Chapter 14: Mutants and magic
After hearing Leo's reply, the only dissatisfied one in the room was Jack. He however kept his mouth shut so that he didn't anger his wife. Before further discussing the topic however, elder grandma then spoke up,
"I know you probably want to jump right into talks for training, but I need to talk to you about something as well Leo. What do you know about mutants?" Leo was surprised at the sudden topic change, but looking around he noticed that once again Jack and Natalie, as well as Iris were awaiting his answer. Leo looked at Natalie's third eye, jacks extra arms, and finally at iris's golden eyes; and he knew the story wasn't as simple as he thought.
"I don't know anything about them." He replied. Nodding as if she expected his answer, elder grandma then continued,
"Mutants are people who are born "deformed" from the excess magic in the air. They are noticeably different from birth, and being considered "defective" are often thrown away, or abused by their families." Leo was in shock after hearing the information given to him. He then thought back to the day he woke up, and remembered Iris had panicked at one point and tried to hide her eyes. He also thought about Curly's actions and realized the reason for them, he still didn't agree with them though.
And thinking about how every person in the village had some kind of "uniqueness"; as he had called it, he then asked,
" is everyone in the village a mutant then?" Elder grandma shook her head and said,
"While I built the village for mutants, they're not the only ones welcome. That being said, the amount of non mutants here could be counted on one hand." Leaving aside the fact that she had built the village, Leo was surprised at what elder grandma had told him. He then remembered that he had never met, let alone heard mention of, Iris's parents. At the thought Leo suddenly realized her situation was pretty different than he realized. Natalie then spoke up,
"So you mean to say you never realized this was a place for mutants?" Leo shook his head at her question and decided he didn't need to hide anything from them before saying,
"As far as I can tell, this world is completely different from mine. I didn't even know what mutants were, I just thought the people here were different than my home. Plus my life was saved by all of you." All of them couldn't help felling appreciation from this boy, but before they were able to say anything elder grandma changed the topic back to what it was before.
"Ok, now that's out of the way; let's discuss training." Shocked At how she once again randomly changed the topic, they followed her suggestion and soon after ended the night.
***
The next morning Iris was once again his instructor. After doing the morning drills, she led him back to the gardens.
"Morning Lucy, I'm showing Leo the cave." As if she was expecting them, Lucy nodded and said,
"Right this way then" and led the two of them to a wooden door in the side of the cliff the village was hugged up against. Leo had seen the door occasionally and wondered what was inside. After opening the door, Lucy immediately closed it the moment they were all inside. She then led the way while he and Iris still followed. After walking for a few minutes in the cave, Leo began to notice that it was getting quite humid. With the floor gradually sloping down, they eventually went through an opening and Leo's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Inside the cave was rows, and rows of crops. But that wasn't all, Leo also noticed that the cave was unusually bright and looked up, only to think they had gone back outside. The whole ceiling was lit up like the sun. While Leo was trying to comprehend what was going on, Iris suddenly said,
"This is the main garden that sustains our village. And it is maintained almost completely by magic." Leo could only look around in amazement as he also tried to listen to iris's lesson.
"Magic is only truly limited by your own imagination. It could be used to destroy, or it could be used to nurture." As Iris said the word destroy, Leo watched as she held out her hand and a ball of fire suddenly appeared in it. Then after putting it out, when she said nurture she pointed above one of the crops and water vapor condensed; forming a miniature rain cloud above the plant.
"There are three basic types of magic, mana, chi, and energy. As you train to join the hunters, you need to learn basic uses for all three. Mana will be to cope with certain circumstances, such as starting a fire. Energy will be to blend into the surroundings and better hide from prey and predators. Chi will be to enhance your body, and while enhancing movement, also dealing greater damage to what it is we're hunting." Leo also watched as Lucy walked along the rows of crops and her very presence seemed to encourage the plants to grow. He was reminded of his first day when he watched her grow a tomato right in front of him.
And so Leo's long awaited magic lessons finally began. And he learned that it was a lot more difficult than Iris made it seem. As he learned the differences in chi and mana, he also learned that most items that replaced modern conveniences were magic crystals filled with a type of energy. The little blue crystal he had seen before was filled with ice energy, causing it to give off a constant chill. While the ceiling in the cave was covered with crystals that had sun energy, acting as artificial sunlight for the crops.
As Jack had said, the one he seemed best at however was chi. With his enhanced abilities, he was able to keep up while racing Iris when she was using chi. When he figured out how to apply chi though, he quickly left her in the dust. Learning to use mana however was proving more difficult. Iris told him that while chi required a strong body, mana required a strong mind. So he was left to meditate or hours at a time to train for using mana. Energy though, was the hardest to use. After seeing his lack of abilities with mana, Iris only had Leo do the basics for energy and told him learning it could wait till later when he could better use mana as a foundation.
On top of learning how to use magic, he was also training in archery and with a knife. With noticeable improvements daily, only a week after his training began; two weeks since he had awoke, Natalie said that he was to join then on a hunt.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Harry_Dresden
Harry_Dresden Another info dump this chapter. But I thought before advancing the story Leo needs to know about mutants and could also take the time to explain magic to him.
And thanks for reading!
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