Fight for a Living

by Sophia Schmidt

  Fast pacing was enough to leave her out of breath. She would cough from time to time and when things were about to turn for the worse, the cough would become violent.

  At that point, one of her parents would have to run to the village to let Nana visit and heal her. She could not really cure her, only alleviate the symptoms and return her to her natural state.

  While a check-up wasn't expensive, the treatment was. Also, even if Raaz did go to pick her up and then brought Nana back home, it would still cost extra.

  Doing a round trip meant her losing business, so she required compensation.

  It was the constant need for the healer to put such a strain on their budget.

  Lith felt very sorry for her. Despite not having spent much time with Tista, she was precious for both Elina and Rena, and that was more than enough to make her precious for him too.

  He felt helpless, cursing his inability to ever practice light and darkness magic. Light magic required a patient, and until he had gained a solid grasp of how it worked and what was this world's human anatomy, he would not dare to put anyone's health at risk.

  Darkness magic was another story. Lith had only seen it once and no one in his family used it. Even the only time he had seen it in action, he had clearly felt the destructive power it held.

  He was also biased against it since on Earth, dark magic would always be associated with evil practices and undead so he had no desire to dabble with something potentially horrifying.

  Lith could only live on, hoping to eventually get some training in magic while enduring the madness he was getting used to calling family life.

  He had to be lively, but not too much. He had to be curious, but not too much. He had to run around, but never get out of the door.

  His parents were never satisfied. If he tried to sit in corner meditating, they would worry because he was too quiet or too lazy. If he tried to move around or help them, he would be scolded for getting in the way.

  They refused to teach him chore magic (that was the name of the lesser spells they used on their daily life) and prohibited him from learning them.

  Lith could not go outside without being accompanied by someone, could not get near to the fireplace, could not ask too many questions.

  Everything was basically prohibited until he "grew up".

  More than once Lith wanted to scream: "I may be biologically young, but I am actually the oldest in here, dammit!" but all he could do was suck it up and obey.

  His feud with Orpal never resolved and he could clearly feel Trion's hostility on his brother's behalf. Clearly Orpal was for Trion what Rena was for Lith, his role model.

  Unlike Orpal, Trion would not completely ignore him even when their parents were absent. But Lith could clearly see that every time his brother helped him, it was just to be polite. There was no kindness between them.

  Lith quickly started ignoring him in return.

  "I have already spent half of my old life being worried about dysfunctional family members. Been there, done that. So thank you, but no thank you. If you want to be a jerk, be my guest. I don't give a damn about you." - These were his thoughts about the matter, so He let things fester.

  Once he became three years old, he could not take it anymore. The boredom caused by the cold winter months where he was basically stuck at home 24/7, aggravated by the constant hunger was about to drive him insane.

  It was a stormy afternoon and the family was gathered around the fireplace. Elina was teaching her daughters how to sew. Raaz was teaching Orpal how to carve wood while Trion and Lith were only allowed to watch. They were still too little to handle any sharp object, even sewing was off limits.

  Lith had already asked, baffling his father and flattering his mother. "You are too little and your hands are still too clumsy." She replied.

  Elina was right, though. Lith's body felt even clumsier than his old one before he started practicing martial arts. Just the thought of all the lost muscle memory was enough to make him cry.

  So, he patiently waited until Raaz finished instructing Orpal, and then Lith mustered all his courage and asked him to teach him how to read, write and count.

  Raaz was flabbergasted. "You are too young! Usually kids wait until they are six years old to go to school and learn. Don't you think it's boring?" That was the philosophy every man in his lineage had always upheld.

  Boring? What could possibly be more boring than sitting here doing nothing? Like yesterday and the day before. And probably tomorrow too! Please daddy, try me! I beg you, please, please, please!

  Raaz didn't know how to say no. Lith had never asked for him anything before.

  "Even when he is clearly still hungry, if he notices there is no more food, he never asks for more." He thought "He's so unlike Orpal. I don't know if it's Lith that's too good or I'm just spoiling Orpal too much." -

  He really wanted a way out, but Elina was already staring at him. Her hands never stopped sewing, her mouth explaining to the girls what they were doing wrong, but her eyes were clearly set on him.

  "Dammit, what can I say? Learning does not even require dangerous tools… That's it! The tools! I'm such a moron sometimes." -

  Raaz looked into Lith's puppy eyes, his heart squeezing as if in a vice, but he still replied: "I'm sorry son, we have nothing you could possibly write on. So, I can't teach you."

  Lith had considered things thoroughly before asking, so he had already a solution at hand. He picked the biggest tray they had and filled it with the ashes collected in a bucket beside the fireplace.

  Now we do! We can write as much as we want! Raaz was amazed by Lith's ingenuity and so was Elina. He was about to object again when he noticed that the stare had turned into a frown. Her hands were moving too fast, and that meant trouble for him.

  There was a storm outside so he could not run away from the one that was brewing inside. So with a deep sigh, he gave up.

  Where do you want to start? Raaz could only hope that Lith would get bored fast and let him return to his leisure.

  Count! Lith promptly replied. So Raaz sat on the floor beside him and started drawing lines in the ash. Lith was ecstatic.

  The numbers they used had a different shape from the Arabic numerals, but aside from that they were identical in use. Even the calculation methods were the same.

  So, he kept the new numbers in the upper row to learn their shape and then started doing the multiplication tables. He could actually do such simple math in his head, but he needed to engrave the new numbers in both his mind and body.

  Once he finished, Lith started taking requests from his audience and when Orpal sarcastically asked "How much is 124 times 11?" he quickly replied with "1364" leaving them all speechless.

  Elina could not help herself, standing up and lifting Lith up in a big hug.

  My little genius! I'm so proud of you! In less than one hour he had mastered what it would take others a full year to do. Rena and Tista soon joined her in the embrace, congratulating their little brother, while the male side of the family was still flabbergasted.

  In rural areas they only learned how to count to not get ripped off when they sold or bought merchandise. So they remembered only addition and subtraction letting the useless multiplication and division fade away in their minds.

  Reading and writing required more time, but it was equally simple. Lith already knew most of the words and how to spell them. He only needed to learn the alphabet and memorize it to be able to read and write.

  Once again his family was stunned and the only one not rejoicing with them was Orpal, left alone with his envy and scorn.

  Chapter 11: I know that I know nothing

  Having officially learned how to read and write, Lith practiced every day. While his family considered him a genius, he knew better. Needing to practice hard to memorize just twenty-one letters and ten numbers, Lith did not feel very brilliant.

  Striking the iron while it was still hot, he asked Raaz to carve for him a wooden ruler, 50
centimetres (19,7 inches) long and 3 centimetres (1,2 inches) both high and wide.

  In the front he had engraved all of the alphabet, on the back the numbers. It was Lith's lifeline during his homework, a tool necessary for him to be free to practice anytime without bothering his parents.

  Raz was still on cloud nine, so he didn't ask any questions about the oddly big sizes Lith requested. He could have easily made it much thinner and shorter, making it easier to carry around. Lith refused the proposal, begging him to fulfill his wish.

  Lith had not missed Orpal's hostile glare every time someone called him a genius. He had to be sure it was not easy for it to break or go missing by "accident".

  It was also the perfect pretext to always carry around something he could practice spirit magic on.

  When the weather finally cleared up, Elina decided that it was the perfect moment for Tista to be checked out by Nana. With all the cold and wind during those last days, no matter how much effort Raaz and Orpal had put in the house's maintenance, it had still been kinda drafty.

  Tista had been coughing enough for Elina tobe seriously worried about her. So, she took the mule cart and brought Tista and Lith to the village of Lutia.

  The bad weather had lasted too long and the accumulated farm work needed everyone's help to be finished before another frost wave arrived.

  She had to bring Lith along, he was too small to be left alone. After stuffing them into the warmer clothes they had, the trip began.

  Lith was really happy, it was his first time seeing the world outside the farm's bounds. There was much he could learn from such an experience.

  On the road they were bothered more than once by stray graaths. They were wasp like insects with a venomous stinger at the end of their abdomen. Compared to Earth's wasps, they were much hairier and blue instead of yellow.

  Why in the Great Mother's name are they still around? Elina complained. "They are supposed to be asleep during winter!"

  One graath was particularly stubborn and despite all their shooing, it kept coming back until it got too close to Tista for comfort.

  Lith slammed his hands hard, missing it entirely. He was still nimble as a brick, but his spirit magic wasn't.

  It had already reached full ten meters (32,8 feet) radius of effect, so the graath was squashed effortlessly.

  Lith showed the prey with pride. "Don't worry big sister, I'll always protect you." After hugging him, Tista was really curious about the dead insect, but Elina was still worried by the venom, so after throwing it away, they resumed their trip.

  When they came in sight of Lutia, much of Lith's doubts got cleared up. It wasn't just his family, the whole village closely resembled one of those early middle ages drawings he had seen in history books.

  There was no sign of any complex technology, even a windmill or a watermill would have been considered a marvel of science.

  When Lith asked Elina about the village, she explained that only artisans, scholars, and merchants lived there, the rest of the population lived in their own farms tending the fields and raising livestock.

  Lutia consisted of a few dozens of one or two stories high wooden houses wide spaced between them. Not even one was made out of stone or bricks.

  There was also no road pavement of any sorts. The space between the houses was just like the road to the village, bare earth and mud.

  From the signs hanging outside of the buildings, he could spot a blacksmith, a tavern and a tailor shop.

  The bakery didn't need any sign or advertisement, the delicious smell that came out of its chimney was enough to make every passerby's mouth watery.

  Lith's hunger spiked so hard that he already knew what he will dream about that night.

  When they arrived at Nana's house, Lith was surprised to notice it was bigger than their own, yet Elina had told him more than once that Nana lived alone.

  In his eyes it meant that either she was from a rich family, or more likely healing was a lucrative business. Lith decided that he had to master light magic as soon as possible.

  The door was open and inside Lith felt the familiar feeling of a doctor's waiting room. Inside there was a single huge room that smelled of medicinal herbs and incense.

  At the end of the room, on the left there was a door, probably leading to Nana's living quarters. On the right, there was a huge wide curtain behind which Nana was visiting and treating the patients.

  The rest of the space was filled with benches and chairs. Many of them were already occupied.

  It seemed that many families had decided to make use of the good weather. Elina removed all the extra clothing from her children before instructing them to be quiet and don't disturb others.

  The waiting room was filled with bored mothers and soon Elina joined the chatting, sharing her experiences and advice with them.

  Lith could wander around undisturbed, the women were too busy keeping their children under control to take notice of his existence.

  The room was bare and uninteresting, but once he got close to the curtain he stumbled on a treasure. He found a small open cabinet, filled with books about magic.

  "Maybe in this world it's the equivalent of a doctor hanging his degrees and masters." - Many of the titles were specifically about an element or its application, But one caught his eye immediately.

  It had "The basics of magic" written on the cover. After checking that no one was paying attention to him, he grabbed it and started reading.

  "I'm only three years old. I can afford a better to ask forgiveness than permission attitude." - Lith then moved to a corner, turning his back to the curtain hoping to go unnoticed as long as possible.

  It was clearly a book for beginners, so he skipped the introduction going straight for the descriptions of the elements.

  Lith discovered that water magic was not just about conjuring and manipulating water, it also allowed the user to lower anything's temperature. Any magic apprentice was supposed to be able to generate ice and use it as a means of both offence and defence.

  Air magic too had an ability that he had never taken into consideration. Air magic's highest peak was weather control, but even at the basic level a mage could generate lightning.

  Fire and earth were just as plain and simple as he had pictured them all along, so he moved to the last two elements.

  While reading, it became clear to him that because of magic, whoever had written the book had no idea what anatomy was.

  The book would speak about the importance of keeping a wound clean, there was no use of terms like disinfection or sepsis, so he barely found unknown medical terms.

  Lith remained dumbfounded upon discovering that light and darkness were explained together instead of in separate chapters.

  According to the book, both elements were the bread and butter of any healer. Darkness magic could be used as a weapon, but it was not explained in detail.

  The author was very clearly stressing the fact that he was not a fighter, and that beginners should never bite more than they could chew.

  Then he proceeded to explain that darkness magic wasn't either good or bad, just an element like the others. It was an invaluable tool for a healer, since it allowed one to clean wounds, tools or even to fumigate houses from rats and insects to avoid the spreading of diseases.

  Also, it was the only way of getting rid of parasites that had grown inside the patient, since light magic would allow the healer to detect their presence, but could do no harm to them.

  Light and darkness worked best when used together. Light magic's specialty was the ability to perceive life forces and scan them for anomalies. It also allowed one to correct such anomalies and to guarantee an instant recovery from most diseases.

  Restoring broken bones was more difficult and was explained in another chapter.

  Lith felt incredibly ignorant and stupid. He could have discovered most of those elemental properties on his own if he hadn't been blinded by his narrow-minded superstition.

  "How
could I have possibly been so idiotic? I have lived here more than three years and I am still thinking like this is a video game with fixed rules and levels?!? Darkness is evil and light is holy or something? No, this is science, dammit, the same one I studied all my life. If fire magic is converting mana into heat, then water magic is nothing but converting mana into cold, condensing the water in the atmosphere and turning it into the liquid state. It's all so obvious, it's like the damned Culumbus' egg!" -

  He was about to turn the page and learn about healing broken bones when a firm hand squeezed his shoulder, locking him in to place.

  That's not a toy, young man. I really hope that you have not damaged it, otherwise your family will have to pay dearly for it.

  Chapter 12: Learning a Trade

  Lith had been so engrossed in reading, he forgot where he was, throwing caution to the wind. When Nana caught him red handed, he was startled enough to yelp.

  I thought I knew every single rascal, but I fail to recognize this one. What's your name, kid?

  Lith. What's yours? He replied while making puppy eyes. Nana was now more curious than angry.

  Lith? Do you mean Elina's little imp? No wonder your face is new to me, you were just a new born the last time I saw you.

  Nana's presence had made the chatter stop. Some women wanted to ask her how long until their turn, others were just curious, Elina jumped out from her chair apologizing on Lith's behalf.

  There's no need to apologize, Elina. Nana said. "No harm, no foul. The little imp has not damaged the book while playing with it."

  Yes mom, there is no need to apologize. Lith hated when someone spoke of him like he wasn't there. "And I was not playing with it, I was just reading."

  Reading? Young man, how old are you? Three years and something? If this is a joke, it's not funny. I never expected one of Elina's children to be such a liar.

  He is not lying. During the last storm, Lith was bored, so he asked his father to teach him how to read, write and count. Here is proof. Elina handed Nana the wooden ruler.