POV: Lilia Aurelia Lyrius

Sometimes my own son scares me a bit. Not in the way that a beast would scare me. More in a way that I just didn't really know what to do with him and that scared me. He was better than all the other kids his age in . . . well everything. He had an interest in magic before he could even walk but my husband and I have decided to wait until he is old enough since we're afraid he might accidentally blow himself up when he starts using magic at an age where the mana channels in his body have yet to begin developing when his mana pores still haven't opened completely not even his mana organ would have properly developed yet. There was nothing we could do but wait for his awakening.

Maybe my son will even awaken a type of magic besides that of our people! Every time I thought about that I would feel butterflies in my stomach reminding me of the day I married Raver.

But it also pained me to see him like this. I often watched him as he studied about this world with such a bored expression on his three-year-old face. Those little crimson red eye that I loved so much scanning the many pages of the books we had given him with such an expression. But when we had tried to get him to play with the other children he said that they were too young and the older children didn't want to play with him since he was younger and weaker than them. As a mother, I truly didn't know what to do with my child that was barely three years old but sometimes showed signs of maturity akin to that of an adult man.

I sat down on the floor beside him as he read through the book while laying on his stomach, going through his short snow-white hair which reminded me so much of my late father that it nearly brought me to tears many times, with my hand. He looked up from his book and gave me a smile before turning back. I took a closer look and noticed that it was a book that I had never thought he would read. The tale of Val. A book about the journey of a young hero that saved the world from the evil king. A chuckle escaped my lips earning me a confused look from my son.

POV: Altair Oberon Lyrius

I have learned a lot since the day I have been reborn into this new strange world. Most of it was about my own race and some about the world itself. What disappointed me a little was that I had learned little about magic besides the fact that it actually does exist and that there are different ways to utilize it. I also learned that not everyone can learn it, which might have been a problem but since I was born as an elf I can use magic no matter what, wood elven magic to be more exact, although that type of magic is not as flashy as those I had used in the video games I used to play in my old world with it mostly focusing on enhancing the own body. But that is the extend of my knowledge about magic.

The rest I learned about was things like: The antlers of a wood elf are their pride and they grow slowly. The day they finally begin to grow into real antlers is the day a wood elf comes of age, which is around the age of twenty. I also learned that all wood elves have three names, their childhood name, their adult name and their family name, or blood name as it is called in their culture, or rather, my new culture.

My full name was Altair Oberon Lyrius, which meant that one day I would be called Oberon. Just thinking about that made me feel like some kind of king of the forest.

Since the language that the wood elves spoke was English I had been regarded as a prodigy when it came to studying and all things related to it since I could speak, read and write at the age of just four years old. But whenever I tried asking my parents, Aurelia and Raver, about magic and when I could learn it they would just say that it was still too early for me.

That's why I would spend my days reading stories about heroes that saved the world instead of playing with other kids my age. This at least gave me a way to use magic, be it only in my mind.

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It was just a month before I turned five that I suddenly woke up in the bed of my small room, filled with nothing but a bed, a wardrobe and a table with a few chairs. Light from the moon shone down on me through my open window. What woke me up was pain. Pain which radiated from my stomach, at first I thought it was just a bad stomach ache but I quickly decided it was not. It felt like someone was burning me from the inside of my stomach, right under my naval button.

When I thought that it couldn't get any worse I was proven wrong, oh boy was I proven wrong. My little not quite five-year-old body squirmed on my bed as the pain spread through my body. From my navel button down my legs, up to my torso, into my chest and arms, not even stopping at my neck and head. After a while, there was nothing I could do but scream from the pain.

My door flew open so hard that it nearly flew out of its hinges. Father stood in the door, his deep black hair he had let grow after my birth hanging down to his shoulders. "Altair!" he called out as he ran to my bed, following closely behind him was my mother who had a look of fear on her face. She immediately took me into her arms and hugged me tightly. I could feel her entire body shaking as she held onto me.

The pain grew worse and worse as it spread over my entire skin. But along with that, I could feel something besides pain. A rush of energy. I felt as if I had slept just the perfect amount of time, ready to start my day with the exact right amount of energy. It made me feel . . . powerful.

"It will be fine, it will be fine, it will be fine, it will be fine," my mother repeated over and over and over while

When she felt my breathing, which had become faster and faster from the pain, calming down she looked at my face. I could feel the tears running down my cheeks as she looked down at me with her scarlet red eyes. I then looked to my father whose dark brown eyes had tears in them as well. But along with those tears was surprise.

"Was that . . ." he began before swallowing.

"Yes," my mother responded.

"W-What's going on?" I asked, not sure what was happening.

"But at such an early age," my father said, completely oblivious to the fact that I had just asked something.

"I know, it's . . ." my mother said.

"What is going on?!" I asked more loudly this time.

"You had your mana awakening," my mother said with a smile on her face.

"Mana awakening?" I asked, confused as to what she might mean with that but I somehow knew as well, making me excited.

"You can start learning magic now," she said with a bright smile on her face.

A smile crept over my face as I heard her words.

I can finally start using magic!

My body began trembling with excitement.

"Once it's morning we'll be going to the elder so she can awaken the magic of our people lying dormant within you," my father said with pride written all over his face.

I looked at him with my head slightly tilted and a confused look on his face. He looked back at me with the same confused look. My mother noticed this began chuckling.

"The elders are the only ones who know how to awaken the magic of our people that is within us from birth but unavailable for us to use even if we have had our mana awakening," my mother explained, the same look of pride written all across her face.

That night I could barely sleep, instead, I was thinking of all the possibilities I would now have. I didn't know how magic really worked in this world but I did read a lot of novels and watched a lot of shows in my old world to know that magic must be amazing and maybe it might even give me an advantage over all the others.

I suddenly felt pain again, this time in my heart. For the last four, nearly five, years I had not thought a lot about my past life, only using what I could remember without thinking about it. But now I had explicitly thought about things I had done in my old world. I not only remembered what had happened on the screen of whatever device I had used. I also remembered my messy room, and with that came memories of the gang that had me dancing in the palm of their hand for my entire life. No matter how many times I had sworn revenge, nothing ever worked.

No, I can't think of these things again. It's behind me. This is a new world. They aren't here. They can't hurt me anymore.

I told myself over and over. By the time it was finally morning I still had this uneasy feeling in my chest. But when my father opened my door and peeked inside, still with this prideful grin on his face I somehow felt safe.

"Morning, you ready?" he asked, sounding as excited as I felt.

I gave him a quick nod and a smile before I got out of bed, dressed myself in the leather and fur clothes that had appeared on my table, probably laid out by my mother during a time when I had actually managed to fall asleep so I wouldn't embarrass myself in front of the elders of our village, and then joined them for breakfast. My mother was dressed in something like a dress with a few furs decorating it while my father wore leather clothing with some fur on it. Both of them looked like they had dressed for the most important thing in their lives. Once we were done we left the house together and I was back to my excited trembling.

I took a deep breath and looked over the village. The houses were built around trees, making it seem as if the large, towering, trees had grown through them. Our house was one of the ones built next to a tree instead of around one. Above and beside ours were many more, making it look like some complicated housing complex.

My parents led me along a wide dirt path that led around the village. We passed many stalls in the small market right in the middle and my parents greeted many other people, some of which had children that looked at me with interest in their eyes, probably because I was rarely outside since there was nothing for me to do.

After a short while, we reached a large house build around one of the wider trees in the village, instead of the door it had strips of fur and leather hanging from the doorway making it hard to see inside. My father walked up and pressed his hand against a small plate made of tree bark. In the distance, I could hear a bell and shortly after we heard a rough voice from inside.

"Come in," the old woman said.

My mother pulled me inside and we found ourselves in a large room, the tree in the middle and otherwise cluttered with shelves, tables and utensils.

"What can I do for you?" the old woman dressed in a thick robe with a fur lining asked as she turned her back to us, revealing a stag skull embroidered onto the back of the robe. I studied her for a moment. Her antlers were large but looked frail, as if the slightest touch would shatter them. Her skin was covered in wrinkles and had become a lot paler than the usual light brown wood elves had. Long, thin silvery hair fell down from her head. And somehow the woman's eyes were closed but they had stilled pierced me the moment I had entered the room.

"Our son, Altair, has had his mana awakening," my father said with a respectful tone I had only heard when my mother was angry with him, making me chuckle a bit.

I immediately saw my father looking at me as if to tell me to be quiet and my mother tightened her grip around my hand. I looked up to see the same kind of look, be it a bit gentler, on her face as well.

"So you're telling me that a boy, not yet five, has had his mana awakening?" the old woman asked, not even trying to hide her annoyance. "You know you're not supposed to lie to me, young Raver. I have lived long enough to know that even we wood elves, who have the mana awakening early, don't have it 'till we're at least ten or eleven. And now you're telling me that your boy has awakened?"

Is it really that unusual that I have already awakened my mana? Maybe I'm some kind of chosen one destined to defeat evil like in those stories.

I felt even more excited at the thought.

"I swear, esteemed elder, I am not lying to you," my father said with a pleading tone.

"We shall see," the old woman said as she approached me.

My mother made me step towards the old woman. The elder put a hand on my shoulder and I felt a slight tingle all over my body along with a slight burning around my naval button, the same place the pain had come from yesterday. I almost flinched as if it had gone on for longer but the old woman let out a surprised gasp and pushed me towards a mirror she had in her large room. "Earlier than my great grandchildren," she mumbled before she lit a small light next to it and told me to take off my top.

I looked to my parents who simply nodded at me and then did as the old woman told me. When I was left standing there without a top, looking at myself in the mirror I noticed that I hadn't really seen myself in a while. We only had one mirror in our house and I barely looked at it.

I had short snow-white hair, crimson eyes and the same light brown skin as every other wood elf. Growing from my forehead were two small bumps that were slightly darker than the rest of my body. When I looked at myself I couldn't help that I looked rather good, at least for a nearly five-year-old boy. But I had definitely taken after my mother. Not only were our hair and eye colours similar we also had similar features, making me look feminine. But then again, I was a little kid so I thought I might look manlier once I grow up.

I suddenly felt something cold on my back and noticed that the elder had put her hand on my back and was beginning to chant something before stepping away and rummaging through a box close to the mirror until she returned with a leaf that looked like it was made of green glass.

She then began rubbing that leaf against my back and it felt as if she was smearing some gel on my back, cold gel.

"I want you to draw in mana now," the woman said.

"Draw in mana?" I asked, confused by her request. I knew what she wanted from me but I had no idea how to do it.

"Yes, just draw in mana," the old woman said.

"H-How do I do that?" I asked, looking to my parents for help.

"Imagine little sparkling things flying into your body," the old woman said with a slight annoyance in her voice.

Hey, I'm a prodigy you should at least be a bit more patient with me. I mean I'm not even five but don't talk to me like I'm a toddler you old hag.

Despite my frustration, I began imagining little sparkling things flying into my body. After a few minutes, I felt something. I had stopped imagining the sparkling things and instead had begun to visualize energy in the air that was flowing into me, which seemed to work. It felt as if something was filling my entire being with energy.

And then I also began feeling something at the spot where the elder had used the leaf on me. It wasn't painful but also not pleasant. It felt as if something had numbed my back which nearly made me fall to the ground. After about a minute I couldn't continue drawing in mana but the elder seemed satisfied.

"Turn around boy," she said with a smirk on her old face.

I turned around to where I was barely able to my back and there was something there that hadn't been there before. An intricate marking, darker than my skin, almost like a tattoo going from the base of my neck down my spine and stopped at the last rib. It looked something like extravagant squiggely lines that were somehow interconnected with each other.

"You should get the boy enrolled into school. I haven't seen such a marking on one that just awakened to our magic," the elder said to my parents.