I focused on the sensations around me, the chilly late autumn air against my fur, the texture of the ground that I'm lying on, the vibrations of one of my parents, probably mum, tapping her feet. Sure enough, I could soon feel the currents of mana around me, mingled in with the natural beauty of the world. So far so good. The first part is done, so lets see, what was the next step? Pull the mana in, right? How do I do that?? Not with my front legs obviously. Let's see, sheer will I suppose.

.

LIKE HELL!! HOW THE FUCK?!?! THIS IS STUPID!! How do I do this?? Ummmm, maybe, should I just try something random? Like what? Come to me! Mana! Something like that?

...

...

'Nope. That was rather dumb. Am I too annoyed to think properly? I need to go back to being calm, that worked last time. Deep breaths Nicole. In, hold, out. Repeat.

Lets try something else. Come on, come on. Go back to feeling the mana currents.' My body fully relaxed, I went back to basking in the glorious world around me. The mana trickling around me felt serene, and slowly I could feel my mind becoming sharper as the fog of anger and annoyance fades. 'Pull it in, pull it in. Maybe, like this? Would you please help?' I could feel something in me reach out, almost like I was projecting my intentions to the surrounding mana. As a result, the mana started snaking around the part of me that reached out, and slowly seeped into me, gathering in the veins travelling towards my heart. Was this mana manipulation? It felt like I had an incorporeal extra arm that I could move around at will.

I continued on like that for a while, until I felt full. Remembering dad's warning and not feeling like overexerting myself, I slowly pulled back the tendril that was pulling in the mana, and gave a silent thanks to the mana around me, even if it didn't have the sentience required to understand such a thing. I turned to feeling the mana inside of my body instead, and it was filling my veins to the point of bursting. I heard dad whispering near me, "Guide it all to the heart Nicole. Don't push it, it'll leave. Be gentle. Ask it, worship it." That advice sounded slightly weird, but I wasn't going to risk losing all of my efforts just because of my own impatience.

So as dad told me, I didn't try touch it. Instead I drew out a path for it to go down to reach my heart. Giving an outlined direction seems to be the way to go, because the mana started very swiftly following the path. Swimming through my body, the mana left an amazing feeling behind as it went, heating me up from the inside as if I'd just finished a bottle of lovely expensive wine. I decide to focus on that feeling as the mana makes its way through my body, revelling in the warmth and fuzzy softness of it.

The mana got to my heart almost too quick, and as the warmth started to fade, I came back to reality. I stare blankly at the wall in front of my eyes, trying to kickstart my mind into working again. 'What was the last step again?' Nicole's furry little tiger brows furrow as she struggles to focus on the instructions given, and one could almost hear the gears in her head turning.

"Squeeze it!" She shouts it out loud in her excitement for remembering, startling her parents who were quietly surveying Nicole's sisters. By the time they turned to look at their youngest who had shouted so abruptly, she had already refocused herself and closed her eyes to delve back into herself.

Nicole's concentration went straight to her heart, looking at the very thin but large layer of mana circling through it. I'm supposed to squeeze it until the density has increased to that of my naturally produced mana, right? Sounds like a bit of a hassle, but it's probably important. I can probably touch it for this part, right? I don't know how else I'd do it. I once again reached with that invisible arm of mine, this time inside me, to the mana in my heart. I then try do it again, and felt a second arm do the same. I gently cup as much of it as I can at once in both arms, but it's hard. Controlling two invisible, intangible arms at once is taxing. I face the arms towards each other, and start to squeeze the mana it the hands together, as if I'm compressing wet sand into a ball.

It takes a while. Once I've compressed one ball to the point that I can't anymore, I merge it with the thicker mana in my heart, and begin repeating the process. I have to do it around 7 times to get rid of the thin mana, and by the end my thick mana has increased by almost half, and I feel so light and invigorated.

When I open my eyes, my parents are looking smug, leaning against the wall. My siblings are splayed around the room, with Julien and Azazel both looking a bit restless. Seems they've been done for a while. The other two finished pretty much the same time as me, and dad comes forwards, seeing that we're all done.

"See? I knew you could all do it. In particular, Nicole and Rowan have a very large stomach for mana; you both took in so much! Anyways, now it's time to see how your mana manifests itself." There's more?! On top of that, he's once again saying something we don't understand! "What does how it manifests mean?" Wow, quiet, shy Rowan is questioning dad, huh? He must be super confused to open his mouth here.

"Your mana manifests as your strongest element, although probably not your only one. It's simply the one you're most inclined towards." Okay, that makes things way more clear. But, can use only use magic of your elements, or is it simply easier? If I can only use, say, wind magic, it lowers my options. On the other hand, I'm also excited to see what my best element will be. Now, how do we do this? "You'll be doing this now, using the mana you just gathered. It's the most basic of basics for how to create magic, but it isn't magic yet as you won't be doing the rest of the steps. Anyways, you guide a small slice of your mana to your hands, and release it. The mana will be released as the preferred element since you aren't actively changing what it becomes. It's simple, give it a go!"

It's actually pretty simple to do. I'd go so far as to even say it's easy. I've managed to get the mana to my hands in less then a minute, and I'm trying to release it now. The process of releasing it makes my paws tingle, but it doesn't hurt at all. I can see the mana seep out of my hands, before coming together as a colourless blob. It starts trying to morph, bits poking out erratically as it tries to become several things at once. I stare at it for around a minute, but it never does change into something. The movements slow, until eventually it stills as a formless blob of nothing.

"W.. What a disappointment!!" With my scream mum and dad look over, and their eyes almost fall out of their sockets while staring at the blob above my paws. Meanwhile, I've shifted my attention to my siblings. Xenia has what seems to be a pile of dirt in front of her, so her affinity is probably earth or something like that. She looks pissed, but I have to stifle my laughter at the sight of a smallish dragon glaring at some dirt. Julian has a small flickering flame in front of him, which suits him but also doesn't at the same time. Maybe he could use it to cook? Rowan and Azazel have got small orbs of light and darkness respectively, making them polar opposites. Lastly for me...

"Mum, what's my attribute!" Mum laughs awkwardly before responding to me.

"So either you don't have one or their all perfectly balanced to the point that there's no primary one. Was there any movements?"

"Yeah. I looked like it was fighting itself until it probably got tired or something because it stopped. Does that mean I have several?" Mum nods pensively, and I'm ecstatic. I truly am some kind of magic genius, huh! I'm this worlds favourite creation. "Can we start learning how to cast spells right away?"

"Hahaha, you think you can skip our basic information lessons? Alright, I'll give you materials so that you can learn in your own time." She leaves the room, and I'm left looking at dad who's staring at me like I'm the dumbest child to ever exist. What, like it's such a bad idea? I'm a genius with the mind of an educated adult, I can do this.

When mum gets back, she's got a mountain of books floating behind here on a breeze. She stops by dad's side and smirks as the books make their way over to me and thump down on the floor. There's, there is a LOT of them. Maybe I might have been a bit hasty...

Wait, I might be able to skip workouts for this. Hallelujah, let's go for it! I flip open, the book that's closest to me and bend my neck to peer at the pages.

Oh, wow.

Yep, yep, I see.

Interesting, interesting.

… I can't read. I do not know this language, and these characters all look like scribbles. I FORGOT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!

Mother, Father, please, esteemed masters. Teach this humble child how to read. I promise to properly do my workouts.

Damn. I've been foiled.