Learning Something About The World

I spent the rest of the day in the garden. Mimi was nice enough to get me breakfast and lunch. I had Pixal there the entire time telling me stories of the outside world. Pixal was the name I gave her because her real name was too hard to say and very long. I also found out that Pixal was a girl. She started off by telling me about some of the races of the world.

Besides the few I already knew about, like Vampires, Pixes, Dwarves, Elves, and Humans, there were many more. Like Goblins and Orcs were just another race like humans. They even had countries of their own. Except there seems to be some kind of long ongoing war between the orcs and the elves. When Pixal went to tell me why they were at war, for some reason, Mimi made her stop. But besides that, there were actually many different human races as well, like the hoobit. A smaller race of humans who looked no older than a ten year old child. They had the same life span as a regular human, but they did not age. So a hoobit of eighty years of age would still look just as young as the day they turned ten. There were more human races as well, but Pixal didn't know their names.

Besides that, there were the Fey, the Dragons, and the Spirit race. Each race was unique in its own way. There were many more out there as well, but Pixal didn't know them all. She had heard about many ancient races as well that were secluded from the world.

But the main thing that interested me was magic. The reason why Pixal did not use any magic on me when I grabbed her was that she knew I was too young and had not awakened my elements yet. She told me that I must never come in contact with actual magic until after my awakening, or it would be very bad for me. At this point, she was sounding like Mimi, so I tuned her out.

There were four different main elements, fire, water, earth, and wind. Then there were the elements that were rare such as dark, light, null, and space time. Magic really interested me due to how it could be created from nothing. Well, I guess it was not nothing since it required mana to cast a spell, but as long as the runic pattern was correct and you had sufficient amount of mana, you could cast any spell. Runic patterns were like letters or words. But they could be mixed and matched to create many different kinds of spells but could only be written with mana. The strength of the spell was based on how much mana you put into the spell. But each spell required a minimum amount of mana to cast no matter what.

Like let's say I wanted to light a candle, according to Pixal, the amount of mana used to create a small flame to light the candle would only be a very small amount, but if I tried using that same amount of mana to create a fireball used for attacking, the spell would never go off. It would not even cast.

Just the idea of magic itself already blew my mind in how it worked. I couldn't wait to find out what element I was. The awakening ceremony that I would be undergoing in a few months was to let me know exactly this. And only then could I begin casting spells. However, my ability to cast anything would be based on the element itself.

Pixal explained that while a person could cast simple spells of the other elements that were not of their awakened element, casting anything like a fireball when your element was water would not be possible.

At this point, even Mimi was sitting down next to me, listening to what Pixal had to say. It seemed she could not touch any of the books in the library either until I was allowed to, which left her knowledge to be very little in the ways of magic.

While Pixal could be lying to us, even if that was the case, her lying was not really harming anyone and was making for decent entertainment for me. But she sure enjoyed talking. She talked for hours, only stopping to take a sip of my drink to wet her little throat. While she looked like a bug, she was actually kind of cute.

As it got close to dinner time, it was finally time for me to go in. "Pixal, I will see you tomorrow!"

"Okay! Bye Bella, Mimi!" Pixal smiled and flew up to my cheek and gave it a kiss before flying off.

As I walked with Mimi back to the house, Mimi seemed to be in a daze. "What's wrong, Mimi?"

"I just never thought the demons of my nightmares were actually kind of cute and so easygoing. I mean, Pixal told you stories all day without worrying about gathering any pollen or nectar, and she seemed happy to do it." Mimi replied.

"Well, as she said, there are always bad eggs in all races, and we shouldn't judge all Pixies the same. Then again… She could also just be an oddball as well. Who knows, maybe the others really do eat children." I said as I continued on, but Mimi seemed to have frozen behind me. I turned to see her chubby face pale as a sheet of paper, causing me to laugh. I thought for a moment before adding: "Maybe that kiss on the cheek earlier was her tasting the goods."

"What do we do!? Bella!" Mimi began freaking, causing me to laugh. Only then did she realize I was teasing her causing her to cry out and chase after me in anger. "You!" Like that, we ran into the house the same way we ran out of it earlier in the morning.

At dinner, I sat around the table with my family. Even Mimi joined us after I begged my Mother to allow her to sit next to me. It was a normal night, although my father seemed to be staring holes into me. "Father, is there something on my face?"

"What did you do today? I heard you were in the garden all day." My father asked in a somewhat harsh tone, but I knew this was just his normal way of speaking. He looked scary on the outside but was really warm on the inside.

"I talked with Pixal since I can't read the books in the library," I said with pursed lips causing Mimi, who was next to me, to pinch my leg. In return, I swatted her hand away and ignored her panicked expression.

"Pixal?" My father questioned. I turned and looked at him with my hands crossed across my chest and said: "Mmm… Pixal is the pixie I met while walking through the garden. Are you going to tell me not to talk with Pixal now too?"

I know I was being somewhat rude, but I did not care. I hated that they would never tell me anything about the outside world. I had to befriend a pixie, albeit somewhat forcefully, to be able to even learn anything about this world I was tossed into.

"This…" My father seemed to be a bit unsure of how to answer. This was also normal. Any time he wished to tell me no, he would be afraid of hurting my feelings.

"Why do I even need to wait until I am six anyways to go to an awakening? Is there some law saying I can not go earlier? Will my body explode if I awaken too early?" I questioned, causing my brothers to look back and forth between my father and me. My Mother lowered her head, not wanting to get involved. This was also a normal thing when I questioned my father. No one wanted to anger either side!

"We can go next week…." My father softly muttered.

"Huh?" I raised my head, looking at him in surprise. Did he really say I could go next week for my awakening!?

"I said we can have you awaken your element next week. You are right. There is nothing saying one can not awaken early. In fact, the princes both awakened at five years old as well. It had just become customary to have children awaken at six years old, but they can awaken as early as five years old without issue. So we will go next week. Once you do awaken, you can then read all the books in the library as much as you want but…. I want to meet this Pixal. I want to make sure they know not to mess with my family." Hearing my father speak more than just a few words caused not only me but the whole family to stare at him in awe. But next week, I will really get to awaken my element! I wonder which element I will get.