Hexenblume

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"One, two, twirl and stomp." Kara Diancia said in a certain rhythm, she moved her body around in a graceful dance. Two orbs of water floated around her, ever flowing. It was an enchanting sight, the glistening droplets of water with the woman's masterful dancing was enough to make one want to move with the woman's rhythm.

"One, two, twirl and– Woah!" A little boy, who looked around four but smaller than the average one, tried to imitate Kara's movements but failed. He accidentally crossed his feet and tripped himself in the process. Fortunately for the boy, one of the water orbs caught his fall, so he wasn't hurt in any way. "Mama, I don't think I can do this." Clailip admitted, he knew full well what his capabilities were, in his past life he was fucked over by so many performance tasks that involved dancing.

Kara giggled at how adorable her son was, sitting on the damp grass and admitting his defeat. His dark brown hair was matted and wet from the orb of water, his eyes that looked like the first few days of autumn—a beautiful mix of greens, oranges, browns, and maroons—fluttered as he wiped off any water on his face. Kara wished though, that Clailip would try more, his movements just needed polishing. He seemed to not have very good self-esteem, and that worried Kara.

And she was right. Clailip held onto his previous capabilities as Gabrielle Agustin, and seeing so many amazing people in his new family, it definitely took a massive toll on his self-esteem. He didn't realize that if he just embraced his new self, then maybe something inside him would bloom. But, though he had memories of being mature and logical, he has turned into a child both physically and in mind, everything about him was reset. Even his memories of his past life were hazy, as if it never happened, as if this world was where he truly belonged.

"Clay, aren't you giving up too easily?" Kara asked, she wanted to fix this self-esteem problem as soon as possible. He was the treasured youngest child of the Diancias. She didn't want Clailip to grow up feeling like he was not enough for himself or others. "You've only tried it once, dances need time to master you know. And for your first try, you were amazing!" Kara tried to encourage the young Clailip.

"Sorry Mama, but I don't think I can do it. I don't want to waste Mama's time, I know how busy you are." Even though Clailip's current mental age was that of an almost four-year-old boy, he still had enough (Though it is fading as time passes, something he isn't noticing) maturity. He knew how much time his mother's job took. So even if it was making his little child's heart ache, he had to suck it up and let his mother work. He gets coddled at home enough anyway.

"Clailip… You're my tiny adorable baby boy. Me giving you attention is never a waste of time. Who even told you that? If someone is making you say all these grown up things Mama will beat them up for you." Kara knew from Clailip's earlier movements, he had the potential to be a battle dancer. Not just that, but from how he watched her whenever she practiced at dawn, she could tell he was interested in learning.

"I don't know, Mama is always so busy with work. I know your work is super important so I don't want to waste your time. I don't think I'm any good at dancing." Clailip said in a nonchalant way.

"No, you never waste Mama's time." Kara proceeded to pick up the boy. "And how are you so sure that you wouldn't be any good at dancing without even trying it out first? I was very bad at dancing when I first danced too."

"But Mama is so amazing. I'm not as amazing as Mama, Papa, or Marie, or Jan. That's okay with me." Though Clailip tried to hide the jealousy and sadness in his voice, it was still very obvious. In his four years of being here, he has developed an inferiority complex of sorts. His family were all very amazing, but he still couldn't cast spells at his age. Not knowing that most divorakks cast their first true spell at four years old. Therefore, it was completely understandable that he wasn't able to cast anything yet. He was only turning four this week after all.

His magical invocation ceremony will be happening soon, and he'll finally be able to do basic magic.

Divorakks' spellcasting were sealed until they had their magical Invocation ceremony because of how powerful they are at manipulating mana. It wouldn't be good if an infant razed an entire forest due to a tantrum. There have also been cases, before the magical Invocation ceremony was created, when young divorakks were controlled by evil gods, using them as their personal instruments of destruction.

Unfortunately, this does mean that the child is completely helpless against any sort of threat. Not just because a child's body is frail, but because divorakks are extremely weak, their talent and skill in magic comes with the price of having bodies that are very physically fragile. Though they have made spells and ways to improve their physical capabilities, all of these methods are impossible for children, their mana is too young and volatile, it would do more harm than good.

Kara looked down at Clailip, who was now drawing on the dirt with his fingers. She started letting her brain chug, thinking of a way to raise her dear child's self confidence. She was his mother after all, and what kind of mother would she be if she just let Clailip murk around feeling like a dried out twig in a family of magnificent trees.

"Is there anything you want to tell me, Fumblefawn?" Asked Kara, emphasizing the affectionate nickname that they—the Diancias—always used when cheering him up.

"It's nothing. I'm fine, Mama." He said, smiling up at his mother to reassure her. "I think I'm just tired. I'm going to go home and ask Papa to take a nap with me."

"Well… Okay then, but if you ever need or want to say something, your Mama's always here for you. Papa too, and both of your older siblings." Kara reminded the little boy. She watched Clailip walk towards their home at a brisk pace, of course he did this after he politely nodded at his Mama's words.

'Four years and I'm still not used to this kind of thing. It's nice, though.' Thought Clailip, he wasn't used to parents being so nice and affectionate. Sure his mother in his past life was okay, but Kara and Antuan Diancia were just a whole different category of niceness. Right now, he was sitting on the branches of the massive tree, he's fallen several times before, but the wind spirits that guard the village always catch him and let him down safely so he wasn't that concerned.

'I don't like lying to Mam- Kara… Kara, I don't like lying to Kara. But the entrance to the branches would be sealed off if she ever finds out I spend my time here. It might be safe, but she's the type to not take any chances.' He hummed a simple tune he heard from the bumblebirds that sang in the early hours of the morning, when the sun was still hiding behind the mountainous horizons. In front of him were numerous knickknacks, branches, acorns, and twine that he had stolen from his father on his way up.

He was assembling a toy of sorts, testing out his Unique Skill, Toymaker, and then giving it more power via using Magical Companion on it by giving it a small ball of ice that he managed to produce. Of course young divorakks like Clailip couldn't use spells yet, but they could manipulate mana without the use of spells to a certain extent. This much wasn't that hard, though he had to admit that it was very time consuming.

"Welcome to the world, Acorn Soldier!" Clailip happily said at the now-animate toy that he had made. Although its quality was on par with what you would expect from a four-year-old, it still managed to hold itself together pretty well.

Clailip checked his status board, it was a simple procedure, just think of the word and it'll pop up in front of you. Of course, only you would be able to see it, it was more or less a translucent screen-thing that could normally only be perceived by the owner. Each and every single person had a different status board too, it depends on the person, Clailip has one that looked like a cutesy RPG UI. He's always been a fan of cute things, in his past life he would buy plush toys whenever he had enough money, it became a sort of hobby for him

He watched as the toy made of branches and acorns walked on the massive branch, exploring the world around it. He stared as if the toy was its own child, of course he had no real parental feelings toward it but it still made him feel nice. "This kind of slow life is surprisingly very enjoyable. I don't remember ever being able to relax like this and take it slow when I was still Gabbie… I guess the Goddess was right after all." Clailip talked to himself, it was a habit of his that he never really was able to shake off.

"Well, to be fair most of my memories are hazy… Eh, what happened in the past will stay in the past. I wonder what Papa's cooking for dinner…" He hummed a joyful tune, one that his mother always sings while cooking up a meal with his father. Opening up the trapdoor that led to the inside of the literal tree house, he first motioned for the Acorn Soldier to jump in before climbing back down himself. Dusting himself off and continuing to hum the tune, he marches onwards to the kitchen to check on what his parents were planning for dinner.

"Papa, what's for dinner?" He asked, looking up at the lithe tan man that was manipulating several pans, bowls, and other utensils, with limbs made up of rocks. It was an amazing sight seeing the man move in tandem with the floating limbs to prepare numerous dishes, the man huffs and puffs as he turned toward Clailip and smiled at the little boy brightly. Wiping off the sweat off his forehead and catching his breath, he kneeled down to Clailip's level to talk.

"Well, we finally caught the mousedeer that has been terrorizing our crops for weeks now. So you can probably guess right? A bunch of Crabbles were harvested today too, I know you absolutely love them so I bought a few bushels." Antuan Diancia smiled at his little boy and fixed his hair. He grabbed the short braid hanging on the left side of Clailip's face and fixed the string that kept it together. It wasn't a long braid, it was about 13 centimeters in length. It served as a reminder that Clailip was the youngest child of an important divorakk, the string was made with high-quality spider-demon threads and it was tied in a certain pattern that looked like a triangle.

One of the floating rock limbs levitate toward Clailip with a spherical fruit, it was orange and had the same texture of a grape, when bit into, the sickeningly sweet juices of the crabble would burst inside your mouth all at once. It tasted reminiscent of apples, oranges, and weirdly enough molasses. It was just one whole sphere of pure sweetness, you'd think that it would be unhealthy to eat something like this, but it's actually quite nutritious and is commonly eaten during the rainy season to protect against illnesses.

Clailip's eyes visibly sparkled, his autumnal eyes seemed to glitter as he quickly took the crabby and bit into it, sending the juice all over his face and on his clothing.  Antuan laughed at the child and urged him to take his shirt off and change into a clean one after he's done munching on the fruit. Clailip might be more 'mature' than his peers, but he was extremely forgetful, so Antuan thought it would be best to ask him to change into something cleaner after eating.

"I'm sealing off the treetops, by the way. It's too dangerous, I'm so glad I noticed you taking the twine, I wouldn't have known that you were going up to the treetops to play if I didn't. If your mother knew about this, she wouldn't be as nice as me, so please don't try to go up there again. Okay? It's really dangerous, of course the spirits there would make sure that you wouldn't get hurt, but we can never be too safe." Said Antuan as he started getting back to his rhythm, preparing the mousedeer meat and mixing up different herbs, spices, and ingredients in a bowl.

"WHAT!? Papa, that's my private play place! You can't just lock it up! This is so unfair." Clailip whined, still munching on the crabble and peering down at the Acorn Soldier that poked and prodded at the tables and chairs.

"Rules are rules. We can't have you getting hurt. We don't like seeing our precious Fumblefawn in pain, and I don't think you'd like being in pain either." Antuan explained without taking an eye off his cooking.

"...Fine. I'll just go play in my room then." Clailip walked over to his room, his tiny feet pitter-pattering on the wooden floor quite harshly.

"Don't forget to change shirts!" His father yelled to make sure that Clailip heard. He stuck his head out until a tiny voice yelled an 'Okay'.

Stepping inside his room, Clailip looks at the massive array of living toys that he's made over the months. All of them were still very wonkily made, his muscles still haven't developed so his fine motor skills weren't that good yet. Divorakks aged slowly after all.

The toys all looked toward him, knowing that it was their creator, and not a family member of Clailip, they moved about and stepped in an organized formation and saluted.

"Men and women, acorns and pinecones, branches and twigs, Papa has disallowed me to go up to the treetops. This means that, on this day forward, you will be witnessing the miracle of creation firsthand 'cause I'll be making more of you here now. Anyway, have you guys been training? Legion 1, what's your progress?"

And this went on for a while, the boy interviewed the toys, pretending to understand the creaking of their twigs and the clacking of branches and acorns.

Soon, he would be called to dinner and see his overbearing sister and brother, he feared this time of day the most. So he just sighed when his father knocked on his door and told him it was time to eat.