Growing up 1

Madam Zell finished her diagnosis and smiled at Martha.

"Your son is very healthy! I don't know what changed during the pregnancy to improve his health but you shouldn't expect any issues. Please make sure to bring him to see me when I am in town next and I will continue to monitor for any abnormalities."

'There is something special about this boy that I can't put my finger on. I need to keep an eye on him as he grows.'

"Thank you Madam Zell! I am so relieved to hear you say that little Jerod is healthy. I will definitely make sure we come in six months to see you again."

Madam Zell continued with her examinations of the rest of Jerod's family commenting on wear and tear of their joints and giving them poultices to help alleviate any pain.

After they returned home everyone went back to their normal chores working the fields, doing house work, and preparing dinner. Jerod was placed in his pen where he continued to ruminate on what he had observed during the examination of his body and the examination of his mother as well.

'Lindsay, could you understand anything in regards to those small spots that appeared during the examinations?'

'I did some scans using my ability as a system and they are definitely the manifestation of magic particles. I was able to record the scene of each exam for reference in the future. Unfortunately, since neither of us have experience or knowledge of how the particles manifested I am unable to provide more details.'

'Well at least we know a little more. I am supposed to be able to learn magic easier with the benefits I received right? I wonder how long it will take to learn and be able to use it.'

As the weeks and months went by Jerod continued to grow and observe his surroundings. Once he was big enough to start crawling he made another discovery about magic.

Martha was in the kitchen preparing food for dinner when she held her hand near the wood for the stove. As Jerod watched what she was doing he caught a glimpse of red particles swirling near his mother's hand. Just then as the particles converged at one spot a fire suddenly started in the logs. As Jerod witnessed this he felt that his understanding of the world was completely wrong. He had thought that very few people could use magic, and that was why they only saw the healer once since he was born and that was after his birth not during. Seeing as how the whole family went for a check up it must be a fairly rare occurrence to see her.

'Lindsay! Did mother just use magic? Could you get any details?'

'Yes, it appears that the magic particles are colored towards an element. Your mother was able to converge fire element particles to ignite the logs for cooking.'

'So it seems that magic is more common that we thought? We need to continue to observe to see if we can get any clues on how to use magic.'

'I agree. I will expand my observation area and monitor any use of magic particles.'

Time continued to pass as Jerod crawled around the house following his mother while she did chores around the house. He also made sure to keep an eye on the rest of his family to see if anyone else could also utilize magic particles.

What he found was that his mother, father and oldest sister used magic particles fairly regularly. Jerod was able to witness green particles used to help sweep the floor, brown particles used outside to assist with the farm work, red particles to start fires, and blue particles used to wash mud off of shoes. He could still remember the white particles from when the healer had completed the diagnosis.

'So, from what we can guess so far is that there are green wind particles, brown earth particles, red fire particles, blue water particles, and white healing or life particles. I would guess that there are probably black damaging or death particles maybe?'

'That is my observation as well Jerod. It seems that children may learn to use magic around the age of six. I have seen Jacob starting to try to manifest particles on occasion.

I believe I have gathered enough data from using the scan function of the system to allow us to start trying to learn any time you are ready.'

'Really?!? You mean we can start practicing magic now instead of waiting?'

'Yes, I was able to observe your parents and eldest sister using magic regularly and your eldest brother as he tries to connect to the particles so I believe we can start doing so as well.'

'You are amazing Lindsay! What do I have to do?'