During the first five years of my life my development was faster that any child my age, by the time I was around four months old I was already crawling and starting to learn how to stand on my own, which surprised my adopted parents when they saw my crawling far sooner than I should be, however they got an even bigger shock a few months later when Forik found me reading a book on earth magic in the small library that we had in the house. She was so shocked that she let out a scream and she quickly snatched the book from me, a few seconds later Gorion came running into the library to see what had happened, and Forik told him how she had found me reading the book in her hand.
By the time Forik had finished telling Gorion about it, I had crawled over to her and used her leg to pull myself to my feet, and I was reaching for the book. They both looked down at me and after a brief discussion they decided to allow me to continue readying the books in the library knowing that they would have a hard time stopping me from reading them in secret, so they made sure that one of them was always with me whenever I was in the library. Most of the time Forik was the one watching over me in the library, and she got me to start with books that spoke about mana, what it was, how to use it, and how it's generated.
By the time I was a year old, I was already able to talk, read and was just getting the hang of writing. I had already finished all the books that spoke about mana and could already generate about fifteen points of mana. I was now starting to reread the book on earth magic that Forik had first found me with and I was learning my first earth spells, the first spell I was learning was the simple Earth Bullet spell. At first I had to learn the incantation in order to cast the spell, I would stand in an empty room used for casting spells and say the words.
"Earth, hear my command, shape my will, take form as a projectile of might, go forth and find your mark, cut through, deadly and keen! Earth Bullet!!"
As I spoke these words I called upon my mana and the earth rose up and took the form of a rough small cone, I then shot it at the target on the opposite side of the room. The rough shape hit the target with a good bit of force behind it, but I wasn't very happy with it. "Mother that didn't hit as hard as I though it would, and the shape was a bit rough, I was hoping it would look more like it does in the book." I said slightly disappointingly. Forik looked at me and smiled. "Well Robert it's the first time you've cast that spell so it's not going to be as powerful or look like it should, but as you get better at casting it, the spell will become more powerful and the shape will get better, but for your first time casting any spell that was pretty good, you should be proud of how well you did, I know I am proud of you, just keep practicing and you'll get better." She replied and gave me a encouraging hug.
I spent the next few hours casting the Earth Bullet spell repeatedly, every time I cast the spell the bullet's shape became more refined and it hit with a bit more force. After casting the spell for four hours making sure to take regular breaks to regenerate my mana, the bullet's shape was almost exactly like it was in the book, and it was hitting with a fair amount of force, leaving fist sized dents in the target, but I still wasn't happy with the effect of the spell, so at my next break to regain my mana, I spent some time thinking about how bullets worked in my old world, and I remembered that as they flew through the air they spun because the gun barrels they came out of were rifled so that they would spin and have more impact when they struck.
I then spent some time thinking about the words of the incantation to cast the spell, and I made a few changes to the words, to try to match the bullets from my old world, so when I was ready to cast the spell again the words I spoke were.
"Earth, hear my command, shape my will, take form as a grooved projectile of might, go forth spinning to find your mark, cut through, deadly and keen! Earth Bullet!!"
This time as I spoke the words of the spell and called upon my mana the earth took on the cone shape but it had three grooves that spiral from the tip to the rear of the cone, also because of the changes I had made to the spell it took a little longer to cast so that the Earth Bullet could start spinning and could be fired when it had reached the speed I wanted it to. When it reached to speed I wanted I shot the Earth Bullet and it zoomed at the target almost faster than the eye could follow, and when it hit the target it went straight though the target and into the wall behind leaving a hole in the target the size of a large adult fist, and a slightly smaller dent in the wall behind.
When Forik saw the effect of my new Earth Bullet she was stunned, she looked at me and asked. "Robert what did you just do? I've never seen an Earth Bullet do that. Tell me what you did!"
I looked up at her and replied. "I changed the spell a little bit to make the Earth Bullet fly faster and hit harder, I added some grooves and then made it spin and that's the result." I pointed at the target with the hole in it. "With the changes I made you can hold the Bullet for a while until it's spinning as fast as you want it to, and the faster it spins the stronger it is, and with a bit of practice you could even change what the Bullets made out of, and it could even hit much harder." I added. Forik just looked at me shocked, and then after a while she just nodded. "I see, well try not to use that altered spell indoors as it could be quite damaging. Okay I think that will be enough practice for today, let's go back to the library and you can start to learn the next spell in the book."
After this I spent the next two years reading, learning, practicing and adapting all the spells Forik allowed me to learn. As I continued to practice the spells it got much easier to cast them and I was even able to shorten down the casting time, and how much of the incantation I needed to say. I even started getting the spells to the point that I didn't even need to say the incantation, all I had to do was think of the spell I wanted to cast and I could cast it. The first time Forik saw me cast a spell without saying anything she was so shocked that she didn't talk for over two minutes, when she could talk again she said. "You can do wordless casting? How did you do that? I've never heard of anyone who can cast spells without saying any part of the incantation, the most I've heard about is a shortened cast and even that was dangerous. How did you do it?"
I looked at her before saying. "Well it was quite simple really, you see we think faster than we are able to speak, so the more we say a spell the quicker it take to say it, so I trained myself to think most of the incantation and then I continued to train myself to just think all of the incantation, so now all I have to do is just think the spell and I can cast it, which is what you just saw." After I gave her this explanation Forik thought for a while before she nodded in understanding, and then she asked. "So have you done this with any other spells? Or are you working on getting the others to this degree of control?"
"At the moment I only have a couple of other spells like the Earth Bullet spell, but I am working on the others that I know, I'm hoping to get all the spell I learn to the point of wordless incantation, but it's going to take time to do." I answered Forik. She nodded and accepted what I told her.
After my third birthday I started working on my body, trying to increase my strength, stamina and my other Attributes. Each morning after I woke up I would start with doing some push-up, sit-up, and other strength exercises in my room. I would then go out and run around the garden and house, to work on my stamina, I would then go into the back garden and work on my agility by practicing the martial arts techniques that I knew from my previous life, I would also practice my sword, staff, knife, and archery skills. I would also spend some time before breakfast meditating, after I had finished my routine I would go and wash up and then join my family for breakfast, and then I would go to the library to study magic, and read the other books in the library learning everything that I could.
At one of the times when I was in the back garden Gorion was in the kitchen and he looked out of the window and he saw me sitting on the floor in a half lotus position as I was meditating. He wondered what I was doing when he saw me open my eyes and stand up, he continued to watch as I got into my fighting stance and started going through my self made Kata, he watched my flow from one move to the next with practiced ease. I was aware that he was watching me but I continued my Kata routine until he stepped out of the back door and asked me. "Robert what are you doing?" I finished the move I was doing before I turned to face he and answer. "I'm practicing a set of unarmed combat moves, I've been doing this every day for the past three months, along with some other training in other combat techniques."
"What other things have you been training yourself in son?" Gorion asked me. "I've been practicing with the sword, staff, knife, and bow, I've also been building up my strength, stamina, and agility, with a series of exercises and running around the house and gardens." I replied.
Gorion was surprised to hear that I was already learning how to use weapons, he walked over to me with a concerned look on his face. "But son you're too young to be learning any of that, I didn't start learning the sword until I was five, what makes you think you're ready now? You're only three years old." He said. "I know that Dad, but I figured that it would be a good idea for me to start early so that I'll be better able to look after Sam when we're playing around the village in a few years." Even though that wasn't the full reason, it was a good enough reason for Gorion to accept, so he nodded his head and said. "I understand your reasons son, so how about this? You spar with me and if you can show me that you are able to land a blow on me, then I'll train you in everything that I know, and when you surpass me we'll see about getting someone else to train you further?" I looked at him and smiled as I replied. "Yes Dad that would be great if you could help me train, but how are we going to spar? Are we going to do unarmed combat, the sword, staff, bow, or knife?"
Gorion thought about it for a bit before replying. "Well seeing as you were just practicing an unarmed combat technique how about we stick with that, and then see how good you are with the others afterwards?" I Nodded at him as I dusted myself off and straightened up my clothes. "Okay Dad that sounds like a good plan. So all I have to do is get one strike on you, with each combat style before we move onto the next one, and if I'm able to strike you in all if them you'll train me?" I replied and asked him. "Yes that is correct son, if you can strike me I will train you" Gorion said as he moved into position opposite me and got into a fighting stance.
I also got into my fighting stance my feet shoulder width apart with my left foot forward and facing Gorion with my right foot at an almost ninety degree angle, and my left shoulder towards him and my hands raised up to my waist and slightly open. "Okay Dad I'm ready." I said as I brought my focus onto his stance. When he saw and heard that I was ready Gorion moved forward fast and he sent a jab towards my head, I turned my body to dodge the blow and at the same time I raised my left arm to block his punch, and I also struck out with my right fist and right foot, which Gorion didn't expect me to do, he was able to block my fist with his hand but my kick caught him in his calf muscle ending that sparing match. I took a step back after hitting his leg and looked up at him. "I believe that counts as a clean strike Dad." I said to him matter of factually. He just looked at me surprised. "I didn't expect you to be able to do anything like that, that was very good Son, you caught me off guard, but that isn't going to work every-time." He said with approval. "Okay Son now we'll move on to the sword and don't expect me to go easy on you." "Of course not Dad I wouldn't want you to go easy on me, how would I ever learn if you did." I replied as I went a picked up the broom-handle I had been using to practice the sword. Gorion also picked up a broom-handle and stood in a ready position.
I took up my ready position which was similar to my fighting stance with the only difference being that my arms were closer to my body with my holding the broom-handle in both hands with my right hand above my left to give me a more stable grip, even though I could use one hand if I needed to. When Gorion saw that I was ready he took a step forward and came in with a strike towards my left shoulder, which I was easily able to block by bringing my broom-handle up to meet his. Gorion applied a bit of pressure to the contact in order to test my defences and strength, he soon pulled his broom-handle back and came at my side by spinning around to strike from my other side, which I saw coming and I stepped back making him miss me completely, and before he could recover I stepped inside his guard and held my broom-handle across his chest. "I thick I win this one too Dad." I said as I looked up at him. "Well I didn't see that coming, I didn't think that you were this good Son, I think you have proven yourself enough for me to be able to train you, you've shown that you definitely have a good grasp of the basics but there's a lot more to it that what you have show my so far, Okay I don't need to test your knife skills, as there's not a huge difference between the sword and knife, but let see how good you are with the bow.
We put our broom-handles away and mad our way over to the archery range on the far side of the garden and I picked up a child's bow and stood on the line that was twenty feet from the target, I took one of the arrows and knocked it onto the string and waited for Gorion to give me the signal to to shoot the arrow. "Okay Son let's see you draw the arrow." He said, which I then did as he asked. I raised the bow and drew the string back with the flight of the arrow just brushing against my cheek and my elbow raised up to the same height as my shoulder and I held my stance as Gorion looked over my stance, and when he saw that there wasn't any fault in how I was standing he stepped back and said. "Okay you have a very good stance let the arrow fly and we'll see how good your accuracy is." I didn't say anything I just let go of the string and the arrow flew at the target hitting it in the middle ring, I then knocked another arrow and before Gorion could say anything I let it fly, and the arrow hit the target close to the first, I then fired another two arrows and they both hit close to the first two. "Okay Son that's enough." Gorion said, and I lowered the bow then looked over at him. "Very good Son I'm impressed you have very good aim and your accuracy is not bad, your able to group your arrows very well, we just need to get you shooting better. Well done Son I will train you combat, and you Mother will continues to train you in magic, but don't forget to spend some time with your sister as well, we don't want her feeling left out." Gorion said with a big smile on his face, and pride in his eyes as he spoke, I smiled back and nodded as I said. "Thank you Dad. I'm looking forward to training with you, and continuing my training with Mum, and I won't forget to spend some time with Sam as well as keeping up with my other studies."
I spent every day of the next two years training with Gorion in the mornings in all forms of combat before breakfast, I would then spend the time until lunch training with Forik in magic, perfecting the spells I already knew and learning new spells, after lunch I would learn about herbs, first aid, the science of my new world, the different languages, cooking, crafting and many other subjects until dinner time, then after dinner I would spend some time with Sammy playing games, talking with her, and generally being a good brother to her, until it was time to go to bed. Then when I was five years old everything changed things got much harder, and I had less time to train and study on my own.