“Putting your best foot forward at least keeps it out of your mouth.”

Morris Mandel

As soon as he landed on the island we scarpered. At half Aleera’s size I am still the millstone around her neck. In this case I’m bound to Aleera’s back and the cross she has to bear in an attempt to speed up our flight from Grandfather. Strapped to her back I could see him nod before giving chase.

“He’s coming.” I shout.

“Right as planned then!” is all she has time to say as she starts sprinting.

We took an oblique angle to the house cutting across the coast along our newly prepared route. On our way home, yet seemingly, running away from it, out along a short peninsular of the island.

It was a change from our usual straight dash to house and Grandfather paused before following. Perhaps confused at our direction or simply amused. It was difficult to tell from this distance although he was probably both.

. . .

In the afternoons after our run, clamber, swim and running battle against grandfather we would work on our magic. We were hoping that what we have practiced will help us make it home before being caught.

. . .

“Now Kai.” Aleera whispered. Rounding a corner as we passed a pool of water and reached the coast I used my skill boil to set it steaming sending my Mana along the top of the water as far down the coast as I can manage. We have attempted this before and in the cool autumn days the water steams creating a mist covered coast much like the morning mists that sometimes hide the island completely from lake town.

Silent we freeze and hide in a thin crevice watching the mist quickly expand along the shoreline. Hopefully enough to block the view of wherever we might have fled to. Just in time as Grandfather quickly rounds the bend.

“Ha.” We hear him exclaim before the sound of his foot beats quickly disappear into the fog along the peninsular we are no longer running down. It would not give us long but every second counts in our dash home.

. . .

We are allowed to use magic now in our battles as long as it is simple and not immediately obvious. I suppose from the mainland it probably looks like Grandfather is just playing a game with grandchildren. A distant game of tag played in fun perhaps. Although I’m sure someone with a farsight skill could probably catch us at our games, Grandfather doesn’t seem concerned and has allowed the inclusion of magic in our flight home. As long as it is out of sight from the town. Where we had hidden and the mist billowing down the coast was just out of sight round the edge of the island from the town.

. . .

Aleera quietly pointed and motioned for me to get on with the next bit. We had no idea how good his hearing was and did not want to give the game away having made it this far undiscovered. Walking as quietly as possible we clambered across the rocks till we reached the inside of the inlet and our magically prepared craft.

I would like to say that I had fashioned a beautiful boat out of ice but it would be more truthful to say that I had created a slab of ice that was somewhere between a basic raft and kayak but unrecognisable as either.

Setting out silently, we slipped out onto the water. In theory and practice the ice should last till we made it to the other side as we would need to be engaged with calling the wind.

While Aleera may have been impressed with my ignite, freeze and boil skills. I have been equally impressed with her ability to control her mana inside threads to make them move seemingly of their own accord and her ability to call the wind sometimes enough to cut her threads. We were not planning to cut anything but instead planned to use the wrap she used to hold me in as makeshift sail and quickly sail across the inlet before Grandfather noticed and returned.

I started to expel mana into her waiting hands powering Aleera to magnify and sustain her spell gust as she started turn it into a northerly wind. Softly at first but increasingly stronger, eventually the breeze began to blow us across the water. Aleera held onto me and the wrap as I acted like a sail to propel us across the bay. We hoped that even if he noticed us he would choose to run around the inlet rather than simply swim across to catch us. Gaining us a few more moments to make it.

We hoped that we might just this once manage to get home first.

There was a gentle crunch as we land.

Had he heard it?

Off we went.

. . .

We dashed up from our melting mode of transport. The wrap was significantly looser now that we had used it for a sail. With me having to hold on hard to prevent myself falling off I realised we should have tied it tight properly before setting off. Less haste more speed and all that.

But we were so close now, it was hard not to rush.

However, holding on as I was, I couldn’t look back.

We were nearly there.

At the door when . . .

“Ow!” I screamed.

You would think that I would have gotten used to this part of the training. Grandfather felt that for the game to be truly important it was important to bleed and his stiletto helped with that part of the training. I don’t know about important but it helped with levelling.

Ding! Pain tolerance (Lv 9)

“Ugh.” Aleera grunted far more accustomed to being cut by Grandfather than I was.

Every time he does it, he seems to find a new painful place to cut us, never deep and quick to heal but always exceptionally painful. I am beginning to truly grasp Aleera’s resentment at having to come back to the island. It appears she has always had to come here for training since her 5th birthday but never for so long. Only ever for a weekend at a time. The fact that I have been sent here to hide me has given Grandfather free range with our training. Something I don’t think he has ever been allowed before.

“Nearly there.” He smiled. “Nice try with the mist. Gained you nearly enough time. But it won’t work again like that.” He pointed out before adding, “Guess you won’t be eating tonight then.” A counterpoint to our groans.

Once back inside Grandfather tested me on everything that I was supposed to have learned that day. Generally, the academic side of things is not too much of a struggle but then he turns to the physical aspects of my training. First and foremost was the run, climb and swim. However, with Aleera taking up the mantle on that part of my training he has moved on to the next item on his agenda knife wielding. You wouldn’t think an adult would give an under one a knife and to be fair my knife is a little bit different from Aleera’s. It is still a knife but the sheath has been fastened on with wire so it doesn’t come off easily. This way I’m unable to cut myself but according to the system at least, it is enough to practice and gain some knife skills. Still being a baby my range of motion and reach is significantly smaller than Aleera’s or grandfather’s. In fact, if I was to attack them or anything else really, the only thing I’d be able to damage is an ankle. Moreover if my opponent was actually fighting back all it would take for them to dislodge me would be a good, hard kick.

Ankle biter is often another word for toddler in my previous life. Not for nothing it would seem and although technically I’m toddling I’m still a little younger than the average toddler and not so much an ankle biter as an ankle stabber.

Because of this grandfather was initially stuck for a moment on how to train someone with such a disparity in height. The solution was that when Aleera has to fight me, she has to fight me on her knees. I still only come up to her waist but it puts a little more of her body within range my attacks not that I have ever been able to land any on her yet. This would almost be fun if my every error were not corrected with pointed pokes from a stiletto that is only sometimes fully sheathed.

Just as Aleera is substantially slower their grandfather so am I substantially slower than Aleera. Who seems to playing with her dagger as I slash and hack she seems to enjoy blocking, slapping and flicking away my strikes. Still I suppose it’s nice change from being beaten up. As we practiced grandfather continued to teach encouraging Aleera to disarm me quickly and adding the consequence of a poke or two to me once I’ve been disarmed and a poke to Aleera if she isn’t sufficiently quick or dextrous in her disarmament.

Her blade is sheathed as well so no blood is drawn by her. But it still hurts when rapped over the knuckles with a sheath.

Once we have completed our knife drills, checked my arithmetic, reading and writing. He also checks Aleera’s progress and is never quite happy enough with either of us which is ridiculous seeing as I am less than one and couldn’t even hold onto the pencil in the first place when I arrived. Why? Well my fine motor skills are still developing. Even if I know what it’s supposed to feel like it. It sometimes feels as if I’m wearing mittens in terms of grabbing things and manipulating them. My dexterity may be increasing but my ability to manipulate small objects is still ridiculously low. Getting better at grabbing though and my fist grip for writing is effective enough in my opinion.

In the evening the extra skill to support dexterity is actually needlework. Aleera is sewing has continued throughout and now I too am being forced to sew too. It never being a skill I had before other than to put a button on a jackets which were about to fall off this is taking me a frustratingly long time to go to hang off and despite bearing in mind I’m still a baby Aleera seems to find great joy in my frustration over needlework. And as much as I like to think I can do anything perhaps tailoring is not in my future. It will be interesting to see how much the sewing skill improves my sewing ability as well as my dexterity stat if it feeds into that.

For a lot of the skills that I have I already had some form of them in my former life. Not being so much is learning something new as simply recalling something already learnt. Like riding a bicycle some skills are not easily forgotten.

The skill system is merely a set of exams I pass to prove my proficiency. I haven’t seen a bicycle here but I am sure that should one exist being able to get on it and cycle straight away would surely level my skills quite quickly back to what my actual level once was.

There are two more one-to-one skills that grandfather is teaching.

The first is Lying. Lying is a skill easily practised by deceiving Aleera. Attempting to deceive grandfather on the other hand is considerably harder. After a week of questions to which I was expected to lie I finally gained the skill Lie (Lv 1). It’s only a Tier one skill but I think that some of my experience for it has been being syphoned off into Acting which has now reached (Lv 17). Once I had it we started to play a game.

It turned out that Aleera already had the skill. Moreover, if you are able to convince somebody of your lie you gain more experience towards your next level. This is my most favourite skill to level with Grandfather predominantly because it doesn’t involve being stabbed at the moment unlike running, climbing and fighting which all end up with a nick here or there. Interestingly enough we play a game much like call my bluff as a way to level up the skill. Each of us is given a card where among the three of us two are correct and one is false. Mother must have written the game as even Grandfather does not know the all the answers.

. . .

“Scroyle is the word.” Grandfather states. Then we all had a go at attempting to be convincing. Two of us were lying while one of us was telling the truth.

“1. A scroyle was a type of scroll, designed to be small enough to put in a purse. Scroyles were often printed with morals or popular sayings e.g. It is writ upon my scroyle.” Aleera informed us.

My turn next, “2. A scroyle was a type of stocking often worn by aristocratic lords. Because of their unusually fine weave, scroyles were expensive and only owned by those with money to spend e.g. His legs are dressed in finest scroyles.” I slowly read from the card. My reading is improving and I think I sometimes win simply because I spend so long trying to read out loud the words some of which I still don’t know till after they have been explained I can deliver them factually whether they are true or not. Albeit with the odd occasionaly mispronunciation.

“3. A scroyle was a scoundrel or ruffian. Often used in the plural to insult a whole group of people e.g. These Ponentian scroyles are keen to fight.” Finshed Grandfather once more. Before we attempted to work out who was telling the truth and who was lying.

. . .

Fascinatingly, we can actually all play this game as long has the cards are grouped in their threes. Once the three cards get picked up, you know that one of the other two is telling the truth and the other is lying if you hold a false card. However, if you hold the truth card you know the other two must be false but the other two don’t know and you have to be effective in your lying to keep them from finding out. I find it fascinating that there are games to teach skills. The game is doing wonders for my vocabulary but they are sometimes left explaining in detail have the words before I can understand enough to even have a half way decent guess.

. . .

Grandfather insisted that we don’t reveal our answers if we could so that the words can go back into the box. Sometimes I wonder if we haven’t all drawn lies that we are trying to convince the other two are truths.

“The next word is Wanny.” Grandfather continued.

“1. Wanny meant to whinge and grizzle (usually unnecessarily). It is probably a conflagration of the words whine and whinny – the noises humans and horses make respectively e.g. Must thou wanny so?” Aleera left me confused with some of the long words but you can generally take a guess at the gist of it even if you can’t understand every single word.

“2. Wanny meant wan i.e. pallid and pale. Often used to describe the pale cheeks of a young lady or the pale complexion of the sick e.g. How her wanny cheeks are faded.” I cheerfully responded actually able to comprehend the majority of my words as well as the fact that mine was the true answer. I hoped my cheerfulness reflected my success with words rather than a smugness in knowing I had the right answer.

“3. A wanny, was a small cheap fish commonly made into pies by the poor. It lived plentifully in rivers but was rather small and bony by all accounts! E.g. Be thankful for your wanny pie.” Grandfather almost smirked as if reminding us that we had missed out on dinner once again that night.

. . .

Again, this skill would normally be taught after turning 5 so like all of his training so far Grandfather does not seem to expect me to excel and seems to think my successes are more due to luck than any real skill. My biggest question though is why aren’t all skills played like games, levelled through games. If all children were playing these games to learn skills wouldn’t all our levels rise. A rising tide lifts all boats. There are so many ideas, tips and tricks that could be shared to help everyone improve but it does not seem like that is done here.

Apparently, every house has its own proprietarily skills, techniques, games and methods of learning skills and they are guarded most jealousy. In fact, the methods and manner of gaining skills and levels can actually be nobles house’s most prize possessions. Money land even power can be lost through the fortunes of war and fate but your levels and stats will always be yours no matter what.

Grandfather has told us tales of houses who lost all their money, power and land but have been able to retain their noble status through their traditions and teachings or at least they have been able to safeguard their titles through their own physical might and the strength of their children raised by their traditions and teachings.

When asked why we couldn’t use this to start our own Noble house he pointed out that those nobles who had managed to maintain it had sufficiently strong enough older members than an old man, a 10-year-old and a baby. He had a good point.

As he pessimistically reiterated, “No matter the training methods we might have access to from the fallen house I was bound to. Until we have gained and used the skills, levels and stats from them they are not a strength merely another weakness. A gem or jewel stronger houses will covet.”

Thinking about it though, we have an island, we are gaining magic and have a fallen houses training system. All we really need is time to build our own house and personal strength. I am certainly not particularly keen to be beholden to someone else.

This world feels to very much be a feudal era where they can command more I was used to in the modern world I once lived in. It seems strange that should I be found out, I could be conscripted or poached from my home.

It is not that I don’t want to see the world.

I just want to see it on my own terms.