章 2: Orphans have it hard, but demigods have it harder!
It's been 5 years since I was reborn into this world, and it is currently the year 1994, meaning the plot of the first book, The Lightning Thief, won't start until 11 years later, which makes me four years older than Percy.
During the first few years of this new life of mine, things have been pretty boring. Every day I would wake up, eat breakfast, that is when we had food, then I would have my teeth brushed, and play with the other unfortunate kids, and by play, I mean, while they do their stupid baby shit, I would do my daily training with my mana and life force, well, I would also grab some old baby toys and keep swinging them around to act the part. Then I would have lunch, then nap time, dinner, and some more free time before bed time. All in all it is not too bad, but it could have been better, I have nothing to do in the 90s.
After all this time, I can already control 24 different mana threads at once, and even mold them into multiple forms, like bugs, cats, doggos, and many others. It is pretty hard, but it is indeed satisfying to see my improvement over time.
I have also noticed my body is now quite heavier than the other kids my age, like, my bones and muscles seem to be denser, and so, I have been using my mana to also reduce my weight, so that the caretakers don't notice anything wrong.
It was a bit hard on the beginning, but as I got the hang of it, things grew easier. One thing I noticed after succeeding is that magic depends heavily on the user's creativity. Naturally, you also need to have good mana reserves, as, otherwise, you won't be able to do a thing. Heck! Trying to make a spell too powerful with insuficient amounts of mana might even kill you!
As to why that happens? On one of my experiments, when I had only just started practicing, I tried to make a fireball, just like all beginner fantasy mages I have read about, and just got myself a pretty bad headache. As my control sucked, even though I had what I now call, some pretty decent reservoir of mana, the consumption was just too over the top, and soon all my mana was gone, but I had only generated some stupid sparks. After that, my spirit power and my life force started to get drained. Luckly I stopped as soon as I noticed, otherwise I might have ended up with something far nastier than just a headache.
One of the downsides of being a child in an orphanage, is that I cannot practice as I'd like to. What would the others think if they saw me creating a fireball out of thin air? I might even get booted out! And while it might be a bit harsh to live in here, there was still no comparison to living on the streets, so, sorry magic, you will have to wait a while longer...
Well, now, about the downsides of being an orphan demigod... well, for some reason, I seem to need way more food than the other kids around. But lo and behold, I am an orphan, and there is not that much food around, and while I do think it only happens due to my training and me experimenting around with my powers, it is still annoying.
Even so, the hunger can never beat the greatest drawback of being a demigod. Monsters.
There I was, on a very beautiful day, winds were blowing, dark clouds were covering the sky (thank you Zeus!), you see, your usual beautiful day stuff. When suddenly, I heard an unfamiliar bird cry. I look out of the window and there it was! A bronze coloured bird, the size of an eagle, and with red eyes, with an ear-splitting cry.
Really, the books did not emphasize how bad their cries were. Damned Stymphalian Bird! Mind you, I was just 4 at that time. The very moment I saw it, it seemed to sense my presence, and with the intention to kill it dived towards me, acting as if I was just some really delicious meal. BUT NOT THIS 4 YEARS OLD!
I opened the window, in order not to destroy anything, looked around, and seeing no one around, I cast one of the spells I had developed after some trial and error.
"Lightning bolt, destroy my target!"
I said, pointing my index finger towards the bird, as a bolt of lightning went out from my extended finger, and hit the sole target, that soon turned into a golden dust, leaving behind it's bronze beak. My trophy. It fell somewhere outside, but before it hit the ground, I mobilized whatever had remained out of my mana and spirit power, and brought the beak back to me.
Hey! Don't judge me yet! I don't want to say such corny lines either, it's just that vocalizing is a great help in materializing magic, so go easy on me!
As it wasn't that heavy, around 150 grams if I may say, I barely managed to do so. Afterwards I was completely spent. I had almost passed out from exhaustion.
Reflecting on the happening, I was able to infer a few things. First, I was hella lucky that the stupid bird had separated itself from its peers, probably due to the oncoming storm and all the wind. Second, it appeared on one of the few days I had decided to take a break from training, when all my reserves were full, from this, I think it is fair to guess how monsters track us demigods. Too bad, no more breaks for me... If there was a piece of good news from that fight, I seem to have gained a better feedback from it than I would had I spent all that energy training, yay!
That would also explain why monsters don't seem to have attacked any demigod when they were small kids. But that also leaves me amazed at just how bad Gabe Ugliano had to smell in order to cover up a teen Percy's demigod smell, like, come on, he is a child from the big three!
Now, another thing that makes being a demigod mildly infuriating. Dyslexia. As someone who wasn't Dyslexic in my past life, I can say with 100% certainty, that it SUCKS. In fact, things got so bad, I devised a freacking spell just so I could directly transfer all the content of a book right into my mind. The drawback from this method is the headache induced by the huge amounts of knowledge that suddenly appeared in my mind. Really, if not for my aidetic memory, I would never do this again. This would be pretty much cheating in an exam!
Even so, that still hadn't solved the problem in it's entirety, I still can't read anything. Maybe I could try and create some magic glasses some day, but as I have no idea how to engrave my magic onto items, I might have to put it on hold for now.
Also, another downside is that I cannot train in any martial arts nor with any weapon. Believe me, I tried, but stopped when some kids started looking at me strangely. There was also hardly anything I could use as a reference in here, so this was yet another idea put on hold.
Really, I sometimes wonder whether or not I should just leave this place and be on my way towards camp half-blood. But I quickly drop that idea when I remember I am currently in Los Angeles, California. Yeah, no chance I, a 5 years old, am walking this entire distance alone. So let's postpone this travel until 6 years later, when Luke Castellan and Thalia Grace meet the 7 years old Annabeth Chase in the city. By that time I should be 11, and be better prepared for such a long distance travel.
Got to also start training physically in order not to die from walking too much. No rest for the wicked. Though that makes me question why I can't rest either! I'm not wicked! I swear!
So I have to start training more spells and the like as well, let's just let the Mist do its magic, I guess. In the eyes of the public, a weird demigod is still better than a dead one.
Maybe I can even change Thalia's fate of going vegan. Like, who in the world would like such a fate!? No meat, just photosyntesis! How boring would a life like that be!? Poor Thalia! But fear not, for I. Am. Here!
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