Today my day was completely free, the wine was fermenting well and there were no force majeure events. The harvesting of ripe grapes no longer required my presence and I decided to keep my promise to Bella to look for new and beautiful places.

After asking around a bit with the villagers and hunters, I headed for what they thought were beautiful places.

They were outside my father's domain beyond the great tree, near the mountain range of the "Dragon's Scales," because of the peculiar topography of these mountains which resembled the dragon's scales, and so they were so called. These mountains were difficult to traverse, but they greatly shortened the way to the neighboring countries of Mau and Costa. Those who did not risk going through these mountains took the long way, increasing the travel time by a couple months, but was easy.

Also, these mountains were a natural barrier, keeping strong winds and bad natural phenomena from disturbing the tranquility of our region. Thanks to them, our weather was not very changeable.

It was a forest, something like the forests near the Ermur Mountains, but the vegetation was more like the wild forest I liked to visit.

As I was walking through the forest, I came upon a stream, and for the sake of interest, I decided to walk against its flow. After about twenty minutes I came to a spacious field, which was divided by the stream, and in the middle of it was a small lake dotted with lotus-like flowers.  As I got closer I realized that this was it! It was just like the one that grew in my world.

To make sure that it was the same plant, I went into the water and felt the root and plucked it out. Yes, it was a lotus, just like in my world. I plucked a few more roots and picked a couple of lotus flowers and took them with me.

Lotus flowers made this place beautiful. Although I had only seen lotus flowers a couple of times in my past world when I was interning in Asia, and had tasted lotus root in their cuisine. But it made my heart feel good to find something that grows the same in both worlds.

- Help me! Somebody help me!  - Someone was running through the woods, calling for help.

I did not hesitate long and went towards the cries for help. As I approached, I saw a man dressed in hunting clothes, a hunter from a neighboring village. His shoulder arm was bloody and there were several claw marks on his chest.

- What happened?

The hunter saw me and his eyes widened, reflecting even more fear.

- Boy, run, run, don't look back! - he shouted.

- I'm a fool! I put the child in danger by looking for an escape," he muttered.

He stopped and turned in the direction he had come from.

- Run, boy, I'll hold him off!

I put the flowers and lotus roots on the ground and walked toward the hunter, pretending as if I couldn't hear him.

- Actually, I'm about to turn fifteen, and I'm an adult by the standards of this world," I mumbled as I walked.

The guy looked back and saw me standing in front of him and started yelling: "Fool, what are you doing?! Run! That's the leader of the red horned wolves!

These wolves were red in color and had horns on their heads that were needed to track prey. Scientifically, I would explain it this way: they acted as antennae, picking up the energy or mana of other creatures.

For hunters, ordinary red horned wolves did not pose much of a threat, as they were smaller than a man's height. But the leader of the pack reached a size exceeding the height of a man and he was very fierce and strong. The leader was most often hunted by a group of 10-15 hunters.

- Run! - After saying that, the hunter lost his strength and just sat down on the ground.

- Run, boy, just run.  While he's chewing up my body, you'll have time to get away.

In the distance, I heard the crunch of breaking branches. A moment later, a wolf twice my height jumped out at us. It was bright red in color, but the fur around its neck was golden. One horn was broken off and one eye was missing. A vicious grin and snarl, drool and blood flowing from its mouth. It must have been the hunter's blood, and the drooling was the anticipation of fresh flesh.

At that moment I was trembling and afraid, standing in front of the animal, in whose eyes I was just food.

I had different thoughts in my head, fear, the desire to run away, but also the thought that I had to save the man, so I should not retreat!

The wolf began to move along, as if he wanted to go around me and attack from the other side. I watched and turned toward him as he moved. A moment... and he had already made a leap in my direction.

I visualized the fire in my head and pointed my gaze and hand at it before I even uttered the word actus, as the wolf's fur ignited. It flew over us and fell a little farther away. I had hoped that would be the end of it, but it spun around on the ground, put out the fire, and rose, heading in our direction!

The smell of burnt wool and meat was in the air. The color of his fur was no longer red, in some places it was completely missing, but in his eyes there was no longer a desire to eat, but a desire to kill!

The hunter, after everything that was happening, as I realized, came to his senses and grabbed my shoulder and pulled me with him.

- Run! - For some reason I instinctively ran with him.

The wolf realized we were running away and started chasing us. Apparently the wounds and burns inflicted by fire magic had affected his mobility. But his normal steps were equal to the speed at which we were running.

All the time we were running, he kept up with us and even reduced the distance from us. After a couple of kilometers, the hunter got tired and couldn't run any further.

- Run, boy, run!

- I'm sick of you! I won't run if we die together and I won't feel bad about leaving a man to be eaten by that thing!

The wolf came inexorably toward us. In my pocket I fumbled for grape seeds, the berries of which I had taken with me, eating while searching for beautiful places, the seeds I was in the habit of storing so that I could grow them later.

The wolf bared his teeth and let out a deafening growl, he jumped in our direction. I threw a handful of seeds in his direction and channeled a stream of my mana into the seeds. In the blink of an eye, a vine grew from the Seeds and girdled the wolf, enveloping him in a tight embrace. The vine began to pull him down, wrapping around the wolf from all sides and engulfing the nearest trees and shrubs.

The wolf let out a deafening growl, which then turned into the sound of a whimpering puppy. A large amount of blood began to flow down the vine.

The blood froze in my veins at that moment, and I turned away.

- It's wine... it's wine... it's not blood... it's definitely not blood," I mumbled.

The wolf let out a final wheezing sigh and there was silence.

Without turning toward the wolf, I approached the hunter, who looked at me and the wolf with wide-open eyes and a pale face, either from blood loss, or from surprise, or from the fact that we were still alive.

- O water and light of the sun, heal your wounds, actus!

- I have healed your wounds, but it is still best to see a healer when you return to the village, as there may be internal injuries....

In general, healing magic only healed external injuries and wounds, internal tears and injuries could only be healed by an experienced mage or higher potions. The production of potions was unknown to me, but I wanted to learn it so badly.

- So let's go to the village, I suggested, and we walked slowly to the village.

- Why don't you tell me how you got into this mess?

- This morning I went to check traps and snares for black jumpers. ........

(From the author: The black jumper, somewhat similar to a hare, but small in size. With its bright black coloring and sharp teeth, it cannot be found during the day. And yes, it is a predator and only hunts at night.  Oh, I don't envy anyone who decides to walk in the habitat of this animal at night, they'll be mauled like piranhas. He sleeps during the day.)

- ..... When I arrived I found the remains of the bodies of black jumpers, I decided to go around the rest of the traps but only picked up a couple of carcasses. I wish I hadn't collected them, their scent brought the leader of the red horned wolf. He lunged at me. The moment he opened his mouth, I pushed the carcasses down his throat and then grabbed his palate. The wolf tried to slam his mouth shut, which hurt my hand. I tugged at his palatine tongue, causing him to relax his jaws, but he managed to strike me in the chest with his paw, knocking me back. After that, while he came to his senses, expectorating black jumpers, I ran away from him. I hoped I'd meet more hunters along the way and called out for help, but I happened to run into you. To be honest, I thought I brought trouble on a defenseless person, especially a child.

- I'm about to turn 15, so I'm an adult, okay, tell me more.

- I realize you're an adult, but there's such a thing as experience. I didn't know you could do that kind of sorcery and use thought magic at that age.

- Even our experienced hunters can't do what you do with fire. And then there's that special magic when the plant killed that wolf.

- I've just been studying magic since I was a kid, yeah and it's not a new magic, it's just my observations that I used for defense.

- Heh! You're a hero, and a modest one at that!

-Oh, there's your village.

 As we approached the village, we met other hunters who headed into the forest, handing them their friend and explaining what had happened, I headed back into the forest to where I had left the lotus root and flowers lying. I realized that we had killed the leader of the pack, which meant that there wouldn't be another leader in the next six months. And because of that, I walked calmly to that place. I gathered up what I had left behind and headed toward my village, avoiding, of course, the place where the leader of the red horned wolves had found his final resting place.

My vineyards and my father's fields were still bustling with life. I was walking, but I had the feeling that I was now seeing it all in a new light. I was even happier that I was alive and living in this world, albeit with imperfections, but it was a world. I lived in it, and it was mine, just like the one I had lived in before.

When I got home, I sneaked into my room, changed my clothes and trying not to be seen by anyone, especially my mother, I made my way to my father's study, taking the lotus flowers with me.

Knock, knock

- Come in, oh, it's you, Will!

- Good day, Daddy!

- Well, what do you want now?

I handed my daddy some lotus flowers.

- Oh, thank you, but I love my wife and I'm a woman's man.

- This is for mom, take these flowers and go give them to her! You can thank me later.

- Okay.

- Alright, I'm off. I have a lot of things to do," I left the office and headed for the kitchen, handing the lotus roots to our cook and explaining how to cook them and what to serve them with.

I headed to my room. In the evening, everyone ate something they liked, but the main difference on the table was the boiled and slightly fried lotus roots. At first my family was surprised and distrustful, but they decided to try it. My sister didn't like lotus root, but my dad and mom liked it very much. My older sister was neutral to lotus, but to me the lotus of this world tasted like yams, the yams I loved in my previous life! So I liked it. On the table in a pitcher were the lotus flowers that I had given to my father today. Mommy was especially in a good mood today and her face was rosy. Daddy nodded at me casually and said thank you. I think that after a while I might have a little brother or sister....

I spent the whole evening reading books about magic and repeating what I had learned. I was puzzled by the fact that during the fight with the wolf I used magic without saying the activation word. I could find no examples of being able to cast magic without the activation word. This has puzzled me more and more.

******

Morning came, I lay on my bed looking out the open window at the great tree.  

It was so peaceful on the soul...

- WILL!!!!!!!!!! - At the top of my voice came my father's scream.

I jumped out of bed, throwing on my clothes and heading toward my father.

- You called, Daddy?

My father's face was angry, and there was even a vein on his forehead. There was a very dark aura behind me, and at that moment I was even more scared than when I met the wolf leader. Behind me stood my mother. She came over to me and put her hands on my shoulders, squeezing them a little. My sister quickly brushed past me and Mom and sat down on the couch. Then my older sister walked past and stood by the window, leaning against the sill. There was a feeling in the air that they had come to watch my execution.....

- An elder from a neighboring village came to me and told me what had happened.

My mother's hands began to squeeze my shoulders. Apparently, I was about to meet that drunken bugger who called himself the god of alcohol again.

"Forgive me, Bela... we probably won't see each other again and I won't show you the lake dotted with lotus flowers..."

But after a moment she loosened her grip, but the dark aura didn't disappear.

- I've been told that you've been walking outside our fields in the woods near the mountains ...

- Yes, daddy.

- And they say you came upon a hunter running from the leader of a pack of red horned wolves.....

- Yes, daddy.

- And you didn't listen to the hunter and took his defense... Why didn't you listen to him?

- Yes, Daddy, I stood up for him, but I couldn't do otherwise. Part of your upbringing is to never back down from a challenge and see it through to the end!

- But I taught it to you so that you would apply it in business and work! Well, or in case you know you can handle it. But you were facing someone who could tear you apart in the blink of an eye! If it wasn't for your plants and knowledge of magic, you wouldn't be standing in front of us right now!

- I couldn't have done it any other way!!!

My mom turned me towards her, the aura emanating from her was still a dark aura.

She pulled me towards her.

I'm going to die for sure!

But mom hugged me and I felt tears dripping down my head.

- Imagine what we would have to go through if you had died, if that wolf had mauled you! We love you and we are worried about you!

I felt my little sister hugging me: - Brother is a fool!

Then my older sister hugged me, stroking my head, and finally my father hugged me, and we stood like that for a while.

- Don't do that again! Don't make us worry like this anymore. Promise not to do it again!

- I promise that I will become stronger and stay out of things where I am still weak.

My father and mother told me off for a while, giving me advice on what to do in certain cases.