Chapter Three

I am now eight years old. This life was turning out to be one of the better ones. Our family had enough to get by on but not enough to get embroiled in the affairs of nobles or merchants. Renault is one year from turning fifteen, the age one is considered an adult in this world. He's a brave big brother who is surprisingly keen with a sewing needle. Almari is twelve and she's already started to attract the attention of local boys. Lately she's been spending a lot of time with Kenn, one of the woodcutter's sons. Her magic training is coming along well, having already learned intermediate spells of both water and healing. Mainly thanks to that book I received for my fifth birthday. Timothy is well… he's six years old and whiny as hell. Though he can be cute on occasion he's very much a pain in the ass. He always has to follow either me or another sibling around and complains to our parents if he's not allowed to join in. He's not good at magic, he cries if he gets a bruise and seems fit to bully me because of my frail body. Our parents really needed to kick his ass, before I did.

One day Timothy was whining about some new injury as Almari tried to console him. Renault stood with his arms crossed with a disapproving expression on his face. While I merely sat in the grass looking up into the sky. My attention was locked on what I believed to be a mana swell far above. It had first appeared about a week ago, but had subtly grown since and it certainly had me on edge. From this distance there was no way for me to ascertain the purpose of the mana buildup. I could of course fly up there and identify what it was but then again flying children typically drew attention. So for now I sat merely staring. Off-handedly listening to some argument between my siblings.

Eventually Timothy laid off his incessant whining long enough to continue playing. Almari was holding his hand as they walked through the tall grass towards Renault, who was waving a stalk of grain at them. That's when it happened, that's when the mana swell broke. I had taken my eyes off of it long enough to examine some strange iridescent beetle amongst the grass when I felt the immense wall of mana begin barreling towards us. My attention was instantly drawn upwards to see the field of white, fast approaching. Shit, I thought to myself.

Faster than anyone in this world had ever seen me move I was on my feet and dashing towards my siblings, letting my mana expand from my body to form a protective aura, enhancing my agility and strength. The wave was nearly upon us as I slammed into Almari and Timothy, grabbing hold of them just as the wall of white touched us. And as it did touch us I knew instantly it was teleportation magic.

I had lost consciousness for a moment. As I opened my eyes I saw just what kind of predicament we were in. We had been teleported somewhere in the air. Far below the ground was fast approaching and the air around buffeted us. Timothy and Almari were unconscious, probably knocked out by the wave of mana just as it had done me. We were lucky that I managed to wake up in time. I moved quickly, using my augmented strength to pull Almari and Timothy close to me. Grabbing their clothes in a death grip within my left hand, I began to draw glyphs with my right. This wasn't the time to risk casting without any components. As I finished weaving an appropriate spell in my right hand I held it prepared, ready to be used. The ground was fast approaching but I needed to wait till the right moment so the spell would last. Below was a blur of reds, browns and tans, but at the speed and with the wind blowing into my eyes I didn't have time to ascertain details. When we were in range I released the spell I had woven in my right hand, placing the effect on the ground below us. Just as we were about to hit the ground we hit a pocket of dense hot air that slowed our descent enough that it wouldn't be enough to kill a couple of children. It still hurt though and had enough force to again knock me unconscious.

I awoke to Almari shaking me and Timothy crying. "Victoria! Victoria!" she shouted as she vigorously shook me awake. "Urgh" I groaned, my entire body in pain. I suspected some of the pain came from the impact but a decent amount was probably from my mana usage. Almari continued to shake me. Feeling something gritty in my mouth I spat it out before leaning upright. "I'm fine." I said, probably a little too calm. Almari stopped shaking me but still stared at me worried.

I took stock of what was around us. We were surrounded by red mesas, brown rocks and tan sand. I suspected what I had spit out was the coarse sand I felt underneath my palms. "Where are we?" Almari said quietly, probably now looking around as I was. Given geology wasn't something they taught to eight year olds in this world, I had no idea. I did know however we were in a desert, which meant we were in big trouble.

Deserts were possibly my most hated places to end up in my many lives. Very few places could kill you as fast as a desert, especially if you were prone to fevers. I could already feel the hot sun causing sweat to bead on my flesh. The fastest way of dying in a desert was dehydration, followed by exposure and starvation. Humans were just not made for this kind of terrain. As I examined our surroundings I noticed that we at least had the mesa's and rocky overhangs to provide shade from the unrelenting sun. But in the desert, nights were just as bad, where temperature could drop suddenly and even pass freezing. Our time was limited.

As I pushed myself to my feet Almari was over comforting Timothy. He had run out of tears, for now at least. Watching Almari pull Timothy to his feet I was rather surprised at Almari's calm reaction to our circumstances. After pulling Timothy to his feet she moved over to me, taking my hand. "We need to find shelter." she said in a level headed voice. With that she dragged us both towards the nearest cluster of mesas.

I'm sure our destination seemed closer when we set out. We had been walking for probably around half an hour when we began to feel tremors under our feet. With a face filled with concern Almari maneuvered us both behind her in a sheltering manner. No sooner had she grouped us up did a worm-like creature emerge from the ground, breaching in a rather unnatural manner, like perhaps a shark would. As its body again hit the ground it instantly burrowed back down under and I could feel it approaching closer. "What is that thing!" Almari yelled in as much disgust as fear. Timothy began crying again. The next time the worm breached it was to fling itself and its rather nasty looking mouth at us. Almari dodged to one side, taking Timothy down to the ground with her while I took three steps in the opposite direction. The creature didn't seem the fastest or the most agile of critters but it was quite large. When it breached I estimated it was several meters long and probably large enough to swallow me whole. It's mouth seemed the most dangerous part next to getting hit with the full force of its body. The tremors again warned me of its next strike, though this time I barely managed to move out of the way. This thing was starting to piss me off, getting killed by a worm would be seriously depressing.

"We need to run!" shouted Almari as I stood staring at the ground, following where I suspected it was. Almari had already grabbed Timothy and had begun running towards some rocks nearby, probably hoping that it couldn't attack if we were on them. She turned back long enough to shout at me. "Victoria! Come on!" As she stopped moving to yell at me I could feel the worm's movements change course, turning from me towards my two siblings. "Damn it" I mumbled under my breath. I was going to have to kill this thing. Focusing mana in my right hand I raised it, palm facing Almari. I put my other hand between my upper arm and forearm, letting more mana channel into the arm. Almari looked surprised for a moment but continued to run with Timothy. I was definitely impressed at Almari's survival instincts, to leave someone behind, especially at her age, was a hard thing. It wouldn't save them though.

As they neared the rock that would be their sanctuary the worm breached once more. This time on a near perfect course to take Almari's head off. "They probably see through some sort of tremorsense." I mused. Which was probably why it had stopped focusing on me who was standing still. As it's gnarly looking, multi sectioned mouth neared within a meter of Almari I finally released the spell I had prepared As I did a projectile of ice, about the side of an adult's forearm materialized and shot forward at great speed. It slammed against the worm with enough force to send the corpse flying nearly ten meters away, leaving a train of viscera and gore as it flew. A perfect shot if I do say so myself.

Almari, who had stopped moving when the worm shot out of the ground, stared at the fresh corpse as I walked towards her. She slowly turned towards me with a bewildered look. "How did you do that?" she said, her voice quivering a little bit. "Magic" I replied simply. As she stared at me like I had a third eye she reiterated what she had before. "We need to get to shelter."

As we walked towards the mesas I could tell Almari was trying to process what I had just done. Occasionally she would look back at me, now more worried than anything else. My breathing had begun to feel labored. A product of my fragile body having to walk across the rocky desert and the fact I had just used more mana than I should have. "Icicle" was a simple spell. One that I suspected existed in some form within this world as well. It was one of my go to offensive spells against medium armored foes, especially when I needed accurate fire on a target. It fell under my affinity for Water magic, so it had been in my repertoire since my first life.

We finally reached shelter under an overhand between two mesas. Almari sat Timothy down in the shade and used water magic to conjure a little bit of water which was used alongside her dress to clean the sand off of Timothy's face. He had run out of tears at this point and now seemed to be in shock, not saying anything, just looking around like a scared animal. I found myself in a shaded corner and sat down. Conjuring a little bit of water myself to clean my own face and quench my thirst. While I was at it I considered spending a little more mana to heal my bruises from the fall, but I suspected that might just make matters worse for the headache that was slowly building in my head. For now I chose to just deal with the pain.

After Almari dealt with Timothy and helped him get a ball of water down his gullet she shifted over to me. While using her dress to clean a spot from my face I had apparently missed she finally spoke. "Victoria, how did you do that?" "What?" I replied lazily. "The spell you used to kill the worm. I've never seen it and I didn't hear you cast it." She looked worried. "I learned it from the book, you were probably too far away so you didn't hear my incantation." A blatant lie and looking at Almari's face she knew it. Maybe I should have made my answer more childish? Though in the end she didn't push me on the matter.

After we sat in silence for several minutes, watching me closely, she finally relented. "I'm going to go take a look around. You stay here with Timmy and rest Victoria." I didn't argue with her as she slipped out from under the rocks to go take a look around. While Almari was gone and Timothy unresponsive I decided to see what I could find out. I cast two detection based spells, Spatial Sense and Detect Life to see if I could find anything. Spatial Sense is a spell with a fairly long range for its mana use. It's essentially a type of radar that doesn't give you too much info but it does give you a good lay of the land. Detect Life on the other hand was more mana intensive but can tell you where all living creatures were, though with a smaller area than Spatial Sense. If you focused you could even find out some things about what you detected. The results from Detect Life were fairly dismal. I could see Almari was trying to climb some nearby rocks to get a better view. I focused on Timothy to get a better read of his condition but he seemed to just be worn out. Other than that life was sparse. I could feel a few creepy crawlies under rocks but nothing big enough to be a threat. There were a couple of what I felt were snakes nearby but they didn't seem like immediate threats either. Aside from that, Detect Life didn't give me anything else. Spatial Sense wasn't much better. Within a mile the terrain was rocky and filled with mesas and rocks. No civilization within that area and I dared not extend farther due to the exponential mana costs beyond. In the end I found a whole lot of nothing in exchange for a now pounding headache.

Following my attempts to gather information, Almari was outside for about ten minutes before coming in with a defeated look. "I don't see anything." she said, sweat dripping from her head. Her exhaustion was evident as she moved in the shade and slid down onto the rocky ground. Defeated, she hugged her legs and put her head on her knees. It seemed the situation finally caught up to her.

Our situation was dismal. I knew that I could probably teleport us back home. The act would surely kill me but my siblings would be safe… I think. We don't know if anyone else was affected by the teleportation but it seemed likely. It's even possible some other people are nearby. If they didn't get teleported in mid air like we did. I could also max out a Spatial Sense for about a hundred miles and was sure to find either better shelter or perhaps civilization. This idea would probably kill me as well. I could probably take charge of my two siblings and march them across this desert. If they fell down from exhaustion I could heal them and force them to keep marching. We'd certainly make progress on moving forward by we have no idea where we're going and I'd run out of juice eventually. Last option was to just play it like a normal eight year old and let big sis make all the decisions. Course this is kind of a strange circumstance in a harsh land, so we'd probably end up dead anyway. It seems any way I cut it, I'll end up dead. In the end I too decided to bury my face in my knees.

I awoke shivering. At some point Almari and Timothy had crawled over to me and to sleep pressed up against my small body. The blistering hot desert had fallen in temperature to near or below freezing. Almari was a comforting heat pressing against me and it felt good having such an adorable little girl basically hugging me. Timothy on the other hand was unnaturally still and seemed to be just as cold as me. Slowly, not wanting to wake anyone I stretched out my fingers to feel him. He was cold, but I could feel him breathing.

Our current situation was perilous. I was positive we could survive the night, but come morning, all three of us would probably be in no condition to travel. Deciding I had no choice I began to create and expand a magical aura around myself and my siblings, like I did before. Then I applied magic to change the air around us to a safe temperature. I felt the effects immediately, like a warm breeze gently caressing our bodies. I just hoped it would last until morning.

Sometime during the night I had fallen back asleep or fallen unconscious. Probably the latter as Almari was once again shaking me conscious. "Victoria… Victoria wake up. I hear something moving outside." Her words were whispered and frightened. Slowly I opened my eyes and let out a quiet yawn. My headache was still with me, and even my little yawn sent a pang through my head. Nearby Timothy was awake but curled into a ball and Almari looked like she might have been crying during her sleep. But at least we survived the chill night. In situations like this it was good to count small victories.

With caution Almari and I crawled forth from the mesa's shade to get a look at the noise. A hundred meters or more away, where I had slain the worm, were three armored creatures that reminded me of armadillos. I couldn't tell just how thick their shells were but their defense looked impressive. "They look like scavengers. We'll probably be fine if we ignore them." I said, totally wrong. As if they either heard me or saw us, all three of them looked up from their meal and stared straight at our hiding spot. I could hear them let out a snort as if communicating with each other. "Victoria be quiet!" whispered Almari. Yeah a little late for that sister.

As we stared at them the three creatures began waddling towards us. They looked slow, until they hopped up into balls and began rolling towards us at an impressive speed. As they closed their large size became apparent. These creatures, while in ball form, were twice as tall as Almari. While I was still staring interestedly at the creatures Almari grabbed my hand and began pulling me into a run. All this was reminding me why I hated running.

By the time we had slid down some rocks on the other side of the mesa the creatures were right at the top of the ledge. They stopped for a moment to uncurl and make more oinking noises at us before curling back and up rolling down the rocks. They were going to catch us. With a swift jerk I dislodged my hand from Almari's grip and turned back towards our pursuers. Raising my hand I again began channeling for an Icicle attack, this time putting more mana in it to harden the ice as best I could and I fired the spell when the lead creature was within ten meters of me. I was thankful when I saw the spike of ice penetrate the creature's tough shell, though it didn't go all the way through, and it was still headed straight for me. In a bit of a panic I lunged to the left, hoping my siblings were far enough away that it wouldn't hit them on a miss. Risking a glance I saw Almari still running but looking back to where I lay. I didn't have time to worry about them though because the two uninjured creatures began to circle me, while the injured one uncurled and oinked at me intimidatingly, well as intimidating as an oink can be. It appeared these creatures were not used to being hurt as they were being rather cautious. I wrapped another magical aura around myself then began conjuring more Icicles that began floating around me, concentrating on my magic, I waited for their attacks.

The first of the creatures turned into the circle and actually hopped towards me. Probably hoping to crush me under its weight. I let loose two Icicles into its body while it was in mid air but its momentum had it still headed straight for me. Just how tough and heavy were these damn things? It was going to hit me in its current trajectory so I channeled more mana into the right side of my body and my back leg to brace. Then as it was about to collide with me I backhanded the large creature. I'm sure the sight would have looked comical as a little girl sent the creature flying with a smack and a crunch. The last uninjured one had made its move as I was distracted. I sent two more Icicles into that one before it hit me, knocking me flat on my face. Looking up from my prone position I conjured two more Icicles over top of me and sent them flying into the creature. I could tell I finally hit something vital as it rolled for another few meters before falling to one side. That just left one more.

Pushing myself to my feet I brushed sand from my face with my sleeve. Looking around I saw the first creature about ten meters to my left. It looked confused or frightened at this point and as I conjured several more Icicles as it turned and began to run. "Do I kill it?" I asked myself. I decided against it in the end. I had used too much mana already and I was not looking forward to the results. I was satisfied with the two corpses nearby, though if I had bothered to use more mana I could have ended that fight far faster, and without taking any damage.

As I slowly lowered my defenses and looked at my handiwork with contentment Almari walked back with Timothy. She didn't say anything until I turned around towards them. Her face changed from one of confusion to one of concern. "Victoria, you're hurt!" She ran over to me. "Huh?" I blurted out, looking down at myself. I did feel a little sore. Looking down I saw blood on my sleeze where I had wiped away the sadness from my face. Thinking about it I could also taste copper in my mouth and a slimy mix of blood and saliva was pooling out of my mouth. It wasn't the worst of injuries really, I had probably just bitten my cheek or something when I hit the ground. "I'm fine" I said as Almari reached me and began to try and clean the blood from my mouth with her own dress. "Don't" I put a hand on her arm to stop her. I didn't see there being any point in getting her dress bloody. Instead I pressed my own, already bloody sleeze to my mouth. For a moment I think Almari looked angry with me.

At this point I could feel myself weakening and the fevers beginning to rise. I was also now very keen on my empty belly as well. I knew I could go for a couple more days without food but I wasn't sure how long this batch of fevers would leave me unconscious. Almari stopped my thoughts though as she again grabbed my hand and began walking towards where Timothy had stopped. I had to admire Almari's grit and not pushing me for answers to how I just killed three monsters, all of which were larger than an adult man. Instead Almari was merely moving forward, trying to keep her little siblings safe, even if one might be a monster.

Although Almari was pulling me we didn't get very far. We were still within sight of the corpses when my head began to spin and my legs turned to mush. Finally I feel down, almost taking Almari with me. "Leave me Almari." I said, my face pressed into the rock and sand. "Take Timothy and go." I was well aware of my situation, I had lived with this condition too long to not know the signs and what would happen. My head was pounding and my thoughts swirling. Every joint in my body ached and even in the desert sun I was shaking and cold. If Almari protested I did not hear it. I was already falling unconscious.