Just Another Beginning After the End | TBATE

So it Begins (1)

A/N: Here's the second chapter of the day! Blessed be the weekend!

Anyways, sorry about the long preposition. The story will finally start now, for real.

The current fl candidates are Kathlyn, Claire, and Eleanor. (Which I now realize isn't any less than last time... whoops)

Also, please tell me if these A/N's are annoying. If they are, I'll move them to the end of the chapter.

In a good mood at my breakthrough, I tried to sense my newly formed mana core, and there it was! It was a murky black, but did that matter? It was there!

You did it, Asher! See? You are incredible!

After a brief moment of congratulating myself, I felt a strange chill that caused a shiver to run down my spine.

Curious if Alea had come home or something, I opened my eyes and looked around. I couldn't help but smile; the familiar grey surroundings and the rubble greeted my eyes...

What?

I panicked as I swiveled my head around, trying to figure out where I was. I wasn't in Alea's house, no. I was on a desolate battlefield that just got carpet-bombed or something.

Alea's house was simply gone. It was sent to oblivion or something because it was anywhere but here.

Needing an explanation, I ran through what little information was in my head. After some slow processing, it finally hit me.

When a mage awakens, an effect is produced.

Judging by how the rubble is spaced and the twisty swirl-like shape that's imprinted onto the ground, I could safely assume that I had awakened as a conjurer... wait, wait, that wasn't the issue here.

The problem was my little awakening blew out Alea's house and a lot of other things.

I helplessly sat in the center of the explosion. At the same time, elves' heads began to pop out behind the rubble or from different houses.

Their curious eyes seemingly burrowing into me.

Now, I'm usually fine with attention but let me tell you when you're not even two years old, and you're sitting down in the middle of a circle of people after making a massive oopsie, it'll get to you one way or another.

Anyways, the pressure was pushing down on me, and a couple elves began approaching.

...Mom? Pick me up. I'm scared.

Suddenly, as though she heard me from wherever she was, Alea hurtled forward out of nowhere and scooped me up.

"...Mama!"

I chirped.

It embarrassed me to say mama at my mental age. Still, it was better than garnering suspicion as to why I was addressing her by her name.

Besides my useless internal monologue, I was more than glad that she was here. I looked up to see her face, but rather than her usual smile, she was gawking at me like I had grown a couple horns or something.

"...Mama?"

"H-hm? O-oh yeah. Don't worry about this... um... mama will figure it out..."

Could I? No, could she?

Alea seemed more nervous than she was when she was changing my diaper for the first time. She kept nervously glancing around at the elves and our surroundings before looking at me again.

Seeing this side of her, I couldn't help but grow sorry. At least after the first few weeks, she was usually confident and seemed to be fully capable of doing anything she wanted, so seeing her like this left a bad taste in my mouth.