novel prologue-ch2
Prologue How did this happen? I found myself lying in a pool of my own blood, life fading from my eyes. Those bastards broke in to my home, in trying to save my family and protect my property. I was in my early 20s and to die like this is abhorrent. I was a jack of all trades in this life, working for low pay and long hours but it was very rewarding. Just to be able to rest at the end of the day with a sense of accomplishment was all I wanted anyway. I had gone through school while I was highly intelligent I just couldn't be bothered with half the stuff. Marks didn't matter to me because they gave nothing to me in the end; all I cared about is how I saw myself not how others saw me. When I did bother I had really good marks when I tried but most of the time. It was beyond me I studied my interests out of school in the end not bothering to find any reason to submit any papers or journals but finding answers for myself. As I lay there I suddenly found my consciousness returning to me, I found I couldn't move or see at this point but it seemed like I was alive and I was thankful for this turn of events. As time passed time passed my strength returned I found I could move to some degree but my body did not respond in the way I expected it to. Then I heard an unfamiliar voice call out. "Look honey he's finally starting to look around and move, go call your father" a soft woman's voice said. Not realizing that she was talking about me I tried rather to my frustration unsuccessfully to locate and see who was talking about me. As I did I found two enormous hands grasp me to my utter terror, I tried to scream but all that was heard was a soft whine like a new born baby. Her seemingly familiar face that I could not place, but I knew deep down somehow that I should recognize her. She turned me to face a mirror to my horror I was staring at and complete horror I realized that this body I was inhabiting was not mine but that of a very young child. Its soft newborn features were completely foreign to me, they seemed to mix human and animal features, the face was for the most part human in nature but the strange cat like ears stood above my head, I felt a strange sensation at my back only to realize I had a tail as well. I thought to myself "at least I'm still a man, but what the hell is going on." I stared in utter fear unable to speak trying to come to terms as to what has happened to me. I heard to new figures approach, both terrified me both possessed long whip like tails and cat ears and fangs growing from their mouth in both in gigantic grins. The woman's voice chimed in "father, hunny meet your son, fang junior." Realizing that my body was not my original height I was able to approximate their heights they were no larger than your regular human, the younger of the two men was probably around 6 feet tall, his hair was a dark brown as were his ears and tail, he looked to be in his early to middle 30s. The older man was a bit shorter probably about 5 foot 10, his hair had probably been a shade of brown as it could been seen among the graying hair, he also had a long beard that reached halfway down his chest, if I had to say he was probably at least 60 probably older. The woman stood around 5 foot 4, her hair was all a reddish gold, she looked fairly young in her late 20s to early 30s, she was really quite beautiful now that I had begun to come to terms with what seemed to have happened. They all seemed to be wearing crude linen clothing, the woman carried a pair of metal barbed whips, the younger man had a large sword strapped to his back, he was quite muscular and it looked like a claymore being about a foot shorter around 5 feet long and about 6-8 inches wide, both edges flashed with a sharpness that could easily cut the air flowing around it, it had strange intricate symbols carved into it that glimmered with a strange light. The old man leaned heavily against a curved long staff topped with a crystal that glowed with a mysterious light. We all seemed to have a strange glow around us, the old man had a brownish tint to it, the man who was apparently my father the glow seemed to change constantly between blue, red, and green, the woman who was undoubtedly my new mother seemed to be a deep blue color with a mild greenish tint to it, the glow around me was pure white both lacking in color at times yet at other times seemed to be made of all colors.
Chapter 1: The Early Years Having the memories of my past life intact I quickly learned this worlds language both written and oral, they did not have a formal education system it seemed so while I had little interaction outside my family I had to assume there was a low literacy rate, just like on earth unless someone had invented a printing press or a method to quickly copy vast amounts of texts learning was a hands on or oral in nature. My new family seemed quite well off they had a few servants all had varying animal qualities about them some seemed related to cats and dogs for the most part there were a few that exhibited reptilian qualities, a few which had avian qualities that made them look like angels. I learned that my new mother's name was Snow, both my father and grandfather were named fang, my grandfather had merely added the senior title to his name to separate them. I suddenly heard a voice behind me "what are you doing you little scamp." It was my personal maid she appeared young definitely no older than 20 more than likely in her teens, her long ears, and prominate large front teeth indicated lapin heritage, she had brilliant platinum blond hair, her name was Blanche. I am in the process of carving this world's characters into stones to try to begin making copies of several easy to read scrolls. I told her I was gonna start making copies of the scrolls for her and the rest of the household staff in order to help them learn to read and eventually write, she looked at me strangely at first then waved her hand, a copy of the first scroll appeared on a nearby blank scroll, I stared in amazement than quickly asked her how she was able to do that. "It seems like young master should learn some basic spells it would make copying so much easier". She said after she saw how I was looking at this newly copied scroll examining it for any variations. "let me go get your parents and they can arrange a tutor to begin to teach you, though it is rather weird that you are so capable." she said that last part since I had only been on this world for 3 or so years, it was hard to really know how long since this world didn't have calendars, clocks or any other time keeping devices, but 3 winters had passed, the days seemed significantly longer, than what I was used to on earth that could only indicate that this planet's rotation was either slower or that it was significantly larger than earth, it was also a fair bit cooler than earth was, apparently they had never had an ice age so this led to the conclusion that this planet was also further from its star. My parents came quickly, " my son if I had only known how talented you are I would have had someone begin tutoring you already. We can already tell you were gifted with all the primal elements based on your aura." My mother said as soon as she saw me, she hugged me tightly my father stood next to her nodding his head in agreement I could he had the admiration in his eyes towards me. I turned to my father and said "Father please teach me the art of combat, the way to use the sword as well." He replied " first we can start training your body, than how to wield the sword, it will be a little while before we can procure a tutor to teach one as bright as you once they know how gifted you are we will have to beat them off with a stick." The next morning at sunrise my father came and collected me. "First we start with a run, we will start with laps around our home, and then we will move on to the local district and lastly the city." My father said when he came to wake me. The estate was vast it took nearly an hour for me to run the complete first lap. By then I was already drenched with sweat, ready to collapse. My father with a light sneer "tired already, oh well we just started this already, I have to admit I didn't think that you would be able to complete the first lap." laughing lightly, he added "we will do this every morning, when your tutor arrives, you will spend a few hours afterwards resting and completing your studies with them, after lunch we will start strengthening your body, it is important in training with any martial discipline that you focus on both agility and strength, I am also hiring an archery instructor once you get used to this to teach you as well to help you strengthen your other senses including the ability to control your strength. With archery you will learn to be able to sense the world around you the strength of the wind, the distance between you and your target, as well as the strength you need to apply to your shot. This will also help in controlling your swordplay, there will be many times where you will not need to actually kill your target with your sword merely disable or disarm them. It is best to avoid taking the life of another if you can avoid it. We will also adapt your diet, increasing the amount of meat and proteins you consume to best suit you this will take some time since as your training increases so will your appetite. Now let's go have breakfast and see your mother." It was a few weeks later that the chosen tutor arrived, she looked very young no older than 17 or 18, but I could tell this was probably the case. Her facial attributes were very gentle and pure, at the side of her head were the reason I suspected she was far older than what she appeared, pointed ears indicating Elvin heritage. She wore bright purple robes, they were still made from crude linen but the look alone suggested her rank. She did not outwardly wear any other equipment that could be used offensively but I could feel at a moment's thought she could easily take control of most situations without much difficulty. She had a strange air about her; the normal aura that was present on everyone else that I have ever met in this world was not present on her. Little did I know that she was consciously hiding her own aura as most adventurers do. This was all based upon a glance upon her as she entered the grounds and went to meet my parents I had no idea who this young woman was at the time. So I continued on with my morning run. She began "good day Sir, Madam I have heard you seek a tutor for your child. Might I ask the child's age before we begin negotiations? As the child will be my first student I want to be sure he is really qualified to learn the ways of magic." My mother laughed to herself thinking of how surprised this wench will be when she meets the child. My mother replied "I think it would be best for you to meet my child and decide for yourself whether he is qualified to learn from you. Age should not be an issue; he is already well versed in reading and absorbs information at an alarming rate for one at his age but for you to teach him as your first student will definitely be of great importance to the both of us. Let me have the maid fetch him." My mother than turned to a nearby maid and whispered her orders. At this time I was finishing off my morning exercises with being able to complete 3 laps around the estate already I was feeling quite good about myself on how adaptable this new body was and how quickly it reaped the benefits of exercise. It had only been a few weeks and the difference from when I had first started was exponential in growth. My body was already leaner and showing the toning on the muscles, every afternoon I was focused on learning how to build up my muscles through basic things like sit-ups, push-ups and other basics. I was also learning basic martial arts, which would eventually lead into learning how to use weapons, while I wanted most how to learn to use the sword the most, there were lots of different forms of weapons and all of them have their own forms that were used to attack and defend with weapons are differs, spears were better at attacking and were great for speed and had the advantage of range over other weapons, the only way to really be confident in blocking with a spear or pole arms was to make sure the shaft was made from metal but this typically reduced the amount of speed of the weapon, axes and hammer type weapons were typically slower but had the power behind them to crush any enemy, but with that power came their weight, the heads were quite heavy and awkward, this is why swords are the best choice depending on the type of sword a good fencer could easily deflect most blows and easily attack, there were many types of swords this world they were similar to European blades, like the massive two handed sword wielded by my father, I planned on going the two handed route the left hand would wield a shorter blade to block attacks and the right hand would wield a longer blade similar to a long sword giving me about a 3-4 foot attacking range including the length of my arm, this is why I planned to study swords over and other melee weapons. As I was contemplating all this during my run I was approached by a maid who told me that my mother had summoned me. Little did I know that this would lead to the start of my real training, I arrived in the main study there the young Elvin woman stood along with my mother. "So this is the child I am to teach he looks far too young but looks can be deceiving, take this crystal lad and focus on it." The woman said. I took the crystal and did just as she said, a brilliant dazzling light engulfed the entire room, from within that light faint traces of every color radiated outward. The Elvin woman seemed to bite her tongue for a minute, "for it to be this strong of light... you will be a very capable student, might I ask how old you are child." I responded that I am roughly 3 years old. "I will take on this child my fee will be 5 gold per month, room and board plus expenses." She said to my mother, whom replied "that's a bit light, we will add 3 gold per week instead on top of everything instead of only 5 gold per month." With that my training really started.
Chapter 2: Training The next morning I was about to start my morning run when my father stopped me. "Put this on" he told me passing me a new set of clothes. "We will periodically increase the stones it in increasing the weight as time goes on to further train your body, when you take it off and put on regular clothes you will see a real difference in your speed and strength comparatively. We will start at 5kg and work up from there." It was not so much that I couldn't handle it luckily we started with the abdominal region so the weight was close to my core. With that I started my run I found I was down 1 lap from normal which showed the weight had some extra effect on me. After the run I met my new teacher in a nearby court yard. For the first time in two lives I found myself actually interested in learning from someone else. "Now where to begin, first off you can call me Sophia, I'm classified as a first rank grand-master arch-mage. Now before I can start teaching I must ask you what you know of magic, and the elemental attributes." I admitted I knew nothing of the elements but I couldn't help but wonder if they had anything to do with the 5 elements or 4 elements that classic civilizations thought composed the world. She began "there are 4 primary elements earth, water, wind and fire, and 2 sub elements of light and void. Light is produced from the combination of the 4 primary elements while void is the removal off all the elements. Each person has their own elements that they have a natural affinity for you can see each person's affinity just by looking at their aura. Yours is rather rare since you seem to have an affinity, seasoned adventures naturally retract their aura in order to protect themselves by keeping their own affinities hidden." She seemed to relax for a minute than her aura became noticeable the colors red brown and blue were all seen shining but she only kept it seen for but a moment. She continued "in a person's aura the color blue represents water, red for fire, brown for earth, and green for air, if no aura can be seen its one of two things that the person is completely unable to use magic this can be seen in as much as 70% of the population of the world the second that they are with holding their aura. In a city it is fine to assume this however if you encounter any person in the outside world assume that they are with holding their aura if nothing can be seen. All elements can act on their own." She held out both her hands within the left a flame was produced, her right hand was covered in a thin veil of earth before forming into a round ball in the palm of her hand, her feet seemed to levitate through the power of the wind. "Or they can be combined" she pointed her left hand at a nearby tree before the ball shot out at extreme speed before it bore a hole right through the tree. She then pointed her left hand the flames first condensed into a ball before it shot at the tree turning it into ash. "For your training I will teach you to harness the elements as well as teach you how to use medicinal herbs."