2.5

That whole ordeal happened six and a half years ago. During our flight through the forest that night, my knight (who I later found out was called Nehemia Brondenstein) stumbled upon a village hidden in the trees. The village was cloaked with a high-level magic protection spell that made it impossible to detect or see unless you walked straight into it, it also completely rejected monsters such as orcs or trolls and other threats to human safety.

Nehemia and I were lucky enough that the village was filled with kind-hearted people who didn't think twice about helping Nehemia and I. They gave us clothes, food, and shelter and asked for nothing in return.

Nehemia and I soon became one of the locals. Nehemia worked as a hunter and sold her kills in the village to make money to support us or took a commission to take care of the monsters that ventured too close to the barrier, while I went about growing up.

Because it was such a quiet little village her requests were never that serious, all she had to do was hunt some deer for meat or collect some rare herbs, and then she was done for the day. Since she was so skilled with blades, the work was very easy for her and she managed to make quite a nice living off of it.

Soon she bought us a nice cottage to live in. Nehemia and I were a little family unit of sorts. We were pretty happy together, but she was more like a protective big sister than a mother to me.

From a young age, I exhibited what the village elders called 'exceptional magical prowess'.

Usually, children were only able to manifest their powers from five to seven years old, but I had been able to manifest it from a few minutes after I was born. Since I actually had the brain of an eighteen-year-old, the basic math and alchemy teachings in this world were easy to me, so even if I wasn't trying I always astounded my teachers and classmates with an aptitude for the subjects they taught.

Since they considered me gifted, they arranged for me to be privately tutored by the retired mages in the village. Apparently, quite a few mages from a closeby kingdom called Withendral came to this peaceful village after their retirement, after having enough of the busy kingdom life.

My private tutors were Master Ellory who specialized in summoning magic, Mistress Lysandra who specialized in elemental magic, Master Rooksworth who specialized in Alchemy and Lastly Master Milklaus who taught me how to fight.

As first they were wary of taking on such a young student but after they observed me and put me through their own tests, they were very excited to start teaching me.

Just like on Earth, Bragon had a seven-day week, but with six days of working and one day of resting, sadly. The first four days of the week, I was privately tutored by my four Masters, the other two days I attended the village school where I learned mathematics, Language skills, History and social customs. Then the last day of the week I had free for myself. This routine had been going on since I was one year old and was already able to walk, talk, read and use magic.

This small quiet village had been my happy home for six and a half years. Nehemia wasn't quite like a mother but more like a loyal protector. I always pleaded with her to call me by my name, but she flatly refused and insisted on calling me, 'Master'.

I had also begged her many times to tell me who my parents were, but she also always refused to answer this question. Sometimes her silence angered me and I didn't want to talk to her some days, but I always felt bad and came back to apologize for my behavior a little bit later. Even if I'm actually an eighteen-year-old it seems like I can't completely bypass the emotional immaturity of this body.

All she ever told me was that we couldn't leave the village because the ones after me would probably still be waiting for me to leave so they could capture me, our only option was to wait for my parents to come and fetch me.

Today was my day off and luckily I managed to wake up early so I could enjoy every moment of it.

I opened the covers of my warm bed and hopped right out. The warm morning light made it easy for me to get out of bed. I then hurried to the washroom to clean up and returned to my room to put on some clothes.

As I walked out of the room, I caught a glance of myself in the mirror. My frosty-white hair was tangled around my head, and my amber yellow eyes were wide awake. These features were rare even in this world where hair and eye colour had a much larger variety than on Earth. It was pretty normal to see people with blue and green hair, but my white hair and amber eyes still made people stop and take a second look at me.

I hurried to Nehemia's bedroom to see that she was awake but just lying there under the covers enjoying a slow morning.

"Nehemia, I'm going out okay?" I informed her from the doorway.

"Okay, where will you be Master?" She asked drowsily as she unsteadily sat up in bed to look at me. Her bright green eyes had dark circles under them and her dark heat fell haphazardly around her shoulders.

"To the rook by the cliffs," I answered back quickly, eager to get going.

"Fine, just stay within the village cloak okay?" She yawned loudly as she collapsed back into bed. Nehemia usually had a very bright and bubbly personality, but when it came to my safety she was really serious.

"Will do!" I chimed as I went out the door and ran away from our cottage towards the stream by the cliffs. It was my favourite spot in the entire village, plus nobody really went there because it was right on the edge of the village cloak so people felt like it was a bit dangerous. I felt the opposite though. For the past six and a half years I had been desperate to venture out of the cloak, but Nehemia had always been so serious when it came to me leaving the barrier so I didn't step outside of it.

I took my perch of one of the mossy rocks and made my self comfortable in the grassy banks of the stream. I really loved being in nature. Especially in this new world where everything was so beautiful.

The birds singing somehow sounds more beautiful and the animals are so unique and interesting. That was why I found this stream to special, so many different animals came to drink from it.

Occasionally you saw a rare monster, but they were usually the harmless type. I remembered the previous week when I had come just in time to see a pair of goblins come to fetch some water.

Goblins being the weakest and smallest type of monster, I wasn't worried about being so close to them.

They definitely aren't pretty creatures with their earthly covered leathery green skin. I was told they rarely grow any taller and than three feet. Master Rooksworth told me that they are most well known for being unhygienic creatures. Anyone down wind of them can smell them from a mile away since they habitually urinate on their hands and feet.

They are also quite volatile and carry around clubs they make from tree branches in case they get into scuffles with other creatures or each other.

The two goblins came to the stream to collect water, probably to take back to their goblin village. However, they couldn't get the task done because they started arguing about who had the biggest club. Goblins can't speak the human language properly but don't have a language of their own either, so they usually take words from the human language and pair them with a variety of grunts and grumbles to get their message across. So the argument I overheard sounded like this:

"Grrrrr... My club...Grrr... Big club!"

"Arghhh! No!My. Club. Big Big club... Grrrr!"

"No! my club BIG CLUB!"

"No! mY CluBB BIG CLUB!! Grrr.."

Their argument turned out into a full blow fight where they started hitting each other with their clubs. I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from laughing. Eventually, the two goblins gave up on fetching water and headed home, pushing and shoving each other all the while.

Today there was no sign of life anywhere near the stream. It was just me. Thus it was the perfect time to try some magic.

Mistress Lysandra, my elemental magic tutor, had taught me that the best way to gain more control over the elements was to visualise and immerse yourself in nature. Since I was right next to the stream, I saw no better time to practice some water magic.

I took a deep breath and let my body relax. I let my mind wander into my soul and draw out the magic from my well of power. This was the visualisation technique that I always used, a technique that always worked.

My mind and body thrummed with magic. I released it into the stream in front of me, slowly and steadily. I closed my eyes and imagined the National Geographic channels I always had to watch when I was stuck in a hospital for all that time. I visualised the giant blue whale I had always admired, with its baby swimming alongside it. I imagined their long tails and largemouths as they glided through the water. Around them was a whole magnificent school of tiny fish that swam at lightning speed whenever the whales approached them. I even zoned into them and visualised their small fins and gills. When I was satisfied with the picture I had created in my mind, I opened my eyes. Before me was exactly the picture I had imagined. The water of the stream had risen up into the air, and had formed into the shape of the two whales and the school of fish surrounding them. The water had transformed its shape to match my vision of the scene from national geographic and I was so enthralled in it.

I let out a joyful laugh as I looked at my own creation. It was beautiful and it felt good to know that I was getting much better at my elemental magic. The image I had managed to conjure up was very detailed. Each fish had its own distinct shape, the whale's proportions were exactly what I had imagined. I had managed to control a large amount of water and still keep the image exactly how I wanted it. Mistress Lysandra would be pleased.

I was happily watching my whales swim through the air when I heard a twig snap a few paces behind me. My heart jolted in my chest at the realisation that I wasn't alone anymore.

Now that I wasn't concentrating on the whales, I could clearly feel the presence of at least ten people behind me.

I whipped around to see a group of what looked like knights... They all wore shining armour and carried fierce-looking swords just like Nehemia did. Although they looked pretty menacing in their metal gear, I didn't feel like I was in danger for some reason.

Form the colours they wore, I could tell they were knights from the great Kingdom of Azlantean. During school, they had taught us all about the greatest kingdom on Bragon and how it was the fiercest and strongest nation.

Azlantean's colours were white, silver, gold and royal blue. The soldiers in front of me were wearing pristine white metal armour with blue capes. So I knew they were knights from Azlantean, but what were knights of Azlantean doing so far south from their kingdom in this quite little village?

I stood there for a moment waiting for one of them to address me, but they all just stared at me with bewildered faces. So I decided that I would make the first move.

"Greetings." I bowed my head to them because I was trying to be polite. Although my magical power was advanced for my age, I knew I wouldn't be a match for a knight trained in combat magic. Being courteous was the best option.