Evolution via innocence

Natalia was happily showing Mina all the ropes and straps she’d need to set up a harness on a fiterolta, when a voice interrupted them.

“Hey mom, you in here?” Nik’s voice called out through the pen, interrupting the lesson as Mina was half way onto the fiterolta.

“Yeah Nik, I’m here. Do you need something?” Natalia replied as she set Mina back down on the ground, much to Mina’s disappointment.

“Miss Agapi told me to come tell you that you need to stop distracting Mina.” Nik said. “She says Mina should be able to come have fun with the rest of us.”

Despite his words, Nik sounded annoyed. As if he didn’t want Mina to come, and was only relaying the message because he had to.

“Ah, I suppose that is true.” Natalia said somewhat reluctantly, and turned to Mina. “Alright Mina, we’ll continue this another time. For now, why don’t you go play with the other kids.”

“Yes Miss Natalia.” Mina replied, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice. She then walked over to Nik, who looked like he couldn’t care less about her. The moment she reached him, he turned and walked away without a word, forcing Mina to follow him.

He led Mina over towards an open area on the island, away from the farm area, where Iro and Panos were passing a ball between them. Nik didn’t say anything as they walked, and Mina didn’t bother striking up a conversation either, so they walked in silence until Panos turned and saw them.

“Oh hey, Mina! You’re here!” Panos exclaimed excitedly, the ball forgotten as he rushed up to her.

“Oh hey there Pan…” Mina trailed off as she struggled to remember his name.

“Panos, I’m Panos.” The kid finished.

“Right, Panos.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Mina watched as Nik completely ignored Panos and instead walked directly to Iro, who had taken a seat on a log, and the two began talking amongst themselves. Mina couldn’t hear what they were saying, but from the look on Iro’s face, she could tell she wasn’t entirely happy with Nik for some reason.

“Mina, Mommy told me that she was helping you learn how to use Uraina’s power. Is that true?” Panos asked, drawing her attention back to him.

“Uh, yeah, that’s right. I’ve learned how to use it a little bit.” Mina answered.

“COOL! I’ve seen Mr. Lefteris and some of the other adults use magic a few times, but I’ve never seen actual goddess powers! Does that mean you can control weather and make it rain like Uraina can?” Panos asked, but Mina shook her head.

“Ah, no. but I can do this.”

Mina then brought her hands up and created her bow, the glasslike air shimmering before their eyes. Panos was naturally entranced, but before he could say anything more, Mina decided to take it a step further and pull out an arrow. She then turned and aimed back over at the target range and fired the arrow, managing to hit the target and blow it down.

“Woah, awesome! I could barely see that. Normally when the others use magic I can see it really easily, but your stuff is invisible!” Panos said excitedly, and Mina couldn’t help but preen a little.

“Yeah, this thing is pretty cool, isn’t it.” She said proudly.

“Can I touch it?” He then asked.

“Alright, you can try, but I’m not sure if you actually can.” Mina said. She then brought the bow down and held it towards Panos, who reached out and grabbed it.

“This feels weird, like its hard, but at the same time it’s not even there at all.” Panso said as he felt all along the translucent bow. After a moment, Mina got curious and tried letting go of the bow to see if Panos could hold it on his own, but the moment she did the bow faded away. Panos pouted for a moment at that, and Mina gave him an apologetic look, but he quickly brightened back up.

“That is so cool. OH, I know! I bet if you shot something up into the sky, you could make a rain cloud that way.” Panos then suggested. Mina considered his suggestion for a moment, and ultimately shrugged.

“I guess I could try.” She said.

She then summoned her bow once again and pointed it upwards. She then focused as Panos excitedly watched her, trying to channel something into her shot that would hopefully make it make a rain cloud. Then, after a few moments of focusing, she fired her shot. The arrow flew up high into the clear sky, and after a moment it burst, and to her surprise, a small cloud formed.

“Huh, not a rain cloud, but that actually made a cloud.” Mina remarked, both surprised and a bit excited.

“Shoot it again!” Panos exclaimed, and Mina did just that.

She shot another arrow into the cloud, and another, and another, making the cloud grow bigger and bigger. After that, Mina decided to try something a bit different. Remembering learning about how clouds work from school, Mina tried to focus on making the cloud shrink, making the water coalesce together. This shot did exactly that, making the cloud shrink slightly, but become noticeably darker. Realizing that that was the trick, she focused on remembering her classes even more to try and be clearer with her mental visualization, unlike before where she was just trying to will it to form. It took two more shots, but soon rain began to fall from the cloud.

“Wow, you really did make it rain!” Panos exclaimed.

“Yeah, I did, I really did.” Mina said, a proud smile growing on her face.

“Come on, lets play!” Panos said, pulling Mina into the rain, and Mina let him.

The pair then began to dance and play in the rain, with Mina playing around with her powers to spawn even more rain, becoming better and better now that she’d figured out the trick to it.

“Looks like they’re having fun Nik, why don’t you go play with them.” Iro said to the boy sitting beside her, but Nik shook his head.

“No thanks, I’m good right here.” Nik replied.

“Come on, sitting here doing nothing is boring.” Iro said. “Why don’t you go play and get to know Mina a bit.”

Nik said nothing, refusing to move from where he was leaning up against her. realizing he was going to be stubborn, Iro sighed and stood up herself instead, making Nik fall on his back.

“Well, I’m going to go over there and spend some time with my little brother, but I won’t stop you if you really want to sit here by yourself.” She said as she walked into the rain. Behind her Nik pouted for a moment, but ultimately stood up and joined her, and soon enough all 4 of them were playing together in the rain.