44 a new beginning

When Alex opened his eyes after a blinding flash momently blinds him, he found himself in a forest. Taking a light sniff, he immediately understood that the forest was wild, far from man hand. Taking in the odours waffling in his nose, he let out a slight moan of contentment, already liking where he was.

-We have a problem, buddy.- Say CS, making itself known after Alex emotions settle.

'What type?' Alex asked, his eyes still closed as he takes in the odour of the forest.

-Not only you have nothing left in your pocket space, but space itself had been shrunk to an alarming size.-

Hearing Cs, Alex took a peak in say storage, witnessing its state, knowing CS wouldn't lie to him. Before stood an immense expense of empty space, Alex had now, nothing more than an eighth of a cubic meter of space. Inside the mail box-sized space was a folded piece of paper. Taking it out of the bow, he unfolded it and read.

[Dòmaldr

By the time you read this letter, you would have found what happen to your dimensional space, along with the items in it. Fear not, as everything inside had been left in the care of the helper named Autumn.

You may be angry about why I did it, and it is your right to be, but I did what I did for a simple reason, laziness. Since you realised your origin and its gifts, you've grown lazy, not unlike the wizard of your world. When you discover the usefulness of runes, you threw away the very gift that allows them to work, magic.

While I can't blame you for that, I expect better from my children. It's partially my fault when I created your kins; some of the stronger wild traits had bled into you all. Due to your hoarding complex, you turned your dimensional space as nothing more than a deep pocket to amass more riches, only furthered by your ability to play with the runes of olds.

See this exile as a sort of punishment and atonement. While I left your knowledge of runes, there will be of no use here. The reason is simple; this world is full of wild magic, wilder than your own before. Due to this, runes will be difficult to made work, useless you found magical materials.

I had you with what you call a 'starter pack'. In it, you will found a grimoire and a pair of raiment befitting this world.

The grimoire will be your only link to your past world and contain what you should have learned from magic. The grimoire will give you charms, starting from the ones found in your past school curriculum. As long as you didn't master the spell to it up a satisfying level, the next one will not appear. While you won't be able to take a page out of the grimoire, you may have in.

I must caution you that none all your past discipline would be manifested here, notably transfiguration and conjuration. Magic permeates the air and will not allow your influence to shape the nature around you. You may, on the other hand, use your craft magic.

You will be able to modify those same pages you added or some twist to charms you mastered. You can put everything inside your grimoire, but I warn you that it has no securities. If you lost it, had it stolen, or its content copied, you could only blame yourself for it, same for the cutting.

Time' pass differently here than the world I send your mate and Lily. You will be sent back to them when I found you worthy, but not be alternate; you will have several years until the event starts to be in motion in their world.

I had previously said that this world would be unknown to you; it only partially true. While you will found similitude, a large portion had shifted, or more precisely, the fiction didn't coincide entirely to this reality.

The existence of therianthrope it recognised here, and I locked your human form away, It time for you to wall the world and proudly display your heritage without fear. Your larger form and poison are sealed too as you need to fight through your own means, not with overpowered weapons.

Be strong, my child, and do me proud.]

~~~

Folding back the letter, Alex stood stunned for a few second.

'I badly fuck up, didn't I' Alex said dryly, putting the letter back in the shrunken space.

-You and me both, buddy, we were so taken by your power than we forget the basic and now pay for it, heavily.- Responded CS darkly, blaming himself for having missed the sign.

'Don't be too harsh on yourself, CS, we are both at fault here. We had better thing to do than weep over thing out of our control, better focus on what we have left.' SAy Alx with a forgotten fire lighting in his heart.

-True.- Cheered CS, a little draw by Alex re-kindled motivation.

He found that the 'Starter pack' had been deposed when he read the letter looking in the small pocket. Taking out the nettly folded stack of clothes, he undresses in the middle of the wood, uncaring the possibility of being seen.

Looking through the clothes, he found a white piece of cloth long enough to go just above his knee, with a string in the hem. Touching the fabric between his finger, he quickly recognises the touch of linen.

-Is that...- Started CS unsure.

'Underwear, I think.' Responded Alex. 'Seeing the simple string and somewhat thick and rough built, I would say that we are either in a region with lack Textil skill, or an age far from industrialisation and fabric process we know.' Added him while throwing a glance at the rest of the raiment he put on a small boulder at his side.

Putting the underwear, he was surprised but happy to found a sewn triangle opening at the back, allowing him to pass his tail in. The triangular hole was low enough to leave a small band of fabric above, with enough space for the hem.

Feeling the underpants fit snuggly on him, Alex gives a small nod of appreciation, knowing that it was only due to Skadi that he had something so much fitting. He decided to keep the hips-long matching brown pant for later by putting up the brown pant, white, long-sleeved shirt, finishing by the simple leather belt.

The opening at the back of the pant was a little hindrance, being only a slitted fabric with an overlapping leather-lined edge, but nothing he wouldn't get used to.

Looking at his past clothes, he frowns for a second, before folding and storing them away, keeping them just in case he needs a change.

~~~

-So, what now?- CS ask after leaving Alex the time to dress peacefully.

'Now? It exploration time!' Alex responded with a large grin on his face.

-It doesn't bother you, your lack of magic and all?- CS say, baffled that he didn't seem that much bothered.-

'Truthfully? No. While you could say I'm nerfed, it not the case. All that was took from my was an absurd wealth I hadn't be the origin from. The lack of rune could be determinant if it weren't because the surrounding material wouldn't support them anyway. As for magic, I still have it; all I need to do is relearn how to use it. Even then, I could still feel my craft magic, so the question is more how much my gifts were halved to than how much I lost.' Respond Alex as he determinate in which direction to go.

Smelling the air, and keeping his hear wide open, he stays still to catch as much information as possible. He rarely needed to do so previously and founded the experience rather pleasing.

Catching the smell of differents animals track, he opted for the small one, unwilling to face larger animal in the forest, not knowing anything about them yet. While it was the same for the small one, he would face fewer risks in tracking them than facing a large one and threat injuries.

~~~

Before starting his exploration, He put a hand on the small boulder he used to put his new clothes on. Mentally activating his craft magic, he unsurprisingly discovers that his ability had shifted too. When before he had access to every material in a specific range, now he needed to touch the target to modify it directly.

What he lost in diversity, he gains in profoundness. He could feel the surrounding matter around his hand. Pushing a little deeper, he feels himself englobe more matters, with his stamina draining accordingly to the expansion. Scooping the top of the boulder out, he rapidly crafted the stone into knives.

Not knowing how much it would fare against the creature, he only crafts two straight, single-edged blade of ten centimetres length.

Looking around for any fallen branch, he found some lingering. Taking a hold on it, he discovers than he could still influence the ends, even if they were outside of his reach.

-Rather than length, I think it more a matter of volume.- Commented CS, on which Alex agree.

Shedding the bark around, along with any other remaining sap, he crafted two handles around the tang, filling the rivet holes left for this precise use.

Thank his craft, the stone knives didn't need sharpening, but would not prevent the edge's chipping and dulling.

Left with the only sheath remain to be crafted, Alex found himself somewhat drained.

'That another change, it seems than influencing on matter take more 'oomph' than before.'

-Agree, it is perhaps also due to the nature of the material, anyway, did you see how the wood reacted?- Say CS? before asking Alex.

~~~

Looking back at the crafted blade, he takes a second to realise that the wood had kept its natural pattern. Somewhat enlighten, Alex says.

'Do you think it's due to this? I never bothered to keep an eye on it before, but maybe the fact that I forced the wood to shift how I wanted, rather than growing alongside it resulted in the additional spend?'

-Possible, Rock had less of a structured pattern than wood, at least complete boulder or rock only made of stones. For now, it not really matter, but how far do you think you could go, before needing a rest?- Asked CS, wanting to know Alex new limit to keep an eye on him, just in case.

Taking a few second to think on it, he put his hand back on the boulder. While the previous light glow of his magic was now absent when he used his craft magic, calibrate brick of stones falls from in the boulder, around and under his hand.

He only had enough energy to turn the meter hight boulder into a stack of perfectly calibrated brick, before coming close to his limit.

-That rather a major downsize of your previous ability.- Dryly observed CS, At the sight of the stack of 20*10* 5-centimetre bricks laying on the forest floor.

'Rather than a loss of potential, it more a change of 'energy drain'. Before I know that my ability was using my magic, now, it's my stamina. I think Mother did so to motivate me to not rely entirely on magic but my overall abilities.' Responded Alex, while storing twenty of them, taking a 20*20*50 space, a quarter of the available 40*40*40.

~~~

Done with his experiments and leaving CS at his device, Alex started to track up the animals' trails he detected. Keeping an eye on the path and one on the high sun, he silently, bare footly, made his way in the forest, through the network of branches above the ground.

From his memories, it was the first time he made such extensive use of his senses. His step was light on the thin branches, and his flickering tail constantly correcting his balance. After moving for what he feels two or three hours, his ears perked at the faint sound of running water.

Cautiously making his way through the foliage, the spaces between branches rapidly widen as the trees became scarce further. Stopping on the last three, still partially hidden in its shadow, his gaze falls on the humanoid green creatures he heard a few minutes before.