Void Mana

Magic is for kids

"Ugh." I groaned.

Early morning light streamed directly into my eyes. "Uuuuuuugh" I groaned louder. I was not alone, most of the orphans were groaning.

"Wake up!" A loud voice said. I looked over to see Miss C. she had a curtain in her hand, "Five more minutes Miss C," I begged.

Miss C was an elderly lady. I would place her age around 70, Maybe a little older.

"No!" She said, "We've been over this, get up and get ready for the day." she said

She looked directly at me. "Just because you are older Alex, does not mean you are excluded," she said to me.

I scowled. Sure I slept in a little but what else would I do? I didn't have any studies.

"What's for breakfast?" I heard one of the many kids in the room say. His name escaped me, I just didn't care enough to remember. I didn't care about breakfast or the names of the kids around me. kids just came and left like an old fart in the wind. While I tended to... linger.

The morning routine went by relatively quickly, or as quickly as a boring slop-filled breakfast can. I had no interest in what the other kids were doing. I was busy reading an old and worn-out book about Leonardo da Vinci's many creations and how they influenced future creations. I must have read the book a hundred times, but that went for most books in the limited Orphanage's library.

It wasn't like I had a lot of things to do. I didn't have any friends to mess around with, or learning to attend to. I had outgrown the lessons the orphanage provided and I was the oldest kid still here. The other older kids old enough to talk in full sentences were less than friendly and more interested in their back alley shenanigans. But I can't judge them, I mean most if not all of them came from a bad background. While I did lose my parents, I hadn't even had time to know them. I'm almost 18 now, and yes my life, however boring, wasn't a bad one. The Orphanage staff did their best to take care of us. That being said, a few adults can't very well take care of a hundred kids. It could be worse, I could be on the streets.

Despite my best efforts that might be exactly what would happen. I was dew to turn 18 in only a few days, at which point I would be on my own. I had prepared the best I could. I read everything I was given. I had attempted as much as possible. And I learned everything available to me. Even though id did the best I could it would be close.

To help me in my thirst for knowledge I built my own little "computer". really it was the remains of many electronics such as phones, calculators, TVs, computers, really anything that ends up in the junkyard and had just enough damage to be thrown away. I used the computer by hot-spotting it to one of the caretaker's phones. This allowed me to use the internet to learn many things like Physics and Mechanics. the bare minimum because a cobbled-together computer that barely ran, on top of the fact that it was using an older phone's data really didn't work well. Especially since there were only a few satellites left in orbit.

It was late afternoon and I was in a Junkyard just down the road from the Orphanage. I had been coming here for the last 2 years. This place is where I found the parts I needed. There was a hole in the fence that was blocked up by a piece of plywood. If I moved the plywood I could squeeze my way in. thankfully once I was through it was easy enough to browse the cars, trucks, motorcycles, and any other twisted piles of scrap metal that used to be useful before it came here.

This day was just like any other in the last 2 years. I had come down here to get away from the others and had decided to check out the newest items that the owner had brought in. It was nothing much, just more cars and scrap metal but I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if there was anything of value.