Tell Me What Magic Is
Chapter 1
Cold wind bit the cheeks of the boy. They were small, warning bites of the soon-to-come storm. Snow had dominated his home for a long time now. Harsh whiteness already clung to the pine trees, and the gray skies guaranteed nothing but more wind and snow and ice.
He resented his father. He was always forces to hunt because all the money they had went to his father's debt. After living for fourteen years, the boy wished to be free from the burdens of manual labor. There seemed to be no way to even lessen the burden. There was only one way the boy knew of, and it was forbidden by his father: magic. Magic was capable of so many extraordinary things that the boy wanted to see, experience, use…But his father said no, so he obeyed.
The boy saw movement from the corner of his icy, blue eyes. A brownish-gray color darted in between the white and green of the tree. The boy grabbed an arrow from his quiver and notched it into his bowstring. He could hear the bounding of hooves supporting a large creature and the huffing and braying of a deep-chested animal. It was getting closer…closer…ZING!
The boy let his arrow fly in the direction of the strange beast. He heard a deep moan and then a thud as the animal's body dropped to the ground. The boy walked over to the fallen animal. I was an elk. The boy groaned "How am I supposed to carry this home before the snowstorm kicks in? Unless…" the boy thought with a shudder.
He cut the elk's underside open and climbed inside. He cringed at the claustrophobic heat and the smell of digesting grass. It would provide decent shelter from the freezing elements, but it was…unsanitary.
The boy climbed out of the elk's organs. The sun was radiating warmth that promised new opportunities along with the new day.
"How was hunting?" the boy's father asked as the boy barged in their meager living quarters with the elk dragging behind him.
"Fine. Just fine!" the boy spat. "I love sleeping the intestines of a filthy elk!"
"Be quiet…! And don't drag it. We could use its skin."
"Oh, yeah, so you can gamble it in your futile attempts to make money?"
"Shut up, and go to your room!" his father hissed.
The boy entered his room and slammed the door shut, causing the whole house to vibrate. "And don't slam my door!" his father yelled through the wood. The boy furrowed his eyebrows in frustration and plopped down on his straw-stuffed cot. His seven year old brother sat across from him on his own cot.
"Welcome home, Zeref-niisan!" he said. The boy smiled ever so slightly. His brother always found the simplest things that could make him smile.
"Hi, Natsu," he replied.