3 Country Days

Chapter 3-

It was just another glorious day, as the sun shone brightly onto the cottage that lay on the southeastern tip of the Norfolk village.

The bedrooms are empty, someone is cooking in the kitchen and almost all the rooms are now locked. The whole place only has two residents. Things have always been looking bright for the only two inhabitants of the beautiful seaside cottage.

Jolene Shephard is currently asleep in her bed, which is the only single bed in the room that faced the eastern front, showing a beautiful sunrise.

Jolene opened her eyes slowly and sits up, she scratched her head and yawned, and she stretched a bit. After performing her morning rituals, she headed over to the room that is usually occupied by her Master, whom she now considered her own son.

Then her eyes shot out when she realized, that his room was empty. "Master Nathan? Nathan?!" She checks the bottom of the bed to see if he was there, but he wasn't. Fear and panic enter her thoughts. Where was her son?!

She then got out of the room and headed to the living room to look for him, on arriving in the living room, she noticed the fantastic aroma of morning tea and eggs, and coming in with a large tray of food was her soon-to-be seven-year-old son, "Good morning, Aunt Jolene." said the brown-haired boy.

Jolene sighed in relief and walked over to him. Nathan places the food tray down and embraces his Aunt, she also hugs him. "Oh my gosh, Master Nathan. You scared me back there!"

Nathan is confused by this. "What do you mean?"

They break the hug and she went down to her knees and onto his level. "What I mean is, why are you up this early? It's usually me who does the chores here, Master Nathan? And what were you doing anyway?"

Nathan looked down with a little fear and sadness. "I … I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you so worried Aunt Jolene. I wanted to make us some breakfast for you, you've been working so hard for me, ever since I've known you, you're like a mother to me, and I wanted to show you my appreciation."

Jolene smiled. "That's awfully nice of you little master, but I don't want you to get so worked up on this. I'm doing my part to help you with whatever you've got trouble with, though I am proud of what you're doing for me, so thank you, Master Nathan." She then hugs him again.

Nathan smiled and hugged her back and shyly continued. "You don't need to call me Master, Aunt Jolene. You're as good as my mother, Aunt Jolene."

Jolene's eyes open up hearing that, and they depart from the hug. "Oh, Nathan! You are my son, in all but blood."

Nathan looked down shyly. "I know that you're not my blood mother, but you're the one who's always been there for me, looked after me, and taught me everything I know. You've never questioned my reading habits or my eccentricities, and have always supported me. You're everything I have." He trailed off shyly, looking at his feet and fidgeting on the spot.

Jolene was touched by this and she looks over to the tray of food. Her eyes water and she can't help herself but pull Nathan into another hug. He has always been a sweet, studious child. Everything she's done had been for him, and she's grown over time to love him like her son.

"Of course, Son, now why don't we taste the food that you have prepared for us?" She murmurs into his ear, while still hugging his little body. She separated from the hug, wiping a tear from her eye and said "And we can celebrate today. How about we go into town later for some ice cream, and you can join the boys at the park for some football matches, hmmm?" She grabbed his hand and directed him to the table, her attention once again on the masterfully cooked English breakfast.

"That would be wonderful, mum!" Nathan too started gorging down on food as he starts off his day, after a touching moment with his now Mother.

oOOOOOOOOo

Nathan arrived at the park, with his mum. He placed his bike onto the bike rack and secured its chain and attaches the security system that his mum got for him. He looked at his mum, and saw that she was waving him off to play and heading to the seating area, designed for parents where she usually gossips with the local housewives and other parents.

Nathan noticed the bikes of Liam, Zach, and Clyde were there, they're the children from his primary school, that he usually hangs out with whenever he feels like playing a few games. "Looks like they're here and probably waiting." He then enters the football field and he sees them getting ready for a match with some other boys from his school that he vaguely recognizes. "Hey, guys."

They all stop and see him. "Nathan." They nod at him. He thought that interaction was a little weird.

"Hey man, you made it and you don't look stressed at all." said Zach.

Nathan chuckles. "What? Were you guys betting on whether I'd come or not?"

Zach and Liam chuckle nervously and then get elbowed by Clyde. "Good to see you again buddy. You feeling alright, you only show up to play football with us, you should hang out with us more often?"

"I am fine, and I would love to hang out more, but I also have to help mum around the house and study the extra subjects she teaches me, but I'll try, now come on. Let's see start the match already." Nathan enthused. He then heads to the lineup where the teams were divided and dons the red patch onto his back, differentiating the teams between red and blue. Clyde, Liam, and Zach were glad he was opening up to hanging out with his friends again.

'He's back. Nathan Frye is back!' was the collective thoughts in their heads.

They then watch as he plays in the midfield position and beats his previous high score of most opportunities provided and passes made, throughout the game. The game goes on for the next forty-five minutes, when half time arrived.

"Stella is really making us look bad, she's carrying the opponent team and only Nathan has been able to counter her on the field, I think I should switch to midfield, while Nathan plays center forward, we need to score twice, and then hold the ball, for us to be able to win." Liam strategized.

"Yeah, she must've spent all year practicing football, after Billy insulted her at school for being too weak for a game of football, look at her now, I wish Billy could see her now." Zach remarked. The halftime score was one to red and two to the blue team. Stella had scored one goal and assisted the other for the blue team, while Nathan had scored the only goal from the Red team.

"Well, I'm not planning on playing to lose this game, her better form or not. That sounds kind of wrong and she's put in her effort at the game and we'll make her work if she wants to win. Lesson learned from the past. I don't want my mom to worry about me being biased towards her, Clyde, just so you should know." said Nathan.

This makes Clyde chuckle nervously, Liam and Zach also sigh in relief. "Yeah, we will give it all our best to beat her!"

"Yeah, you go Nathan!" cheered Zach.

"You got this bud! Show her who's the boss!" cheered Liam.

Clyde checks his watch and then he pulls out a stopwatch. "It's time, lets's change the positions and see if we can pull through!"

"Now you're talking Clyde! Let's do this thing!" cheered Nathan. He then continues to play, while Clyde keeps track of the time and Stella's positioning, and Liam and Zach cover the left and right forward flanks.

"Let's see if you can score the goals and after I need to go have lunch, I didn't eat much this morning" replied Zach.

They continue to watch Nathan play and try and beat the defenses and score two goals, the game was on!

oOOOOOOOOOOo

Nathan and his mum, returned home in the evening, tired and exhausted. The game had been exhilarating and Stella and her team had made Nathan work really hard for the goals. The game ended up getting extended into penalty shootouts. It really was a fun game.

Nathan liked playing football often so that he could stay physically fit, and achieve his maximum physical potential. He didn't want to join a gym or fight club at his tender age, because he knew that it'd be detrimental to his growth. He planned on staying fit throughout his new life, in mind, body, and in magic. He knew that he'd have to be in optimum shape if he was to adequately face all challenges life would throw at him in the coming future.

He knew he'd need to learn how to fight at some point in the next few years, and when the time was right he'd diligently work on that too. But for now, he was happy with what he had achieved till now.

Nathan had also kept up his studies in the Sciences and Mathematics, and while he knew he'd be no Tony Stark, he'd be able to keep up with the genius minds that he's sure to meet if their future intertwines. If he keeps up studying at the rate he is anyway.

Magically, Nathan was capable of levitating and moving around multiple light objects in his bedroom. And he's been starting his practice on fine control by shaping the trajectories of the floating objects into resembling complex mathematical patterns. It was a work in progress. He did not know how to break the news of him being a magical person to his mum, he mused he could just let her know once his Hogwarts letter arrives, and go on from there, but admittedly it left a sour taste in his mouth. He did not like lying to her whenever she asks him about what he does locked up in his room.

oOOOOOOOOo

Another year had passed, and Nathan had used the past year very productively. He had increased the things he could do with magic. From making light-weighted objects move with limited control, Nathan had upped his capabilities. Over the year, Nathan gradually found objects that weighed more and experimented and practiced with them. By the time he turned eight, Nathan's control over objects had increased substantially.

The eight-year-old still couldn't do anything more than move objects, but Nathan felt like he was a Jedi whenever he did move objects with just his magic. When Nathan mentioned that he could move objects, what he meant was that he could use different combinations of push and pull to make the object move.

Basically, he could apply force in a certain direction for a certain amount of time, with just his magic. This did allow him to play around with forces of mechanical physics all under near-ideal situations though, so that was a plus for him.

By using multiple combinations of the types of forces at different magnitudes, Nathan could do all kinds of things. It didn't provide total control like controlling a remote-controlled car, but with creativity and practice, possibilities were vast. He had attained a very precise level of control and could control objects as long it was possible with push and pull.

Of course, there were limitations,

The range was a huge limitation. Mainly because he couldn't genuinely work with anything outside of his own room.

Another limitation was speed. The control deteriorated with an increase in speed. The faster the object, the less control Nathan had over it.

Focus also hindered Nathan's ability to do magic. Nathan found out that to be able to do magic that wasn't high-emotion-fueled, wild accidental magic, he had to focus and maintain the intent of the action. So, while the single push and pull were simple enough as their focus time was short, continuous counterparts were harder as Nathan needed to constantly think of the power, direction, where to apply force, and how to apply force. So, complexity was bad for Nathan.

Hand gestures were another issue that Nathan was trying to curb. He had picked up the bad habit of using hand gestures to focus on the desired goal. He did not want to be reliant on those either and had tried everything he could think of in order to get rid of the habit. He'd tried tying his hands behind his back, sitting on them, placing them in his pants pocket, and even folding them in front of his chest. He was slowly breaking off that habit too.

It took him more than a month to get rid of that instinct to use hand gestures and another two months to get his control to the level provided with hand gestures. Now, Nathan could do the same things by just thinking about the execution of the magic.

Nathan's non-magical education was also coming along fantastically. He had moved on to AP Calculus in mathematics and he was very proficient in Integral Calculus and Differential Equations. He was also learning basic programming languages, like Oracle, C# and Java. He was also proficient in basic biology, he knew the Human anatomy like he knew the palm of his hand, and he'd started trying to understand genetic biology and the functions of genomes in a living being. He had aced most of the standard tests for theoretical chemistry too, that were available in the town library, he'd memorized most Standard reactions in Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, and was now moving forward with trying to study biochemistry using the books he had available.

If only he could attempt the more magical aspects of magic by himself, like transfiguration, charms, curses, hexes etc. then he would have called this stage perfect for a transmigrate of his age.

Little did Nathan know, that the world of magic and mystery was about to become a whole lot more colorful for him.