And so I concentrated on the mana particles that entered me, trying to find out what happens with them as they trave.. Oh and they are gone. They lasted 30 seconds, tops. I could see them traveling along my veins, but then, something in my body seems to have collided with them, and they started disappearing. In my mana vision it just looks as if part of my body was slightly lighter in color than the rest.

Fortunately, there seems to be a continuous supply of mana particles from the outside… as long as I don’t coil up, or cover it. Time to concentrate on the experiment again!

I moved the tip of my tail closer to the ground, trying to reduce the distance between the target and the source as much as possible. 

Meditation - ready. Mana sight - engaged. Mana manipulation- liftoff!

Let’s ignore a bunch of dirt, the grains of sand themselves were just laying there unmoving. Oh wait! No, that’s just air out coming out of my snout in disappointed sigh. What could I be doing wrong? Is it actually impossible?

(“You lack imagination, young snakeling”)

… Hmmm. Maybe that’s right. I was concentrating on pushing the mana towards the grains.. Maybe I should imagine the grains just moving? Forming a nice snake!

Also, while it hurts me (sssee what I did there!) to do so, when I haven’t managed to use any spells yet, I should remove as many barriers between my mana and my target as possible. I bit my lip, and did what needed to be done- scratched the wound until it bled again (“even this more difficult when you have no hands… is it possible, that lizards are indeed better than snakes?”)(“Heresy! Heresy in my mind! I sentence you to having your scab poked until it bleeds!”).

Try number three. A small amount of blood trickled down my tail. 

Meditation - ready!. Mana sight - engaged! Imagination- full throttle! Mana manipulation- liftoff! 

SSSSSSSSS!

It’s moving! It’s moving! Oh damn. I got so excited my meditation failed. Not only that, only in the last moment I stopped myself from blowing air all around my practice grounds. It would be a shame to destroy this wonderful monument of progress. Of unstoppable march of science. Of... magic! (“I mean it’s a line of pebbles in an S shape.. What’s the big deal”)(“Stupid, it’s beautiful!”)

What’s more I noticed something new. While all mana reacted when I just wanted to move it around, when I gave it more precise order, to move the pieces of ground.. Not all of it did. I would say about third? Not only that, after the spell completed, the hue of what was still inside me slightly changed…

Well well well. Is it time for mana sight to evolve to something more useful?