I sighed as I carefully uprooted a plant. I was back near the stream I had spent so much of my time around. I asked Ann if it had a name at one point, her answer leaving me slightly disappointed because it didn’t. Since it didn’t I decided instead I would name it. Since then I’ve been calling it Peace Stream since it was a place of gathering for the mostly harmless animals in the area and had supported me with the sound of its slow, peaceful current each and every night I had spent in the forest, as if singing me a lullaby.

The old woman questioned the name, saying the predators gathered there as well but I ignored it. It was a small detail in the grand scheme of things. One which I decidedly chose not to pay attention to.. I nodded to myself with a smile That name was perfect. Yes.. I think I might have been much more free with my expressions when by myself. I wonder if it was something I unconsciously hid.

Well whatever. I got up and moved on to the next plant which I spotted pretty easily. It had been a month since I started staying at Ann’s place. During that time, I found out quite a bit. For being just a small hut, Ann’s house had quite a number of books which I could learn from. Books about geography, biology, alchemy, history, creature encyclopedias and so on. The catch was. I needed to learn the language as the necklace did not go quite as far as to translate writing, though what it did do is make the process of learning the language much, much easier. So I’ve been progressing. At this point I can hold a normal conversation and can read simple books but I still have much to improve. If i had concentrated my efforts purely on that I would most likely be finished by now, but alas there was much to do and my teacher was often quite busy herself.

I carefully uprooted another plant. Even now I was paying back Ann. After all, I’m now wearing actual clothes, custom made by the tailor in the village to fit me. Yes. Even the tail. Though putting the pants on was definitelying a nightmare at first, I've grown used to it. Of course, custom made clothes are nice and all but in return for getting them I had to do a week’s worth of gathering herbs. A few weeks have passed since, but something made me need a new set made, hence my current stroll around the woods. The reason being I had far outgrown the last one.

I had already slightly noticed it in the forest but it wasn’t nearly as noticeable as this past month in which my body grew by what seemed like two years. Now I looked six years old. On the bright side. I wouldn’t remain a child for nearly as long as I thought. On the bad side. I wasn’t sure if this would progress past the point of maturity, making my lifespan annoyingly short. Ann had no idea why this was either, but it led to another week of herb gathering duty. Thankfully today was the last day.

The herbs weren’t hard to find. It was just bothersome work, making me feel like I was playing a bad MMORPG from my earlier days and doing fetch quests. I easily memorized their appearance when Ann was teaching me what to gather, in fact, I’ve learned quite a few ways to use them in alchemy as well. Watching the old woman work let me get an insight in it. One thing I wish she would give me more insight in was runecrafting. While she did say she was a runecrafter and I’d learned that she was taught from a very young age, being incredibly experienced in the art of it, there was little opportunity for me to learn it from her.

Not only did she seem to avoid teaching me it, but I also couldn’t get a sneak peek as she practiced because… well… she never did. While runecrafting was impressive and quite rare nobody in the small village could afford an item enchanted by her. In fact, she was already charging dirt cheap for the alchemy alone and that was just something she knew on the side, not her main profession.

Why live here and not somewhere she could make more money? Where people could actually afford what she offered? Apparently this was her home village. The woman had travelled most of her life and in her old age had decided she would spend the rest of her days here even if no one who remembered her remained alive. Maybe that was why her home was so far from it. Well. Not that it mattered to me. This was what I picked up from random conversations and what Maya told me. The little girl was on much better terms with the old woman than I was, which suited me just fine as I didn’t plan on getting on good terms with anyone here. I just wanted to learn what I could from the old woman, pay her back for the great service she’s done me and be on my way.

Speaking of what she had taught me. I learned what I was. Or what Ann thought I was. According to her I should have been a Drakin, a half-human, half-dragon hybrid. They were an incredibly rare sight but were also quite famous. Most people knew. If you encounter a Drakin do not cross them. Drakin were a lump of pride and power. One of them could kill whole groups of men easily and there didn’t exist many humans who could fight one of them on equal footing. They were weaker than dragons but even if inheriting only a small amount of that power, they were not to be trifled with.

But. There were a few discrepancies between them and me. And they weren’t small either. First of all, Drakin were born like humans. That is. Not from an egg and not as a four-year-old. Though. of course, Ann didn’t know about that detail of my birth so she didn’t notice that. Second was they were supposed to grow at the normal rate of humans as well and stop aging at some point. The stop would be earlier the faster they developed their power since it would occur after they surpass a certain threshold. Ann didn’t know what the threshold was, but that didn’t matter. As long as I reached the age of at least ten before it happened I would be satisfied. I didn’t really need to look old. Looking like a child might actually make for some amusing encounters.

I noticed another herb on the other side of the stream and jumped over it even more easily than before. With my body developing so were my physical abilities. And apparently. So were my magical ones, as I began being able to faintly feel the magic in the air. It felt different from before. And not just because of my senses, which I had gotten more used to with time. I had started meditating recently and reaching out to that magic in the air.

My meditation was based on what I did in the dark space, I was barely conscious so I had trouble replicating the effect, but while I haven’t been able to get as good a result as back then I was sufficiently capable in it. That being said magic wasn’t so simple and while Ann knew much about runecrafting she didn’t know any actual magic. So for now. I just occasionally practiced feeling and moving around the energy around me. Mana.

Maya was quite impressed. Apparently it was a big deal to be able to do that. Maybe it was just easier for my race. I also learned what Ann wanted and why I would be able to get it. She wanted a labyrinth core. Where do I even start with these things? Labyrinths. Labyrinths were a vast complex of traps, monsters and death around every corner. But the other thing they contained was treasure. And that was what drew people to them. A labyrinth core was a crystal at the very end of the labyrinth which was the source of everything inside it. It was basically a naturally formed magical item.

As for what it was for. It had many different uses, making it an incredibly valuable item, able to be sold for a large sum. What Ann needed it for? Apparently it had the capability to store large amounts of mana. Something Ann had little of by nature. Having it would greatly increase the quality of her runecrafting and would allow her to create even more complex and mana-hungry enchantments. Why she needed that here in the middle of nowhere she had no one to enchant for? She didn’t tell me. And it wasn’t my business anyway. I was only asking out of curiosity and didn’t intend to pry further than she would allow me.

I uprooted the last herb and threw it into the bag, Ann had given me to gather them in. It was time to go back. I jumped over Peace Stream again and headed in the direction of the hut. I had learned so much in the last month but so far from enough. I wanted more. I wanted to know about magic. I wanted to experience these labyrinths myself. I wanted to go out on my own and travel the world. But it was early. I was too unprepared.

Drakin were worth a fortune on the slave market. Yes. Of course this world had that. It was hilarious to think that it wouldn’t. After all, humans were weak animals that tried to make themselves feel strong. A slave that could only obey each and every one of your commands was a good way to do that. That being said. Even if I could handle normal humans no problem if by chance someone stronger decided to show up and hunt me down I would be in actual trouble.

The villagers were afraid of me at first, but learned to accept me during the month. I didn’t do anything bad to them after all. I may be unreasonable but compared to what these people knew of Drakin, I was a saint in Drakin flesh. I was prideful sure, but I didn’t treat people as pieces of garbage thrown around the village or bugs who lived there. Drakin very much did. They saw humans as a race that was beneath them even though they held human blood of their own. Another thing that made me smile slightly. If anything was to be ridiculed it should be that contradiction they constantly lived by. It was honestly amusing, almost cute.

Dragons on the other hand… were much the same. But they were also legendary beings, some of the strongest creatures in existence. Ancient dragons even more so. Apparently dragons were all born with an ideal of power. Or something like that. It was called a Pha'al. Apparently that’s what the dragons themselves called it. Ann couldn’t explain it to me too well. It was something like an in-born form of ultimate power each dragon had in their minds which they would eventually be able to reach if they could get powerful enough. A dragon’s scales reflected that choice in one way or another but it wasn’t always consistent. A blue dragon could be a dragon whose form reflected the skies, lightning, water, ice, even much vaguer things like a concept or emotion.

A white dragon was completely vague as apparently no ancient white dragon was ever discovered. Drakin on the other hand seemed to be born with scales reflecting their affinity, though that was still just as vague. White-scaled Drakin often had affinities with life, lightning, force, mana itself. A lot of things. Many of them unknown. Many unrecorded. And many a secret. It wasn’t like Ann knew everything either. She just knew more than an ordinary person would. Most likely because of her travels during her life.

I sighed as I thought about it. Really. While I had learned so much in the last month. I felt like I had learned next to nothing in reality. I looked at the herb bag and sighed again, wondering if there could be a more efficient way of repaying Ann the next time I outgrow my clothes.

Just as I turned back forward as I approached the end of the forest, I spotted Maya waiting outside Ann’s hut. She spotted me almost instantly and waved over to me with a wide smile.

“Reeeeex!” She called out for seemingly no reason. I sighed again. It really was a habit at this point. The girl had grown unusually attached to me in the past month. Well. More like she always sought me out to do things. Whether it’ll be practice alchemy, or collecting ingredients, going to the village, or helping me read books. She was having much more fun with these things than I thought she would and to be honest… It made things that much more enjoyable for me as well… and that’s why... I need to leave soon.