Lessons

I was escorted back through the forest, to where I had met Gisel, and then made my way back, walking in a wide circle until I returned to the road, upon which I walked north again, which led home, arriving only slightly late for dinner.

"Did you have a nice time sweetie?" Lissa asked, as I was washing my hands.

"I did, thank you."

"And did you make any new friends?" Rath asked.

"I can say with some certainty that I did." I sat down as Lissa placed the food on the wooden table that we ate.

Both Hungerford and Freia were also welcome to eat with us, but Hungerford usually stayed in his hut. Freia did generally eat with us, but today it was her day off, and she was visiting friends in the village.

"The Blessed Mother herself watches over you Theo," Lissa said, sitting down. "You must show your respect. Please say a prayer to her before we eat."

"Yes mother." 

I respected the goddess that gave my mother her powers, she seemed, as far as gods go, a pretty good and kind one. However, I knew my own power came from Midex, so this felt a little like betrayal for me. That being said, I never prayed to the strange being that had given me my second chance. Maybe I should?

In any case, I wanted to make my mother happy, and a prayer to the Blessed Mother wouldn't go amiss. Unlike my first world, the gods here were real, and you wouldn't want to piss them off.

Hence, I said a prayer of thanks, which pleased both Lissa and Rath, and we had a very nice dinner together, something I really appreciated in my second life.

After eating, my little body practically slumped over where I was sitting. It had been a long day, let's face it, and I ended up falling asleep before even having dessert, which was a crime against Lissa's cooking.

So, when I opened my eyes the next day, I was in my bed, dressed in my sleeping robe. As a grown man this would have been embarrassing, but I had become used to being mothered by, well, my mothers. Let's face it, I was physically still very young.

"Finally."

I jerked upright at the unfamiliar voice, and looked to my right.

Sitting on nothing at all, the strange figure I had last seen four years ago looked back at me with silver eyes.

"Is this because I didn't pray to you?"

Dex laughed, and waved a hand. "No, nothing of the sort. I don't expect that sort of thing. I mean, if you want to say a prayer of thanks sometimes, knock yourself out, it's appreciated, a bit like someone appreciates a compliment maybe, but no, I we just came to check in."

"Oh, okay."

"So, how are things going? Not that I don't know, but think of this as customer service."

"If you already know, what's the point?"

"It's the personal touch. And any feedback would be appreciated. You're the first crossover I've had in a while you know. How's the body feel? Everything where it should be? Nothing falling off?"

"I…" I shook my head. "No, it's all fine so far. Thank you. You've given me a lovely family and everything. I do appreciate it."

"Yah yah, it's all part of the package. I'm pleased with how you're managing so far by the way. Keep at it. Did you like the goblin girl? Pretty cute eh?"

I rubbed the back of my head. "Yeah, I guess so. I'm still a bit young for all that though."

"It'll come, don't worry. Just wait until you meet the elf, you're really going like her. Oh, and the dr… no, that's too much foreshadowing. Anyway, just thought I would say hello. There's a way to go yet, so don't get discouraged."

"I... wasn't? Why would I… Oh."

I was talking to nothing. The god creature had vanished.

"Such is my life here," I muttered, and slumped back down into bed.

~*~

I was woken again later, by Rath, as usual, for my morning training. After my exercises, and meal, once again, I asked permission to go out, which Lissa gave, under the same conditions, which I knew I would break, but what's a boy to do?

About one o'clock then, by my reckoning, which is what I figured a finger past the high sun was, I found myself back in my little clearing, sitting on the same overturned tree and waiting for a goblin.

The remains of the bugbear had been picked clean already. Some larger beast must have taken off with a chunk, as only the bottom part of the skeleton remained. A few flies buzzed around the bit of meat that still clung to the bones. At least that meant there was no great smell.

I didn't have to wait long before Gisel appeared. There was another, large and fierce looking guard with her, but as promised he kept his distance, just enough to keep an eye on us, but not be intrusive.

"Hello!" I said, cheerily, patting the wood next to me. "Please, sit."

Gisel nodded and, cautiously perhaps, did as bid. 

"I bought you a bit of food, just as a gift, as I don't really have anything else to give," I carried on, trying to keep my tone light and friendly. Reaching into my bag, and rummaged around, elbow deep in it, trying to find the sandwich I had put in there earlier. "Ah, here it…"

I looked up, to see Gisel's face, starting at the bag in shock.

"Oh, haha, this?" I pulled my hand, and the food, out. "It's just a bag…"

"JSKHAKJA SKSJDA DAJS?!" Gisel said, in a loud voice.

"I… Okay, this is why I need to learn your language." Sighing, I offered her the sandwich, which, after a bit of hesitation, she took, and then, after watching me mime eating, took a bite of.

"See? Nice, right?"

She stuffed the whole thing in her mouth, chewing madly until it was all gone.

"Well, that's one way of doing it. So now, I've also prepared a few simple drawings, we can start with those…"

The first three or four days were the hardest. It took Gisel a little while to really catch on to what I was doing, and let's face it, she was not much older than me, my body I mean, and was hardly a certified teacher. Still, sometimes it's easier to learn from someone with a more simplistic approach. After all, I was only trying to learn to speak, to communicate, not study for an exam.

I had prepared pictures of various common items, using paper I had scrounged from just about everywhere, it wasn't so common in this world. I would start by pointing at the picture and getting Gisel to say what it was, and then I would write down the word underneath, as best I could. I cheated a little and used English for this, because I was more familiar with writing it than the language of this world. 

And so we began to communicate, awkwardly at first, but it was surprising how fast we both learned. Gisel picked up my language as well, faster than I was learning hers, which annoyed me, until she managed to tell me that the chief's advisor was also giving her some lessons. Cheater! Well, it made our lessons go more easily.

One of the first things that Gisel asked me, once we became a little more fluent, is how I killed the bugbear. 

I knew this would come up, and had thought about trying to palm off the whole thing with some excuse, but then she had seen it with her own eyes, so the cat was out of the bag already.

"Magic," I explained, after I had managed to get her to tell me the word in her language. 

"Show!" She wanted an example. Well, why not? I still had not practised those spells I had come here for.

"Very well. Don't scared be… be scared," I said, still using her tongue.

She gave me a Look, and crossed her arms. 

"What should I cast then? I had used Concentrated Storm ball on the bugbear, the second use of that against an enemy. Time for something else. Different, but similar.

Standing up, I held both hands out, palms facing, and ran the spell I had named 'Flood Blast!' 

For this I used some of my own mana, I'd become used to doing this now, to keep my overflow down, as well as drawing some in from the atmosphere. 

Slowly, a ball of water began to form between my palms, swirling in mid-air. I heard Gisel gasp, but was concentrating too much to look over.

Finally, when it was about the size of a football, I aimed it at a large tree a little way away, and activated the second part of the incantation.

"Flood Blast!" I shouted, more for effect than because I needed to.

The ball of water roared away from me, knocking me back a pace or two, and blasting into the target with far more force than I thought it would have. 

The tree trunk simply exploded, filling the air with sharp splinters.

Gisel shrieked as I dived to one side, knocking her to the ground and landing on top of her as lethal shards of wood flew through the air. 

There was a huge noise as the top half of the tree, or the remains of it at least, came crashing to the ground, followed by silence.

Gisel grunted and, rather violently, pushed me off her. She was a lot stronger than she looked.

"Sorry," I said, sitting up and brushing myself down.

"Princess! You all right?" The guard rushed over and squatted down over her form.

"Hey, I understood that!" I said, standing up.

Gisel ignored me for a moment. She looked over at the tree and gasped. I followed her gaze, and did a bit of my own gasping.

Firstly, the part of the tree where my waterball had hit had been completely obliterated. The top of the tree was on the ground, surrounded by sawdust. However, that wasn't the full extent of the damage. For a good fifty metres further on, there was a trail of devastation. Bushes uprooted, smaller tree partially or fully knocked over, and leaves in the air, still floating slowly down.

"I guess I was trying to show off," I muttered.

Gisel and her guard had turned to me now, and were gaping, open mouthed.

"Sorry," I said, in their tongue. "Too…" I didn't know the word for powerful. "…much."

This is why I needed to practice!