Elevation of Mana Chapter 17 The Call

I was forced to spend the next few days playing with the girls. While I knew mother had been told of the reason, she pretended not to notice since I was taking my aunt's punishment in stride. It was at least fun to be able to freely play with my magic.

There were of course some downsides. The girls constantly pestered me to make them things using magic, and I knew that if I began it would never end. Therefore I outright refused to make anything else for them. They also wanted me to teach them how to braid like I'd done Isha's hair. That one I agreed to, since I had a lot of downtime waiting for my magic to recharge and I only had to make sure they got it once with how good everyone's memory was.

There were, to be clear, a number of braided hairstyles that the girls and women would sometimes use. However, since these were different, and the only real use of money in the town was for decoration, they consumed such ideas like they were starving for them. Any form of art, particularly one you could wear would be infinitely popular among the females of our tribe, even some of the older women came to sit and see what I was showing them.

"These are fancy, where did you learn them?" Isha asked one day after I'd finished on her. The could see the other girls repeating my movements, to various levels of success, and looked at me with questioning eyes.

"Hmm? They're not that hard to think of once you understand the idea," I lied. It would be best if I didn't share that I'd been reborn in this world, who knew how they'd take it.

"Fine, don't tell me," she answered.

One of the things I liked about her over the others was that she wasn't nearly as pushy. If I said no, or indicated otherwise that I wouldn't agree she mostly let it sit at that. She'd still ask, and sometimes make faces, but she didn't prod without end. Two days into my enforced staying here one of the girls had brought some bones, from somewhere, and they'd decided to make some small needles. Most of them griped and fussed when I'd told them I wouldn't be helping, but Isha had let it drop after only pouting for a few moments.

"Shame I can't see my own," she mumbled, while touching her hair.

I thought for a few seconds, the nodded. "I might be able to do something about that."

The only real source of reflection around here was water, and everyone was familiar with it. Sadly trying to get water that was calm enough for a proper mirror was really hard, so good looks at yourself were rather rare. I could make water though, and I could make it still.

There wasn't a lot of water in the meadow we occupied today, but there was ample shade from a few large trees. I found one, cleared out a small divot in the soil, and filled it up with good old dihydrogen monoxide. From there a plane of force to keep it still was easy.

"Oh thanks!" She said as she looked in the makeshift mirror.

"That's pretty clever Elian," mother said, appearing behind me.

"It's just a pool," I answered.

"True, but it's still clever, and nice of you to do. Shouldn't you be playing with the other boys though?" She gave me a little head nod in their direction. "And not using your magic when alone with them."

It took a beat to register but as soon as it did I quickly responded. "Okay mom, bye!" Then I ran before anyone else could keep me stuck longer. I didn't hate the girls anymore, but fishing and trapping and making fires was just more fun to me than sitting around talking and making little hand crafts.

Finding the other boys was easy, they were off to one side practicing making small traps.  They welcomed me back with open arms and cheers, as well as a light bit of teasing for being punished as I was.  I knew for a fact that some of them had gotten fussed at too, getting the youngest kid among you to do things he wasn't supposed to was a bad mark in most parent's books.

Around a week later something very new happened.  When we came back from our daily gathering those left behind were in deep discussion, with an elf I didn't recognize.  He was long and lanky with a small patch of salt in his otherwise black hair, and had a pair of friends with him, all three were armed, but didn't seem in the slightest bit hostile to us.

"Ah, lad there you are, it's been what?  Ten seasons since last I saw you?  Come here, come here," Elaya said, going over to him and embracing him.

He and his companions were led over to the main fire-pit and the rest of the group came happily along.  Several of the single women were checking both him and the others out.  The dating pool was painfully small in our little village, as almost everyone was closely related, even the stone-age elves knew that mixing too much blood was bad.

"How are you auntie?  I see the village is doing well."  He motioned to the houses around with a smile.

"Good, very good, we've been lucky these past few years, and yourself?"

"Wonderfully, my wife gave birth just last year to a healthy son."  The elder smiled and embraced him lightly before giving a worried look.

"You didn't come out here for just a  social visit did you though?"  She asked.

"Sadly no, Atal is calling all the elders of the villages to meet."  His statement hushed the crowd immediately.

"War?"  She asked worriedly.

"I don't think so.  I've heard reports from the southern villages, the ones up in the mountains, but no confirmation yet," he continued.

"Confirmation... a cold season?"  She asked.

"Maybe, I think you'll be told everything when it's time to meet," he answered with a shrug.  From what I could tell it was only a rumor right now.

"What's a cold season?"  I asked my mother from where she sat beside me.

"The wind gets very cold and the skies turn grey.  When the rain falls it falls slow like leaves and is hard, kind of like sand.  In very bad ones the streams and ponds become hard like rock," she answered.

So... winter?  I'd never had a really proper winter here, as it seemed tropical.  There were cooler times and warmer times, and times when it rained and rained, but never snow, not even close.

"Is it bad?"  I asked.  Our village didn't keep much in the way of stores.

"It isn't either good or bad Elian, it is the season and it just is that way."  I assumed she could see my frown at her answer and sighed.  "If we know and can prepare we will be fine my son, but we will need to prepare, many of the plants will lose their leaves and die.  There will be a few new plants though, and the animals tend to be very good hunting during a cold season."

"How long will it last?"  I asked, this sounded like a rare and odd occurrence.

"Five moons, perhaps six.  We only get one every thirty or more years though."

The time in this world was measured by the natural phenomena.  A year being a full cycle of the seasons, then by the season, then the passage of the moon, finally days and their parts of course.  It seemed... natural, and with the slow pace of life here there was little concern for the exact time for most things.  Though the moons were about a month, and that would make this a very, very long season.

"What do we do?"  I asked.

"For now we sit quiet and let the adults talk," she answered.

I gave her an angry frown, but apparently that just came off as cute because she shushed me again and patted me on the head.  The rest of the night I did keep an ear out for their conversation though.  Nothing much came of it, the messenger didn't have any real news other than the call for her to come.  They did prattle on for hours about friends and distant family.  I learned that, in her youth Elaya had been from the central city of Atal.

Interestingly they also spoke of the city as if it were both a person and a place.