An Introduction to Magic

I awake to rays of sunshine coating my bed with the sounds of birds chirping nearby and rushing water from the next room. I get up after a few minutes and walk out to see Mom doing the dishes. 

"Good morning, Momma," I smile.

"Good morning baby. How'd ya sleep?" She replies. 

"Very well. How about you, Momma?"

"I slept okay baby boy. I'm very proud of you for sleeping in your own bed last night." She walks over, picks me up, and hugs me tightly as she twirls around. 

I giggle and she says, "I talked with Daddy this morning about teaching you magic. He wants to make sure you know to be careful and follow my instructions. Magic can be dangerous and even though you're just learning the basics I need to keep my baby boy safe, okay?" 

I stare at her — she has a very serious look. I'm thinking, is it really dangerous just to make some water? Regardless, her serious look and tone are more than enough for me to be careful and listen to her. 

"Okay, Momma," I say whilst hugging her back.

"Awesome!" She beams. "Your dad will be back later, he had to go to the city. In the meantime would you like to try reading some?"

I nod eagerly. 

Minutes blend into hours as Mom tries to explain each of the letters and their sounds. 

Occasionally I get frustrated, but Mom's response is to assure me this is a really young age to learn to read and gives me the option to stop. 

I don't though, I want to learn badly. With nothing else in our small home, this occupies me for a while. 

"Gahhh.." I groan, slouching in frustration as I get another character of the alphabet wrong. 

"Sweetie, let's take a break from reading. I'll read you the first few pages of The Basics of Mana and Magic." She smirks, signaling that she needs a break herself. 

Her excitement is contagious, quickly ridding me of my own frustration, so I nod and begin to listen. 

She brings the book over and begins reading,

"Mana, or what is known as "Magical Power", is in every living being. Every living being starts their life with a different amount of their own mana in their body. It is unknown what causes different beings to have more or less mana than others upon birth. Mana can be divided into four main elements, Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind; With several different forms of each element that deviate as well as rare forms of mana such as restorative, gravitational, sound, etc. Mana particles of all kinds are present everywhere in the world, however, most living beings are only capable of using one kind of element. This is because in order to use the mana particles in the air you must put out your own mana to attract them. Most beings' innate mana is only capable of attracting one type of element. This why practitioners of magic typically only control one element." Mom finishes speaking with a large breath and looks at me. 

I did not understand everything that was just read to me or even most of it. Mom seemed to understand this as she starts giggling uncontrollably. 

I look at her with confusion written on my face, "What are you laughing at, Momma?"

She kisses me and says, "Oh baby I know that might've been too much. You were just so cute sitting there with a blank look on your face."

"What is a blank look?" I ask, still extremely confused. 

She breaks down laughing again and the door opens up. 

"I'm home!" Dad's voice rings out.

"We're in here, hunny." Mom calls. 

Dad walks with two large bags in his arms, his short brown hair covering the tense look he usually has coating his face after trips to the city. Mom walks over to him, brushing the hair out of his eyes and kissing his cheek, giving him an empathetic look. 

He smiles back at her and nods.

"How's the studying going?" He inquires.

"He's struggling with the alphabet and magic left him confused."

He smiles, with an almost relieved look on his face. "You two haven't cast anything, right?"

Mom gets a frustrated look on her face, "No hunny, I told you I would keep him safe and I mean it."

Dad responds with a defeated look, "I'm sorry, I just worry."

Mom's frustrated demeanor shifts to an apologetic one as she hugs him, "I know baby, but you can trust me, okay?" 

He nods and pulls her into a kiss. I quickly turn my head back to the book. Running my small hands over the symbols in the book. 

Dad asks curiously upon observing me, "I know you haven't cast any spells, but do you know his element yet?"

Mom shakes her head, "The only way I know how to check is by using mana and if it's something like fire I'd rather not risk it."

Dad nods and walks over to our cabinets to put away the large bags before pulling what looks like a dark brown rock from his pants pocket, "Mono gave this to me last night. He said it-"

Mom cuts him off with an excited tone, "Oh gods! A Gavrock Stone?!"

Dad raises his eyebrows while Mom continues, "These things are worth a small fortune." She says while grabbing a hold of it, as she does the stone suddenly shines blue.

"When held they light up in the color of your elemental affinity." Mom shows the stone to Dad.

"Mono said as much. Let Aven hold it." He smiled, clearly happy to see Mom so excited.

She quickly walked over to me, who was just a few steps away, "Here baby, hold this." She beamed. 

I reached out to grab it and when fully in my hands it began to shine a bright white.

Mom stared at the stone with a huge smile before uttering, "Wind.." in a quiet tone. 

Dad walked the few steps between all of us and hugged us both. "Looks like you're going to be a wind magic user, son." 

I bore into the stone for several seconds before a smile crept across my face and I leaned over to hug my parents. Honestly, I wasn't sure why this was such a big deal to them, but seeing them so excited made me feel like I just did something amazing.

—

Several weeks have passed since Mom began to teach me to read and about the basics of mana. Since then I've learned that momma has the water element and dad has the earth element, though he never uses magic.

Mom is busy cleaning so I snuck the book into my room for some more practice reading. 

Honestly, I'm making no progress without Mom or Dad helping me, but I still like to try. It brings a smile to Mom's face when she sees me looking at the book by myself, and I feel like I'm making her proud. 

After several minutes pass of me staring at the words Mom and Dad call me into the common room or the middle-most room. 

"So hunny, Daddy and I have been discussing whether or not it's okay to let you try out some magic. Is that something you'd like to try?" She asks with a hopeful look. 

"Yes, momma!" I beam, practically bouncing on my tippy toes in excitement.

The more momma shows me what she can do with magic the more I've been wanting to make them proud with my own magic. 

Dad coughs and then says, "Aven, magic is very dangerous. It's important you listen to us while learning this, okay?" He gives off a serious expression that I see every time Mom brings up magic. 

Mom smiles, "He's right hunny, be careful and listen to momma. But this will be easy! We're just gonna try to blow around a little wind!" She looks at Dad with a reassuring look as she finishes speaking. 

He nods and kisses her then we begin to head outside. When we step outside I can see a few different logs with things on them, a leaf, an empty bottle, and a bucket of water. 

Mom looks at me while she stands in front of the log with the leaf with Dadda at her side. 

"C'mere hunny."

I walk over and she grabs my hand. 

"Now, do you remember what the books said about using mana?"

I don't remember at all. I don't want to tell momma that though so I nod my head. 

"Great baby!" She beams, "Hold out your hand like this." She faces her completely open palm towards the leaf. "I want you to try summoning your mana just like the book told you."

I stand there for a minute, my palm facing the leaf not sure what to do. I try to squeeze my palm shut but mom quickly tells me to open it back up.

"I…I'm sorry momma I don't know how to do magic."

She leans down, kissing my forehead while giggling, "Baby boy, that is no reason to apologize at all. Let momma show you." 

She opens up my palm and says, "Repeat after me." Then mutters an incantation. 

I follow her lead, repeating after her. As I finish the incantation I begin to feel sick, then I see the leaf blow in the opposite direction of my palm. My dad smiles, looking somewhat relieved, and my mom jumps for joy. 

"You did it, baby! Great job!" Mom hugs me. 

"I'm proud of you Aven." My dad says while also leaning in for a hug. 

I smile at them both, still feeling sick. That's when I puke all over the back of momma. 

Mom gasps and Dad gets an extremely worried look on his face. 

"It's okay babe." She says while grabbing Dad's hand. "I told you this might happen, it's because of how low his mana reserves are right now. It'll get better with practice."

He sighs in relief, helping my mom out of her shirt and then taking me lie down. "Get some rest son, we're both proud of you." He smiles gently at me and then closes the door. 

Lying in bed I think back to when I blew the leaf away. I finally remember Mom telling me how incantations were used to get you to feel the mana flowing through your body so that you could learn to use it without them. 

I sigh and fall asleep thinking about how happy momma looked after I sent the leaf away. 

—

I'm lying in bed with The Basics of Mana and Magic in my small hands thinking about magic. It's been two years since the first time I used mana. Since then I've learned to read and have been able to make more wind without incantations before feeling sick. 

After staring at the book for a while I get up and walk into the common room. "Good morning Mom," I say as I hug her. 

"Good morning sweetheart." She says, hugging me back and kissing my forehead. 

"Going outside?"

I nod. "I want to try knocking over the bucket again."

She smiles at me. "Okay sweetheart, just don't overdo it."

I give her another kiss before walking towards the door. "I won't momma, I promise." 

These last two years I've been trying so hard to knock over this bucket of water. I'm able to knock over the empty bottle if I try really hard and expend all of my mana but I can't make this bucket move at all. Momma always tells me it's normal and that I'm only three but it's really frustrating failing again and again. 

I hold out my palm in front of the water bucket, trying to envision blasting it off the stump before closing my eyes and unleashing all of the wind I'm able to. Wind flows from my palm, much stronger than it did two years ago. For several seconds I let the wind flow from my hand until my head begins to spin. 

Just like the countless days I had spent mana until I felt like vomiting, I had over-exerted my mana pool again. 

I quickly stopped, putting a hand to my head and stomping on the ground. "Agh..I can't do it!" I said to myself out loud before walking back inside. Mom was sitting on the couch now with Dad beside her, "What's wrong hun?" She asked. 

"I can't knock over the bucket." I pouted. 

"You'll get it eventually son, you're still young."

My mom nodded in response. I know I'm a kid but it doesn't help my frustration any to tell me that. 

I walk to my room and sit down on the bed, opening up The Basics of Magic and Mana and flipping to one of the earlier pages on mana control. It has several diagrams showing mana particles coming out of different parts of the body, hands, feet, shoulders, mouth, etc. 

I've only ever cast mana from my palm, it's what I've always done so it comes naturally. 

I begin reading the books explanation on using mana in different parts of your body. 

Most practitioners of magic tend to release their mana from their hands. This is because of how most beginner mages are taught with one of the plethora of incantations that utilize your hand as the conduit for mana. However, you can release mana from anywhere on your body. You can also use this to increase the intensity of your mana. By starting with a larger area to release mana from and slowly shrinking it, the excess mana will funnel into the smaller point releasing a much more dense stream of mana. 

I try to wrap my head around what it is that I've just read, not even understanding some of the larger words. That's when I notice Mom peaking her head in the door. I jump a little bit as I notice her but quickly begin to laugh as I realize it's momma. 

"Whatcha doin' hun?" She flashes a curious look. 

"I'm trying to find a way to knock over the bucket," I say whilst looking back at the book. 

"Can you tell me what this means, Mom?" I point at the section of the book I just read. 

She comes over and reads it over for a minute. "It means that when you make your wind appear in a smaller area than how you started it will come out much stronger." She smiles. 

"Would that help me knock over the bucket?" I ask curiously. 

She chuckles a little, "It might hunny. Would you like me to teach you?" She asks. 

My eyes light up at the idea of being able to knock it over and impress Mom. "Yes please!" 

She laughs, "Okay sweetheart, do you have more mana in you?" She asks. 

I shake my head, "No, I don't momma."

"Then how about tomorrow we can start trying to learn how to do that? Now that you can read we can spend more time learning magic together." She smiles at me, excitement evident in her voice. 

I hug her and nod eagerly, "Yes momma!"

She laughs and kisses my forehead. "Get some rest now, I'll bring you some lunch when Daddy finishes cooking." 

I watch as she walks out of the room and leaves my door barely open. I smile and lean my head back closing my eyes for a moment before I hear something- The sound of horse hooves I've grown accustomed to when Dad leaves for the city. I get up, walking over to the window of my small room. That's when I see them, two figures in brown hooded cloaks, one with a sword slung across their back. 

They abruptly stop outside our small home, tying the horse to a fence post outside. Only the one with the sword dismounts, walking up the dirt path to our small home. That's when I see the front door open and Dad walks out with a worried look on his face.