《A Hermit`s Tales》 Prologue: Gift One night, in a small room lit only by a desk lamp, a boy, about the age of 15, was writing with a smile. When he reached the last page, he stopped, and clicked his pen. He started reading over his notebook, inspecting for mistakes, only stopping after fifteen minutes of proofreading. ¡°Finally¡­¡± The boy muttered joyfully. He hugged the notebook, as if it was the most precious thing in the world. ¡°My twentieth story.¡± He fell asleep soon after. >>>> It all started five years ago, on a warm and sunny afternoon. A ten-year old boy knocked on the door. ¡°Come in.¡± A gentle voice reached his ears, and he opened the door to see his mother. ¡°¡­¡± The boy was speechless. The room looked like a¡­ dump. What did his mother do to make such a mess? ¡°Hey, George.¡± Suddenly, his mother`s gentle voice called for him, making his body freeze.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°A-ah, yea mommy?¡± ¡°I want to give you something.¡± ¡°W-what is it?¡± ¡°Come into my room, I`ll give it to you.¡± George reluctantly entered the¡­ cave? That seems appropriate¡­ ¡°You know¡­¡± The mother`s voice called out to him, abruptly snapping George out from his thoughts. ¡°¡­it`s your birthday soon, right?¡± ¡°Ah, yes¡­¡± Cold sweat started falling from his back. His birthday is close, the day after tomorrow, in fact¡­ He shook his head. He and his mother were still having a hard time after his father disappeared suddenly. ¡°No, it`s okay.¡± George gave his mother a resolute smile. ¡°I`m the man of the house now, I don`t need gifts!¡± He made a macho pose, but with his small chubby body, it looked cuter than manly. His mother stretched his cheeks with a laugh. George rubbed his red cheeks soon after. He was pouting, feeling wronged. ¡°No, you don`t need to worry.¡± She assured him with her usual soft and gentle voice. She took out a thick old book with a leather cover and tinted white pages. ¡°This is a magic notebook.¡± ¡°I`m not a kid anymore, mommy. There`s no such thing as magic!¡± George`s mother smiled warmly at him before handing him the notebook. ¡°I`m sure you`ll have a lot of fun with this.¡± She ruffled his hair, making him pout. ¡°Geez, fine. I`ll take it.¡± He took the book, but because it was too heavy, he placed it on the ground. ¡°Be sure to take care of it.¡± ¡°Of course, mommy. You don`t have to worry.¡± Little did he know that on the next day, he will experience a great trauma. One that will make him embrace the notebook as if it were the most precious thing in the world. First Story, Chapter 1: Rebirth, and Start of a Journey A teenage boy, about 15 years of age, was sleeping on his bed with a peaceful expression. Suddenly, a silver cloud appeared on his face, gathering in the middle of his forehead. With a burst of light that enveloped the entire room, his body disappeared. >>>> POV Change (George) ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I awoke with a grunt¡­ this is weird¡­ wet¡­ squishy¡­ W-where am I?! ¡°Uuu¡± I tried to scream, but I couldn`t. A mysterious liquid stopped the sound from escaping my mouth. Weirdly, I`m not drowning. ¡®What happened to me?¡¯ If I could move my hand, then I would`ve used it to rub my headache. ¡®Okay, so let`s assess the situation. I`m in a dark space, floating in what seems to be, water? Does this mean I`m in an isolation tank of some sort? Spac--¡¯ As I was thinking, a small dot of light appeared underneath my feet. ¡®Am I supposed to go there?¡¯ I thought as the hole opened ever more slightly. Reluctantly, I used all the strength I could muster. Let`s not get into too much detail¡­ just, just don`t. Please. I realized what was happening almost immediately after one of my toes went outside. Reincarnation. Rebirth. ReBIRTH! ¡®Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap.¡¯ I panicked, but I couldn`t do anything about it. I was a baby. What do you expect? >>>> Despair. Confusion. Frustration. These words are pretty much how I feel about my current situation. After experiencing¡­ that, a screech-like cry came out of my mouth before I abruptly passed out from the stress. Well, I`m awake now I guess. Blurry-eyed, but awake nonetheless. Someone, who I assume to be my new mother (because of her voice), is cradling me like a normal mother would. Well that`s good, at least my new mom isn`t some young neglectful parent who would throw their newborn son in a trash can¡­ yeah, let`s look at the bright side of things. I-I have a second chance now. I can live with a new lo-loving family¡­ *sniff* crap, no, let`s just stop. ¡°Uuu¡± I whimpered quietly, tears slowly falling. Auntie, Rob, Grandpa, goo¡ªStolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Uwaaaa!!!¡± I can`t take it! Why did this have to happen to me?! I still had a whole life ahead of me!! I don`t want to say goodbye to my family! ¡­so why? Why is God so cruel? My new mother embraced me as she started patting my back. She shushed me and said ¡®it`s okay¡¯ again and again, until I finally calmed down. She kissed my forehead as exhaustion took over my body. ¡®Damn¡­ what is it with babies and their low stamina?¡¯ I thought before falling back to the dark world that is unconsciousness. >>>> POV Change (Mother) I smiled when my little Darius finally stopped crying. I kissed his forehead as he cutely fell asleep. What a precious little thing. As I was putting the baby down on the crib, I saw my husband approach with a sweet smile. I smiled back. ¡°How`s the baby doing?¡± He said as he stared down at the crib with a doting expression. ¡°He cried again.¡± I reply feigning exhaustion. ¡°Haha,¡± He laughed weirdly ¡°Well, isn`t it normal for babies to cry? Don`t worry about it.¡± He took Darius and started cradling him ¡°I`m here for you.¡± ¡°Puhahaha!!¡± I couldn`t control myself ¡°It`s been so long since you`ve said something so corny. ¡®I`m here for you.¡¯ Hahahah!!!¡± He blanked for a moment, as if thinking about something. He then placed the baby back into his crib. ¡°I`m being serious.¡± He grinned at me playfully ¡°Maybe I should punish you for insulting me?¡± My spine shuddered, I have a bad feeling about this. I stared wide-eyed at his wiggling fingers. ¡°N-no! Anything but that!!¡± I couldn`t stop him, he used his wind affinity to speed himself up. He pounced at me, and with his fingers, he¡ª ¡°Bahahahahahaaha!!!¡± ¡°So you like to laugh, huh? I`ll make you laugh so hard that you can`t breathe!¡± ¡°hahhaha no-hahahahahaa-pahahahahlease hahhahaha!!¡± But he didn`t listen to my pleads. He tickled me for fifteen minutes straight. (See Author`s Note) === POV Change (George/Darius) ¡°Ugh.¡± I rubbed my head as I got up. I blanked at first when I remembered what happened, but then I hurriedly checked my body. ¡°¡­I`m not a baby.¡± But I wasn`t human either. My body was too transparent, or should I say ethereal? ¡®It`s like I`m a ghost.¡¯ I started looking around and I noticed that I was in a vast grassland covered in fog. The moon shined brightly, helping me see. I kept staring at the moon. For some reason I was astounded by it. There was nothing special about it, I just felt¡­ connected. After staring for some time, the moon started coming closer to me, and I reached out my hand. The moon shone less brightly, until the figure of a book could be made out. ¡®Magic notebook¡­¡¯ My book floated on my palms before the pages started to flip towards a specific page. I stared wide-eyed as the book projected, in shining silver letters, . These words stayed there for a moment before it dispersed into a mist of silver particles that entered my nose as I breathed in. It took minute to process all of the information, and when I was done, my face wrinkled into a frown. ¡°My world indeed.¡± I muttered awkwardly as I felt my headache worsen. I reincarnated into a really troublesome world. The world I reincarnated into is called Iremia, to be specific, the world where my story takes place. In this world, children have grey hair and eyes until they awaken their elemental affinity at the age of five. The main character, Darius Freeman (or me now, I guess?), is a kid from a backwater village who awakened a high affinity for all four of the basic elements and healing. This leads to him attracting the attention of an evil organization, who kidnapped and subjected him to inhumane torture and experimentation for ten years. Stuff happened, and he escaped with a loli vampire after losing his affinities and gaining an affinity for shadow magic. ¡°Argh!!¡± I yelled in frustration. This story¡­ simply put, I wrote it with too much edge! I thought it was cool at the time and *mumble* *mumble*¡­ After a few minutes of whining, I made a goal for myself. "Remove all the edge."