Way of Life

A young Sporean ripped his seaweed in half and holding it up to Jay. "Thanks buddy!" he said accepting it and placing the little guy on his head letting it play with his hair. "So what is the Deputy head doing?..." I asked seeing her walking around the edge of the entrance with her wand out casting something.

"The Deputy Head is one of the few known to able to use Rune Magic...." Jay answered

"Rune Magic?.." I asked.

"Yes it's different to the magic you and I use.... she is able to write runes on people and objects to cause different effects." He replied.

"Wow ..... That seems pretty awesome." I replied.

"It's a pretty strong form of magic..." Jay added.

"So we wouldn't be able to use rune magic?.." I asked.

"Rune Magic is what we call….. Old Magic, remember the ascension event and what came to pass?.." He asked.

"Yeah" I answered.

"Well we call that The Calamity, so old magic thrived Pre Calamity where each individual Sorcerers could use and manipulate magic creating countless different types of spells and effect, but after the Calamity.... all the kingdoms gathered and came to an agreement forging the first universal spell book, and forced all school to only teach spells in this spell book. Fast forward hundreds of years this old magic has faded away." he explained

".... do you know any Old magic?.." I asked.

"No I don't my first teacher was just an ordinary sorcerer and didn't know any old magic I think" Jay answered.

"You had a teacher before Atlantis?.." I asked curiously.

"Yeah there was an old man who took pity on me I suppose and gave me my first spell book and taught me basic spells one day a week." He answered.

"Ohh that's really nice.... is he still around?" I asked.

"I suppose so..... After a year or so he said he needed to get going and move onto somewhere new." Jay replied.

"Ohhh I see.... So who do you know that can use old magic?.." I asked.

"Hmmm Headmaster Bran knows of an ancient spell... he used it during the invasion wars, tales say that it was so devastating that it obliterated an army the size of a main city completely to ash in an instant, and apparently Egwene the Ageless…. Being ageless is rumoured to know many!" He said.

"How about Paul?.." I asked wondering.

"Well no one has witnessed him using any old magic but I'm sure he has a few in his pocket." He answered.

"How do you know so much?.... about everything?" I asked a little curious on how is knowledge is so vast.

"Ummm.... I only know of things that appeared on the news or books.... and escapades... like Elves for example because they are such a secluded race my knowledge of them is extremely limited" He answered.

"I see..." I replied.

"By the way..... Cast levidis-efficio on your clothes and think about drying them." He said with a smile.

"Sure!" I replied pulling out my wand and following his instructions, casting the spell thinking about drying my clothes. A sudden breeze washed over me quickly, slowly I felt a warmth sudden manifest around my clothes. "What's happening?.." I asked.

"That's just a minor cantrip it does very limited things…. Such as making food taste a little better… or creating or putting out a fire….. Just simple stuff." He answered.

"Wow that's pretty useful." I said astonished.

"So how does it feel to be in a world of magic?.." He asked seeing my reaction.

"Huh?....A little boring.... nowhere near as exciting as here.... back in my world we would have all sorts of fictional stories where people had special powers defeating a grand evil and stuff." I began to explain in excitement.

"Tell me more!" He said listening intently.

"When I was a kid I loved reading books about magic and mysticism... I guess I had a boring and uneventful life, so it was like an escape for me.... imagining to be in a world.... like this." I answered.

"So what's it like.... life over there?.." He asked.

"Hmmm... Well.... for one... we only have humans and animals.... nothing crazy like dragons and stuff..." I replied.

"Is it big?.." He asked.

"Yeah..... Pretty big... large continents and oceans and stuff... I think the human population was around 4 billion.... I guess.... " I replied.

"Billion?.." He asked.

"Ohh it's just a very big number..." I answered.

"Ohhh I see..... So what was life like growing up?.." he asked still look completely fascinated.

"Hmmm well we get brought up at home and family... we go to school..... Till we are young adults then we find a job..... Maybe love and start our own family.." I answered.

"Ohhh what do you learn in school?.." He asked.

"Normal stuff.... English.... so that would be like learning to read and write..." I said taking a pause forgetting the language we speak.

"Common!" He answered in excitement.

"Ohh yeah common.... then we have math.... that like counting.... but it gets into very advanced stuff that to be honest I haven't ever used in a real life situation.

"Okay!" He answered nodding in excitement his eyes wide open engrossed in my answers.

"Then when we grow older.... we learn more complicated stuff... health care.... economy..... Geography... art.... business... all sorts of stuff..." I carried on explaining.

"Health care?.... is that to do with people's health?" He asked looking fully perplexed tilting his head to the side with raised eyebrow.

"Ohhh so where I come from... there isn't magic.... to heal people... we have Doctors and nurses which specialise in healing people.... in a more natural way... letting the body heal on its own with some support...." I answered.

"Ohhh we have people that do that! We call them Doctors! Because not everyone can afford the services of a magical healer..." He replied looking extremely fascinated.

"So how do you... travel extreme distances?.... like to another city?.." He asked.

"Well it depends if its close.... either a train or car.... trains are large long transportation vehicles that can carry hundreds of people at once traveling long distances very quickly." I explained.

"And a car?.." He asked.

"Cars are like hmmmm smaller Vehicles that travel on four wheels that carry around 4 to 6 peoples..." I explained.

"I see.... so like a horse and carriage..." He answered.

"Yeah.... sort of maybe a little faster...." I answered.

"How about Zeppelins or air ships?..." He asked.

"Ohhhh we have those... we call the aeroplanes... large metal flying machines that fly hundreds of people over great distances and oceans." I explained.

"Wow!!!.....So what's every day like?..." He asked.

"Hmmm..... before I was brought here.... I guess my life was gonna be.... wake up in the morning.... go to work for most the day... Leave work in the later afternoon and then come home eat dinner watch some TV or read books and then head to bed and do it all over again..." I answered.

"What's a TV?.." He asked.

"Hmmm it's like a device that displays shows for people to watch..." I answered.

"Fascinating!!! So theatres and plays but on a device?..." He asked utterly confused.

"Yeah sort of.... We have actors and actresses that do plays but they are recorded and reproduced on a device…." I tried to explain realising that I did a poor attempt at it. "It's hard to explain but if there was ever the chance to ill bring you with me! And I can show you my world!" I said.

"That would be so great! Listening to you describe it was already encapsulating enough!" He said with a giant smile.

"It's not that fascinating..... Pretty boring in my opinion... you can't have adventures and epic battles and heroes like here..." I replied.

"I dunno it sounds pretty awesome from here..." He said staring into the distance in wonder.

"Yeah..... I think I'll like it here..." I said also staring in wonder as S'ffa tugged on my top gently.

"Wassup? S'ffa?" I asked her looking down with a smile.

"You forgot your robe back in the cavern...." she said pointing at it.

"Just leave it... it's alright.." I said slightly concerned that the dragon may come at me again somehow.

"I'll get it for you!" she said with a smile.

"No its okay... don't worry about it!" I replied to her.

"It's the least we could do after what you did for us." she said with a smile and with a wave of her hand issued some young Sporeans to follow her inside. The young ones instantly tried to drag the robe back before S'ffa began hitting them in the back of the head as if scolding them them. Together they folded my robe and slowly brought it back to me not letting it touch the ground.

"Thank you." I thanked them receiving my robe.

"Hey.... S'ffa?" I asked as she sat beside me.

"Yes?.." She asked.

"Have you ever seen above ground?..." I asked her.

"No.... our species can't survive the intense sunlight.... we might be able to visit the outside world during dark…." She answered.

"Ohh no.... that's so bad..." I replied.

"It's okay! Us Sporeans prefer peaceful and secluded lives." She replied with a smile.

"Ohhh..... Do you think we can stay friends?.." I asked her with a smile

"Of course! You're the best!" she replied trying to give me a hug.

Holding her in my hand I clutched her close." Jay is there a way I can communicate with her?.." I asked.

"Yeah of course just use Send message spell and you can send her a message, I think the limit is either 20 or 25 words I can't remember but S'ffa can also reply as well with the word limit of course." He replied with a giant smile.

"Here that S'ffa we can talk whenever we want!" I said with a giant smile.

"That's great!" She replied.

"If you ask I'm pretty sure you can join in some extra school activities where you can come here and help..." Jay added.

"Really?.." I asked.

"Yeah... The school needs to look after their friends I'm not sure what you can do exactly... but I'm sure there's is one to help Sporeans." He replied.

"That's so awesome! Who would I need to talk to?.." I asked.

"No idea... but the Deputy headmistress is always fond of first years... so you can always ask her." Jay replied.