Chapter 8
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Me and Nalu spend the next few hours alternating between practising earth magic, and lifting boulders created with said magic. Nalu doesn't really have a way to hold the boulders, but that was easily fixable by wrapping the stone around him. He had trouble balancing with a large stone strapped to his back by more stone at first, but he quickly got used to it.

The boulders are only as tall as my body, but they still weigh a few hundred pounds. I was surprised Nalu could lift one, but it makes sense when I think about all the other things he's been fine doing. Everything I've done with him so far he's done about as easily as I could, including jumping six feet in the air.

I'm glad he could too, I probably wouldn't be able to escape the bandits if I had to carry him the entire time. I'm just glad they seem to be gone now, and I assume that has something to do with my brothers. The thought that they could have killed the bandits doesn't really faze me, and I've been idly debating whether or not that's a bad thing as I train.

It's probably normal to kill bandits in this world, so I guess it's only bad by Earth standards. I still don't know what this world is called, and I'm not sure if five year olds should be asking that question, so I probably won't know for a while. None of the books I've read so far have mentioned it either, and I'm starting to think I'll need to look for it if I want to know. I don't really care to know though, so I'll just wait for it to come up in some conversation.

I'm exhausted by this point, and it's still morning. Magic makes it so much easier to properly train, and properly training makes it so much harder to move. I'm glad it's like this though, this just means I'll be able to get even stronger. Nalu is just as exhausted, but determined to continue, as I am, and I find it interesting how similar we are. I don't think about it much though, instead continuing to train.

My mind is just as exhausted as my body, and I don't think I'll be able to continue doing magic without a few hours of sleep. My body should be fine for a while though, so I'm not sure if I should stop now. If I go until I can't, it will take my body a few days to heal, while it should only take a few hours for my mind to recover, but my body would also be fine working while broken, and I doubt my mind would be. I think it would be best to limit how hard I train until I get used to magic, so I'll stop here.

"Let's sleep now, Nalu. We don't want this to harm us too much, it's just training." I say, as I drop the boulder on my back. Me and Nalu are standing on the forest floor, surrounded by destroyed trees, and strange rock formations. We learned that it's possible to compress earth while we were experimenting, and there's a few small rocks laying around that weigh more than the boulders we're carrying. We're only using the boulders because they're awkward to carry and balance with.

"Where?Nalu responds, letting his rock fall from his back. He looks at me with his head tilted, waiting for a response. I just shrug at him, as I don't think we should return to the manor, but I don't have anywhere else to stay.

"Should we make a stone house? That's the best I can come up with." I ask, looking down at the ground. A simple box made of condensed stone with some small holes for air should be safe enough. We probably don't need it, but I don't want to be shot in my sleep.

"It should be better than a cave.Nalu agrees, and I feel that he only really cares if it's safe. I guess we were both changed by our encounter with the bandits, and we'll probably never stop being cautious of our surroundings now. That's a good thing though, we'll have better chances of surviving another similar experience if we are. It's sad that I have to think this way, but this world seems to be quite a bit more dangerous than Earth.

I just hum in response, then step closer to him. Raising four stone walls and adding a roof is easy, it's condensing them that's difficult. It takes a lot more effort than moving the stone, even if condensing the energy itself is easy. If you tell the energy to condense, it does, but that doesn't change the stone. The stone seems hollow without much energy in it, and I've found that I can't manage to remove all of it. I assume that the stone would fall apart if I did remove all the energy, but I won't know unless I manage to actually do it.

I create the stone box as I reach Nalu's side, then start condensing it. I keep adding more stone as I do, keeping the sides about half a foot thick, then stop after a few minutes. The walls and roof would be at least three foot thick if they weren't condensed, so I doubt anything in this forest could ever damage them.

I lean against Nalu to support my weight, then slowly lower myself to the ground. My mind is unable to continue at this point, and every movement I make sends a spike of pain through my skull. My presence faded from the stone the moment I nearly collapsed, and I sense Nalu continuing what I started, as he lays down beside me. A few small holes appear in the roof, and I sink into Nalu's fur, instantly falling asleep.

 

My mind feels much clearer than usual when I wake, so I assume I was doing something right with my training. I'm still leaning against Nalu, who is sleeping at the moment, as I sit up. I can't tell what time it is based on the light coming through the roof, but I can at least confirm that the sun is still up. It doesn't seem to be setting either, so I assume we still have a few hours left in the day.

I turn back to Nalu, and smile. I've been happier in the few days I've known him than any other time in my life. Either of them. And I'm glad that I decided to move deeper into the forest that day, even if it resulted in me spending days running from bandits.

I lean into Nalu, and wrap my arms around him. I have no reason to wake him, and I'd rather not start training without him. It just seems boring to train alone now, and that's probably because I've experienced training with a friend. This makes me think that we should start sparring, but only after we get used to controlling magic.

It would probably be good for training, but I'd rather not misjudge the amount of power I put in an attack, especially if it's aimed at Nalu. I've gotten pretty good at casting spells, and I can easily create a simple stone wall, or a sharp spike. All I have to do is imagine the wall, and tell the energy where to make it. It takes nearly no time to complete the spell, and I can move on to stabbing something with a stone spike the moment I do. It takes more time to shape the stone into something else though, as I need to actually think about what it will look like, and actively control the energy.

I'm not sure if that counts as casting the spell, with it only being completed once I stop molding the earth, but I find that it's much easier to instantly recreate something I've already spent time making. Magic is a lot more powerful when you're actively controlling it though, just really hard to sustain.

I've also found that gestures and words help with visualization, and I've started doing things like waving my hand towards the target of my stone spikes, or raising my hand towards the sky when creating a wall. I don't have to think about what happens when using gestures, but they only do what I decided they would, and I have to pay attention to my magic if I want something different to happen.

I can raise a stone wall out of the ground behind me with just a wave of my hand, but I can't put a door in that wall without actually concentrating on it. I could however create the wall with the door already there, or use a different gesture that creates a door.

It's a really interesting system, and I've been having a lot of fun playing with it. Nalu has been too, and I'm glad we found out how to do it. I'm not sure how most magics work, but I'm fine with just using earth magic for now. It's better to properly understand one before trying to learn another.

I spend the next few minutes thinking about magic, until Nalu wakes up. He looks back at me, then moves to stand up. I stop hugging him, and stand up, looking towards the nearest wall. I guess we should start training now.

We walk towards the wall, and I create a door shaped hole in it as we near. Stepping through the door, I see that the sun is still high in the sky, but starting to fall towards the horizon. We have a few hours until we need to head back to the manor, so I start thinking about what to do in that time.

I guess I'll just continue practicing magic until something happens. I'm not sure what aspect to practise though. I think I'm doing fine on casting speed, and spell power. The only thing I think really needs work is spell complexity, so that's what I start with.

I can easily make a sharp spike of stone shoot out of the ground and impale whatever I want, but that's about as complex as my spells get. I currently have one offensive spell and one defensive spell. I'm not sure what to call compressing stone or creating pillars, but being able to do that probably won't help me win a fight.

I have a few ideas that should be helpful while fighting, if they work, and I decide to try the one that sounds easiest. Trapping my opponent in place by encasing their legs in stone. I'm not sure exactly how to do this, but I have to start somewhere.

Some creatures have more than two legs, and some don't have any, so my best guess is that I should tell the energy to target any point of contact my opponent has with the ground. I should also tell it to target anything that was recently touching the ground, in case they are taking a step.

"Can you help me with something?" I ask, turning to Nalu. He just nods at me, waiting for me to start. We are standing a few meters from the stone box by now, so we should have plenty of space to practise.

"Hold still then." I say, as I start casting the spell. I infuse my presence into the earth energy around me, and tell it to move towards Nalu, then wrap any part of his body that is touching the ground, or has touched the ground, in stone.

I leave the energy with those intentions, then stop actively controlling it. A second later, I see a small amount of stone rise out of the ground, and surround Nalu's paws. Nalu looks down at his paws curiously, then back up at me. He doesn't make any other movements though, as I start casting the spell again.

I'm not sure if I needed to put more energy in it, or if I needed better visualization. I wasn't really imagining his legs being encased in stone, instead just telling the energy what to do. I'm not sure how I'd cast this spell if I didn't know how many legs my target had, but I can currently see Nalu, and I'm trying to actually make the spell at the moment. I can worry about how to cast spells at hidden targets later.

I think about what I want the energy to do, as I start casting the spell. I hold a clear image of the stone in the ground wrapping around Nalu's legs, stopping just below his shoulders and hips, in my mind. I think about how I want the spell to bind him in place, and what it would do if I was targeting a different creature. If he was human, it would wrap stone around both of his legs, and if he was a snake, it would cover enough of his body that he couldn't move.

It would probably need to bind his head if he was a snake, but he isn't, so for now I'm targeting four legs. My intentions are for the stone to cover his legs, and stop him from moving. I add more earth energy to the spell, and tell it to make the stone thicker with what's leftover.

A second after completing the spell, I see a large amount of stone rise from the ground. It flows up Nalu's legs, then starts getting thicker. Three seconds after I complete the spell, Nalu is standing in a large stone block. It looks as if someone cut off his legs and set his body on a flat boulder.

"I think you overdid it.Nalu remarks blankly, staring at the oddly shaped boulder. I smile slightly as I look at him, I definitely over did it. I'm positive he can't move now though, so I guess this was a success.

"Oops...?" Is all I'm able to respond with. The way the boulder is two meters long and one wide, while also having perfectly flat sides, just adds to the strangeness of the sight. I'm not sure what to think about the results of my spell, just that it would probably be quite amusing to use on other people.

I feel the energy around Nalu shift, but don't have time to react, before I too, am encased in a block of stone. The stone comes up to my neck, completely trapping the rest of my body. I frown slightly as I stare into Nalu's eyes. He stares straight back at me, and we both stay like that for a few seconds.

"You got it on your first try." I say, still frowning. Nalu just snorts at my comment, continuing to stare at me. This would probably be quite a strange sight to the random passerby. You're walking through a forest when you find a young girl and a large fox trapped in rectangular stone blocks, staring at each other with the same gold eyes and white hair. I'd find it strange, but it might be a normal thing to the people of this world.

I'm not sure what to do now, as I can't really move, and Nalu seems to be the same. I should probably get out of this block, but Nalu hasn't removed his presence yet, and I still have room to breath, so it's not really important. I haven't removed my presence from Nalu's block either, and he should also be fine breathing.

"So, what now?" I ask casually, as I try to break the stone with my physical strength. It's completely useless though, but I didn't really expect anything different. I'm not that strong, even if I could easily lift the rock. Solid stone is a lot harder than it looks.

"We stop being stuck in rocks?Nalu responds, and I sense that he is slightly confused about how this happened. I'm more amused than confused, but I definitely didn't expect to be in this situation today.

"That sounds like a good idea." I say, as I shift the earth around Nalu, merging it back into the ground. Nalu does the same with my block, and we are left standing in the forest, as if nothing had ever happened.

"Well, back to training I guess." I continue, then turn to the nearest tree. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to magic, and I'm having lots of fun with what I already know. I can tell that Nalu is having just as much fun, and I'm glad we both find this so enjoyable.

"Yes, back to training.Nalu responds idly, and I sense the energy around him shifting. I turn my focus to the energy near me, preparing to start casting. Soon the tree before us is being split in half by two identical stone spikes, the two pieces falling to either side. We then turn to another tree, sprinting towards it while starting the next spell. This has been an exciting week, and I can't wait for all the other fun things to come.

 

The next few hours are spent sprinting through the woods while stabbing every tree we're able to with stone spikes. We run much faster than we can cast spells, so only a few trees compared to the number we pass are actually hit, but I think we're doing good seeing as we just started learning today.

We also use this chance to practise creating footholds as we run, giving us much more maneuverability. It's much easier to run down a hill when you have flat rocks jutting out of it everywhere you place your foot. It's also easier to run up a staircase then it is to run up a cliff.

Multitasking between stabbing trees, creating footholds, and actually watching where we're going is extremely difficult, but that's why we're doing it. We have to stop once the sun starts setting though, as we don't want the people at the manor to think I disappeared again. They're probably already tense, as they wait for me to return.

We start heading towards the manor as the sky turns orange, and we exit the forest as the last bit of light starts fading. The stars are just starting to appear when we walk through the main entrance, and the entrance hall is filled with burning candles. I don't see anyone in the entrance hall, but we'll run into someone soon enough.

Nalu walks beside me, as I head into the southern hall. My clothes are covered in dirt, but my body seems to be perfectly clean. I'm not sure why that is, but I'm not going to complain. All I need is a change of clothes, and I'll look like I never went outside.

I immediately head to my room, and we reach it without meeting anyone along the way. I only have simple dresses in my room, but that's all I'm looking for at the moment. I only wear the more fancy things when my maids make me, which has only been on my birthday so far.

I immediately strip once the door closes behind us, then walk over to the chest full of clothing by the wall. I didn't change out of the dress I met Nalu in this morning, as I was too distracted by the magic energies in the air, but now I actually have time to decide on something.

I'm not quite sure what would look good with my new hair and eye color, but I have many dresses to choose from. I don't however, have a mirror to look into, so I'm not sure what to do as I stare into the chest before me. After a second I turn to Nalu, who is sitting a few feet behind me.

"Do you think you can get me a mirror?" I ask, still bent over the chest, as I look over my shoulder. I'm not sure if he would be able to move a full body mirror without breaking it, and I've never seen a hand mirror before. They might not exist in this world.

"What's a mirror?Nalu responds, tilting his head. I completely forgot that he doesn't know about human things again, and I wince slightly as I realize that, before I stand up and face him.

"Have you ever seen your reflection in a pool of water, or a clear crystal?" I start, wanting to know how much I need to tell him. I'd rather not have to explain what a reflection is, but he should already know, so I don't think I will.

"Yes.Nalu responds simply, nodding once. It would be strange if he had never seen his reflection before, but I had to ask. Nalu stares at me calmly, as I start explaining.

"A mirror is an object made to show you your reflection, so you can see what you look like. They're useful for seeing injuries on your head, and helping you decide if you like your current appearance." I say, then wait for Nalu to process my words. He nods after a second, seeming to understand.

"Mirrors show you your appearance.He says, with a slightly questioning tone. "They show you what you look like to other people?He then continues, actually questioning me this time.

"Yes. If I was a mirror, looking at me would show you what I see when I look at you." I respond, smiling. He understands what I mean enough to accurately give his own description, even if he's not sure if he's right, so I think I did good enough.

"How do I get you a mirror?Nalu asks curiously, as he continues staring at me. I'm not exactly sure how he's supposed to do that either, but I had to ask anyway. I'll have to think of something.

"That's why I asked you. I guess I'll have to find another way to get one." I shrug, then look back towards the chest. Maybe I can make an ice mirror with magic. I have no idea how to create ice though, but I don't have any better ideas.

Nalu hums in response, a strange thing to hear when it's only in your mind, then walks up beside me. I'm staring into the chest, as I think about my chances of being able to create a mirror with magic.

"Why do you need a mirror?" Nalu asks, also staring into the chest. I don't really care about how I look, but I'd rather not spend a few hours unable to do anything, as my maids try and find me a 'proper lady's dress'. Apparently bright orange doesn't go with brown and green. I'm not sure why that dress was even in here, but I haven't just grabbed a random dress since that day.

"So I can look nice, and I don't have to deal with my maids' fashion sense." I say, then turn around and take a few steps away from the chest. I guess I'll have to learn water magic if I want to have easy access to a mirror.

"Oh.Nalu responds, as I sit down on the carpet. I sense that he doesn't really understand what I meant, but he doesn't ask, so I don't elaborate. For now I need to think about how to get enough water to freeze into a mirror.

Nalu lies down behind me, pressing his side into my back, and curling his body around mine, so his head is resting by my thigh, and his tail is laid across my lap. I absentmindedly move my hand to his head, and lean back into him, as I inspect the water energy in the air.

There is obviously not enough of it to create a wall of water, even if I pulled it out of the surrounding air. There has to be a way to though, water mages would be useless if they could only do magic near a large body of water.

I know for a fact that I can't create water without water energy though, so there has to be some way to get more of it. I let myself sink into Nalu's fur as I think, just now realizing how much softer it feels when I don't have a layer of clothing between it and my skin. It makes me want to fall asleep, but I can't do that without deciding on a dress first.

Maybe I need to change a different energy into water energy. The energies around me are always mixing and merging, creating new energies as they do. I'm just not sure what energy I should try to change. Changing air energy into water energy would probably turn the actual air stale, so I'd rather not do that, and most of the other energies seem like they can't become water energy.

I feel that darkness can only become light, and vice versa. It's the same for heat and cold, they just don't seem to work that way, from what I can understand of the meanings they hold. I could try changing earth energy, but I feel that that would weaken the earth it flows through, so I'd rather not.

I lay my head on Nalu's back, and look up at the ceiling. My hand gently runs through the fur around his ears, and I find it enjoyable to feel his contentment. The next few minutes are spent like that, as I try to think of a way to create water.

Eventually I realize that my own energy should be fine changing into water energy, and I focus my senses on my body. I stopped really paying attention to my energy after I first found out how to use it, as I hadn't really had a reason to. I'm not even sure if I can make it leave my body, but I only have one way to find out.

I raise my hand in front of my face, moving more of my energy into it. After a second, I try pushing the energy out of my body, and it works easily. I look at the vaguely spherical blob of milky energy, it seems so different from the other energies around me. I know everything about it, but at the same time nothing at all. In the same way I know, but don't know, myself. This energy is just another part of myself, and it was probably there in my past life too.

The fact that I remember my past life is almost stranger than the fact that I can use magic now, and have a telepathic connection with a giant fox. The new life is definitely stranger than the memories of the old one though, especially with all the new things happening to me. I can just blame the memories on the same thing that connects me to Nalu anyway.

I idly form my energy into different shapes, as I think about all the unexplainable things that have happened in the past five years. I died, but didn't stay dead, I was born able to think as well as I could before I died, I could understand this worlds language from birth, I had unnatural growth when it came to strength and agility, I met people with naturally unnatural hair colors, I found a sentient fox in the forest, said fox made it so I can see magic, being able to see magic also let me sense the emotions and thoughts of the fox, and we learned more than most mages probably ever do about magic, in a day.

I'm probably forgetting something, but I'll remember someday. For now, I need to see if I can turn my energy into water energy. I'm not sure exactly how to go about doing that, but it can't be much harder than figuring out how to move it.

I stare up at the shifting mass of white, trying to imagine it as water energy. It's extremely hard though, the two energies are just too different. My energy doesn't seem like it could ever resemble water energy, or any other energy for that matter. Except Nalu's of course. That's another strange thing to happen to me. The giant fox I met in the woods helped me sense energy, and also happened to have identical energy to me. Maybe he changed my energy when he changed my hair and eye color too. That just sounds wrong though, but I'm not sure why.

It sounds much more reasonable that my hair and eyes were always supposed to be this color, and Nalu just fixed something that was wrong. I like it better this way anyway, so there's no point in thinking about it.

Maybe I have more energies, and one of them can be turned into water. This is just my natural everyday energy. It seems slightly unreasonable, but I don't have any better ideas. I reabsorb the ball of energy, then concentrate, and try to take water energy from wherever my normal energy comes from.

After four tries, where all I get is my normal energy, I finally have a mass of water energy in my hand. It is definitely water energy, but it is also my energy. I'm a bit confused at how that works, but there is no denying that this energy is identical to the water energy. My presence in it seems to be as strong as my presence in my own body though, and I doubt anyone could ever control it. They could attack, or absorb it, move it with their own energy, but they couldn't directly manipulate it. They would never be able to remove my presence from this energy.

This is an interesting discovery, and it makes me wonder where this energy comes from. All I know is that it came from the large pool in my stomach, and I can't sense anything further than that.

I have no reason to think about that right now though, as I finally have the water energy required to create water. I think. It should be possible to create water, but I've never tried before.

Looking up at the water energy flowing around itself on my palm, I tell it to become water. It works surprisingly easily, and I now have a ball of water that I can actually see with my physical eyes. I form the water into a disk, then tell it to freeze. Nothing happens however, and it takes me a second to realize that I should be telling cold energy to freeze the water, not the water energy itself.

I use the energy in the air, instead of trying to create my own energy, and watch as the cold energy is absorbed into my water disk. The room gets slightly warmer, and my water energy changes into ice energy. The ice plate I'm left with is perfectly clear, and I can tell that I have no chance of seeing my reflection in it. I can barely see the ice itself.

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to make reflective ice, but I should be able to find out after a few minutes of experimenting. I start with just telling it to become reflective, while imagining it working better than a mirror. I'm not exactly sure what I would look like in an ice mirror, but I don't have to wonder long, as the ice quickly changes.

The ice stays perfectly clear and colorless, but I can no longer see my hand through it. The image shown to me is that of my naked body half buried in Nalu's fur. Seeing this makes me remember that I'm not supposed to just strip naked in front of someone else, especially if they're male, but he doesn't seem to mind. I guess wearing clothes is just another thing only humans do, which should be obvious, but I wasn't really thinking about it.

I don't seem to have any aversion to being naked in front of him either, which is strange, seeing as I see him as a person, and not an animal, or pet. I care about him seeing me naked as much as I care about myself seeing me naked. This is just getting more confusing the longer I think about it, so I focus back on the ice disk.

It's not nearly big enough to see my entire body while I'm standing, so I start moving more water energy into my hand. I make the ice disk float in the air, and move my hand away slightly, letting the water energy flow into the ice. I turn the water energy into ice energy with the surrounding cold energy, then use it to start expanding the disk.

As the ice expands, I push it farther away from me, until there is a large, vaguely oval shaped sheet of ice floating in the center of the room. It shows me a perfect reflection of my current position, with Nalu basically wrapped around me. I have a mirror now, but I don't feel like getting up. Nalu's fur is too comfortable.

I have to get dressed eventually though, however much I might want to just lay here forever, so I only spend the next ten minutes refusing to move. After I finally decide to stand, I move around Nalu, and head back to the chest. This is the longest I've ever spent without clothes, and I realize that I actually prefer it this way. I'd rather not wear anything, as long as I'm not surrounded by other people.

I find that strange, but it's no worse than anything else I've discovered today, so I just ignore it. I've got other things to do at the moment, and I haven't eaten today. That's just another reason to hurry up, though staying like this while hugging Nalu is still tempting. I decide that food is more important, and look down into the chest. Now I just need to find something that matches my hair and eyes. This should be fun.

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