Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear meeeeee, Happy Birthday to me… Hurray, it’s my birthday in case the song didn’t give that fact away, I’m now 9 years old, and I’m huge. I’m about two inches shy of my father’s seven feet, and while my frame hasn’t filled out all the way I’m no gawky little kid, I have long lean muscles built up from hours of running and sparring. Beyond having an adult’s body I also have an awesome amount of magical stamina, well at least when compared to my dad or mom. While my dad can perform an earth wave maybe twice before he runs out of mana, I can perform the same feat no less than eight times, and my father is considered strong for a mage amongst our people.

Of course Gurt can perform the earth wave at least 25 times and he isn’t even done growing, so it’s all relative right? Still though amongst my people I will be considered a prodigy which will make all the babes line up to meet me. My people value strength, whether it is physical or magical, power is a man’s best friend.

Today I also get to show off some of that strength as Dad has decided to teach me his most advanced technique. I already learned how to split the earth, we do a weak version of it every year before planting our crops. Yeah using magic instead of plowing the fields is pretty awesome, and also why my dad has been able to build such a large farm in such a short time. I knew how to do an earth pulse, which is what allowed my dad to find those bandits, I could create earth spikes, pitfalls, earth walls, but today Dad would teach me how take the essence of the rock and apply it to my skin.

You might not think that’s very impressive, but that’s because you are thinking, “Swift, Stoneskin is like the basic of basics when it comes to earth magic. It’s like the first skill you learn in every RPG, how can you be such a noob?” And to that I say, stfu noob, this is real life not some RPG, I don’t gain levels, I don’t have stats, the Skill is actually called essence manipulation and it’s hard. I actually have to understand how the magic works, I don’t just shout out stoneskin and then my defense goes up.

The fact of the matter is that body modification magic is dangerous and difficult you need to take understand how every bit of your body moves, otherwise you will be frozen stiff from putting too much essence in the wrong spot. If you don’t do it right, “stoneskin” can cripple or kill you. The trick of it is to only apply the stone’s essence to the outer layer of skin, if you go too deep the essence can get into your blood and then you have the worst blood clot of your life. It takes a lot of skill with mana manipulation in order to do it right. It also requires a lot of knowledge of the body in order to not apply the essence in the wrong spots which would freeze up your joints. This skill is difficult and dangerous, Dad rarely used it even in when he was outnumbered and defense was at a premium because way too much could go wrong.

But Dad also knows that I’m a genius when it comes to mana manipulation and thanks to lessons from my mom my knowledge of our bodies is at a level where I should be able to properly apply the skill. Thus today is the day when he would finally allow me to test it out. Of course Mom was on standby in case I messed up, after all it’s a good idea to have a healer on hand when trying anything particularly dangerous. But my focus was mainly on Dad as he began to guide me through the spell.

“Okay Son, go to your core, and gather the energy you need, it should take half the content of your core, once you have it let me know.”

I gathered up the mana then nodded, keeping my eyes closed so that I would not be distracted by any visual stimuli. I had the image in my head, half the mana in my core separated out and lightly condensed, the flames I normally pictured were a little brighter in the section I had staked out to be used by the spell.

“Alright now send the mana into the nearest stone and let it absorb the strength inherent in the stone. You will know when it’s done because it will move differently, it will be slower, more obstinate, harder to control, let me know when it gets to that point.”

I put my mana into a river rock I had brought for just this occasion, I let my mana sink into the stone then moved the mana throughout the structure of the stone. I kept swirling the mana through the stone and I could feel it begin to slow down. Chunks began to form in the mana, it became thicker, like adding cement into water. After close to a minute the mana didn’t want to move anymore, I had to put way more effort into getting it to move even a little bit. I nodded to my father letting him know the mana was ready.

“Okay Son, now comes the hard part, you need to draw out our mana from the stone and start applying it to your skin. Start with your feet and remember to keep the contact light and shallow, if you go too deep we might have to remove your foot, so be careful.”

I kept his words in mind as I applied the mana to the top layer of my skin. It felt weird, I could feel the skin tighten as it came in contact with the mana. It was also incredibly strange as the skin that used to be sensitive became completely devoid of any feeling. I could sense the increased weight but I couldn’t really feel anything else. I moved the mana slowly up my feet making sure to keep the application of mana especially light around my toes and ankle as both would need their freedom of motion in order for me to walk properly.

I moved the mana up my entire body, allowing the mana to linger on my shins and forearms, thickening the stoneskin there more than anywhere else. I considered allowing it to linger on my stomach, but kept Dad’s warning in mind and decided to wait until I was more comfortable with the skill before experimenting. When I was done applying the coat of mana to my entire body I was left with a little remainder of mana, so I opened my eyes and shot a questioning glance at my father. He never mentioned the possibility of their being extra mana.

He smiled and said, “The little bit of extra mana should be released back into the earth.”

I nodded which felt odd and released the remainder safely back into the ground. The result was interesting as it left a thin layer of stone on the ground approximately two feet in diameter. Then I stood up, which was significantly harder than it used to be. The stoneskin was clearly weighing me down, it was almost as if I had just gained an extra sixty pounds. I could still move and all that, but I was going to be slower.

Dad interrupted my contemplation of the adjustments I would have to make by saying, “Stretch out son, see if you applied the essence anywhere too thickly so that next time you can do better.”

I did as he bade me and stretched everything. My shoulders had lost a little of their range of motion and my knees felt a little stiff, but overall I’d say I did an amazing job. I told my dad as much and he just smiled. Then he freaking lashed out at me with his claws. I wasn’t expecting the attack so my reaction time was slow. His claws left furrows in my skin and I was lightly bleeding by the time his attack was finished. I jumped back and assumed a defensive position, he just grinned and leaped forward.

He started with some basic attacks slashing at me, trying to cut me with his claws. I did my best to avoid his attacks, but the stoneskin slowed me down, I was forced to block at least half of his attacks. Fortunately I was able to interpose my forearms between myself and his slashing attacks. The stoneskin was thickest here and he wasn’t able to draw any blood. Then he kicked things up a notch by beginning to dance around me. Normally I could keep up with him, but being saddled with an extra sixty pounds was slowing me down way too much.

It’s not like I couldn’t carry sixty pounds easily enough, and it’s not like my top speed had slowed down all that much, it’s just that I couldn’t accelerate as quickly, I couldn’t move my body at the speed I was used to. Thus Dad was able to dart in and out of my range before I could properly react. He kept slashing me with his claws, leaving small furrows in my flesh, some deeper than others.

After close to six minutes I was bleeding from more wounds than I could count, my pants were torn up and after one attempt at a counter my nose was broken. The good news was after six minutes I was finally able to keep up with Dad, the bad news was that I could keep up only because the stoneskin had completely faded away. Of course, that’s when Dad held up his hands to stop our little sparring session.

He said, “Good job son, six minutes is great for your first attempt, though when you become truly skilled you should be able to make it last for ten before you need to reapply the essence. Make sure you take note of where the cuts are deepest as that will let you know where you need to apply more essence next time. Now heal up and then change your pants we need to get to town so we can properly honor your mother for birthing you on this day nine years ago.”

That’s right, on this world your birthday is supposed to be spent honoring your mother for giving birth to you. You get no presents, no party, instead you need to give your mother a token of your affection. It’s kind of like mother’s day, except she gets one for every child she bore. Does it make me seem selfish if I say that I prefer the earth tradition and miss my presents?

Oh well, doubt I’ll be able to change this particular custom, so I need to focus instead on the myriad of small cuts all over my body. Mom and Dad headed back into the house and left me to my healing. I sat down and then focused on the most painful wounds first, Dad had gotten me real good on my ribs, so I channeled my mana to that wound first. Once I infused the wound with enough mana, I gently moved the flesh together my hands and began connecting the severed muscles together.

The way mom taught me to do it was to make sure all the parts match up, muscle to muscle, fat to fat, skin to skin and then do something that amounts to cauterizing them together. It was painful and not exactly the best method available as it left some pretty nasty scars. My method amounted to basically using mana to stitch the flesh together. It left the wounds somewhat tender and not fully healed, but it also allowed the wounds to heal properly and thus I wound up remaining scar free. My method was also less mana intensive, but it took longer and required a greater amount of focus and knowledge.

After healing my rib wound, I moved on to the cuts above my right knee, and then to the cuts on my stomach. I made mental notes about where my defense was not thick enough in order to avoid making the same mistakes twice, and after close to an hour I was finally finished closing up all of my wounds. I had used up another quarter of my mana, but I wasn’t very concerned about it. We were going to visit Meadow Rest today to celebrate, so I would be able to replenish my mana on the run into town.

I opened my eyes and then got up again then headed into the house. There was a plate of eggs left on the kitchen table for me, it was a little cold, I didn’t care much, fighting and using mana works up quite the appetite. I wolfed down the food, then threw on a different, non-shredded set of pants then headed back outside. I jogged over to Kurt’s home, which he had upgraded over the last three years.

No longer was it a simple one room shack, it was now a real house. Sure Kurt hadn’t gone to the effort of building out of brick like we had, but the stick method when done right can be plenty cozy. He had turned our old place into a three bedroom house, the walls were double layered, the gaps filled with insulation. The roof was no longer made with straw, but instead was made up of bark shingles, the kitchen had been upgraded to house a clay oven and there were a couple of chimneys for the fireplaces. The floor might still be made of hard packed dirt, but overall the place was much more comfortable than when my family had lived there.

I opened the door to the house and let my parents know I was ready to go. They were dropping off my little brother with Westra since he couldn’t keep up with us on our run to the town. The little three year old Auttaa Aattoson was a handful, adorable, but a handful. He had gotten my mother’s coloring, so he had a gorgeous coat of white fur, he had blue eyes and would do his best to get into all kinds of trouble. He was a little bundle of energy and I totally got why my parents weren’t bringing him with us. Carrying him for thirty miles would not only be wearing on us, but he would also be sure to get bored and start complaining. Sure he didn’t have a great vocabulary, but what he lacked in words he would easily make up for with volume.

We said goodbye to the Taikas and I wished Gurt luck. He was going to need it after all since aunt Westra would more than likely pawn looking after little Auttaa onto him. I knew from personal experience, looking after Auttaa could be worse than a training session with an angry father. He just had way too much energy, and was somehow able to run pretty much anyone ragged. Gurt had a sickly smile on his face as he wished us a safe trip. He had seen me taking care of my little brother way too often to have any illusions about what he was in for.

With one more wave at the Taikas we took off south toward the town. We took things at a nice slow jog, only moving around fifteen miles per hour, which allowed Mom to keep up without too much effort on her part. The run was uneventful as we were moving too quickly to attract the attention of any predators and without a cart to tow no bandit would even think of attacking us. Three large Susi moving fast were more trouble than they were worth to any bandit.

We arrived at the gate to town without any fuss and were greeted at the gate by a Susi and Vuohian. The Vuohian had on a neutral mask as we approached the gate, he seemed remarkably indifferent to our approach. The Susi on the other hand appeared quite hostile, he bared his teeth at us and let out a low growl. I looked to my father to gauge his reaction, but he simply maintained a neutral expression and said, “I see time in the guard hasn’t made you any more polite Suututtaa. Aren’t you supposed to ask us why we seek entrance into Meadow Rest, instead of snarling like an idiot?”

The little Vuohian snorted at my father’s words while Suututtaa merely deepened his growl. He spat out a response, and looked to be just barely restraining himself from attacking, “Why are you here kieltaneet? You know you are not welcome amongst the Susi any longer, take the Saastuti and your spawn and leave.”

My father kept his voice even, as he responded, but I could tell he was pissed when I heard on of his knuckles pop. “Suututtaa, you know this is not the land of our Clan, it belongs to the Vuohians, and I am more than welcome amongst them. If you turn me away at the gate for no other reason than your own prejudices then I don’t believe you will keep your job as a guard for very long. In fact I can assure you that you will lose said job before the day is out. Now, unless you have some reason to hinder my family’s entrance into town, I suggest you get out of our way.”

I wanted to diffuse the situation, but I didn’t understand why the guard was so hostile. He knew my mother and father that much was obvious, but I didn’t know what he called either of my parents, the words didn’t make any sense. He called my father something that had to do with ownership, but I wasn’t really sure exactly what he was saying, as for my mother, I couldn’t even try to figure it out. I just know that based on the contempt he used when saying the words, they weren’t kind ones.

I looked at the Vuohian guard and said, “Your fellow guard seems to be quite rude, is there any reason we cannot pass good sir?”

The guard smiled and said, “No kid, you guys can come on in, this guys just new and apparently doesn’t yet understand how guards are supposed to act. Don’t worry though, I’ll be sure to educate him later.”

I responded, “Thank you for your help.” And gave him a shallow bow, then I grabbed my Dad’s hand and said, “Let’s just go inside, we shouldn’t waste our time on this guy.”

Dad looked down at me and nodded, then grabbed Mom’s hand and we walked past the still hostile looking guard through the gates and into town.

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AN: Well I'm about a fifth of the way done with the first arc, so get ready to meet some antagonists. It should be obvious now that being an outcast is going to come with some annoying problems for our MC. Hope you guys liked the first taste of healing magic the MC can use, there will be more to come later. This was also the last big time skip, Swift now has an adult's body, or close enough to not matter, so the adventure is about to begin in earnest.