The children woke well before the sun started rising. They both lay on the bed hugged tight together, processing what occurred the previous day.

“You know I hoped it was all a dream.” Sophia whispered.

“Unfortunately not,” Ursula sighed.

“I don’t think I could get back to sleep, do you want to practice some magic?”

The brown eyed girl pondered for a moment and then shrugged her shoulders, “Sure, but to stay warm we’re gonna have to continue cuddling.”

“Sure, you can sit in my lap and drape the bedsheet over us,” the blonde guy declared.

“No, I’m taller so you should be sitting in my lap.” Ursula countered.

“What? You’re not taller than me I’m at least six f – oh. B-but I’m still taller than you,” he insisted.

“Stand up we’re measuring right now.”

Both children stood up like a flash trying as hard as they could to be as tall as possible. Once satisfied with their efforts, Sophia placed a palm flat atop his head and started moving it horizontally towards Ursula. As the hand got closer a grin started forming on Ursula’s face. A flash of worry appeared in the green-eyed boy’s eyes and, desperate to change the outcome, he wobbled his hand and slightly angled it upwards. However, even with his mid-flight hand maneuvers, it still came to a stop at his partner’s forehead. His face fell and his shoulders audibly slumped.

Ursula gave him a superior smirk, sat down on the floor and gestured to her lap.

As if resigned to the gallows, Sophia set up the two piles of dust, grabbed the blanket and sat down into Ursula’s warm embrace wrapping the blanket around them as he did so.

“There that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Although he couldn’t see it, Sophia could feel on the back of his head the girl’s cheeks curled up into a grin.

His cheeks red, he focused on his mantra. ‘Imagine the effect, hold it in place and direct the mana. Imagine the effect, hold it in place and direct the mana…’

They practiced until they heard the bell toll once more from below. Sophia managed to get a few more twitches out of his pile of dust, but Ursula was unable to repeat her previous feat. Over the time they had been practicing Sophia had slowly leaned further back into Ursula’s warm embrace. The limbs completely stiff from lack of movement, they robotically stood up, their stomachs giving loud grumbles in anticipation.

They joined the stream of youngsters travelling down towards the mess hall. Eyvor was nowhere to be seen so they sat down at one the available tables and dug into another bland meal.

Once Rosalind had finished serving, she walked by the kids table and with a warm smile on her face said, “I hope you enjoyed your birthday’s little ones. Please stay back until breakfast is over and the lesson will begin then.”

“You are still interested, aren’t you?” she asked with a raised brow.

With a quick nod of affirmation form the children she walked off to her table, this time grabbing a bowl of breakfast for herself.

Soon enough, breakfast was over, some of younger kids headed off to the yard while all the older children left the building chatting excitedly about the day’s lessons to come.

A few remained behind congregating around the serving table. The pair left their table and sat down hesitantly at the back of the group.

With a happy smile on her face Rosalind walked over and began her lesson.

“I hope you had a great weekend children. This Monday we’ve got two new pupils joining us today, Ursula and Sophia-” every child turned to look at them and they gave a weak smile and wave back, “-so make them feel welcome.”

“Now let’s begin,” With a simple wave of her hand twenty-three symbols appeared in the air. With another wave filled inkpots and quills appeared on the tables.

“Continue your exercises from last lesson. I want to see a neat copy of every letter by the time I’m done with these two. Okay?” She commanded.

Rosalind spent some time to look over the children as they started writing before walking over to the duo.

“I’m glad the both of you decided to turn up. Learning how to read is an important lesson for those wanting to find an apprenticeship.”

At their confused looks she gave them a patient smile and explained, “After your first maturation, I assume you know what that is?”

They both gave a firm nod.

“You are able to see if a master of a profession or job would take you as a helper. If you work hard for a couple of months and earn their favour they may make you an apprentice to learn their trade. It is expected you continue to work with them until the end of your schooling at seventeen years old.”

The children sat there with growing interest, eyes sparkling at the possibilities of fantastical jobs of this new world. But their imagination was suddenly cut short.

“Before that begins however, you must learn your words. Now this is the letter…”

Rosalind went on to explain the twenty-three letters of the alphabet and their various sounds and how they were supposed to be written.

“Now please try and write out what I put up earlier while I go check on everyone else,” she instructed.

Although the letters were unfamiliar, using the tried-and-true method of repetition, they were able to get a semblance of how they were drawn properly. Rosalind seeing their progress gave them a few congratulatory head pats which caused Sophia to preen while Ursula glowered slightly.

Rosalind walked back to the main table and sat down, her large size dwarfing it, and gestured to the space in front of her, “Come along children, we’ll finish this lesson off by reading this book together.”

She opened a kids book and started to read from it, using magic to animate some of the images as they showed up.

“A is for – “

“Alfred” the children chorused.

“B is for – “

“Bats.”

“C is for – “

 

<-{|}->

 

The lesson over the two kids had a few hours to wait until their afternoon chores.

“Let’s sit outside in the shade and practice our magic,” Ursula suggested.

The blonde guy shrugged his shoulders in response, “Sure, beats sitting in a room all day.”

They walked in amicable silence until Ursula suddenly realised something.

“It’s weird I haven’t had to poop yet and, although I know I’m drinking a lot less water than I should, I’m still feeling fine,” the auburn-haired girl commented.

“Now that you mention it, I haven’t had to either. Hmm, I guess, at the moment, all we can say is ‘magic’ and leave it at that. Maybe it helps us run more efficiently.” the guy sighed.

They found an open area with a carpet of green grass, dotted with a few trees, close to the road that meandered past the orphanage. Seeing a nice spot Ursula ran over and sat down before looking mischievously at Sophia and gesturing to her lap.

Sophia glared at her before sitting down beside her. Ursula’s face morphed into a faux hurt look before returning to its previous state as she grabbed her partner and dragged him into her lap, Sophia giving a squawk of protest.

Sophia tried to struggle free, but he couldn’t get the right leverage and stopped moving, “Why?” he asked petulantly.

“…Because.”

“That’s not a good enough reason and you know it!”, he roared.

“… It was nice holding you in the morning,” was the tentatively whispered reply.

With a loud sigh he went limp in her arms, “…Fine, but don’t make a habit of it.”

With a small squeal Ursula hugged him even tighter.

“I am so gonna regret this later,” he bemoaned.

They both settled in for training.

It was only a couple hours later that there was finally a breakthrough. During the last few hours the pair had noticed several couples and triples stopping at the side of the road for a mid-morning quickie sex session and had pointedly ignored them.

Sophia, whose headache had returned with a vengeance from last night, was now trying to find anything to distract himself so he briefly focused on a small, pale skinned woman with bunny ears bouncing on top of a guy’s large dick. The woman looked to be shouting her lungs out in satisfaction while the guy railed into her from underneath. Her breasts, almost comically large for her frame, almost hitting her chin with every thrust.

He felt a brief feeling of something and in that moment, the leaf that he had been trying to push, slowly shifted a full ten centimetres.

He stood and gave a woop of joy, “Yes. I finally did it!”, and then promptly fell over, his body limp with exhaustion.

“Are you okay? How’d you do it? I haven’t been able to do anything since yesterday.” Ursula beseeched.

Sophia propped himself up on one arm, “I think it’s because we believe that we can’t do it that causes it to fail. Doing magic always seemed impossible for us so I guess that just seeped into our thinking. I was – er – distracted for a moment so I guess that’s what did it.”

Ursula opened her mouth for a few seconds before closing it, her head slowly nodding. She looked over to a new lead and concentrated intently it, her eyes slightly narrowing in focus. Sophia could hear her muttering to herself, “You can do magic. You can do magic…”

Ever so gradually the leaf struggled its way upwards, wobbling as it did so, moved a small distance, and then plopped back down onto the ground.

Ursula gave a tired smile and then with a dull thud joined Sophia on the ground.

After a few minutes of just breathing, a victorious grin broke out on their faces, “We can do fucking magic.”

 

<-{|}->

 

The duo, alongside several other children of their ages, were set the simple but dull task of separating the grain from the chaff for future meals. They sat outside cross-legged in the sun as it slowly made its way across the sky. The seed was in a pile before them, and they slowly worked their way through it.

A little colour was starting to seep into Ursula’s cheeks due to the slow nature of the task.

“What if we try using a spell,” whispered Sophia.

Ursula’s eyes widened a bit before she gave a subtle nod and then stopped for a couple of seconds.

A single seed slowly lifted itself out of the chaff turning slightly transparent as it did so. But before it could move anywhere it fell back down and with-it Ursula tipped forward once more.

Sophia managed to grab the back of her dress, but a few children still glanced over.

With a shy smile he said, “Just feeling a bit tired.”

Ursula soon recovered but not before muttering to Sophia, “We’ve got to expand our capacity.”

With a resolute nod, the fire in their eyes burned ever brighter.

They spent a while separating the seeds from the chaff and when finished, dinner was then upon them, the slightly woody scent of stewed seeds wafting through the air.

As they sat down Sophia reflected on the few conversations they had so far, “I don’t think I’m going to be able to make friends with these kids. I just can’t connect with them on an emotional level or an intellectual level.”

Ursula nodded, “Yeah, I’d think it best if we just stick to ourselves and occasionally ask questions of Eyvor and Rosalind. We’re already sticking out to them so a little more wouldn’t hurt.”

“Its going to be a lonely couple of years…” Sophia said glumly.

Ursula pulled her in for a hug, “At least we’ve got each other.”

They quickly finished eating, Sophia downing both of their milks, and headed up towards their room for bed.

 

<-{|}->

 

Rosalind woke during the night to two concussive sounds of something hitting wood resonating through the building.

With a furrowed brow she muttered, “What is that noise?”

A few seconds passed and nothing happened, so she shrugged her shoulders and tried to go back to sleep. Only for the two sounds to echo through her room once again.

With a tried yawn she conjured a light and started walking out of her room.

“I swear if those kids are having sex again, I’m going to have to separate them even further…”

She thought about it for a few seconds, “They’re already on opposite sides of the building,” she sighed once more, “the things I do.”

She meandered into the mess hall and heard the sounds again, this time coming from above her.

“Maybe this time I’ll flood the room with ice cold water. Surprising them just made them go faster last time,” she reflected.

She came to the first floor, walking past the engraved words on the door frame saying ‘Four to Seven Years’, but before she could ascend the stairs further, the two dull sounds echoed through the house, originating from down the corridor.

Rosalind froze, “I didn’t want to believe it, she said some of the younger children were getting interested in sex. But that young?”

She softly walked down the hallway closing in on the door that was hiding the origin of the sounds.

She stood outside waiting for the exact moment the sound occurred again to make sure.

Thud, Thud.

She quickly opened the door, her voice set at a harsh whisper, “What do you think – Oh dear, are you two okay?”

Both Ursula and Sophia were sitting cross-legged their heads firmly on the floor, a meter away from them was a small pile of dust. They wearily tried to raise their heads but could only manage to slightly turn them to see the intruder, their severely bruised purpled foreheads now clearly showing in the light.

Ursula managed to slur out, “Oh hey, Rosa, just – er – practicing some magic.”

“Why’d you say that?” Sophia hissed out.

“I couldn’t think of anything else. What else could we be doing while in this position?”

“Oh.”

Rosalind loudly sighed once more and cut them off, “We’ll talk about this in the morning. Right now, just go to bed. Your thumping could be heard through the whole house.”

Both children’s faces went a bright red.

The tall woman’s slight frown curved into a caring smile, “Now let me look at your heads so I can heal them.”

With a wave of her hand, the bruises healed, and then with a light kiss to their foreheads she tucked them into bed and left the room.

Rosalind was soon back in her bed and started to get settled in but not before another child’s cry could be heard through the house.

She sighed once more as she rose, “The things I do…”

 

<-{|}->

 

The pair ambled into the mess hall late the next morning cradling their heads, flinching away whenever a child shrieked nearby. They grabbed a bowl and sat down at a table in the corner and mechanically ate the gruel.

Rosalind walked over and sat down at their table as a few curious kids looked on.

After looking at their current state she gave them a wry smile, “Good morning. I hope you enjoyed what remained of your sleep?”

She got two weak groans as a reply.

“Why were you trying to practice your magic so late at night?” she asked concernedly.

“Because it’s magic,” Sophia whispered.

“Regardless of that, you should be concerned about how it affects the rest of us,” she chastised.

“Now, are you planning on continuing you magic practice during the night?” she asked.

Both kids paused and looked to the side.

“Are you?” she pressed.

“Maybe?” the Ursula replied, then rushed to continue, “I mean we could put our blankets on the ground to muffle the noise or – or – just do it lying down.”

A couple of older kids looked over at their table when she said that, causing her to duck her head.

Rosalind gave a small sigh, “I can’t allow for this to continue-”

Both children opened their mouths to object yet a raised hand from Rosalind stalled them.

“-Yet, I should encourage learning.”

She gave them a beatific smile and said, “So I shall be moving you a room on the ground floor. Next to Eyvor’s room so she can supervise.”

The children paying attention to the conversation looked at them both enviously.

Seeing their reaction Ursula said, “Are you sure? Shouldn’t it go to someone more deserving?”

“No, the bottom rooms are always assigned to those who practice magic consistently. Usually, it takes a full month of training to show that you are worthy. But considering your – state – last night I believe an exception can be made,” she explained.

Her face hardened a touch as she continued, “But if you slack off then you will be immediately returned to your room. Do you understand?”

The pair gulped and quickly nodded slightly cringing as they did so.

Her typical warm smile returned, “I’ll show you to the room and then you can move all of your belongings after our writing lesson.”

They rapidly ate the last of the food before following Rosalind.

The room was slightly larger than their old one. A worn bed sat in the corner alongside a chest of drawers. On top of the drawers there was a small bookshelf, but it was missing any kind of literature. Most importantly however, was the minimal number of the characteristic patchwork holes in the walls of the room.

“I can see why the other kids were jealous,” Sophia mumbled.

Rosalind waved her hand before saying, “There, I’ve muffled the walls and softened the floor. I’ll conjure some weights later for you to use as practice. Come to me if you need them refreshed. Eyvor will start doing it once she becomes a bit more skilled. Now let’s head back for the lesson.”

And she dragged them out of the room.

 

<-{|}->

 

Over the next couple of days hey spent the rest the mornings learning to read and write, the afternoon for chores and in their spare time always trying to practice their magic. Much to the surprise of Rosalind they picked up reading surprisingly fast, within six months, learning to write, only took a month more after that.

After gaining their slight literacy proficiency they approached Rosalind to go over the book she had purchased for them, but she told them to wait until a few weeks before their first maturity to read it.

With more free time on their hands, they focused solely on strengthening their magic, rarely going outside, to the dismay of Rosalind.

And so, time continued its ever-pressing march forward, from days to weeks, weeks to months and months to years.