The sun rises and with it a day of new opportunities and discovery comes. I know that I should get out of bed but the discussion of yesterday got me incensed enough that I practiced for almost all night until I was exhausted enough to sleep. Mother already woke up and send me to bed while she does her activities.
"Manu, why are you in my bed?" father asks me with well-practiced nonchalance acquired through of convivency with mischievous invidious, he knows any facial reaction will be taken as a signal go further.
"Mother said you feel lonely and cold at night so she sent me to sleep here." I answer with the biggest smile I can muster while in his arms, it seems he is a grabber and ended up embracing me while asleep so to make things more embarrassing I have to drag this conversation a bit.
"And why, pray tell, are you hugging me?" man, I am impressed he managed to ask me this with a strain face. It seems I will have to raise the bar a bit.
That was it, the finishing blow! I turn my face to the side and force myself to blush, feinting embarrassment. "You grabbed me in your sleep. You were so amorous, I can't marry any longer!"
His expression remained impassively frozen like it was made of granite but his emotional aura exploded in a carnival of colors; affection, entertainment, embarrassment, shame and a bit of anger. Of course such shameless comment wouldn't go unpunished but it was worthwhile. He coiled his fingers like a hook, pinned my nose between them and lifted me out of the bed. "Ouch, ouch, ouch."
"Go take the bread Manu, right now."
"Yes, sir!" I bolt out of our house, it seems that my quota of mischief for the day is spend.
Walking about the other side of the village there is always the smell of hot bread in the morning. Mrs. Touzuka prepared a loaf of bread for every family of our community, fourteen in total.
"hello Touzuka-oba, are the goods ready?"
"Ma, if it isn't Manu-cha, did that witch send you this early to take the bread for breakfast? Poor thing!" She and my mother have a rocky relationship, one could call they friendenemies. Not that I mind, since one of the ways Mrs. Touzaka developed to get to my mother is by buying my affections through small tokens such as sweets. Hey, don't look at me like that, kid will be kids, right? I never said I was expensive.
After some time of conversation and hugs a departed from the cooking house with two loafs of bread and a small package with a tablet of cocada warped into leafs, a sweet coconut confectionery of chewy and soft texture.
Back home the tabled was served and the rest of our extended family had already settled. There was hot tea, fruits, a plate filled with delicious slices of ham and marmalade.
"You sure took your time lad, brought anything good for us?"Onoki asked while looking my extra package, as if I would share it with him!
"Oki stop to pester Manu, you already is too big as it is, this is not something good to someone at your age." Aunt Sugo sure is the best, I lunged at her in a hug and pulled my tongue to him while giving aunt the loaf.
After some more ruckuses I seated myself by Nana that was still too sleepy to partake in our usual dynamic and we started the meal after a short pray. "Hey Nana I will be going to the lake by the grotto, want to go with me?"
"Isn't that too far from home Manu?" my mother asked so we both turned to Sielba for counseling. He looked right back at me, examining me as if searching for something. This went for a while until the stalemate was decided by Onoki of all people. "Let the brats go, it is not that far from his normal boundaries, he is older than when you established them and you just scouted that area the way back anyway." Trying to get in my good side your old goat? Well, let me tell you that you achieved it; I pass to him under the tablet some shucks of the cocada that he promptly grabbed and sneaked to his month.
"…fine but you need to finish your shores before leaving and get back before nightfall." Yes! "So wanna tag along or not?"
She looked to me hesitantly for a moment "Are you sure it is safe? I am not a social butterfly of the wilds like you; all animals seem to love nothing more than eating me." She confessed me a bit sheepish.
"That is not true at all, animals love you- "you are such a delicious morsel to their senses that they can't help themselves." Sisifo interrupted to proclaim lazily. "YOU ARE NOT HELPING!"
"Now, now, I am sure Manu will take care of Nana-chan. He is growing to be such great man, I can already see the grandchildren!" mother said while pinching my cheeks. Gods, she knows how to get me flustered! Did she really had to goes there? And to make things more awkward Nana is completely oblivious to the mean of the joke.
"What happened with us being too young for this kind of humor?" "If you understand it then you are old enough, you are so smart! But remember that you will have to take responsibility for your actions with Nana-chan." This punch line was the delight of the adults at my expenses.
After breakfasts I went my way, did my studies and helped Nana to finish hers quickly, supervised the gardens, feed the animals and cleaned the stable. Soon we both were ready to go, with our pouches filled with small lunch and some other items we deemed necessary and departed.
Although strong she isn't agile and fast enough to travel through the trees much to my annoyance so I decided to carry her in my back as soon as we got out of sight.
"Nana, did you got fatter?" a punch in the ribs was my answer. "HAHA, very funny. I got bigger and stronger, it is just that. If it wasn't for your fancy magic you wouldn't even be able to carry me, you featherweight, flimsy punk!" "I got it, I got it! Don't need to hit me every time. Nana-hime is the prettiest, strongest girl of the world. So please spare this poor slave!" "Good that you learned your place, now go faster, servant!"
After about half an hour in my passé we were almost getting in the lake and I plotted my revenge on Nana for earlier. When I heard the sound of running water I accelerated, jumping in the river right before the waterfall that lead to or destination. Nana streamed her heart out, thinking that we were going to be dragged by the flow and die when we hit the stones of the shallow lake by the grotto entrance.
When we hit the water we didn't break though, like rubber being stretched we sink and them the momentum reverted, creating a small wave that I surfed into until we reached a rock in the middle of the waterfall from which I reached for the lakeside.
I deposited Nana in the sand and went to make a tent for our belongings, she was walking toward me but her legs were shaking too much and she soon seated down. "Never again… never again do that, did you hear me!?"
"Relax, is not as if you were in any danger. Your ten is solid enough that only some nasty hematomas would come if the worse happened and I wanted to show you my new ability. Cool, isn't?"
"How did you do that!? Are you going to teach me this?" she asked so excitedly that I feel almost bad to crush her phantasies but her distressed expression is just too cute for me. "Apapa, easy there madam. I indeed will teach you something today but this move is simply too complex for you yet, I came here to train myself."
She predictably pouted but asked "What then will I learn you miserable teacher?" I crossed my arms and said "Well, since you were so dutifully in your ten and zetsu training, even managing to escape from pursues with zetsu yesterday, I thought you were ready for the next step but it seems I was wrong." This had the effect I was hoping for, she prostate with her forehead in the sand and shamelessly begged "Please sifu Manu, teach me the way of the force!"
"Very good, my disciple, it seems that you are starting to understand your place in life and who are your better, there is hope yet for you. Let's then resume training." "YES, is today isn't it?" "indeed, you will start ren today, so get ready." "OSU!"
After we strip of our clothes and put what pass for swimming clothes we reallocated to the lake until the water reached our heels. "As you already knows ren is the technique were you intensify your aura, even if the quantity of aura emanated and magnitude doesn't increase that much the density and potency your aura have the moment you enter ren increase your strength and toughness by many times." "Yes, I am sick of you piggybacking me around!" "If you are confident enough to interrupt my explanation then this means you remember my explanation to how to enter ren, doesn't it?" "Ehh?" she look uncertain at me but under my relentless stare ship in "Visualize the image of energy building in all the body, imagine the power increasing until it explodes?" "Do you really think it will work like that?" I question "I don't know that is why I am asking!"
'Sigh', what a block head "Just do it the way it feels natural for you." She widens her stance and tightens her hands, close her eyes and breathed activating her ten. She keeps this for about ten seconds until the aura expands and the water was pushed by the pressure of her Ren. One of the reasons that I brought her here is so I can measure her progress with in both quantity and quality; when her aura can create a wave strong enough to reach the other side she will be ready to the next level of training.
"Now I want you to listen Nana, you possess lots of life energy and it is naturally dense but this doesn't mean your body is yet ready to endure the stress you will put in it while in the state of Ren. You can think of it like the ideal physical exercise, even if you have great endurance, the maximum weight you can lift is still small. Too much stress will do more bad than good to your coils so I want for you to keep going until it becomes painful. After this you will stop and train your Ten for about twenty minutes or until you feel recovered and then resume it trying to keep the same time." "OSU!" she chorus.
After I started my magic training I discovered that my nerve-magic-circuits weren't completely open so I elected as my first priority to completely open my aura nodes, valves that regulate the life energy in the body. To do so I used a mental exercise used by Nen users to train that double as counterfeit to preserve the secrets of the true Nen (念 mind [force]). It is an effective smoke screen since nen can be learned by anyone and easily turned into dangerous weapon it should not be taught to outsiders carelessly.
Going through The four major principles of 'Nen'(燃 inflame/burn one's soul): Ten (点 point)- focusing your mind, examining your inner self closely and defining your goal- ;Zetsu (舌 tongue) -Expressing your Ten-defined goal or your thought after meditation in words- ;Ren (錬 refine) -Intensifying and heightening the thought that is formed by using Ten and Zetsu- ;Hatsu (発 lit. release) -Putting your Ren-intensified thought into action.
I used this as mental exercise to open my nodes, flushing them with a burst of life energy by coalescing, compressing, igniting and then releasing in my belly, where the biggest concentration of energy resided. The problem with this method, that I only figured ou later the worse way possible, is that the odic energy that circulates the body has a primary function to sustain life that is why it is called life energy. If it is disrupted inside the body so will its functions. The violent disruption of the flow inside my body drove me into a shock that could have killed me.
The results of my brash actions left me in bed for days. That taught me not to rush in my excitement but instead to go slowly, the problem of kids is that we really don't have sense of danger until shit like that happens.
Despite everything it worked and as a bonus I finally managed a mental trigger to start spells I felt comfortable with so of course the first thing I tried to do next was learn the true Nen. There was a good chance for this to be possible since my constitution appear to be similar to the humans in the show: my [structure grasp] spell revealed that life energy is mainly guided by the nervous system. If I had circuits like a magi of Fate, pseud nerves that don't actually exist in the body, doing it would be harder since even a first grade practitioner like Rin can't stop the dispersion of prana to the ambient once it leaves her body.
Nen can be said to be an internal thaumaturgical theory that engrave a foundation, a body of pre-established rules, fomented by the faith and belief of the individual in his intern world, his soul. In that sense a perfect nen ability would be the crystallization of its owner concept.
First comes Ten (纏 wrap around). All living beings possess aura an ethereal mist comprised of life energy emitted from all parts of the body that has a tendency to flow together, producing one mass of energy, but unbeknown to most of them, it slowly leaks away typically resulting in a slow leak of aura continually escaping the body. Making aura stay around the body is called Ten (纏 wrap around). This is the most basic technique. Thanks to it, the body will be toughened, preserve the youthful vigor and the aging process can also be slowed down.
To reach ten I visualized my prana running my body like blood and then leaking through the nodes in my body. After that while standing still I imagined it wrapping around my body until all the leaking stopped. I think my quickly success has to do with all the visualization training I already performed to learn projection, since it was my life-force I manipulated it is natural that it would obey my commands, especially if it was manipulated in an already familiar way. Before I realized it I had already created a shroud around me that feels similar to standing in lukewarm, viscous fluid.
These basic techniques are supposed to become second-nature to those experienced in Nen and indeed in the beginner I had to consciously build the image of Ten and concentrate to maintain it but with more experience I practically always am in a state of Ten, even during sleep. Although ten doesn't increase one's strength it is similar to wear armor, one punch with an iron gauntlet will be more painful than one with a naked hand to the point that is rare for me to have even minor scratches from day to day labor like calluses.
Next comes Zetsu (絶 sever, suppress); while Ten allows a user to keep aura from leaking away from their body, Zetsu stops the flow of aura from outside the body altogether. Zetsu closes all of the nodes so that life-force is fully contained within the body, therefore it can help the user to conceal their presence or recover from fatigue. If Zetsu is executed properly the user will be hard to detect. Thus it is very suitable for clandestine actions; it can also be used to relieve fatigue, since it forces the body's external layer of aura to be fully contained within. However, Zetsu must be used carefully because it leaves the user's body defenseless against prana infused attachs. In Zetsu state, it is very dangerous to even take a weak attack, or to come into contact with an enemy's Nen since the aura that normally protects and sustain the body is withdraw.
Animals have an instinctive grasp of zetsu, since it is possible to feel the presence of aura even without being aware of its existence and all living beings possess aura it is necessary to know how to suppress it with zetsu to sneak in someone. It really didn't take long for me to master it since I already had learn how to reach zetsu after a lifetime of being dragged to forests to hunt or having to seat still for hours waiting for a fish to bit the bait.
Now that I think of it my old world probably had magic but it must have been hidden or forgotten from the majority, otherwise my afterlife experience should be the black roof of obliviousness. Luck for me atheists were wrong, so I am going short of a limb and believe that there is magic and my rebirth here is not an extraordinary phenomenon but just a coincidence that I remember my past life.
Next comes Ren (練, Refine; Enhance). Since a user is capable of keeping aura from leaking away from the body, it's also possible to produce more aura around oneself without having to worry about losing it. Ren focuses on outputting a high amount of aura by expanding the nodes and keeping it on the body, expanding the size and intensity of it. If Ten is considered to be purely defensive, then Ren typically what is used for offense. This increases the user's physical strength and durability and provides a large pool of aura for any advanced techniques or individual skills one decides to use. It can be compared to a basic physical exercise, which means it is essential for anyone who wants to become strong. The moment when a Nen user shows their Ren is the best moment to evaluate their potential.
Ren also possess its dangers; all nen principles are linked to a state of mind and ren in when the user turns hard what was once soft. If the user is inexpedient with ten, lacking a solid perception of self or having a 'immature' spirit, his ren intensified thoughts may lead to obstination and he won't be able to go back on it even if he realize it was a misguided idea. Of course, the fiercer the will fueling ren the more powerful the nen user will be.
As far as thaumaturgy is concerned this idea holds. The heroic spirit Caster said that a proper spell must be something akin of a solid, not to be broken by the 'waters of mana' unlike an spell of inferior composition that has consistency of mud and can be broken down by it. There are nen users that can put nen on others and to get it out the victim must search someone to exorcise the aura, unlike most spells of modern magi that are naturally expelled the victim magical resistance, making direct nature interference the most favored method of combat.
The last of the four major principles is Hatsu (発 release; act). Is the release or transmission of one's aura cultivated by Ren so it can be projected to carry out a certain function. It is both broad and deep and can be used to create a special and unique para-psychological ability, colloquially called a Nen Ability. In essence, a nen ability is one's personal expression of Nen, a good nen ability should reflect a person's own character; one can never truly master Nen if they only copy other people's abilities. Practicing Ten and Ren earnestly can help a Nen user learn Hatsu, which is very difficult, quickly.
Also interesting to notice, since I learned nen the effects of the Night of Crimson Moon had lessened. Maybe ten is insulating me since it is supposed to defense against the emotional attacks such as killing intent. Does this happen because nen users tend to be self-centered for they focus inward?
Pushing my musing aside I left her at it and start to walk toward the center of the lake and scope the lake in search for fishes, of course it is not training if I do this by swimming. I concentrate in feeling the water, the same way I can sustain myself in branches of trees by forming a bond that connects me to it by our life energy or avoid making tracks like an elf by bonding with the surrounding's earth in the same way, using my own aura to avoid crushing leafs or the earth I can also do the same to water by feeling the water and increasing its surface tension, I don't even have to think about it by now. I call it Jesus walking.
Looking down into the clear water is the only way for people here to see their own reflexes as far as I know since I had not seen a single mirror so far and even if they exist the price of one probably will be it's weird in gold and only nobility and rich merchants can afford it if things are the same here as they were back in my world before the industrial Revolution, thing I am thankful about.
Soulful brown-honey eyes look right back at me in the water, a young heart shaped baby face crowned with darker than black, unkempt but smooth strands of hair tied in a low ponytail, having only bobs and bangs free. The only familiar feature is a beauty spot in the inferior right corner of the lips. This is all wrong, no matter how much time pass I can't get used to see this unfamiliar face reflected at me. It is clear the spawn of Sielba and Aoi with his distinctive hair in a more manageable texture framing a mini-me male version of mother but is hard to warp my head around the fact this is my face. Ahhh forget it! I didn't come here to fancy myself in the mirror but to train.
After I see a fish big enough to become lunch I try to lift it through water bending by keeping it locked in a ball of water but the fish swimmer away from the water. I try again but have the same results… time to try something different; in the show all bending disciplines were based in a form of martial art, and water bending was based in Tai Chi.
Tai chi is a martial art that is comprised more in alignment, body structure, breathing and visualization. There are advantages in being the son of a PE teacher; since I had to be dragged to sport clubs for all my childhood since I was too small to be left alone he usually decided to put me to do some activity to take my time there and I started doing judo at a pretty young age.
In my first day of judo my father accompanied me and my sensei told the class that when he himself started in the white belt my father already had the same green one he was using that same day. It was both a friendly jab and a communication of seniority to the other students so I always had some interest in martial art thanks to my father influence. So I am surely say I am an enthusiastic of martial arts.
I try to keep the water ball spinning inside making a current inside of it. To make this I use a basic Tai Chi kata, moving my steps in a 45º inclination from one side to the other and always visualizing myself holding a ball between my arms and spinning it in an axis with the fish inside it. It took some nudge and adjustments but I soon had him at the shore where I went for the kill.
I decided to try force my water grip over the water ball from all side and then to performed the Fa jing, term referred to the discharge power explosively, not specifying any particular striking method but generally indicating the issuing of the refined explosive power. It is comprised of two forms, a physical and a spiritual one.
The physical phase refers to the sudden release of energy obtained by the coordinated movement of the entire body; Bruce Lee's one inch punch is the most famous expression of this form in the occident. The spiritual phase comprise of the sudden discharge of the 'ki'.
To be exact there is prana consumption while bending but it is a discipline aligned in The Way. The force that manipulates the water is better conceptualized in the alternative mean of 'ki' as intent rather than energy, being the metaphysic force that the brain normally uses to move the body being released through an alternative pathway. It is in a way no different from moving the body and like the body, training of the martial arts search to teach one to use the body efficiently instead of simple making one stronger.
I bring the ball against my bell with one hand down and one up the ball and 'compress' it. In the end I had a fish icicle ball. So cool! "So cool!"
I throw the ice ball, hitting Nana it the forehead. "Outch! What was that for!?" "For wasting my time. You aren't just training your body but also your mind! You must focus in nothing more than intensify your will, don't lose your concentration in the task at hand or you will just make a giant ball of jelly and soft life energy that will easily be pierced. Focus only in tempering your will until it is rock solid!" "Great Sage, you really like to talk don't you-blawblewbla!" interesting, considering that giant wave I just made it is possible to capitalize in the normal momentum of the current to strengthen my moves, good to know. "Go back to training." "… hai, sifu Manu, sir!"
Coming back to my meditating, Tai chi is comprised of 24 forms, I know that much at least. To perform all the 24 forms in one routine doesn't take more than five minutes but before I start I cast the cat's grace spell. An interesting side-effect of this spell is that the great increase of my sense of balance, agility and dexterity persist even without after the effect wear off. It makes sense since the cerebellum 'burn' this memory of consecutives movements in the nerves across the muscles so the movements can be achieves without conscious thought; that is why we don't have to consciously think about walking, we just do it.
Second preparation is to raise my espheric boundary\En, an advanced expression of nen that combine ren and ten, creating a boundary that act as a sonar by expanding the aura into a perfect circle. This will allow me to have a clear picture of my body and immediate surroundings doing any adjustments so the movements are performed smoothly. Finally I close my eyes and pry open my mind's eye, the reinforcement and concentration of all my senses, physical and metaphorically speaking, the closest thing I have of a unique nen ability.
I start slowly by mimicking the 24 forms of tai chi in my memory without the water sphere just to make sure my kata is smooth and precise; after half an hour I start to do with the water sphere, ten minutes later I perform the same but with a fish inside, focusing in understand the "will" of the element I bended, not working against it but trying to make it work for me, perfecting the way of storing momentum in the water and how to best direct and release it.
By afternoon Nana and me were exhausted. Nana from physical fatigue due to overstresses nodes, network and muscles and I from a migraine of mental overload of overuse of mind's eye. Although my of mind's eye never quite closes the level of effect in its given range and deep of perception fluctuates the more I pry it open, at maximum level it feels like I am omniscient if I were to compare with how much I used to see just with my ordinary senses although I feel that it still has room to grow and refine.
After an hour of lazing around in the lake where we both dived and played to our heart's content it was time to start to prepare lunch with the fishes I did catch. She started the fire while I prepared the fish but first I had to free it from the ice ball. There were around five fishes and by the third I discovered that one can managed to gently break the ice in cold water by tricky 'pulling' it in the right angle, breaking its structural coercion of the ice.
After gutting and cleansing it I seasoned it with salt and some herbs I brought with me and a couple lemons I found in the way here. After putting them by the fire it was time to find us drinks.
I manipulated a water sphere making it hollow in the inside then froze it into ice, it took some attempts until I got it right, to cut it in half without breaking it was a pain but by then I had too bowls ideal to a hot day as are all around here. I then took the lemons and some other fruits I could find around and concentrated in feeling the water inside them. After I felt that I had a solid grip on it I pulled it from them, making a cocktail juice smooth for us, finishing it by instantly cooling it with a gelid breath performed by pulling the water in the air I exhaled the right way to make it cool.
Water bending seems to comprise more of gentle touches, sensitive understanding and smooth and continuous movements that interlock in each other without any delay, loss of speed or sudden movements were one should focus everything in keep the momentum of the water in their side. It would take me months to even start to pull this off in my old body if I had the perception I had today. I had the assistance of a little bit of cheating and life hack but in undeniable I was born talented; be it for genes or karmic destiny inherited from my parents my progress is astounding, especially if one disregard my past memories. And speaking about talent…
I turn to the small ginger completely consumed in her future meal; she was literally drooling for the aromatic smell of fish and looking for it with intensity that make one think that she hasn't eaten in months. All in all she makes quite a silly figure that one wouldn't expect anything especial about. In one morning she made the same progress that took me one month to make, she didn't eve exhaust her life force but merely overstressed her body capacity of releasing it.
Sure, I was four when I started, the stronger one already is when he begins to train in Nen the faster he will progress but this is ridiculous! If this was a manga people would define us protagonists: they would attribute me as 'such talent, much training, so hardworking!' But were they to describe her they would be like 'world destroyer!'.
"Sight…" I walk toward her positioning behind her back; I start to gather moisture in the air and warp it in my hands and bring it against her back: [Hydrotherapy], the concept of healing through water. It is an occidental methodology that attribute therapeutic properties to water that possess healing potential for the human mind, body and spirit. This idea persisted in the modern society and can be easily seen in games that associate water magic with healing.
Through my sight I can perceive the circulation of life energy in the body and observe the alterations brought about in Nana normal inert circulation by her training. An injury to the body will alter and obstruct the smooth circulation of the life force by breaking the homeostasis of the energies that flow in it(incidentally traditional Chinese medicine is focused in balancing the energies in the body to restore and preserve health). The water sigil is related to the concept of flows, forms, cycles, combinations and manipulations. If I use water as a medium between my life force and hers I might be able to manipulate her aura and restore her aura to its normal balance accomplishing spiritual healing, to heal the body through the spirit.
Ever since I discovered, or should I say 'discerned' health aura and how disturbances in it mean some kind of harm to the subject I have tried to classify and discriminate what every disturbance means and use my own aura to try and heal living beings by manipulating their aura.
It is not like I had any problem finding subjects to experience this on either. My yard is a jungle; life and death walk hand on hand. Finding a wounded animal and charming it by sympathizing with it, goad it into letting me help its injuries and infirmities was not difficult and through trial and error I achieved promising results though the act of grabbing and molding other's life energy to move as I want proved to be harder than I expected.
Manipulating someone else's life-force is like trying to holding mist, it is simple too ethereal for me to properly seize and guide so healing other is quite the tiring and frustrating ordeal. I was planning in slacking off for the rest of the day since I expected for us to be too exhausted for anything else but now I remember that some waterbenders had healing powers. Why not give it a try? If I use water as a medium maybe I can mold other's energy more smoothly.
"Feeling better?" "Wow how did you do that?" "Magic." She pouted "You always say that! Will you ever teach me?" "Will you ever stop being a brat?" "What!? Your little…" I almost regret teaching her nen already; if she hadn't caught me red-handed I wouldn't be in this situation to begin with. Well, shame on me I guess.
I am impressed despite my cold reply. The healing is so much easier that I almost want to cry to the heavens my achievement. Without delay I gather moisture in my hands and bring it to my head feeling the cool touch of water wash away the pain. It is so soothing that I am half willing to simple lay down and sleep the day away but Nana starved gaze to our lunch make me decide to fill my stomach instead while there is still food.
"Stop whining and go eat." We start to eat our bento, fish and smoothies by the tree's shade, it was a good afternoon but my mood was still sour with the conversation of last night. What were they not telling us exactly? Even Sisifo is withholding info, this is not like her at all.
"Hey, you already ate your fill, leave the rest!" "Pu, don't be miserable. For whom are you keeping it anyway?" "For him!" I say pointing at a bush nearby that started to move causing Nana distress enough to hide behind me. From the brush a big hound of blue fur and red eyes emerged walking animated toward us.
"Easy there boy, your lunch is right here." I point at the three remaining fishes at the overgrow puppy and he promptly went for the treat after a smearing my face with slobber, her prickly tongue taking giggles from me.
"Manu, I thought you had gotten rid of him!" Nana scream at me, scandalized. "Now you are being rude, he never made anything wrong and I have trained her right. Do you want to see?"
I point a finger at him like a gun "Culain!", he look at me and promptly stop eating, raise himself on rear legs and lift his front paw in the air as if surrendering "Bam!" he feint being shot, make a silly sound of distress and fall in the ground, faking being dead. I walk toward him and start to fondle his belly "Good boy, now go eat your lunch!"
"This thing is not a pet you can tame Manu, it is a dangerous monster! Your father was clear about it yet you persist, who knows when it will tour against you!?" "If you are going to call Culain monsters just because he was born different then you have to accept being a monster too!". My incendiary comment came out of my mouth before my good sense could stop me. Seeing the devastated look of Nana face made me immediately remorseful. I wanted nothing more than to take them back but it wouldn't change the fact that it is the truth, for us both.
I can't take them back so I will go on until the end. "We are different from others Nana, it doesn't take a genius to notice. You are the physically strongest child in our village, maybe stronger than most adults and I am not much far behind. The reason you climb to me is because this difference isolate you from other of our age group that are afraid to get hurt by you, even if accidentally. People see us differently because we have qualities that set us apart and even if all people in the village are as kind and accepting as they can I am sure there are others beyond the borders of this closed paradise that might question if people like us are still qualified as human beings. So…so don't call her a monster, she had no saying in how she was born!"
In this magical world the diversity in the fauna and flora are off the chard: from rainbow-tailed-lizards, fruits with tastes and shapes I have never seen before to odd mix of animals I know of in chimera species that make duckbill appear as a mildly normal animal. It isn't treated as a big deal, being part of everyday life for those that have being born in this world but there are few things that make people pause. From times to times there are born among a new brood of any species, even domesticized ones, even human, animals of singular peculiarity.
Most frequently they are simple atavisms, having traits associated with a more brutish time, a 'dire' template. Being more aggressive, growing to be far bigger than other and having a more brutish appearance and behavior like it was feed with steroids from the cradle. But from times to times there are those that have more exotic features or an instinctual grasp of life energy – magical beasts. The common sense in those cases is to put it down regardless of situation since animals like those are what make the wilds such dangerous place for all 'ordinary humans'.
Culain is a blue furred dog of red slitted eyes that was born from one of the bitches the community keep around about two years ago. We have these hounds mainly to inform us if intruders at night since the possibility of a wild animals sneaking around the village at night fishing for an easy meal is far too real duo to our close proximity to the forest. She doesn't have any extraordinary trait besides his coloring, being shaped in the same proportions of his relatives of her breed that resemble wolfs. The only distinctive she have is her abnormal fast grow; she is already more than twice the size of her parents that weren't small to begin with, being a head taller than me and still growing.
As any children I love puppies so when new ones were about to be born I naturally offered myself to take care of the brood and to check on them, thing I was allowed to do thanks to my affinity with animals, despite my young age. That is when I first saw Culain, back then just a small blue ball of energy, and fell in love at first sight. He was already bigger than the other puppies but I didn't paid it much mind since multichromatic hair is relatively common. Since everybody have their own duties mixed with a lack of interest in supervising me and fear of overprotective mama dog Culain grew mostly unmolested during the most vulnerable period of his puppyhood.
Things changed when she grew old enough to start to move around and explore her surroundings, as all young creatures are prone to do. She was discovered by one of the adults and almost killed; just my timely intervention saved her. Things didn't went better after that, this ruckus reached father' ear and I found myself pinned. He was absolutely opposite of what I did and completely unyielding in his posture of terminating small Culain. It was just the fact that I had already moved him out of the village and that he moved out from there when father forced me to take him there that saved Culain.
Considering Sielba great knowledge of fauna and flora, his 'power level' and his posture against in this incident I am pretty sure he was a contract hunter before settling here, someone that specialize in the eradication of dire and magical beasts for a living. The fact that most of his old friends that from times to times pass by have the profile of 'ranger' archetype: from classic Aragorn like ranger to guys that could fit in Toriko world that make a living hunt rare species for gourmet dishes in the great cities also was a hint. There is a good chance that I am right even if he is tight lipped about his past.
"Come here Nana, Culain is no different from any other doggy asides for the color and size." I say as gently as I can, my last flare had upset her almost to the point of tears even if she tried to hire it. I give her the last piece of my meal, inciting her into giving it to Culain. She looks at it uncertain, hesitant as she always is when it comes to dealing with animals but soon she harden herself and walk toward the feasting dog.
A peculiar scene unfold, a petite child anxiously dancing in the tip of her toes waiting by a giant blue dog to finish wolfing down his meal happily waving his until he turn to her. Culain had to look down to see her eye to eye and Nana's eyes bulge in apprehension while he sniff her, there was a moment of stillness between the two until he starts to liking the fat of her meal out of her face from her messy eating with his prickly tongue generating a stream of laugh from Nana.
That did the trick. It seems that she always wanted a pet but her poor luck with all genders of animals dampened her inclination toward this. Finally having a positive interaction with an animal warmed her up to Culain instantly and she soon was testing her boundaries with him, cuddling and petting him much to my delight.
"Well then, can you two stop playing for a moment se we can prepare to leave?" "What, why are going back already? No way, I don't want to go home just yet!" "We are not going home, we will explore." She look exasperated at me "You can't stay out of trouble, can you? If someone discovers that we went so far we will be grounded for life and even then there is no way we can go far and then back before sundown." "Not with that kind of attitude. But you aren't entirely wrong about this: it indeed is impossible for me to carry you there and back fast enough but with a little help – at this Culain barked – we can do so with enough time to spare good two hours of dungeon crawling!"
Nana sighed "I have no option in this do I?" "Nope." "If we are discovered I will push you for the entire fault, do you hear me?!" "So, does that mean that you are as excited as I am for this?" at this her sour grimace converted into a radiant smile "Of course!"