Growing Pains 1 - 5

[ Character Card:

Izeurik B. Love

Age: 6

Height: 4'2

End of Character Card…]

It was early in the morning, so early that the sun was not even out over the horizon. Sister Mary was starting breakfast, quietly singing to herself. Izeurik was now 6, still walking around looking at and analyzing everything to satisfy his curiosity. There wasn't that much else to do for entertainment. It became a part of their daily routine.

Izeurik quickly realized Sister Mary didn't like answering his questions while cooking, so he figured it was best to find his own answers when he could. This morning Izeurik thought about exploring the small library again. Making his way to the back of their farmhouse to enter the library which connected their home and church by opposite doors.

Even without knowing all of the words Izeurik still indulged in his curiosity. Carefully pulling one book from the shelf and flipping through it, he would replace the book with another if it didn't have pictures. Pictures thus far were still far easier to attempt to understand with all the big words he hasn't learned yet, plus they were pretty. The different places, people, gestures and signs. Even when he didn't know where to begin, he at least enjoyed the colors. 

"Ize!"

Hearing the distant, harmonious cry out for him, Izeurik put the books away. To return a bit more quickly he activated his power, turning which way gravity works for him in short bursts. Each little hop off one foot looked like a long, graceful leap despite him knowing he's actually falling towards the door. Making his way back to Sister Mary, he was happy she began calling him Ize, like he suggested. Unlike the other times Izeurik heard his name, it didn't give the same warm feeling as when someone precious says it.

"I'm on my way!"

He announced with joy, eager for breakfast. Once arriving, he climbed up on his chair. Sister Mary served their meals of steak, mashed potatoes and vegetables before sitting across from him.

"Did you run off back to that library again?"

Sister Mary spoke with a knowing smirk, slowly beginning to eat her meal while watching Isaac enjoy his own, nodding his head in response.

"I was, Mother Mary. Can you teach me how to read those bigger words? It's harder finding books with pictures and harder to understand the pictures too. And the words I do know don't really make sense without the big ones."

Sister Mary couldn't help but let out a little giggle, looking at Isaac's bubbling excitement while anticipating her answer. 

"My, my, aren't you the eager one? You already know more than enough for your age but no harm starting a little early to properly teach you more challenging words other than pointing out words here and there. Once we're done with our church obligations, we can spend some time each night studying."

After a short victory cheer, Izeurik went back to eating with renewed vigor. Stabbing his fork into the steak, he bit down as hard as he could, pulling and ripping a piece off, causing another giggle from Sister Mary, who couldn't make up her mind if he was outright refusing to use the knife or had completely forgotten about it in the height of excitement.

One thing Sister Mary noticed when slowly feeding Izeurik tougher foods was that his baby canine teeth gradually became a little longer and sharper. She knew the reason why but was surprised how much his parent's genetics and abilities worked so naturally with him. She knew it was subconscious, at least for now. 

Izeurik's baby teeth fully grew along with 8 additional canine teeth, two behind the outer sides of each primary canine. The muscle on the edge of his lip and cheeks change slightly too. Allowing him to open his mouth wider to balance it. Still having access to still use his molars. The original canines were now 2cm long. Descending to the back from 1.7 to 1.5cm for my other canines, top and bottom alike.

After they finished their meal and cleaned their dishes, they proceeded with their next daily routine, going out to the farm and doing a bit of labor. The sun was beaming over the horizon with a fresh morning warmth and cool air. The bunny's chirped all about with songs of their own. Ever since Izeurik started to walk around more steadily and grab things, he was eager to help out. It was harvesting season, and it was his job to collect all the smaller items and put them into a basket for Sister Mary to grab and bring to storage to be handled later. After some time passed, they both returned to the farmhouse to get cleaned up.

Once that was done, they headed to the storage outside, grabbing a few prepared baskets. Izeurik even brought a basket along with some of the lighter items on his wagon. Grabbing the handle with this tail hand and they made their way around the house. Passing through the wooden gate, a big, fenced wall separating the church side from the farm side for privacy.

Once past the gate, they proceeded into the side of the church that led into the kitchen. They prepared a big quick meal of chowder to serve out. Izeurik never truly understood why they gave half of their harvest for free. He didn't think it was wrong, but he had seen several of these people before when they went into town. Some of them had jobs. What Izeurik couldn't understand was how, if they worked hard, they still had nothing, and how others could work little or not at all and have more than enough.

Even though Sister Mary explained it, he never truly understood. Then again, at the time he still couldn't properly understand how she could have so many siblings. He learned what sister meant in the family dynamic, but this was a sister that wasn't family. Something to do with religion, something he was definitely too young to understand back then and still felt no desire to try to now. 

After all was fed and they left, Izeurik and Sister Mary had a bowl of their own before the next group of people came in. The buyers, although half of the harvest was free as meals, all of the extra they didn't need to sustain themselves was for anyone who wanted fresh grown food. As Izeurik came to learn, Sister Mary was quite popular for her generosity, good prices, and also being one of the few farms nearby.

From watching Sister Mary, he knew it has something to do with her ability for farming and some god's protection, to offer so much food. He couldn't understand the details and didn't really feel necessary to ask further. She also left the main room of the church open throughout the night. Doing so because she knew some people needed a place to rest, while others wished to come at all hours of the night for a proper place to pray.

While she was dealing with a buyer, Izeurik made his way over to the side where he often sees kids play, when they actually showed up and also didn't run away at the sight of him. Even tried closing his second and third set of eyes just to appear slightly more normal as they look just like dark lines then. 

But it was in vain, although one person didn't mind his eyes and appearance. A messy haired blonde girl with ocean blue eyes. Although clean, Izeurik thought she always looked not properly cared for. Even after asking Sister Mary, he still left to wonder what happened to her to look so sad and empty all the time. Made him feel his appearance wasn't the worst thing to happen. 

 Her name was Alice and she was 6. Not only the same age as Izeurik but they shared the same birthday too. First met 3 years ago and since then became each other's only friend. Although he was told not to show his powers to others, he secretly showed Alice when she sometimes stayed over. 

How he could make webs from the palms of his hands, fingertips, the back of the inside of his mouth, and from the sole and tiptoes of his feet that also kind of look like hands. Holding on to her tight as he changed the flow of gravity slowly falling towards the ceiling before walking on it. Going up and down the walls. 

When Sister Mary was done with the buyers, Izeurik said his farewells to Alice as she made her way back home alone as usual. 

Sister Mary and Izeurik both left through the back of the church, past the library to enter their farmhouse. They took time to relax like normal but tonight was different. Tonight was about learning, and Izeurik's excitement never dropped.

He spent most of his time relaxing, glancing over at Sister Mary, knowing he was just waiting for her. Sister Mary leaning her head back on the couch, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths, enjoying the downtime after day of labor before she couldn't help giggling, feeling the constant little bounces on the couch from Izeurik's patience manifesting.

"Alright, alright little guy, let's start teaching you the next level of literature."

Spoken with a warm tone as she picked Izeurik up, spending the end moments of their shared relaxing time in the library, starting where they left off, slowly gauging how well he memorized written words and pronouncing others. As some more time passed and the darkness took the sky fully, Sister Mary brought Izeurik back to his room, laying him down in bed right next to the window.

It always brought a little smile to her eyes watching his fascination with the moon shining through, reminiscing how when his bed was across the room. As soon as he learned how to climb, crawl, and float, all his countless escapes just to get closer to the window, eventually just rearranging the room to let him rest under the moon.

"Remember not to stay up too late, Ize, my little scholar."

Sister Mary tenderly kissed him on the head after she laid him in bed. Izeurik reached up and wrapped his little arms around her neck, giving a big warm hug while replying.

"I won't, Mother Mary."

After breaking away their embrace, Sister Mary returns to her own room, leaving the doors cracked open. As Izeurik set up in his bed facing towards the window, staring out into the big blue moon shining down on him, the moon always filled him with a type of comforting emptiness, a beautiful sight that washed away all other thoughts. It was peaceful, hard to look away from, even when the moon shone in the daylight. Once he noticed, he couldn't help but to look up and adore it at least for a moment, basking in moonlight while he closed his eyes.

Once again he began thinking about what he learned from pictures and earlier reading before tonight. Thinking about his own body and how it flows according to the images, taking deep breaths in and out. It was easy to visualize his body after the moonlight emptied all his other thoughts, feeling the air around him, his heartbeat and the feeling of his blood flowing. The more he focused on the way one thing leads to another, he gradually got a better clear picture of his own body. It took longer, but the same for the inside of his body as well.

It was a strange sight, a very strange feeling. Although he could see and feel it, he didn't quite understand what any of it did. One thing that fascinated him most was this invisible energy that somehow disappears or leaves within his body. It was like the air around him, but different. After so many nights trying to follow the feeling of this energy travelling through his body, trying to find where it leads. The ones that disappeared were absorbed by his blood, the rest led to the right side of his chest.

After finding where it all led to, he spent most of the nights trying to feel what exactly happened and why. Tonight, Izeurik found that some of this energy flows right past it like a crossroad, with this being the center of all roads. Others linger for a moment. The more he focused, the more visible this energy began, turning a light blue. That's when Izeurik remembered one of the pictures he didn't quite understand from his recent books. At first, he just thought of different arrows indicating direction.

The blue arrow was the blue energy. thinking the red arrow must indicate what goes into his blood, both going down the same path to meet at the crossroads to form some shape. The picture showed three shapes. The first looked like a night star, several sharp points in all directions. The second looked like a sphere, and the third was a weird amorphous blob shape.

Unsure if he was meant to pick a shape or watch it form, nevertheless Izeurik focused his attention on his blood where some of the blue energy would disappear. It was now much easier to find, although the energy was no longer blue. Some were green and others were red. Izeurik intensely focused on the green and red colors. He knew he had, or should have, control over them, since how else would they follow the same path to the crossroad, since they're not doing it on its own.

As he continued to focus, they eventually started to move slowly in a twitching manner, gently pushing the energy out of the blood and onto the path. Gradually, one by one, he continued before checking the intersection. Happy when he saw on the right side of his chest the three energies started to combine, pushing against each other, redoubling his efforts, gathering more green and red energies. It was slowly progressing more smoothly before he felt something.

When Izeurik brought his attention back to the crossroads, he could feel a slight pain in his chest. While watching, he saw the green energy attempting to block out any more blue energy. Meanwhile, the red energy gradually turned the blue energy into red or green. Coming to realize a problem, there was no longer enough room to pass through the path. He knew he could probably just disperse it all to clear the path and ask Mother Mary why things happened.

But that thought was before the panic started. He didn't want to give up just yet. The slight pain was gradually increasing with his heartbeat. He pushed more energy down the path to slam against the crowded intersection. The second wave of panic came when he realized the overwhelming blue energy was gradually retaking what little green and red he had managed to gather, equally threatening to make all his efforts pointless.

Izeurik came up with a very crude, rushed plan. 1, use the green to block out the blue, letting in only a little at a time. 2, Use the red to turn the blue into red and green. 3, Search for more green and red energy in his blood to push along the path. 4, divert the path to stop the slamming into the middle. Everything seemed important. With his young, stubborn, four-year-old panic brain, he didn't know where to start first, so he decided to do it all at once.

A little here, a little there, a little here.

Then a little there, a little here, a little there.

Then again, a little here, a little there, a little here.

Again, a little there, a little here, a little there.

More pain, more pain, more pain.

The process felt slow and exhausting. He looked past the feeling of his chest being ripped to pieces and his head splitting, moving his gaze and concentration throughout his body back and forth. Eventually he was successful. The success was very bittersweet, especially since he didn't even know what he had done. One thing he did find was white energy.

It quickly turned into the other colors once touched, Due to his haste, he ended up commanding the white energy to join the fray. Slowly feeling relief take over, Izeurik focused his attention on the finished product. Currently, the green barrier appeared submerged in blue energy, but it wasn't the case.

Izeurik had tried to create a path going around like a circle, but due to the stress, the slamming energy started to forcefully increase the process as well as create its own pathways. In his panic, instead of focusing on the current path, he slowly made multiple paths, just trying to ensure it didn't build up too quickly. Something he also learned was that it caused more pain when it got too big.

The large amount of blue energy carved a cavern around the center. After helping to make a proper flow in and out, the blue energy slowly started to dissipate. Once his heart rate finally stabilized and his stress was gone, the rush of blue energy returned to normal, a very thin layer. It flowed in the quickest route throughout the cavern across to the other side, around the transparent green hexagon barrier suspended directly in the middle.