My name is Krait, and I turned 12 years old a couple days ago. I live in a pretty large village on an Island called Salem. It's really really big, and I remember mother telling me it'd take 3 years to reach the other end of the island if you were a wind mage or warrior traveling at the speed of sound. The island is about that long and twice as wide. Normally it'd just be called a continent but the mainlands are hundreds of times bigger. This world, mother says, is so vast that endless possibilities lay within. She left with father to go to the mainland when I turned 9, and I've been in the care of my grandfather ever since. Grandpa is pretty mean, but I can tell he cares for me. See he's a warrior gifted with the water element, and he's always training me so that my body will be strong, a strong body makes it easier to channel mana and connect to the element you are gifted with.
However, I was tested on my 12th birthday when most boys my age are, and although I'm extremely gifted at channeling mana and using it to strengthen my body, I can not use any of the elements. I should mention girls test at the age of 9, and although they have much weaker bodies their talent for the arcane is usually much greater. But alas, although there are some spells and schools of magic I could practice, it will be extremely hard to find an instructor who specializes in gray magic, like telepathy, telekinesis, mana vision and many others I have no idea of. Grandpa is rather well connected considering he's one of the strongest men in Salem, but the majority of the island is wilderness and areas people do not return from. So he left to the mainland to talk to some old friends and see if he could find me a tutor. He told me to just accumulate mana in my veins, bones, and eyes until my body figures out how to use it for nourishment. I haven't had much luck in that regard, save for my ears. I've developed a keen sense of hearing which I've been using to hunt lately.
It was too dangerous for grandpa to bring me across the sea, so I've been preparing for a hunting trip these past few days to keep myself busy until his return. Even without grandpas training I've always been gifted with strength greatly surpassing my peers, father says it could be a special physique but until any ability manifests there isn't any way to know which it is.
The villagers hunt most of the animals near the village but I am strong enough to hunt about 20-30 miles east towards the mountains. The village is surrounded on 3 sides by forest, and to the west is a large port and a string of beaches. Today I packed enough dried meat to last a week and brought a map with me depicting the nearest streams and rivers. The map is good for about 240 miles before it becomes clear that areas are less and less detailed. I have a bow made from some type of earth Wyrm tendon and the branch of the villages Lightning Tree, a very resilient tree that radiates mana at the outskirts of the town, and is struck almost every night. 34 steel tipped arrows, made from a lesser yet still decent wood in a leather quiver, a 13 inch dagger, and a couple waterskins. I have a box of matches that use a dried up slime from some lizard the village raised as lifestock to start fires, which honestly is very useful because I have no clue how to start a fire without them and a sprinkle of kindling dust. I have about two pouches of the dust mostly because I want to try hunting for over a month. Kind of just a personal test of skill as I haven't really stayed out longer than a couple weeks before.
I grabbed my pack and tied it to my right thigh as it isn't that large due to the meat being stored in a pouch under my shirt and another woven into the side of my leather quiver. Speaking of, the bow and it's arrows are actually quite big, but I tend to manage it all quite well. I lace up my boots and strap my dagger and it's sheath to my belt and smile. Grandpa didn't want me to be too arrogant or snobby like some of my cousins and even my older sister, so he got me a pretty nice cottage towards the end of town, about an hour and a half walk from the family estate. Turning sideways so I could fit through the door (my bow is horizontal making me quite fat) I open it and shimmy on outside. I pressed my finger to the middle of the door and sent some mana into it and it locked. With that done, it's time to set out.
The village opens up to a couple roads leading to other towns and villages with plains of wheat and other golden grains separated in nice batches. It's pretty early and the sun hasn't risen a quarter of the way yet, so no ones really out here unless they have a job requiring them to do so. I picked a road and walked thinking this trip was going to be like any other. Lots of venison, Slyther hawks, and Bambunnies were the only things on my mind as I left.