SEVEN DAYS

I sit on the rooftop of my new home, the large shed of a peach farm, watching the sky and the land stretched out before me.  Now fitted in some borrowed clothes: an orange long sleeved shirt, dark-gray pants, and brown shoes one size too big, but complaining would be the last thing I do.

There is a unique peace in this place that I have never experienced before.  Or maybe it's a feeling that sweeps across this entire world.  The air has its own oddly enchanting scent that I've gotten used to already.  Even the clouds themselves seem a bit different here.  There is undoubtedly a magic that flows through the winds.  I am reminded of the classical music I was obsessed with for a short time a couple years ago.  The gentle instruments play in my mind... and I haven't felt homesick at all.

Tia has answered the questions I had to the best of her ability.  Under the first stars of the late evening, we sit and I listen.  I can't help but ask only a few at a time to keep myself from becoming overwhelmed.  Most of my questions are about this world and its people.  Her personality has softened a considerable amount when we speak to each other, despite being her proclaimed student for only three days.  I suppose below her tough and sarcastic demeanor she is still a simple young woman who embraces her nurturing side as she gradually teaches me.  Mind you-- she still pushes her own humor on me in a teasing nature, but honestly... I find myself enjoying it.  I find myself able to be more honest with not just her, but with myself.  It's as though all my previous worries dissolved, and now my only real concern is to not let myself down.

She called me a Faraway Lord.  "Far-away" meaning that is precisely where I'm from, in her perspective.  She taught me that there are at least two powerful Kingdom nations that seek absolute power.  They would surely use aggressive recruitment for someone like me, and worst case scenario-- enslavement.  Tia was right when she told me I was lucky.

I remember how I died.  Or rather-- we figured it out together.

~

"You're a Lord of Lightning."  I remember Tia telling me this soon after I met Mr. Rhoads and his sons.  "A Lord is merely a title granted to one who possesses a strong affinity to a particular element.  In your particular case, however... it is the element that ended your previous life.  And I think you, Reiji... were killed by a lightning strike."

I am immediately reminded of my father.  "No, that's... impossible.  The odds of that happening are-- insane!  They're astronomical!  Struck by lightning?!  That kind of thing doesn't just happen!  It's the exact same way my father died!!"

Tia, instead of having any amount of empathy, couldn't hold her sudden laughing.

I feel almost offended and confused at once.  "Why are you laughing at that?"

Her laughter naturally ends, but she gives me an expression that confused me even more.  As if she knows something I don't.  "I'm sorry.  It's just amazing watching someone who doesn't know how astronomically lucky they are."

I hold my tongue.

"Do me a quick little favor."  Tia lifts her nightgown up just past her knees, making me blush slightly.  She wears high black laced boots that stop just above her shins.  There is a small leather pocket attached to the side of her boots.  Opening the buckle of her left pocket, she takes out a flinthead-shaped stone, blackish blue in color.  She unexpectedly tosses it to me, and I struggle to catch it at first.  "I want you to hold this and focus."

I stare at the angular stone for a few moments.  "Focus on what?"

"On lightning, of course.  If that little stone emits electricity, that is without a doubt the element that killed you."

"Hey, didn't you already get me to do this with your-- staff thing?"

"My staff has magic flow through it all the time.  Sometimes mixing elements can create a new one by accident.  These little arrowheads are Channel-Stones.  They're only capable of using the first element that goes through them.  Aren't you supposed to be a student?"  Tia then raises her finger with closed eyes as she recites a quote.  "To know thyself is the beginning of all wisdom."

I suppose I can't argue with that logic.  Wait-- haven't I heard that quote from somewhere before?  I'll think about that later.  Okay, focus on this stone.  Think.  Think about... lightning.  Tap into that blinding light that--

The stone suddenly bursts into dozens of fragments, thankfully outward away from my face.  Then the fragments all individually burst like a firework made of pink-colored electrical sparks.  What a wonderous sight.  My mind raced in that moment.  It was actually, kind of-- exhilarating.

Out of nowhere, Tia starts laughing hysterically, tears in her eyes.  I blush from embarrassment, knowing she's laughing at me for some reason.  Did I do it wrong?  "What-- why you laughing this time?!  What did I do?!"

She wipes her eyes, this time her laugh being uncontrollable.  "It's nothing-- it's just-- lightning is the hardest element to learn-- even most Lords don't pursue it-- but yours... is pink!!"  She laughs even harder.

The color?  That's what she's laughing at?  "It's pink?  So what?!  Cherry blossoms are pink!  I thought it looked cool!  What the hell?!"

She holds her stomach and looks at me with an intensely teasing smile.  "Pink is a girl's color."

I blush and clench my teeth.  I find myself giving up any argument.  I let her have this one, as I probably will many more in the future.  "I swear-- I can't figure you out at all.  You're not near as feminine as you look."

This only makes her laugh just as much, if not more.  I suppose it is funny.  At least she is fun to be around.  I begin to chuckle too.  The astronomical odds of lightning bringing me to another world makes my chuckle turn into a genuine laugh.  So there we both stood-- two crazy wizards, laughing on a peach farm.

~

On the fourth morning, I continue the routine my body is getting used to.  I sleep in the loft of the shed with Tia-- our small individual cots set up in opposite directions, but honestly I think I'm a lot more shy than she is in our unusually intimate circumstance.  Then again, I usually end up too tired to think about anything of that nature.

I wake up early.  Always by the same dawning light that splits in between the vertical wooden wall.  I get up, splash my face with the cool water.  Get dressed, walk to the Rhoads' farmhouse.  Holden offers me overly-strong coffee... I politely decline.  I follow Holden out into the next acre to be harvested.  Liam goes off on his own.  I wear a bucket strapped to my lower chest.  It is laced with a blanket so the peaches are cozy after Holden picks them.  We each eat three peaches for breakfast.  Holden uses the latrine twice as often as me.  We finish one tree, and Holden ties a blue ribbon to the base... then we start another tree.  Only eighty-eight more trees to go, Holden tells me.

After midday, I eat lunch.  For one hour, I sit and eat whatever Mr. Rhoads puts down for us.  I prefer rice, but the stew is fine.  Tia wakes up and joins us.  To her, it's breakfast.

She teaches me more about the world.  We currently live in the south-western Kingdom, Galadwinn.  Second-largest nation of the explored world.  From what I gathered, the continent isn't very large on a global scale.  This world measures great distance using kilometers as well, making it much more than ten-times the size of Japan.  It's a bit smaller than Australia.  The Kingdoms have expressed ambitious interest in naval exploration and colonization.  Especially the largest Kingdom, Siofra, to the north-east.  They were once two nations that have formed an official alliance.  Tia tells me it's where Elf-kind are from-- the most beautiful women in the world.  My manly side yearns to visit it someday.  Almost every nation's border are mountain ranges patrolled by their military.  Tia says she'd rather show than tell, but crossing most borders can be tricky.  The other three nations are Acteon to the south, Derakhshan to the east, and Kogarashi to the north-west.  Kogarashi.  A Japanese name.  From the little that Tia knows of that country, it sounds an awful lot like old Hokkaido.  She tells me if anyone asks where I'm from, just say my parents were from there.  These three smaller Kingdoms have often been on the losing side against the larger two for the better part of a few centuries.  No wonder any one of these Kingdoms would seek out someone of my cosmic conditions.

Tia tells me my potential is frightening.

After lunch, I follow Holden.  More peaches.  The wagons are filled by early evening.  We wrap up for the day.  Traveling back, supper is prepared.  Apparently the Rhoads Farm has a honeybee farm as their neighbor.  Freshly baked buns with honey is the sweetest thing I have tasted so far.  I am offered alcohol-- homemade peach-mead... but I politely decline.  Admittedly tempted, as it is a "local favorite".  Tia loves it.

For the remainder of the evening, I meditate on my magic.  I sit cross-legged, finding my center and breathing the enchanted air of this world.  After a laboring workday it is both relaxing and surprisingly helpful in Tia's teachings.  I always thought magic training would be about blasting off attacks until they grow bigger.  But this... is nice.

It has been seven days since I arrived in this world.