Making it to the living room Vince saw his Dad and Uncle George on the couch.  “How long did I sleep?”  Asking the two of them who ignored me.

Both of them jumped up as if someone stepped on their tails.  “What the living hell Vince!”  Uncle George turned as white as my ass.  

Dad ran over to me with his eyes wide open.  “How the hell did you sneak up on us?  We didn’t hear you walking or anything”  he was holding my shoulder like I was going to vanish.

“What the heck are you talking about?”  Having no clue what he was talking about while giving Dad a look like he was on drugs.

“We weren’t able to detect you until you talked.  It looked like you were part of the shadows in the hallway.  Go stand back in the hallway.”  My loving Dad nearly pushed me over when he told me to go stand in the dark.

Shaking my head I did as he said.

The moment I stood in the dark, I was experiencing a new feeling, it felt as if I was in a warm blanket.  I didn’t even notice it before.  Turning around and both Dad and Uncle George were wiping their eyes.  “Step forward again Vince”. Walking toward them, stepping out of the shadows.

“Okay sit down, we need to talk.”  Uncle George was thinking about something after saying that.  As he just zoned out. Staring at the wall while scratching his head.

I sat on the couch and waited for them to talk.

Dad could tell I was a bit nervous.  “Don’t worry Vince, everything is going to be fine.  You were already checked out by the doctor from Victoria and she stated that you are perfectly healthy.”  

“How did she get here so fast, was she already here?”

“Umm, you have been asleep for 3 days already and that doesn’t include the awakening ceremony that took 18 hours.”  

Staring at Uncle George as he said all of this.  What the fuck.  “What happened in the ceremony?”

My dad looked at uncle George, “well let’s start at the beginning.  When the ceremony started everything was fine until the mana hit your body, so the first 10 seconds went as planned.  Then all hell broke loose.  Your body sucked up the mana within a few seconds instead of a slow hour long process.  The second the mana from the cores disappeared, the cores stored in the room started breaking.  Before we could do anything, over a hundred plus cores popped like bubbles.  The mana floated toward you and was sucked up as fast as it got to you.  We were shocked as I had never heard of anything like this.  We thought it was over when the mana vanished into you.  But we were wrong.  We noticed mana flowing down the stairs so that meant the cores upstairs were popping now.  So I took off running upstairs and told Emmy and everyone to take all the cores to the town bell as fast as possible.  All the cores that hadn’t popped were taken away.  You absorbed a few hundred level one cores.  We aren’t sure why you didn’t pop.  But your body aged and is now what you should be like when you are in your late teens.  Even though you haven’t eaten in nearly 5 days you have filled out massively.  Now for the good news.  Well don’t worry you have bad news coming as well.”  Uncle George had a devious look on his face.  “You are in the Heavenly Mana realm.  Surpassing your Dad already, but you need to train to get that power under control.  At least one of your abilities has to do with darkness.  We can worry about the rest later.  But now for the bad news.  For a month you are going to be trained at the guild by me and Emmy.  We are the only two in town that can train you properly now.  After that, you owe us a hundred 1 star cores.  We would prefer more to replenish our stock but your Dad will kill me.  Any questions?  Oh and don’t tell anyone about any of this.  Your family is it, no one else.  My staff has already made vows of secrecy.”

I was shocked and excited but I had no clue what to ask or say so I just nodded.  

I just sat there as that was a lot to take in.  As Uncle George got up to leave. I remembered the dream.

“Have either of you ever heard of a shadow dragon?”

Uncle George fell over his own feet as he walked to the kitchen and Dad coughed out the water he was drinking.  “What did you say?”  I couldn’t help but laugh at my uncle.  He didn't even stand up but crawled over to me so fast.  Always one to be dramatic.

“What woke me up was a dream and in the dream I heard a voice that said ‘congratulations on surviving and don’t bring shame to the legacy of the shadow dragons’.  I saw a giant black claw fly at me and I woke up when it hit me.”  

“Don’t ever say anything to anyone about this Vince!  No one outside us should ever know about this. I’ll be right back, I need something from the guild.”  He vanished instantly, I had no clue he could move that fast.  A few minutes later, as me and Dad chatted about what I need to do.  The door swung open and Emmy and my Uncle came in.  She walked over and pulled a few big books out of nowhere.  She had a storage ring and liked to show it off.  While not rare, not many are this far from the big cities.

She sat right next to me on the couch.  “I am going to loan these books to you.  They are not to leave your room and when you leave your room you lock it.  These are some elven books I brought with me.  This one is ancient lore.”   To say this book was huge would be cutting it short.  “This one is about dragons, their customs, culture, strengths and weaknesses.  These last two books are filled with knowledge about shadow and ice magic.  Shadow magic is extremely rare and ice is nearly just as much.  It will fill you in on strengths and weaknesses as well.  Ice magic is just as deadly as fire magic so don’t think otherwise.  So don’t look down on it.  Shadow magic once mastered will make you an extremely dangerous person.  You might end up being able to use more magic, as far as our knowledge goes.  Every shadow dragon has had those two, most dragons had more than just two forms of magic.  The reason I bring this up is based on what you told George.  You somehow got a core with a bit of a shadow dragon's soul in it.  This can happen several ways but the most common is when they get in major fights and lose large amounts of blood.  The animals will come in and drink up the blood.  If there is some of the dragon's life essence in the blood, it can be transferred to the beast core.  Anything can happen to the beast at this point.  Evolution, or explosion are the most common.  I believe you went through an evolution.  We will find out with some training.  You need to read these books first.  Consider it the calm before the storm.”

“Thanks” is all I could say as I gave her a what the fuck look.  

I sat back against the back of the couch, I was excited and nervous on so many levels.  This was nothing like I had expected.  While I was excited because I was going to be stronger than I thought, I was internally freaking out from how everyone was reacting.  “Where is Mom and everyone at?”

“She went to your Grandmother's place.  She left with the doctor heading back to Victoria.  She will be back in a few days.  I think your grandparents will be staying with us for a bit.  I already fixed them a room as your mom never goes to see them without bringing them back.”  Dad looked at me and I could see he wasn’t telling the full truth. 

He had the worst lying face.  His cheek would twitch when he lied, and it was obvious as he would turn his head away for no reason when talking.  I nodded but I’m not complaining as no one cooked better than Granny.  

While the adults were talking I grabbed the shadow magic book and started reading about it.  With enough training and focus.  You could bind people by their shadows.  Turn shadows into weapons and with enough power you could hold objects and trap people in the shadows.  The rest of the book was more of a guide on using it in battles as opposed to how to use it.

Grabbing the ice magic book and started reading through it as well.  The book gave me plenty of different ideas on how to use the spells.  How to make them harder and sturdier.  The concept of creating a blizzard and its many uses.  The book wasn’t as big as the shadow magic book.  Ice magic was more straightforward.  Shadow magic was a lot about manipulating the environment or battlefield.

“Make sure you read them carefully and try to remember everything as it may help you later on.”  Emmy was leaning against me looking at my face.  I couldn’t help but blush.  I turned back to the ice magic book.

“Mmm” I cleared my throat, “ I already read the shadow magic book.  You can ask me anything from the book.  I have remembered everything from it.”  I couldn’t help but smile.  Before the awakening I had an amazing memory but afterwards, everything that was foggy was as clear as seeing it right in front of me.  When I started reading the shadow book, I could look at a page and everything that was on the page I could already picture and read in my mind.  “Pick a page and test me.”  

She grabbed the book and flipped through the pages.  “37”

“Shadow run is the precursor to shadow teleportation.  To shadow run, your shadow must cross other shadows.  Merging into shadows will require you to let the shadow overtake your body.  Moving through the shadow only takes your will and intent.  Your body becomes the shadow and is mostly immune to physical attacks.  Direct magic attacks can hurt you in shadow form and cause you to be removed from the shadow.  While in the shadow, up, down, left, or right doesn’t matter.  Gravity has no effect on the person in shadow.  Shadow teleport is an advanced form of run, with all the same effects but with the ability to enter shadow and move to another shadow that isn’t touching.  Distance will be based on proficiency with the skill and the user's body acclimation to the shadow.  At the bottom of the page there are drawings of shadows and people entering them.  What else would you like?”

Emmy was impressed and looked at the ice magic book and flipped a few pages and smiled.  Looking at me like she won something.  “Page 19”

“The princess was the tribe's last hope.  The tribe never expected to be betrayed by their fellow mountain clans.  Now with three armies attacking them she cast a massive blizzard trapping her clan in the eye of the storm as they bundled together for warmth.  Even with being out of the blizzard, temps dropped to freezing.  They grabbed their tents and used it to cover huddled tribesmen for protection.  The summer heat that had everyone sweating a minute earlier was now causing sweat to freeze on everyone.  The approaching clans and army of the attacking nation had no time to react.  The bright clear sky turned to a dark gray clouded sky.  Then the white blanket covered the battlefield.  There were no snow flurries, a white wall of snow and wind hit the three armies.  Screams weren’t heard over the howling winds.  For an hour the winds howled, when the spell died, the clouds departed as fast as they showed up.  The battlefield had been completely frozen.  Only a few were able to turn and run, the ones at the rear of the attack.  There were frozen corpses in three directions.  When they found the princess of the tribe, she had also frozen.  The legend says she was turned into a crystal not frozen.

At the bottom is a drawn picture of a crystal shaped lady with an arm raised in the air.   Anything else Emmy?”

Emmy closed the book and put the shadow and ice magic books back in her ring.  Smirking at her actions, it wasn’t every day you could make a cute wood elf act like a little kid.

She got up and left to talk to my Uncle and Dad on the other side of the room.  Sitting back and relaxing, my mind was spinning with a thousand thoughts.  You wanted to be a badass so much as a kid, now that you actually get the chance to become one, the fun has only begun.

How will Mom and my sisters react to me?  How do I train my magic?  There are no such things as magic scrolls where you say a few magic words and out comes a fireball.  How much of a beating will I be taking from Emmy and Uncle?  How can I get more 2 star cores?  I am pretty sure during my awakening that those that dad brought were consumed by me. What am I going to be doing now that I have 5 years worth of growth in a week?  Too many questions to deal with right now.  

I went to the kitchen and grabbed some food from the pantry and went back to my room.  Eating everything by the time I reached my room surprised myself.  I hadn’t realized how hungry I was.  Laying down, shortly after that I passed out.