Elevation of Mana Chapter 4 Seasons Change

As I realized what my parents were doing when they utilized their magic I began my own experimentation. It was slow going, painfully slow going. First I had absolutely no clue what I was doing, if I'd spoken more of the language I could have asked, but I was grasping blind here. Then there there the twin problems of never being left alone and difficulty bringing it to the fore. I suspected that the latter had to do with my age; the former certainly did.

My first attempts were mimicking my mother, and trying to push out my magic and make a few blades of grass grow one day while mom was gathering. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't quite reach the ground from her back and my repeated hard pushing jest left me with a messy diaper, this body was really hampering me severely.

During one of the breaks that the women took throughout the day I was set down on a leather blanket, and from there tried my hand again. Finally reaching my goal I managed to touch the little green blade. I tried and tried to make it grow, but it just refused, eventually twisting a bit and turning brown as I stared at it. This was going to be harder than I thought.

Several failed attempts ensued over the next couple of weeks. After repeated failures either resulting in the death of the plant of an outright refusal of the little jerks to do anything at all I moved on to dad's form of magic. He always sang, so I took to watching him as he worked, something that made him very happy and ended with me being brought over and shown his work. He could clearly tell that I was looking at it, and got my auntie to hold me nearby so I could watch. I wasn't allowed to touch it of course, those were sharp, and I was still a baby.

So I learned a few of the songs he used and as soon as I was able to get hold of a rock I tried them out. The results were underwhelming. I managed to easily force my magic to deal with the stone, and it almost felt easier pushing magic into it than it did into the grass. That was about where it ended though, no matter how hard I tried it didn't want to flow like it did for him. The singing didn't seem to matter as I hummed his tune while I did so, my rendition was poor, but I sensed no change regardless.

i was getting really frustrated and quickly. There was something I was missing, some trick or skill that I didn't have to make this work. I needed to observe more, learn more. I also needed to work out the language more than I had so far, so I could just ask my questions. Even if the answers weren't perfect or even scientifically or magically correct, they worked for everyone here, and that would be a start.

It took months of work, but I made great progress. I could now properly understand most of what was being said around me, at least the simpler things. I also noticed that everyone who used magic in a major way seemed to focus. Mom only ever used her magic on things like plants, whereas the white-streaked woman never made anything grow. Dad I was still trying to work out as he seemed to have a wide range of abilities, but he did always sing when he used them, never using them without his music, so that was some information.  My own attempts at magic were put to the side though, until I could ask how to use it.

At this point I was around six months of age and happy to see that I was growing like a normal human baby, at least as far as I could tell. I couldn't talk yet though, at least not anything even near properly. No matter where my mind was, my body just couldn't keep up. Even as I gained some physical ability I was still limited by my size and frankly weird musculature. Huge head and tiny limbs I struggled with the simplest of things.

"Elian, no," mom chided as I approached a small tanning hide that was hung in our little hut.

"Guu," I responded as I kept heading towards the stretched out skin.

"No," she repeated, finally coming over to pick me up.

My mother had learned that I understood at least a few words like 'yes', 'no', 'good', and 'bad'. Not managing to fool her for longer had been probably my biggest mistake, because now she knew I was ignoring her and was as cross as a mother was like to be.

"I know you understand 'no' Elian." She let me see her frowning face to know how cross she was, but other than that and a shaken finger didn't give any real punishment beyond carrying me to the other side of the hut.

"He's moving a lot more now. I'll admit I was worried for a bit there," my auntie Atie said.

"Me too, he's always been so quiet." Mom looked down at me as she said that.

"Coo," I responded, lacking any real complex verbalizations.

They were right, I didn't cry much. Unlike most babies who were still trying to figure things out I had a pretty good handle on what I wanted. Therefore I just needed to come up with a few different cries for the things they were likely to give me, and one for general displeasure and I was done. I didn't need much, and didn't see much point in making a racket.

"Well, at least he isn't trying to put everything he finds in his mouth. Though I would appreciate it if he would stop getting into everything he sees." Mom gave me another scowl. She wasn't wrong though, I was trying to get into everything and figure out what people were doing.

"Weird, you had to have a weird baby didn't you sister?" Auntie asked.

"Indeed I did, and I'm not looking forward to when he discovers how to use his light." That was how they referred to the aura around me, and some others, at least as far as I could tell.

"I remember how happy mother was when you first found yours. I also remember how much she screamed when you started playing with it for real." My auntie had a grin as she spoke, there were stories there. "Is it still growing?"

"It is. I asked Elaya, and she's only ever seen a few children born with a light proper. She said they normally turn out strong, if very troublesome when young."

Elaya was the name of the white-streaked woman. I'd learned a few things about her. One was that this village was named after her, being called Elayatol or "Elaya's village" in the local tongue. The other was that people spoke as if she was way, way older than she looked. It was possible that like in the stories elves aged weird, and she was undoubtedly the elder for this village, having founded it 'many summers ago' as one of the stories told around the evening fire went.

There were other villages, though I knew only names. I got the feeling from the telling about them that none were particularly near, or talked about much. All seemed to report to a larger settlement named Atal though, which was somehow connected to the village elders.

"What are we after today?" Auntie Atie asked.

"More berries, the dark ones are still in season," mom responded.

"Boo, they're too small, and you can make anything grow if you want." This was a conversation mother and my auntie had all the time.

"You know it's hard on the plants to grow things out of season, and bad for them."

My aunt pouted, but adjusted her skin dress and beads and got ready to go. While she prepped mom put me in my holder and I cooed more. I'd yet to see any cloth still, which seemed kind of weird, but everyone looked to be still in the stone age so it wasn't that odd. Perhaps I could look into that later, though I knew only the most basic of theory on how to do cloth from even something like wool.

There was a reason the dark berries were unpopular with many of the women. They were too small, and while they tasted good, were a right pain to bring home. There were a number of different techniques, but the little things just slipped through baskets like water, dropping everywhere and constantly being lost.

We were by the creek today, as that was the easiest place to go after our particular fruity prey.  Many of the women took the time to add the largest leaves they could to the bottom of their baskets, not that it seemed to help too terribly much, and got to work.  After several hours, and a seeing too many of her work dropped and trod underfoot auntie lost it.

"Alright, I'm done, this is stupid, and I hate these things," she declared, marching down to the water's edge.

"Atie, what are you doing?"  Mom inquired as her sister went to pick up a handful of goopy clay from the bank after dumping her current haul in a pile.

"Stopping my food from getting lost," she angrily responded, and began lining the inside of her basket with a thick layer of the clay.

"But... they'll get dirty..." one of the girls in our group pointed out.  She quickly shut up as my aunt shot her a glare that could peel paint.

"Then we will wash them.  We've several that can make water to do so," Atie's tone was venom as she kept on lining the basket, until a thick layer of clay now lined it.

I laughed as the beginnings of an idea started to tickle in my head, if I could only figure out a way to do it.

"See, even Elian thinks it's a good idea," my auntie said at the little peal.

"Or he thinks his silly aunt is acting dumb," mom tried, shaking her head.

A/N:  Two at once!!!  Have a great weekend everyone!