Tyris had initially set about getting Kenan and waking him for the day's chores. When he saw that his son was tranced in a tome, he decided he could do the extra chores today. However, he did ask Ana to wake the boy at noon-time. So that the child's sleep schedule wouldn’t be totally alternated into a nocturnal way.

However when Ava did that, she saw that Kenan was already awake. Kind of. His mind was alert. Yet his body had no energy. Or that’s what it felt like. Ava could see, incredibly slowly, how the kid would bring his arms out in front of him and drag himself forward. She could hear his strained, shallow breaths. His skin was starting to crack and the flesh in his cheeks became sunken. Her motherly instincts started to kick-in. Yet she was calmed by Dion, who was coiled on Kenan’s back. For a moment he roused from his nap, Looked at Ava. His eyes gave off a soothing message. Then he whooped in fox laughter. Ava hesitated for a moment, but left to do another task. She left the door open.

A few hours had passed.

Now the sun was starting to set. Doco was heading inside, done with all his chores. Not that he had many. He was going to get a quick nap before dinner. Setting to his room, in the hallway he almost tripped. Doco was thankfully trip proof as he used telekinesis to catch himself. He looked to find a prone, slowly crawling Kenan. Dion had gone off to hunt. Again, using his magic, he flipped the boy over to his back, then up righted him. Kenan eventually came to the realization he was floating and face to face with his uncle. “What is wrong with you?”

“Old....tan….book.” Kenan said with great difficulty.

“Old tan book?” He looked closer at Kenan. The sunken flesh, cracked skin, low energy, dismal strength. He had seen these symptoms before. Back when he was a soldier, the very first thing that they did was suck all the power out of a person and stick them into an artificially low mana area. Then after a few days they would begin to make the soldiers work-out. He involuntarily winced at the memory. “Mana deprivation. Oh you poor stupid boy.” Doco smiled.

Two weeks had passed.

During the first week. Doco had taken the liberty of doing all of Kenan’s chores, and doing the extra care he needed.. As in when Kenan needed food, he would telekinetically feed him, or when he needed to go to the bathroom. Well…

The only thing that Doco had tasked the boy with everyday, was to get to the dinner table. In the first two days he failed. The army crawl was just not fast enough. Then he got enough strength to go on fours. He then succeeded each and every day. He was also getting faster. After the end of the first week. He could walk fine. That was pretty much the extent of it.

Doco had given the kid another week off of chores. With the task to at least follow his uncle everywhere he walked. While a normal person would find this was easy. To Kenan in a mana deprived state, this seemed to be impossible. Every time he fell, or stumbled, he clenched his teeth and got up. After all, this was for him to get stronger. One of the biggest comforts was Dion. Giving encouragement whenever possible.

Another fortnight passed.

Kenan had finally gotten all of his chores back. Which was hell on top of more hell. As Doco had purposefully, with the help of Tyris, changed Kenan’s responsibilities to the most heavy duty, muscle tearing tasks possible. Ava must have felt pity for the young boy, as she started giving him double portions of food. Kenan certainly wasn’t complaining, he felt he was hungry every waking moment.

When the first week had passed, Doco struck up a conversation with Kenan at breakfast. “Nephew?”

Kenan who was unbelievably tired and his nose in a bowl of porridge barely responded. “Yes?” His word was mumbled between a bite.

“How badly do you want to see results in your mana deprivation journey?”

Kenan, still chewing, quickly swallowed. “I came this far. It would be stupid to quite progressing. Even if it means my discomfort.”

Doco got a smile from ear to ear. “Exactly what I wanted to hear. Meet me in the horse circle at Noon. Skip lunch.”

“Okay.” While he was grumpy about losing lunch, he was too tired to care, and currently with a mouth full of food, his mind didn’t register it. He had finished breakfast, and quickly began his chores. He tried to finish as fast as possible, but unfortunately he did so a bit after noon. So he hurried his way to Doco. He saw at the entrance of the pin Doco was leaning on the post. “Sorry uncle...:”

“Your late boy!” Doco yelled.

“Wha..”

“You will not speak, unless I permit it!! Do. You. Understand. Me.” He was in the boy's face, spittle getting all over Kenan.

“Yeah..”

“It is yes sir! Get on the ground!”

“But…”

“Get on the goddamn GROUND!!” Doco bellowed. Kenan obeyed quickly, not wanting to invoke further wrath. He hadn’t ever seen his uncle get this mad. For some reason, he felt whatever punishment he was going to get was going to be worse than when his father had learned he had been secretly guarding Dion for weeks.

“Arms shoulder with. Push up from the ground using your hands. Feet together. Stay up! Butt Down!” Doco had slowly gotten the kid in a push-up position. “Now Down! Not fully down, stay suspended! Good. Now, UP!” Doco bent down so his face was next to Kenan. “This is what we call a push-up. It will be your best friend!”

So it went like this for another two hours. Doco had showed Kenan a plethora of different ways to torture the human body. Each exercise made Kenan's muscle tear to an extreme. To holding a small hay bail over his head, and squatting as low as he could. To running around inside the pen for an extended period of time. After they were done, Doco had led the kid through different stretches.

“All right kid, I’m your uncle again. Anyway, we will meet here everyday. If you're late, double everything.” Doco smiled. He swiftly left before Kenan could refuse.

It went on like this for another week. The biggest problem was that it seemed Kenan was late. Every. Single. Day.