Dude, there is a owlbear in my yard Chapter 1, a naruto fanfic

Dude, there is a owlbear in my yard

Reincarnate after you kick the bucker is a sweet deal, to reincarnate in a world with magic is even more so, have to deal with a more bizarre Jurassic park for a backyard…not so much; and don't get me started on the paranoid fear of magical bogeyman whispering away children in the ADULTS of all things! [SI], [OC], partial [AU], need beta reader. Rewrited

AUTHOR LETTER

So, it's been over a decade since my cousin showed me cartoon where a bunch of kids not much older than me were put in a deathmatch tournament for the amusement of adults, people's arms were blow off by bug, anime Michael Jackson cursed people with hitches marks, and the general awesome display of power mixed with a tension of political intrigue. Where we follow the story of a shunned boy-soldier try to find his own ground to stand to his ideals in a land of prejudice, feuds and sheer desensitizement toward life and the rule and easy answer are hard to come by. I wasn't so rocked in a series since I was six and watched a craze old man find a reincarnated goddess and cross the world procreating to create an army to defend her by orphaning the shoots and send them in a goofy chase for sacred clothes that most would fail and die for… that lead us to a six years old Seya break rocks with his fists and cutting other children ears with his hands.

Today I watched Dragon Ball Z – ninja edition on youtube and let tell you, even if I could see the grow-up characters I can't recognize them for who they were. So this half a farewell and half homage to a series that is close to my heart, a personal closure of sort. whose good memories outweigh the generic piece of shit that it is today.

So before you start let me get started with sub topic or author rant – please feel free to ship this next paragraph and start reading the actual story.

To starters the actual size of the continent. If you have the basic idea of how geographic flora works you know that the elemental continent is the size of an actual continent or continent sized country like Australia, USA, Brazil, and Africa. But kishimoto life in freaking island and can't gripe the scales of distance down – to Konoha encrusted in the middle of amazonas's forest to Suna lost around a shit load of sand in the Sahara is tree days walk. I won't even start to comply about why a forest can't share border with a desert, needing a land of intersection like a savanna. Imagine that today you were introduced to this mystic and esoteric land of the narutoverse, where ninja villages acting as private armies sell their services to countries, demons and all plethora of different creatures share land with humans, talking animals and magic powers is somewhat normal. Now imagine all this inside of a teacup. No wonder the ninja business is this popular, people are killing for space. The land of enigma that gave a vibe of a thriving world with complications and adventure was lost.

I can accept that the sharinga can control the bijuu and wood release restrain them, but to make a BLIND Madara of all things 1x9 all tailed beast and restrain them in that demon statuette in a second while before a ritual accomplish by some of the most powerful criminals of the world took three days!? Fuck you kishimoto, you had him dying for a backstab penetration because you literally made him too OP to be defeatable! You could have prevented this! Kyubee was the demon Lucifer himself incarnated, his power bottomless, his rage endless and his fury unstoppable and later he was turned in a freaking mascot. There is no amount of training to justify a human being more powerful than a millennium old demon, let alone nine of them, Minato at least had the help of the death God.

As cool as the sage of six path idea was it simply isn't something he thought of in the beginning of the series; considering how op sages are, and the point of the ninshu is to form sages. If Hagomoro had graduated one of his students into sage before his passing, then there should be a monastic order similar to the samurais of Iron country. With 4 or more there should be a parallel league of monasteries that rival all shinobi villages together.

Bullshit prophesy – the whole point of Neji fight is that there is no fate… except when this fate is the red carpet for me to godhood. Naruto was charismatic character exactly because nothing to him came easily making you genuinely wish for him to succeed, he managed thing by work himself around his problems: rasengan too hard to learn, use clone to assist, bypassing the talent pre-requirement; Kiba is too strong to beat in a direct fight, fart in his face and imitate Sasuke combo; Zabuza is trapped kakashi, disguise as shuriken and free him; Garaa in turning into a demon, thousand years of pain his as with a kunai wrapped in a bomb tag.

As tempting as it was to see him power through obstacles, wishing him to tap in the nine-tails power to crush opponents, the fact that him persevered under his own power even in a hard situation is what made him appealing and charismatic, what made his conviction moving. I remember to cry like, five times watching the series in phase one. I waited for three actual years for him to come from his training… to this load of crap.

So, end of author rant. This is my first try at it, please, feel free to help me out in constructing this tale and remember I am sort of dork to lore so know that I trying to make these magic mungojumbo more understandable I can. Maybe a subchapter about the discipline of magic is a good idea?

Lush greenery greeted my sight as I made my way through the foliage of the field. Heart beats more euphorically than it ever could in my past life, muscles flexing as I went up and down trees and tracks of land, jumping up to gaining impulse, kick consecutively over barks of trees, going high enough to reach a tall branch. With casual easy I see myself across the air with a grace only a professional gymnast should be able to muster, using the momentum to see myself soaring across the field to the top of other tree more than six meters away.

The sensation of weightlessness as I twist in the air bring me an intoxicating ecstasy, the comforting ache in my muscles says to me that I can go on further, that it want to go further. This forest is my personal playground. I know this area like the palm of my hand, have explored it was soon as I could walk.

I would like to go further but father would sure throttle me if I happen to be late… or if he discovered that a bypassed the boundaries he stipulated to be safe for me to go on my own.

Finally the threes started to thin out and the small community that have been my home in the past seven year can be seen.

The lack of platforms should surely slow me down, but what is the fun in it? With a disregard to safety, good sense and property that only the youth can get away with I continued in my reckless charge.

Using the last great tree I jumped across the small river to one of the wood bean, or rather thee truck, supports of the bridge that must be used to reach the village, jumping from bean to bean until I reach the other side. That should be the end of it, but luck for me "uncle" Mashima, (or is it Marcheda? I never bother to remember the names of people I don't like or care about) was passing by carrying over his hear what I was pretty sure amounted to twice his weight in sacks of grains from the communal fiends. God, or gods, I can't really say for sure; I never will get used how even "regular" humans can pull off things like that! Sure even modern science agrees that the contemporaneous man is the weakest generation of humans that ever graced the earth, with Olympic champions of today being outperformed by regular Joes of the past, but this is ridiculous.

Seeing the opportunity I don't waste time to jump up his cargo and then over to closest wall. "You brat, wait for me to put my hands in you!" I should really know better but since my rebirth this 'compulsion' to needle people's nerve eats at me with passion. I blame mother for this quirk, I am sure father silently in the privacy of his solemn mind does the same.

Turning back I smile at him, a small but broad thing that ooze wickedness of a criminal that knew would never be arrested. That did the trick, the short fused old man tried to charge at me, eyes blazing in the promise to deliver righteous vengeance, momentarily forgetting of his cargo losing balance as I dashed away in open mirth, running back to my course as he cursed me – that was the better performance of a clown malabalist I had seen in this new life. The laugh of the women cleaning clothes by riverside reached my ears just making me feel that much happier with my small misgiving.

Parkour thought the village was always a fun activity, it was a small and lovely thing, designed in an asiatic architecture, resembling an idyllic Korean/Chinese community in architecture, the likes of which could only exist in fiction, bursting with activity in its own way. Mister Furinji skills in his woodwork sure show through, the place give a rustic elegancy that makes one feel welcomed. The houses were made of solid high quality woods that would have made them more expensive than masonry in my old life, but as oak like trees grow here like weed in these megafauna, literally faster than most people can bother to cut down, they are really common.

This turns farming complicated since clearing the field is not really a viable option, forcing us to cultivate crops like injuns, cleansing the field of surrounding bigger trees and sowing the plants around them, attaching branches of fruit bearing trees to those trees, many which a had never seen before (that didn't exist or were extinct) and taking measures to avoid plagues and insects. This turns out surprising ok, most probable has to do with the tree rot network that allow bigger trees to trade nourishment with the smaller ones, not that anyone of this place or time know of such thing.

Turning toward the hoof top of the common halls, the tallest construction, I start to track my prey. He said earlier that he would be coming home around now, before sun set.

And sure enough I see the silhouette of the man. The familiar mop of his lush darker than black mane, almost glossing as it absorbed the ambient light easily gave him away as much as the game he brought in his back, a moss-fur-covered deer, this little bastards are fast and hard to track duo to its natural camouflage, even for this world's standards. But having a tender and almost already seasoned fresh they sure are popular delicacy, selling for a high price in the capitals if one could properly salt it without ruining it's flavor; next week's dinner is barbecue then. And by his track he is going to mister Onoki workshop, the blacksmith of the village, a baldy ginger, almost red, bear of a man with arms thicker than my torso and a powerlifted body build.

This is going to be fun! Just you wait old man, today a get you for sure! Trying to get the better spot to ambush him I soon see a corner adequate to strike and how to get there before him, the easy part is out. Now concentrating I activate my presence concealment to hire my presence from my prey, it is a necessary skill to develop if one wishes to sneak on someone like him. Even animals can do it and since and I am no stranger to dowel in the wilds in search of game, my old father too had a fondness of nature.

To pick this skill, or rather, to remember it had come naturally to me. I just had to remember how it feels to craw in the bed of roots and leafs under the night sky, the pulse of life one feels as small animals and insects running by the ground, almost like everything is alive; how one's sense expand as you reach a state of thoughtlessness, there is only you and the world around you, breathing as one. The light of moon and stars is enough to see as well as daytime, the small rustle of leafs is enough for ears to pick the movement of anything bigger than a lapdog from the ruffle of leafs, the nose is able to pick the smell of leafs, flowers, animals and the metallic taste of blood.

I dash forward, with an economy of movements and smoothness that would have baffled me if it wouldn't cost my concentration. Moving up roofs and down alleys cutting to where I knew he would have to cross. Reaching the sweet spot I crouched the best I could and prepared to bolt like the feline my mother tease my father and myself to be(I am a dog person, thank you very much) and waited.

Wait…

"Waiting is the most important part of any hunt, that is why is the situation is not favorable you should wait it out or retreat to try again. Don't let your greed or impatience ever impairs your judgment! Be vigilant for you may turn into prey. Trust your instincts for they will tell you when the time in nigh and once you start don't hesitate"

NOW!

I bolt from my platform over the semi-hoof of the alley going against his blind spot at a speed of a panther. Yes, got you this time old man!

The joy of victory was short lived though. Before I even realized father twisted himself out of my course, using one leg as an axis to spin himself behind me at the last second and used his free hand to brace me against his abdomen, gentle killing my momentum then stabilizing his grip on me in his waist, putting me in an awkward stance.

Satisfied he lifted myself to his face… with me upside down, giving me the best satisfied smile his taciturn and chiseled features and taciturn disposition could allow him. I sure as hell wasn't pouting!

"Not fair! I did everything right, how did you see me!?"

Fierce lion eyes shinned with a prankster joy of one that was one-upped far too many times to let a chance slide by when it appeared "Ma, little Manu is disgruntled that his ambush failed? Maybe you should work to better hide your 'mischief intent' you were oozing from up the common hall. I saw you coming from miles away since that alley was obvious the best spot for a pipsqueak like you to go after me, even if I couldn't sense you moving toward me until you pounced." His powerful and grave voice taunted me.

Blast! I was so sure to have caught him this time, and his gloating sure is rubbing the wound, but I will be the one to laugh last, wait and see old man!... "Pfss ha ha ha."

After falling in conformable silence I adjust myself over his shoulder to get a free ride, this should be uncomfortable to most people, especially with our carcass over his other shoulder but dad didn't seem to mind.

Sielba sure cut an imposing figure, being what one would expect to come out if a tiger or lion were to discard his fur and walk like a man. A figure that towered over everyone else in the village, except uncle Onoke and Kihimitsu, with 210 centimeter, a powerful build and broad shoulders, athletic body with toned muscles that flexed with his every move resembling hoped braids of steel rope, a fluid smoothness and laze grace of steps. He was a awe figure gifted with aristocratic feature and broad jaw that cut him as a handsome brutish man that one would expect to pose in the cape with a suit in that magazine of frivolities one can't help but find in waiting rooms everywhere. Mother says he is really shy though, in his face, much to his disconcert and our amusement.

After a bit more walking and the sound of hammer and anvil hitting each other becomes audible while we see by the door of our destination a cute little thing with red hair put on pigtails with a disgruntled expression. My smile expanded immediately when her startled gaze registered me, turning her childish face sour, eyes pinning in silent condemnation, arms disclosed and legs separated as finger pointed in accusation to the criminal of the century.

"Manu, stay where you are and let me kill you!" the little spitfire runs toward me in blind fury, jumping at me unmindful of my old man' smile toward her antics. I jump off of my seat and start to run away from her avoiding her grip, using dad's body as a shield as we both started to circle each other. Fiery purple eyes track my every move as she tries to seize any apendant she could get a hold on to push me toward her as we circle dad's legs. Nana had a punch far too strong for a girl, that baby gorilla, but this only mean that this game is more exciting.

"What is it nana-chan? You said you wanted a honey peach pie for super and I got enough eggs for mom and aunt to make it for us. Do you have to try and punch a hole in me every time something is asked out of you?"

"YOU USED ME AS BAIT! Thant bag of lures you gave me was full of holes, my back became drenched in its blood and those fiendish birds chased me until the riverbank!" "Now, now, don't need to be this possessed over so little. I knew such strong girl wound be able to get away from some skittish chicken. I watched it all after all, even warned aunt to have a hot bath ready. But I needed time to collect the goods. It is like they say: one must break some eggs to make an omelet! ●ω● "

"The only thing broken when I am done will be you! You planned this from the start, even making you studies earlier! I have been stuck all afternoon in front of a desk so as to not be left behind in our common lessons while you goofed around!" "It is not my fault that I was born this smart, you simple have to put more effort in you studies. Now stop chasing me or the fruits I collected will be kneaded! I have blue-blossom-apples with me, they are your favorite ."

Seeing he momentary halt duo to my bribe I reach my bag and pull out the goods, bringing it close like some species of tread to an over energetic mascot. "Do you really don't want it, even after all the trouble I had to get my hands on it just for you?" The words had their intended effect as Nanabi had her eye glued to the high sugar fruits as if hypnotized.

"Well, you actually had the trouble to get all ingredients for me, so I guess I can graciously accept this olive branch this time… But don't think I will let it slide next!" ending her tirade proceed to snap the impossible sweet apple off my hand with a ferocity that got me checking if I still had all my fingers. Damn, this glutton girl with sugar addiction, I sure as hell wont deal with her sugar high!

Nana happiness, much to my delight, was cut short when a massive meaty hand grabbed the tread before she could give the first bite. "Now, now, let's not spoil your appetite for dinner shall we?" Saying his piece, Onoki proceed to eat the treat himself, eating half of it with one bite and then giving the rest to my father who did the same. Where parents legally obligated to troll their children or something? Not that I am complaining, nana distressed face sure was cute to look at. "Papa, it was mine!" "There sure are more of those with our little miscreant my habanero sapling, don't need to fret, ha ha ha." Damn it Onoki, I am too low on prana for this and my reinforcement already wore off when I reached the village! …well, for good or ill I can't lose this chance to needle at her. "I never said I would give them over though."

That turned out to be a mistake, I realize. With an expression of determination merged with jolly anticipation she turns to me, already seizing weakness. "This just mean that I have to take them by force, doesn't it? :)" These were stars sparking in her eyes? And here I thought a lazy sun bath over the twilight was all the excitement I had left for the day, that girl's stamina is serious freakish. Without delay she jumps me intending on inflicting unspeakable toward my poor person. In reflex I coach low, seizing her shoulders with my hands a force one leg against her belly as I let her momentum push us in the ground and propel her in the air as I loose said grip… land her right in the soot and charcoal place.

In the corner of my sight the adults gave me exasperating and pitying looks but the look of incomprehension in Nana face as she contemplated that her recent spotless clean figure now lay spoiled got all my attention because I knew, as sure as the sun rise of tomorrow, that a world of hurt wait me.

Seizing the moment I throw my father the bag strapped over my shoulder and run away, just in time too. "MANU, COME BACK HERE AND LET ME KILL YOU!" This is going to be my entire afternoon, isn't it?

After a grueling and better forgotten ordeal I sink my tired body over a pool of hot water illuminated by the stars, letting they wash away my hurt, aches and grime is a comforting experience that would sure getting me zooning off as I drift in thought… if it wasn't for present company.

I small body hit me and I can't help but give her an exasperated look that only made her big smile grow broader. That girl will sure kill me by accident one day. "Serves you right, this is my second bath today and it is your entire fault!" "I see no problem in baths, unless you are a pig-" Punch in the nose, damn! "Shut your mouth you prick, who you are calling a pig?!" "I am sure not me, 'little habanero sapling'!"

I short drown attempt later and the animus calmed down enough for us to concentrate on actually bathing but soon I found myself zooning off again as I watch the night sky. A beautiful thing for sure, likes the which one can't get in a city and I regret never have studied the constellations in the 'past' but it always made me anxious at the same time for a reason that no one but me and those like me, if there are anyone like me, would understand.

Two moons… two good-be-damned moons! We are not in Kansas anymore! One familiar silver orb almost gave me a sense of normalcy but the smaller bloody red neighbor ringed all alarm bells in my head. I feel like Link in Majora's Mask, like it was a guillotine over all of our heads and I am the only one aware of it. Every 93 days the Silver moon is eclipsed by the blood moon, Nights of Crimson Moon are never uneventful; there was a tension in the air, as if the shroud of reality is tightened out and nightmares out of hell or lovecraftian tale will cross to our side to prey on manflesh until dawn. There is in quieting sense of wrongness in all living things, frying everyone's nerve a little bit in the grave silence of a Mexican standoff, the instinctual fear to be the first to move lest end as the second to die.

Father never went to hunt in those nights and after I was born he avoided lose sight of me entirely and I can't fault him, he was almost widowed. This is not something that he or anyone in our family direct circle told me but something I overheard from the gossipers women in the village. You see, despite having an uneventful pregnancy I had the shit lock to be born under that cursed celestial body. The birth labor started half a month too soon as soon as the last ray of sun touched the ground and the only light as the cursed red gloom that obfuscated the stars, the impromptu legend of my birth that everyone know better than speak with my parents around. The labor was a bloody trial with enough pain that the screams of my mother could be heard across the entire riverside though the night. I was born a silent baby, breathless, the midwife tried everything resurrect me for good ten minutes but for all intends I was born dead and my mother was sure to follow as she embraced me in the bed. She said my father kneeled by our side and prayed for his ancestor in the chant of a language branded as forbidden (as where almost all by what Sisifu told me, since the cultural unification) and as the first ray of sun kissed our faces, lifting the cursed miasma everyone feel with their bones by everyone ignore least call Its attention I breathed my first. They said father had the temerity of naming me in this tongue as tribute of whatever deal he made.

I really don't know how much of this is true or embellished mix of creative imagination with folklore but the part about the cleansing properties of the sun in banishing the 'bad air' stained by the dwarf red moon is truth. It is like reaching the surface after a deep diving, one can't help but breath in a desperate raze to quell the fear of drowning…or at least it is so with me. All tales of the red dwarf are macabre and foreboding, theses nights are no different to the full moon back there: it embodies the fear and reverence of werewolves, vampires and the likes of which dwell in the dark where humans can't live but is most seen as harmless superstition, if one doesn't believe in curses it can't take hold. But this and the fact that my magic energy reaches its peak at noon contribute somewhat to my belief in this tale.

"Why are you spacing out, idiot?"…and the moment of reflection is gone, this girl can read me far too well. "Come here, let me at least clear your hair for you." "You better, after all it was you that dirtied it!" "Now, now, do you really want to spend all of our time fight? We will not be kids forever; bathing together won't be an option in some years." "Why?"

…That girl is far too dense or rater she is as much the child she appears to be. "Adult stuff?" I say in my best I-don't-know-either-so-don't-ask-me-please. She look thoughtful at my face for a moment, then giving herself for satisfied turn her back to me, if there is one good thing for being known as a smartass is that in people thing you can't pass the opportunity to lord them over your smarts. "I will ask papa, he is sure to know then I will tell you, ok?" Please do it, Onoki owe me one for early today there is no better way to get back. "Please ask him where babies come from as well; I heard it has to do with it somehow."

"I can relate to desire of payback Manu, but Onoki is older than he looks don't do anything to give him a seizure, please." A melodic voice reaches my ears and I can't help but laugh at her tirade as I feint sheepishness rubbing the back of my head. "Sorry, mother./Aunt Aoi, where do babies come from?!"

Aoi, or kaa-chan, is a petite woman of slender and elegant proportions in her late twenties, yet still giving off an aura of loveliness of a young woman in a cute neighbor of countryside vibe. Graced with a heart shaped face and soft features she has a gentle but almost unremarkable beauty, making her easily overlooked unlike father whose presence draw attention unconsciously. But her most exotic and distinctive features were her captivating caramel brow eyes that cleared into honey-yellow who hold a glossing shine that always dance with her emotions and magnifying all her expressions in a captivating display and her colorful personality that made life around her interesting to say the least.

She laughs at Nana inquiry while wiping water over her head and brushed her hand in a homely made liquid soap full of triturated pieces of flower petals and herbs leaves and rubing over her brow hair. "Let's leave this question unanswered for a few more years at least-" Nana folded in childish discontentment but soon cuddled close to mother "Serious? He already look sexagenarian! What is his age then?" I say in a mocking disrespect that earned me a punch in the arm by Nana, ok so I exaggerated a bit, he appear to be in his middle fifties but mother laughed so it was worth. "OH little Manu, how to explain this for you? Let's just say that Onoki is not really Nana father but her greatgreatgreatgreatgreat grandfather. He is practicaly a walking fossil, do you understand?"

Ok, that is new information. Although I know by now when she is pulling my leg there is some truth in her statement. I knew aunt Sugo wasn't really Nana's mother but this mean that Nana is orphan of both father and mother and by her dejected face she already knew the same.

Before she realize it mother entered the hot pool enveloping we both close to her chest in a comforting embrace. "Nana-chan, rather than brooding over the loss of something you never experienced isn't better to concentrate in treasuring what you have? Blood bond of families are not everything they are cracked to be, you have everything you need with us Evem if you didn't grew under my heart you grew in it. Sugo-san as well, she loves you as if you were of her blood and I fed you in my bosom with Manu-chan, what make you as siblings, don't feel the same as us?"

"So, if you feel us both how come we didn't starve?" I say so while glancing at her below average 'assets' that earned me a motherly embrace tuning into a throat shocking hold – I regret nothing! "Damn darn sassy aren't you, Manu-chan? It is said that parents that don't make their children cry will eventually cry for them so consider what follows an expression of my affection." Said her peace she started to merciless tickle my person while I valiantly resisted her advances and almost escaped scorn free but Nana chaptalized this opening to join forces with mom in this 'let's make of Manu existence a tickle hell".

She always seems to know what to say to people, it's like she possess a sixth sense to people emotions. I know that mothers can read their children like the back of their hand but mine take the cake, is like she is a psych…actually she most likely is, considering what I discovered recently.

After bath we dried ourselves and joined father and Onoki in the dinner's table. A light dinner waited us comprised of rabbit stew with carrot and something between potato and mandioca seasoned with salt and paprika, rice with prune, peas and this world' mushrooms equal of champignon, a salad of many cooked vegetables sauced with honey and something that resemble mustard and for desert I could see aunt Sugo bringing the pie that was the cause of all my pain of today.

That had been how things had been for as far as I remember, sans Sugo that just joined with Onoki two years ago. A middle aged woman that appear to be in her last forties but was graced with a gracious aging complexion, a mature beauty if one is feeling generous our 'milf' if I were to be more lascivious and descriptive. Long black hair, violin body and giant breast where her most defining features, but her soft and pleasant personality was what I liked about her the most, really sex drive is an absolute foreign concept for children even if they know about it their bodies simple doesn't compute the stimulus.

Soon enough mother and Sugo found their usual place by their companions side while we children stayed by the corner of the table. As soon everyone found their place all the women started their pray of graces for the meal in the name of the Great Sage, and while both father and Onoki respected their creed I couldn't help but notice they have their misgiving with this religion; father the institution, uncle by principle.

The sage of six paths guy is basically like if Jesus and Buddha decided to fuse in order to fight against the Best of Apocalypse that ravished the world around eight to twenty hundred years ago. He is reputed to be born already a god a 'deva' that transcended to an even greater plane of existence through a journey of spiritual enlightment and freeing himself from the circle of reincarnation. He is the figurehead of the most popular religion of the continent (people believe there is just ONE continent and that the earth is plane in here!) and is eerie like the Buddhism of the 'old world', what earned from me at least a nominal respect since the idea of reincarnation is something I have to put my faith on.

He founded a secular order that today comprise of loosely associated temples and monastic orders spread for all the countryside, pretty much the Vatican run by epic level monks for what I have gathered and seen. This very land we live in is technically part of their turf, that is both better and worse than living under a noble territory that would force us to pay tribute and make his binding but give some protection in turn. Since these guys are 'vowed to never disrupt the natural order', that pretty much translates in 'fuck you and your problems' in most cases, as far as father perception of it goes at least.

Finished the prayer we started to serve ourselves. The atmosphere of the table is warm and welcoming in that comforting meaninglessness of everyday life as I heard the adults talk about their daily trivialities and in turn we too shared our tales of childish adventures and misgiving.

"It took quite some time for you to gather all this fruits and we both know that there were some of these in the gardens Manu. You didn't use this as an excuse to visit the ruins in the swamp, did you?" Blast, I got caught! Think fast, act naturally- "Who, me? Never!" You blew it up Manu, good job! Sielba eyes narrowed in silent warning and I am forced to resort to my ace in the role "Does this look like the face of a liar?"

Father land a flick in my forehead as if answering 'liar, liar pants on fire'… it would have been impossible for me to reach there and get back without reinforcement so this is more like a check in to a troublesome child that went beyond the fence of his backyard than a serious inquire. "Don't get in trouble, little one." "Hay, hay, I will make sure of it." Damn old man, my head is throbbing, be more mindful of your strength.

After dinner we retired ourselves to sleep since it was already dark (7 p.m. I think) intending on rising at dawn so as to enjoy the sunlight the most we could. Our extended family retired themselves to their own home and my parents went to bed. This sure was different from back there were man had already mastered electricity and made a point to make the night as bright as possible. The night is a pitch black darkness only eased by the light of stars and moons and depending on the weather simple navigating oneself at night can be intractable even for people like father and I that have more sensibility to light.

Making myself comfortable in my room a spacious thing that probable was intended to a swam of children, I start my last activity of the day. Thaumaturgy training!

I could feel my face flexing in a smile, this never get old, does it? Ever since I first felt and 'saw' this mist and asked my old memories what it was and It have stipulated ki, od, mana, prana, shi, life energy that leaded me to ask what it was for and it answered 'magic' and proceed to hammer my brain with everything it had recorded about it from fiction, my life has being a uphill ride of excitement.

Do you see, I have an interesting quirk. Where one to think of his father' face he would just visualize the man that raised you in your childhood or if one try to remember one's name it would just one name, but I am different. When a think of something it stirs records that I have no business remembering because I never lived them. I didn't even realized it was a uncommon characteristic until the same memories and the common sense that drive them informed me about how unusual it is to people to have memories that weren't their own.

When I asked myself what was the problem with it and the memories informed me of world of trouble I would be in with a giant list of consequences if people found out about it I decided to keep this to myself. In order to protect my family and avoid worry and suspiciousness I decided to keep this a secret but despite my fears I decided to explore this power and understand what happened to me, why I was different from others.

Theory one: genetic memories of my ancestors… since I can only access memories of one life it is unlikely, but not outside the realm of possibility. Maybe I will be able to access the memories of more ancestors as I grow old. Since the world in my memories has no red moon and the Sage of Six Paths was reputed for create it to trap what can basically be describe as Satan after it destroyed the world, and later brought about great change to the world (it is not explained in details how thinks were before, but maybe he started a new age of mysteries where magic is common?) it has some merit, but let's keep our options open.

Theory two: reincarnation. Some religions, including this ninshu, the biggest religion of this world, believe that the once a person dies he or it will come back to life by one of the six paths of reincarnation. There was a religion that stated the exact same thing in the world where my old memories are situated. To make things even more credible, people in ancient times there believed that memories and thoughts were not stored in the brain, but in the soul. It could be described as a software and record that stored everything someone experience but the body, the vessel and hardware, act as shackles that limit it.

It could be argued that if it was the soul that shaped the body then I should have to have the exact same appearance and although I have some traces of my old self we couldn't pass as twin; although the mythology of reincarnation postulates that once someone dies their soul is directed to the Gaia Records to be recycled and that the truth in not a constant but has a tendency to be a mix of what actually happened and the lore that was created around the fact, the way people perceive it. People in the past most likely didn't know about DNA but this doesn't mean it was meaningless, maybe the soul mold the body as much as the body mold the soul as its new shape is stored in the record while one is growing in the womb. Magi in the Nasuverse use this moment to perform rituals that will improve the magic potential of the offspring, a feat impossible to do later in person's life.

I felt a bit foolish for relying in information of a fictional world but they had been surprisingly useful in my magic training. If something holds its own empirically one is wise to not really disregard it entirely. Mother can comply all she want about me wasting salt over the border of our door but if reincarnation is real GHOSTS ARE TOO! Bastard had to watch all those horror movies, didn't he?!

The reason that I am listening to the Nasuverse magecraft system is more from my personal taste and appreciation in the rules that at their core is divorced from bias of moral or religious beliefs that resonate with my old life appreciation for laicism then anything concrete. I ,or should a say he, was a lawyer with a taste for history and follower of a hermeneutic of school of tripartite law in history, society and philosophy, had distaste for the convoluted and unreliable legal system of my country and so joined duty and pleasure in studies of how such legal messes come to be. So when I met the world constructed by the self-proclaimed 'lying liar alien from planet lie' I had an unordinary amount of fun deconstructing the world's mythology and inert work by gathering the fragments of truth and then remount them together in a way that fits. Speculating how one could explain tales and legend in a way that fit in my perception of magic and how this system would fit in my old world's history… what a nerd! By the end of it I could take any fantasy world of fiction and consistently make it fits inside my own homemade magic's basic structure since it is devoid of any moral sense of judgment in its structuration making biased perception of a Manichaeism or cultural oriented mythology just a minor quirk in the grand scheme of things.

Since theory four and three say I am a mad kid or that this is a coma induced dream and right now and I am actually vegetating in a hospital after a grievous accident I am more inclined to go with go with theory one and two…so going back to my abnormal ability and magic.

For shorts the world is a living being, all celestial bodies are actually. Beings of such scale have difficulty in defining themselves much like a newborn that never had interaction with others or ways to looking into a mirror. Some solve this by creating a constant for themselves, a being that could be said to embody its brain. This being can be called Ultimate One for lack of better term.

But not all planets do so; some disperse their soul in countless fragments and let them act independently as a micro-consciousness and through interaction with each other the planet can actualize a self-image where it exist as a singularity that embody the macro-consciousness of all things. All is One and One is All. Everything that exists in the world has a purpose in this and the humans, as the only conscious and self-aware animals, have the ingrate role to be the figurative frontal lobe of this brain. Like 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' posture, we humans are miserable animals that can't deal with not knowing. We always have to be able to explain everything like possessed by a compulsive obsession since we are mere toddles, from the dawn of our history as civilization to the advanced civilizations that reach the light of the stars, and if the answer make sense or not is just a minor detail. Our belief and common sense establish the reality, even spiritual beings that don't need human belief to exist still use human imagination as shell four their bodies.

Magic derives from that role, if one has the gift a human can interfere with the rules of nature by temporarily superimposing his will over the world. It can be accomplished by a plethora of ways, but as I perceive in training, having a solid and concrete mental image easy the performance of nature interference. So the simple act of qualifying and naming things, even if arbitrarily, helps build that image, no matter how tenuous the grasp of it.

It is believed that the subject of a mystery "exists," the World permits its existence. Definite affirmation of said belief is not required. For example, even though the majority of modern humans reject the existence of ghosts, modern science cannot outright demonstrate that they do not exist, and, thus, within the unconscious, there lurks the vague suspicion that "they might indeed exist." This sort of "suspicion" falls under the category of "faith." "Ignorance" is the force that opposes "faith." If the existence of ghosts is itself utterly unknown, faith cannot foment, like trying to describe a color beyond the seven prismatic ones, there are a few who are born with the capacity to see ultraviolet but they don't know this themselves, because how would they know that they see differently from everybody else?

In any case, if faith in a mystery is widely disseminated, a relevant Thaumaturgical Theory gains robustness. For a Theory weak in faith, "the power that engraves" is similarly infirm, and in other nations where its mystery is wholly unknown, implementation of descendant magecraft fails.

One can perform nature interference by two ways: through psionic powers that I call [The Way] and through magic/mysteries/miracles that can be dumped in a second discipline called [The Path]. This qualification derives from my favorite D&D setting, Dark Sun. The world of Athas also follows the Gaia theory and is the only setting where psychic powers actually fit.

Psychic powers can be actually referred as extrasensory perception (ESP). For short, there are people with extra psychic channels opened in their brain allowing them to interact with the world in a way that ordinary humans that are stuck in the 'common sense' channel can't at the cost of the loss of the protection granted by those that live under its absolute rules. Humans are ruled by their perception- no, the whole world is rule by its sense of perception. It is said that if you look at the abyss the abyss also will look at you; a person with this senses my attract attention from nonhuman entities.

Unfortunately this is an empirical truth; when I was younger still I pilgrimaged to the fire temple with mother to receive a blessing. I was beginning to meddling with aura reading and made constant use of this ability without care in the world until traces of a powerful aura in the drew my attention. I tried to follow these 'ropes' until I reached its source. It was like the sun, to my senses it dwarfing the other monks' auras to fireflies and it was extremely distinctive too… to starts it wasn't human, not any longer at least. And It saw me, he turned his head to my direction despite the distance between us and for a moment I thought I was done for. Thankful my fears didn't come to be but these sages are a subject of concern and wonder since they are the supreme authority in their hierarchy. They have the shape of humans and once upon a time they probably had been so but their aura is too distinct from animals, plants and humans. I can't help but to speculate about how such arrangement came to be.

Back to magic, The Path of Magic is nature interference realized by capitalizing in our role in the natural order, exploiting the unwritten and invisible rules of the world by our will, faith or belief to achieve feats that seem to goes against common sense. I imagine that basic principles of D&D apply here: there are those the like of wizards, that understand the rules or a mystery and exploit; those that relying in insight and intuition that goes beyond what pure logic could reveal like a cleric to commune with a guardian spirits he has a pact with or covenant to perform magic through it bringing forth a miracle or druids that understand the flow of seasons and the rhythm of a land and commune with it in a way that both parts can understand. Magic can be defined as the crystallization of human wisdom, as long one can visualize a path to reach a result anything is theoretically possible; the sky is pretty much the limit. But even if you want something and can visualize the path to reach it, without the power to bring a result forth one is merely overreaching and let me tell you, the consequences are dire indeed.

This brings me to today. I finally covered the basics of physical magecraft and explored my inborn psychic powers and thinking about my next step decided to start my elemental training but with a little twist: I will bend an element. Rather than use my magical energy to manipulate the element I will try to use my synchronization to try and move an element by use the strength my brain normally uses to move my body around to move an element. If this work there will still be consumption of life force, but it will be exclusively internal, no different from a physical activity.

The element I chose for this is water, hydrokinesis, since it is the most flexible element it should be the easiest. Earth is steadfast and unflinching what may make it difficult to bend while wind is ever free making it too hard to grasp and fire is alive, making it a too willful and dangerous element to tap with.

My approach to it will be the same I would have to approach and charm an animal with empathy: I must understand the element, its behavior, purpose in the world and the driving will of the elementals that comprise its spirit. Alchemists believed that each of the four primary elements known to the ancients (earth, fire, air, and water) consisted of a subtle, vaporous principle and a gross corporeal substance.

The term elements has been applied to the lower, or physical, phases of these four primary principles, and the name elemental comprise of the essences to their corresponding invisible, spiritual constitutions. Minerals, plants, animals, and men live in a world or a phase of the world that is composed of the gross side of these four elements, and from various combinations of them construct their living organisms.

Just as visible Nature is populated by an infinite number of living creatures, the invisible, spiritual counterpart of visible World (composed of the tenuous principles of the visible elements) is inhabited by a host of peculiar beings, to whom he has given the name elementals, and which have later been termed the Nature spirits that are divided into four distinct groups, which he called gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders. The elementals are said to be able to move through their own elements as human beings move through air, that each one stays healthy in its particular "chaos" but dies in the others and have great control over their own element.

The undines are the elementals that embody the invisible, spiritual essence called humid or liquid ether, more than simple bodies of water they live in any liquid substance. They embody the element water, and so the undines are able to control, to a great degree, the course and function of this fluid in Nature. They are regarded by their beauty, symmetry and grace. Controlling the water element-which has always been a feminine symbol-it is natural that the water spirits should most often be symbolized as female.

They are associated with the Moon, which is another symbol of femininity, because of the effect this celestial body have in the control of the tides. Today is a full silver moon night so the chances of me pulling this bending off should be higher.

In front of me is a simple bowl with about a litter of water, I am by the window, being bathed in the pallid light of the Moons; fortunately the red moon is withering. Opening my mind's eye, the fusion of all my improved senses, arcane senses through synesthesia spells I created, I try to feel the light of the moon and how it's 'presence' resonate through ether of void to the liquid ether in the bowl and synchronize with dispersed spirits in the water by sympathizing with them and 'probe' the water to move as if it was an extension of my own body, like an extra limb.

I close my eyes and starting like Katara did. First katas slowly imagining the push the water does forward and backward through continuo movements of pushing and pulling.

Pushing and pulling.

I imagine myself feeling the water moving in the bowl in the rhythm of my movements…

Pushing and pulling.

I feel the light of the moon in my body and in the water, try to feel its strength entering me and the water. Feel the moon, feel the water.

Pushing and pulling.

After half an hour I open my eyes and look to confirm with I believed- already felt was happening. The water was following my movements. That. Was. So. COOL!

My excitement makes my 'grip' over the water slip. Ok, more control. Feel the water with my entire body, an extra limb I never realized I had, like learning how to walk. I reached my water grip again and try to lift the water, streaming it from the bowl and then 'fold' it in a ball.

It feels figuratively like it's try slip through the 'gaps' of my grip in every opportunity it gets so I have to continuously folding and circulating it with my arms to maintain the solid hold in it. Keeping my legs steady and moving my body in the axis of the waist up.

That is kind of fun! Snake stream! Circulating, circulating, circulating, water ring! Hold, hold, hold, water ball again-"What nonsense are you doing child?"

God damn it! I already took too many baths for today, she made it on purpose am sure!

I turn my now soaked form to the source of the voice and as sure as the sunrise a cat smile graces the face of, well a cat. Sisifo is my mother pet although it claims it's the other way around. She is an old cat of the tonkinese breed that is with mother since she was a little older than me…she talks too.

Human speech.

A lot.

Is actually harder to have her shut up for a chance.

Am I in freaking Narnia or what!? I can't put a hook on a river without dreading that my game will suddenly start to talk to me into a Hakuna matata way of life and about the wonders of vegetarian diet! It happened once, okay.

You can go and try eating something that was sentient minutes before but I shipped lunch more than once because of it. Fortunately it's a rare condition, but still… I even tried to ask her how she pulled that off but she laughed in my face, said that if a wood box can talk(there are radios here?) there is really nothing extraordinary in talking and all but said it is just natural for the cat master race to learn the tongue of inferior, lesser species if they so choose… prick.

"Earth to Manu , are you there?" "Very funny, I even forgot to laugh." "To me it was hilarious and you deserved it. Hadn't I told you that nothing good will come of this?" 'this' happens to be everything that has to do with magic. Even though I have enough free time, privacy and space to practice my craft at my leisure Sisifu that has an erratic routine between her eighteen hours of sleep for day is someone that always get me by surprise just to nag about the same topic. She has been an important source of information for me since adults tend to shelter children of many unpleasant facts of life but her personality and the blackmail in fish for her to keep quiet about my secret convinced me that cats are as big assholes as portrayed in cartoons.

"Sigh…" I start to bend the water out of the clothes and the wood floor, no point in letting her distracting me- "stop waste time playing with water, it was fun to see your soaked cat face but I want to stretch a bit" so she says as she jump over my back and lay on my shoulder blade. What a pert little rascal, she is in one of her mods today what means here goes the rest of my night.

I resign myself to my condition and put the water back in the pot much to Sisifu satisfaction, she is oozing smugness and patronizing like someone that got a particularly stupid puppy to do a new trick. I reach the window and jump reaching the roof with my hands and them pushing myself up it.

I look up to the sky again, now that everybody retired for the day the only source of light are the stars and the moons. What I hope to be the Milky Way is lighting the night sky with bed of shinning lights. I always had good night sight but now I can see as well as day time with magic but to me this sight is truly magical. I can feel my heart beating with this sense of wonder; it is really easy to believe fantastic things exist in the world if people could see firsthand this show of cadent celestial bodies, even Sisifo always enjoy it.

I walk a little more toward an even grounded spot in the roof observing the panoramic view it gives me of our small village, a small but cozy thing that has been my home for all my seven years of life. In the distance a cool wind comes from the woods that shine alight with Bioluminescence plants ranging from blue to green shine.

Getting in a good spot to enjoy the night a put Sisifo in my lap and start to pet her belly what soon rewarded me with her purr, damn she is still cute! After some minutes she decided to break the silence in the most annoying way possible. "You really should stop this nonsense Manu, it is for your own good." Come on, not this again! I already could feel myself grimacing "If you at least told me why then I could think about it, you know? Give me a good reason at least!" now it was her time to make a face, here comes a scold "Because you almost died years ago should be more than enough reason, don't you think? You got bedridden for days and made us all worried sick!" "This was just once when I was younger and inexperienced and I am more careful now-"Days ago you couldn't even walk in strain line and don't think I didn't noticed your headaches, you have been making tea for migraine for a solid month now!" "That is not just about my magic training and we both know about it."

My statement got her to stop whining but a fierce stare contest took its place, Sisifo vivid slit eyes searched my face for any opening out of this predicament but today I would give her none. After some minutes she seems to give up and sighed "Spot pouting Manu, it stopped being cute after you made five." Gods be damned! "I am not pouting!"

The coy smile she gave me was pissing me off just further, damn! "What is it that you adults keeping dancing around with me? I may be young but I am smart enough to understand things, just explain them first! If you are worried about my heath then be at easy, the reason I never get sick like the other kids is because of my magic too, doesn't it make my training worth it?"

She averted my gaze; if I didn't know any better I would say my protest had an effect. Unfortunately…"I know you are a bright child and that is exactly the problem…" Here it is, no straight answer again. "Whatever, let's just forget this conversation then." "We may, for now, but I say this for your own good child, you shouldn't mess with this stuff. In a way or another, things will go sour for you."

"Can we stop, I feel sleepy, ok?" Saying my peace a lay on the floor and close my eyes, she knew I was lying but thought better of calling me out for it, deciding to lay in my chest and sleep herself. Great now I am stuck here with nothing better to do in a foul mood what bring me back to all our conversations about this topic. I can't help but think about what she was saying, a way or another… does she mean that even if I don't get hurt while practicing magic I still will get in trouble, but why?

This is such a pain! There are others that can wield this power, just walking up the mountain and there will be a monastery full of them. The monks might not be prone to flashy display, keeping their secrets to themselves but he emanation of power from their bodies show the arcane aptitude to create manifestation of some sort. The left over prana signature of a spell, fabricated intention with the purpose of creating a mystic effect suffuse the entire temple's ground.

I was too young and still inexperience the last time visiting it so I couldn't read the leftover intention left in the prana to determine what sort of effects was generated but I know how to measure strength when I look at it and the senior acolytes are all strong, really strong. they not only emanate great quantity of prana but also displaying a signature that mark them all with the quality of a focused will that promises a total acceptance and mastery of oneself; while my father has a signature almost as strong as a senior monk it resembles the life-force of a wild beast.

Usually there is a vested interest in keeping the knowledge of thaumaturgy a secret by the holders of their mysteries but although they will decline any apprentices over the age of five for training and indoctrination reasons they don't seem that concerned in controlling people's life or knowledge that said mystery exist. Maybe because they are Buddhists but their "lawful good" signature gives me the impression that even if they discover someone with this sort of power they won't go full-psychopath magus on him. Of course this can be misleading after all even a douche like Gilgamesh is chaotic good, good and evil are just the way people use to qualify things for them after they have already happened. The perceptive of good will differ from person to person and from age to age, not being an absolute principle but a transitory sense of valor… well thinking about this won't really help me figure things out while I still blind, missing all the pieces.

Banishing the turnout in my head I resume my water bending training, I may not be able to lift myself but my arms are still free. I reach them in the air and try to grasp the moisture and condense it into small water orbs. Soon I am trying to manipulate up to four small orbs between my hands. Under the light of the moon and stars they appear like jewelry, not a bad end for my day.