As the village bell tolled for the final time, Nia abruptly sat up half awake. As she looked over at her brother, she smiled at the peaceful expression strewn across his face before, she quickly jumped in fright. Right next to her brother, there should clearly have been another child laying right beside him. Instead, there was just an empty spot. Nia's eyes darted around her small home in every direction but found not even a shadow of Lowen's small frame. 

She quickly ran out of her little shack, ready to shout at the top of her lungs in search of Lowen but there he was, right outside. His small back faced toward her, she was about to say something but noticed his strange posture and movements. Covered from head to toe in sweat, a small puddle formed below his feet. He seemed to be concentrating with 100% pure focus. 

Even though the village bells had just finished ringing, signaling everyone that it was safe for them to leave their homes, Lowen had already been outside practicing for a few hours. He, of course, knew that there were no bandits coming to attack. So why would he stay inside and wait? Besides, Chief Roland hadn't ordered him to wait inside and even if he did, that doesn't mean Lowen would necessarily follow Roland's orders. 

Inhale... exhale... As Lowen calmed his breathing, his body faced toward the rising sun. As the first rays of sunshine poured down upon him, Lowen's body bathed in the warm embrace as he continued his practice. Circulating his ki in a particular way, his ki moved with a thought. At first, there was no movement of his ki. Then as fast as he possibly could he pushed it forward like an explosion, before coming to an abrupt stop. Slowly he restarted his flow of ki and once more he stopped it. Like a calm frozen lake, time seemed to stand still for Lowen as several breaths passed before he once more pushed his ki like lightning, circulating it as fast as he possibly could. With this strange practice, Lowen repeated this ki movement technique again and again. 

In turn, Lowen's control over his ki grew at a rapid pace. This was a technique he learned long ago. Without it, it could take Lowen decades to fully master and control his ki but with it, along with his decades of wisdom and experience, Lowen could feel imminent mastery of it. Although this was a new body, the mind and soul were most definitely his and he could tell that as long as he kept practicing, then within the next few weeks he would be near his previous life's level of control. 

As he continued circulating his ki, his body moved in a specific manner. [Snake-Fist] a martial art punching technique that was specially designed for flexibility and speed. With it, one could punch an opponent from nearly every weird angle or odd position that you can imagine. It was made for very close combat. As Lowen punched out, his speed was incredible yet precise. Like an actual snake, each strike was vicious and without mercy. With each punch, Lowen's feet didn't remain still either. [Shadow-Step] a specialized martial technique designed for movement. Allowing one to move incredibly quickly and increasing one's agility. It seemed that when Lowen moved forward or back he was quick but when his body would pivot, it looked as though a small shadow would blur. 

As Nia watched on, she seemed as if she were stuck in a daze. Besides her father, she had never seen anyone else move like that. Her mind started to race once more. 

(How can a kid move like that, wasn't he a Mage? Or is he a warrior? I don't understand anything anymore.) 

Nia was lost in her thoughts. Just as she wondered how amazing Lowen was, suddenly the atmosphere was completely broken. Lowen like a hog caught in a trap tripped to the ground, falling face first into the small bit of mud his sweaty body created. 

Nia of course immediately broke out in laughter. 

*Hahahahahahahaha* 

She simply couldn't help it. She thought Lowen was incredible, a Mage of miracles or something almost godly but when she saw him trip, his image, it went right back down. Nia looked at Lowen and she thought. 

(Yep, he's definitely a kid.) 

Lowen, on the other hand, felt a bit miserable. Everything was going perfectly fine until he dropped his guard slightly and as soon as he did, his body movements become awkward and off balance but that's to be expected given this body's previous owner. The child before Lowen took over knew no martial arts whatsoever. Not only did this body have no martial arts, but it also had very little muscle tone. It almost felt like Lowen was moving around a skeleton connected with puppet strings. It still felt weird, as well as creepy. Lowen couldn't help but feel some disappointment. 

As Lowen stood up and wiped the mud from his face, he bitterly thought to himself. 

(Damn, this body is so fragile and weak; I'll need to do some serious physical conditioning if I want this body to really feel like mine.) 

*Sigh* 

(A child's body is just so fragile. Just a few hours of exercise and I slip up, now that child is laughing at me.) 

Lowen looked over at Nia with an annoyed look before he concentrated on his hearing. A few seconds later, his ears perked up. He remembered that Nia had run out last night and quickly came back with water and as he didn't see a well in the surroundings, he assumed there was a flowing water source nearby and just as he thought, he could hear flowing water coming from a small walk away behind Nia's home. 

It would have been easier to just ask Nia where she got the water yesterday, but she was laughing too much over a simple slip and fall. Lowen felt slightly embarrassed now. 

(Just how childish is she?) 

With that, Lowen began walking towards the sound of water. Noticing Lowen walking away, Nia's laugh quickly came to a stop. 

"Wait, where are you going?" 

Lowen didn't even pause his step and replied. 

"To take a bath." 

Nia became surprised. 

"You actually know where to go, how?" 

Lowen trying to regain even a small bit of his self-respect simply tapped one of his ears, implying he heard it. 

"What?" 

Nia perked her ears up trying to hear it as well. Although there was water nearby, it didn't flow particularly fast. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't hear a peep of water. All she could hear were the birds, as well as the wind in the trees. She looked at Lowen suspiciously and decided to follow him. 

(He just fell in the mud and so he's probably embarrassed. Why are boys like this? They're all the same, pretending to be cool; Why can't they just admit when they're embarrassed?) 

The further they went, the more Nia realized they really were headed toward the water. 

(Does he actually know?) 

Finally, after a few minutes, Lowen was standing beside a long flowing river. 

(Ah, he actually found it.) 

Lowen saw the dazed look on Nia's face and decided to tease her a little bit. In his small childish voice, he shouted. 

"YOU! DID YOU FOLLOW ME HERE TO SEE ME NAKED, HOW INDECENT!" 

Hearing his sudden shout Nia was shocked but even more so after what he just said, she couldn't even think properly. 

"Wh...wha...WHHHHHHHAAAAATTTTTT!" 

Nia's embarrassment went through the clouds, suddenly her face blushed red in equal parts embarrassment and equal parts anger. A million excuses went through her head as she scrambled to say something. 

"Who...who would peep on a child, and and and besides that I...I had to make sure you didn't get lost." 

"Oh, is that so?" 

"Of...of course it is, besides I've seen one plenty of times." 

Lowen's eyes widened more in curiosity. 

Nia noticed she had said something weird and hurriedly yelled to clear up the misunderstanding. 

"It's not what you think it's not what you think, it was my brother's." 

Once more Lowen's eyes widened. 

Nia once more said something weird. 

"No no, it's not like that. I had to change him all the time when he was a baby. That's why, that's why, why are you looking at me like that?" 

Nia, hearing herself talk, couldn't believe how everything she said seemed to come out the wrong way. 

Lowen knew it wasn't like that but he thought it'd be funny if he pushed it just a bit more. 

"If that's so I'll believe you, but can you answer one simple question of mine." 

Nia now became timid. Ever since she met him, Lowen has been overturning every thought she's had, no way would this be a simple question. Nia readied herself and in an almost whispery voice, she asked. 

"Wha...whats the question?" 

"I want to believe you, I really do. Sure it makes sense for you to have seen your little brother's. It's like you said, you had to change him when he was a baby so that only makes sense. Older siblings changing younger siblings, yes that's a responsibility you sometimes have, so that's completely normal. But ever since I met you, you've held my hand twice. Not only that, you've hugged a boy that's not your relative twice as well. But that isn't even the most important thing." 

Lowen paused his words for a moment for the best impact before he continued. 

"I really do want to trust you but after all that, still, why are you stripping me naked with your eyes?" 

Nia's heart felt like it was suddenly struck by lightning. For a while, she couldn't even process Lowen's words. Finally, it came to her. With no words, her red face which had almost returned to its normal color flared up once more. She had never felt so embarrassed in her entire life. She wanted to deny it, she wanted to say something but no words would form, nothing came out. With all she could muster, she turned around and fled back home at her top speed, disappearing along the path. 

Lowen couldn't help but howl in laughter. 

*HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA* 

(That'll teach you to laugh at adults.) 

After what seemed like minutes, Lowen finally stopped his laughter. 

Standing in front of the river, he could see it flowed several miles out. Beyond that, it wrapped around a mountain and he couldn't tell where it went after that. The river was connected on the edge of the back of the village. It was around 50 feet across and on the other side was a large dense forest filled with many large trees. Walking into the river, the water felt incredibly cold. Lowen didn't know if the seasons were different in this world or not but this world definitely had a winter. 

 Lowen began to circulate his ki, warming himself up in the process. Looking at the water that came up to his waist, Lowen couldn't help but breathe in relaxation. Where he stood came up to his waist but he could see other parts where the water went quite deep. Lowen decided to stay away from the deeper parts, for now, just in case there was something unexpected. As the water flowed slowly, Lowen took off his fur and dunked it a few times before scrubbing all the mud out of it. With it now being clean, he simply tossed it on a nearby branch to dry. After having a nice bath, Lowen noticed a few fish swimming about, each one about as long as his arm. 

In his memory, he had eaten this type of fish before so he knew the fish wasn't poisonous but the name of the fish he couldn't quite recall. 

(Hmm, Nia and Ben are probably hungry. I might as well grab a bite too.) 

Lowen slowly sunk down grabbing a few rocks at his feet before slowly standing back up so as to not scare the fish away. Following the four fishes paths, Lowen moved ki into his eyes and concentrated on their movements all at once. When he felt he predicted each of their paths, he instantly gathered his ki in his shoulder, upper arm, lower arm, wrist, hand, and fingers. 

*WOOSH* 

Like four arrows simultaneously being released from four bows, each rock shot out from Lowen's grip. As the rocks struck the fish, one after another they each died on the spot, it was almost perfect. 

*Tch* 

"Almost." 

Unexpectedly, Lowen had missed one fish by a hair, allowing it to keep its little life. 

(Damn, not quite good enough.) 

Most people would burn with jealousy if they could hear Lowen's thoughts; To be able to kill 3 out of 4 with one hand, the feat was truly amazing but to Lowen, it just wasn't up to his standards. 

Grabbing the 3 fish Lowen stepped out of the river and immediately felt their weight. Each fish weighed at least 20 pounds. To a boy who was only 6 years old, 20 pounds on one arm was about the limit he could carry. So to hold 60 pounds on one arm was definitely not happening. Even with ki Lowen's strength could only hold about 50 pounds in each arm but with that, the burden was slightly lifted. Wearing his simple fur, Lowen grabbed 2 fish with one arm and one fish in the other and with steady steps, he slowly walked back to Nia's. 

(Hope they're hungry.)