A Day with Lyric

After Lunch, Lyric said he wanted to go practice outside and I decided to accompany him.

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Below their house was a small area with a few practice dummies that lyric started to attack. Throwing kicks, punches, and scratches he practiced the form, force and flexibility of his movements.

I decided to do some experimenting myself. I would finally try using moonlight magic. The magic itself felt similar to sunfire, but while sunfire usually feels a little warm as I gather it, moonlight felt cool. I fired it at a tree and also just like the sunfire it came out as a beam. The attack was pretty with some light and dark blues and purples mixed with black, but the most noteworthy part was it left the spot where I hit pretty cold. I decided to try igniting the moonlight Mana and I ran into an issue when I tried to ignite it, it wouldn't work. I got to thinking and came to the conclusion the opposite, freezing, might work. I envisioned the Mana freezing and I saw solid white masses begin floating amongst the translucent, condensed Mana that appeared to darken a bit. I fired it and it fully formed into a white curved blade covered in a black mist and fired into the tree before dissipating, and leaving a small cut mark.

I did some more experimenting and found some things intriguing. Using the changed versions of sunfire and moonlight together some interesting things could happen. First and foremost, the heat and cold from the elements themselves ballance out meaning the use of both together will cause no burning or freezing unfortunately. You can however split a sunfire blast in half with a moonlight blade and cause it to travel in a v-ish shape, which, according to Lyric, felt like a hard punch, when I accidentally hit him with half. Or at least I told him it was an accident. You can also, accelerate a moonlight blade with an explosion of sunfire which caused it to dig a little deeper into the tree. I didn't try this on lyric because I feel this would have hurt him more than the other.

It was getting darker and we had spent a few hours training, we would occasionally take brakes together and talk but we were pretty focused. Not long after our last break we were called in by Lyrics mother.

" Lyric, Alice would you both help me with something?"

" Sure mom, what do you need?" Lyric asked, as I nodded in response. As we climbed back up to the house.

" I need you two to help me bring these things over to granny's for dinner tonight ..." she gestures to four picnic baskets " then we need to go grab your father and the others from Dark Wood Forest."

" I can finally go to the forest!?" Lyric asked, excitement clear in his voice

" Yes, your placement in the schools tournament was very good. I trust that you have gotten strong enough to accompany me. Just be sure to listen to whatever I say."

" Yes ma'am!" Lyric replied. She then looked at me and I replied in kind.

She grabs two of the baskets, and Lyric and I each grab one. We then depart for granny's house.

We arrive and drop the baskets off and Grandma gave us all one good hug before we left. We would have stayed longer but we had something else to do.

From granny's, we headed for the East gates, near the forest, and continued until Dark Wood Forest.

Appropriately named, the forest was covered in really dark, brown bark and even the leaves seemed to repel light a bit, and there was a faint feeling coming from the forest that made me slightly nervous.

'I get the feeling names are not this author's strong suit' I pondered momentarily, then considering that to be absurd and removed the thought from my mind.

" Now stay close and be quite, not many of the creatures here are overly aggressive, but they don't like being disturbed." Natalie said " When we encounter the bigger ones I'll take care of them. I'll leave the little ones to you both, think you can handle it?"

Lyric gives an excited yet understanding "yes" and I give a less confident confirmation.

We moved swiftly and quietly through the forest until we hit our first obstacle a rabbit.

" Okay, you two who wants to take the first one?" Natalie asked

I looked at Lyric and he seemed really excited almost twitchy, who would I be to strip him of his ... fun. So I being the kind person I am let him take this one.

The rabbit was kind of cute. It then attempts to bit the head off Lyric with it's sharp front teeth that look a little like knives and instantly became horrifying. I squirmed a bit when I say Lyrics claws take through the the side of the rabbit and see it fall lifelessly to the ground, the scene was rather unnerving. Taking a breath I try not to overthink things. This is just something I need to get used to.

We walked to lyric and Natalie put the rabbit in a small bag.

" I give you a seven out of ten. Your reaction was decent, but it could have been faster. Also, your attack was unnecessarily wide. The bigger the wound the more blood lost. The more blood the more likely another predator will try to find it's origin."

We continued unperturbed until we reached a group of people who were cutting down trees.

~Thud~

A tree just hit the ground and a loud thud reverberated throughout the forest. Lyrics mother gestures for us to be quite and we go lower to the ground, as if to hide.

The men had done the same as us, they had gotten quite. Some hid in the near by trees and shrubs, others ran further into the forest, the rest got closer together prepared for a fight.

A few minutes of silence ensued and after the men that ran off into the trees returned, we were motioned to follow Natalie over to the men.

The men, who were still a little tense, were startled by our arrival but relaxed slightly upon seeing us.

" What brings you out here today sweetheart?"

Gladeius, who was in the group of men still in the open greeted us.

"It's time for you all to come home, were about to start dinner soon" Natalie replied

" Understood, You came at a perfect time infact." Gladeius said and looked towards me and Lyric. " Seems you brought company too"

" You know how Lyrics always wanted to see where you work, and I figured this place was much safer than the other forest." Natalie said

" Your correct, it'll still be a little before he is ready for that place."

" Well come on boys time to start heading back. We've still got dinner to catch so no slacking!"

" Don't worry about dinner I'll cover for you all today." Natalie smiled

"... Alright. You heard her men let's get ready to leave for home."

" Yes, Sir!" Was heard from the group of men in the area.

Gladeius then went to join the others in collecting logs. I just then noticed a pile of chopped trees, stacked that had been cut out of the corner of my eye.

In no time at all the men had all assembled into teams of five and started hauling trees out of the forest in stacks of three. I was in awe, no one from my old world ever had the strength, coordination, or need really, to move a good hundred foot long tree by hand, and they were running like it was nothing with three over their shoulders.

I was pulled out of my stupor by Natalie as we all ran in the direction of the entrance.

" Now you two will have to wait for me nea..."

~Roar~

A bear unlike anything I had ever seen stood in front of us. It wasn't looking at us but I could see it's two heads and massive body that I think could dwarf a grizzly with ease and a presence that screamed death. I was trembling from a heart piercing terror and if Lyrics shaking, and tail between his legs was an indicator, he was too.

Natalie however was ecstatic.

With a smile she patted both of us on the head and ran straight for the bear. The bear heard her and turned, it's menacing faces making me quiver even more, and it let out an ear splitting roar that made my knees buckle and almost made me pee myself.

The bear saw Natalie and slashed it's paw towards her at speed I can barely track much less react to, but she narrowly dodges under it with a slide arriving at it's feet. Planting her heel in the ground from her slide the momentum carries her into a crouched position, when she jumps landing a foot onto the bears chest and vaults back dodging another paw swipe. She positioned her hand to her side and a yellowish mana could be seen in her hand swirling in a small ball the size of her palm.

"Wind javelin" Natalie called out and she swiped her hand towards the bear, the wind ball growing and morphing into a thin spinning spear that shot towards the bear and pierced through the chest it. Soon after it falls lifelessly to the floor.

Natalie sticks the landing and comes back to us.

" That's how it's done" She said in a smug voice," Now help me carry it home!"

"We'll definitely beat the boys home and this should be enough meat." she muttered to her self at the end.

When neither me nor Lyric respond she finally gets a good look at us and realized that Lyric and I were still on the ground in slight shock and fear from how terrifying the Bear was, and the fact that, she killed it so fast.

Laughing to herself she sat between us both and patted us on the head attempting to calm our nerves we recovered after a bit. The head pats definitely helped.

And like that we ended up carrying a massive bear out of the forest and into the city.

The guards at the gate didn't seem bothered by the corpse we dragged up, but the funny part was they had to open the biggest of the three gates for us to fit the body through.

I am physically exhausted by the time we return my every muscle screaming from the weight of that bear. It was probably, more or less, the size of a small bus and despite the fact I wasn't carrying most of the weight I was still easily crushed by the weight of it's arms alone.

We laid the corpse of the bear in front of Granny's and Natalie called down a few of the other adults in the house. They took the body inside. Lyric and I followed them, and the room we entered was massive. Their were multiple floors obviously, and the first floor was a common area. It had furniture and enough seating for possibly two hundred or so people. That's not including the center walk way that the bears corpse easily fit through All of the furniture seemed to be made of Light brown, Dark brown or a Sanguine color. Interesting color choice but it worked surprisingly well.

We followed the people carrying the body through the house, up a flight of stairs to another massive room with mostly open walls and a massive kitchen. There were a few stoves by the looks of things and counters that allowed for a lot of people to work without overcrowding. There was also a massive pot in the center of the room over a large fire pit that allowed for them to heat the contents of the pot.

The bears body was brought to a place in the kitchen area and they placed the body on a table and began to drain the blood and disassemble the bears corpse. There were about fifteen people handling the corpse so I knew it wouldn't be long before it was history.

I immediately left after one of the bears heads were severed from the body and rolled back on the table. I have noticed however that my physical reaction to blood was not as bad now as it was with the bunny. I didn't feel like throwing up anymore just became a little light headed and repulsed from the buckets of blood I had seen leak from the brown heap of flesh. 'I may get over my fear of blood quicker than I thought.'

Lyric and I left the house and heard the sound of cartwheels over tree roots. I've personally never heard it before but I could tell from the sound alone what it was. Is that impressive?

Lyric and I wandered over to where we heard the carts stop, and I saw a few carts full of logs and the people we saw in the forest accompanying them. They were in a clearing not too far from us and I could see a path that leads out of the forest, barely big enough to navigate through with the carts. The people were unloading the logs and leaving them in stacks of ten to fifteen. We were waved over by Gladeius and started to help because what else would you have your child and their friend do when they are looking at you from behind a tree.

The logs were heavy but not as heavy as the bear, me and Lyric could barely hold one of the logs if we worked together, so we weren't much help and the height difference made it more annoying to stack the logs. After they were completely unloaded and moved beside a set of buildings that were in a clearing. We were sent to collect the children, for dinner.

Possibly the easiest of the tasks in my opinion since I had good senses. Ever since I had been reincarnated I had Senses that were greater than any in my old life. I could hear, see, and smell better than ever and it made me more keen on finer details. It made me really anxious and overwhelmed at first and still does to an extent but I've gotten used to it.

' Thinking of smell' I smell myself and hold back a gag 'I REALLY need to take a shower. Does this world have things like soap? How am I supposed to clean myself?' To be honest I have never seen a shower, and the bathrooms don't exactly have the best plumbing.

*A/N: Think of a public Outhouse*

' I'll have to ask someone later ' I think with a sigh and follow Lyric who was waiting for me to break free from my thoughts

We now are off to find the Children. We approach where Lyric said they usually hung out and I heard a rustle in the leaves. I looked up and saw a tail run behind the tree, and knew we were playing hide and seek. I informed Lyric and he let out an exhausted sigh as he took one direction and I took another.

We needed fourteen in total and decided to meet up at Granny's after catching all of the ones we could find.