Everything happened in a whirl-wind after I'd tried to pull up a piece of the floor. The red-cap guys shouted some more stuff in the language I didn't understand, they managed to locate my mother, and then the two of us were dragged off to a room that seemed more geared toward the red-cap guys than the elf-like race the women belonged to, as demonstrated by all the furniture in the room being what could count as child-sized back on Earth.

I had no idea what was being said, but I got the distinct impression the red-caps were all looking at me with great interest.

Eventually, we were released back to our room, but that day turned out completely changing my life here in this place. Contrary to my expectations, it seemed the guards were actually quite impressed with my ability to use earth magic. They began teaching and training me, acting in many ways like the parent my mother was failing to be, and overall just making things better for me.

That was roughly two or three years ago as far as I can tell, having gained proper mastery of the language since then. I have also learned a lot of things.

The names for the two races I see down here were among the more important things I took in. The race my mother belongs to is known as the 'Tirapar,' and the red-cap guys are, as they explained it to me themselves, some kind of derivative race from the Tirapar known as the 'Tipar.'

Rather than derivative, it's more like they are magically altered. It seems all Tipar were originally Tirapar in the womb, but some kind of ritual changed them. This ritual, apparently, involves placing the soul of an earth-elemental inside of the unborn Tirapar.

What's more, this place is apparently some kind of facility for raising infant Tipar alongside their mothers who are all criminals, with adult Tipar as guards. In other words, all the children here are Tipar.

This would certainly explain a lot. If I'm understanding this correctly, it seems like the Earth side of my previous life memories was the original owner of this body, and then when the ritual happened it fused my soul with that gnome soul and turned us into a single being.

The fact we are all a derivative race from the Tirapar also explains the extreme similarity in the naming. Since it is confusing though, I have taken to translating the two in my head to Elves and Gnomes. The Tirapar definitely look the part to be elves, aside from the ugly navy-blue looking skin, and the Tipar are just short Tirapar with an actual gnome soul and earth powers.

The process of making gnomes in this world seems absolutely barbaric to my Earth sensibilities, but there's not a lot I can say about it in my current situation.

Well, it's time to start what has become my new daily routine since that incident.

I wake up in a bed made completely from stone. A bed made of stone might not sound very comfortable to someone from Earth. It probably wouldn't even be all that comfortable for my mother or any of the other elves here. But, as a gnome who can manipulate stone to my will, it's as soft as the best made adaptive foam mattresses back on Earth as my stone-shaping powers move it about every time my body applies pressure to gently cradle me.

It was originally just a plain stone slab when the adult gnomes brought it in for me, but the important thing about it was that this particular slab of stone was free of all manipulation from other earth-shapers, meaning it was trivial for me to claim it as my own and shape it however I wanted. In other words, it was something they gave me to practice with back in my mother's cell.

For sleeping purposes, I had shaped it into a rather ornate four-poster bed, sized for my toddler-scale structure. I have seen the furniture in the rooms kept by the adult gnomes, and it is always incredibly ornate. Because it is so simple to make whatever shape one wants with earth manipulation, they often just add embellishments to already ornately decorated items just out of pure boredom.

Inspired by this, I had taken to the same practice, and now I am able to simply touch the stone slab and make it immediately take the form of an incredibly ornate bed with a mere thought.

[So, you are awake,] my mother said in her usual snippy and harsh tone. [The guards are here for you. You should go,] she says, dismissing me just like that.

[Yeah,] I groan and slide out of bed. I give her a weary glance as I shuffle over toward the door. She is always like this, constantly treating me like I'm a burden she'd rather be rid of, the sooner the better.

It feels really shitty having such a bad relationship with my own mother. I wish I could do something to mend this situation, but if what the guards tell me is true, it really makes sense why she wouldn't like me much.

It doesn't seem like there's much I can do, so I just sulk over to the door and let out a pulse of earth mana through the ground.

The doors are immediately opened by the red-hatted man on the other side. He gives me a welcoming smile, the exact opposite of what I see from my mother.

[Morning Terlu. You get some good sleep?] he asks.

[Morning Ehdust!] I greet the man by name in my chipper high-toned child voice.

[So, this one is that child prodigy then?] a female voice says, and there is suddenly a new face I've never seen before leaning down close to me. She is dressed in the same red cap as the other guards, but she also has a finely decorated red vest to go with it, embroidered with intricate designs and religous-looking symbols in another darker shade of red as well.

She is short, just like the other gnomes, but as a mere three year old I am even shorter. She leans down and gets real close to my face, examining me carefully from every angle.

[Hmm... he really is just a little pipsqueak. Is he seriously as good as you guys say he is?] she asks.

[Yes, my lady. You have probably read this in the reports already, but he has been winning at Halisar against multiple adult opponents acting against him as a team. But, I guess you will be seeing that in person today,] he says.

[We're going to be playing Halisar again?] I asked, looking from Ehdust to this new lady, feeling very unsure of what was going on. I got the very distinct sense she was quite important in some way, probably out ranking even the warden. I really wasn't sure how I should be acting and didn't want to get in some kind of trouble.

Ehdust seemed a little unsure about the etiquette of responding to my question, or rather, probably something to do with the speaking order with this lady, because he just went quiet and glanced over at her.

She just smiled smugly. [That's right kid. I'll be the one you are up against this time. We will see if you really are as good as they say.]

After this, she turns and walks away. Ehdust, upon seeing this, gets a panicked look on his face and grabs my hand. [C'mon, we've cotta follow,] he says in a low voice and drags me along.

We make our way through the halls and to a training room the guards had set up. This room actually had not existed two years ago. It was created because the warden had decided it would be good to start teaching me a thing or two about earth magic. They even had me participate in digging it out a little, although 'a little' really was the operative word there. The guards did most of the work. It more or less amounted to molding and compressing the stone, turning it into denser stone, and pushing it out of the way to form a rectangular room.

As per usual, the next thing to follow was decorations, added a few at a time by the bored guards coming in after shifts. In this case, since it was a training room for a child, there was some kind of communication between them to give the decorations a common theme relevant to their culture and things they thought I should know about. Disturbingly enough, there were a rather uncomfortable number of scenes depicting people decapitated and having their blood drained into a basin with a large dragon overlooking the events. According to my instructors, that dragon was the high priest of their faith.

A dragon as a priest. Priesthood is not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you think of dragons. The more I learn, the more I fear for my future growing up in this culture.

Overall though, those decorations on the wall are just that. Mere adornments on the wall. The main focus of the room was the simple fact that there was a lot of empty space in the center.

I did a lot of different forms of earth magic practice in this room, but a large portion of what I did was to play Halisar with the guards. It was a game using earth magic. The name 'Halisar' was taken from two elven words. 'Haltindar,' which meant to break or destroy, and 'Zarsus,' which meant to protect. I couldn't quite see how those two words fit together and got abbreviated to Halisar, but those two words really did sum up what the game was all about.

It was a game where one tried to use earth magic to destroy a stone, while the other protects it using their own earth magic. There are several different formats to the game. Some involve an asymmetrical approach where the two are fighting over a single stone. Others are symmetrically competitive in which each player will have a stone they are guarding against the other. However, as I enter the room today, the first thing I notice is that there is no stone at all. It is just a plain flat floor. That is, until the important looking woman walks to the middle of the room and begins working her earth magic, raising a small mountain of rocks right in the center of the room.

[Alright kid. We'll start off with a tough one. Your job is to protect this mountain. I will be the one on the attack,] she said.

So, that's how we're playing it, huh? It's a lot of stone, so maybe she thinks I might have trouble covering the entire thing as my territory or something. But, this amount is really no big deal.

[How well do I have'ta protect it?] I ask.

[Hmm...] The woman has a thoughtful expression. [Well, that depends. You are being graded for your performance on this one. The more of it you can protect, the better you will be evaluated.]

Alright. That makes sense. The only issue here, of course, would be how strong she is. I can protect the entire thing, but that will mean spreading my magic more thinly over it. The attacker, on the other hand, will have the advantage of being able to focus their energy on a single point to overwhelm the defender. I guess the trick here will be one of trying to sense out what she's going to do so I can find where to focus my defensive energy in response.

I start reaching out with my elemental energy, pushing it into the floor and toward the large mountain of stone in order to cover it, but I quickly encounter resistance to my efforts.

[Huh?] I say.

[Is there a problem?] the woman asks.

[You haven't retracted the mana you used to create it yet,] I tell her.

[Yes, is that a problem?] she asks.

[Ahh...] I stutter, baffled at how to respond to that.

[Well, it does look like you were correct about the boy being quite wise to the situation he is in,] the woman said with a glance over toward Ehdust before she smiles smugly back at me. [Now then, get ready boy. You! Begin the countdown!]

She gave Ehdust the command, and I immediately started trying to get my head in gear for how to take that territory from her before she could destroy any of that mountain of rock. She'd risen it up in mere seconds. It would be one thing if she had to claim it from someone else first, but if she already has a claim to the territory then she ought to be able to break it every single bit as fast as she created it. This was in no way fair.

[Wh... what?] Ehdust stammers.

[Did you not understand my orders?] the lady demands.

[Ahh... alright! Uhh...]

Alright! Time to get my head in the game.