《Life on the Sidelines》


 Prologue

    ¡°Ha ha! We did it! This is incredible Blake, this will completely change the way we work with our genes.¡± I said


    ¡°you¡¯re right Dr. Goldwhite. We¡¯ve just changed the world¡± said Blake.


    The focus of their attention is several dots on a yellow petri dish. The room full of people then broke into cheers. Everyone was not so subtly trying to get a look at the petri dish. It looks much the same as any petri dish they had seen hundreds of time before, but this one signified something special.


    ¡°Dr. G you should say something to mark the occasion¡± said Blake. The crowd almost on cue broke out into chant ¡°Speech! Speech!¡± they cried.


    ¡°Alright, Alright¡± I said ¡°I would like to thank you all for your hard work these many months. Today we have accomplished something no one else has in all the world, created artificial life! With completely artificial base pairs we have succeed in creating an analogues E. coli. Rather than taking away from our own creation as something completely mundane, we can now truly appreciate how incredible it is that life arouse on its own. Through nothing else but serendipity life arises from the primordial soup. That in and of itself is a miracle. With our result today, we show that life did not come from magic but natural processes, and that life on earth is an incredible blessing, like they say life finds a way.¡± I Finished.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    The crowd broke into applause and I slowly shuffle out of the lab and find my office, I sit down and relax with a smile on my lips. As I bask in this victory, and think of the long months of work, feelings of satisfaction and weariness assault me. With these feelings sleep takes me.


    I wake up and check the time 4:23, ¡°so four and a half or five hours of sleep¡±.


    I get up and make my way to the coffee shop that is open 24 hours a day and just a few minutes from my office.


    In a perfect storm of events I see the driver of a pickup truck with barley enough ice craped from his window to see, and a lady who starts walking across a crosswalk and doesn¡¯t notice the driver is not stopping.


    I see how pretty she is and before I notice my body is moving, I push her out of the way as the truck slams into me.


    Before I go, I notice how shocked she looks.


    Then nothing.

 Chapter 1. Wake up

    As I open my eyes, I realize that I wet the bed again, I get up and make my way to the maids to tell them about it.


    They help me change and get dressed for the day.


    I go down stairs for breakfast of fruit and oatmeal. Then I go outside to the kennels to play with the dogs. I follow the kennel master around so that I can take care of my own dog one day.


    Soon enough something interesting happens, today they are getting a delivery of sheep and goats which will be housed near the kennels, so the kennel master is coordinating with the other groundskeeper on the delivery. The animals are delivered by a large carriage. They told me to sit on some tall barrels and not to disturb them while they move everything around. When they finally get everything into its rightful spot, I go over to investigate the new animals. The new fluffy sheep, the proud big horn sheep, and the shabby goats. There is one particular goat that caught my eye, it¡¯s one all the other goats are avoiding, as I go up to it to pet it, it rears up and charges me I cry out as it bowls me over.


    As I fall my head lands on a stone in the ground and then I¡¯m out.


    I wake up several hours later in my bed. I have this terrible headache. What are these memories? I¡¯m remembering a whole other life that I live with the name of David Goldwhite, but my name is Christoph Aurum Arrhenius. Well, I go by Aurum but that¡¯s not the point! What does this all mean¡­?


    ¡°It¡¯s taken me a few days, but I have come to the conclusion that I have reincarnated into another life¡±


    This life is full of magic and wonders I could not have even imagined. After some introspection I have realized that my personality is more of David, but David is dead I will have to accept the life of Aurum.


    It¡¯s a sobering thought.¡± But for now, I have play with the kennels and learn to read. I rise and look around my room, with nice wooden floors of a deep brown I have a strange magical light at the top of my celling and the glow of morning has begun to shine through my window this really speaks to the sophistication of the civilization I am now a part of.


    I walk to turn on the light. I have a light switch, something so mundane in my old life but is so novel to see in my new one. Imagine someone invented something of the same design in another world. I guess great minds think alike.


    Waking to dress I pick up some nice robes, which seem to be the fashion of children and the old. My parents wear more sophisticated clothing with pants and blouses. I suppose robes are easier to clean and wear for the old and young. Leaving my room sets me in a nice ornate hallway with rugs of nice threat consisting of a solid color of black.


    As I walk down the stairs, I see my mother who has brilliant blond hair, and says ¡°come and sit down for breakfast Aurum¡±.


    As I sit down at the large table, I can barely hold my excitement at the feast laid before me. With mountains of French toast, waffles, oatmeal, granola, and a multitude of assorted fruit.


    As I happily much away my mother beings to explain things to me. ¡°my goodness Aurum, you have been acting differently ever since you hit your head, is everything ok?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m feeling alright, but honestly I¡¯ve had this headache since I¡¯ve woken up.¡±


    ¡°Oh no, this is awful, would you like me to have the servants make you a cup of willow bark tea?¡±


    ¡°That would be great, thanks mom.¡± Shortly after, the tea arrived. It helped to bring my breakfast to an end.


    ¡°mom can I spend some time in the library?¡±This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    ¡°sure dear, just make sure not to take any food or drink in there O.K.¡±


    ¡°O.K. mom¡± and with that I was off racing to the library.


    Gazing at the selves in the library I looked for anything that would help me better understand this would I am in.


    I find an atlas on the bottom shelf in the corner, which seems as good as any place to start learning about the world. As I pull it out, I notice it has the word atlas in bring gold letting on the front over what seems to be red reptile skin.


    ¡°weird flex, but O.K.¡±  I thought.


    I open up the atlas and begin to flip through the book. The pages are a thick and the black ink stands boldly on them. The atlas details the known world which consists of five contents, Okeiba, Hikibia, Adrena, Velsema, and Valeska. I am on Velsema, though I¡¯m not quite sure where.


    For the most part I had no problem reading most of the words on the page. Aurum had been in tutoring since he was 6, I¡¯m 9 now and my tutors say my reading and writing skill are advanced for my age.


    But this language is totally wild. Like its someone smashed Latin and Chinese together, it¡¯s going to take a lot more work to figure how to properly read and speak like a functioning adult.


    I¡¯m just glad that I have all of Aurums memories so that I don¡¯t have to start from square one. The next book I select is The Basis of Magic. As begin to read I quickly realize how futile my effort is, I can sound out the words and discern what they phonetically sound like but that still doesn¡¯t put me any closer to understanding what any of these words mean or what this book is talking about.


    I¡¯ll try asking my parents or get my tutor to teach me. I spend the rest of the day running around in the woods and around the house.


    Well this world¡¯s equivalent of Monday has come around and I am still no closer to understanding the basics of magic in this world.


    I asked my parents over the weekend and they changed the subject on me. So now it¡¯s time to grill the tutor for some answers.


    I¡¯m sitting at my desk like a good little boy when he walks in. My tutor is a handsome man about 25 with light brown hair and forest green eyes, skinny and at about 5¡¯8¡¯¡¯ strikes and impressive figure.


    ¡°Good morning Aurum¡± he starts


    ¡°Good morning Atkins¡± I reply, ¡°Can you teach me about magic?¡± I ask.


    He looks up at me at this question ¡°I don¡¯t mind devoting sometime to the question but what got you curious, you always seemed to shy away from harder magic studies before.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking that magic is really cool and it¡¯s important that I devote time to properly understanding it.¡± I responded.


    ¡°That¡¯s a mature outlook you¡¯ve come to¡± Atkins replied.


    ¡°I find that it helps to take a global prospective when talking about magic to put things into context. There are very few masters on magic but there are many people who have some expertise in magic¡± Atkins started.


    ¡°Almost every noble is at an intermediate level of expertise in magic, that is to say they can operate magical machinery, are magically literate and can cast spells that are of some complexity.¡±


    ¡°How advanced are my parents? When I brought up, they subject they changed the subject¡± I asked.


    Atkins gave a wry smile ¡°It is probably due to the fact that your mother cannot use magic. When she was born, she was tested and was it was reported that she was a once in a generation genius with her magical potential. So, a rival noble clan had her poisoned, killing any chance she had of fulfilling her destiny. Of course her parents didn¡¯t take this lying down and successfully put together a coalition of noble family to petition the powers that be to strike down the Chevreuls, the family that had your mother poisoned, and killed every man in the family, and had the women and children deported to a land where they didn¡¯t speak the language with the promise that if they ever returned they would be killed on site. I imagine that be why your mom doesn¡¯t really like to talk about magic she never got to do what she was meant to do.¡± Atkins finished.


    I was speechless, his story shocked me to my core I didn¡¯t know what to say. I slumped back into my chair and closed my eyes.


    After internalizing this knowledge for a minute, I opened my eyes. ¡°Thank you for telling me¡± I say as firmly as I can.


    Atkins takes the hint that I¡¯ve had my fill on the subject of my mother and begins to explain the subject of magic in the world.


    It is for the most part a standard introduction magic permeates everything in the world, nobody really understands it all that well, but people have cobbled up some interesting was to manipulate it and can do some truly awesome things with it.


    Magic seems to be driven by intent, in effect it is the physical manifestation of our will on the universe. Some people use it to develop mana cores within them to use a source of power, other practice manipulating free mana in the environment, and others use it to further enhance and strengthen their bodies.


    There seems to be a myriad was to use magic with no way being more correct than the other, it just depends on how hard you work to develop your will.


    After the explanation on magic Atkins proceeds to cover the regular topics of study and I¡¯m left alone to work on my homework.

 Chapter 2. Time moves on

    It has been a year since I fell and hit my head and remembered my past life.


    In this past year I have worked hard to understand the complexities of the language and understanding the kind of world I am in.


    I have held off on actually practicing magic due to dangers an unfocused mind cause. So, I have studied and learned the basics of magic theory in preparation for this day.


    I have become 10 years old and by all accounts should be able to bear the burden of practicing magic. After all, the most common reason people don¡¯t start practicing earlier is that it is too hard to understand magic theory and what they don¡¯t know what they are supposed to do to practice magic.


    I have talked to my parents about practicing magic and they were skeptical. Especially since my farther must travel often for his work. Overseeing a fiefdom ensures that he has to travel to different parts of his domain to solve issues and talk to people in person. In order to gain their blessing, I had to prove to my parents that I was knowledgeable in magic theory and knew the basics.


    It was actually a good bonding experience between my father and me. My father seems to have a hard time connecting with me. Its not just that I have an adult¡¯s mind in a child¡¯s body, looking back through Aurum¡¯s memories I can see that my farther has always seemed unsure of himself around me. I¡¯m not sure why that is.


    Anyway, I digress I am currently sitting cross legged in the middle of the yard behind our house, my father is likewise sitting behind me with his hands on my back while my mother watches on from a distance. My father is here to ensure that should I have any problems with my first channeling he will be able to protect and aid me.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    ¡°Father I am ready to begin¡± I say. ¡°I¡¯ll be right here the whole time, any problems and I will jump right in, so just do your best¡± he responds. ¡°O.K.¡± I say slightly exacerbated.


    I close my eyes and begin to center myself. I work to calm my mind and silence any erring thoughts. I work to expand my consciousness and feel for the mana that is present within myself.


    As I let myself breath, I consciously notice each breath I take, then I feel each heartbeat that sends blood coursing through my body.


    As I simply experience each moment, I slowly become aware of an extra dimension to everything. It¡¯s like when you look at a pyramid and on the far side instead of a flat surface like the other sides of the pyramid it is connected to another pyramid, and what you thought was a pyramid is actually an octahedron. That what it felt like when I felt mana within myself.


    And for a while I exist in the moment, basking in the awe of mana. There are no thoughts just the appreciation for something wonderful. Slowly I break from by stupor and work to actively channel the mana around my body.


    Starting from my brain stem I follow my nervous system and siphon excess energy from my body to from a dantian in my navel.


    This will form the basis for my mana core. People can draw mana from their body without a dantian, but they are drawing from all over their body and it is a much smaller pool of energy. Developing a dantian allows for a specific place to draw from.


    I am unaware of the passage of time as it is extremely slow going to build the dantian. Eventually I have the requisite amount and can slowly finalize the structure. This will be an artificially structure within my body, I have essentially created a new organ for myself.


    I open my eyes and stand up and turn to my father. ¡°Good job Aurum.¡± He says as he too stands ¡°couldn¡¯t have done better myself.¡±


    My mom comes over with bated eyes. ¡°How did it go¡± she asks. ¡°I completed my dantian¡± I say. She instantly envelops me in a hug. ¡°That wonderful¡± she exclaims. ¡°Let¡¯s head back to the house to celebrate¡± said my mother as she leads my father and I.


    When I get to the house I am greeted with a wonderful feast of food. As we eat my father tells stories of when he first formed his dantian and his first steps as a mage.


    My mother and I share a look as his voice echoes into the night

 Chapter 3. First steps

    After forming my dantian my life did not change drastically after my lessons with Aitkens, I now spend some time building up my dantian.


    When my father is around, he will sit in and share some insight or give me some guidance but for the most part it is really meditative practice.


    Additionally, I do some shaping exercises that help to develop my magical control but those are really hard and boring. My parents have encouraged me to not perform any spell as without a dedicated magic teacher it is easy to lose control and things can rapidly get out of hand. My father doesn¡¯t have the time to teach me as he has his job leading the fiefdom. So, most of time in the afternoons are spent exploring the area around the house and seeing what the servants are up to or helping my mom with whatever she is up to.


    One afternoon while I was exploring our property, I notice an herb growing that looked a lot like thyme.


    After I tasted it, I realized it was thyme! As I continued around, I notice that there seemed to be a lot of other wild herbs in the area. The cuisine that is served in the house mainly relies on salt for flavoring. I should investigate why there is not more herbs in our diet when they seem readily available.


    Back at home while eating dinner before I could ask about the herbs my father had a question for me. ¡°why are you not eating any meat Aurum¡± my father asked.


    I had been a vegetarian since college in my past life and meant to stay the same in this life.


    ¡°Dad while looking through your books I notice some health almanacs mention the health benefits of eating grains and veggies, and there is a prominent mage, Grantham that noticed a trend in people who ate the most meat. He noticed that the people who eat the most meat are the unhealthiest. So, he stopped eating meat to see if he would become stronger. After not eating meat for a year he noticed that he had indeed become strong, healthier, and felt better. So, I think it is a good idea to do the same experiment for myself¡± I responded.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    My father chuckled ¡°how novel, that is an interesting hypothesis I wish you luck with your experiment son.¡± I can tell he¡¯s humoring me.


    ¡°Thanks dad¡± I say with slight sarcasm.


    ¡°Dad why are there so few herbs in our meals¡± I ask. ¡°What do you mean¡± he asks. ¡°While I was in the woods, I notice that there seems to be an abundance of herbs that are not utilized in our meals¡± I respond. ¡°Is there?¡± my father responded. ¡°I¡¯ll ask the chef about it and see what he says¡± ¡°OK¡± I say and leave it at that.


    The following day my mother and I make a trip into the nearest town of Burnsburry.


    We took our carriage which was painted in a nice brown lacquer and pulled by two strong horses.


    Accompanying us was a maid to help my mother with anything she needs. The maid was pretty with slight stature, brown hair, and pretty brown eyes. Her name was Maryanne. The trip didn¡¯t take us long only, with us only being a few miles from town.


    The town was prosperous and clean. Most of the industry revolved around being agriculture and a good spot that people had to stop when traveling across the land. With a population of around 45,000 it was of decent size. The building consisted of mainly of wood with western style architecture. The carriage stopped at a dress store where my mother planned to meet with the shop owner and discuss the different things that she needed. I had the privilege of accompanying her on her talks. Which mainly consisted of discussing the fashion of the capital.


    But spending the day with my mom was the important part, and she showed me the town afterwards. Mom didn¡¯t actually buy anything today but was maintaining a relationship with the store owner so she could always have first pick on clothes from the capital.


    When father returned after work we sat down for dinner. My father with his neat kept beard and my mother with her immaculate hair both looked very dashing today.