Knowledge

Time flew by and already 2 summers are gone. In this time I learned a lot of necessary and common knowledge. For example this world Àardaeina has 456 days, 38 days a month and twelve months, in addition four seasons like on earth.

Most of the time when i was a newborn baby all I did was eating, sleeping, crying and my very best to comprehend the language.

This was surprisingly easy, because after the end of Fall i could already form my first complete sentences and understand the majority of the words spoken.

I once asked my dad why he doesn't train me, because training from a young age should be important in a world like this.

He said to me:

"What should I train you, sword techniques? I don't use one, only my claws. Internal mana? you cant use that until you are old enough, so just focus on surviving until than."

In addition my body grew at a alarming pace, in the first summer after my birth my body was already as big as a 2 year old child on earth. And in the second summer I am already at a height of a 4 - 5 year old, maybe even a little taller. I am wearing a simple brown tunic with a green string around my waist, with a hole over my butt for my tail.

I came to think that, due to my body being a Beast, I grow way faster either because of racial trades or enviromental influence, so that I have to adapt quickly to survive. I was already able to walk with just 3 months of age, and according to the reaction from my parents, they even expected it.

When I grew accustomed to the tongue spoken here, I was able to gather a lot of information.

First I knew the names of my parents, my mother Mary and father Arthur, and my name is like guessed earlier Jäger.

These two were the only people I saw for a good amount of time, only after the winter I was brought out and shown officially to the village.

I directly saw how small and primitive the village with it straw hut like buildings was, and the relative small number of kinsmen were here.

My mother later teached me, when I was asking her after the first dozen of tours around our home why there are so few of us, that our race is facing a lot of difficultys.

While our home is not too far from Human settlements, it is not near either. Furthermore, our Race has to hide in this gigantic forest, due to the fact that most other races, including the widespread Humans, the sturdy and skilled Dwarfs and elegant and intelligent Elven.

At that time I was still a little too young to ask my mother about the situation, but now that i have matured more I ask her:

"Why do we have to hide from other races?What even are these races? What is the Reason they hate us? Are they the reason we are so few people in our village?"

When I asked this question, I am full of curiosity. After all I hoped for a peaceful future with some adventures. Now knowing I have to hide from other races to survive.

My Mother looks at me at this moment with shakeing lips and tears are forming in her eyes. Her lover lip begins to tremble and the corners of her mouth are bitten on to suppress her sudden urge to cry.

Instead of my mother answearing, my father came into our hut and leaned on the doorway. With his brows knitted together and a sneer beginning to form on his face he told me with a spotting tone." We have to hide because we are different. We have to hide, so they don't capture us as slaves for war or heavy labor or other, disgusting things. So they don't kill us if we are oppose them."

While he said that, Arthurs clenched his massive fist, even his claws were cutting into his palm, with small drops of dark red blood comming from between his fingers.

He the continuted:" You have to know Jäger, back in time we were human like others. In fact, all races with the exeption of the Monsters. We all lived on three continents, that are big masses of earth which are seperated by seawater. After a enormous disaster between the old continents the human race had to hide to survive. At least most of us."

Here Arthur took a pause and got some water, to let Jäger digest the information first before continuing.

Our MC's mind was in a turmoil when he first heard they were Human once. His yellow eyes are widening and dart between his farter and mother, clearly showing his shock and confusion with the knowledge provided.

Mary in the meantime calmed down and looked with a gloomy expression at her son. She began to shudder at Arthurs first sentences, which wasn't unoticed by him, only fueling the rage in his heart.

"The Disaster was so extreme our ancestors had to flee. Because of the protection of the mighty tree Ažuolas the Humans which fled there were saved and setteled down under the save tree and its seedlings. Over the time they evolved to the race known als Elven. While not completely integrated in the human society, they still don't face open racismus, but some humans still try to capture some of them because of their intelligence and healthy bodies.

The race of Dwarfs survived by fleeing into the Olymp Mountains, and their bodies became most compatible to the narrow place and scarce resources . After the disaster they began to trade with the other two races with the ores they aquired or the Metal they forged.

The old Humans were lucky, and they only had to abandone the settlements closest to the disaster. Because of this they are mostly the same for thousand and thousand of years.

they all are on more or less friendly terms because of their similar traits and over many decades they became accustomed to each other."

Arthur collect his breath and tries to calm down to tell the rest of the story.

In the meantime a picture forms in Jägers head:° So all races shared human ancestors. Evolution is a amazing thing, to change even us into Beasts. I wonder why we look not even close to anymore, tough. But i have to confirme something, if all Humans had Monster traits or only we evolved in that way.°

Just as Arthur tried to continue his story, he was interupted by Jäger:" But why do they hate us so much? Do we not share the same roots and the same apperance?"

Because he never saw a Human in this world, he can't be sure they look like in his memorys. So he decided to get the apperance of humans of his parents mouth.

"Well, i guess you don't know better, but no, we speak there tongue and walk on our hind legs, we share a lot less traits with common Humans, not like Elven and Dwarfs.

We had back then during the catastrophe only one chance to survive, that was to flee into the wilderness. But savage and bloodthirsty Monsters were all around the continents, even more in the unexplored wild.

So our ancestors had to adapt, and used the Monstercores to gain traits of strong predators to survive. Over time we became more and more like Monsters, but had still a clear mind and intelligence, so they gave us the name {Beastmen}.

We gained the strong {Manaheart] of the Monsters but lost in return our apperance and potential {Element Brain}.

When Jäger heard words like {Monstercore} and {Manabrain} he became astonished and excited.

°That means here on Àardaeina it is possible for magic to exist, and with it Adventurer's. If the Monstercores can be used as a energysource, the time could still be in the kind of middleages, because of the lack of need for inventions like the steamengine or hot weapons.°

After he calmed down from his expectations and his excitement, he turned his attention back to his father.

"Over the time the continents driftet torwards each other, and some thousand years ago formed this big continent, which was named {Àardaeina} by the Humans.

Our Ancestors were over the time low in numbers, and because of the different traits under each other the fertility rate shrank alarmingly. When we tried to interact with other races, we were marked as Monsters and not Human.

So... they begann hunting us, killing us and enslaving our people."

His tone became heavier and darker with each word, and Jäger started to feel pressure comming from his father.

° Holy s*it, is this killing intent? It really feels like a Lion is staring at you and I have no means to escape.°

When Arthur saw that his son began to tremble, he realised what he was doing. He collected himself and loosed his clenched fist. He started to look apologetic and said to Jäger in a softer tone." Let's stop that for now, before I get too absorbed in this. Let's head out for now, my friend wanted to see you, he just came back from his hunt."

He made eye contact with Mary, who was silent during this conversation and looked with wavering eyes at the wall, before looking at her husband.

"Are you okay Mary? Should we stay here for now?" Arthur said with a worried expression.

"No need, go to John and welcome him back for me. I will stay here for the moment and sleep a bit, i'm a little tired."

Arthur nods and put his big hand on Jägers shoulder.

"Come, I will teach you some things on the way to John."

I gazed at my mother, before following father out of the simple wooden door out in the village.