Chapter Six

Tanjoubi

A few years have passed since I found out about magic. During those few years, I learned more about where I am and more about magic. One of the few ways that I learned about magic is what I'm currently doing; watching my dad practice in the backyard.

My father. He was what many people would consider a true mage. He was able to harness the powers of mana to fight and win battles. It was a truly rare achievement to be able to truly fight with mana. My father may not have been the best fighter, but he was able to do it. His skills were rather straightforward, he used relatively simple spells, but he used them to utmost perfection.

He could cast up a stone spike like any other, but when he did it, the spike was cast out of the ground so fast that it was capable of breaking the sound barrier. The first time he did this by the house, it scared me so much that I woke up from my nap screaming like I was an infant again. He was practicing in the back and was so focused that he didn't realize what he was doing until it was already too late. After launching what he fairly dubbed his sonic spike, he immediately rushed into the house to apologize to my mom and me.

After apologizing to mom and me, he started off by saying, "Well, after that I think it's about time that I go and explain myself to the rest of the village. That had to spook at least a few of our neighbors, if not the majority of the people here."

That had happened about a month ago, and now whenever I realize that he is training in the back yard, I make my way to the window in that kitchen that leads out to the back to watch him. It is always one of my favorite parts of the day watching my dad practice in the back. The way he seems to float around the yard, casting spells from the earth, is mesmerizing. Constantly firing off spiked balls originating from the ground anywhere around him, using the ground to launch himself into the air, amongst other things.

One of my favorite spells that he uses though is his metal magic. He puts his hand down by his hip, and slowly small particles start to float towards his hand. After a few seconds, you can see the tiny specks floating around his hand from into a thin metal stick. It always starts as the thin metal stick, then with that, he begins to swing it like a sword, and during his swings, more bits start floating from the ground to coat the thin rod. Eventually, after about a minute, he has a full-blown sword of what looks like pure silver based on how shiny and reflective it is.

After he finished his casting of the sword, he formed a human-sized test dummy out of the earth itself to strike at. Even with the earthen golem being immobile, the way that my father swings his sword at it is like a dancer leading the sword in an elegant dance. Each strike he makes has a purpose. It is an attack but also doesn't leave much room for a counter. To sneak into the small space that is unavoidably created when swinging a sword, you would have to make an extremely quick maneuver around not only his sword but his ability to almost immediately strike you with an earthen spike from any angle.

I sat there watching him train for about an hour longer till he finally finished. After he was done, he made his way over to the window that I was sitting at and pat my head, saying, "Look at you watching me. It almost looks like you wanna try magic. Just give it a few years, and maybe you can be out there with me!"

After he said that, he gave me a look that I hadn't seen in years. He looked at me like a proud dad. My parents died when I was young in my past life, so it had been quite some time since I felt that giddy sense of joy from that look. Realizing that I was sitting there staring at him, it hit me that he was probably looking for a response.

"Magic. In a few years?" I wanted to sound like I was a confused kid who didn't know much about magic, only knowing it existed. From my perspective, I sounded confused about it enough.

Talking more to himself than to me, Michal declared, "Hell with how much time you spend reading you might end up better than me… Assuming you become a mage." He looked at me like he just had some wild epiphany before speaking again, "That's what I should get you. Do you want a book for your birthday next week?"

It hit me like a BRICK. My fifth birthday is next week, and I had completely forgotten about it. It's hard to get used to the whole rebirth thing because I have so many things to relearn about myself. In my life as Josh, my birthday was November seventh, but here it's May eleventh. Still trying to wrap my head around the whole new birthday thing along with it being right around the corner, I hadn't heard my father asking, "You ok buddy?"

"Mmhm I good."

"Ok, well how does a book sound as one of your presents?"

"I want a new book."

"Ok. Just don't tell your mom that I let you in on one of your presents," my dad said as he grabbed my head and used his first to tussle my hair, making me squeal. After he was finished, we both sat there and laughed for a while, enjoying each other's company.

My mother made her way over to us before angrily quipping, "What are you two laughing about? Huh?" Quickly after that, her face fell into a grin as well before she joined in on our laughing even though she didn't know why we were laughing.

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Michal Fritz POV:

The Days leading up to Adams's birthday went by in the daily blur of repetition. Wake up, go check on Adam, make myself a cup of tea, head out to work, then come home and enjoy my nights with Aleana and Adam.

Then it was finally here, his birthday. I woke up this morning to our neighbor kresh's rooster. Usually, when that damm rooster wakes me up, I wanna walk out there and strangle it, but today it was a welcome annoyance.

I got out of bed, careful to not wake up Aleana. After tip-toeing out of my room, I slowly made my way over to Adam's room to ensure he was still asleep to find him sitting cross-legged on the floor. Thinking that he had made his way out of his bed and fell asleep in a weird position on the floor, I walked over and picked him up from underneath the arms.

When I picked him up, I realized something. I realized that Adam was definitely not asleep. Whenever I went to pick him up, Adam screamed and quickly decided on his fight or flight. He chose fight. Even with me holding under his arms, he seemed to rotate his body and use the perfect muscles to throw his punch. It was like a trained fighter had taken over his body and thrown the punch. Instinct took over, and before I could stop myself completely, it was too late. I threw Adam. Luckily I was able to half stop myself, so he didn't fly into the wall, well more than likely go through our wall, be he did land on the floor with a slight thump.

Before Adam even hit the floor, I was already running for him to make sure he was ok and apologize. Thinking to myself, 'God, I hope Aleana doesn't find out about this. I will be sleeping on the couch for a week. Also, how the HELL did Adam learn to throw a punch like that?'

I made my way over to Adam and immediately got down on my knees to check on him. "Are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere?" I asked him while poking and prodding to make sure nothing too serious happened.

In his little childish voice, he shakily responded, "I'm fine. It didn't hurt it just scared me, and can you stop poking me it tickles."

"Nope, it's your birthday you have to laugh today. So you know what that means?" I said while I started to purposefully tickle him to the point where he was trying to worm away while laughing hysterically.

Not long after, Aleana walked in and slumped onto Adam's bed. Still, obviously tired before asking, "What was that loud thud earlier, and why are you two being so loud this early in the morning?"

In perfect unison, Adam and I respond with, "Because its his-my birthday!"

"Oh yeah I frog- I remembered that it was your birthday," Aleana sputtered out. "Speaking of do you want to go open your presents."

Adam wiggled out of my grasp and bolted onto his feel before saying, "Presents! Yay I wanna present!"