History

The day ended very soon. It wasn't like a real school where the children would sometimes stay for almost a whole day. Although I must express my admiration of how advanced the system of this village was it couldn't compare with the schools of the twentysecond century. Everything was optimized to a level beyond imagination and even the laziest and least intelligent pupil could learn way more than the children here.

During the language session I tried to sharpen my senses to their limits. I had to analyze each word every person uttered to link spoken and written language since my blessed body would automatically translate on its own if I didn't focus enough. This time my blessing seemed like a curse for a while before I started to understand the written language. It took me about a day to link what people said and what they wrote properly but it took only two other days to get to a level that could be compared to my spoken language skills. During the first day the elder, our language teacher, was only thinking that I was quite adept at learning but after the third he was shocked beyond measure.

„How can anyone who has never known our written language master it in three days?" he muttered while giving us an exercise to write down sentences that would be hard to say. I knew some advanced tongue twisters and I found it hilarious seeing my trained elites failing to produce a single one of them correctly. On the other hand did I try to give easier ones to the children who would be dispirited otherwise.

Other than arts, language and mathematics we had two other subjects. They were history and biology. I loved biology and I wished the teachers would tell us a whole lot more about this world's flora and fauna but sadly they mostly knew only about the forest's species since they lived here.

History on the other hand was never a subject which I liked but since this history was pretty new and I didn't have to learn a lot of names and dates by heart I actually found it to be quite refreshing.

The children seemed to have heard all stories since most of them were bored whenever we had a history session, probably because they knew everything already. On the other hand every person who was new to this village was taking this new information in like a dry sponge which is laid into some water.

The first few sessions were indeed rather boring. We were simply told about the beginning in which a people of nomads settled down in this forest after wanderers started to be stereotypically seen as worthless.

They built a village founded on two pillars. The first pillar was wisdom. They had travelled many lands and amassed an amount of knowledge even some cities couldn't rival. Sadly much of it was lost to time. The other pillar was friendship. Although they had many warriors among them they always tried to live together peacefully and accept every wanderer who wanted to stay for a while without hesitation. They had also tamed many creatures over the years and while they lived in this forest for centuries they never exploited it instead they only took what they need the most. The animals which lived in the village beside them weren't seen as food or pets, they basically treated them as equals. That was one reason why all of the animals I had met in this village were extremely docile and goodnatured but I couldn't believe that this was all there was to it.

My thoughts were drifting around reflecting over this story when I was startled awake by something the elder said.

„Excuse me, could you repeat that please" For a moment I did not believe my ears, I had to ask again.

„Of course Valentinus. I am glad these classes catch your attention." He said „as I was just saying there were many wanderers who joined our village over the centuries and among them was a master wizard. He shared our worldview that this is a perfect place built on friendship and wisdom and he imparted a lot of new knowledge to our ancestors which later on even gave birth to an other wizard. Although that one only was an apprentice and did not know many spells he was a genius scholar just like his master." He paused for a second and looked at me pronouncing the word genius as praising as he could before continuing. „Together they brought our village into a golden age. They researched a lot and came up with a so called ‚Battle Art'. Contrasting to this name it actually made our village the most peaceful place that ever existed. Every person is learning this art as soon as they finish the basic school time here and if they want they can start even sooner. It is the art to become friends with a creature. In essence it is the same thing that many tamers do but its essence isn't force it's loyalty, friendship and respect. This art can make it possible to understand the essence of every creature, depended on the practitioner."

With a smiling face he then looked across the room and some children already knew his words and spoke them together with him: „maybe one of you might be able to be more agile than a rabbit or better at flying than some birds." After that all of them stopped talking and left. The day was over. Everyone had to do their chores now. Besides me and Theresa only the elder was staying in this room after everyone had left.

„How do you like my stories Valentinus?" he asked

„I like them but it's a pity that the children's hopes might be crushed when they found out that things like flying are only possible if they were to become wizards."

„Oh, no. You misunderstood me. The battle art which I previously explained does not have the prerequisite to be a wizard to reach its highest level. It is only depending on the person and their creature." He raised his hand and through the window a small bird flew in and descended on his hand. „Look, Valentinus. I can guarantee that I am no wizard, not even an apprentice." After saying this he seemed to focus to the best of his ability and it took a physical toll on him. Some drops of sweat rolled down on his face while the bird chirped for a few seconds. I was very interested in what was going on here but I didn't expect the elder to actually jump around a few times before he started floating in midair after his last jump.

I was at a loss for words.

Meanwhile in my head I heard: ‚Damn, I didn't know humans can fly'