Elevation of Mana Chapter 42 Teens

I watched as the last of my childhood friends left the village, spear in hand.  Unlike those that had come before he was armed with copper weapons.  Olond would be the last of those I considered friendly at all to me, and I was sad to see him go.

By my reckoning I was now fifteen.  Of course elves didn't age quite the same as humans did, so I only looked to be thirteen or fourteen, and it would be a few more years yet until I was ready to join the boys, now men, who I'd called friends.  Even Isha wasn't so little anymore, having grown into quite the talk of the village.

Of those who'd been boys when I arrived only Rindal remained with me, and we were not on the best of terms.

“I can't believe I'm still stuck here with the little ones,” he said venomously.

“Larus said that you were just growing slower, it's not a bad thing,” I replied, tired of him today already.

“Everyone treats you like an adult already, even if you're clearly not one.”  The jealously was clear, and was frankly tiring, he'd been like this for the past  couple of years now.  “Just because your light is so strong.”

“Because I do things that are good for the village, nothing more, and you know it.  I've offered to bring you on our copper trips several times now, but you don't want to go, and frankly, I'm not offering again.  Small suggestion though, before you become an adult, maybe grow up a bit,” I snapped, part of it was my friends leaving me, part of it was just not wanting to be around him anymore.

In some ways our village was not radically different than when I'd arrived.  We now had metal an pottery, and tools that nobody had made or thought of before.  Wire-work was beginning to catch on as well, for artwork and decoration.  It came with new problems, for example, we had a nearly rolling line of traders these days.

It had taken a year for another to come after I'd first introduced metal, but he had been shocked.  The man had traded, and well, for every scrap he could get, and the next time he came, he didn't come alone.  Goods that we'd never had, and some had never even seen were brought in.  We had shells and art from all over, spices for food brought in from weeks of travel away, even salted and dried fish from the ocean, wherever that was.  The tools and weapons we made were now considered the best of the best, and Elaya had been forced to set up a small post where trading could be done.

New people had tried to join our village, only to be rebuffed by our elder.  There had even been a few people trespassing in our hunting grounds, looking for anything they could.  We did still have our old trading partnership with the neighbors whose land had the copper of course, and they were getting a large quantity of both the raw metal and finished goods from myself.  That joined the promise to their elder that I would share the knowledge when I came of age, and kept relations quite friendly.

Elayatol was now a booming hub of industry, well, as much industry as a society just entering the copper age had.  In Earth's timeline there had been only a short period where copper had been king, before bronze took the throne.  Sadly I had no idea where to get the tin I would need for that metal, so we'd be skipping ahead a step or two.  When I got to it, we would be having iron tools.  Waiting seemed prudent for now though, let people get used to the first metal before bringing in another.

“How are you Elian?” dad asked when we got back to my shop.

“Alright I guess, just, it's strange, not being able to go out with them anymore.  I enjoyed it, you know?” I asked.

“They didn't leave Elian, they just changed, everyone does.”

“Yeah, but we had good times.”

Honestly, I was having trouble with the younger boys now.  There hadn't been any more for some time, and when there finally was for our group it just wasn't the same.  They were all of a similar age, and so there was a sort of distance between us.  Sure, I tried to teach them things, but there were so few connections there.

It was weird, being able to look back on those memories like they were almost literally happening again, but it wasn't the same.  They were like a recording, beautifully done, but ultimately clearly false.  It lacked the emotion and happiness that came from current action, that time had passed, and there was nothing I could do about it.

It almost felt like a waste.  I'd been given another childhood, and I'd spent a lot of it working.  When I thought of it like that I wanted to punch myself.  How many people would give up limbs for the chance of what I'd gotten, and here I'd wasted so much of it.  For what too?  A few extra years of advancement?  We were ageless, I could have spent that time having fun.  I looked down at my workshop in near disgust.

“Elian?” dad asked from nearby, reading my expression.

“I think tomorrow I'm going to go and play,” I declared.  “I should do more of that while I can.”

Dad laughed and laughed at that.

I went to go and find Isha, since going out and playing alone seemed foolish.  Most of my other friends would be busy at this point, but like Rindal she wasn't quite considered an adult yet.  It was an odd thing, many of us would be there by eighteen, but as we got older our aging slowed, so some of us spent much longer as children.  If mother was to be believed almost everyone was there by twenty-five, as that was the way of the world, but it was based on how you grew, not how many years you had.  Elves cared less about the years when we lived for so long, rather the physical maturity mattered more.

Isha was easy to find, as she'd taken up helping my aunt with her pottery.  Those too were taking off as an industry, and since we were far more willing to share how to make them were now spreading like wildfire through the region.  A lot of traders still came here though, since we were the only ones glazing them.

“Hey Isha,” I led with, both of the women turning towards me.  “I'm thinking of going out to one of the old caves tomorrow to explore, wanna come?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Isha answered, smiling.

Auntie Atie gave me a hard glare, “Does your mother know about this?” she asked.

“It's still in the valley auntie, and I won't be alone.  With the two of us there won't be anything around here that will cause us problems.”  My mother had accepted a couple years back that I could wander a bit, but still didn't want me going too far, or alone.

“Not alone,” my aunt declared, pointing at us.  She looked like she thought I might be up to something.

“That's okay, Cala, can come, and she's from my hut, so nothing will happen.  Not like I'd let Elian do anything naughty,” she said, smiling at my aunt.

“I didn't even think of that,” I answered, honestly, Isha was still a bit young in my eyes, having lived two lives made dating a kind of weird prospect for me.  All the girls near my physical age were so young it made me feel gross even considering it, but all of the older women had watched me grow up.

Isha on the other hand took my response rather poorly and tossed a bowl of dirty water at me.  “Go clean yourself up,” she commanded, “At least before tomorrow morning.”