NOTICE: Sorry for the long pause, but I may have hammered out part 2 to a desirable degree hehe, part 2 will not be posted here. I will post maybe one or two more chapters here and then move on to part two, Title for part two is still pending.

Chapter Forty One

In a mountain forest far far away…

*** Brother Dearest ***

I can’t believe it, we are going to survive!

My hands tremble from the strain of supporting my infant sister with the innate power borne in me. I lifted her into the air by way of forces I knew I could control. The knowledge and power came to me without having discovered them on my own, I was thankful for this for without it my sister and I would not have survived.

My power now aided me in feeding my sister for the first time in two days, her body and mine had grown far too weak from malnourishment. It had taken me two days to chase down and stop a pregnant mother doe, the milk was probably not the proper kind of meal for our bodies but seeing my sister hungrily drink from the deer’s tit muffled my worries.

When she got her fill I laid her down and took a drink for myself, the warm milk rushed into my body revitalizing me. My body was beyond the point of collapse, for two days I had been carrying my infant sister moving with my incredibly fragile infant body. More than once I had been forced to stop and repair my physical damage draining away precious energy.

If not for my sister’s natural affinity for light magic she would have succumbed long ago, but the light of her nature nurtured her body, prolonging her life in the face of starvation. Through her I healed myself knowing it was draining her as I did so, but out of the two of us it seems I am the only one with a completely conscious and knowledge filled mind.

For some unknown reason I can draw up knowledge about almost anything, I simply need to want to know something and everything I could ever hope to know about it pops up. That pool of knowledge is not infinite, but it is vast.

This knowledge included a way for me to make her magic my own, so far we were surviving because of that pool.

I don’t remember how we got here, I simply remember waking on the forest floor covered in a simple blanket. My sister was beside me, or well, so I believe her to be, it was the first thought that came to mind when I saw her. I am sure of nothing except that I do not want her to die.

Keeping up with the deer was not easy, I still had to carry my sister and my body was simply not strong enough to carry her easily. The constant need for sleep, bowel movement, and general physical weakness made it a daily struggle to match space to keep up with the herd whenever it was time to move along. If not for the strength of my magic I would not be able to physically enhance my own strength and endurance to do so.

Everything was going fine and I believed we would survive, hope gave me strength, then it was all robbed from my grasp. Wolves attacked and the herd scattered, my body did not have nearly enough strength to run much less chase after a running herd. My affinity for darkness allows to bleed out death, a force so strong, a power so debilitating that the wolves did not attack me or my sister who was naturally protected against my darkness.

The force by which my hope was ripped from me left me hollow and defeated, yet I couldn’t help but find my body moving on, taking my sister in my arms and continuing to move forward.

A day went by, another…

By the morning of the third day I was barely shuffling along looking for a source of nutrition.

Just as my body was finally giving out I felt it, a life force that I needed to find, a pregnant animal. I found strength in reserves long depleted to continue moving, I do not know how I managed it but I found it, a pregnant boar.

On the last few paces from the boar I crawled pulling along my mewling sister who barely had the strength to make a sound. My power was long exhausted and my infant body had not the strength to crawl, much less drag along my sister. So close to death, the boar saw us and took pity, she approached and laid herself band an arm’s length from me.

With everything I had left I shuffled forward and clamped my lips on the nearest tit, instantly my body grew less weary, strength enough returned to allow me to pull up and towards another tit my starving sister.

This boar would continue to feed us until we were nearly six months old, old enough to begin eating semi-solids, eliminating our complete reliance on milk from animals. By then our bodies had matured unnaturally, at least that is the impression my knowledge gave me. Though bare six months old we had the physical appearance of two year olds.

Our physical growth was not the only unnatural phenomenon occurring within our bodies, my sister was learning at an accelerated rate, and our bodies required more and more nutrition to keep up with the demands of our rapidly growing bodies.

My sister learning quickly was not a problem, in fact that helped me as it allowed me to teach her speech and general life knowledge, but the quantity of energy our bodies began to require started becoming a detrimental force. We were constantly hungry always looking for something else to eat.

We ate roots, mushrooms, vegetables, fruits, fish and meat. Anything that could fill our stomachs from seeds to birds.

We ate most things raw as it kept us from wasting valuable nourishment, I could cook, aside from darkness I have an affinity with all but the element of light, that and my knowledge I could make proper cooked meals. That, however, would only be a waste as it would rob most things of the essentials our bodies demand.

After we left the boar I made a home for ourselves, a nest in a thickly branched gnarly tree. The solid branches that expand from its trunk provide the perfect foundation for our nest home made of stones, twigs, and clay.

Our greatest need was armor against the cold of the mountain winds and weather, I did not have the confidence then to take down large prey for their fur and neither did I have the knowledge for sewing nor tanning. Without either hunting large animals was only a needless danger, that and the fact that without clothing we were vulnerable to the cold I was forced to keep my sister very close so that my thermal field produced by my magic could keep her warm and safe from the perils of frosty temperatures.

It did not mean that I did not try to learn, my first major take down had been a draining experience. I managed to down an adult elk, death by a thousand cuts if you know what I mean. The elk’s hide was wasted, fire had scorched it and imprinted on it a foul odor, but the meat more than filled my stores.

As we grew and time passed by I cared less and less about making clothes for us, my magic was constantly growing stronger and stronger. The purpose of clothing became more and more obsolete, in fact I began to consider clothing more as a luxury or commodity rather than a need. The large furs were put to better use as better bedding, wall and ceiling covers, pouches, and other useful things. Our nest had come to look more like a tree hut that a bird’s nest as it so long ago had began as.

I had turned two white rabbits’ furs into boots for my sister and made sturdy sandals for myself but that was as far as I was willing to waste furs and leathers. They had better uses than superficial coverings.

My body had grown far too accustomed to the freedom of the bareness of my body that to cover it now would restrict my free body and as a hunter that could end with my death.

The worst effect of our growth was our constant need to consume, the game near our home was not enough and over hunting would leave us with barren lands. I was forced to hunt further and farther than I had ever gone before to bring sufficient game home. I was able to start leaving my sister behind while I hunted after the hut was properly enclosed by furs and leather to keep the inside warm, but even so it was a dailey strain. Even after sister mastered her own thermal field and began to harvest and gather for us, our bodies’ demands were often marginally met.

Sister does her part as she grows into it, the older she gets the more she learns and the more burdens she is able to lift off my shoulders. She cooks, cleans, sews, gathers edibles, and has even began to master her ability to heal.

Even between the two of us the task is still considerable.

Not more than twenty four full moons have passed and our bodies have matured into the physical appearance seven to maybe even nine year olds! In another twelve moon cycle it is quite possible for us to reach puberty, sexual maturity. We might even reach it before then! I worry as puberty will bring about more problems to the already existing ones, such as physical changes which will demand even more energy!

My knowledge encompasses many broad subjects including the female body and its mechanics, unfortunately my knowledge there is vague. I would have to find females of our species to teach her lest I be forced to grope about in the dark whilst teaching her what I barely know much less understand.

My wanderings had yielded no results, as far as I could tell we were the only ones of our kind in the entire mountain.