《The Reborn Runesmith》


 0 - Prologue {Edited and Re-Written}

    ¡°Oh God my head is killing me,¡± said Vincent as he came out of a fog of incomprehensiveness. Eye boogers matted and crusted his eyelids together, however, all he could see was white light searing thru his eyelids as though he was staring directly at high powered spotlights from a few feet away at some red-carpet soiree. His head was throbbing like some primitive tribe had decided his head was a drum for a call to war throughout a jungle.


    ¡°Man, did I have a bender last night or drink too much? What''s going on? My head feels like a pair of teenagers hopped up on Viagra have been let loose in my head.¡± he thinks emphatically. He reached up to clear the gunk from his eyes to facilitate him opening them.


    As he attempted to raise his hand to clear his eyes he realized that he couldn''t move. For that matter how did he even get here? He couldn''t remember past leaving for lunch. Vince recalled that the taco truck that he loved was going to be outside his building today and he had saved up to buy everyone in the office tacos as a thank you for celebrating his birthday last week. You see Vincent had problems with people. Growing up Vincent suffered from a rare form of autism called Aspergers, this caused him to be unable to understand and process emotions very well. His case was not as bad as some peoples, but it was bad enough that he had major problems making any close friends. He had dated before but was never successful with a long-term relationship because he just could not understand women at all or empathize with them. The only reason he wanted to thank the people that he worked with, wasn''t the fact that he felt thankful, it was that he was taught it was a social norm to do so by his late parents. As for his parents and other relatives, they were either dead or he was not close to them. His handicap of emotion meant his family thought he was weird and had almost nothing to do with him and it really didn''t bother him.


    Vincent was 45 years old, a very intelligent man, who had graduated at the top of his class at one of the top technical universities in the country. He held multiple advanced degrees in mechanical and architectural engineering as well as being an avid enthusiast of renaissance fairs. Physically he was a very large rotund man, standing at almost 7 ft tall or 2 meters and approximately 350+ lbs. or 170+ kg. Well, he wasn''t in that great of shape but he was very strong and had a decent endurance. His strength came from hours of working his hobby as an amateur blacksmith and tinkerer. He had just finished two years of work, on weekends and holidays, building a very complex watch which he had made from scratch. Countless hours of research into earth sciences on how to recognize tin, copper, and iron in the natural world, how to mine and harvest them, and lastly how to build a smelter, combine, and purify them into usable compounds and alloys. After he had gathered the iron, copper, and tin himself he processed it, created molds for gears, and forged himself an exquisite watch. After multiple failures, with nothing but his own mind and arms strength, his watch lived and kept very accurate time on par with the finest of the old style windup Rolexes.


    As for work, Vincent worked at a company called Cloud King. Anytime something was save and "Put it in the cloud", his company had designed, managed, and sold services to do just that. Vincent helped develop much of the design, code, hardware, and additional technology that made this possible. However, he wasn''t happy, his life was only one of simple existence. His only passion was to play around with this hobby. Otherwise, it was sleep, eat, defecate, and wait for death. He was never one that helped anyone, nor harmed anyone, because usually when he realized someone needed to be harmed or helped the chance had already passed while he was trying to process what he was seeing or feeling.


    Anyway, back to the pain and his apparent paralysis. As a pounding in his head started to subside and the light that that cut through his eyelids seemed to subside in intensity, the gunk that held his eyelids together seemed to fade away. However, any movement was still impossible. He slowly and agonizingly cracked his eyes open to see what was going on around him. Before him, a comical, scene seemed to be happening. The scene that greets him was of a small, approximately 4-foot man, with black-lit glowing wings with vibrant fiery red hair and wearing an outfit reminiscent of some 80s Richard Simmons work out an instructional video, pacing back and forth waving his arms about and saying something that sounds like a teacher from a Charlie Brown cartoon. As the little man saw Vincent''s eyes crack open he turned to him in a hurry which in turn resulted from him tripping over his own feet forcing him to go sprawling face-first on what could only be described as a brilliant white floor. This caused him to attempt to jump up only to trip over his own blackened wings causing the little man to invert himself almost like a gymnast trying to do a flip only to land once again face first.


    Suddenly Vincent feels himself chuckle. Wait! He chuckled. He had never found anything funny before nor felt anything like this. What a great feeling. Is this what everyone talked about at school, college, and on dates when they talked about humor? He found himself enjoying this feeling as much as when he was blacksmithing and working on learning. The black-winged angel however apparently didn''t. The little man jumped up with inhuman speed and stared daggers at Vincent. Waving his perfectly manicured hands Vincent ears instantly healed so that he could hear. All pain was gone, and he could see everything. This was quickly followed by the little man slapping Vincent hard across the face causing him to sail approximately 10 ft across an apparent cube room slamming into a wall.


    The little man turned and started screaming at Vincent. ¡°You sorry piece of shit! Do you know what you caused? It''s not my fault it''s all yours! Asrael better not find out about this! Well, what do you have to say for yourself?¡±


    Vincent confusedly looks at the little man and says, ¡°Excuse me. What are you talking about? What''s going on? Who are you? Why did you hit me? Where am I? Why do I feel things now? Are you going to answer anytime soon? Why can''t I move my arms? Why am I asking so many questions suddenly? Why can''t I stop?¡±


    Suddenly, Vincent felt his mouth lock shut. His mind calmed as all his questions fled from him. The light in the room dropped to a warm golden glow, while at the same time he felt transported, for lack of a better description, into a comfortable chair. He was surrounded by brown hand scrapped wooden log walls that remind him a lot of his grandfather''s cabin that he had enjoyed as a child.


    The air vibrated with power as he heard a voice with such strength, that it threatened to rip his very existence apart say,¡± ENOUGH Praethion!¡± A beautiful woman coalesced into the room. She stood approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall with raven black hair, eyes that seemed to be the color of the sky at twilight and lips the color of the brightest rose. For lack of a better description, she had an otherworldly beauty and grace. As she turned to the little man, whom Vincent assumed was Praethion, she raised her hand causing his wings to be pulled from his back as he screamed in torture. The little man dropped to his knees screaming in pain and with a snap of her finger, he instantly quiet and lays there and torment quietly.


    She turned to Vincent and in a voice so beautiful that even stones would worship her she stated flatly,¡± Vincent Bernard Loasa, you will hearken and pay attention. I would like to first say we are sorry. I have just punished Praethion for his mistake. To answer a few of your questions the reason that you can now feel and experience these emotions is you are dead. In your death, your soul has none of the genetic or psychological damage that your world has inflicted on you. You have full access to the range of human emotions and can feel and experience everything because you are nothing but a soul now.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    I am Morrigan, one of your worlds goddesses of fate, along with my sisters and brothers of the other pantheon''s we are charged by the Creator to make sure that this world continues. Yes, I said the Creator. Just like many of your religions, you were all created as were we by the same being. However, unlike you mortals, we, or what you mortals know as gods of mythology were not given free will. We can only influence this world in small and minuscule ways. For example, as a goddess of fate, I can predict future probabilities with a near-perfect percentage. This allows me to sway by the use of minor events, the path of humanity to ensure your continuation. Were it not for your mortal free will this would be perfect, and much easier. The Gods of the natural world have the most influence upon this world but only in maintaining the balance to continue your existence. For example, the gods and goddesses of the air and sky could not cause tornadoes and hurricanes to happen just because he or she wanted to. They would have to be doing this only to balance with the other Elemental aspects of the world. Remember we have no free will we do as we were commanded and made to do and nothing more. I sense your mind working overtime coming up with questions. But before that, I wish to show you how you died and explain why you''re seeing me and why you''re here.¡±


    A screen appeared before Vincent. He saw himself open the door to his office at Cloud King and begin his trudge to cross the crosswalk to get the tacos for the rest of the office. The taco truck, with its bright attractive colors, sat across three parking spots next to his small compact sedan. The screen suddenly zoomed down a few feet showing him Miss Elizabeth, who headed the Research Department and co-owned the company with her husband, walking down the sidewalk on the other side of the road holding her young daughter''s hand. Everyone knew little Sarah because when she was born the company celebrated by the owners taking everyone to Hawaii for a month-long all expenses paid vacation. Both husband and wife had been trying to have children for over 10 years and had given up. Little Sarah was a miracle baby. When Miss E went to the doctor because she had been getting sick she found out she was pregnant, however, the ultrasounds had discovered a tumor in her stomach. Luckily the pregnancy resulted not only in a child but Miss E being able to have the tumor removed with minor surgery and prevent the spread of cancer throughout her system. Sarah was honestly treated like everyone''s loved niece. As little Sarah skipped down the road in her pink dress holding her mom¡¯s hand and silver unicorn mylar balloon the world seemed idealist.


    The screen shifts to the top of a nearby building. Overlooking the street below, Praethion waved his hands causing the air to distort over the mother and daughter''s clasped hands. A fine glistening sheen of sweat appeared over both their hands as the temperature increased slightly. It was just enough to cause perspiration to slick their hands. The dark angel snaps his fingers and suddenly Elizabeth¡¯s phone begins to vibrate. As she fumbled with it one-handed, Praethion flaps his wings which caused the wind to gust resulting in the unicorn balloon bucking wildly thus escaping Sarah¡¯s hand. With another flex of his wings, the balloon is pushed gently into the street and Sarah ripped her hand out of her mother¡¯s as she chased the balloon into the street.


    The scene shifts again. Now he saw the inside of a car where a young inexperienced driver was sitting behind the wheel of a muscle car that obviously had too much power for his inexperience. As the young man turns on the street while listening to some mellow and soft music. A phantasmal Dark Angel¡¯s hand popped into existence and reached into the radio penetrating the plastic and leather of the dash. It fiddled with some electrical connections that resulted in suddenly the radio switching to a heavy metal station and crank to full blast. This startled the young teenager who instead of hitting the brakes had slammed his foot on the gas causing the car¡¯s 600 horsepower engine to roar to full RPMs and the car to lurch near instantly to 60+ mph.


    The scene re-centers on the happenings at the food truck. Vincent saw himself turn his head toward little Sarah. He recalled now seeing Miss Elizabeth''s face as Sarah runs into the street. He can''t believe it but for some reason, he started rushing toward little Sarah. He couldn''t remember why he did it, and he couldn''t remember any feelings associated with it. However, a large uncoordinated clumsy man was probably not the most logical choice to do something athletic and after just three steps Vincent''s saw himself stumble over his own feet. As he fell, thanks to his shear skyscraper like build and disproportionately long arms, he barely reached little Sarah, pushing her out of the way. This unluckily put his head in perfect line with the chrome bumper of the muscle car. The car slammed into his body catching and his head shattering on the bumper. Brain matter splatters all over the street and coated both mother and daughter¡¯s dresses with blood and grey matter. The scene ended, and the screen went dim vanishing as Morrigan turned toward Vincent.


    The goddess spoke,¡± I will tell you a few things. I estimate with a high probability that your world and all those mortals that we are charged to assure the continuation of, will end in the next 3 millennia. With advanced science, all the new weapons of war, and your insatiable appetite to consume you, humans, will eventually kill yourselves, deplete all your resources, or make your world uninhabitable unless someone does something.


    We, the gods and goddesses of Fate, foresaw and could predict with a near-perfect probability that by injuring or killing that little girl her mother and father would have been so grief-stricken to either cure or find a way that other mothers and fathers would never have to go through that. She would have, with a little push here and there from us, had the drive to discover a way to digitize mankind''s existence so that it could spread throughout the Stars. Her husband with his knowledge and biology and the mind would have found out a way to grow new bodies and return the digital mind into flesh and blood again. We estimate with a high probability that humanity would spread its seed throughout this universe thereby guaranteeing its survival.Now, however, we see humanity killing itself before anyone else could do that.


    You, unfortunately, at that time chose to exercise your free will and save the little girl. Nothing we could do could have changed that because it was a result of your free will. Us gods expended most of our power we had to setup and cause this event. Without active worshippers we no longer have the power to try something else. You, however, can change this. If you choose, of your own free will, to give the gods your soul as a power source we can erase you from existence. We must inform you if we do this you''re condemning yourself to cease to be. You will not go to the afterlife. For eternity you will be nothing, your existence will be in nothingness. No one will even know you existed and you can''t influence existence in any way. This will be forever. Will you give us permission to save mankind and be extinguish? You must make this decision for it is your soul and your control. We await your answer.¡±


    Vincent''s mind was rocked. He had control of the survival of all of mankind, however, he also had control of letting someone kill or severely injure a little girl. This reminded him so much of his philosophy class in college. The classical philosophical question you''re driving a train and there''s a switch you must go one way or the other. On one track is someone you know closely and on the other tract are 10 people you have no idea who they are. Which track do you take and who do you save? Vincent wished that he couldn''t feel emotion. Guilt rocked him as he tried to make his decision. Could he have condemned all of existence for one girl?


    He hung his head as tears began to leak from his eyes, ¡±I grant you permission. Save mankind.¡± With those words, Morrigan spoke into the air, ¡± Kronos he has given your permission. remove his existence eliminate him from the timeline. Make all he has done and all he will ever do cease to exist.¡± Vincent felt his existence start to fray and drift into the ether. Everything vanished around him. He existed in nothingness and he knew he was nothing and this was going to be forever.


    Suddenly light ¡­¡­.

 Chapter 1 - Rewards {Edited and Re-Written}

    Chapter 1 ¨C Rewards


    As the light came into existence, other colors began to filter in. Energy and matter starts to coalesce and assemble into things. First, light brown adobe walls form around his being. The walls are a light brownish tan that causes a feeling of calmness and tranquility to setting around Vincent. Next, a table of rich dark mahogany appears that is knee high and with a golden pyramid sigil taking up most of its top that is apparently made of real gold. Then, bean bag like cushions pop up around the room like brightly purple, red, and pink mushrooms. Lastly, a tea set appears consisting of two cups of the finest porcelain and a pearl white tea kettle. The steam exiting the kettle has a very minty odor with just an undertone of sweetness.


    Opposite Vincent, a brown skinned man appears out of thin air. ¡°¡°Sit. Sit my friend.¡±, he says as he sits himself onto one of the cushions. He was not a tall man however he had an air of majesty that made him seem huge. His head was framed by dark black hair that had faint streaks of gray running through it, and his facial hair was expertly and neatly trimmed into a goatee which held the same color. He had black eyes which were framed by laugh lines that for some reason made Vincent think he enjoyed to laugh more than anything. He wore a white tunic made with the finest silk which was cinched at the waist by a ebony belt with the same pyramid sigil on it.


    With a wave of his hand the kettle of tea pours itself into each of their cups.¡± Enjoy a drink as I talk.¡±, he commands. ¡°I am the god Osiris. I won the chance to speak with you beating out my fellow god Shiva for this chance. As you can see you did not cease to exist. You gave of your free will the right for the gods to end your existence to help us make sure of the continuation of the mortals of that planet thus saving all us gods Creator¡¯s wrath.


    We gods are grateful and thus we decided to reward you. We will let you truly end your existence or be reborn on a new world in a new plane. This new world is much different than your old. On this world we gods can interact much more with mortals. It will have magic like some of your table top and video games. The world you are being reborn into is much more primitive than the one you came from. Magic exist here an humanity is also not the only sentient race on this world with its fantasy troupe of dwarves, elves, beast men, etc. My godly brothers, sisters, and myself have agreed that we will grant you a few rewards and let you have some input into your new life.


    Much like your old-world people of this world will have free will as well except we can directly talk with our priest and try to get them to directly effect this world to expand our spheres of influence. There are a few gods here as well that seek to maintain some of the balances of the old with a few twists. Now first, if you want to be reborn what race do you want to be born as? I personally think human, dwarf, gnome, or some half breed would suit your personality unless you are going to try to reinvent your whole being on this world.¡±


    Vincent thinks a few minutes before he responds, ¡°I definetly want to be reborn and I think you are right. I want to have a parent and really don''t care about the other as long as they are both loving parents. What kind of life span would that be, or would it be even possible. I don¡¯t want to be born something with a guaranteed birth defect and die at a young age.¡±


    Osiris chuckles, ¡°That wouldn¡¯t be a problem at all. Dwarves usually live 400 years and the oldest lived race usually passes on most of the longevity to the child. "


    ¡°Okay, I also want to be born into a loving family. I want to feel love this time and all the emotions. That little taste of laughter when I was with Morrigan was a feeling I want again. Now, I realize that sadness will also somehow creep in, but I need them all to be able to grow better as a being. Where will I be born at and what can you tell me about the area and kingdom?¡±


    Osiris responds, ¡°No, no, no. Just like any newborn you will have to find that out on your own as you age. As for your family and emotions we will be giving you a perfectly healthy body. And your family will be arranged.¡±


    ¡°Can I keep my memories and all my previous experiences?¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Osiris takes a sip from his cup and explains, ¡°Yes and no. You will not remember ever having parents, family, friends or even aquatintists. You will not remember anything that could cause you to not be able to form emotional ties like any newborn. For example, you will not remember that you are too old to breast feed from a woman or your mother thus causing you undo embarrassment. As you age you will forget more of your old world when it comes to places and events as you form bonds to the places and events of this world.


    You will know that you are have been reborn and the knowledge of math, science, engineering, and other academic fields come from your previous life. However, you will discover somethings do not behave the same way on this plane or are not possible. For example, in this new world you can forget gunpowder or electric generation ever working. The chemical process needed to make gunpowder do not work here thanks to one of the gods. The only electrical generation that will work here will have to come from magic because the magnetic fields work different at a root form of existence on this world. Your sciences of gears, springs, and a few other things will be useful if you figure out a few things. You may even figure out steam power or some magical way to duplicate electrical generation but that¡¯s all up to you.


    Now, moving on let us talk about magic.¡±


    Vincent asks, ¡°I know you said magic exist here. Can you give me the ability to do any and all magic I want just like out of a wuxia novel?¡±


    Osiris takes a drink of his tea as he responds, ¡°No. Mana in all of its types and magic are determined by genetics and determination. No amount of determination can overcome a lack of genetics and regardless of genetics without determination to learn and form the spells you will never amount to anything other than parlor tricks. The manifestation of mana into magic isn¡¯t simple like what you have read a lot of books you have to memorize and work on spells and bring mana into reality.


    We can give you the many types of mana more so than the average person or even there very rare person. This will grant you the genetic capability to be a great magic wielder if you put in the work. You will have to discover what types of mana you can use as you age because even us gods can¡¯t determine what kind only how many and how much.


    Once again if you wanted it you will have to work for it, that determination thing an all. You will be like a very fast sports car of your old world. You can go really fast and far because you will have a plethora exorbitant amount mana but without an engine to use that mana you might as well be a four-legged jackass mule.¡±


    Vincent thinks a few minutes and says,¡± Okay thank you. I definitely want the magic thing. Then the only other thing I can think of I want is to have the ability to sense metals and identify said metals. Can I have that?¡±


    Osiris thinks, ¡°Yes. That is an ability we will give you. It will grow as you grow. Whether you make it useful or not it''s up to you. Learning to control it and not let it overwhelm you is also solely up to you. Are you done? Or do you want to get greedy and try for more or be happy with that which we will grant?¡±


    Vincent thinks it over and says, ¡°Just one thing. I want to thank you and the others for this chance. My old life was just one of existence. I want to make this one better. They only other thing I ask is please don¡¯t make me a burden on whomever my future parents are. I feel with my emotional handicaps before, my parents always felt that burden. Thank you again.¡±


    Osiris was taken aback by this and exclaims, ¡°Oh my. Such honor and manners. For this I will say when you reach majority if you do what I think you will seek out the temples of Hephaestus and/or Ptah both gods have noticed you already and are watching.¡± Osiris slams his hands together. ¡°SO BE IT! LET THE CYCLE BEGIN AGAIN!¡±


    Blackness. The blackness exists everywhere. He feels himself floating and time loses all meaning. Slowly he senses his memories fade and vanish. He sleeps and when he awakens even more disappears until nothing is left of his old life. Awareness comes in the form of a lightening of the environment where he finds himself floating in a warm liquid. He feels nourished and content as though love surrounds him. Over time his ¡°room¡± gets more crowded as he can feel squishy walls all around him. He squirms sometimes to get more comfortable but as time goes by it gets tighter and tighter. Man, he really wants out of this. He gets really insistent and starts pounding his fist on the squishy walls thinking let me out! Suddenly his warm fluid he has been enjoying is going down and the walls are starting to undulate.


    A young human woman is walking in the garden when she feels a sharp pain in her hugely swollen abdomen. Suddenly fluid gushes from between her legs all over the stone floor as she sinks down in pain.


    A servant screams into the house, ¡°Quickly get the priestess and call the Lord. The mistress is going into labor and something is wrong!¡± The young servant bends down and easily picks up the woman rushing her into the house.¡±


    <END POV Shift>

 Chapter 2 – Reborn{Edited and Re-Written}

    Chapter 2 ¨C Reborn


    Isabel ran down the street toward the temples district. She had been walking in the garden with her LadyshipElizabeth the Bright, second wife to their lord Vorin Steelsoul. Then suddenly her Ladyship had grabbed her swollen stomach while crumpling to the ground crying in pain. Suddenly the ground of the garden had gotten extremely wet as her Ladyship¡¯s water had broken. Isabel had noticed that the pre-birth was stained a cloudy and bloody red, which was highly unusual.


    Isabel, being a healthy dwarven woman, was not a weakling like many of the other races women and she had quickly bent down and picked up her mistress with ease, forElizabeth was only a human, and a small one at that. She might have weighted all of 110 lbs. in her pregnant state. Isabel had screamed for the other servants to run and get the Lord.


    Isabel quickly settledElizabeth into her own bed and set another servant to wait on her lady while she quickly rushed from the manor. Pumping her arms and legs for all they were worth she rushed toward the temple with the utmost haste praying at all times that both mother and child would be okay until she could get a priest or cleric to the home. Isabel entered the orderly temple street and made a beeline for the temple of the Brigid, goddess of healing and childbirth.


    After the lord and lady had gotten married and before her Ladyship was even pregnant,Elizabeth had struck up a very friendly relationship with the high priestess of this temple. Not only was Priestess Breldra the high priestess of Brigid, she was also an elder of the council of rulership that was in charge of helping the king run the kingdom. Elizabeth treated the elderly Breldra as her own grandmother for all of Elizabeth¡¯s family were dead.


    ¡°Priestess! Come quick.¡±, Isabel screams as she slams open the doors to the temple. ¡°Mistress Elizabeth has gone into labor and there is blood and intense pain.¡±


    Breldra¡¯s milky color eyes lift from her devotional prayers. ¡°Calm yourself young one. I will gather my materials and we shall see about getting the child born and mother well. Your screaming does not help the fact. And furthermore, the next time you treat my doors like that and scream in this temple I will make you serve penance by holding a rotten egg in your mouth to keep you from moving that jaw so much.¡± The high priestess stands and grabbing her cloak and cane to begin the walk to Steelsoul manor.


    As the high priest and Isabel get back to the manor, Lord Vorin and his first wife the Lady Katarina came riding up in their chariot puled by his giant war ram. Rushing inside, all of them hurried into the bedroom of the Lord and Lady of the house. The bedroom consists of a huge hand-hewn stone room. Rich carpets decorate the floor while beautiful wall hangings give the area a homey feeling. Elizabeth lay upon the bed screaming in pain as blood gushed onto the bed. Her azure purple eyes were widened in pain and tears dripped from the corners. Her delicate hands are holding her stomach that is bulging like an overfilled water skin. Everyone can make out the raised sections of her stomach and actually see the tiny fingers of the unborn child pressing on her interior. Below her breast 10 little bumps of baby toes can be seen digging into her diaphragm area from the inside out.


    Vorin rushes to his wife¡¯s side grabbing her hand and starting to whisper sweet, calming words to her while praying that he can take this pain and burden onto himself. Isabel is terrified for both mother and child. She has seen hundreds of births without ever seeing one this bad. Mixed breed children were rare but not unheard of and dwarfen children were especially hard to birth by no dwarves. However, most of the time it is the mother that is a dwarf not vice versa such as is this case.Lady Katarina sat on her other side and quickly began wiping Elizabeth''s head we a cooled rag.


    Breldra quickly kneels between Elizabeth''s legs. She reaches into her pouch she carries at all times and removes a shamrock which she places on the mother¡¯s stomach. Next she washes her hands with apple cider vinegar while calling for the blessings of Brigid. Lastly, she removes a vialed stopper holding a buzzing bee. Opening the vial she presses the opening against the inner thigh of mother. With a buzz the bee stings the expectant mother, and suddenly Elizabeth screams in pain as the baby''s head appears. The bee begins to slowly turn grey and die.


    "Vorin hold your wife for I can not save her and and the baby. Which do you want me to save?"


    Elizabeth hearing this pushes with all her might trys to force the baby out rapidly before Vorin can say anything. "Thoric, his name is Thoric!", she screams as she collapses and takes her last breath.


    Breldra turns to the others in the room and snaps,¡± Vorin! Grab the towels and the blanket. Isabel quickly run to the garden and kitchen getting me a blooming flower, some milk, and lastly warm water. Now go!¡± As the others rush to do as commanded, Breldra turns back to Elizabeth. ¡°Hear me Brigid. I beseech you to aid me. Guide her into your embrace.


    Breldra quickly produces a knife and with a few deft cuts is quickly able to tell that the umbilical cord is wrapped tightly around the baby¡¯s foot. She quickly cuts the baby loose and after a few moments the others return. Grabbing the flower Breldra crushes it into the milk while praying. The milk takes on a holy warm glow. She quickly dips the bloody child into the milk. As the glow vanishes the child starts taking on a much healthier color. It was going to a long few hours. She hoped she had the strength for the ritual to heal the baby of his air starvation, but she knew Brigid would make sure she did.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    As the warm liquid that he had been living in for the last however long, drained from around Vincent, he was finding it difficult to breathe. Something was constricting his ankle and leg, causing intense pain there, plus it prevented him from moving forward. Vincent thrashed and clawed trying his best to escape. Grabbing the walls with his tiny hands he attempted to tear his way out only to find he lacked the strength. Fight he told himself. The velvety walls of his confinement slowly squeezed him from his feet to his head undulating and pushing him toward the light of an opening. However, whatever was constricting his ankle prevented him from going anywhere. He knew he was being born but was worried he was going to die before that could happen.


    At different intervals multiple colors of light, would flash surrounding him. With each flash the rips and tears of the walls that he had made sealed. Suddenly Vincent¡¯s entire being was surrounded by golden light and he thought he heard singing. Whatever was holding his leg unwound freeing him from confinement. With the freedom of his leg the continued undulating walls pushed him rapidly toward the light of the opening. Then, pain surrounds his whole body and not just his leg like before. It felt like he was going to be crushed by some otherworldly beast. Then just as suddenly it ceased.


    Sounds, and bright lights assaulted him. The very air seemed to steal his breath with its chill compared to where he was before. It was so cold to him that his diaphragm couldn¡¯t constrict to give him a breath.Suddenly he felt himself once again surround in something warm that was all tingly and he felt himself drift off. From out of nowhere a loud voice booms incomprehensible to him, then suddenly followed by a loud smack as intense pain erupted from his rear. This caused the unlocking of his frozen diaphragm letting him take a deep breath rapidly followed by a scream at the top of his lungs from the pain radiating from his ass. What the hell is going on he thinks to himself. I know I was just born did they have to beat me the first thing. As the pain in his posterior begins to subside he quiets and feels himself being rubbed with something that was extremely abrasive much like sandpaper he thought or perhaps the skin of a new born was just really sensitive.


    After Vincent was cleaned or should he say scrubbed within an inch of his life,he felt something incomprehensively soft surround him. As the warmth reentered his body, his stomach started to growl. Well he didn''t know how long it had been since he had eaten even though he stillremembered his last meal of dry wheat toast, scrambled egg white, a donut, and sweet iced tea for breakfast. The thought of craving tacos entered his brain and just as quickly fled. Oh well, that was neither here nor there. All he knew now was he was getting very hungry and he wanted food.


    He felt himself being lifted and the shifting blurs coming from hisnew eyes told him he was being moved. He did feel a different set of hands hold him and cuddle him. He could make out of pink blur but not much else. A warm and fleshy knob touched his lips so he opened his mouth to take it in. He reflexively sucked on it and a warm sweet liquid in his mouth. Swallowing Vincent finds that the liquid, which now that he thought about it must have been milk from his mother''s breast, was perhaps one of the most wonderful things. As his belly neared full he yawned.


    He remembered he was a baby after all so why not get one last drink and take a nap. He thought to himself let this last drink be a big one to tide me over until I wake again. He suckled for all he was worth wanting to drink as much as possible when suddenly, he felt his whole-body tingle like it had went to sleep all over. The tingling just as quickly vanished, and sleep claimed him.


    After hours of praying by Breldra, all the light from the milk bath had faded. Breldra straightens up from her crouched position holding a child no longer than 8 to 9 inches long. She quickly turns the child on its stomach and slaps its ass. A wail erupts from the child''s throat as it begins to breathe. The child was male and had vibrant red hair framing a beautiful face set with eyes the color of the sun.


    Breldra takes the remaining milk, dipping a clean rag in it she proceeds to scrub the child thoroughly to get remaining blood and mucus off of him. She then wraps the child in the blanket where upon she hands him to Katarina. Katarina looks on at the child and swears. "I am your mother in all ways that matter''s little one. My blood sister may have birth you but you will always be mine."


    Breldra stands to the side with a smile on her exhausted face. She can see the little one tiring himself off when she sees the mana torches dim for a split second. No one else seems to notice this and she would have as well except she felt some of her mana pulled toward the little child. Just as suddenly it cuts off. She turns to the parents and says,¡± Well Lord Steelsoul and Lady Katarina you have a baby boy. What do you want me to record in the annuals of birth as this young ones name?¡±


    Katarina looks down and sees her son¡¯s golden eyes begin to close. ¡°His mother named him Thoric Steelsoul and so he shall be.¡± She gentle runs her hands over her son¡¯s head and breaths in his scent.


    Breldra stands and says, ¡°Now that spell took all I had and now I need to rest. Spend time with each other and your son. A twinkle comes into her eye as she turns to limp from the room. As she exits, ¡°Remember Katarina, this can happen to anyone that isn''t a dwarf. I am sorry for you loss Vorin but enjoy your little one. I have a funny feeling you are in for one hell of a ride with this little one.¡±


    ¡±Thank you grandmother. When you record his name can you officially record all his titles but also loved great son of Breldra.¡±


    Breldra¡¯s voice is heard as she exits the door, ¡°I will gladly claim him as my great son and I thank you for giving me a family again.¡±


    Vorin with tears leaking from his eye''s arranges for Elizabeth to be removed and cremated. A day of both happiness and intense sadness ended.

 Chapter 3 – Awareness

    Vincent, or should I say Thoric, slowly felt himself waking up. He was warm, and still full of his earlier meal. The light in this room flickered and waved but wasn''t so bad. His newborn eyes really couldn''t focus on anything thus making everything a blur. As he came fully awake he realized he couldn''t move. This caused a little panic but then he remembered where he was, and it made sense about his restricted movement given that he was probably swaddled. This wasn''t so bad, what concerned him most was the feeling of sitting in a hot damp swamp with his downstairs region itching like crazy. He knew he was a newborn and couldn''t move but instinctually he tried. Regardless the itching was getting worse and boy did it smell in here. Wait! Smelly, itchy, wet swamp, oh gods he had shat himself and was now sitting in his own fecal matter. Logically that shouldn''t have bothered him, and he knew the gods had removed a lot of the memories from his old world that could cause him emotional distress, but regardless sitting in your own poop was universally a horrible thing to have to do. What should you do? He took a deep breath screaming for someone the change him however all that came out with a loud cry.


    He hears a door open and close, then he sees what is best described as a blurred outline of a person. With the pink hair it reminds him of a tiny pink mop coming toward him. He feels himself being picked up and his eyes are able to focus on who is picking him up. The face that appears before him instantly evokes an emotional response. Instinctually he knows this is mother and he immediately feels for the first time ever true love. He feels his mother lay him down on another table and start to undo his diaper. With the diaper removal, the cool air hits his block and tackle, along with his posterior, making the itching vanish. He is so happy he tries to vocalize and all that comes out is the baby noise of giggling and cooing.


    While lying there getting his diaper changed, Thoric decides to inspect himself as best he can. Wiggling the best he can and lifting his arms and legs while he''s free of the swaddling, he sees he has 10 toes and 10 fingers just like any other baby. His skin color is a somewhat grayish brown color, and he can see the fine red baby hair covering his arms. His eyesight is poor and he loses focus after a very short distance, and all the sounds seems blurry somewhat but loud at the same time. His mother is singing a song as she changes him, but he has no idea what she is saying. The language is a flowing language that sounds like it was should in a Peter Jackson movie about of some fairy or wee-folk, and yet, it reminds him of the sound that a brook would make as it flows through a pastoral setting.


    As his mother finishes his diaper changing him, he feels a gurgling in his stomach. He could probably eat again but it feels like he has got to go to the restroom. Unfortunately, a baby¡¯s muscle control is none existent resulting in him filling his newly change diaper right back up. For some reason this is extremely comical to him and he starts laughing. He sees his mother¡¯s face scrunch up and she starts the whole process over again. As he is changed again he can¡¯t quit laughing and thinks, ¡°Sorry Mom.¡±


    Mom. He actually means that and he can fill it to the core of his being. After she finishes change him she proceeds to drop his dirty diaper into a basket for washing and put away all the changing implements. She takes what appears to be freshly laundered diapers and stack them next on a cabinet of some kind near one of the torches on the wall. After she is done she swaddles him backup and proceeds to free her baby feeders from her dress. As she presses the nipple against his mouth he greedily takes it. Damn, this stuff is heaven. Did it taste like this in the old world? As he hungerly drinks for all he is worth that tingling sensation comes back. After just a few minutes he starts smelling smoke from somewhere. Simultaneously, his mother shrieks and stands rushing from the room¡­.


    The new mother and father are sitting in freshly cleaned bedroom holding one another in morning,  their son slept in the nursery. Before Breldra had left she had her perform magic that would allow Kat to lactate and feed their son. She and Vorin were discussing their son and household now. It had been a couple of days since the birth.


    ¡°Vorin, would you let what the elder said go. She was probably just saying it because he was so difficult to deliver. It has been a few day and nothing drastic has happened. You know grandmother, I meant, Breldra has a weird sense of humor.¡± Kat says.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Vorin replies, ¡°Okay love. I''ll drop it. I can''t believe he''s finally here and I am a father. But it hurt to loose Elizabeth. I was fearful I would have to take a third wife soon if I couldn''t produce a heir with her. You know I am the last male of our family and the priest said that I would never get a son off of another dwarf.


    I have one more day and then the King has order me into the western mines. Apparently, there is some activity and a few miners have been injured by some sort of beast. This has caused our production to decrease and the trading delegation leaves in a just over 2 months and you know we only send one out every 5 years. I will take our house troops and clear the mines because we need that income, especially now that I have to provide for the future of my son. It shouldn''t take over a few days. In the meantime, I''m going to see about arranging a visit for your parents. While you slept I sent a clay tablet with the message to the king over to the seneschal. With luck, we should hear back from him in a few days and we can arrange for your parents visit.


    Katarina replies, ¡°My parents visit? Can''t we just go see them?


    ¡°No, my love. Recently gnolls, goblins, and other monsters have been quite active on the surface. You know our King has no love for the kingdoms of non-dwarves. Except for some of the highest ranks in the library, most of us know of little to nothing of outside world. Myself, who is considered well travel has never been farther than Riverheart of the united humanoid kingdoms and Forest Edge of the elvish nation. Riverheart is also a 40-day travel thru some monster infested lands and I refuse to let my son, even under guard, any risk at this age.


    When we married 30 years ago you remember how hard it was for the King to allow you to live here and not force me to live somewhere else to be with you. And the only reason Elizabeth was allowed was because she was pregnent. Only those born into a dwarven family are allowed inside anything other than the surface trading village. As far as I know unless you are born here or are married it has always been that way and will continue.¡±


    Suddenly from the other room, a loud wailing interrupts their conversation. Vorin chuckles while saying, ¡°Well he''s definitely got a set of lungs on him. I''ll go get him wife.¡±


    Katarina stands having already recovered from her birthday thanks to her gnomish physiology, even though a dwarf recovers in less than an hour. ¡°Nonsense love. I''ll go in there and take care of him. He''s probably hungry anyway and you are not equipped to solve that.¡±


    Vorin fakes surprise, ¡°I could always feed him sheep''s milk. Give him some muscle and turn him into a great warrior like his old man.¡±


    Katarina slaps him on the head as she gets up and proceeds toward the nursery. Thinking to herself, that this is definitely Vorin¡¯s son with a set of lungs and a voice that loud. As she opens the door to the nursery, horrific stench hits her nose. Kat scrunches her nose up and wonders how such a tiny thing can produce such a horrific smell. She chuckles to herself thinking, maybe she should let her husband take care of him this time. Walking over and picking little Thoric up from the nursery bed she places him on the stone changing table. Undoing the copper pins that hold on his cloth diaper, she proceeds to remove it. The smell is 10 times worse freed from the confines of the diaper. Throwing the diaper into the dirty hamper for laundry she grabs a freshly laundered one. While changing the diaper, she sings the gnomish lullaby that her mother had taught her. The baby is giggling and cooling all the time she''s doing it and it. Yep, just like his father the worse it smells the bigger the laugh. This brings a smile to her face.


    Immediately after she finishes changing the diaper the baby purses his lip, stopping his giggling and cooing, and immediately the smell returns even stronger. The baby giggles louder to Kat¡¯s exasperation. Kat sighs and thinks little stinker already playing jokes as she grabs another diaper to replace the dirty one. God does this stink worse than the last one?


    After she finishes changing him again she stacks the clean diapers on the clothing chest because she has a feeling they will be needed. Turning she hears a growl coming for little Thoric¡¯s belly. She takes down her bodice on her dress to feed the little one. He clamps on with a vengeance and seems to be sucking extremely hard, almost like he is starving. Thoric is much larger than a gnomish child of her blood would be, taking his width from his father and height from Elizabeth. The parts she sees in him from Elizabeth are his golden eyes, his narrower frame, and a slightly pink tinge to the skin. He is sucking so hard that it is starting to be a little painful when suddenly she feels her mana flow out of her into her son. The room light flickers as the flames on the mana torch invert downward at a 45 degree down toward her son. Unfortunately, one of those flames is going right onto the stack of clean diapers she had just place moments ago setting it ablaze. She shrieks as she grabs her son and rushing from the room. Her one thought other than the safety of her son was I know what grandmother meant now by a hell of a ride. If their son could do that at less than a day old what would the future hold for him and better yet where could they find someone who could train mana in a dwarven enclave?

 Chapter 4 – What do we do?

    After his wife had left to take care of the young Thoric. Vorin had decided that he needed to work on the figures to see if he could discover or glean what the beast was that was causing a reduction in production. This would also allow him to hopefully make plans for his expedition to solve the problems and clear the mines. Grabbing the sheep skins with the information about the mine for the last year on it he began to pour over them.


    Before he could get started well he hears his wife begin to sing a gnomish lullaby. He smiles. Since Kat had moved in all those years ago they had given up on having a child and they had tried a lot. When she was pronounced pregnant it was a glorious day and he had celebrated with all his friends and family. Throughout the 2-year pregnancy, he had worried because the baby was so large. Breldra constantly visited to check mother and child and assured them all would be well. When he had gotten the message about the baby and danger he was with the king and his advisors discussing the mine output. Before the king could say anything, he had already rushed from the room. Thank heavens his majesty understood.


    While he was reminiscing, he heard his wife scream. Then another scream this time the word fire was plainly said. Vorin stands and grabs his cloak made from woven earth and metal. He rushes toward the nursery passing his wife rushing to the front door. Entering the nursery, he sees a clothing chest and a pile of diapers on fire. Throwing the cloak over the chest the fire is instantly smothered and goes out. The cloak is completely undamaged because one thing about the dwarfs was they were the best earth of metal workers who discovered how to make earth and metal pliable enough to weave.


    Rushing to the front of the manor he finds his wife screaming for servants to fetch the clerics, water brigades, and anyone else that can help in a near hysterical fit. Kat must be panicking because it happened so close to their son.


    Vorin shouts,¡± Calm down everyone! The fire is out. Everyone is safe but I will need some servants to clean the nursery. Kat what happened walk and talk with me to calm yourself.¡±


    ¡°Well, I changed our son and began feeding him. Suddenly he seemed to be suckling extremely hard when I felt what little mana I have in me flow into him while at the same time the mana from the flames of the fire torches responded to him as he had called them. The flames arc downward toward our son which is worrisome in its own right but regardless the clean diapers were on top of the clothing chest between him and the flames.¡±, she responded.


    ¡°WHAT! Our son can manipulate fire mana? Dwarves don¡¯t have mana. And the humans rarely have fire mana. How is this possible? I told you Breldra knew something with that comment!¡±


    ¡°What do we do Vorin? He isn¡¯t even a full year old and can already use at least fire mana. No child of any race that I have ever heard of could do this. And in all the time I studied in the humanoid kingdoms the earliest I heard of a child using mana was a human at age 5 and they are short lived. What do we do?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know love. Let¡¯s have the servants set up a temporary bassinet in our room for a few days so was can watch over our son. I will have all the mana torches removed. And make sure that all the other torches have nothing flammable around them. Do you think you can make a light with your light magic when we need it for bedtime?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I am exhausted again. Can we rest?¡±


    ¡°Of course, I will handle this love.¡±


    Thoric feels like he is being held firmly against his mother¡¯s bosom rushing somewhere. He feels the change in the air as it gets cooler. He assumes they have left the manor due to the fire from somewhere. He had heard his mother scream something, but he couldn¡¯t understand her in either language.


    A short time later he can make out his father standing next to his mother and yell something one time very loud. Everything instantly calms down after that. He must have solved the problem. Regardless all that excitement plus a full belly meant he was getting really sleepy again. He yawns and burps very loudly. Sleep claims him.


    <End POV Shift>


    After a couple of hours all is calmed and setup in the house. A bassinet sits beside the Lord and Ladies bed. The servants are curious about what happened, but no one will tell them. All the furniture throughout the manor is moved away from mana torches and the whole place is aired to get rid of the smoky smell. The lord and lady are sitting together trying to come up with a plan.


    Vorin speaks softly to his wife,¡± Finding someone to train our son is something we can discuss later. It will be years before he can even talk much less be trained. I will go ahead and notify the king now so that we can get the ball rolling for allowing someone into the kingdom when that day comes though. I do know that in 10 years with the 50-year meeting of the good kingdoms will be hosted by the dwarven kingdom. Hopefully at that time, one of the delegations will have a wizard or sorcerer with them that we can get our son tested by to see what mana he has and how much affinity he has for them.¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°I am at a loss Vorin. I studied childbirth extensively and never really looked at mana for them. All the studies I read passed over them or said the youngest mana users were always at least 5 and human. We both know how short the lifespan is for a human. A 3-year-old is like 8 to a dwarf. I am worried. Breldra can¡¯t help because even though she is a priest and can do spellcraft all her mana is sourced by her deity like all the other clerics and priest. The gnomes can¡¯t really help because our mana must be unlocked with our first bond creature. I still remember my little rabbit and the feeling of light and water mana being unlocked in me.¡±


    Vorin thinks long and hard. Something clicks in his brain. A memory from the war with the orcs and how terrible controlling their witch doctors were. With a frightened face, he turns to his wife to give a possible solution. However, before he can, she snaps, ¡°What is it? That¡¯s your ¡®I am going to piss you off face¡¯.¡±


    ¡°Well, I do know of a way. During the war, we faced the witch doctors of the orcs. When we captured them, we placed mana nullifying manacles on them to prevent them from calling on mana. I think¡­.¡±


    ¡°Oh no. You¡¯re not chaining our son in the manor like a criminal. I will leave before I allow that!¡±


    ¡°No. No. No. I am not talking about that I am talking about a set of bracelets that he will wear. I will have the smiths make a simple ball and clasp lock that we can easily unlock. Hell, even he will be able to unlock it by the time he is old enough to begin learning about mana.¡±


    Kat calms down replying,¡± That would be okay I guess. How soon can we have them made?¡±


    Vorin thinks for a moment and snaps his fingers,¡± Actually probably in a few hours. Captain Fireore owes me a favor and he still has a lot of our old supplies from back in the day. I will go get a few and have them resized to a couple of different sizes we can put on our son as he grows. Why don¡¯t you go rest while I take care of that love? I have a few things I still need to take care of anyway.¡±


    ¡°Okay, my husband. I am exhausted again. Good night.¡± Kat bends down and gives him a kiss as she goes off to the bedroom to catch some sleep.


    After Kat leaves he tears off a piece of parchment and using a charcoal pencil pens a note to his friend about the manacles. He calls a servant and ask him to run the note and await the supplies then take them to the manor smith. As the servant leaves he goes out to the smithy and gives the instructions to the house smith who immediately stokes the fire to get ready. After this, he goes back inside to continue working on the mine issue.


    Looking back to the reports and output list noticed that approximately six months ago production had decreased, however, only within the last two or three weeks had reports been filtering in about miners being attacked. Thinking back to his youth when he was being taught in the temple of Ilmarinen about mining, blacksmithing, and things that one would see when doing either of these things something tickled his memory.


    The one thing he recalled was a pest called the ore beetle. It started off about the size of a melon when it was born and quickly grew. They weren¡¯t very common but were not unheard of. Usually, they would burrow thru the ground seeking a vein of iron or better metals but usually ignored copper. They would only eat tin if they couldn¡¯t find one of the better metals. Once they found a vein they tended to not move and consume as much of the ore as possible over a few years until they grew to the size of a large wagon. Then they would enter a period of hyper-aggression while they formed a nest and laid eggs. Usually, a full clutch of eggs numbered in the hundreds and some of the dwarven enclaves had had to completely move after the beetles had consumed all the ore in an area.


    He remembers when he served in Lord Deephammer¡¯s troupes in the southern reaches during his mandatory service years they had found a beetle about the size of a war ram. Luckily all it took to take down was a well-placed shot from the ballista. He did remember that the bows and crossbows were very ineffective against it. If the western mine was occupied by one, they must clear it post haste.


    Paper had not been discovered yet, so most people used animal skin parchment or clay tablets to write on. The dwarves had plenty of earth, so clay was the preferred method. He reached into the clay box and grabs a handful of clay wetting his hands while he pushes it into the writing mold. After he has it pressed in he grabs a copper stylus and etches in his order for ballista and instructions on what he thinks is causing the problems in the western mines. As he finished he enters the kitchen and sits the tablet near the cook fire to harden before he sends it to the logistics master on what to prepare for the hunt.


    About 2 hours later he hears the smith hammering in the smithy. Grabbing the now partially hardened clay tablet he sends it off while going down to the smithy. He grabs a set of tongs and apron and helps the Smith finish the first set of bracelets. He uses two of his fingers in diameter to size them. They wouldn¡¯t be able to affect a full caster very much but should effectively dampen their son¡¯s mana pool at least for a while. Surely it could grow that fast. Slipping into the bedroom he gentle locks them onto his son and crawls into bed with his wife. What an eventful birthday for his little man.


    Sometime later he wakes in completely darkness. Thinking to himself, yup hungry again. Now, where is a mom? Wait something feels off. He feels something cold wrapped around his wrist. He questions himself that whatever it has the effect of making him a weird feeling. It¡¯s not painful, itchy, or very irritating, it just feels like something is off. Regardless his grumbling stomach takes precedent. Well, I know how to get her attention he thinks. First, let¡¯s try the easy way and he tries to make whimpering and happy baby noises. He waits a few minutes with no response. Okay, mom, you ask for this, as he takes a deep breath and screams at the top of his lungs. He hears a thump and loud curse as a faint light appears showing him his mother with disheveled hair and all. He can tell he woke her but once again just like clockwork his mother bares her breast and give him something to eat.


    After he finishes eating once again he gets extremely sleepy. He noticed that this time when he suckled no tingling sensation. Thinking to himself that he is going to enjoy being a child because this will be his last chance to experience it he falls back to sleep.

 Chapter 5 - Infancy...The downside of a long life.

    Thoric yawned as he opened his eyes. Staring into the carved stone ceiling, as he had for the last 6 years, he was ready to scream. Today was his 6th birthday and he was bound and determined to at least be able to speak today. When he had chosen his race, he thought about the long life he would have, with the long childhood of play and excitement. What he didn¡¯t think about was the mind-numbing infancy stage where he stared at a ceiling for hours and hours on end. It had taken him almost three years to just crawl for the first time and another 2 to be able to walk. His mother was happy, and his father was somewhat worried. Apparently full dwarven children developed their strength fast and could crawl and walk at about the same time as a human child.


    Today he hoped to say his first word. The last six years he had listened intently to all the sounds around him and thought he managed to puzzle out the meaning to some of them. Momma or Mother was definitely one of them, as was Father or Daddy. It was a little contest between his parents when the other wasn''t around to say the same word over and over in hopes that he would say their name first. Grammy was the other because when the elderly woman who smacked his ass when was born would sometimes watch him for his parents. She would repeat her same word over and over as well. He never thought speaking would be so hard, but he was still thinking of his old life where compared to his new tongue, the human one was dexterous and light. His reborn tongue was like toting around a brick in his mouth. At night while lying in his bed he had mumbled and tried his best to say the words and he thought he had them all down. Most dwarven children developed strength fast but many didn¡¯t speak before their 10<sup>th</sup> birthdays.


    His mother had recently weaned him, and he was eating mashed up food from his parent¡¯s plate. He had also gotten some control of his bowels and bladder and rarely needed a diaper change anymore. From what he could tell diet consisted mostly of vegetables, mushrooms, ram¡¯s meat, and a few other vegetables. Sometimes on rare occasions, his father would bring treats home that he traded for on his excursions. These treats were always some kind of vegetable or other meat and as far as he knew he had never had sugar in this new world. Paired with this was either water, ewe¡¯s milk, or watered-down alcohol. He had been drinking watered down ale or beer for years now. Even at his age, the alcohol seemed to have no effect.


    Over the last several years his father would occasionally leave for somewhere and be gone for a few months at a time. During this time his mother was exceptionally clingy and had a worried look in her eye closely. Thoric assumed that his father must be doing something dangerous during these times because he could still remember a few months after he was born his father returning home cut up pretty bad, his arm in a sling, and all his clothing shredded and bloodied. On the other side every time his father returned home he got to hear his parently units getting rather amorous from across the hall.


    He could no longer remember faces, voices, or names of any person from his old world. It was almost as if he had dreamed his previous life. If not for the knowledge sitting in his head as clear a crystal, he would have chaulked his memories off to a dream. Lying on his back for all those years had also allowed him to plan some for his future and what he wanted to do and be. He wanted to be wealthy, known for his genius, traveled, free, and most of all safe. He had still never seen anything other than stone, stone, and more stone. His mother had taken him to other people¡¯s houses but when you live underground you got to see stone and dirt but not the sky and sun. He wanted to see outside but knew that wasn¡¯t likely to happen for years yet.


    Technologically, he had seen his father and many tools around the house and with their color, they were probably bronze. The only iron he had seen was a few tools his father had in his study and his fathers war-ax and hammer. His parents fed him mostly from stone chiseled plates and spoons. Their house as far as he could tell had no other obvious metals around. The light they used were torches that had flames that seemed to never burn the wood but still seemed to be treated like a real fire that could set anything else on fire the flame touched.


    After he had awoken that first night after his birth he always sported a set of bronze bracers. Every time he outgrew a set, his parents would put on a new set of bracelets and from what he could tell they were bronze as well. It was odd for days and weeks after he got a new set of bracers he would get this empty feeling that felt like a deflated balloon sitting where his belly was that made him feel like he was hungry but not for food. After a few days that feeling would fade until he got his next set of bracers.


    Suddenly, the curtain into his room was slid open and his mother walked in saying something in an excited voice. She reached down and picked him up spinning him around. It was exhilarating and frightening all at the same time. He laughed so hard he almost lost bladder control. His father walked into the room and said something in a booming voice and his mother tossed him to his father. His father caught Thoric and promptly put him on his hip and turned to walk into the living room then to the kitchen.


    There sitting on the table was what appeared to be a cake! A real-life cake! As his father sat him down all Thoric could do was try to get his fist into that cake. A few other children were there but he didn¡¯t care about them, all he could think of was the cake. After 6 years with no sugar, he was like a thirsty man in the desert who just saw an oasis behind the next dune. His parents sat him down and placed candles into the cake while someone looked for something to light them or at least that¡¯s what it appeared as people looked in cabinets and boxes while that succulent morsel sat just out of reach.


    Seconds turned into a minute, and he couldn¡¯t contain himself he wanted that cake. He screamed in English but everyone else heard baby garble, ¡°LIGHT DAMMIT!¡±. Suddenly, the bronze bracers emitted a loud pop as they flew across the room at 90-degree angles from his wrist and the flames from the torches on the wall screamed as they pulled themselves down like flame-throwers coating the cake. This startled him so much that he jumped and just as quickly the flames retreated. His glorious cake now looked like a blackened pile of rock. His head hurt something fierce as though someone had pulled the fire through his brain.


    His parents had just turned around and screamed. His father quickly rushed from the room while saying something to his mother. Everyone around was silent and had wide round eyes of surprise. That balloon in his belly felt like it had someone puff a big blow of air into it then quickly let the balloon go. Now it felt like someone was slowly blowing it but with little slow puffs of air. His mother reached over to grab him and lift him but he was mad. His cake was ruined. He knew that room was getting a bit dimmer. All of a sudden a weird feeling assaulted him as it felt someone had plugged up another balloon in his belly right below his diaphragm. This balloon felt different and it started to inflate like someone was pouring fine grain dirt and sand into it. Suddenly the stone table trembled and started crumbling to dust while one torch after another started going out. Without warning his stomach knotted and cramped, his head started pounding, and everything got dark. Moments later he passed out.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    It was just after the first bell in the morning, approximately 7 AM when Vorin and Kat woke up. Today was their son''s 6th birthday and they had a lot to get ready for. Vorin had just returned after escorting a trading caravan to the human villages of Riverheart to the east. Being the thoughtful dwarf that he was, he had purchased some honey and a few other hard to find out items that would let their son get his first taste of gnomish culture. Kat had worked hard all last night prepping the items and sitting the dough out to rise so that she could whip up her son his first cake today. Confections and sweets were a common thing in gnomish families and with the dwarven restriction on visitors, her son and never had any exposure to her gnomish side traditions and culture nor his human side.


    ¡°Okay, Vorin! Get out of bed! We have so much to do and we must get going. Did you invite all your lieutenants and spouse also telling them to bring their children? Don¡¯t forget about Captain Brumlin, her and her husband need to bring over little Ava for the party. Hurry up let''s get going sleepy head.¡±, Kat says while poking her grumbling husband.,


    ¡°Okay love. What you''re making such a big, deal of this. He is only 6 years old and won''t remember anything in a few years anyway probably. He can''t even speak yet even though we know he will be saying dad first.


    I agree we need to get going though. I need to pop out to the blacksmith and get him to make another set of bracers for our son. I can see some metal fatigue starting to show through. It seems they last shorter and shorter each time. Of course, why should we worry surely his mana isn¡¯t any more powerful that it was as a child and if we know about it we can watch and counteract anything he would do fairly easily.


    The important question is, I saw that sweet roll rising, you are making a few for me, right? I had to travel so far for those ingredients and I am wasting away.¡±, Vorin said in mock with his voice laden with false humility.


    ¡°Pft! Get the other children here first then you can worry about the bracers or anything else after that. As for additional cakes, those are a gnomish tradition and I recall someone saying that gnomes were soft about 20 years ago. Its obvious with that pouch your getting we are not the only ones. And yes, there is a cake and I saved for honey for some other things.¡±, his wife replied with a naughty wink.


    The parent separated to go about their daily chores. His mother finished baking the cakes and using the leftover honeycomb to make some candle to adorn the top of his cake. She took her time and made everything just right to showcase her gnomish heritage and make his first taste from her side of the family to be phenomenal. His father had left and ordered new bracers and quickly made a trip around to all his guards and retainers to make sure they came with their little ones.


    It had taken a couple of hours to get ready for the party and get everyone invited. After everyone was in the kitchen, Kat and Vorin told everyone to be quiet while they got their son for the surprise. Kat opened the curtain to the nursery and saw their boy staring at the ceiling with a strange look on his face as though he was thinking hard about something.


    ¡°Happy birthday Little Nugget. Today is today that you get your first gnomish hummingbird cake!¡± she said as she picked him up. Spinning around with him in her arms while he giggles she proceeds to toss him up in the air as his eyes get wide.


    Vorin says to his wife, ¡°Toss him here and run on ahead and get the party ready.¡± Kat quickly tosses the child to him which he easily catches then proceeds to spin Thoric around to place him on his right hip. ¡°Well, son today we get to eat I just hope there''s enough left for you.¡± Vorin chuckles.


    As the family walks into the kitchen, everyone greets them. Mother and father plant Thoric at the small stone table upon which rests a gold cake. It appears to have the glisten of a fresh donut and smells of vanilla and honey. Their child''s eyes are huge and you can see the drool dripping from his mouth. Vorin plops their son into his stone chair just out of reach of the cake. Little Thoric gets all excited and keeps trying to reach for the cat. Vorin chuckles to himself and realizes that''s definitely his son with an appetite like that.


    Kat sticks the candles into the cake and asks if anyone has a tender box camp lighter to use the light it cuz she''s afraid that the torches might melt the candles if they hold the cake to close to the mana torches. They look a few seconds and then someone thinks to just run out and grab a small from the woodpile they use to heat the home. Thoric keeps getting more and more agitated and suddenly babbles very loud.


    Vorin sees the bronze bracers crumble and pop off of his son. The flames from the torches on the wall suddenly engulf the cake like a dragon is breathing on it. Just a few seconds later the flames suddenly stop. There is silence in the kitchen as everyone¡¯s eyes get huge and round. Thoric starts making more noise and pounding his fist on the table, apparently throwing a temper tantrum.


    Kat panics screaming asking about the replacement bracers. Vorin stands and walks rapidly into the other room to retrieve the bracers. Thoric is screaming and pounding his fist on the table reaching for the cake. Suddenly, the table starts crumbling while her son keeps crying and slapping his fist against the table. Fire and earth mana¡¯s stream into her son rapidly as his head sinks into his arms where he promptly passes out. Moments later her husband comes back in snapping new braces on their boy.


    They had wanted to keep the extent of their son¡¯s uniqueness and power under wraps for as long as possible. His lieutenants and captain knew about his son but their spouses didn¡¯t. They all want to ask questions how it''s possible when no one with dwarven blood had ever had mana. Plenty of dwarves were spell casters but all their mana came from a god, not self-contained., Vorin calmed everyone and ended the party telling everyone to go home and take a few days off. After the parent clean the kitchen they convene to the living room with Kat holding Thoric in her lap stroking his head. Mana channel overloads were the worse.


    Kat starts, ¡°Vorin we can''t let that happen again. Is he getting that much stronger making it so that he can simply break the bracers.¡±


    ¡°No love. Those braces were about at the end of their life remember which I mentioned it this morning that they were getting brittle. However, we might have to increase the power of them because my son can manipulate two different kinds of mana.¡± Vorin says with pride in his voice. ¡°Do you realize that when the smiths here this everyone will be trying to get our son to apprentice for them. Did you know that the captain mentioned on the way out that some dwarves setup betrothals for their children quite young! As if I will determine who my child will marry. If my parents had done that to me I wouldn¡¯t have my Kat or Elizabeth¡± Vorin finishes as he hugs his wife kissing her head.


    ¡°I worry as his mother. What would happen if you wouldn''t have been here? At times like this, I am glad that we live in the Dwarven Kingdom. Our child is unique and most humans and that kingdom would try to exploit him I fear. With dwarves, you all look at each other as a family if even one drop of dwarven blood exists in your veins. Even the king would look at our son and protect him with his life. Now, I guess I should get that cake cleaned up and get our son to bed. He''s going to have a headache and probably a fever for several days.¡±


    Kat starts to stand holding her son close. His little eyes flutter open as he looks around. He appeared exhausted but in a quiet voice little beautiful voice that both Kat and Vorin could hear clearly he said, ¡°Mama, daddy, GramGram.¡± Quickly followed by him passing out. Kat almost dropped him. It was astounding that at only 6 he could speak so plainly. Most dwarves shouldn''t have been speaking for 4 more years. Just what kind of intelligence and ability was their son developing? Four more years and then they could see a wizard when the good kingdom conclave happened. As his wife left the room, Vorin just looked at the table and thought to himself, ¡±Son, you are going to break the bank if you keep being this ruff on furniture and torches.¡±

 Chapter 6 – Run, Run, As Fast As You Can..

    ¡°Wake up my little Gold Nugget. Your father is about to leave and you want to see him before he goes don¡¯t you?¡± Kat cooed at her sleeping son. Thoric grumbled and rolled back over pulling his covers up tighter. She grinned thinking that her son could sleep thru anything just like his father. She walked around the bed tucking the covers in extremely tight making sure that he couldn¡¯t easily get up. Reaching into her belt she produced a cold stone. The cold stone was a naturally mined stone that radiated near freezing temperatures which the dwarves used them as a base plate for stone boxes to store food it. She shook her son one more time, without success, in an attempt to rouse him. Quickly she lifted the sheets and shoved the cold stone against his little butt and pulled the covers back down holding him in the bed.


    Thoric¡¯s eyes shot open. And he started scrambling and fighting to escape. His mother was cackling and she had tears in her eyes as she released the cover. Thoric shot out of bed quickly looking around and realizing what had happened. ¡°Mom! I would have got up. You didn''t have to freeze me.¡±


    Kat grinned, ¡°You know the rule son. You get two chances and always suffer the consequences on the third try. Now hurry up and get dressed your father is finishing breakfast after which he has to leave. Don¡¯t you want to say goodbye before he leaves on his patrols.¡±


    Thoric grumbled as his mother left the room. Thoric had mastered more of the dwarven language or at least enough to begin speaking more after he turned 7. Even though after 2 years he sometimes had trouble when he got excited replacing his r¡¯s with w¡¯s, he had managed to speak fairly eloquent with his limited vocabulary. At just over 2 feet tall he was a quite tall for a dwarf however he wasn''t near as broad and rather lanky. His hair had come in a brilliant sunshine yellow, his eyes had darkened a bit and were the color of burnished gold.


    Just a few months ago he had taken his first steps and quickly began learning to walk again. It was amazing how strong his little legs were although apparently, dwarves walked long before they could speak. He was still uncoordinated and would often fall or crash into things, but regardless he could run which had led him to discover he loved to run. Of course, his parents scolding him quite a bit usually after breaking something resulting from a head-on collision with some piece of furniture.


    Today was the day his Grammy took him to his first class to start learning things. His mother had recently begun speaking more in gnomish intermixed with the common tongue and Thoric was learning that languages were coming easily to him, much more so than his Earth days. He wanted to learn to read desperately. After so many years of stone, and more stone something different was beckoning to him. The written dwarvish language looked like a wild three-way between Nordic runes, Chinese characters, and an ugly half blind Russian alphabet.


    He quickly dressed pulling on his pants and tunic synching them all together with a piece of leather. He rarely wore shoes anywhere nor did any of the other children. Apparently leather was too valuable to waste on children''s shoes who outgrew them every few years and plus underground here it mostly stayed the same temperature. His pants and tunic were made of quality woven mushroom roots. Even though his father was a nobleman he still believed in living well below his means. He outfitted the servant and guards children in almost the identical same thing that I wore because as a growing child it was a waste of money to buy anything nicer. He knew part of his clothes were even hand me downs from some of his mom''s friends whose children had grown too large for them.


    As he had grown older and learned more of the language he had discovered a lot about his new existence. Vorin stood at just over 5 feet tall with broad shoulders and a long black bushy beard. His father was a minor noble who was in charge of a large mining operation that helped supply the dwarven kingdom with most of their ore. Apparently, his mines were one of only 2 in the entire kingdom that had veins of mithril, whatever that was, running thru them. He also was in charge of an annual deployment into the outworld as escort for caravans and diplomats on the kings business.


    His mother was in charge of helping the community grow food. As a gnome, she had mastery over light magic, water magic, and to an extent air magic. Every day she would create a phantasmal illusion of a blazing sun in the garden complex. Even though it was an illusion it supplied the necessary light to allow for photosynthesis and the growing of plants. Both of his parents were loving and caring rarely raising their voices at him or each other. They had told him about Elizabeth and he both cursed the gods for taking her from him but praised them for giving him Kat.


    Grammy was an elder on the ruling council that advised the king. She was really old and Thoric thought he heard someone say she was close to 1000 years old. She walked with a cane and was near blind but no one disobeyed her when she said to do something. As a high priest of Brigid, she had immense magical powers. Grammy always managed to sneak him some treat though when his parents weren''t looking every time she came over. Since he didn¡¯t get sugar except rarely it had an exaggerated effect on him causing hours of hyperactivity. Usually, she would slip it to him and watch him eat it and with a twinkle in her eye, she would leave Thoric to his parents in his jabbering and hyper state.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    Apparently, from what he could pick up from his father, this world was much less populated that his old world. The dwarven kingdom consisted of less than 60 thousand, his father said the elves only had about 45 thousand, and the United humanoid kingdom had almost a million souls in it. From stories his father told him the closest dwarven enclave was a full week away, the closest elvish city was 2 months overland, and the humans about the same. The wilds were teaming with monsters and that''s why it was rare for the races to meet and all caravan¡¯s and diplomatic trips were planned years in advance. Grammy told him when she was young it took almost a year to reach any of the other lands.


    As he finished dressing his mother called him from the other room, ¡°Thoric ¡°sleep all day¡± Steelsould get your butt out here and eat with your father and say goodbye before he leaves. Also, you better be ready when Gramgram picks you up for your first day of lessons.¡±


    Rushing out of his room at a full run he crashed into a stand in the hallway knocking the vase onto the floor with a loud crash. ¡°I didn¡¯t do it! It just fell on its own,¡± he screamed as he tore off toward the kitchen.


    ¡°Son!¡±, his father admonished, ¡°Always admit when you do something. You have been warned the next time I hear you lie you will get switched in the yard in front of all the other children. Do I make myself clear?¡±


    ¡°Yes dad¡±, Thoric says with an apology in his voice. ¡°I am sorry for knocking over the vase.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, son, I am leaving today and will be gone much longer this time around. We travel to the human lands and then onto the elf lands to escort the rulers from the other kingdoms to our kingdom. This is the first time in a couple of centuries that the dwarves will host the conference. It will take us almost a full year to return and in that time I want you to learn. Remember I love you son. While I am gone you watch out for your mother and make sure to behave. When I come back I had better not hear about you not giving your all or lying. You''re still young but intelligent thus I know you know better. I love you son.¡±


    Vorin reaches over grabbing Thoric into a bear hug. Suddenly he starts tickling his son who burst out laughing like crazy. After a few minutes of horseplay, a knock on the front door occurs and Captain Fireore comes into the kitchen. ¡°Vorin, are you still stuffing your face. The king wanted us gone hours ago!¡±


    ¡°Listen Brimhild, its all my son''s fault.¡± his father says while pointing his finger comically at his son.


    ¡°Nunuh Aunty Fire, it wasn¡¯t either¡± Thoric replied.


    Captain Fireore reach down and ruffled his hair, ¡°You make sure to take care of your mother and my little Ava while I am gone.¡± she says. Ava is her youngest daughter and the children are often paired together to play. Ava still hasn¡¯t learned to talk but when she gets mad she throws a mean right hook.


    After dad leaves Kat sighs and turns to Thoric. ¡°Well, little one its just us again for the next little while. On the plus side, your grandparents will be returning with your father. That''s my mom and dad. They can¡¯t wait to meet yo¡­¡± his mother was interrupted as the telltale sound of a thumping cane is heard from the living room.


    ¡°Kat, get that hellion of yours ready. It''s time for his first day of classes.¡± Breldra said as she walks into the kitchen.


    ¡°Grammy!¡± Thoric screams as he jumps up and hugs her. ¡°Got any candy!?¡±


    Chucking she thumbs him on the head with her cane, ¡°Oh no you don¡¯t. I have to watch you today so no candy. Kat grab me some tea before we walk over. I want to talk to him a bit.¡±


    ¡°Okay grandmother,¡± Kat says as she leaves to go to the food storage to get the tea leaves and grinder.


    ¡°Okay. Let¡¯s me and you talk Thoric. I know you learn exceptionally fast and am confident you will pass the others very quickly. What do you want to learn first?¡± Breldra says.


    ¡°I want to read and write. If I can read and write I can learn other things but I can also help mom and dad get their work done so we can play more.¡± Thoric said. It was hard to believe that Thoric wasn¡¯t acting at being a child he truly had embraced being a child this go around. He felt emotion, had love, was ignorant of the world, and actually loved to run and just let his imagination run free. Other than incredible knowledge of how to actually do things he felt like a child and loved it.


    Breldra pats him on the head. ¡°We also are going to start training you to learn to control your mana channels a bit. Much longer and I fear that the bracers will stunt your mana growth. I don¡¯t know but we do know that prolong use isn¡¯t good for a mana user. Now go finish getting your things together for school while your mother and I talk.¡±


    ¡°Okay, Grammy!¡± Thoric shouts as he stands and tears out of the kitchen in a sprint.


    Kat sets a steaming cup of tea down next to Breldra¡¯s hand. The high priest turns and says ¡°The king wants your child out of those cuffs as soon as possible. Not only can they damage him someone saw them and reported your family for abuse. They do after all look like prisoner bands. I believe myself and a few other priests can at least teach him to control the mana if we can''t teach him to use it. We all have to channel mana from the gods as we make spells so there is hope.


    We need to find something to occupy his body, as well as his head or that energy, will get him in trouble. That¡¯s his impatent human nature showing thru in your son Kat. Dwarves are slow and steady but your son can¡¯t seem to contain his energy. Over the next few days, I am going to introduce him to a few smiths around. I know he can¡¯t really do anything yet but I figure watching them will teach him something and they always can use a little ball of energy to run messages and small things around the area. Now, where is he? Thoric lets go now!¡± Breldra mumbles a few words and her voice vibrates the house.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go Grammy. I was just picking up another of mom¡¯s vases I broke this morning. Oh, mom I also broke the leg on the little table in the hallway. Grammy you heard me tell the truth. Dad said I better tell the truth!¡± Shaking her head Kat leads Breldra and her son to the door. It was going to be a long year.

 Chapter 7 - Lead Up

    Thoric closed his tome, he had just finished reading. He had become a prolific reader in the last year. He had attended school at the temple of the god Thoth, God of Knowledge and Learning. The priestess of the temple was a young dwarf who was full of energy and she had taken an instant liking to Thoric. He had managed to master the dwarven runic alphabet rather quickly. The more he had mastered, the more the young priestess gave him to do. In the last few weeks, she had been sending a tome or two home with him every night to finish.


    The most recent tomes were about the gods of the world and how the world was formed. Apparently, this world knew nothing of monotheism, and it was said that a multitude of gods came together in a great war. During this war, hundreds of gods had died, and as their bodies had rotted and congealed together the world was formed. There was so much divine power in the detritus of the godly corpses, that magic was born.


    Realizing that the continued war would eventually wipe out all the gods, the leaders of the pantheons, the father gods Ra, Odin, Zeus, Great Spirit, Dagda, and many others came together to cease the war. As per the agreement to cease hostilities, the gods of both good and evil gave up a portion of their power to form the sun and the moon. Each Pantheon gathered blood from all the gods and goddesses. Drops of each blood were combined with drops of blood from other gods and this formed all the life on the world, be it animal, plant, or man. This explained how people could have mana and magic. It was said that the dwarven race was to have a drop of the blood from all the gods of earth, fire, invention, and honor. However, the balancers saw this race would be too powerful and so forbid any blood from a god of magic to be included. It was explained, that without the spark of magic, dwarven blood would always be an anthesis to nondivine magic.


    They also agree that anyone could worship anyone regardless of the pantheon, and the only rule was that there would be both evil, good, and a balance for this world. Based on the number of worshipers the environment of this world would be affected in the power each God held over this will be affected slightly. If the good deities had the largest number of worshipers than the days would be long, the weather would be exceptional, and plants and animals would grow. If evil deities had greater control the nights would be longer, there would be more storms, and pestilence and famine would hold sway. The balancers would assure that neither side would ever have enough power to end the world and had the power to count their worshippers to either side and change sides at any time. Everything else in this world resulted through the acts of the gods during their greatest control or through mortal grand workings of magic. The great oceans of the world were a result of some mage tampering with the forces of the planes that caused water mana to coalesce and former water. The entire tome gave multiple examples to explain a plethora of how things can be.


    As the year progressed he remembered less and less of his old life. He still had all the factual knowledge but anything with emotion was forgotten. He could no longer remember the name, face, or any feature of any person from his past life. He knew he had grown up before but he couldn¡¯t remember having a childhood. Without these memories, over the last year, he had acted rather childlike. He loved to run, play, and eat. Eating especially was his favorite.


    As a few of the other dwarven children had learned to talk, he had made a few friends and discovered many new games. Most of the other dwarven children were much larger than him and games involving muscle were quickly lost. One of the dwarven children¡¯s favorite games was something between baseball and kickball. It involved a bladder filled with mud, a stick, and to home bases. The basics of the game were to hit the bladder with the stick at a runner passing between the two bases. A hit was worth one point, if the person got to the other base a point was lost, and if you could bust the bladder on the person you won the game. Unfortunately, since Thoric was so much weaker than the full dwarves his bat was usually narrower and more than one time he had managed to rupture the bladder on himself when he hit it. There were no hard feelings but there was lots of laughter. However, when he did manage do hit it with his skinner frame and longer legs he was faster.


    On the magical front, Thoric had finally managed to feel his mana and learn to control it or at least prevent it from going too far out of control. He could sense within himself many other pools but they were empty and he had no idea what type of mana they could hold. From his reading of a gnomish book his mother gave him, he discovered that in addition to each unique type of mana having its own pool, it also had its own channel. Dwarves had no mana pools but always had generic channels that could channel any type of mana. Priests did not pull from their own mana pools, but a spiritual pool of the god they followed. A priest who followed a god of fire would be able to access a spiritual fire pool and channel it with ease, however, the same priest would not be able to channel water mana because his god had no spirit pool of water. Regardless of pool depth or channel width if the person did not know how to form the spell for a specific effect nothing would happen other than raw mana release, which was normally very weak.


    The bronze bracer¡¯s his father had made him wear, didn¡¯t affect the pool. However, they did cause the manna channels to slowly atrophy, just like an unused muscle. Luckily it took several decades for this atrophy to occur. So, when he finally figured out how to use mana he was in for a world of pain in the initial phases. But in the meantime, he no longer had to wear the bracers.


    ¡°Thoric.¡± His mother called.


    ¡°Yeah, mom.¡±


    ¡°Put your tome away and come to eat.¡±The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°Okay, mom. I¡¯m done anyway.¡± Thoric yells. He stands up stretching his arms up to the ceiling. Sitting his tome down next to his bed, he walks to the kitchen. It looks like his mother has fixed one of his favorites, boiled cabbage stuffed with spiced ram¡¯s stomach and saut¨¦ed mushrooms. He attacks his food with vengeance.


    His mother reached over and smacked him in the back of the head. ¡°Slow down son!¡± Thoric grumbles under his breath but does slow down. His mother fixes her plate and sits down across the stone table from him. She reaches over and fills each of their mugs with a thick dark beer. It¡¯s amazing, but even as a child Thoric has been drinking beer since he was weaned. He does notice that this beer is not nearly as dark and much more watery than his father¡¯s and has no obvious intoxicating effect on him.


    ¡°Son, let¡¯s go to the living room. I want to have a conversation.¡± His mother said after they finished eating.


    Once they were settled in the den, his mother grabs him and set him on as her lap. ¡°Thoric, do you know what tomorrow is?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not my birthday. That was last week. It is some kind of holiday?¡± Thoric ask quizzically.


    ¡°I had word today,¡± his mother said, ¡°that your father should be returning in the next few days possibly even tomorrow.¡±


    Thoric eyes grew round. He started fidgeting with excitement. Grabbing his mother around her neck and a fierce hug, he screamed mere inches from her face, ¡°Yes! Can we go to the city gates an greet him on the way in?¡±


    ¡°No son. You have school, and I have to get the house ready to greet him.¡±


    ¡°But mom...¡±


    ¡°No arguing son. I just wanted to let you know. Now, over the next few days is going to be hectic. The conclave of Nations will last many months but it¡¯s always crazy to start¡±


    ¡°I hope dad brought me some goodies.¡±


    ¡°Son. You haven¡¯t seen your father in the year and all you can think about is goodies. I swear you think more your stomach than he does.¡±


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t. I also like books and new things to learn.¡±


    Kat sighs and pitches her son onto the couch cushions where she proceeds to viciously tickle him. ¡°Your father is going to be so upset that you wanted goodies more than you wanted to see him. For that, I sentence you to a thorough tickling.¡±


    ¡°Mom stop¡± Thoric breathlessly exclaimed. ¡°You¡¯re gonna make me pee myself.¡±


    After a few minutes, his mom quits torturing him with tickles and sits him back up. She ruffles his hair and stands up. ¡°Well son, I¡¯ve got to go clean up the dishes and you need to go make of the bed in the guestroom. You get to meet your grandparents when they get here with your father as well.¡±


    ¡°Really. I get see Grammy every day. So I¡¯ve already met her.¡±


    ¡°No silly, this is my mom and dad. They live very very far away and we had to get special permission for them to enter the kingdom to see you. You know the king doesn¡¯t normally allow anyone, not a dwarf or married to a dwarf to enter the kingdom.¡±


    ¡°But I want to go read I don¡¯t want to make the bed. Can we get one of the servants to do it?¡±


    ¡°No son. Just because your father is a noble doesn¡¯t mean that his family is lazy and can¡¯t do the simple act of making a bed and sweeping the floor.¡±


    Thoric stands up and starts to grumble as he goes to take care of the bedroom. After he finishes to the bedroom he goes to tell his mom he is done but she has already finished cleaning the kitchen and isn¡¯t there. Looking through the house he can¡¯t find her but one of the servants says that she had to step out and run an errand and for him to tidy up his father¡¯s office some. Entering the office he starts tidying up and notices a parchment open on the desk. Grabbing a box for him to stand on he gets up and reads it.


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    My dearest Kat,


    It has been a hard year to be away from you and my son. The expedition has been long and very trying. We lost about a third of the men on the trip to the human kingdom when were set upon by a pride of displacer beast. Things have changed since I was in the human kingdom last. It seems that they have become much more militaristic and snobbish. Their King seems to think that we are subordinate to him as well as the elves. It¡¯s not my place to correct him.


    Regardless, we left the human kingdom with a very large entourage of soldiers and followers. The trip slowed to a crawl. Once we entered the Elven kingdom we were greeted rather warmly. The humans, however, acted the same as when we met. Regardless we left the Elven kingdom with an even larger escort. The rest of the trip was uneventful just slow. I have a feeling that it¡¯s going to be a heated conclave.


    For this reason, I was adverse to approach the human wizards about our son. Luckily, an old friend of mine from my youth who is now a trader put me in contact with a very nice elven wizard. Her name is Vandora, and she is a master wizard who is an expert in air, life, and earth manas. She even has some expertise and knowledge in some of the esoteric manas. I have convinced her to journey with us all the way back to meet our son. She will test him and if the king approves her staying be one his teachers. It has already been arranged with the King that if she will submit to a secrecy geas by the priests and they find that she will not harm the kingdom, she shall be offered a position to teach our son. This is imperative to our family but regardless our family will have to shoulder the entire cost of this. The contract calls for her to receive 20 ingots of gold. I realize this is a huge commitment for the family and will mean several years of lean times for us. But I feel that it is worth it for our son.


    I sent this on ahead with our outriders. Your mother and father are also with us will be staying with us. When you receive this we should be entering the kingdom within a few days after.


    Your loving husband Vorin Steelsoul


    </td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>


    Thoric jumped off the box he was standing on and charged out of his father¡¯s office. He was going to get to meet at Elven wizard and learn many new things. He was so excited that he couldn¡¯t even finish his reading assignment for the night. For the rest of the evening, he played with his toys while letting his imagination run wild with all the things he would learn. His mother found him laying on the floor grasping his wizard doll (scratch that, its a "action figure") with a huge grin on his face. She lifted him up and put him in bed. After undressing him and tucking him into bed, she gently kissed his head. ¡°Rest my nugget. The next few days will be exciting.¡±

 Chapter 8 - DISCOVERY!!!

    ¡°Wake up. It¡¯s time to go to the temple to school.¡± Kat whispered as she shook her son awake.


    ¡°Ugh. Do I gotta go to school?¡±


    ¡°Yes, nugget. Get up and get washed.¡±


    Thoric groaned as he stretched his arms above his head. He yawned loudly as he swung his feet over the edge of his bed to stand up. He really didn¡¯t want to go to school today instead he would¡¯ve liked to meet the new wizard that was coming in with his father. He was also looking forward to his father being back home so that he could show his dad all that he had learned. As his mother started going through and getting his clothes ready for the day he walked down the hallway from his room and entered the washroom. Grabbing the pitcher of warm water that his mother had placed in here for him this morning he proceeded to wash his face and clean up a little.


    Returning to his room, he grabbed the leggings and tunic that his mother had laid out on the bed for him. Looking in the polished bronze mirror he combed his hair, and make sure that he had gotten his face clean. Thoric gathered the two tomes that he was assigned to read last night of which he only finished one and headed for the kitchen for breakfast. As he entered the kitchen he heard the distant ringing of the first bell.


    As he was eating, he noticed that his mother looked rather ragged. Thoric quested, ¡°Mom why do you look like you haven¡¯t slept?¡± She looked up at him as he crammed another pancake in his mouth replying, ¡°I was up all night cleaning the house and getting the guest room and guest house ready for my parents and any other guest or father bring home.¡±


    ¡°Like the wizard lady?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure little one. I am unsure if the wizard, should she get to stay, will be staying with us or set up residence somewhere else in town. Either way, it is not for you to worry about. All you need to worry about is finishing breakfast and getting to the temple before you are late for school.¡±


    ¡°Okay, mom I¡¯m going,¡± Thoric said through a mouthful of food. He quickly finished his mug of water, stood up, and gave his mother a big hug. ¡°By mom. I¡¯m going to school now.¡± He grabbed his books and ran out the door as fast as he could. He saw many of his other friends also running toward the school. He saw his friend Jenger leaving her home and joining the throng of children running. ¡°Hey Jen, did you sleep late to?¡±


    ¡°Of course not. I just like to run.¡±, she replied. Jen was an older dwarven girl and Thoric estimated her age to be about 14. She stood approximately 3 inches taller than him, and could probably have picked him up and carried him to school with how much wider and stronger she appeared than him. Her hair was a dirty brown color and she had a very plain face but she was still one of his best friends. Even when they play she would always hang out with him and defend him. She struggled mightily with any kind of scholastic activity, so Thoric was constantly having to tutor her.


    As they got to the temple, Helga, priestess of Thoth was tapping her foot next to the door as she scowled at the children that rushed into the door. As all the children grabbed their seats, she let the door slam with a resounding boom. ¡°Okay children, as many of you know this year is the year of the conclave. Many of your parents left last year to escort the other nations leaders to our kingdom. I received word that they will be back later today. Now¡­¡±, she was saying when she was drowned out by the chatter of all the children. Suddenly, every child that was speaking felt a sharp rap on the knuckles. The room instantly silenced as Helga¡¯s eyes glowed. ¡°That¡¯s enough! Now, as I was saying, today we¡¯re going to learn basic etiquette and decorum skills.¡±


    For the next four hours, the children were drilled on how to recognize nobles, royalty, and commoners that were coming into the kingdom today. For both the Elven and the human kingdoms they were taught the basic greeting according to their status. It was highly unlikely that any of the children would have any interaction with any of the royalty, it was decided they still needed to understand how to greet them if it should happen. Interacting with nobles and commoners would be much more likely. Many of the children¡¯s families were nobles, traders, or important citizens that may have a noble, or commoner or staying with them during the conclave, as the dwarven kingdom was very insular and normally didn¡¯t allow outsiders into it.


    As the second bell chimed in the distance there was a knock on the door. Helga opened the door and then walked in elderly dwarf. ¡°Standup class, and greet master Smith Braga.¡±


    ¡°None of that.¡± The grizzled old dwarf said. ¡°I¡¯ve been talking with priestess Helga and many of you can at least read some of our languages. Those of you that can no longer have Temple school all day. Starting tomorrow when priestess Helga determines you have a basic grasp of the written language you will report to either the blacksmiths, the carpenters, the miners, or one of the other tradesmen. ¡±


    Multiple voices started chattering at the same time. Some were quite happy and some were disappointed. As the voices crested in volume a loud boom vibrated the walls. ¡°Silence! You will not chatter like a bunch of goblins.¡± The elderly dwarf shouted while stomping his foot. ¡°For the next eight years, you will all be spending some time with every craftsman in the area. At the end of that eight years, you along with your parents and a master craftsman will decide on your apprenticeships.¡±


    Braga turned and walked out of the classroom without a word. For the next four hours priestess tried to teach the class about the different trades in the area. ¡°Okay, class tomorrow morning I will have everyone who can read assigned to the craftsman. Since I can tell I won¡¯t get any more of your attention today because of your excitement I¡¯m going to dismiss class early. No run home and enjoy the rest of the day.¡± priestess Helga said as she opened the door.


    Thoric quickly stood to rush out of the class with everyone else. ¡°Thoric! I need you to stay after and speak with me.¡± Thoric sighed he had hoped to get to play this afternoon. ¡°You¡¯re far more advanced than anyone else in class on the scholastic side. However, your smaller size and young age make it difficult to place you with any of the tradesmen. I wanted to let you know that I am aware of the wizard your father is bringing back. Your mom and I spoke about it. So when I release you, you will be going to see the wizard, at least until you¡¯re old enough to be work with the tradesmen at least part-time. Now run home.¡±


    Thoric grabbed the book he hadn¡¯t finished the night before and rushed out the door. As he opened the door to his house the first thing he noticed was the divine smell of lunch, quickly followed by the sound of his father¡¯s voice coming from the other room. Dropping his book in the floor by the door he rushed into the other room making a beeline as fast as he could toward his father. ¡°Dad! Your home!¡± He shouted as he leaped into his father¡¯s arms.


    Vorin laughed loudly as he caught his son. ¡°Lad. I have missed you. Your mother tells me you eat more than I do now!¡± Vorin said while chuckling.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°I do not. Did you bring anything good that?¡±


    Thoric fell a thump on the back of his head. ¡°What I tell you, son? Your father¡¯s been gone a year and the first thing you ask is what he brought you back. I have a mind to spank you thoroughly.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, mom.¡± Thoric apologized. The sound of someone clearing their throat reached Thoric ¡¯s ears. Turning his head he noticed a very tall, pale skinned, beautiful woman standing there. She had noticeably pointed ears with vibrant red hair cascading down her head. Something about her seemed to call out Thoric.


    ¡°Where are my manners?¡± Apologized his father. ¡°Thoric, son, this is high wizard Vandora Whisper, of the Elven kingdom. The king has agreed that she can stay and teach you.¡±


    The wizard turned her head and in a musical voice said ¡°Greetings young one. I can already sense great potential in you. Tomorrow we will begin your training. Now Lord Vorin is there a place I can freshen up before we eat.¡±


    ¡°Of course. Kat can you show her where the washroom is. I¡¯m going to take my son and show him some of the things I brought back.¡± Vorin spins around with his son and carries him into the other room while his mother escorted the wizard to get cleaned up. As he sat his son down he reaches over and grabs a chest dropping it in front of his son. ¡°Well, son here is what I¡¯ve gotten.¡± He says as he opens the chest. Approximately 20 books of the finest bound animal hide, two bags of something that smelt divine, and a shiny knife made out of some silvery metal rested in the chest. It appeared that most of the books were about alchemy, herbalism, history, and magic. Opening the bags he found small golden cubes which smell sweet and after popping one in his mouth he discovered they were extremely chewy and delicious. As soon as he lifts the knife, his muscles locked as it felt like a bolt of electricity shot through his arm.


    Suddenly, every piece of metal within 20 feet of him starts glowing in his eyes and he knew where each piece was. Somehow he intrinsically knew what each of the metals were, their compositions if they were alloys, and how pure each metal was. With this comes the knowledge that the silver knife has a high composition of iron, aluminum, and something called mithril. Thoric dropped the knife and grabbed his head. The amount of information flooding into him caused an intense headache.


    As he sank to his knees, his father grabbed him. ¡°What¡¯s the matter, son?¡±


    ¡°Everything so bright. All the metal is talking to me. It¡¯s so loud.¡±


    His father shouted through the house loudly, ¡°Katerina. Vandora please come quickly, please. Something is going on with Thoric.¡±


    The two ladies rushed into the living room. His mother rushed to hold him while Vandora quickly chants some mythical phrase and waves her hand. ¡°What happened Vorin?¡± Exclaims Katerina.


    ¡°I¡¯m unsure. He lifted up the new dagger, grabbed his head and sank to his knees complaining about metal being loud and bright.¡± Vorin explained as his son cried.


    ¡°There is no magic on the dagger, but I sense something going on in relation to the magic of the metal in this room. It is like the mana is touching your son but not being absorbed.¡± Vandora sinks down to her knees as she grasped Thoric¡¯s head. She mumbled a few words and a glow surrounded her hands. And as quick as it began it stopped with Thoric sighing in relief.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Sighed Thoric.


    ¡°I have cast a spell of dampening magic. I can still see the mana touching him but not as hard. Thoric can you tell me what happened?¡± Vandora asked kindly.


    ¡°When I picked up the dagger there was a shock. Suddenly I knew where every piece of metal was in the room, how pure it was, and if it wasn¡¯t pure, exactly how much and what kind of ore was in it. So much information was giving me an intense headache.¡±


    ¡° Young one, I am going to start letting my dampening spell go. As it weakens I want you to try to control how much information you¡¯re getting. Imagine a fence with a gate in, and all the information are a bunch of sheep. I want you to try to imagine that you¡¯re going to open the gate just enough for one sheep to come through.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± Said Thoric apprehensively.


    As a glow from her hands lessened Thoric could feel the pressure building. He tried to do just as she said. He still got a headache though it was greatly reduced in intensity. He was still constantly getting the location of everything but was no longer bombarded with the other information. He sighed ¡°It¡¯s a lot better. But I still know where every piece of metal is but the other information is being stopped by the fence. What¡¯s going on with me, dad?¡±


    As Vorin stumbled over his words trying to come up with an explanation Vandora said, ¡°It appears you have a natural affinity. Very few people have these Thoric. In my youth, a young girl had something similar to this but with animals, that¡¯s where I came out with a sheep idea. It will get better with time and practice and you will get full control of it. This is something to be happy about.¡± Turning to Vorin and Katerina she states, ¡°Your son has the ability to know everything about any metal. I am unsure of how strong it is but I sense it to be very strong. Over time he will get control of this and get even stronger with this ability.¡±


    Vorin reached down and hugged his son. His son had the ability to sense metal. With this ability, his son could become very powerful however his son could become a target. ¡°Vandora, Katerina, son I would ask you to keep this quiet. We will discuss it later.¡± At about this time both father and son stomach growled.


    ¡°Well, it looks like the excitement has made both of my men starving. Let us go to the kitchen and eat.¡± Katerina chuckled.


    ¡°Can we wait a moment?¡± Vandora said. ¡°I would like to see what kind of mana pools he has so that I can start preparing to educate him. This tends to take a lot out of me and make me extremely hungry so I¡¯d rather do it before I eat.¡±


    ¡°Is a difficult?¡± Questioned Vorin.


    ¡°Not at all. It is a relatively simple spell but it uses a lot of energy that all master wizards know but it makes us very hungry.¡± Vandora replied.


    ¡°Does it do anything to our son?¡± Katerina queries.


    ¡°No, it does nothing. All it does is pull a small fraction of each type of mana out of the world and touch said mana to his body. For every pool he has that mana will get absorbed and let me know how large and deep a pool is. Other than him feeling like someone is blowing on his arm after some alcohol is rubbed on there is no other effect.¡±


    ¡°Do it do it!¡± Thoric excitedly screams. ¡°I felt these pools but I don¡¯t know what they are. Please, mom! Dad!¡±


    ¡°Okay, son,¡± Vorin says.


    Vandora sits crosslegged in on the floor in front of Thoric. ¡°Sit down the same as me letting your knees touch my legs.¡± Vandora raises her hands and begins chanting. After a few moments, a small dot of light appears between her hands and cascades slowly until it touches Thoric¡¯s skin. As the light touches his skin it flattens out and slowly vanishes. Then another small light appears and does the same thing except for this time the light rolls off the skin and hits floor. This repeats multiple times and some lights flatten and vanish while others hit the floor and vanish. Vandora¡¯s chanting comes to a close and she lowers her arms.


    Vandora turned his parents with wide eyes and excitedly explained, ¡°Your son is phenomenal! I have never seen anyone with a number of pools he has. How can someone with dwarven blood have magic much less it be this diverse and powerful?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean? How many does he have?¡± Katerina asked. ¡°I have a very deep pool of light magic and a shallow pool of water magic that allows me to do some minor illusions. We know he¡¯s got earth and fire. You mean there¡¯s more?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Your son has earth of deep depth, fire of moderate depth, air of trace depth, life of shallow depth, temporal of standard depth, and lastly dimensional or space that I can''t find the depth. Even the greatest master of the Elven race only has four pools and none as deep as his dimensional pool. I don¡¯t understand how this is possible.¡±


    ¡°He is my son and I am so proud of him.¡± Katerina states. ¡°Magic has never run strongly in my family and of course Vorin being dwarven blooded has no magic. It must be a blessing from the gods.¡±


    ¡°I think we need to keep this quiet just like we are his other ability,¡± Vorin says. ¡°But right now I think it¡¯s time to eat.¡±


    The family stands to go and eat.¡± Vorin cannot speak with you a moment?¡± Vandora says. As Katerina and Thoric enter the kitchen she continues, ¡°I want you to know that as long as you feed, cloth, and provide me a place to stay you don¡¯t have to pay me very much. I want to teach your son for the honor of teaching someone of his power. Thank you. His potential is frightening.¡± She turns and walks into the kitchen to eat.


    ¡°Well, son. If you¡¯re doing this at this age I can¡¯t wait to see what you do later.¡± Vorin says to himself with pride as he walks in the kitchen.

 Chapter 9 -YES! Ladies and Gentlemen. He can be taught.

    For the next few days, Thoric was having a wonderful time. His maternal grandparents were a true joy to be around. His maternal grandmother was insistent upon him calling her Nana, while his grandfather was partial to Pop-Pop. They both spoiled him relentlessly with candy, small presents, and toys galore. Thoric thought that grandparents loved doing this because it was to do because when the child got to wild you simply shuttled the children back onto the parents. His parents never mentioned anything about his powerful magic to his grandparents, worrying that for every additional person that knew the danger increased exponentially that someone would do something to take Thoric from them.


    Vandora spent most of the afternoons teaching him how to feel and channel his mana. She taught him how all types of mana existed throughout all of existence. The density of each type of mana was determined by the environment. For example, his earth and fire pools stayed mostly full since he was constantly surrounded by the earth, and the dwarven priest had crafted mana flame torches throughout the houses of most of the citizens of the kingdom over the centuries. His life pool had quite a bit of mana as well because living things resulted in more life mana.His air pool was only partly full because air mana existed in highest density above ground in the openness of the sky. His temporal pool was easy to fill up as well because time waits for no man (or dwarf). Lastly, his dimensional or space pool just seemed to alway be absorbing and never get full because empty space makes up over 90% of every atom in existance.


    It was decided since the conclave usually lasted 4 to 5 months, that the diplomats and guest of the Dwarven kingdom should be allowed to visit friends that lived around this section of the kingdom. His grandparents were going to be gone for a few weeks to visit old friends. It was decided by Vandora that, with their departure, some other instruction was going to happen. His mana channels were in a pathetically weakened and sorry state. All those years of wearing the inhibitor shackles had caused his mana channels to ¡°stop up¡±, for lack of a better description. Vandora instructed him on how to push his mana down his channels in order to strengthen them, widen them, and lastly so that Thoric could get a better feel of the mana flowing through him. The very first time that he pushed fire mana through his channel, a small flame appeared above his hand the size of a small candle flame. Quickly following that, Thoric passed out from pain as the mana ripped some of the ¡°debris¡± of inhibition from his flame channels.


    For the first week, his grandparents were gone, she instructed him about each type of mana except for space. Thoric realized that the correlation of pain to pool depth was directly proportional. When he had tried fire he was unconscious for four hours, temporal mana also resulted in four hours. Life and air mana did not cause him to pass out, however, it gave him a raging headache for a whole day, just like he had eaten something cold way too fast. Earth mana, being one of his deepest pools, had knocked him out for a whole day. Lastly, he decided he would try space mana without being instructed. That idea turned out really badly when he passed out for the remainder of the week and it was so strong that he lost nearly half a pint of blood out of his nose, ears, and eyes.


    ******


    A loud sigh escaped Thoric¡¯s mouth as he groggily woke up. ¡°What happened?¡±. Thoric was laying in his bed and his whole body hurt, he was parched and extremely hungry. The last thing he remembered Vandora was asking him about how earth mana felt when he decided to pull space mana through his channel and then nothing but intense pain followed by nothingness. Looking around his room he noticed that it was rather bare. Only his toys and items made out of wood were present. ¡°Mom!¡±, Thoric shouted.


    ¡°Coming.¡± He heard his mother¡¯s voice respond down the hall. ¡°How are you feeling little one?¡± She asked as she entered.


    ¡°It feels like I got in trouble really bad and dad gave me a whipping from the inside out.¡±


    ¡°Well, it partly is your father¡¯s fault. Those inhibitor bracers you had to wear for all those years atrophied your mana channels. Mistress Vandora said that you can look forward to a lot of pain as you ¡®unclog your pipes¡¯¡± his mother replied while making little air quotes in the air. ¡°Do you feel up to getting out of bed to eat?¡±


    ¡°Oh yes!¡± Thoric exclaimed as he climbed out of bed quickly.


    ¡°You¡¯re definitely your father¡¯s son. Regardless of pain, he is always in a rush to eat.¡± Kat said as she turned to leave the room. ¡°Oh yes, before I forget, remember to control your power with metal sense. Vandora felt we should remove it all from your room so that when you woke up you wouldn''t be overwhelmed again.¡±


    Thor gave himself a mental hand to the forehead. The teacher was right if he had come to surrounded by metals he would have probably passed right back out. Entering the kitchen, Thoric rushed to the table and climbed into his favorite chair. His mother came in and quickly prepared a large plate of cheese, sausage, and rough meal bread. He quickly consumed this along with a large helping of watery beer. The meal caused him to feel much better.


    Leaning back in his chair, he issued a loud belch. His mother whirled on him. ¡°Thoric! Where are your manners boy?¡± That statement was quickly followed by a rough slap to the back of his head. It always amazed him how his mother was a stickler for all these rules of etiquette, while, when it was just him and his father, bodily expulsions turned into a contest followed by raucous laughter.


    ¡°Sorry, mom.¡±


    ¡°Young man, if you keep doing that then dinner for you is going to be nothing but bread, water, and boiled unflavored mushroom for a whole week!¡± She threatened. This usually worked as Thoric hated boiled mushroom.


    About this time there was a knock at the front of the house. ¡°Ah. That must be mistress Vandora coming to check on you.¡± His mother grabbed him by the ear and proceeded to drag him from the kitchen to the greeting room. Releasing his ear, she commanded, ¡°behave¡±.


    ¡°Come in wizard.¡±, His mother said as she opened the door.


    ¡°Thank you. And how is my little apprentice today.¡± Vandora said in her musical Elven voice.


    ¡°I¡¯m doing much better, especially after eating.¡±


    ¡°I am so glad to hear that. Now shall we sit and discuss what happened and what we plan on doing about it in the future?¡±


    Katerina guided Thoric and the wizardess into the makeshift classroom. Once seated, Vandora reached out and lightly held Thoric¡¯s hands. ¡°Now apprentice, let¡¯s see how those channels look.¡± She proceeded to chant a quick spell. ¡°Well, I can see some difference. But unfortunately, one circulation of mana does not undo years of inhibition.¡± Vandora said in a sad voice.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    ¡°What? It hurt so much I figured that we were done with the pain.¡±


    ¡°Oh no. Your channels will open fully like normal if you work at it. The pain will be intense for probably the first little while. I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll pass out any more from using life and air mana, and with fire and temporal mana you should probably only pass out once more for a very short time. Earth mana will more than likely not cause unconsciousness over 5 more times. Unfortunately, your dimensional mana will probably cause unconsciousness at least 10 more times from the sheer pain of it. Regardless except for your two weakest, you¡¯ll probably feel pain for several months when channeling mana if you practice every day.¡±


    Thoric¡¯s eyes got huge. He wondered if having mana was worth it. He could always slack off in his magic studies and in a few years really work hard when he could start working with the tradesmen. ¡°Is there anything we can do about it?¡± He pleaded.


    ¡°Maybe,¡± Vandora said. ¡°I know your Grammy is a high priestess of a healing god. I would ask your mother, when she gets a moment to discuss the pain with her. In the Elven kingdom, I have a friend who is a priestess of Pinga, another goddess of healing. I have seen her cast a spell that allowed pain to be spread amongst several people to avoid overwhelming one.¡±


    Katerina perked up with this. ¡°Yes, Breldra can definitely do that. I remember several years before Thoric was born Vorin got a goblin crossbow bolt hooked around his bone in his leg. She cast the spell amongst several of his retainers so it could be cut out. Each of them said it felt like a strong pinprick as it was removed. My husband said it hurt but was very bearable.¡±


    ¡°It is my thought, that for the next couple of weeks, if myself, you, and his father were to share his pain then he could quickly get past the worst of the channel clearing,¡± Vandora explained.


    ¡°I will leave you to your teaching, while I go talk to his Grammy,¡± Kat stated as she stood to leave.


    A few minutes after his mother was gone, Vandora grinned and whispered, ¡°Now, as a little reward would you like to learn a spell?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± Thoric shouted as he leaped to his feet.


    ¡°Okay. I will teach you a spell of air since that is one of the pools you can pull from without passing out. Are you sure you would like to learn still even though there will be a pain?¡±


    Thoric didn¡¯t hesitate. He was going to get to do real magic and even if someone would¡¯ve chopped his arm off he would¡¯ve still wanted to learn. ¡°Oh yes. Please teach me teacher.¡±


    ¡°Okay, Thoric. Let me explain what you are going to have to do first. The first part of any spell his visualization of what is to happen. Next, you will need to imagine your mana flowing out of you through your channels. Once you successfully do this, using words, symbols, or hand gestures you will shape the mana into a structure that will allow your visualization to happen. Lastly, you¡¯ll push the mana out of your body into the structure that you just formed. Now watch me first.¡± Vandora patiently explained.


    She took a deep breath and slowly began to move her finger in the air in a clockwise motion in increasingly smaller circles, with her arm extended straight as an arrow. Miraculously, Thoric could see a thin stream of very faint blue energy appear in a line behind her finger while she was doing this. She spoke a single word. Suddenly, the lines merge into a tiny disk and a light wind blows through the room. ¡°Wow! How do I do that? What was that word you said?¡±


    ¡°Slow down young one. That one word could be anything. You just need to make sure that it¡¯s a word you¡¯ll remember. Also, most wizards don¡¯t use a very known language for this some even make it up. Should you ever get in a duel with another wizard if he was shouting what his spell was going to do where anyone could understand him it much easier to counter. The most important part of that spell is the hand motion and the mana channeling.¡±


    Thoric immediately stands and hold his arm out straight. Closing his eyes he tries to remember a gentle breeze from his old life. Trying his best to picture the moving of the leaves in the trees and the feel of the air across the skin he reaches for his mana. As he pulls his mana from the pool it feels as if someone¡¯s pulling a Band-Aid off of his hairy arms. He grits his teeth and continues. Opening his eyes he can see the faint blue lines emanating from his own finger. He imagines that the spiral of energy is connected to the tip of his finger and tries to feed his mana through it. Thoric feels the mana starting to leave him and says, ¡°GUST!¡± in English. Some of the papers in the room flew into the air from the gust of wind. However, the filling of euphoria was quickly replaced with a raging headache.


    ¡°You did it little one. You seem to be a natural. It took me almost 2 weeks to do the same thing during my first-year apprenticeship.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I am that good.¡± Said Thoric jokingly as he held his head from the pounding behind his eyes.


    ¡°Now the good news. You need to do that spell five times a day. This is quicker than cycling mana to clear your mana channels many times. Only when you can cast a spell without error, a headache, or most importantly, a flippant tongue will I teach you more advanced spells.¡± Vandora said.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. But I don¡¯t think I could do it again if I wanted to. I sense that my air pool is near empty.¡±


    ¡°Yes, but it will refill. The casting of the spell not only helps you open your channels so that you can cast larger spells, but it also allows you to refill your pool quicker. The channel is two way, not just one. Now I will teach you one more spell and this will pull from your pool of life.¡±


    For the next couple of hours, she taught him a spell that would heal a minor wound such as a paper cut or pinprick. On the downside to heal a pinprick he had to have a pinprick. A headache from the spell was just as bad as the one from the air spell. On the plus side, by the time he successfully cast the spell his air pool had filled up enough for him to cast the gust spell again.


    ¡°Now Thoric, I¡¯m going to leave it to you to practice your spells. I would recommend that you yourself at least an hour between each spell. For the rest of class, I¡¯m going to teach you about the movement of your hands to accomplish spells. The reason that we use the finger and the circle to make the gust spell work is that we create channels to effectively transform the mana from magic to effect. The circular finger motion has been proven to be the most economical for many due to mana usage and speed of cast. "


    ¡°I can pass on much of what I know that¡¯s been discovered much of what has been discovered from many pools of magic even if I can''t cast them. On the downside, all of it may not work for you as well. You are a unique being which may result in you discovering spells work just like all other wizards, you may find a new way to do a spell making it better than other wizards, or it may just be difficult for you regardless of what you do a spell. After we get your channels opened up I would encourage you to try new ways to do the spells I teach you as well as try to come up with spells of your own. Spells of your own will be really important because I can¡¯t teach you much about temporal or dimensional spells even though I can access some of them I have never learned anything other than basic spells that can be fed from any pool such as mending or detecting spells.¡±


    ¡°What mana can you teach spells from?¡± Thoric asked.


    ¡°I have strong air, moderate life, and a trace earth pool. As for dimensional and temporal schools it was discovered that I have extremely limited access but have been unable to find any pool specific spells. There are some universal spells that can pull from any pool we can use to clear your channels but I don''t know any true spacial or temporal spells. Now, one last thing for the day.¡± Vandora said as she got up and walked behind Thoric. ¡°I¡¯m going to teach you a very simple spell that will help you control your metal sense. It will last a few hours and I want you to cast a spell for the next few days from your temporal pool.¡± She demonstrated the motions and words which he was able to quickly grasp and cast the first time he tried.


    ¡°Ma¡¯am. Can we stop soon my head is really hurting?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine. Why don¡¯t you go lay down and rest for an hour or so before your mother gets back? I will let myself out and I¡¯ll see you tomorrow. Hopefully, your mother can get your Grammy to give her an item or cast a spell so that we can speed up the strengthening of your channels.¡±


    Thoric stands and bows to his teacher. Turning on his heel he slowly makes his way to his bedroom and collapses on the bed. In mere moments he is sleeping.

 Chapter 10 -Persistence, Petulance, Pefidy

    Thoric groaned as he opened his eyes, for the last couple of weeks he had been practicing his spells to open his channels. Grammy had provided the family with bracers that allowed them all to share the pain. With these bracers, Vandora had pushed him relentlessly to practice. He had managed to open all his channels somewhat and finally last night he had successfully cast multiple spells in a row, pulling from his dimensional pool, without passing out. Of his pools, life, air, and fire could all be pulled from without causing but a small twinge of pain. Earth and temporal both gave him a minor headache while dimensional still gave him a raging migraine.


    ¡°Time to get up.¡± His mother said as she walked through the door to his bedroom.


    Thoric pulls the covers up over his head and grumbles, ¡°I don¡¯t want to. My head hurts.¡±


    ¡°Be that as it may, you must practice as much as possible while we have these bracers before my parents return. Remember, my little nugget, your powers are our secret and we need to cultivate them in private. Now get up¡±, his mother said as she threw covers off exposing him to the cooler air.


    Rolling out of bed Thoric staggered over to the washbasin to splashed water on his face. He quickly grabbed his clothes and dressed so he could rush down to the kitchen and eat. As he walked down the hallway he heard voices coming from the kitchen.


    ¡°He is getting out of bed now and getting ready.¡± Came his mother¡¯s voice.


    ¡°Are we pushing him too hard? He is only 10.¡± His father¡¯s voice reverberated.


    ¡°Yes, he is only 10. But have you noticed how mature he acts? It appears his human half makes up a huge part of his mentality. Remember many human boys are already a couple of years into their apprenticeships at his age.¡± Another voice that he thought belonged to Vandora replied.


    Thoric walked into the kitchen and plopped himself to the table. After loading his plate up with an obscene amount of food he crammed a forkful into his mouth. ¡°I am really mature.¡± He said as he spewed chunks of food across the table.


    His mother¡¯s hand quickly connected to the back of his head. ¡°Mature! Since when do mature boys spew food across the table when speaking with a mouthful.¡±


    His father and Vandora chuckled. Breakfast was pretty much silent as everyone ate their fill. His father stood and gave his mother a peck on the cheek. ¡°I am going to the king today to sit in on some meetings with the delegates. Breldra also said and I quote ¡°If our little hell raiser could cast without passing out now she wants her bracers back.¡± Katerina chuckled as she got up to go get them so that her husband could drop them off by the temple on his way to the meeting hall.


    Vandora turned to Thoric and stated, ¡°Today we''re going to start by you showing me all that you have learned. Save your dimensional pool for last. Now follow me to the classroom.¡±


    Thoric and Vandora proceeded to the family¡¯s den that served as the home classroom. Thoric began first with his air pool and created a gentle gust of wind that caused little moats of dust to flitter about the room. As his air pool quickly emptied the gust settled and Thoric had no noticeable headache. He followed it with an earth spell that caused the floor at his feet to raise into a 1-foot cube square. As the square rose from the floor a minor headache crept its way upon him. He quickly followed with a healing spell Vandora had shown him that eliminated a headache and used almost half of his life pool. He quickly followed by incinerating a piece of paper with his fire spell and used a universal reconstruction spell to reassemble the paper making sure to pull from his temporal pool. Taking a deep breath he cast the universal spell to help dampen his metal sense which caused him to stagger to his knees in pain. Calling up and trying to focus through the pain he managed to mostly successfully cast the heal spell again emptying his life pool but making it so he could stand up again.


    ¡°Very good!¡± Vandora exclaimed. ¡°I think in a few more days your pains from casting will be over. Now, I¡¯m going to be gone for a few days and I want you to practice this as many times a day as you can. I expect at least every morning before school like this morning, when you come home at lunch when the others go to their tradesmen, and again before bed.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am. Do I really have to cast before school? I still have a pretty good headache.¡±


    ¡°Remember we are doing this for you. We expect you to work hard. You seemed so excited to push yourself but if you want to slow down we can.¡±


    Thoric caught himself before he blurted that yes, he wanted to slow down. But he remembered only through determination and hard work could he achieve his goals. His teacher and parents had each suffered great pains of the last few weeks so that he could clear his channels quickly. He would not disappoint them by not trying his hardest. ¡°No. I do not want to slow down I can do this.¡±


    ¡°That is good. Now I will be gone for several weeks. I have left several parchments for you to study while I am gone. I also want you to spend some afternoons with your friends. Between school and magic study you¡¯re not getting exercise a young one should have. Now get to school.¡±


    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am,¡± Thoric replies as he rushed from the room to get to school at the temple.


    For the next few weeks, his days are mostly filled with school, practice, study, and at least every third day an afternoon playing with his friends. His friends chatter a lot about their studies with the trades. Just like any child, some loved it, and some hated it. His friend Jenger chattered aimlessly about her weeks studying how to work stone. The others kept asking what trade he was studying at and the best he could reply was learning knowledge. That got him teased about turning into a teacher. Regardless that quickly diverted the attention from him as they were not interested in learning by tablet and parchment.


    Every evening, his father would rant and rave about the stupidity of the human delegation. Apparently, the new ¡°Emperor¡± was demanding that the dwarves and the elves should be including a tribute to all the trade goods going into the Empire. They felt that since there lands and people were of a factor of 10 times greater than the elves and dwarves combined that they were superior. The emperor was insisting that it had been over 10 generations since his ancestors had agreed to the current trade agreements and deals. They could not grasp that for the elves and dwarves, it was their fathers who agreed to the current deal. It was fully expected the Emperor would pull out of the trade deal and demand to leave. While open warfare was not likely because of distances he fully expected trade caravans to suffer and the cost of trade to drastically increase as well as the danger.


    The humans had recently discovered the proper combination of copper and tin to make bronze that was equal to the dwarves. And with the recent crashing of a meteor in one of their provinces they had a supply of very pure iron. Even the dwarves had very little iron and the even better mithril but the humans felt that they didn¡¯t need it.


    The elves were angry at the humans because they had started clearing the great forest. While they realized the need to harvest lumber, the humans were destroying it just for the fact they wanted to free the land to push back the monsters. These monsters, unfortunately, had streamed into the elven lands and caused widespread destruction.


    Late one afternoon, as Thoric practiced his spells in the family den, he heard the front door slam open. His mother came running in with a panicked look on her face. ¡°Quickly, come with me!¡± She screamed as she grabbed his arm pulling him rapidly through the house toward the back door.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on? What¡¯s the matter?¡± Stuttered Thoric as he stumbled through the house toward the back door.


    Thoric heard a bloodcurdling scream echo somewhere in the distance, as it echoed off the stone cavern. As his mother and he exited the back of the home three humans rushed around the edge of the house carrying bloodied swords. ¡°Kill that bitch and the welp to!¡± They screamed as they charged.


    His mother spun and quickly chanted a spell while weaving her hands causing a beam of bright light to leap from her hand striking one in the chest catching him on fire. She shoved Thoric behind her and shouted at him, ¡°RUN!¡±


    Thoric stumbled and fell as his mother chanted again causing a thin sheet of ice to spread out along the ground. As the guard slipped one of them drew a dagger and flipped in underhanded at his mother. He could see the glint off the blade as it slammed into her. The blade¡¯s point exited the back of her thigh as it pierced her leg. She screamed as she fell to the ground. ¡°RUN I said! GO!¡± his mother shouted again.


    As the men were getting to their feet Thoric stood, turned, and managed to run a few feet when he felt a blow to his back. Apparently, one of the men had attempted to throw another dagger but had slipped and the dagger had hit him pommel first. He looked over his shoulder to see that one of the men had gotten to his feet and was about to bring his sword down on his mother. Suddenly Thoric felt himself raise his hand and channel what felt like the entirety of existence through his dimensional channel. ¡°BLACKHOLE!,¡± he felt himself shout as he closed his fingers into a fist. Suddenly a pinprick of darkness appeared in the middle of the men. Near instantaneously the large men were sucked into this tiny hole as their bodies ruptured and exploded. The exploding viscera and blood were also instantly sucked in. His mother and he were physically lifted and yanked toward the black pinprick as well but it vanished before they could reach it. Thoric felt in the moment that a mountain of weight had slammed in all around him trying to crush him.


    ¡°Mom.¡± He gasped as he blacked out.