《Failed Hero》 Chapter 0: Falling I stared at the night sky as the chill night air tickled my face. The first stars were just beginning to faintly glisten in the sky as I stared into the endless bounds of space. I felt the same chill night air whipping by my body causing my clothes and hair to whip around randomly. As the numerous lights of the bustling city below came closer I continued to stare at the sky. Oddly the stars seemed to grow more numerous and brighter rather than fading into the light pollution as I would have thought they would. The twinkling stars seemed to play snippets of my life with each rhythmic pulsation. The sounds of car horns, sirens and the chatter of uncountable voices grew louder as I fell. My vision seemed to tunnel as the tall buildings around me blotched out more and more of the beautiful stars. Each star that disappeared seemed to be another person who I would never see again, I silently said my farewell to each and every one of them. My life a string of regret, I couldn¡¯t help anyone, I never would be able to in this life. A wry smile played my lips as I considered that maybe I¡¯d be luckier in my next life, not that I actually believed in a next life, but it was a nice thought to comfort myself as the unforgiving pavement raced closer, its rough black surface dyed with the artificial light that inundated bustling street. I turned from the asphalt to the interminable sky, to the last stars I could see, the last goodbyes, the last moment I would be. In that single instant there was so much to experience. I remembered her smiling face, though the smile seemed more melancholy now than I remembered it ever seeing it before. Her visage faded only to be replaced with another face, then another. I watched helplessly as I saw each and every person I had failed. I remembered their expressions when they had fallen, the pain in their eyes, yet they always seemed to be smiling. When the last face faded I found myself on a river bank, a memory. The warm air made V shaped patterns rush across the long grass covered slope gently leading down to the water¡¯s edge. The world was stained in the rich vibrant reds, oranges and yellows of a slowly setting sun hiding its luminous rays behind the horizon. I knew she was sitting next to me, but I couldn¡¯t bring myself to look at her. I felt that the moment I saw her face again this perfect moment would end the wind would stop caressing my face the emerald grass would lose its luster and it would all fade into nothingness. I resisted, drinking in this moment for what seemed like an eternity but the compulsion to look at the woman sitting next to me grew and grew. I resisted with every fiber of my being but slowly my head turned and I locked eyes with her. Her hand reached out to caress my face and her lips parted to speak. I heard a single scream, the world reappeared around me slowing to an incredible degree as I saw the woman who screamed, her face didn¡¯t register but the mixture of terror and pity in her eyes hit me with full force. I watched as her hand slowly moved to point at my falling body, feet, inches above the ground, I watched as people started turning their heads, ever so slowly, millimeters, eyes widened. A moment of searing pain, blackness enveloped my consciousness. The sensation of falling, however did not end, the wind was gone leaving, yet the knot in my stomach the feeling of weightlessness remained. I looked around trying to see my surroundings, if you could call a preternatural darkness ¡°surroundings¡±. I wondered if this was the afterlife, an endless void, accompanied by nothing but the unending feeling that I was freefalling. A wry smile crept over my face as I considered what apt end it was for one like me. Someone who could never catch anyone who took a fall. My musings were interrupted by the appearance of specs if light winking into existence in the distance like a night sky in every direction, like what I had seen when I had begun my descent, I wondered if perhaps I would be trapped in my last experience for all eternity. I stared at the lights, they were crisp star-like specks of light unmarred by the light pollution of civilization, and they felt just as distant. More and more specks winked into existence some were brighter and drifted upward faster, some were dimmer and moved more slowly. Whether it was just the distance or some other reason it was beautiful none the less. With little else to do I looked around at the many lights, enjoying that the void through which I fell was at least a little less lonely, in one or two of the little white stars even seemed to be falling just like me. As I looked down I observed one of the lights almost directly below me getting brighter and brighter. At first I thought nothing of it, making judgement calls on what¡¯s normal for a place I couldn¡¯t have been in for more than twenty minutes seemed like a silly idea. The light kept growing closer or at least larger; it was soon the size of a baseball, more of an orb of light than a speck at this point. As it continued to grow, it was like I was falling straight towards it. Somewhat morbidly I wondered if a dead person could still be burned to a crisp by a star or if I would fall right through it. Still the thought of falling into a star was frightening and I must admit that I panicked a bit¡­ it was during this time that I learned that the swimming strokes I knew were not the slightest bit effective at removing me from a collision course with the ever growing orb of light. My attempts at flapping, gliding and running proved similarly ineffective. I¡¯m sure if I would have felt ridiculous if I had not been rapidly closing in on some massive white sphere of light. I was quite afraid for my life, well I was dead, but I was at least fearing for my well-being in this (soon to be short lived) after-life. As all my knowledge and creativity proved useless to change my trajectory I stopped thrashing around like a madman and simply hoped that crashing into a star would be no worse than crashing into pavement like a civilized person. Since I had given up *cough* I mean calmed down, I began to wonder about the orb I got the distinct feeling that it was also falling, though obviously not as fast as I was at this point. I had to wonder though, what was this star thing, it easily filled a third of my vision if I looked towards it, yet I felt no heat. Though I couldn¡¯t say for certain whether that was because, as a dead person, I had no sense of touch anymore, or if the giant orb was simply not hot. I doubted that It was a star at this point though, it was extremely uniform in its brightness and color, no sun spots or giant streams of plasma shooting out into space. Maybe it wasn¡¯t so dangerous¡­ well I can dream. The ball soon grew to the point that it erased the darkness, even if I looked directly away from the behemoth the most I could see was a patch ever so slightly darker than the rest of my surroundings. I braced myself for whatever kind of impact was coming, just hoping my second death would be as swift as the first.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I stared at the night sky as the chill night air tickled my face. The first stars were just beginning to faintly glisten in the sky as I stared into the endless bounds of space. I felt the same chill night air whipping by my body causing my clothes and hair to whip around randomly. As the numerous lights of the bustling city below came closer I continued to stare at the sky. Oddly the stars seemed to grow more numerous and brighter rather than fading into the light pollution as I would have thought they would. The twinkling stars seemed to play snippets of my life with each rhythmic pulsation. The sounds of car horns, sirens and the chatter of uncountable voices grew louder as I fell. My vision seemed to tunnel as the tall buildings around me blotched out more and more of the beautiful stars. Each star that disappeared seemed to be another person who I would never see again, I silently said my farewell to each and every one of them. My life a string of regret, I couldn¡¯t help anyone, I never would be able to in this life. A wry smile played my lips as I considered that maybe I¡¯d be luckier in my next life, not that I actually believed in a next life, but it was a nice thought to comfort myself as the unforgiving pavement raced closer, its rough black surface dyed with the artificial light that inundated bustling street. I turned from the asphalt to the interminable sky, to the last stars I could see, the last goodbyes, the last moment I would be. In that single instant there was so much to experience. I remembered her smiling face, though the smile seemed more melancholy now than I remembered it ever seeing it before. Her visage faded only to be replaced with another face, then another. I watched helplessly as I saw each and every person I had failed. I remembered their expressions when they had fallen, the pain in their eyes, yet they always seemed to be smiling. When the last face faded I found myself on a river bank, a memory. The warm air made V shaped patterns rush across the long grass covered slope gently leading down to the water¡¯s edge. The world was stained in the rich vibrant reds, oranges and yellows of a slowly setting sun hiding its luminous rays behind the horizon. I knew she was sitting next to me, but I couldn¡¯t bring myself to look at her. I felt that the moment I saw her face again this perfect moment would end the wind would stop caressing my face the emerald grass would lose its luster and it would all fade into nothingness. I resisted, drinking in this moment for what seemed like an eternity but the compulsion to look at the woman sitting next to me grew and grew. I resisted with every fiber of my being but slowly my head turned and I locked eyes with her. Her hand reached out to caress my face and her lips parted to speak. I heard a single scream, the world reappeared around me slowing to an incredible degree as I saw the woman who screamed, her face didn¡¯t register but the mixture of terror and pity in her eyes hit me with full force. I watched as her hand slowly moved to point at my falling body, feet, inches above the ground, I watched as people started turning their heads, ever so slowly, millimeters, eyes widened. A moment of searing pain, blackness enveloped my consciousness. The sensation of falling, however did not end, the wind was gone leaving, yet the knot in my stomach the feeling of weightlessness remained. I looked around trying to see my surroundings, if you could call a preternatural darkness ¡°surroundings¡±. I wondered if this was the afterlife, an endless void, accompanied by nothing but the unending feeling that I was freefalling. A wry smile crept over my face as I considered what apt end it was for one like me. Someone who could never catch anyone who took a fall. My musings were interrupted by the appearance of specs if light winking into existence in the distance like a night sky in every direction, like what I had seen when I had begun my descent, I wondered if perhaps I would be trapped in my last experience for all eternity. I stared at the lights, they were crisp star-like specks of light unmarred by the light pollution of civilization, and they felt just as distant. More and more specks winked into existence some were brighter and drifted upward faster, some were dimmer and moved more slowly. Whether it was just the distance or some other reason it was beautiful none the less. With little else to do I looked around at the many lights, enjoying that the void through which I fell was at least a little less lonely, in one or two of the little white stars even seemed to be falling just like me. As I looked down I observed one of the lights almost directly below me getting brighter and brighter. At first I thought nothing of it, making judgement calls on what¡¯s normal for a place I couldn¡¯t have been in for more than twenty minutes seemed like a silly idea. The light kept growing closer or at least larger; it was soon the size of a baseball, more of an orb of light than a speck at this point. As it continued to grow, it was like I was falling straight towards it. Somewhat morbidly I wondered if a dead person could still be burned to a crisp by a star or if I would fall right through it. Still the thought of falling into a star was frightening and I must admit that I panicked a bit¡­ it was during this time that I learned that the swimming strokes I knew were not the slightest bit effective at removing me from a collision course with the ever growing orb of light. My attempts at flapping, gliding and running proved similarly ineffective. I¡¯m sure if I would have felt ridiculous if I had not been rapidly closing in on some massive white sphere of light. I was quite afraid for my life, well I was dead, but I was at least fearing for my well-being in this (soon to be short lived) after-life. As all my knowledge and creativity proved useless to change my trajectory I stopped thrashing around like a madman and simply hoped that crashing into a star would be no worse than crashing into pavement like a civilized person. Since I had given up *cough* I mean calmed down, I began to wonder about the orb I got the distinct feeling that it was also falling, though obviously not as fast as I was at this point. I had to wonder though, what was this star thing, it easily filled a third of my vision if I looked towards it, yet I felt no heat. Though I couldn¡¯t say for certain whether that was because, as a dead person, I had no sense of touch anymore, or if the giant orb was simply not hot. I doubted that It was a star at this point though, it was extremely uniform in its brightness and color, no sun spots or giant streams of plasma shooting out into space. Maybe it wasn¡¯t so dangerous¡­ well I can dream. The ball soon grew to the point that it erased the darkness, even if I looked directly away from the behemoth the most I could see was a patch ever so slightly darker than the rest of my surroundings. I braced myself for whatever kind of impact was coming, just hoping my second death would be as swift as the first. Chapter 1: introductions My eyes were screwed shut, I was hugging my legs in fetal position, braced for impact. I waited, wondering how big the orb must be if I hadn¡¯t ran into it yet, maybe I would just fall right through it. It seemed like an eternity yet I could still tell that I was in the middle of the brightness through my closed eyes, It was about this time when I noticed that my stomach was no longer knotted up like it had been, had I stopped falling? I slowly carefully cracked my eyes open squinting hard at my surroundings; Whiteness, in every direction a seemingly endless blanket of blank white space, even the discolored patch was gone. Un-balling myself I began to look around a bit less tenuously, I seemed to be laying on a solid surface now that I was not preoccupied with imminent re-death I noticed a very light pressure on my back, the ground seemed to be perfectly level and completely without texture, as for how light the pressure was, I chalked that up to me probably weighing almost nothing, you know, being dead and all. The entire world was uniformly white, I wouldn¡¯t have any concept of which way was up and which way was down if it hadn¡¯t been for the slight pressure. Sighing I stood up and decided to take stock of my situation. I looked down, taking advantage of the light to see what my after-death body looked like. My body was virtually unchanged from when I had been alive, and no that does not mean that I was an amorphous splatter of gore that was somehow still conscious, my body looked just how it had the night of the jump, the only difference being my lack of weight. After briefly looking over my body I concluded that it was just as average as ever and to my relief I still had my light button up and shorts on. I felt it wasn¡¯t terribly productive to muse on how I kept my clothes after dying so I stood up. I spent a brief moment wondering how long I had been sitting there with my eyes closed looking like an idiot. Though it¡¯s not like there is anyone around to see it. I wanted to explore, honestly the emptiness of this place was kind of creeping me out. Slowly I stood and began walking forward, or at least the way I was facing, and looked for¡­ well really anything. At first I moved extremely slowly, I wanted to make sure that death and my whole being extra light deal hadn¡¯t screwed up my sense of balance. After a couple dozen steps I was satisfied that my motor skills were fine and I sped up a little. I moved at a slow and steady pace since if there was a step or wall in this endless whiteness there was no way that I would see it coming and even if there was nobody around I had no desire to sprint into a wall or trip over an invisible step. I kept moving at my measured pace looking around at the endless blank space around me. Step after step one foot in front of another¡­ I considered myself a patient person but in a perfectly blank white unchanging space I could feel my nerves wearing thin. I continued walking in what I could only assume was a straight line for step upon step, after all the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, or five thousand two hundred and thirty seven steps which is the number I got to before getting bored of counting my steps. I had taken to closing my eyes while walking as the even reddish black of my eyelids was a nice change from the maddening whiteness. For better or worse I didn¡¯t seem to get hungry, thirsty nor tired as I walked though at one point I did lay down on the texture-less ground to see if I could fall asleep¡­ nope, no luck, sighing I returned to my feet and set off again in what was probably the same direction, not that I cared at this point, I was missing the void already, at last the white dots broke up the monotony there. A sound tickled my senses, it almost sounded like sobbing¡­ I was probably hallucinating though, I had no clue how long I had been walking in this whiteness, my second round of footstep counting had been abandoned at seven-thousand and hearing my inner self crying bitterly about the lack of anything wouldn¡¯t surprise me at this point¡­ or so I was thinking until I heard it again. Even if I was hallucinating I was sure that chasing phantoms would be more entertaining than what I had been doing for the last god knows how much time. I looked around with a newfound alertness, squinting my eyes, looking for any hint of another person in this confounded emptiness, I moved even, more slowly, looking from side to side with each step. I heard it again, a small, fragile thing it seemed to come from no direction in particular, but it was more pronounced this time. Taking this as a sign I was getting closer I kept moving in the same direction, my eyes carefully swept from side to side feverishly seeking even the smallest break in this confounded blank world. Nothing caught my attention though, time stretched on and my vigilance faded bit by bit. Was there really nothing? I was let out my heaviest sigh since I had died, maybe once I had lost my mind I wouldn¡¯t notice the boredom as much. I decided to give my surroundings one last look, straining my eyes harder than I had ever before, in the distance, a bit off to my left, a dot? My steps turned towards the perceived dot, the only break in the impenetrable whiteness. The dot seemed to remain unchanging, giving no sign that I was even getting any closer, it made me again wonder if I was hallucinating. Another sob, louder this time, the light airy voice echoing from every direction. My eyes focused in on the dot with renewed fervor, there was definitely something there, someone, my first human interaction since dying, well hopefully human, I stopped what was I going to do if it wasn¡¯t a human. I shook my head and banished the thought, I was already dead and I would probably go mad in this blank space eventually so I should just hope for the best. I hadn¡¯t admitted it to myself yet, but the two successive endless voids had left me feeling hollow, though the hollowness probably was born then¡­ The dot finally had grown, it was definitely a human form, one that was on its knees crying. The figure seemed small, but that could easily be an illusion because of how far away I was, it¡¯s not like I had any reference points in here, hell for all I knew I was three feet tall and that ¡®little¡¯ form was as large as a small skyscraper; if watching that little ball of light turn into this had taught me anything it was that it¡¯s impossible to judge size without some kind of reference.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. As I slowly made my way closer I could make out the figure¡¯s golden-brown hair which stood out in the whiteness. Closer, closer, step after step the figure became more and more defined. I was approaching the figure from behind, at this point I was completely sure that it was a small person, well compared to me, I decided it was a definitely female. Her hair cascaded half way down her back, its wavy texture undulating in the stark light as she shook with each sob. I was close enough at this point to judge that she was a particularly small girl, one who barely looked old enough to maybe pass for a freshman in high-school. My mind was confused, what do I say? Asking her ¡°how are you¡± seemed a bit dumb seeing as she was clearly crying, ¡°hey¡±, ¡°what¡¯s up¡±, ¡°are you OK¡± were all similarly rejected before I decided what I would say. ¡°What¡¯s wrong¡± I asked¡­ uncertainty filled my thoughts, what if she didn¡¯t want to talk? What if she can¡¯t speak English? These and many other questions raced through my head as I said my first two words since dying, she jumped, obviously extremely startled at my presence. Her surprise seemed to have jarred her out of her hysterics but now she seemed to have frozen stiff from fear. She started to try to subtly inch away from me, while wildly muttering to herself. I considered that maybe she had died and somehow ended up here like me but had gone mad from being here too long. If that was the case I certainly was not looking forward to it. As I lost myself in thought I vaguely noticed her mechanically turn her head to glance at me through the corner of her eye, a tear stilly glistening on her cheek. She had stopped muttering to herself but the silence was stretching uncomfortably wrong so I tried again, ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± She jumped again before she took a shuttering breath and in a shaking voice asked ¡°w-why are y-y-y-you h-here¡± ¡°Hell if I know¡± I said before I could even think. She flinched at my sharp reply but seemed to relax a bit after a moment, and finally turned around to face me. She was gorgeous, even her flushed cheeks and swollen pink eyes couldn¡¯t hide her delicate features. A small nose perched between her two large green eyes. The more I looked the more uncanny her beauty seemed for someone who appeared so young. Her mouth was still trembling, small red lips tightly pressed together as she tried to put herself back together. For some reason I felt a sort of protectiveness for this strange girl, couple it be because she was in the same predicament as me? I realized I was staring at her which, understandably, made her uncomfortable. I shifted my gaze and asked for a third time ¡°so whats wrong?¡± This time she finally told me ¡°I¡¯m lost¡± I got this weird feeling that she wasn¡¯t speaking English, but it didn¡¯t seem to hinder my understanding her. I put the feeling aside though, better not look a gift horse in the mouth. ¡°I think anyone would get lost in this place¡± I gestured around at the uniform whiteness that stretched endlessly in every direction. She shook her head and looked at the floor saying softly, ¡°home isn¡¯t in here¡± I wondered if she even know she was dead, explaining to someone they were dead wasn¡¯t something that I particularly wanted to, but just in case I asked ¡°where is home then?¡± She looked up before shaking her head mournfully, ¡°it¡¯s nowhere I can get now¡± I decided she already knew she was dead and tried to comfort her with a hearty ¡°come now, death isn¡¯t all that bad!¡± She looked at me like I was crazy, maybe I was wrong about her already knowing she was dead. After a half second of staring at me with her head cocked to one side, mouth half open, she pulled herself roused herself saying ¡°I¡¯m not dead..? well not yet anyway¡­ but that¡¯s beside the point, why would you assume I died¡­ unless¡­¡± She got quiet for a moment before asking ¡°did you just die recently?¡± It was my turn to be confused ¡°of course I died how did you get here if you didn¡¯t die?¡± The little girl looked like she had just been struck by lightning before crying out, ¡°So you don¡¯t have a world?¡± This question completely baffled me, my mind fumbled around with what her words could mean; is she asking me if I have a world I¡¯m from? Or could she be asking if I own a world? No that¡¯s impossible, you can¡¯t own a world¡­ Did I even hear her right? She looked at me expectantly, her large green eyes positively overflowing with curiosity. I on the other hand had absolutely no idea how to answer her question, so I did the sensible thing, completely ignored her question and ask on of my own ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± Rather than calling me out on my obvious, and poorly executed, attempt at dodging the question she seemed surprised, blinked and answered ¡°I¡¯m Meril¡± Chapter 2: Meril Green eyes, their attention completely focused on me. Who knew being dead would be so tiring? But my train of thought was quickly interrupted by Meril asking ¡°Hey mister, what¡¯s your name? I told you mine so it¡¯s only fair¡­¡± I sighed, really how could this little girl be so debonair and so shy at the same time? But I kept such thoughts to myself as I answered ¡°my name is¡­ uhhh¡± My stomach sank, what was my name? How could I not remember my name?! I remember everything from my life don¡¯t I? My mind raced seeking gaps in my memory, but to no avail. My memories seemed to flow from one to the next with no gaps, yet somehow I couldn¡¯t remember my own name. As I was having my identity crisis a tiny smile crossed Meril¡¯s face before she spoke up, ¡°Calm down mister, it¡¯s OK, you must be a free soul, free souls never remember their name!¡± Wondering how she could be so calm and matter of fact about this was completely beyond me, but since she obviously had heard of this happening before I asked, ¡°What¡¯s a free soul?¡± ¡°It¡¯s what happens when a sentient inhabitant of a world fulfills certain criteria, when they die they become a free soul¡­ though no one really knows what the criteria are¡­¡± While what she said explained my after death experiences to some extent, something was bothering me. it took me a couple moments to pinpoint just what was bothering me until I realized she had been talking as if free souls were something wholly unconnected to her, something she¡¯d read about or something like that, so I asked, ¡°Are you not a free soul?¡± Meril unsuccessfully stifled some giggles before replying ¡°No, silly! I¡¯m a god, all this is my world¡± Stunned silence, I couldn¡¯t believe that this unnaturally beautiful young woman was a god. Gods are supposed to be wise figures, maybe an old bearded man or a grandma with some wrinkles from smiling knowingly for the last ten million years, not a girl who looked 15 at best! She must be exaggerating, I mean all I see is white, hardly what I call a world, maybe she has an imaginary world in her head that she¡¯s referring to, or maybe she was just straight lying to impress me. But if she wasn¡¯t lying or exaggerating then¡­ ¡°So were each of the white dots I saw when I was falling a world?¡± Meril, still smiling ¡°of course, jeez you just realized?¡± Ignoring her remark I asked ¡°so why was your world falling like I was while all the other ones seem to be going up?¡± Deathly quiet, Meril¡¯s little red lips trembled ever so slightly as her smile faltered. The uncomfortable silence persisted for an interminable amount of time before she took a shaky breath and said, ¡°There are some monsters and demons in my world that are causing it to fall¡­¡± She looked like she wanted to say more so I waited for her to collect herself. After another long pause she blurted out, ¡°PleasehelpmeifmyworldfallsmuchfartherI¡¯lldie¡± Not entirely sure what she said I asked her to repeat herself. She took a second to steady herself, a deep breath then, in the smallest voice I have ever heard, she repeated ¡°Please help, if my world falls much more¡­ I¡¯ll¡­ die¡­¡± As she spoke her voice got even smaller until I could barely make out what she was saying. But the moment the last word left her mouth a memory flashed before my eyes, grass crunching under my feet, white stone died crimson and sense of helplessness, an inky blackness. A wave of regret washed over me, and here in front of me¡­ I had promised myself that I wouldn¡¯t let anything like that happen again. While I still wasn''t entirely sure why she had told me, or even if she was telling the truth I decided I would help her, and if it turned out she was lying then I''d deal with that then. I looked at Meril who was looking at the floor sniffling, ¡°How would I be able to help?¡± She raised her eyes, her expression visibly brightened and said excitedly ¡°There¡¯s really two, no three things that would help a lot. First I want you to be my ally! Then I can let you into my world, secondly kill a lot of evil monsters, and lastly it would really help me if you got suupppeerrr strong.¡± She spoke rapidly, as if she were concerned that if she took too long to explain, I would disappear. It was cute but she spoke so fast that she was out of breath so I gave her a second to recover before telling her ¡°I¡¯d be happy to be your ally and all that but I don¡¯t know how good of a warrior I¡¯d be¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. She tilted her head a bit as she looked at me, confusion written all over her face, ¡°all free souls have the potential to be powerful, isn¡¯t that common sense?¡± Before I could answer her rhetoric question she continued ¡°First things first! The ally contract!¡± Her hands glowed and a small scroll appeared in her hands. Whatever I was going to say was completely lost in my amazement, I mean I know she said she was a god and all but that scroll just appeared out of NOWHERE! It made me wonder: did her world have magic? If it did and I went into her world would I be able to use magic? I was roused from my thoughts by Meril saying, rather loudly, ¡°Your turn!¡± I looked down in confusion to see Meril holding the now unrolled scroll and a feather pen, which she must have materialized, out to me. I took the scroll and pen and began reading the scroll which, luckily, was in English. The scroll had some legal sounding jargon on it that talked about how alliance would allow for both parties powers to be combined when world buoyancy blah blah blah some stuff about 3+ person alliances and how the strongest member can kick other members. A short description of an ally messaging feature with a rather large number below it, and a short clause about how allies can¡¯t deal damage to each other. In short, nothing about it looked particularly suspicious and her signature already sat at the bottom, so I took up the pen and set it on the paper when I realized¡­ I don¡¯t know my name. So I brought this up with Meril, she barely paused for a moment before a huge grin plastered itself on her face and she suggested, ¡°Why don¡¯t I give you a name?¡± While I was a little hesitant to agree to this outright, I had heard some the names some young girls had given things before, but I agreed to hear what she came up with. After at least an hour of her going over names which included some things like ¡®Mister rainbow¡¯ and ¡®schmoosle¡¯ I had finally made her come up with a few reasonable names, eventually narrowing down the list to: Thern, Reaveros, Shayne, Aylo and Byron. Meril was pouting (she had ¡®really liked¡¯ the name bunnybuttons) so I decided to let her pick which one of the five acceptable names she liked best. She immediately brightened up and began deliberating. After ten minutes of Meril muttering things under her breath she seemed to have decided on a name. She struck a pose probably intended to make her look important, but I decided to keep quiet about how ridiculous she looked with her head held way too high. With her air of self-importance she proclaimed, ¡°You will from this be forth be named Aylo! Be grateful that the great and gloi- owwww¡± She seemed to be warming up for a filibuster luckily she bit her tongue. Not wanting to give her a chance to continue her speech I put pen to paper and my hand moved automatically. My signature seemed to have nothing to do with the name that Meril had given me. I looked at Meril confused, she just looked incredibly happy as she told me in, what I suppose was supposed to be an apologetic tone ¡°sorry Aylo, you actually sign that with your soul mark, I just wanted to name you¡± At first I was mad, after all, she had tricked me! I felt a bit betrayed but after a second or two of reflection I realized she hadn¡¯t done any real harm. I was going to need a name anyway and this was as good a way as any to get one. It did worry me that she had lied as it called her other words into doubt¡­ while this was troubling I had already decided to help her and I wasn¡¯t one to go back on my word because of a childish prank, I really couldn¡¯t see her as a god. My musings more or less finished I started wondering what a soul mark was. However I figured that my soul mark was probably something like my fingerprint or DNA. I continued my musings while contemplating this strange little girl. Small tears were visible at the corners of her eyes as she pouted about the pain. To be honest it was pretty comical and a bit cute, purely in a little-sisterly way. I waited patiently as she recovered and dried her eyes. Once she had sufficiently recuperated I asked her what was next. Instead of replying she held out her hand, a ball of deep blue light radiated from her palm, gesturing for me to touch it. I reached out to touch the light, as my hand approached the light it started to float and gently drift towards my palm. They collided and I felt a feint warmness as the blue faded into my skin. Meril had a strange look on her face as she opened her mouth and said, ¡°That should help you get strong. Most lost souls are reincarnated as babies so they have time to build up their power and learn, but I¡¯m just going to let you enter my world so you¡¯re going to need all the advantages you can get¡± Her voice was strangely serious and most of what she said seemed to be her thinking out-loud. The whole thing seemed a bit out of character for the excitable little goddess. A minute passed and the serious expression passed with it. Excitedly Meril explained that the blue light would help me grow in power, she said it was something called siphon but she didn¡¯t explain much about what it actually did, mostly just said how I¡¯d become ¡®suuppperrr¡¯ strong. Eventually she exclaimed, ¡°Now you¡¯re ready to take on the monsters and save the world!¡± I let out an uncomfortable laugh. I¡¯d love to save the world but even with all her excited jabber I could say from experience, saving things isn¡¯t as easy as it sounds. I didn¡¯t tell her though, she probably would just reassure me that I would be able to do it, besides even if she did believe me it would just ruin her good mood. Meril opened a strange portal seemingly composed of gently floating black particles that condensed swirled creating strange vortex of darkness that starkly contrasted the blinding white of the rest of the world. A barely visible light danced around the middle of the portal. ¡°Good luck Aylo!!!!!!!¡± was the last thing I heard as I stepped into the portal. Chapter 3: Beginning I hope I did the right thing, was my first thought as I was swallowed by the inky blackness. ¡®Was there really any other choices?¡¯ Was my next thought as I felt the all too familiar feeling of falling. The sensation didn¡¯t last that long though, maybe five minutes spent watching the little dancing light grow steadily larger. The world flashed, blinding colors all around me greens blues browns all swirled in front of me. I closed my eyes to block out the disorienting colors and half sat half fell down. Slowly I opened my eyes squinting out at the blindingly colorful world. Soon the colors started making sense, grass, trees, an expansive blue sky all took form, the dull white clouds remained puffy and formless but that wasn¡¯t exactly surprising. I slowly looked around drinking in the natural beauty, a gust of wind swept over the patch of tall grass I was seated in. I shivered, the wind wasn¡¯t very cold but it must have blown right through my clothes¡­ clothes¡­ I was oddly calm as I looked down at my clearly clothes-less body, perhaps my mind was still overwhelmed by color, or perhaps I was just at the point where nothing could surprise me anymore but I just stared down at my bare skin. The sun was only half propped up over the horizon and the swaying grass still felt cool as it tickled my skin, even though the air was already warming up nicely. I roused myself and stopped looking at the fairly light tint of my skin, instead I looked around my immediate vicinity and saw a patch of depressed grass a couple feet in front of me. I stood up and made my way to the hole in the merrily waving grass stalks. I squinted down at what could only be described as a gift box. The shiny red wrapping and dark green ribbon seemed out of place in what otherwise seemed to be an untainted natural paradise. There was a small card attached to the green ribbon that fluttered excitedly in the inconsistent breeze. I knelt down by the rather Christmassy box and caught the fluttering card. ¡°HAPPY BIRTHDAY AYLO¡± was written in big bold text on the inner face of the card. I turned the card over to find, ¡°PS: It¡¯s really hard to send a lot of things into my world so I probably won¡¯t be able to send you anything else for a long time, so have fun! ¡®kay? ~Meril¡± After reading the overly peppy card part of me inexplicably wanted to hit my head against one of the trees that were growing in the near distance. Fortunately for my skull I was more curious about what was inside the sizeable box in front of me than I was ready to bash my head against a tree. I began to open the package in a flurry of flying ribbon and red paper. Before long a set of dark green clothing and a long rather thick black bladed sword. I jumped on the clothes like a pack of starving wolves on a fresh slab of meat. Dressed in the somewhat creepily well fitted clothes, I decided to take a look at the other contents of the box. Besides the heavy looking sword there was a smallish pack and a water canteen, both looked quite full. I opened the bag first, I found several packages of what I could only assume was food, a map and a small book labeled ¡°Welcome to Mord¡±. I took a sip from the canteen, water, at least my basic needs besides shelter were taken care of for a while at least. Finally I turned my attention to the sword, now that I really looked at it, the thing was menacing! The blade was not only thick but it wickedly curved as it tapered towards a razor sharp point. The handle was simple and wrapped in some black leather-looking material. Next to the sword sat a scabbard that was just as black as the sword. I picked up the scabbard and fastening the ebony belt just above my hip. I sighed and looked at the sword again, honestly, every time I looked at this thing it looked bigger, heavier and more unwieldy. Even so Meril literally asked me to come down here to kill monsters, going around without a weapon would be suicidal even if I wasn¡¯t thrilled have to cart a heavy metal weapon around, maybe I¡¯d be able to pick up magic, then I¡¯ll only have to carry around a stick. Another sigh slipped through my lips as I knelt down and firmly grabbed the hilt. A searing pain shot up my arm engulfing my entire body in a searing hell. The pain subsided an eternity later, or so I thought until I noticed that the sun hadn¡¯t changed positions in the sky. I contemplated the longest second I had ever lived through but my contemplation was interrupted by an incredibly deep smooth voice ¡°hello master¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I looked around for a moment before looking down at the sword in my hand. The blade was now covered in pulsing red veins. Trying and failing to suppress the exasperation in my voice I said ¡°let me guess, you¡¯re the sword.¡± ¡°Dunfor¡± I waited for a moment for the sword to elaborate¡­ is it a language I don¡¯t know or maybe its name? so I asked ¡°Is Dunfor your name?¡± The response came immediately ¡°yes¡± After taking a longing look at the trees I sheathed the sword and took stock of my situation quietly out loud ¡°so I have food water clothing and a blade that can talk to me¡­ there¡¯s also that book and map¡­ well that¡¯s about it¡­¡± I took out ¡®Welcome to Mord¡¯ and flipped to the first page of the book, well, it was more of a booklet. Its two sturdy covers seemed like overkill for the rather meager offering of pages betwixt them. I looked at the book skeptically before putting it back, it was more important to find shelter than read whatever Meril had written. I took out the map, I didn¡¯t have much hope that I¡¯d be able to find where I was on it, but it was worth a try. I unfolded the map, and looked around for a grassland by a forest. My face brightened in pure delight there was a tiny dot with my name next to it. While the map was very detailed it showed that the forest, the grassland and a river that wound its way through the grassland not too far from where I was. As I started walking I noticed that a tiny triangle faded in next to my dot. I quickly changed directions a couple times, watching the arrow closely. Each time I changed directions the arrow swiveled around my dot to point my new direction of travel. I directed my footsteps towards the river, making my way through the tall grass with long purposeful strides. I put the map away to stop myself from staring at my little dot approach the river. I had to remind myself that this was a world where there were monsters so I should probably be at least a little aware of my surroundings lest I die before killing even one. The river slowly came into view, it started out as a particularly large gap in the tall grass with some stone outcroppings scattered around. As I approached a stream of clear water glistening with reflected sunlight came into view. Before I knew it I was standing with my feet inches from the dancing stream. The ribbon of shimmering water was maybe twelve feet wide and a couple feet deep it was hard to tell since whenever I looked at the same spot too long I would be blinded by the sun¡¯s reflection. Even though the sun was still high in the sky I decided I should start looking for some shelter since I had found a source of presumably drinkable water. My eyes were drawn to the rock outcroppings that protruded from the grass at odd angles. I approached the nearest outcropping and found that it had a fairly large hollow in it. I was about to casually enter the grotto but then stopped for a moment, I slowly drew my sword, such a nice shelter was extremely likely to be occupied, and for the second time that day I reminded myself that this was not earth. I started moving slowly forward but stopped for a second time, would I be able to beat whatever monster inhabits this grotto? It would really be a shame to get reincarnated in a new world to just go and die on the first day because I had been too cavalier and tried to kill something way out of my league¡­ Then again if I were too scared to try anything then there would be no way that I¡¯d be able to save a damsel in distress from bandits, let alone save Meril. I half smiled that the first scenario that I thought about when I was in a fantasy world was saving a damsel in distress. Shaking my head to clear my mind I steeled myself and slowly, carefully proceeded towards the entrance to the grotto trying to keep my steps as quite as possible. The contents of the grotto were invisible, shrouded in deep shade. Step after step I grew closer to the jagged mouth of the cave. My fingers tightened around the hilt of my sword as I passed into the shadow of the inestimably tall bastion of rock. I slightly raised the sword as I stood directly in front of the maw of the stone lair before me. I summoned up my courage and stepped into the cave. Chapter 4: Grotto The musty scent of died grass invaded my nostrils as my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness inside the grotto. In¡­ and out¡­ I kept my breaths deep and regular keeping me calm. The pure black was now a sultry brown as I could just start to make out the contents of the cave. The ground was covered in grass, most of which was brown and dry but some fresh green stalks could be seen here and there. The walls were a cold grey stone speckled here and there with moss. Towards the back there was what looked like another room but my eyes still couldn¡¯t penetrate the darkness that pervaded its depths. I carefully scanned the room I was in several times but nothing caught my eye. The place seemed empty but the fresh stalks of grass on the ground made me think that this cave was definitely occupied by something. Whether it was here or not was not so clear. Not once had my fingers loosened around the hilt of my sword since I had entered the cave but with the danger seeming to not be in this room I lowered the tip of my blade a bit. A rustle from the inner room. My hands gripped convulsively on my sword. All my attention focused on dark arch, the entrance into the second room. I steeled myself, taking small steps towards the inner room. The contents of the room were just becoming visible as my eyes continued to adjust to oppressive darkness. Plant matter covered the floor even more deeply than in the previous room. Scattered and obscured in the dead grass were small white sticks, bones. They couldn¡¯t be from anything bigger than a rabbit, but this was definitely home to some kind of predator. Towards the back of the second room was a pile of grass. Another rustle. The pile of leaves seemed to shake ever so slightly. My instincts were screaming at me to run away, but I ignored them. If whatever was in the leaves were as dangerous as my instincts were telling me, running would be pointless. All but holding my breath I drew ever closer to the pile of leaves. Then I saw it. In the dried grass stalks lay a Lynx, about a meter from the tip of its snout to the end of its stubby tail. Its lithe body covered in soft greenish brown fur, well adapted to the grassland outside. The predatory cat¡¯s sharp features were relaxed as it slept, completely oblivious to my presence. Even in this defenseless state the cat seemed more dangerous than any animal I had encountered on earth, its well defined muscles and sharp half retracted claws left no doubt who would win in a fair fight. Luckily for me, this wouldn¡¯t be a fair fight. I stood over the cat and carefully aimed the sword between the cat¡¯s head and body, I hoisted up the blade as high as I could and brought it down with all my might onto the defenseless cat¡¯s neck. The blade barely made it three quarters of the way through the thick muscle of the lynx¡¯s neck before getting firmly stuck. The cat¡¯s eyes opened wide and looked straight at me. I let go of the blade and retreated to the first room of the cave, the lynx managed to get to its feet, the sword dragging on the ground as it dragged itself towards me.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Blood poured from the mostly severed neck, leaving a trail of crimson on the dried grass behind it. I had no idea how this monster could still be alive, but I was fairly sure that it would die of blood loss before long; all I had to do was stay out of its reach. I kited the lynx around the first chamber watching as the life slowly faded from its dangerous golden eyes. After what seemed like an eternity dodging around the edges of the grotto a soft thud greeted my ears as the lynx crumpled to the ground, the light in its eye all but extinguished. I approached the dying predator cautiously. Grabbing my sword I gave it a yank finally pulling it free of the animal¡¯s neck. I was rewarded with one final spray of blood as the last remnants of life faded from the monster¡¯s eyes. A wave of strength and confidence flowed through me, it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I felt like I could take on the world and win now, I looked at my figure, expecting to see rippling muscles, nothing. My body looked no different than it had before killing the monster. Was the feeling of strength just an illusion? I killed something strong so now I think I¡¯m strong? That was a dangerous line of thought and I knew it, even if I had killed something stronger than me I had definitely not ¡®beaten¡¯ it, I mean the thing survived the most lethal hit I could think of executed with all my strength. The more I thought about it the more I felt how lucky I was to still be alive. I skinned the cat using Dunfor, if fantasy novels and anime had taught me anything it was that monster parts were worth money, something I would probably need once I started visiting towns. While I thought about taking other monster parts as well I didn¡¯t know what was valuable and what wasn¡¯t and the claws and teeth didn¡¯t seem large enough to be particularly valuable. I folded up the hide that I had, rather unskillfully, separated from the cat, I placed it in my bag and pulled out the book and made my way towards the cave entrance where there would be the most light to read in. The sun was already descending towards the horizon, I had no idea how long a day was nor how long I had been kiting away from the cat waiting for it to die. I opened the book, I figured I¡¯d probably be able to read at least the first couple pages, probably about half the book, before it got dark. I sat down in the soft carpet of grass and stared at the cover of Welcome to Mord, the hard leather binding was a bit rough in my hand as I wondered what Meril thought should go in a guidebook. I sighed, there really was only one way to find out. I slipped my finger between the dark brown covers and pulled them apart. With my back against the rough wall of the grotto I settled in to read Welcome to Mord. Chapter 5: Dusk On the first page the tittle was repeated in bold text, and below it was a line of text that read ¡°A book of things that every five year old in my world knows¡±. As annoying as that subscript was¡­ I had to admit that I probably did know less about this world than your average five year old. After using this reasoning to swallow my annoyance I flipped the page and began reading what I hoped would be a well written, informative manual on this world. The first page briefly described that the world was run by monarchal governments where the tittle of monarch was passed down by blood. The drawing of a stick-man with a crown sat in the dead center of the page. I inwardly groaned, she had drawn me a picture book. I decided I¡¯d act as if the pictures didn¡¯t exist. The next page talked about the fact that there were five seasons, each corresponding to when some common crop could be planted, or when no crop should be planted in the case of ¡®frost-time¡¯. The name of the seasons had two parts, the first part being what crop grew in that season, which would change from town to town. The second part was simply the word ¡°time¡±. The year was also divided into ten months, two for each season, the reason for this was apparently that each season could yield two harvests, so they divided each season into two. The months name were woefully uninspired as they were just the name of the season with first or second harvest appended to the end. The next page was talking about family structure, skipped. How to open and close doors and windows, skipped. A short list of nursery rhymes, skipped. Skipped,skipped,skipped. I was almost ready to toss the useless thing into the river with all the ¡®practical 5 year old knowledge¡¯ when finally found something I was looking for, a section on magic. I took a pause to swear on anything that was holy in that world, if this section was as useless as the rest of the book¡­ I interrupted my train of thought and started to read; if the book was useless then swearing wouldn¡¯t make it any less useless. ¡°Magic is a super cool power that everyone has! On a human¡¯s fifth birthday they are given the light test called ¡®the light test¡¯. The light test is a simple test where the young human is instructed to use the Illuminate spell by chanting some weird string of words; I don¡¯t know why, all they have to do is know what they want to happen and have the mana to do it. Anyway they do this in a very dark room where the only light is a candle. If their light spell is stronger than the candle then they are eligible for more schooling. About one third of human children will pass this test, and the ones that do are trained for two years, until they¡¯re seven, at which point they must find a master for the next five years. Once they are twelve, assuming they have been an apprentice for at least four years they can apply to a magic university. They can stay at a magic university working towards graduation for as long as they can pay tuition. To graduate from a magic university you must pass their graduation test. The test varies from university to university, usually the more prestigious the university, the harder the test.¡±If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The poor drawings of what I assumed was supposed to be a magic university did nothing but waste space where more information could be. In the end the only valuable information was that I didn¡¯t need chants for magic and that there are magic universities, though even the magic university information was of dubious usefulness seeing as they accept twelve year olds. I resisted the urge to try to use magic, opting instead to finish what I started while there was still some daylight. After the magic page there were a few pages about the most basic healing herbs and some edible berries that could be found pretty prevalently. As the last rays of sun were slowly fading over the horizon I reached the last page. The header ready simply ¡°Aylo¡±. My curiosity piqued I began to carefully read this page, ¡°You, Aylo, are now a free soul in a world and an ally to the world¡¯s god. That technically makes you a demigod, but don¡¯t let it go to your head because you¡¯re not really invincible and when you enter the world you¡¯ll probably be about as strong as your average ten year old.¡± I could easily see Meril giggling uncontrollably as she wrote that¡­ anyway the next part was much more interesting stating, ¡°Since you¡¯re technically a demigod you can change how old you are whenever you want, happy birthday! Oh and treat Dunfor well, he¡¯ll grow along with you¡­ and I completely forgot to tell you what siphon does¡­ well I don¡¯t really remember all that well anyway¡­ but basically if you kill stuff you get stronger¡­ anyway have fun!!!¡± This information would probably have been useful before I jumped into the portal but better late than never I guess. It was also a bit annoying that she neglected putting in how to change my appearance but I decided I¡¯d try using my imagination like how magic was supposed to work. But that was for tomorrow, I was tired and there was a nice nest of straw deep in this cave that was looking quite inviting right about now. I closed the book and looked around for my bag as the last ray of sunlight left the sky. It took a solid couple minutes of groping around before I found it, then another minute to fumble it open and shove the book in the full bag and fasten it shut again. I stood up and placed my hand on the wall following it around towards the back of the cave. I tread carefully, squinting to try to see any rocks protruding from the ground. The wind blew steadily outside and an occasional distant sounding howl could be heard, though I had whether it was the wind or a beast. Before entering the inner room of the cave I took a glance at the cave entrance just in time to see a big blue moon rise over the horizon. A slight smile flitted over my face, a real fantasy world, who would¡¯ve guessed. I made my way around to the back of the second chamber the same way I had the first and carefully lay on the pile of grass. My eyes slowly closed my mind began to wander, possibilities abounded, a new world¡­ a new¡­ world¡­ my mind became heavier as I drifted off into the realm of dreams. Chapter 6: Clean Groaning, I slowly opened my eyes and rolled over. The dry rustle of dead plants rubbing up against each other filled my consciousness¡­ I thought it odd that my bed so much harder and the smell was all wrong¡­ It took me several seconds to register the rough stone above me. Then it all came back, at first my mind tried to convince me that it was all a particularly realistic dream, but looking around me made it clear enough. A couple faces passed through my mind some names of people I would never see again, it had never truly sunk in; everything had moved so fast it had been overwhelming so I had just gone numb, gone with the flow, just superficially accepted that ¡®oh this is a new world, how cool and not scary at all¡¯. But now I had a moment to take a breath and look back at what had happened¡­ and realize how crazy it all was, how utterly terrifying. I kept my breathing measured and deep, successfully keeping myself as calm as could be expected given the situation. I was in a new Fucking world!! It was still hard to believe, I mean sure the lynx was unnaturally tenacious managing to live for such a long time with a half severed head, but there to this point there hasn¡¯t been anything that screamed new world¡­ well besides Dunfor, but he talked one time so my mind probably just chalked it up to a hallucination. Speaking about Dunfor¡­ I picked up the blade that I had left out of its scabbard some blood had dried on the blade causing bits of grass and dirt to stick to it. I contemplated the sword, turning it over in my hands a few times before asking it ¡°how¡¯re you doing Dunfor¡± Nothing, not a sound escaped the sword for what seemed like an eternity before finally he spoke. Well spoke is a bit generous he said a grand total of two words, ¡°I¡¯m Dirty¡± well I guess you could argue three words if you counted the contraction as two but the point stands. I really didn¡¯t know how to respond to his statement. After a long moment I simply apologized and thought about how to clean him, it would be good to do something with my hands to keep the panic that was currently threatening to sweep me into hysterics. Tearing my mind away from the whole panic thing I realized my sword cleaning resources were rather limited including only: Grass, rocks and a river. The lynx¡¯ blood was coated pretty thickly so grass would probably not be terribly effective so I opted for water and rocks. I walked out of the cave and was temporarily blinded by the midmorning sunlight streaming directly into my eyes. Shading my eyes as best I could with my hand I walked to the gently flowing river. I knelt down by the sparkling waters and submerged Dunfor¡¯s blade. A few specks of dirt and a stalk of grass or two came off but the sword was hardly clean. So I picked up a rock from the riverbed and began to run it along the blood covered blade. This method wasn¡¯t terribly effective ether, only a small clump of bloody dirt and grass came off with each stroke of the rock. I persevered in my cleaning of the sword and in twenty minutes or so the blade was free of any large clumps of blood. The little that remained I managed to scrub off with some grass that I gathered from the nearby meadow. Satisfied with my blade cleaning, and having significantly recovered from my near hysteric meltdown, I pondered what to do next when I heard a deep rumble. I realized that I hadn¡¯t eaten all of yesterday and hadn¡¯t drank nearly enough water. Now that I knew this I became acutely aware of the gnawing pain in my stomach that I had somehow not noticed until now. I walked, somewhat hurriedly, back to the grotto I had conquered, threw the newly cleaned Dunfor into his sheathe and plopped down next to my bag to see what was for breakfast. The food in the bag consisted of two parts some condensed mush and one part dried meat. I tried a bit of the mush, it was bland, very bland, but it filled me up surprisingly quickly; I had only eaten about two mouthfuls before the gnawing pain in my stomach was completely gone, after a moment I even felt a little bloated as if the stuff had expanded in my stomach.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I examined my food supplies a little more closely and found that with the amount of the mush I had I could easily live for two to three weeks and if the meat stuff was anything like the mush I could go for even longer. Not having to worry about food took a weight off my mind that I hadn¡¯t even known was there. Ever since it had sunk in that this was truly a different world magic had been at the back of my brain, hack it was probably there before but my practical earth brain just ignored it. I wanted to learn magic, badly. The part about being able to change my age was pretty interesting too, but let¡¯s be real here, magic. Need I say more? So this left me facing a rather puzzling question¡­ how does one do magic? The only real information I had to go on was the bit in Meril¡¯s book I had taken note of, since I wasn¡¯t subconsciously looking at it as a work of fiction anymore I quickly read through the section on magic again. I put the book down, closed my eyes, and tried ¡®knowing what I wanted to happen¡¯ whatever that means. Unsurprisingly no ball of light appeared before me, I had suspected that magic was a little more complicated than that. While I hadn¡¯t given up I decided to try the whole age change thing, maybe it was easier. I once again closed my eyes. I tried to imagine myself as a five year old. I stayed like that for a solid five minutes before opening my eyes and realizing the grotto looked significantly larger than it had before. For some reason my clothes weren¡¯t baggy though¡­. Must be some magic or other. Honestly my mind kind of glanced over that fact as I rushed to the river to see the results of my transformation. As I intently stared down at the water gathered in my hands I saw a youthful face staring back¡­ Success!! I went back to my cave smiling from ear to ear. I don¡¯t know if this was considered magic or not, but to me I had just cast my first successful spell. Running off the excitement from my success I ate half a mouthful of the mush and drank a large quantity of water from my canteen before sitting cross-legged in the middle of the first room to try magic again. I tried to do the same thing I had done with the transformation. I opened my eyes expectantly to find¡­ nothing. I tried again five or six more times before I accepted that I must be doing something fundamentally wrong. Unfortunately I had no way to know what. Luckily for me there were people in this world who did know and just happened to teach it to children around five years of age. Knowing that such people lived in towns I came to a decision. Taking out the map and squinted at it, but the sunlight was again fading from the heavens so I couldn¡¯t make out the finer details of the. I decided that I would hit my little hay pile early and I could figure out the specifics of how I would proceed. All I knew was that I was going to go on a grand adventure.