CH 6

-Martoel POV-

I’ve been asleep for 13 months. I woke up yesterday night. Today is my second birthday.

For a conversation with a god to take only a moment in that state to take more than half of my life in this world. I’m at a loss.

My body has grown but it is weak and dry. But it is also much stronger then it was before and has a slight glow to it. As I slept many people told my mother and father that I would never wake, so many in fact that my father lost hope of me coming back. But my mother would never allow them to bury me, always saying that a goddess had blessed me and promised that I would live. No one believed her but she held onto that knowledge for dear life.

It also seems like mother has gotten pregnant. I don’t know if it was to give her something to care for or what but she seems too happy about me being alive to bother telling me the reason why.

I have been told that Shiri had come many times when I first fainted. She stopped coming as often though it seems. When mother asked Naeve about it she just said it was too hard for Shiris little heart to handle. Apparently Naeve and Shiri are coming over to see me today for my birthday. They had planned to come even before I had woken up so they don’t know I’m awake.

As I slept I absorbed lots of mana out of the surroundings. So much so that the mana around our house started to take mana from their surroundings, making a denser concentration of mana around our house. I don’t know what I was doing with that mana but I now possess very little mana.

As soon as I woke up I started eating anything that was given to me. They started out with a liquid full of chunks of solid food. I ate that until the whole pot was gone. Then they handed me some round hard thing. I ate that to but only after they showed me that there was soft stuff inside. Finally they handed me some wet bark for me to eat. I ate that one without hesitation as I had seen Jager and father eat it many times as a child. Everything I put into my mouth was amazing and had a different taste. It didn’t compare to what mother had but she didn’t seem to have any more so I guess I’ll have to eat what the others eat. I fell asleep again after I ate instantly after finishing eating and hearing what my family had to say.

Now I’m awake and have now just finished processing the information I have gained since waking up. I haven’t moved in a long time so I guess I should start with that.

Ok let’s start by leaning forward.

“Ahhhhh”

Why was that so much harder then I remember it being? Maybe being asleep for so long has halted my strength increase so I only have the strength I had when I lost myself to the goddess.

“Well crap.”

I say aloud fluently like everyone else had. Wait does that mean my body grew enough to allow me to speak.

“Yes I can finally ask about everything I’ve ever wondered about.”

I hop out of bed immediately and land on my face.

“Oww”

Well this sucks. No I can’t put up a fight when I see Shiri again. Well no use laying on the ground up here.

Well I guess I get to crawl around the house until I can move properly again. And since I don’t have the strength to lift myself back up into the bed I’ll just head downstairs.

Left arm right arm left leg right leg pull.

“Haaaa. This is so much harder than it should be.”

I finally made it to the stairs. Wait how am I going to get down this thing.

“Ahhh”

Ok calm down Martoel you can do this. Let’s go one step at a time feat first.

Ok there we go. And another one. Ok now to the next…

Bum badum baboom

“Ahh. That hurt.”

Well at least I’m downstairs now. And the sun has started to come up so the others should be waking up soon.

“Martoel what are you doing out of bed. You just woke up your body isn’t ready to move yet. Wait was the racket just now you. Did you fall down the stairs? Oh my gosh boy you are going to sit in that chair the rest of the day and we will help you get back in shape over the next month we promise but not if you go and hurt yourself again. You understand young man.”

“Yes mother.”

“Wait did you just talk! You said your first words. Aww my little boy can speak. Sooo cute!”

Why does she think talking is such a big deal? I mean I know I couldn’t talk before I met the goddess but It’s not like I didn’t grow. Maybe babies don’t understand words until later in life. Oh well this puts me on even ground with the other kids born around the same time as me.

“Well then Martoel you better get to that chair and wait for Shiri to come she has missed you quite a bit. Oh and while you sit there I’ll get you some sticks to put on your legs so while you wait you can regain your strength.”

“Ok mother. Thanks for always taking care of me.”

“Awww so cute. And don’t worry about that it’s my job as your mother to take care of you.”

Mother walks off to the kitchen and starts to make some breakfast. She comes back a little bit later with a plate of wet bark and yellow fluff for me to eat as I waited for the others to wake up. Then she tied some sticks to my legs so I could get started on regaining my muscle.

After some time has passed brother and father wake up and greet me with a hearty,

“Good morning!”

And walk into the kitchen to eat there breakfast. As I wait for them to finish I start to absorb mana again. The mana around is quite dense and full of lots of ice mana.

Knock Knock Knock

Hu it’s pretty early I wonder who that could be. Mother runs to the door and opens it. There in the doorway stands Naeve with her messy red hair flowing down her back. And next to her is a little girl with dark auburn hair and bright green eyes that shin like an aurora. She had a gloomy expression on her face and wore a plain brown dress with a leather belt around her waist and a small animal’s pelt over her shoulders. She had toned muscles and a kind air around her under a layer of sadness. I knew immediately who this little girl was.

“Hi Shiri.”

I yell from the chair I’ve been refined to.

“Hu…”

Is all she says as she looks up towards my direction.

“Missed me?”

“Martoel”

She yells in excitement and begins to run towards me.

“You big dummy. Why didn’t you come back sooner? Why did you open your eyes for so long? Why did you look like dried meat in that bed slowly losing everything that made you alive? You big dummy who said you could do something like that without me.”

She sobs as tears stream down her face as she puts her head in my lap.

“Where did you go? Where did you go?”

She continued to sob.

“I’m sorry Shiri I didn’t know this would happen. And I promise that I won’t disappear like that if I can help it.”

“Promise you won’t make me go through that again.”

Shiri says as she continues to sob in my lap. I begin to stroke her head like mother did and say.

“I promise Shiri. I promise.”

“Now now Shiri don’t push him to hard he just woke up, so he isn’t that strong and needs to rebuild his muscles before you can play with him like you used to.”

My mother chimes in a little bit after Shiri had calmed down a little more.

“Haha. Quite the little charmer we have here, don’t we honey.”

Father says heartily with a big grin on his face.

“Not until he can provide for himself he isn’t.”

Everyone starts to laugh as Shiri and I look at each other confused. I don’t even know what a charmer is or why I have to be strong to be one. Well if it’s a result of being strong than I’ll try my best to become one.

“Now Martoel its time for your gifts. Since you missed your first birthday we decided to just give you one present that will benefit you the most. Here you go my boy we hope you can use this to grow strong again.”

Father hands me a box and urges me to open it. Inside the box there was an assortment of four small bags and one larger one. They were all sized to my general size and very well made.

“What are these bags for?”

“There for weight training dear. Like what I did when you were little with the sticks and rocks.”

Mother answers.

“You see the small bags are for your arms and legs while the larger bag is for your waist. This way you can strengthen all your muscles at all times. Just make sure to increase the weight when it gets to easy to move around.”

“Oh ok. Thanks this will help a lot in regaining the strength I lost when I was away.”

“Well now that you have received a gift from mother and father it’s my turn to give you something Martoel.”

Jager said excitedly as he stepped forward showing me a long box. Why is Jager opening the box this time?

Wait isn’t that my job? Maybe he has a reason. But I’ll wait for now and trust elder brother.

Once the lid is off the box I see it a grey stick much like the sticks on the walls that came from the weapons crate.

“Martoel, this is a training weapon that I made with father just the other month. It will help you as you train and learn fighting techniques. There are weights that fit on one end so you can make the training harder, but mother told us to keep those in town or else you would hurt yourself with them. But don’t worry you will get great training with this weapon ever if it’s not as heavy as it could be.”

“Thanks brother Jager I will use it as soon as mother lets me.”

Finally Shiri and Naeve stepped forward and pulled out a big thick blanket made from many pelts and simple fabric.

“Sorry Martoel. But we didn’t get you anything that you can use to train with. We thought you would still be asleep so Shiri helped me make you this winter blanket.”

Naeve said as she handed the blanket over to me. The fur was quite soft and the stitches where very firm and would last a long time. While they might not have the most stuff they make up for it in the quality.

As the day went on we continued to talk about what had happened to the town and with each others families. The village is growing slightly and more children are surviving then in past years. I taught Shiri the new things I learned about mana. And I also learned that Shiris father was a strong warrior in the area who went away from the village to make a profit by fighting and receiving the spoils after defeating his enemies. Either the profit isn’t very good or they aren’t very successful with their fights if Shiri and Naeve live day by day.

As night began to fall Shiri and Naeve left. Shiri trying her hardest to convince her mother that they should stay the night. In the end she gave me a big hug and tried to hold back her tears as she walked out the door.

Then I fought my way back up to my room by crawling and scooting on the floor. Once I finally pulled myself up into the bed with a little help from Jager I started to drift off to sleep. But before I lost all senses I heard mother say.

“Don’t stay out for too long, we have lots of work to do to get you back to being the strongest.”

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Thanks for reading.