Chương 6: Comfortable Storm

"As we saw with last week's lesson on mana control, the core controls volume and pressure. Without building density in the core you cannot achieve a strong enough output to create visible constructs external from the body. This lesson will be focused around awakening a core, which most of you have done purely by accident, and condensing your first level of mist.

We know mana gathers in the body from consuming mana rich food, passive absorption from environment, and if you're lucky actively absorbing it from a crystal or some other mana rich item." — first year lecture from Zefer's, the magic school for children 7-10 years of age.

Climbing out of my hide hole I rub my eyes and stretch until I feel a solid crack down my back. I'm going to have to dig the next one bigger I guess. Spending some time wrapping my armor and angry log cover around myself, I notice offhand that the cover doesn't drag the ground behind me like it did when I first created it. The sky is a little darker today and the sun is hiding behind the thick cloud wall off in the distance. That's a first.

Curious eyes trace the edges of the cloud wall for several minutes only to see that it is slowly moving in my direction. Shrugging I carry on with my usual wake up routine. I catch a couple squirmy water things and climb a tree for its fruit. I don't remember when one squirmy thing stopped being enough, but I lost count of the days rather fast. I only have so many digits on my hands and I counted them all a few times I think. Doesn't really change things.

I'm still stuck out here seeing new things and finding the beauty in this world. After eating first meal I begin to hear a loud CRACK off in the direction of the cloud wall pretty often. Looking that way for a while and I can see a flash in the cloud and not long after another CRACK. Ok so the light is loud. Neat. I have been walking up this river bed for several days just exploring and learning what I can. It's beautiful yes, but I'm beginning to get rather bored. And my chest itch gets worse each day near dark.

I'm beginning to worry something I ate doesn't like me. The smallest drops of water land on my angry log cover and I look up trying to figure out what is tapping on me. The flying critters get louder and flutter from place to place excitedly so I don't think any predators are near. TAP TAP TAP TAP. It's water… from above. I hold out my hand, all three fingers and thumb cupped together and collect some of this water. It holds a shimmer that looks so beautiful.

Taking a drink it tastes wonderful but burns my throat on the way down. It's not bad, but it's somewhat like that red pointy fruit I tired the other day. Not entirely painful, but I wouldn't eat them unless I had to. Ok so sky water that shimmers and burns a little. Not understanding why the water would burn at all I move along and rub at my chest. The sky water is coming down so fast after a while and I start seeing tiny blue lights in the wood.

With the cloud wall close above the shadows of the wood are darker than usual so every little light stands out. There aren't a lot of lights. Maybe one hands worth since I saw the first. I went to investigate one light and found a fuzzy tree critter making a CHIP CHIP noise and tossing nuts down from his tree nest in my direction. I'm not hungry so I leave him alone and walk back not knowing where the blue flash came from.

Stepping inside the tree line for a bit of a break from walking and getting pelted by sky water I find a nice, if slightly damp log to sit on. Cupping my hands under a leaf I catch the dripping shimmery water and drink another small bit. Pain. It burns. I feel the itch in my chest expand and I clasp my hand over my chest to hold my beating heart still. What is this pain? Was it the shimmery water? But today's the first time I've seen it and the itch has been around for days.

While I'm clutching my chest and questioning my life I see a small shelled bug crawl under the drip from the leaf I was using to drink from. After very short moment of shimmery drips I see a small blue flash from the tiny critter. My eyes fly wide open in surprise. The small thing shudders and continues crawling like nothing happened. There's something in the water making the flashes. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Distracted by my thoughts I fail to notice the pain slowly subside inside my chest until a trickle of sky water runs between my armor pieces and under my angry log cover. It feels great and I remember I haven't washed in the river recently so I remove my cover and armor to stand bare in the sky water. I run my hands over my arms and head scrubbing the damp, short, dark grey fur. As I scrub between my leg a loud CRACK and bright white flash startles me and I sit upright so fast I nearly catch myself with a claw.

Almost forgot about the loud light I grunt in a very unserious way. The grunt was much deeper than I recall ever making. When was the last time I grunted at another person? That grunt sounded almost as deep as fathers. I sit back down in my damp log and let the sky water soak my fur as I remember the family I haven't seen in I don't know how long. I think I've been out here alone longer than I was in home hole with them. I wonder if they can see this cloud wall or feel this shimmer water.

It's nice to just sit and listen to the sky water fall. The flyers are still loud. The small critters are out climbing trees. The wood is alive and beautiful. As much as I miss rolling with my siblings in home hole, I love seeing these new things more. I'm sure they will be okay without me. Father was so strong. I know he will keep them safe. With a confident smile I stand and begin placing my armor and cover back on.

Before I make it out of the tree line I feel the intense pain in my chest return and as I collapse to the forest floor I can feel a burning line snake thru my body under my skin. Oh wow does this hurt. Why does this hurt? A flash of light and a CRACK snap my eyes open. In a pained panic I search my limbs for injuries and find none despite the pain. Inside my chest I feel a pressure and I just wish it would dissipate…. And it begins to.

Pushing as hard as I can to disperse the pressure I'm surprised when it spreads uncomfortably through my body. I feel a small line of pressure form in my arms and down my legs. Not quite reaching my hands and feet. It seems the lines stop near my wrists and ankles and the pressure builds there while much less painful after being spread across more space. With no idea what is going on I stay sprawling in the damp forest floor as the pressure inside my body spreads out and slowly disappears.

As the clouds and loud light pass over the canopy I lay staring up eyes wide with fear. I wiggle my fingers and they work. So I bend my legs and arms… nothing new here. Calm down. Breath. Taking a deep breath I feel it. The pressure builds inside my chest as I inhale deep. When I exhale the pressure disperses thru my limbs with a slight burn. Not the pain I had before. This is subtle. Almost a comfortable burn.

Another deep breath and exhale and I pick myself up off the ground and determine what direction the river is. I guess I'll just walk on. Can't be expected to solve all the mysterious problems in this wood.

Deep in the forest near the Zipan river and just in the shadow of the Third tallest mountain sat a small village. Outside the control of any nation and uneducated in the politics of the lands they claim. These people live off the land and shelter inside wood huts with leaf tops to remain close to the nature that brings them life. While the rains come like they do every year, the adults sit outside focusing on filling their core with as much mana as possible for the next few hours.

Without proper control the mana absorbed through the skin would just fuel muscle growth with no true purpose. These men and women have purpose. Sending nana through their limbs out into the plants causes crops to grow multiple times faster. Keeping the mana to yourself is seen as selfish in this land. Nothing has threatened them for generations so the community needs crops and animals to maintain food stores much more than they need strong fighters. So the village sits and soaks in the mana storms rains.

Pushing new mana through their channels and out their wrist and ankle meridians stretching them as wide as they can while they have the pressure from a full core. The village needs mana users to continue to thrive in this dense jungle. And its people will provide.