《The First Life's The Hardest》 CH 0 The New Soul In the grand cosmos sat the gods and goddesses overlooking the glowing river of souls flowing towards the world of Havre. Picking and choosing soul¡¯s to enhance for no other reason than to make Havre interesting to watch. ¡°Oh what do we have here?¡± Rhonda said as she plucked a frosty white soul from the stream of souls as it tried to hide. Now Rhonda had a wide heart shaped face with a rounded chin and soft completion. Her light gray eyes were big and bright, wide set under high curved eyebrows and a little button nose. Her full soft lips sat neatly under her nose, with her chestnut brown hair hung down with slight curls as they cascaded onto her back. She was a beautiful woman tall with generous curves while being well toned with a strong build. She stood tall and proudly in her baby blue toga embroidered with fiery gold depictions of war and wolfs on the rim. She had a crystal blue crown in the shape of a reef on her head and a great white wolf lying by her feet. ¡°A new soul with no claim from another god. Today must be my lucky day hehehe.¡± Rhonda smiled with a wicked grin that could scare any grown man. She hadn¡¯t seen a new soul in a few hundred thousand years, let alone one that wasn¡¯t claimed by another god. The sight of her smile made the soul start to shake in her palm. ¡°Why do you shake little one? Do you fear that I will keep you here and never let you go?¡± Suddenly the soul stopped its quivering and dimmed a bit as it tried to hide in itself. ¡°Hahaha, aww little one I have no intention to keep you here for more than a few moments. You see I think that you deserve to live your first life to the fullest. So I wish to give you a little gift then send you on your merry little way.¡± At those words the soul brightened up and shuck more furiously than before just like a child after getting a new toy. ¡°Well aren¡¯t you just a ball of excitement. I wonder what type of gift will suit you best little one.¡± As the goddess¡¯s thoughts wondered the little soul started to dance in the palm of her hand. It slowly changed its color from a frosty white to a bright yellow to a deep blue than back to the frosty white it had started at. Rhonda didn¡¯t even notice as see continued to search her mind for the best blessing she could possible give to this new soul. As time rolled on the soul stopped dancing and sat on the goddess¡¯s index finger waiting for her to bless it. It started to dim even more as time passed and started to consider leaving Rhonda. As it was about to jump off of her hand she squealed like an exited teenage girl. ¡°eeee! I found it I found the perfect fit for you little one.¡± There was a slight gleam in her eye as if she wanted to be praised for her accomplishment. A wide grin plastered on her face. This woke the wolf that sat by her feet, which in turn glared at her. Then looked around trying to figure out why her master was so excited. Only to notice the small soul that sat in Rhonda¡¯s hand. ¡°Oh sorry Moilf. I didn¡¯t mean to wake you from you sleep.¡± Slowly Moilf began to sniff the soul to better examine it for its potential and compatibility towards her. The little soul froze instantly for a time then slowly inched towards Moilf until she nudged it playfully back as if it where her own cub. ¡°Hmm, well aren¡¯t you one peculiar soul. To even have Moilf take an interest in you is almost unheard of. Well no matter that will only cause you to be greater. Well now for the blessing I will give you.¡± As Rhonda said this the soul glowed brightly again and hop up and down with pure anticipation. This made Rhonda laugh and Moilf to wage her tail unconsciously. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°So you want to know what you going to get?¡± Rhonda said as she teased the excitable soul. This made the soul stop hoping up and down while it changed its glow to one of annoyance. ¡°ok ok sorry. I don¡¯t get many chances to tease anyone fun so please forgive my habit.¡± The soul only turns around and slowly begins to return back to its original glow. ¡°Please. I promise to not do it again.¡± After a little time passes the soul is back to its original color and glow eagerly waiting for its blessing. ¡°Thank you for forgiving me. Now on to the blessing this blessing will allow you like most other blessings remember your past life. But since this is your fist life it will just make you more aware of what¡¯s going on around you and allow you to absorb information and retain it as well. The other part of the blessing allows you to enhance your body permanently in minor ways or major ones if you can unlock them and handle the pain of a forced change on the body.¡± Once Rhonda finished telling the soul what the blessing would do she began forming magic circle upon magic circle over and over until the blessing was formed. As soon as she released the mana into the circles the soul started to grow and take in condensed mana particles from the circles around it, while the circles collected more condensed mana particles that where floating around the cosmos. This only took an instant because if it was held out any longer the soul would explode or turn into the mana particles it absorbed. ¡°Now little one you must remember this one thing above all else we have talked about. When you begin your life you must become strong and build a place for you to call home even if you have to overcome the Havre itself.¡± ¡°Arh-wooooooooo¡± As soon as Moilf howled a circle appeared in front of the soul and marked it with a howling wolf. When Rhonda saw that she noticed that another mark was on the soul that depicted an axe and spear crossing each other, which was her mark that claimed that soul. After a moment the soul started to quiver and shake as the two marks moved towards each other. Once the two claiming marks touched they fused together and formed a new mark of a wolf howling with weapons protruding from its body formed. Then the soul became dull on the edges but had a faint glow inside and looked like it was about to shatter. ¡°What nothing can change claims? How did this happen? I must find out. Little one you can¡¯t go yet it¡¯s too dangerous.¡± But it was too late it was already being pulled towards Havre to be born. After all once a soul has been marked it is sent strait to Havre to live there life. But Rhonda and Moilf ran after it hoping that they could catch it and stop it. But as it got faster they became tiered and could only yell to it. ¡°Oh little one there is no time. Why can¡¯t I just bring you back and remove the mark. Oh why did this happen?¡± ¡°Arh-Woooooooooo¡± Rhonda and Moilf yelled at the soul in there last ditch effort to speak to the young soul. But the soul was speeding up and getting farther and farther away from them. ¡°Little one you must not forget to survive and build a home for yourself. You understand.¡± Rhonda screamed in the last attempt to be heard. And then it was gone. Rhonda and Moilf went to their home with regret filled hearts. But with their claim marks warped they could no longer track it like usual. They could not track the soul they were so fond of or see its first moments of its new life on Havre. But they were determined to find it and see the type of life it lived. CH 1 Not Quite Born Yet.... CH1 -??? POV- What is this feeling? It¡¯s like a pleasant light burning and slimy sensation surrounds me. And why has my range of perception shrank and formed to such a weird shape? And what¡¯s making that thumping sound that keeps going ba-bum-ba-bum? Why does it feel so familiar and comforting? Wait I can¡¯t sense the other souls around me! Ok calm down they must be playing a prank on me because I¡¯m new that¡¯s it. ¡­ Ok let¡¯s see if I can find them. Uhh. Hey how come I can¡¯t move? What¡¯s going on! This isn¡¯t a prank any more. Where am I? Aww I can¡¯t remember what happened to me other than a lovely face chasing after me yelling ¡°home¡±. Why was she crying I wonder and why would she chase me. Since it¡¯s the one of the only thoughts I have I must never forget it. I wonder what else I remember¡­ Well thankfully I still remember how to think otherwise I wouldn¡¯t even be me anymore. And I know that I¡¯m a soul waiting in line to be born¡­ So that¡¯s what this is I¡¯ve been born finally! But the other souls said that they forget everything when there born again. I must be a supper soul hahaha. Or was one¡­ Hummm I wonder what I am now? And where is everybody else? Shouldn¡¯t there be more of my kind? ¡­ Ugh I¡¯m bored the things keep poking me but I don¡¯t know where they come from. Well I guess I¡¯ll just have to wait until something new happens. And like any normal soul waiting in the cosmos I¡¯m going to absorb the natural mana that¡¯s around me. Whoa there isn¡¯t much mana around me at all it seems. And the mana that is around me feels so familiar but really cold. I wonder if all mana has a different type of sensation to them? Whoa did everything just shake I wonder what that was? And the thumping is speeding up? Weird, Oh well might as well keep gathering mana. ¡­ Ahh what¡¯s this pain in my core I can¡¯t concentrate. Aww somthing southing is flowing into me and making the pain go away. What a nice feeling. Well might as well start to absorb mana again. Whoa what is with this shaking? And now the thumping speed up again just after it got back to its steady beat again. I wonder if that¡¯s normal around here. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡­ Ohhh no my lower core feels like it¡¯s going to explode. This is even worse than when the core hurt the first time. Wait something is taking the pain away. Aww that feels much better I¡¯m glad that passed. Now I can gather mana again. But it¡¯s weird the mana doesn¡¯t seem to stay contained inside very well. I guess there¡¯s nothing I can do about it except to keep gathering mana. Really another quake I wish they would just stop. ¡­ Ok nothing¡¯s happened in a while except my range of perception has continued to grow at its own pace without me noticing, and those weird quakes and the alternating of discomfort in my mid then lower core refuse to stop. And there always in that order, I wonder why? But it¡¯s so boring in here and no matter how much mana I try to gather none of it stays and it¡¯s just released out again. And then the world shakes for no reason. I¡¯m going to see if I can move again. It has been a while so maybe I can move now. Hmmm it seems that I can move specific parts of my body separately from each other. It¡¯s as if I¡¯m not a sphere core anymore. But if I¡¯m not a sphere core anymore what could I possibly be the only beings that have none core bodies are the gods, goddess, and the cosmic beasts. I wish there was another soul around to talk to. But then again they all told me to enjoy my first life and all the surprises it held or started to glow menacingly and try to absorb me. I¡¯m glad no one is trying to absorb me here or else I wouldn¡¯t¡­ Actually what would happen to me? No matter I like it here with the constant da-dum¡¯s. . . . Well it seems my body is made up of five extensions out of my main core. Four of those can bend at three places. While the last one only has one place it can actively bend at. It took a while to find out all the bendy point because I couldn¡¯t extend them at all and after I moved a little bit I would loss control over my body and could not feel anything for a while. At those times I would see the goddess¡¯s crying face for a little bit without me even trying to make it appear. Then the memory would disappear and I would have control over my body again. I don¡¯t know how many times that happened but I know I won¡¯t forget the goddess¡¯s face now. At least her crying one. ¡­ Whoa what going on? Why is it getting so tight in here? And why am I turning over? Yes it¡¯s opening up I¡¯m free. Wait what¡¯s that light? Ahh what¡¯s that awful sensation that just got into me? How did it get into me? And what is this burning I¡¯m feeling in two round spots on my fat extension? Ahhhh why does it hurt so much? ¡°Wouaaa wouaaa¡± ahhhhhhhhhh Ch 2 Whats happening!!! Hey so quick note. I plan to wright for as long as I can but life comes first so I might not be very consistent in my releases. And I promise now that if I do decide to end this novel I¡¯ll end it the right way. With a real ending, I don¡¯t plan on just disappearing. And thanks you for caring. Ch2 -Nanook Vintersmed¡¯s POV- ¡°AHHHHHHH¡± ¡°Wouaaa wouaaa¡± Aww my wife has finely given birth. The midwives quickly wash him and wrap him in a towel. Then hand him to me to give to my wife. ¡°A healthy boy, you must be proud.¡± One of them says to me. ¡°Hm¡± I respond curtly as I quickly go to my wife. ¡°Wouaaa¡± ¡°Look Marte. It¡¯s a healthy boy.¡± I holler as tears stream down my eyes. ¡°Huff hoo huff. That¡¯s great honey. Bring him to me.¡± ¡°Yes dear¡± I said as I cared our new son to her. He wailed like a banshee the whole way. ¡°Wouaa omp gulpgulp gulp¡± ¡°There there my son, everything will be all right.¡± Aww its over it¡¯s all over. These past seven months have been some of the hardest months of my life as I watched my wife suffer in bed. When she got pregnant she was fine for the first two months and showed all the regular signs of pregnancy and was faring better then she had before. But then an everlasting cold came and all she could do was lie in bed and wait for it to pass. It was awful she would start to feel better right after eating and before going to the bathroom. But then she would collapse right after and we would have to carry her to her room. She could little work since we feared for her life. This hurt her pride the most as she was known as one of the best caretakers in town. She palled considerable over the course of five months and shrank little by little even though she was eating more then she had ever before. Those five months all I thought about was how I could help her get better. But all I could do was watch and wonder about how much pain she bore. We live on the border of civilization and many people fear us so no one would come to help even if we offered all the gold we had. So my son Jager and I tried our best to run the house and care for Marte as best as we could. Jager took up any small job he could do as a five year old from cleaning others homes to working on their farms, while I went out into the forest to hunt for meant and medical herbs. And then it happened, the child started to move. Marte¡¯s cold went down considerably but she was incredibly weak and could barely move after the months of bed rest. As time passed the light came back to Marte¡¯s skin and the child moved more often. Every once in a while the cold would come back but it never lasted. We thanked the gods for their mercy many times within those final two months. Jager had to go on his right of passage four days ago even though he wanted to see his mother through her birth. He had just turned five a month before and we could not put it off anymore or he would have been expelled from the village. But he held up his head and shook his tars away so that we would not worry for him. He will make a fine man one day. ¡°Nanook, can you take our son? It seems like he has calmed down now. And you haven¡¯t stopped looking at us this whole time.¡± ¡°Haha, I was only watching a Valkyrie feed her child.¡± I say as I take our new son. He has a pudgy face and a squishy nose. He is bright pink everywhere and has a slight glow about him. He is very heave for his size so he must be healthy. And it feels like there is a little bit of muscle under all the fat on him. And a strange mark sat on his left shoulder too small to see clearly but in time will grow clear and might cover his shoulder completely. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°So what should we name him dear?¡± ¡°Hummm. How about Martoel.¡± ¡°Aww what a great name for a strong baby boy. You must become strong Martoel and live up to this name and support your father.¡± ¡°In due time honey, in due time.¡± ¡­ -Martoel POV- Ahhhhhhhhhh What are these things doing to me? Where did the warmth go? And how come there are these visions coming to so easily to me? And why are you so big? Wait is this where I will spend the rest of my life, out here in the open space, with these constant visions. At least I am still in control of my body. Awwww that feels good. The warmth is coming back. Hey what did you put on me? Never mind this thing feels so comfortable. ¡°i5s @ H3l1e d09¡± ¡°Hm¡± What did they just say? And what is that thing. It¡¯s huge and hairy. With ash brown hair to his shoulders slightly braided at the ends and a full beard to his chest. He has dark blue eyes like the night sky firmly set in place and a rosy red nose slightly poking out from behind all that hair. He looks quite broad and stands upright with a strong air around him. Alert with every muscle on his body slightly bulging as he slowly takes me. ¡°Hey what are you? Where are you taking me? Answer me.¡± ¡°lu3k hu*8 @ k#lt9 b09¡± ¡°What? What did you just say?¡± ¡°Huff hoo huff %h@st ge8 h0r@( b*n5 in H9r.¡± ¡°y7 da8¡± ¡°What are you doin...¡± Hey I¡¯m not in control anymore what¡¯s going on why am I latching on to this creature with the opening on my odd extension¡­ Muuuum. What is this wonderful sensation entering my body? And how did my body know to do that. And how can this beautiful creature know what my body wants. Well she is beautiful with her golden blond hair that frames her pail face squarely flowing gently around herself. She has a round face with strong cheek bones and a curved chin, with a wide smile on her face with soft pink lips. Her eyes are light blue like a clear sky and a short nose gradually curving into her face perfectly. She lay there looking quite thin but with a little residual muscle still there for some reason. She had an elegant air about her even though she looked quite worn down. And seemed to be only a little shorter than the man but it was hard to tell with her laying down. And she was quite generous in the curves that I happened to be resting on. Aww I could get used to a life full of this sweet nectar. Laying on this soft bulgy thing listening to the familiar ¡°Ba-bum-ba-bum¡± I wonder if that was her all that time? So what caused the shaking then? I now know where the ¡°Ba-bum¡¯s¡± come from so what made those happen I wonder. Oh well I¡¯ll find out eventually but for now I just feel heavy and slow. Wait am I fading again? I haven¡¯t moved that much though. Oh well it¡¯s not like I can control it. I¡¯ll just have to solve that mystery as well. Ch 3 Through the Hole. CH 3 Four weeks later -Martoel POV- I haven¡¯t found out much about my race but I think I¡¯m starting to understand what the others are saying. My birth lady keeps feeding me and strokes my head gently saying things that sooth me when I cry, even though I don¡¯t know what she¡¯s saying it feels nice. The hairy man comes when it is becomes dark and leaves when it grows bright. Always eating with us but not from my birth lady, it seems that when we grow big we have to eat from other sources instead of our birth lady. Oh yeah, Eating is when our race puts things in there big hole on the top extension and don¡¯t let it run out of it. It¡¯s kinda like the souls that tried to absorb me when I was a soul. Also it seems that they do this three times before we all fall unconscious. Once right when it grows bright, once when it¡¯s bright out, and once when it has gone back to darkness. It also seems like the big ones can control when they go unconscious, but only a little bit. But it seems that only birth lady and hairy man come here every dark time. Sometimes other ladies come to talk to birth lady. I don¡¯t know what they talk about but I recognize one word constantly and that¡¯s Martoel. Then they look at me like I know what¡¯s going on. But I don¡¯t and hey lady you said the word not me you should know what it means. The other words I have started to pick up on are Marte, Nanook, baby, cute, let¡¯s eat, and night. But I don¡¯t know what any of them mean and I can¡¯t ask. I¡¯ve tried but birth lady just shakes her top extension and laughs. But for the past few glowing periods Birth lady has begun to look more and more worried. And the Hairy man keeps stroking her head like she does to me. I wonder if that¡¯s how your supposed to calm others down. Once I can move a bit bigger I¡¯ll try it. It is much harder to move out here than when I was inside birth lady. But I can now move extremely slowly. I scoot around and can only go about half of one of their steps before I start to loss control. But it¡¯s pretty easy I yell when I feel pain in my core when it¡¯s empty. And birth lady somehow can always tell when my lower core explodes. When that happens I am taken out of the thing that covers most of me and put in a new thing. Then I am either set on the ground or put in the holder birth lady has for me to be in. I like the ground more I can try to move there. While I can only absorb mana when I¡¯m in the holder. It seems like I can store more mana now that I¡¯m out but when I do it hurts a little bit all over my outer layer. Aww the hairy man is back again I wonder if he will hold me today. I really hope not his hair is scratchy, he is hard, uncomfortable, and he doesn¡¯t feel good at all, unlike birth lady. But when he holds me I can see everything from really high up. It¡¯s a little scary but mostly it just leaves me amazed at how small everything becomes when he holds me. ¡°hello hairy man¡± ¡°ae3 Martoel h3w er yu¡± He replied excitedly barley paying attention to me. As he heads over to birth lady in a hurry. I wonder what all the fuss is about? ¡°hets J@gheIr ha es b@ket.¡± Hairy man says to birth lady. ¡°Aww mi s0on es b@ket. Finley b@ket. Hoy es eh?¡± ¡°gud gud eh es ihg eind strhunge. Eh wll becumn ge8t.¡± ¡°weann wll eh git hoom?¡± ¡°wi wll goo ce im en da morrden. Ess a famellie.¡± I wonder what they are talking about they seem to be really excited. Well I guess I¡¯ll try to move again until birth lady comes to give me that wonderful liquid that she has hidden. No matter where I look I can¡¯t find anything that resembles what I say come out when it leaks out after I fell that I should stop. Oh look here she comes. Aww please let me eat. I want to taste it again. ¡°oopse dassies¡± She says as she picks me up. And as soon as I¡¯m close I latch on. I never want to lose this. Aww all done. I release from her and she instantly starts to rub and pat my back while she gently rocks back and forth. Aww when I lose control of my body this way it feels alright. ¡­ Once I had regained control of my body I noticed that hairy man and birth lady where up and moving around preparing many things for some reason. It was only just starting to glow and they had bags full of things ready to go. ¡°Where are we going?¡± I said to no avail. Then birth lady came towards me after she had heard my question even if she didn¡¯t understand. She brought lots of clothe that I wore with her. After she picket e up she started to wrap me up layer after layer. All the while she spoke sweetly to me about something that I couldn¡¯t understand saying. ¡°wi er goong tu meit yur illdre brutheir J@gheIr tudaie. Ha es a gud booy. I hoop yu tu ghet alung. Et wll tak soom tiem tug het tu da vielaje su ples b a gud booy fur mumya.¡± I had no clue what she said but I knew that it mattered to her so I will try to not be in the way. After she had finished wrapping me up she hung me on her back. She started to head for the hole that hairy man and others came from. And I saw that hairy man had all the stuff on his back as well and a large shiny stick in his hand with two curving edges at one end. I wonder what that is used for? Then we went through the hole. Once we were outside the hole I saw amazing things. The first was the ground mound we lived in. it was three times as tall as hairy man. It had lots of brown lines and circles on the top half and on the bottom half it had many small grey bulges all over the surface of it. Then I looked up, there where white fluffy things far above us and a flat layer of pure mana above that. Or at least that¡¯s what it looked like. There were even some beasts up there going wherever thy pleased. Then I saw something up there that made my eyes hurt so I looked away and refused to look up again. But the ground was amazing to it was covered in a solid crust of white that broke at every step birth lady and hairy man took. Then there where the pokey hair towers of green that shot out of the ground ether in large groups or by themselves. Sometimes I would even see a large pokey brown stick stand out of the ground. On occasion I would see a white blob of hair run away from us. I think it is another type of beast, one that can¡¯t touch the mana up there. As they moved more I could hear birth lady¡¯s da-dum¡¯s get faster and faster as she got slower and slower. Then we would stop for a time while the big people eat and check on me. I wonder if they think I could escape from this. Then hairy man would ask birth mother something like ¡°er yu uk tu goo ageen?¡± And she would shake her top extension up and down in response. As they moved they said many things. J@gheIr was said the most, I wounder what that means? They talked the entire time as they moved, as I tried to learn as many of the words as I could, but it was hard and I couldn¡¯t learn many. Eventually we came to a stop and I saw a large vertical grey and brown ground going in both directions. It was so big that I couldn¡¯t see ether end. Then we went through a huge hole in the side of the ground. There where shiny men standing by the hole with long sticks with pointy ends. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Once we were through I noticed that there was no ground above us even though we went through a hole. Then I noticed lots of ground mounds every were that looked like our ground mound did. There were other big people moving about, all varying in size, shape, and color. There were others like me on ladies backs and a few slightly bigger ones were running around. There were wide men and short women, rough men and fragile women. No matter where I looked I could see a different face and being, all of them were unique. We continued to move until we came to an opening with a large round rock slab in the middle of the opening. There were three other openings between the ground mounds that lots of my kind were moving around in. Then I noticed that one mound was very different from all the rest in this place. It was taller and had many colorful things hanging off of it. It had a curve to it from the ground to a meeting point above the large hole in the center on the mound. As we moved through the crowd I noticed that we were getting closer and closer to the strange looking mound. Once we reached the hole I noticed that there were more shiny men standing by the hole. We didn¡¯t stop this time and just went through the hole. Once inside there were many things hanging above us the glowed. There were also lots of colorful things hanging above us as well. There were only a few of our kind around. But I noticed an imposing man standing in front of a big shiny chair. He had grey hair and a long beard as well as green eyes. And he had defined muscles as well as scares covering his arms and he was even a little taller than hairy man. And he had an air of dignified power around him. Next to him was a boy just taller than half the man¡¯s height. He had curly ash brown hair that reached the top of his shoulders and dark blue eyes that shown like a gem. He had a few muscles but none of them were very defined. He was covered in dirt and grim and had torn his clothes and had scratches all over his body. He looked worn and battered but he still had desire in his eyes. ¡°wealucme hoem J@gheir.¡± Birth lady said in a loving voice. I don¡¯t know what expression she had on. But I think she was happy. ¡°muthier! Yu heav gievn birth.Wy er yu heyr? Yu shood b risteng et hoem.¡± He said in a surprise way, than his voice changed to one of worry. ¡°I em fien mi s0on, teir es noting ta wurry aboot. Iend I heav sumown woo waints ta meit yu, su cielm doon. And coom ghive yure muthier a hoog.¡± After birth lady said this she opened her upper extensions far apart from each other like she would for hairy me when she wanted to be close. The boy looked at the grey man as if asking for approval. The grey man gave a hearty laugh and shook his top extension once up and down towards the boy. The boy quickly came over as quickly as he could, and embraced birth lady as best he could. ¡°et es gud ta ce yu muthier.¡± ¡°iend yu mi s0on.¡± Then I started to feel the clothe that held loosen as birth lady pulled me off her back and into her light embrace. ¡°thys es Martoel yure yuenger brothair. Woold yu leek ta huld im?¡± Mother said to the boy smiling with watery eyes. ¡°ya¡± The boy said softly as he extended his top extensions towards birth lady. I was then passed to the boy and was firmly embraced like I had been with hairy man. But not as tightly as hairy man but I was still held firmly in place. Then he started to talk to me. ¡° hy brothair Martoel. Mi nam es J@ghier. I wiel b yure ooldir brothair frum nw un iend prumies ta pruteact yu.¡± As I was being held grey and hairy man talked and birth lady sat down and watched me and the boy be with each other. Then Hairy man came over and started to talk to the boy saying things like ¡°Wheir weir ya? Whaet ded ya eat? Hw ded ya kep wurm?¡± and other questions like that. And the boy always answered the same thing to each question proudly saying. ¡°bi mi une wiel iend streungth.¡± To which the hairy man would just shake his top extension up and down as if approving. Then he walked over to the grey man and talked to him more in hushed tones. After a while I started to feel the pain in my core, and I started to unconsciously make little whimpering noises. This made the boy panic a little as he held me and look at birth lady with worried and apologetic eyes. ¡°Haha Martoel es jused hungrie. Thair es nu resoon ta woory J@ghier.¡± Said birth lady as she got up and took me from the boy, then gave me the sweet nectar that I live crave and desire. After I had my fill I could not even try to fight losing control of my body and instantly began to see the unreal visions. ¡­ Once the visions had ended I noticed that I was on birth ladies back again and that there were more of our kind in the area then before I had lost control. And there were great pills of things that were gathered by individuals for them to eat. The boy from before now wore new clothe that looked nicer then what anyone else. He was also clean and his hair was shorter with intricate patterns in it. He had a big grin on his face as he talked to some other boys around him. Birth lady was talking to everyone she could and always started the conversation with. ¡°Thaunk yu fur cumen.¡± I wonder if she has to do that to everyone? Every once in a while she would take a break after he da-dum¡¯s speed up considerably. And almost every time she stopped hairy man would come over and say. ¡°yu dunt nead ta du des. Yu jused hed a chillda. Su dunt posh yursulf.¡± He would always say these words gently and softly so that only she could hear him. And she would always shake her top extension in response. After a while the others started to leave until the only ones left where the boy, birth lady, hairy man, grey man, a few girls that were cleaning, and myself. After everything was put away grey man came over and said. ¡°Et wes a gud uf aige bunquite.¡± ¡°Thaunk yu fur husten et en de greet hull chif. Et mens da wurld ta mi.¡± Birth lady said in reply and a slight bow. Then we left, birth lady, hairy man, the boy, and me. Once we exited the hole I saw that the glow of the world was fading. And as it did many colors were painted above us in vibrant pinks and oranges. There were very few of our kind out now so I could see that there where holes at the end of each of the empty spaces in the vertical ground. By the time we had moved out of the vertical ground the colors where gone and all that was left was a white glowing curve and many small glowing white dots that twinkled above me. Then something even more spectacular happened. Light green lights started to form above us waving around like they were dancing for Havre and the gods. As I watched the lights dance I started to lose control of my body again. But I kept watching the colors dance around each other until the visions started to form again. CH 4 A New Face CH 4 Four months latter -Martoel POV- ¡°AHHHHHHH¡± ¡°Oh Martoel, I know you want to stand up like the rest of us but you should learn how to crawl first.¡± Mother said as she shook her head at me. I had just sat up and was trying to pull myself up when I ran out of strength and fell on my back. For a while now I have tried to stand up like everyone else around me does. But I haven¡¯t been able to do it. I thought I was big enough to support myself, but apparently not. Jager keeps showing me how to do this crawl thing. He even made it fun for me by holding out a shiny thing in his hand and siting a little ways off. I like shiny things so I want it. The rule is if I reach him then I get to play with it but if I don¡¯t then it disappears. Either way it¡¯s fun, I like playing with the shiny thing but when he makes it disappear I get really exited because I have such a talented older brother. Jager goes with dad to work somewhere most days so it can get pretty quiet at home. But I use that quite time to learn about my body. I can now move my body like everyone else but I don¡¯t have the muscles to actually do anything with this knowledge so I¡¯m trying to figure out how to gain muscles. I know most of the words our race uses. Although I don¡¯t know all there meanings, I can distinguish them and get a feeling about the topic that is being discussed. This is all thanks to mother being lonely and talking about whatever she wants in front of me. Although I can¡¯t talk myself I do make noise when I think it is an appropriate time to give input to her ranting. I ¡¯m sure with mothers help it won¡¯t be too much longer before I can talk. Mother has gotten back to what I assume was how she originally looked before giving birth to me. She has a friendly glow around her at all times and has been leaving the house every once in a while to go see the neighbors as a way for her to stay fit. I am usually asleep when she goes out, but sometimes I wake up to find that she¡¯s not home and explore the house. One of the most important things I have found out is the layout of the house. There are two floors and a small cellar for storing food. On the first floor there is the kitchen, the living room, and a room for mother, father and I to sleep in. On the second floor there are three small rooms and a storage room full of emergency supplies. The only one who goes up stairs at night is Jager, his room is up there. I¡¯m not allowed to go up there yet unless I¡¯m on mothers back. A few days ago I was exploring the living room and I found the weapons rack and cut my hand a little bit on one of the weapons. When mother got home she screamed then patched me right up. I didn¡¯t cry at all, at least when she was home. But after that incident father put the weapons high on the wall or in the locked create. But on the plus side I know what end not to touch next time, that¡¯s a good thing right. Oh it looks like mother is getting ready to go for a walk. It¡¯s time to pretend to be asleep. ¡°Oh no you don¡¯t. you are coming with me this time. I¡¯m not taking any more chances with your grabby little hands and curios mind.¡± Hehe it looks like I¡¯m not fooling anyone anymore. But this should be fun I get to go outside again. When was the last trip outside again? I wonder. ¡°Mother why are you picking me up¡± I try to say but all that comes out is ¡°Aww ah-ha¡± Curse my tine body. ¡°Oh are you happy to be on mommies back again after so long. Well don¡¯t get to comfortable the walk isn¡¯t going to be that long today.¡± Mother says as we head out the door. When we are outside I notice that the white shell on the ground is gone in some spots. And there are green spikes coming out of the ground now, some have small round ends. It¡¯s pretty clear up there compared to the first time we went out. But there are still a few puffs up there. After a little while I see another house in the distance. I wonder if that is where we are going today. I wonder if they will let me explore their house. Once we get to their door mother knocks on it three times then waits a moment. Almost as soon as mother finishes her third knock the door bursts open. Standing in the doorway is a young mother with red hair holding her baby in one arm as she answers the door with the other. She was quite short compared to others but very firmly built with ample curves. She had bags under her eyes and her hair was a mess. ¡°Oh, Marte thank goodness you came when you did. I can¡¯t quite keep up with sowing all the holes in my husband¡¯s clothes. Could you please watch Shiri as I work?¡± The lady asks. ¡°Shure Naeva Rodek. But I brought my son today. He has been causing problems when I wasn¡¯t home.¡± My mother replies. And I just giggle in an attempt to be cute. ¡°Oh well¡­ I guess he will just have to play with Shiri for a while. Hopefully they won¡¯t cause problems if they have each other. But please do come in. I always enjoy your company.¡± Naeva sighed as she quickly motioned us into her home with a smile. On the inside it looked a lot like our home but with slight differences. They had five chairs out and about the room while we only had two and a coach. And while we had a floor covered in old fur pelts there floor only had two or three with wood underneath them. And were there kitchen and living room were open to each other ours had a doorway without a door in it, I don¡¯t know why there isn¡¯t a door but there¡¯s not. Then the last major difference was that they had three other rooms on the first floor and a ladder to their second floor. While in our hose there was only one other room on the first floor, that room was for the mother and father, and a stair case to the second floor. Once inside my mother sat me down on the floor with the other child named Shiri in the middle of the room. Then mother and Naeva, that¡¯s what mother said right, sat down in the living room on the two chairs sitting next to each other in the corner. In between them was a basket of clothing that they would take one at a time and fix them with their needles. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. As I watched them work the child named Shiri had reached me and started to pat me. As soon as Shiri did this I did a little roll over on my back to get away. After that Shiri just sat there and stared at me with a puzzled look on its face. And I stared back refusing to look away since it had peaked my interest. Why did Shiri touch me? How should I handle this? What does Shiri plan to do? After a while we moved towards each other. This time I will start the interaction. Once we could reach each other I touched Shiris hand without looking away from its gaze. As soon as we touched Shiri¡¯s hand pulled back and their eyes broke contact from my own. Haha I win, I rule Shiri now. But then Shiri did something I never expected. Shiri moved forward and pushed on my back with all there might. Aww but I won¡¯t fall¡­ puff. Ok maybe I will fall but you haven¡¯t won yet. I started to squirm around until I got out from under Shiri. As soon as I was out from under Shiri I climbed onto their back and laid there quite conformably. But Shiri wouldn¡¯t give up and flipped me off of their back. We stared at each other again but this time Shiris eyes where full of excitement instead of the original curiosity that they had held earlier. And I could tell that this wasn¡¯t going to end any time soon it was too interesting to let it. We charged each other the best we could and hit our heads against each other. This made us both fall back in for a moment. But that didn¡¯t matter as I got reoriented quickly and jumped on Shiri before they could get reoriented. As soon as I was on Shiri, Shiri rolled over so that they were back on top of me. But Shiri only stayed there a second as I pushed with all my might off the ground pushing Shiri up onto their feet just to fall back onto their butt. We continued to jump back onto each other¡¯s back until we couldn¡¯t move very well. We just sat there looking at each other. And I could see in Shiris eyes that the only reason they stopped was because they couldn¡¯t move ether. And so I decided to test something since we had to take a break. ¡°Hello I¡¯m Martoel. What is your name?¡± I said to Shiri in baby talk, not because I wanted to but because I couldn¡¯t say it any other way. ¡°Ge ga ghehe Gu.¡± (Shiri nice to meetcha) Shiri replied but for some reason it made some sense. It seemed to me that Shiri had just said that they called Shiri, Shiri and that Shiri had fun playing with me. ¡°Came you collect mana?¡± I asked in an attempt to see how far Shiri had developed. ¡°Geee ga¡± (What¡¯s that?) Shiri said in baby language. ¡°It is energy all around us that can make us strong.¡± ¡°Ga ge geeee gu¡± (Can you teach me) Shiri asked this time with excitement in their eyes. ¡°It¡¯s simple just feel it around you and tell it to go into you in your head.¡± ¡°Gega¡± (really?) ¡°Yeah that¡¯s all you could for now anyway.¡± ¡°eeh ge goo gi¡± (that¡¯s rude. I¡¯ll show you that I can do mare by the next time you come over.¡± ¡°ok ok, next time. But this time watch me and learn from what I do.¡± ¡°uh ug¡± (ok go ahead.) So I started to gather mana inside the new house. In here the mana wasn¡¯t like the mana I was used to gathering it was less solid and easier to move around. It flowed into me incredibly fast and whirled around me shooting out a couple sparkles of blue. Aww I wonder what type of mana this is. It is blue so it could be from above and that would explain why there was so much of it. I guess I¡¯ll find out latter. After I watched Shiri try to absorb mana for a while giving her hints every once in a while like ¡°Breath it in.¡± and ¡°Relax it can¡¯t get to you if your tense.¡± Our mothers got up and walked over to us. ¡°Ok Martoel it¡¯s time to go. And thank you Naeve for letting us stay for so long.¡± Mother said as she bowed slightly. ¡°No need to worry. And you two can come anytime Marte.¡± Naeve said as we headed towards the door. ¡°Don¡¯t forget to practice Shiri.¡± I yelled as we were leaving. ¡°gee ga ga goo¡± (I won¡¯t. and you better come back soon Martoel.) Shiri yelled after us. As we walked home I noticed that the glow in the sky was going down. And then I heard mother ask. ¡°Do you want to back there Martoel. It looked like you had lots of fun with Shiri.¡± ¡°Yes Please.¡± I responded knowing full well that mother didn¡¯t know what I had said. ¡°Ok, then you are going to have to behave better from now on. And if you really want to beat Shiri you¡¯re going to have to push yourself harder.¡± ¡°Ok mother I will be good and become strong.¡± I said then laughed a little knowing that I wasn¡¯t understood. I am going to become something more and become the strongest I can be. CH 5 Sparking A Change Ch 5 Five months latter -Martoel POV- Aww home sweet home. Time to get to work on this walking thing. My mother and I just got back from Shiris house. I learned something amazing from mother, the thing is that that Shiri is a girl. I never thought to ask and finally after jumping on each other every time we saw each other, mother scolded me about treating girls better. I tried to not jump on Shiri the next time we met and she thought that I hated her when I didn¡¯t try to get on top of her. So after that we went back to jumping onto each other as we tried to prove who was stronger. Shiri has gotten much better at collecting mana into her body, to the point that she can even start to control the mana inside herself and move it to specific parts of her body. But we don¡¯t have much mana so it¡¯s hard to see if it actually does anything. Also I¡¯ve learned that mana is different in each person. Shiris mana is like the mana at her house and my mana is like the kind at my house. I wonder if the mana you first absorb is the one you become the most attached to? Ahhh man I have so many questions and none of them are getting answered. I want answers but I can¡¯t get them until I can move about and speak. Oh looks like it¡¯s time for mothers training. First she stands me up, and then I have to grab her hands so I don¡¯t fall. That¡¯s when the training starts I ether bend my legs down while mother helps me down or I have to hold my legs up off the ground when she lifts me. Fir the first few days Jager had to help us by holding me up while mother moved my legs until I understood the concept. And every now and then mother pulls my arms away from my body and holds me up for extended periods of time before letting me down. When we first started I would always hurt in my arms and legs then loss control and pass out. But now I have decided to start to train my mana at the same time. ¡°Well Martoel, it seems to me that you are getting strong enough to kick up your training a notch.¡± ¡°Oh no. no no no¡± I see mother pull out a stick with some string on both ends of it. She puts it around my legs and ties it tight. Then she grabs my arms and lifts me off the ground. ¡°Let¡¯s get you big and strong soon without your father. That will teach him that I can¡¯t raise a warrior.¡± Stupid father why do you have to say things that make mother give her an evil glint in her eye. Or should I thank you for making the training harder. Hmmm I think that I¡¯m going to be mad at you for a while father until I¡¯m used to this training. And might as well make it harder for myself and absorb mana while we train still. Ahh why is getting strong so painful. ¡­ A month latter ¡­ The training is hard I have since gone from lifting a stick to lifting a stick half my size to lifting two small rocks to two big rocks, I don¡¯t think I could lift anything bigger so I hope this is the last thing tied to my legs. I even have to drag them around the house when I crawl around, and if I walk mother gives me bigger rocks to use. The only time they come off is when father is about to get home or we go over to Shiris. I have continued to absorb mana as I trained which made me pass out more frequently but also let me grow in strength faster. I can now stand indefinitely without weights on and can move about easily. Mother even added a new training method for me, I now have to push sticks and logs to the fireplace in the kitchen or living room. She got this idea when I picked up some sticks and brought them to her. That¡¯s what I get for being helpful. Today was a darker day with fluff covering the heavens. Mother was watching me walk a little ways in front of her. She thought I was strong enough that I could handle walking outside. The first few times I fell but after that I grew to love being outside, although mother doesn¡¯t let me go out often. As we walked I felt a new type of mana stream floating around me. I started to absorb it as we walked. The mana was full of energy and vary harsh and jagged, jumping up and down from between the ground and the heavens. As I absorbed more and more mana the fluff in the heavens grew bigger and darker. I wonder if this will cause the lights to appear. ¡°Booooom!¡± A grand white flash of light shot across the sky and struck the ground with an amazing sound. I stopped moving and looked at it in aww, as my mother started to run towards Shiris house. Where are you going mother? Well you know where I am so you can come back when you want me. I just sat there staring at the heavens waiting for the light to come again. As I waited the heavens decided to drop the white cold drops from the sky. Well it¡¯s not coming very fast, I thought as I waited for the light to come back. Well I guess I should absorb more mana as I wait. Once I began to absorb mana again I felt the familiar chill that came with the mana I had absorbed the most in my life. Then I felt a powerful surge of mana shoot through me and then nothing. -Marte POV- When the thunder sounded the only thing I could think of was get Martoel out of danger. So I ran. I ran all the way to Naeves house without a moment of hesitation. It was in sight but it wasn¡¯t close. Once I got there I burst through the door. I was out of breath and breathing deeply, hunched over hands on my knees. ¡°Hey Marte. Did you decide to leave Martoel at home today. Shiri won¡¯t like that.¡± I reach behind me to where Martoel usually sat on our walks to Naeves. But he wasn¡¯t there. Oh no where¡¯s Martoel, where is my son. ¡°Oh no. No no no no.¡± I turn around immediately just in time to see the second bolt of thunder shoot down towards the ground, towards where I had just come from. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. I freeze for a second in utter terror. Then I run. Be alright my son, please be alright. Please be alright. I thought over and over as I ran faster than I could have ever imagined. Then I saw him, lying next to a scorch mark on the ground the size of a horse. He lay there motionless ice shards scattered around him. Covered in black while his clothes and hair where smoldering. There lay my amazing 11 month old son, the son that next stopped amazing me, the son who never cried except when he was truly hungry, the son who wanted to be as big as I was, and the son that understood me even though he couldn¡¯t respond. There he lay not moving a muscle or laughing or smiling at me whenever our eyes met. He just laid there motionless. I run to him with tears in my eyes and fall to my knees next to him. I pick up his head and cradle it in my lap. ¡°Oh son no. you can¡¯t go yet not, you have so much to live for. You haven¡¯t even been outside on your own, or gone to meet the elder, or seen your father and brother work. You haven¡¯t even been able to respond to us even though you tried so hard or walk with us when we went into town together. So you can¡¯t go now, you can¡¯t there is so much more for you to do.¡± I wept and cried as the storm raged on slowly moving away from us. As if it had regretted its actions. But I just sat there and cried over my son who must have died from my lack of attention. But then his shoulder started to grow just a bit adding a triangle around the mark that we could barely call a wolf howling at the night. The mark started to glow a faint white color, that light then spread around his body shining through the burn marks and clothing on him. And then I saw it, I saw him grimace as if he was in intense pain and struggling to survive. He was alive, just barley but that was enough. Then I heard a voice coming from every direction say. ¡°Your son will live, so make him a home to live in.¡± The voice sounding like a caring mother reluctantly giving her son away to someone she didn¡¯t trust. I looked around and no one was there. And it only continued to snow around us as my son grimaced and twitched on the ground. I knew that we had just been blessed by a goddess, and when I find out which one I will thank her daily. ¡°Thank you Goddess. Thank you.¡± ¡°Marte. Marte where are you? Marte.¡± I heard Naeve calling. But my voice wouldn¡¯t come out. And so I sat there and cried tears of joy tears of grief and tears of gratitude. As I sat there in the snow over my son, my breathing, living son who caught a glimpse of Helheim and came back. I realized that my son would indeed be strong, but with that strength he would have to face demons. -Martoel POV- Aww another vision. Wait everything is black and I feel nothing around me not even the cold or the heat. "Have I died?" "Is this how we move toward death?" ¡°No child this is not death. But you are not alive ether. At least not your body.¡± ¡°Who are you? Where are you?¡± ¡°Aww little one it hurts that you have forgotten. But no matter there will be time for new memories later.¡± ¡°Are you the women I see in my visions?¡± ¡°I do not know. I don¡¯t go into visions of the humans¡¯ race.¡± ¡°Then why are you here?¡± ¡°To hear your voice child. And to teach you something that will help you move forward in life.¡± ¡°Really? Then what could that be?¡± ¡°Awww, still as impatient as usual. But no matter. I will teach you about mana. Not what to do with it but what it is.¡± ¡°Its energy even I know that.¡± ¡°Haha but it isn¡¯t just energy little one. No mana is much more then energy.¡± ¡°Then what is it?¡± ¡°Mana is energy you are right about that, but it is more. Mana is the energy of the cosmos that makes living things live and makes them change. And there isn¡¯t just one type of mana there are many types that are constantly being made and changed over time. The most abundant types of mana are water, earth, fire, and wind. Then there are the more refined types of mana like ice, metal, combustion, and thunder. And finally there are the evolutionary mana types of poison, light, dark, and blood. Humans have only ever been able to have abundant and refined mana, and even that they were limited on what they could do with it. But beasts have tendencies of producing evolutionary mana at very small quantities that make them very effective at killing. But they live in places where humans have never been able to reach. Now the mana you just came in contact with was thunder mana. You have also ben refining ice mana ever since your soul met your body. And you only just recently got into contact with water mana. No one your age has ever been in a constant state of absorption of mana or of such quantity. But that might not be a good thing. Who knows I¡¯ve never seen it before so I guess you¡¯ll live with those consequences on your own.¡± ¡°Wait what?¡± ¡°Oh you didn¡¯t get that. Well you have already been gone for some time so I guess you¡¯ll have to figure out what it all means on your own little one. I wish I could continue to talk but your body will be destroyed without your soul being there anymore.¡± ¡°Wait I didn¡¯t understand a thing and now I¡¯m going back. This is so confusing.¡± ¡°Oh little one you have no idea. And don¡¯t forget to make that home for yourself. Only then will you truly find peace.¡± ¡­ ¡°Hey Martoels waking up. Mom Martoels waking up.¡± CH 6 Awaking CH 6 -Martoel POV- I¡¯ve been asleep for 13 months. I woke up yesterday night. Today is my second birthday. For a conversation with a god to take only a moment in that state to take more than half of my life in this world. I¡¯m at a loss. My body has grown but it is weak and dry. But it is also much stronger then it was before and has a slight glow to it. As I slept many people told my mother and father that I would never wake, so many in fact that my father lost hope of me coming back. But my mother would never allow them to bury me, always saying that a goddess had blessed me and promised that I would live. No one believed her but she held onto that knowledge for dear life. It also seems like mother has gotten pregnant. I don¡¯t know if it was to give her something to care for or what but she seems too happy about me being alive to bother telling me the reason why. I have been told that Shiri had come many times when I first fainted. She stopped coming as often though it seems. When mother asked Naeve about it she just said it was too hard for Shiris little heart to handle. Apparently Naeve and Shiri are coming over to see me today for my birthday. They had planned to come even before I had woken up so they don¡¯t know I¡¯m awake. As I slept I absorbed lots of mana out of the surroundings. So much so that the mana around our house started to take mana from their surroundings, making a denser concentration of mana around our house. I don¡¯t know what I was doing with that mana but I now possess very little mana. As soon as I woke up I started eating anything that was given to me. They started out with a liquid full of chunks of solid food. I ate that until the whole pot was gone. Then they handed me some round hard thing. I ate that to but only after they showed me that there was soft stuff inside. Finally they handed me some wet bark for me to eat. I ate that one without hesitation as I had seen Jager and father eat it many times as a child. Everything I put into my mouth was amazing and had a different taste. It didn¡¯t compare to what mother had but she didn¡¯t seem to have any more so I guess I¡¯ll have to eat what the others eat. I fell asleep again after I ate instantly after finishing eating and hearing what my family had to say. Now I¡¯m awake and have now just finished processing the information I have gained since waking up. I haven¡¯t moved in a long time so I guess I should start with that. Ok let¡¯s start by leaning forward. ¡°Ahhhhh¡± Why was that so much harder then I remember it being? Maybe being asleep for so long has halted my strength increase so I only have the strength I had when I lost myself to the goddess. ¡°Well crap.¡± I say aloud fluently like everyone else had. Wait does that mean my body grew enough to allow me to speak. ¡°Yes I can finally ask about everything I¡¯ve ever wondered about.¡± I hop out of bed immediately and land on my face. ¡°Oww¡± Well this sucks. No I can¡¯t put up a fight when I see Shiri again. Well no use laying on the ground up here. Well I guess I get to crawl around the house until I can move properly again. And since I don¡¯t have the strength to lift myself back up into the bed I¡¯ll just head downstairs. Left arm right arm left leg right leg pull. ¡°Haaaa. This is so much harder than it should be.¡± I finally made it to the stairs. Wait how am I going to get down this thing. ¡°Ahhh¡± Ok calm down Martoel you can do this. Let¡¯s go one step at a time feat first. Ok there we go. And another one. Ok now to the next¡­ Bum badum baboom ¡°Ahh. That hurt.¡± Well at least I¡¯m downstairs now. And the sun has started to come up so the others should be waking up soon. ¡°Martoel what are you doing out of bed. You just woke up your body isn¡¯t ready to move yet. Wait was the racket just now you. Did you fall down the stairs? Oh my gosh boy you are going to sit in that chair the rest of the day and we will help you get back in shape over the next month we promise but not if you go and hurt yourself again. You understand young man.¡± ¡°Yes mother.¡± ¡°Wait did you just talk! You said your first words. Aww my little boy can speak. Sooo cute!¡± Why does she think talking is such a big deal? I mean I know I couldn¡¯t talk before I met the goddess but It¡¯s not like I didn¡¯t grow. Maybe babies don¡¯t understand words until later in life. Oh well this puts me on even ground with the other kids born around the same time as me. ¡°Well then Martoel you better get to that chair and wait for Shiri to come she has missed you quite a bit. Oh and while you sit there I¡¯ll get you some sticks to put on your legs so while you wait you can regain your strength.¡± ¡°Ok mother. Thanks for always taking care of me.¡± ¡°Awww so cute. And don¡¯t worry about that it¡¯s my job as your mother to take care of you.¡± Mother walks off to the kitchen and starts to make some breakfast. She comes back a little bit later with a plate of wet bark and yellow fluff for me to eat as I waited for the others to wake up. Then she tied some sticks to my legs so I could get started on regaining my muscle. After some time has passed brother and father wake up and greet me with a hearty, ¡°Good morning!¡± And walk into the kitchen to eat there breakfast. As I wait for them to finish I start to absorb mana again. The mana around is quite dense and full of lots of ice mana. Knock Knock Knock Hu it¡¯s pretty early I wonder who that could be. Mother runs to the door and opens it. There in the doorway stands Naeve with her messy red hair flowing down her back. And next to her is a little girl with dark auburn hair and bright green eyes that shin like an aurora. She had a gloomy expression on her face and wore a plain brown dress with a leather belt around her waist and a small animal¡¯s pelt over her shoulders. She had toned muscles and a kind air around her under a layer of sadness. I knew immediately who this little girl was. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Hi Shiri.¡± I yell from the chair I¡¯ve been refined to. ¡°Hu¡­¡± Is all she says as she looks up towards my direction. ¡°Missed me?¡± ¡°Martoel¡± She yells in excitement and begins to run towards me. ¡°You big dummy. Why didn¡¯t you come back sooner? Why did you open your eyes for so long? Why did you look like dried meat in that bed slowly losing everything that made you alive? You big dummy who said you could do something like that without me.¡± She sobs as tears stream down her face as she puts her head in my lap. ¡°Where did you go? Where did you go?¡± She continued to sob. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Shiri I didn¡¯t know this would happen. And I promise that I won¡¯t disappear like that if I can help it.¡± ¡°Promise you won¡¯t make me go through that again.¡± Shiri says as she continues to sob in my lap. I begin to stroke her head like mother did and say. ¡°I promise Shiri. I promise.¡± ¡°Now now Shiri don¡¯t push him to hard he just woke up, so he isn¡¯t that strong and needs to rebuild his muscles before you can play with him like you used to.¡± My mother chimes in a little bit after Shiri had calmed down a little more. ¡°Haha. Quite the little charmer we have here, don¡¯t we honey.¡± Father says heartily with a big grin on his face. ¡°Not until he can provide for himself he isn¡¯t.¡± Everyone starts to laugh as Shiri and I look at each other confused. I don¡¯t even know what a charmer is or why I have to be strong to be one. Well if it¡¯s a result of being strong than I¡¯ll try my best to become one. ¡°Now Martoel its time for your gifts. Since you missed your first birthday we decided to just give you one present that will benefit you the most. Here you go my boy we hope you can use this to grow strong again.¡± Father hands me a box and urges me to open it. Inside the box there was an assortment of four small bags and one larger one. They were all sized to my general size and very well made. ¡°What are these bags for?¡± ¡°There for weight training dear. Like what I did when you were little with the sticks and rocks.¡± Mother answers. ¡°You see the small bags are for your arms and legs while the larger bag is for your waist. This way you can strengthen all your muscles at all times. Just make sure to increase the weight when it gets to easy to move around.¡± ¡°Oh ok. Thanks this will help a lot in regaining the strength I lost when I was away.¡± ¡°Well now that you have received a gift from mother and father it¡¯s my turn to give you something Martoel.¡± Jager said excitedly as he stepped forward showing me a long box. Why is Jager opening the box this time? Wait isn¡¯t that my job? Maybe he has a reason. But I¡¯ll wait for now and trust elder brother. Once the lid is off the box I see it a grey stick much like the sticks on the walls that came from the weapons crate. ¡°Martoel, this is a training weapon that I made with father just the other month. It will help you as you train and learn fighting techniques. There are weights that fit on one end so you can make the training harder, but mother told us to keep those in town or else you would hurt yourself with them. But don¡¯t worry you will get great training with this weapon ever if it¡¯s not as heavy as it could be.¡± ¡°Thanks brother Jager I will use it as soon as mother lets me.¡± Finally Shiri and Naeve stepped forward and pulled out a big thick blanket made from many pelts and simple fabric. ¡°Sorry Martoel. But we didn¡¯t get you anything that you can use to train with. We thought you would still be asleep so Shiri helped me make you this winter blanket.¡± Naeve said as she handed the blanket over to me. The fur was quite soft and the stitches where very firm and would last a long time. While they might not have the most stuff they make up for it in the quality. As the day went on we continued to talk about what had happened to the town and with each others families. The village is growing slightly and more children are surviving then in past years. I taught Shiri the new things I learned about mana. And I also learned that Shiris father was a strong warrior in the area who went away from the village to make a profit by fighting and receiving the spoils after defeating his enemies. Either the profit isn¡¯t very good or they aren¡¯t very successful with their fights if Shiri and Naeve live day by day. As night began to fall Shiri and Naeve left. Shiri trying her hardest to convince her mother that they should stay the night. In the end she gave me a big hug and tried to hold back her tears as she walked out the door. Then I fought my way back up to my room by crawling and scooting on the floor. Once I finally pulled myself up into the bed with a little help from Jager I started to drift off to sleep. But before I lost all senses I heard mother say. ¡°Don¡¯t stay out for too long, we have lots of work to do to get you back to being the strongest.¡± ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you all for reading. And don''t forget to give me your opinion of the story. I could use the criticism. Thanks for reading. CH 7 A Childhood CH7 -Martoel POV- ... Eight months latter ... Over the past few months I have been able to regain all the strength and have finally started to train with the training weapon. My weight bags are full of so many rocks that it¡¯s getting hard to close. I know that mother and father are preparing soothing else for me to put in them but I don¡¯t know what that is yet. Last month mother gave birth to a little girl. They decided to name her Perla. So far Perla doesn¡¯t do much other than sleep and get mothers nectar. I asked if I could have some once and mother told me that it was something that only little ones can have. But I won¡¯t give up one day I will taste that nectar again. Shiri now understands mana and is focusing on gaining control over water mana instead of exploring other mana types like I have. She can move the mana around her body with some extra effort now and is figuring out how that benefits her. I have continued to absorb the ice mana around the house as I train just like I used to. I can hold much more then I used to be able to and can even feel the type of mana that is dominant inside me. Ice usually rules inside me and takes the water mana I gain at Shiris house and turns it into ice mana. But every once in a while after I get extremely tired another type of mana can be sensed inside of me. While I don¡¯t know what it is I¡¯m afraid that it will take over and destroy me. ¡­ Four months later ¡­ Last month Shiri had her third birthday. I missed the first two when I was unconscious and was training to get stronger. When I asked her what she wanted as a present she just told me to be there the entire day. So I asked mother if it was alright to go before the sun went down. She refused letting me go alone and went with me instead. We left in the early morning before the sun was up and after the sun went down. We waited for father and Brother Jager to be home so we could be safe in our travels. Perla was wrapped in layers upon layers of cloth much like how I was and carried the same way. She had sparkling eyes when we walked to Shiris house. I think I must have looked like that when I was that little. Mother has finally given me the first weight for my training weapon. It has become hard to even loft it now. But I refuse to take it off and make my training easier. Every once and a while father stays home and watches me practice out in the front yard. He usually shakes his head with a slight grin on his face. I asked him why was laughing at my training. All he said was that it¡¯s suck a waist to not be allowed to know, whatever that meant. I do mainly swings for my training, or at least try to, a few overhead swings, diagonal swings, side swings, and sometimes backwards swings to get a better grasp of space. Brother Jager says that next month father and mother will start to teach me other necessary things for my survival. He doesn¡¯t say what I¡¯ll learn or why I need to learn it, other than it¡¯s for my survival. ¡­ Six months later ¡­ Father and mother gave me these heavy metal balls to put in my weight bags last month saying that it was a present for learning so fast. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s true but it will help get me in the end so I don¡¯t complain. But for the past five months they have taught me about any things. Starting with things that they said where necessary for survival, they taught me how to make a fire and a simple shelter as well as how to skin an animal, not well but enough so that I could get to the meat. They taught me about the berries and plants in the forest near our home and how to track down animals to hunt for food. They emphasized the importance of cooking meat and boiling water, they also warned me about the beasts that live to fill their bellies and smell food from miles away. Then a month ago they started to tell me about the world that we know about. They talked about how every day and night is one day and that every thirty days is a month and that every twelve months is a year. They talked about the four seasons that last four months each, the freezing time, the ever frost, the great thawing, and the growing time. Each month is called by the number it is in the year. I was born in the third forever frost so I have to be stronger they said. They also taught me about what we know about Havre. So far there are four continents that we know of. We live on the northern one named Valin. We don¡¯t know the names that the other people use for their lands but we call them the dry land, the far land, and the ever green. There are many small islands in the middle of the four lands, we call the sun islands. They say that is all I need to know for now and will learn when I get older what those lands think of us. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Brother Jager has decided to train with me on day¡¯s father says he doesn¡¯t need him. On those days me and brother draw a circle in the ground that is about three of him and take almost everything off. He will wear a fur pelt around his waist that looks much like a shorter version of mother¡¯s dresses. At first I teased him and then father hit me saying only real men need only their hands to fight. I still didn¡¯t get it but I went with it and ware only a pair of pants when we fight. We fight with everything we have and I always loss. After each fight we talk for a moment about what the other can do better. Mostly I get instructed by brother on what I can do better. ¡­ Five months later ¡­ Father has finally told me what it is he goes into town for every day. He is a smith that makes many different things out of metal. Brother helps him most days and has gotten quite good apparently. I asked if I could start to work with them only to be told that once I was older father would make me be a smith even if I didn¡¯t want to be one. Shiri has learned many of the same lessons that I had. Her father came back and taught her many things while he was here. I still have never seen him since the lessons and the training took up so much time that the first time I saw Shiri in a while was on my birthday, which was the only day I could rest. But Shiri has continued to advance her mana while mine has stayed rather stagnant in comparison other than the large amount I can store inside of myself. She has grown to be able make her mana take the strain off of her body and lets her regain her energy faster. Perla has been able to stand on her feet without much of a problem and trys to walk around the house. Mother hasn¡¯t done the training that she did with me but Perla is growing quite well. Whenever I have time I play little training games with her so that mother doesn¡¯t know I¡¯m training Perla. I like to help her walk around and make her jump or fly. But these are just slight variations on what mother did with me. I hope mother doesn¡¯t figure out that I¡¯m training her or I can kiss my meals goodbye. ¡­ Eight months latter ¡­ I have been working with our other neighbors the Stolvang¡¯s with their animals every other day in order to have work experience. Mostly I watch over the sheep. The sheep are about the size of two grown men on all fours. When there shaved they have body¡¯s as big as logs. And I¡¯m supposed to make sure none of them have escaped. That means I have to count them all one at a time. I am really good at counting all the way to thirty seven. Also Mr. Stolvang has taught me simple math as well as how to barter effectively without losing your buyer and making a profit. He is a very smart man and has five other young helps and three men to help him watch his fields. I have been able to befriend all the people that work there and am trying to learn the most from them that I can. While working with him I have earned 50 copper. Every time I get paid I put it in my chest in my room. There is only a bed and a chest in my room because I¡¯m usually doing something else outside. Perla has started to make noises now, they aren¡¯t full words yet but there getting there. She continues to grow at a fast rate that surprises me. She has grown enough that I can now see her observe all her traits. She has golden brown hair and aqua blue eyes with pudgy red cheeks, but the pudginess might be because she¡¯s a baby still. Her hair is curly and kept at shoulder level by mother. She looks quite big to me but is still a baby in my eyes. Mother has been getting worried recently and keeps quizzing me on all the things that I learned from her and father. She has also started to tell me about the area around the town and outer houses. To the west there is the ocean where we have a small community of people that say they are a part of our town even though it takes half a day to get there. To the north there is the great mountain and wilds forest, people call that the untamed land. To the east there is a less dense forest full of less dangerous beasts and eventually a larger town, it takes a few days to get there and the roads aren¡¯t very safe apparently. To the south there is a smaller mountain known as the vault. In it the town has started to mine for resources. This started a few years ago and has done fairly well but we keep those minerals for ourselves and build ourselves up more. We are fairly isolated so we rely on what we make and what is found by those who go out and hunt for supplies for months at a time. My fifth birthday is in three months. I wonder if that is old enough for my father to let me work in his forge. Maybe this year I¡¯ll get a real weapon. I doubt it though I haven¡¯t even asked for a weapon. Maybe I should. I mean I can¡¯t train effectively with my training weapon anymore I have been using all its weights for the past six months and carry it around every day. I even have all my weights in my weight bag and can still move like I would normally. I even absorb mana while I train and I barley break a sweat. Well whatever, what comes will come and I¡¯ll overcome it. CH 8 Left by myself CH 8 -Martoel POV- Three months latter ¡­ ¡°Wake up boy. Your trial is starting.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± I ask sleepily to the gruff voice that woke me up. ¡°Your trial is starting boy. Now here are the rules.¡± ¡°Wait what Trial.¡± ¡°First you can¡¯t come back to the village till you have lived a month on your own out here.¡± ¡°Hey listen to me.¡± ¡°Next thing is you have to bring back at least one pelt to show your strength to the elders.¡± ¡°Ahhh why aren¡¯t you listening to me?¡± ¡°Finally you have to live alone and come back alive. If you fail to do any of these things you will be shunned by all and left to die. Not even your parents could help you anymore. Now good luck kid.¡± The man then tosses a chunk of red meat towards a tree near me then turns around and walks away. ¡°Wait where are you going, take me with you.¡± Well this sucks. My hands are tied together, that meat is attracting animals, and I only know that I¡¯m being tried for some reason. Well I better get my hands out of these restraints first. They aren¡¯t too tight so I can get out pretty easily. But it still takes time. The more time I sit here the more likely I¡¯ll be eaten by the wild beasts. I got my hands out of the restraints and push myself up. On the ground there is a small bag of stuff. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s in it but I don¡¯t really care. I have to get away from here and fast. I grab the bag and start to run in the direction the man went. I follow his tracks until they just disappear. I look around and see nothing other than the snow and the trees. I don¡¯t know what to do but I know one thing and that is that I have to survive. I decide to run uphill for now so that I can get a better view of what¡¯s around me. I start walking, looking for any movement or safe place to take a rest and see what¡¯s in this bag. After a while I find a large bolder that has a slight indent in its side. I sit in there and open up the bag that the man left. If he meant to or not doesn¡¯t matter much I¡¯m using whatever I need to get out of here. There are only a few things in the bag. There is an old rusty dagger, five strips of cured meat, an old pot with some rust and no handles, and a bunch of old and tattered cloth. All of this is crap. Other than the food none of this would be acceptable in our home. Man how did I end up in this situation? The last thing I remember is that we were eating diner as a family as usual. Until mother started to cry and tell me something like that I must survive and overcome everything by my own power through great sobs. When I asked why she said something like this life is hard and to never forget that there will always be a place for me to call home. Then father handed me some sweet liquid and said ¡°Never lose yourself my son or you won¡¯t live to see anything good again.¡± Was this supposed to happen, I wonder? I really don¡¯t want to die out here. Maybe they left me out here to die? No they wouldn¡¯t have, would they? I don¡¯t know but this isn¡¯t helping. But if I¡¯m supposed to die out here than I should just die right. No stop it Martoel. That man said that I had to live out here for a month and return. So that must mean that they don¡¯t want me to die right. But that doesn¡¯t mean I can live out here on my own. ¡°Ahhh this is so frustrating.¡± Ok Martoel breath and think nothing good will happen if I panic. What can I do what can I do. I can go look around the area that I have decided to rest in. Yeah that sounds like a good plan. And at least it gives me something to do instead of trying to figure out whether I¡¯m supposed to be dead or not. I don¡¯t know how useful these items could be but I pick them all back up and get ready to move. I sure wasn¡¯t going to lose these random things that could help me survive out here. I pack the cloth, pot, and meat back into the bag, then put the dagger at my waist. Once I¡¯m sure I have everything I decide that I should look around more and see if I can find the best possible space for a shelter. ¡­ As I looked around I noticed that the sun just started to rise into the sky. I was too focused on getting out to even noticing something so simple. Whatever, I need to find out where I am, and to do that I need the sun. So if the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, then east is that way. Well that didn¡¯t help much. Until I can see above the trees I can¡¯t get a bearing on where I am. The only thing around my rock is trees, trees, and more trees. At least the rock is big and easy to find. Well for now that rock will be my base up here. Ok let¡¯s think about what mother and father taught me. The first thing to do in this type of situation is to make a shelter and build a fire. Well since that rock will be my base I might as well make a fire near it. But I don¡¯t want it to die on me so I better gather as many sticks as I can. ¡­ I know that I need to gather sticks but this feels so teddies. Well the sun is at the top of the sky so I only have another half of the day to get this fire started. Ok first gather a bunch of small sticks together in a tight bundle. Then I grab two spark rocks and hit them together. Well I don¡¯t have spark rocks so I guess I¡¯ll have to use some of the rocks that are around. Time to make this fire. ¡°clack clack clack¡± Hum nothing maybe I¡¯m not hitting them hard enough. ¡°CLACK CLACK CLACK¡± Am I hitting them wrong or something? Ahh the sun is getting closer to the ground, if I don¡¯t start this fire this will be a long night. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°grumble¡± Oh time to eat. I grab a piece of meat and eat it greedily. Ok got to save the other four pieces for emergencies. But how am I going to start this fire. Ahh forget the fire for now it¡¯s not going to happening today. I should focus on the shelter. Let¡¯s take some of the bigger sticks and lay them against the rock in one direction in that indented part of the rock. Good now that I have a little shelter I¡¯ll need to build it up a little bit more. I should cover the top of my shelter with branches. The sun is getting really close to the ground now. Should I go and get the branches now or latter. I¡¯ll do it now the night is already going to be cold and if the branches can stop that the better it will be for me. I go out and break branches of the trees near the rock. I layer them on top of my shelter just as the sun goes down. Now I¡¯m kind of thirsty. The snow is made of water right? I mean it is just ice. And if ice mana is refined water mana does that mean that ice and snow are refined water. I¡¯ll try it it¡¯s better than dying of thirst. ¡°Aww cold so so cold.¡± Well the snows not the only thing that¡¯s cold the air is getting quite cold itself. I should use the fabric in my pack as a blanket for the night. And let¡¯s take my dagger out just in case. Ahh this is going to be a long night. ¡­ Day 2 ¡­ Thankfully nothing happened last night. I woke up many times to the howls of the wolves as well as the other sounds of the night. Surprisingly the night wasn¡¯t as cold as I was expecting it to be. I got moving before the sun rose so that I could get the most out of the day light. Well first I ate half of a thing of meat. Then I tried to make a fire again. Apparently I really do need specific rocks to start a fire. Better go look for something similar to them then. As I look at the rock that I¡¯m using for my base I spot a shiny part imbedded in it. This looks a lot like the spark rocks that we used to start the fires back home. But it¡¯s darker in color, almost black in color instead of grey like the spark rocks we used. But they are just as shiny if not more. Maybe I can use that to start a fire? I grab my dagger and start to try to chip pieces off of the rock. ¡°chenk¡± But instead of chipping the rock, it spits out sparks. Let¡¯s try that again. ¡°chenk¡± ¡°IT WORKED¡± Now I can start a fire without any problems. Well I do have to figure out how to move it over to where I built my little shelter. But I¡¯ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Man I¡¯m thirsty. Better put some more snow in my mouth. It worked last time so it should be fine. Who knows I¡¯ll stop eating it when I start to feel sick. But for now I feel fine, so no harm in doing what I can to survive right. I only have three and a half strips of meat left so if I¡¯m going to survive up here I¡®ll need to hunt the beasts of the forest. But how, I¡¯ve never hunted anything before. I¡¯ll have to kill it but to do that I¡¯ll need something better than my hands to fight with. Hum if I remember the weapons that the guards had was quite simple. It was called a spear I think and is basically a long straight stick with a pointy end. I don¡¯t have anything other than sticks and rocks to make things with so I doubt I¡¯ll make anything that my father would accept in his forge. But I¡¯m getting ahead of myself now. I need that fire above all else. If I don¡¯t have that then I won¡¯t be able to survive for very long. So I gathered another small bundle of sticks and take it over to the shiny part of the rock. ¡°chenk chenk chenk¡± I start to strike the rock and make the sparks go towards the bundle of sticks in my hand. ¡°chenk chenk chenk¡± No matter how many times I strike the rock and sparks come out the sticks still don¡¯t catch on fire. I don¡¯t get it why won¡¯t they light. The last time I tried to start a fire was in the first freezing time. Man why won¡¯t they light? Think Martoel think, what did mother and father tell me about the things that can and can¡¯t be light on fire from sparks, dried hay, dry bark, paper, thin cloth, and small dried wood. Wait most of these things need to be dry for them to light on fire. This wood is very wet from being in the snow for so long. Ahh I¡¯m an idiot for not noticing this sooner. I wasted the majority of two days trying to start a fire that couldn¡¯t even start from the beginning. Ok I need to get this fire started and fast. First let¡¯s take out some of the frayed cloth I had brought with me. Then I¡¯ll take my dagger and cut of the edges off so that the remainder of the cloth isn¡¯t frayed anymore. Now let¡¯s take the cut edges and wrap them around a stick. I remembered that lighting a fire in my own hand is a good way to burn it off. ¡°chenk chenk chenk¡± ¡°Yes!¡± It worked the cloth is starting to burn. But if I don¡¯t get this back to the base fast I won¡¯t be able to start a substantial fire. Ok almost there. Ahh why didn¡¯t I set up a good fire pit earlier. Man I can¡¯t keep making these mistakes. I shove the end of the stick into the ground right next to the opening of my shelter, now to quickly pile smaller sticks onto the torch that I had made. Now I have to blow lightly on the fire to keep it going. Aww now the sticks are starting to catch fire. Thank goodness I thought I wasn¡¯t going to make it. But I can¡¯t stop now that it has started to burn. I have to build it up more so that it can burn all through the night so I don¡¯t have to light another fire again in the morning. I pile more sticks onto the fire until it has grown to a significant size. Then I grabbed some more sticks and put them into my shelter, so that I can add fuel to the fire in the middle of the night. Then I crawl into my little shelter and eat the other half of meat. Man I have to kill something tomorrow or I won¡¯t be able to last. CH 9 Why cant everything be easy. CH 9 Day three ¡­ It¡¯s snowing today. That sucks for me. If I go out there I¡¯ll probably catch a cold and die. Well I think I have enough wood for the fire. But what should I do for today. I can¡¯t hunt or gather food but I can make that spear thing I was thinking about yesterday. I should collect mana if nothing else. I wasn¡¯t before because I needed to focus fully on the situation at hand. Now that I can¡¯t do anything I¡¯ll start gathering mana. And with it snowing like this that means that there¡¯s a bit more ice mana than in usual places. I grab one of the bigger sticks and pull out my dagger. I take an end and start to shave off wood from one side of the stick. I keep whittling one edge of the stick so that the point will be sturdier. After I finish carving the point of the one end I decide to go out to gather more wood and branches that aren¡¯t too far from the base. The snow hasn¡¯t letting up and I¡¯m afraid it won¡¯t stop until tomorrow or the next day so I have to prepare for the worst. ¡­ I had just finished laying more branches on top of my shelter when I noticed something. The snow wasn¡¯t as cold as it usually was. I¡¯m not going to question it and enjoy my luck. The sky is slowly getting darker. I never did see the sun today. I hope I can catch a glimpse of it tomorrow. ¡°But I don¡¯t feel the need to go to sleep yet so what should do?¡± I grab another half of a meat strip to chew on as I think of something proactive to do. But instead of proactive ideas I just remember my family and the home that I have to get back to. ¡°Ok¡­ Ok¡­ proactive things proactive things. There¡¯s no time to get depressed or I¡¯ll never see them again.¡± Oh I know. I can take some of the cloth and turn them into strips so that I can use them for something else latter. I take the five pieces of clothe that I had cut the fray of off, and start turning them into inch wide strips. By the time the sky became completely dark I had cut up two of the pieces of cloths into 12 strips of cloth strands. ¡­ Day four ¡­ The night was quiet while the snow continuously fell. The fire burned pretty low last night but it never went out. I slept like a rolling stone, tossing and turning, never really falling asleep and always on edge. But nothing moved outside and not a sound was heard, which only pushed me to be more alert. As the sun started to rise the snow began to lighten up. It didn¡¯t stop but it wasn¡¯t anything major enough to stop me from getting things done. I just hope that the animals go out today and leave me some fresh tracks to fallow. I eat another half of a meat strip leaving me only two more pieces for emergencies. Now my mouth is dry, better drink some snow. Aww now that hits the spot. Now if I¡¯m going to go hunting I¡¯ll need my makeshift spear, my dagger, and my bag. Which way should I go? I want to go in one general direction so that I won¡¯t get lost. Hum I think I¡¯ll go hunt to the south of the rock today. I don¡¯t know where I am in relation to the village but if north is where the dangerous beasts are I¡¯ll try to avoid that area for now. ¡­ I¡¯ve been walking for a while now. I still haven¡¯t seen any traces of any beasts. The snow has finally stopped so animals should be coming out right about now. The sun is still fairly high in the sky so I don¡¯t need to head back yet. Hu. Is that a paw print? It isn¡¯t too big, but anything is better than nothing. WHERE. Where is the next one. I need to find a trail to find the animal that made it. There it is! It looks like it was heading northwest. Got to remember that, don¡¯t want to get lost now. ¡­ The sun is starting to get low. ¡°Dang it!¡± Nothing, I got absolutely nothing from a days¡¯ worth of hunting, or walking. It seems like there isn¡¯t anything to the south so I better look some ware else tomorrow. Now if I was going northwest just now and I started by going south I should be able to find my own trail if I head east. That makes sense right. I don¡¯t have time to walk the whole way back along the trail I made. I guess I will have to try and find my trail as I head back. I really hope this works. ¡­ After walking a ways the sun had met the ground and was setting fast. I still haven¡¯t found the trail. But I have found out that all trees look the same after a while. I really hope I¡¯m not going crazy. ¡­ There are some of my foot prints finally. The sun is almost gone completely now. My footprints are going that way so I have to go the other way to get back to my rock. Man I got to hurry up there isn¡¯t much time till the sun sets completely. ¡°hu hu hu, Made it.¡± I slip into my shelter and put some sticks onto the pile of coals that used to be my fire. Wait coals. ¡°No no no no no.¡± I don¡¯t have time to go all the way over and start a new fire. Night is here and I need that fire now. ¡°Dang it Martoel stop being so forgetful.¡± Think man what can I do. I have to act fast before the coals cool down too much. Wait that¡¯s it the coals I¡¯m saved, maybe. If I gather the coals together now I might be able to make the coals hot enough to start another fire. Ok first I have to gather the coals into a pile, preferably without burning my hands. I¡¯ll use a stick to pull the coals and ash together into a pill. Now I¡¯ll need to add more fuel for the new fire. I place little sticks onto the pile of coals and grab a strip of cloth. I rip it in half and wrap it around two slightly bigger sticks. I don¡¯t have time try this again so I better use what I¡¯ve got to make this work on the first try. Now I¡¯ll try to, hopefully, get the fire to start up again. I start to blow onto the pile of coals, ash, and sticks in an attempt to restart the fire I let die as I was gone. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Haaaa Hoooo Haaaa Hoooo Haaaa Hoooo.¡± I start to fall into a steady rhythm of breathing in and blowing out onto my pile of coals. Come on this has to work I won¡¯t last the night without this fire. Come on¡­ light dang it light. But it doesn¡¯t light. But I¡¯m not going to stop trying until it lights. With every time I blow onto the pile of coals I start to see a faint glow in the coals only for it to fade away again as I breathe in. But slowly they get brighter in between the breaths and start to last till I can blow on them again. That faint light keeps driving me to continue to blow on the coals. Even though my lunges burn more than they do I don¡¯t stop blowing. As more time goes on my breath start to become more raged and the coals have a slight orange glow to them. The sun had set a long time ago but I still keep on trying to light this fire. I don¡¯t even feel cold but I need this fire so I won¡¯t stop until it is lit. And then it happens. A slight ember catches onto one of the cloth strips that were wrapped around one of the sticks. Finally the fire had starting again but if I left it alone it would die instantly. So I continue to blow on the embers with a new found determination. I reached back and grabbed some of the sticks that where in my shelter. I begin to pile a few sticks onto the embers as they slowly burn and catch onto the one another in the fire pit. After fighting for so long to start this fire again I start to feel my body fade. But I can¡¯t yet and so I lay there with one eye open watching the rekindled flames burn anew, constantly observing so that I can make shore that I don¡¯t forget to care for it. I¡¯m not letting it die again. ¡­ Day five ¡­ ¡°Awww.¡± Thank goodness the fire hasn¡¯t burned out while I was asleep. The sun is peeking over the ground now so the day has just begun. ¡°grumble grumble¡± Hmm now that I think about it I still need to eat. I didn¡¯t eat last night since I was too worried about the fire at the time to notice. Man I won¡¯t last if I keep eating like this, or not eating to be more accurate. That¡¯s it no food today until I find something else to eat. There aren¡¯t many edible plants in the ever frost and many animals sleep during this time so this will be much harder than any other time I might do this. Well I think so anyway. Ok the things that I can eat are cooked meat from any animal I happen to catch, any nuts or berries that might be growing, and finally some plants that aren¡¯t supposed to kill me. Man I have great odds of lasting a month out here¡­ ¡°Ahh who am I kidding.¡± Well I won¡¯t get anything done like this so I better start hunting again. I think I¡¯ll head to the west today in the hopes of find something to eat, whether that¡¯s meat or not. Man I hope I can get some meat. ¡°Oh yeah.¡± Almost forgot I have to pile more wood onto the fire so that it doesn¡¯t burn out like last time. Man I¡¯m an idiot some times. I really don¡¯t want to have to restart this fire two days in a row. ¡­ There that should be good there¡¯s a big log in there today so it should last for longer than yesterday. Now that¡¯s taken care of I can head out to find food. But I shouldn¡¯t take all day or I might have to rekindle the fire again. ¡°humm¡± I¡¯ll head back sooner today but I¡¯ll figure out when sooner is after I start the hunt. ¡°Ok let¡¯s go.¡± ¡­ Yes a trail. And the sun hasn¡¯t even risen too far into the sky yet. Ok if I look at these tracks I can see that the animal was heading north. I hope this wasn¡¯t the trail I found the other day. ¡°Grumble¡± And I better find some food today if I want to eat anytime soon. ¡­ Aww man. The sun is starting to peak in the sky. Well I better head back now or the fire will die out before I get there. I might as well peal some bark off of some of these trees as I head back. While walking back to base I harvested different types of bark off of a variety of trees. Once I harvested a bit of bark I would put it in my mouth and suck on it for a while. Then if my mouth didn¡¯t feel strange I would break it up and eat it. Most of the barks made me feel slight discomfort in my mouth which sucked. But a few did nothing to my mouth so I ate those. There was one tree that leaked out this sweet smelling syrup stuff. The syrup was thick but after you pulled the bark off the tree it poured out steadily. I drank as much of that syrup as I could but I couldn¡¯t waste too much time there or I would have to re remake my fire. ¡°grumble.¡± ¡°yeah yeah I know I¡¯m hungry. So shut up stomach.¡± ¡­ Finally I¡¯m back. The fire is much smaller than when I left but it¡¯s still burning so that¡¯s good. I better collect more wood though or I won¡¯t have enough to last the next few days with the pile I have. I put some more wood onto the fire and head out to find some more wood in the near the base. ¡­ After a while I start to eat tree bark again. Man I¡¯m hungry. I found another tree with sweet syrup inside of it and am drinking as much of it as I can. It has a pretty strong scent to it so animals can probably smell it from much farther away. I wonder if I could use this as bait. I don¡¯t know how to make very good traps though so it might not work. I¡¯ll worry about that another day it¡¯s getting late again. Once I get back to the shelter I put some wood inside but most of it is on the other side of the fire pit. I craw into the shelter and try to fall asleep on the hard frozen ground. My shelter is looking kind of shabby now that I think about it. I¡¯ll have to fix that another day. I¡¯ll do that sometime after I find some food to eat. Ch 10 Lucky Hunt Hey everyone. It¡¯s me the author. Sorry for not posting anything recently. I just got into a little slump. And I apologize for that. But it¡¯s hard to do right a story that you think is good and get nothing from it. I¡¯m not saying I want your money or your love or anything like that. The thing I really want the most is for you guys the readers who choose to read my little story to interact with me. Any way you want to. Comment that you liked this aspect or that you hated another. Tell me my grammar mistakes. (I¡¯m sure you can find some.) Tell me what you guys want to see happen in my story. Tell me your ideas. Make a character, make a monster, design a special move, make a new continent to discover, whatever you want to do. Tell me what your thinking. It will help so much more then you think. Will I be able to use everything? Probably not. Will it help? YES. Don''t want to share your ideas so that you can use them yourself. Wright your own story then. It''s hard. But extremely rewarding. (And I haven''t even felt the support you could get if you wright an amazing piece.) Don¡¯t believe me then read what Durrendal wrought about "How to support authors?" I read it. It was right. And I realized that I can be a better fan of the authors whose fictions I read. And I hope that you tell me just what you¡¯re thinking. Good or bad. It lets me know that what I¡¯m doing isn¡¯t a waste of time. Sorry if this sounded like a sermon. If it did tell me. :-P Anyways back to the story. And thanks for reading. <======================> CH 10 ¡­ Day six ¡­ When I woke the sun was slowly rising as it woke up the world. There where clear skies with a few clouds scattered above. And the fire had dying down in the night. I put some more wood onto the fire before beginning my day. ¡°Grumble¡± Aww man I need to eat something. I¡¯m wasting away here. I¡¯ve been feeling light headed recently. If it¡¯s from a lack of food or something else I don¡¯t know. I hope it¡¯s from the lack of food or else I¡¯m going to get into trouble soon enough. And until I find out why I feel this way I¡¯m going to have to be more cautions. I wonder if anything was attracted to the sweet syrup that I found the other day. If not I can eat some of it for breakfast. Hopefully a small animal is attracted. That would be an easy kill, I think. But there¡¯s no use if I just thinking about it. I better get a move on then. ¡­ ¡°Oh what do we have here?¡± Standing at the base of the tree there was a frost rabbit. It¡¯s about the same size as me and has white fur with reflective shards of ice covering it in a few places of its back. It has crimson red eyes. With small claws on its feet and long fangs that only get stronger with age. It¡¯s bigger than the frost rabbits that hide around the village. It must be older than the ones I¡¯ve seen. Father has told me that some of the really nasty ones can be as tall as man and as wide as a sheep. I¡¯m told that if I ever meat one of those then I should offer it food. If you don¡¯t have any then you should sit down and wait for it to decide on what it¡¯s going to do with you. It isn¡¯t the big one so I might be able to take it. But then again I don¡¯t know if I could come out of the fight intact. But I really need the meat. I could die. But then again I could die at any time out here. Plus the longer I don¡¯t bring in food the greater the risk of dying from starvation is. Rather than dying from starvation I¡¯d prefer to die fighting. Ok. I¡¯ve decided. I¡¯m going to kill it. I didn¡¯t bring my spear with me so I only have my dagger to fight with. I could go back and get my spear. But the frost rabbit might leave by the time I get back. I have to decide right now, whether I¡¯m going to fight with my dagger now or go get my spear and try to track it down latter. ¡°Grumble¡± Well my stomach settled that. I¡¯m going for it. This is the first animal I¡¯ve seen since I¡¯ve been out here and I¡¯m not going to risk losing it. It still hasn¡¯t noticed me yet or it thinks I¡¯m insignificant. Please be the first one. I run at the beast with my dagger tightly griped in my right hand. I get ready to stab its head. As I rush towards the beast its ears shoot up and it begins to turn its head towards me. I run faster. If it sees me it will ether run or attack. I can¡¯t afford ether of these options right now. Once I get into range I¡¯ll have it. I¡¯ll be able to kill it. But that¡¯s not how life works. Once I¡¯m in range to stab it. The frost rabbit shoots off the ground leaving imprints of its feet in its place, it had just flipped right over my head. And instead of stabbing it like I had planned. I just run into the tree that was behind the frost rabbit like a foul. But I can¡¯t stop now or I¡¯ll die. I spin around as fast as I can. I¡¯m holding onto my dagger for dear life. Fearing that I¡¯m about to be bitten in half. I look at the frost rabbit and am surprised that it is just sitting there watching me fumble about. It doesn¡¯t even recognize me as a threat. It is right though. I¡¯m not really a threat at all. But I refuse to just walk away and wait to starve. I refuse to die like that. So what can I do? I¡¯ll die if I fight, but I¡¯ll die if I don¡¯t. I¡¯ll fight¡­ And if I do die at least I died in an attempt to survive instead of doing nothing. Ok I¡¯m ready to die to this fluffy beast. ¡°AHHHHH¡± I run at the beast. No thoughts run through my head. I only see the beast in front of me. This time it attacks by swings its hind legs around to kick me. I dive to the ground and feel a cold gust of wind pass over me. I hop up and try to stab it with my dagger as it tries to take a bite out of me. Instead following through with my attack I pull myself back, narrowly avoiding getting my hand bitten off. I press my attack again and make a slight scratch into its side with my dagger. ¡°THUMP¡± This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. All I saw was the frost rabbit getting farther and farther away. Then I feel a great pain in my back as I slam into something. I land onto the ground and start coughing up blood. Everything hurts and it is hard to move. Crap. The frost rabbit is bouncing over here. It¡¯s probable coming to finish me off. So what was the point of it all, being taught by my parents, fighting brother to get stronger, even gathering mana? What did it do for me? It did everything for me. Mother and fathers teaching let me live at least a few days out here. The fights with brother gave me the confidence to fight. And mana is the very reason I¡¯m alive at all. It is the only thing that existed in both the spirit world and mortal one. Mana was everything in the spirit world. Mana was power. I just have to learn how to use that power. Focus Martoel, gather the mana and use it somehow. But all I can do is move it around my body. Wait, maybe I can reinforce my body, make myself stronger, fix my wounds, and give me the power to overcome my enemies. I start to swirl the mana inside me around. Then I begin to spread that energy into every part of my body. I slowly reinforce myself, until.. ¡°AHHH¡± My shoulder starts burning painfully. After a few short seconds the pain lessons to the point where it is bearable. But I feel stronger and all the pain I was feeling across my body begins to slowly subside. I have to ignore the lingering pain and stand. Or I will die before I can use this newfound power. I slowly get to my feet even though I should be so broken that I should never walk again. ¡°You. Beast. I will kill you now.¡± I scream at the beast as I prepare to run at it again. I look at the beast in front of me and charge again. This time I run low to the ground, trying to anticipate its next move as I run. As I approach the frost rabbit it starts to swing around its hind legs around. And I jump back barley avoiding the tips of its feet. Then I jump forward and manage to plunge my dagger into its back as it is spinning. The dagger plunges into the frost rabbit and I hold onto the dagger for dear life as the frost rabbit leaps forward trying to shake me off. The dagger slips out of the wound I made on the frost rabbit and I fall to the ground. I stand up again and prepare for its attack. It charges me with its mouth gaping open and fangs ready to pierce through me. How can I avoid this, Jump out of the way, lie down and hope it goes over me. But then in the heat of the moment I jump towards it and slightly to the left. But still towards the beast that¡¯s trying to kill me. I thrust my dagger towards the frost rabbit¡¯s face. The dagger catches the corner of its mouth and cuts a large gash on the side of its face. I spin around a few times from the force put on my body and get thrown a little ways away. The frost rabbit now faces me again with blood leaking out of its mouth and dying its back red. While I stand there bruised and broken with blood stained lips. We stare at each other and don¡¯t make a single move, waiting for the other to fall or attack. The frost rabbit hops up into the air. I look up trying to figure out where it will land only to see it speeding toward me. I jump to the side only to be blown farther away from the impact the frost rabbit made on the ground. I hop up in an instant and stare at the snowy mist in front of me waiting for the beast to emerge. Then it charges out of the mist strait towards me and rams me head on caring me away. But I refuse to be taken away by this beast and start to stab repeatedly into the frost rabbits head. Then I¡¯m rammed into a tree. The frost rabbit jumps back and I fall to the ground. Blood spurt out of my mouth and onto the white snow dyed in red. But I can¡¯t die yet so I stood again teetering on my feet ready to pass out at any moment. I looked at the frost rabbit. Much of its fur was now covered in its own blood. It gets ready to ram me against the tree again while I prepare to make my last attempt at survival against the frost rabbit. It charged me, head down and angered. Once it got close enough I drove my dagger straight into its forehead and leapt up with all my remaining strength, in an attempt to go over the frost rabbit. Instead I flipped myself onto its back dragging my dagger across its forehead. Then I bounce off of it as it rams itself into a tree. It fell and sat there motionless on the ground. I walked over to the beast and stabbed its head over and over again until I believed it was truly dead. I sat down next to it exhausted and an immense pain that seemed to be radiating from my left shoulder overwhelmed my senses and I passed out. ¡­ When I awoke the sun was falling back towards the ground but was still high in the sky. Nothing was around, like usual, except the dead Frost rabbit that sat beside me. I fell week but I refuse to give up any of this meat that I just had won from my fight for my life. So I reinforce myself grab the frost rabbit by it feet and drag it back to base. I don¡¯t know where I am in reference to my base so I follow the trails of blood, broken branches, and overturned snow that had been a result of the battle. The way back to base wasn¡¯t hard to follow there was carnage every ware. But there was an eerie pressure in the forest that wasn¡¯t there before. Like the forest was preparing for more destruction and more carnage. In the end I ignored it and continued to push onward. ¡­ Once I got back to base I took the time to skin the fur off of the beast and put it aside. Then I take the meet and put it on the other side of the wood pile. I cut chunks of meat off of the beast and skewered them on a pointed stick. I plant two Y shaped sticks on opposite sides of the fire and place the skewered meat over the fire. Since I was just hanging around I decide to gather some snow and put it into the pot that I had and put it close to the fire like mother had taught me. As time went on I slowly rotated the meat that had been skewered. Once the snow melted I grabbed the pot of water to have a drink, only to almost burn my hands off. I grab two pieces of cloth and try to pick up the pot again. This time I succeed and drank the boiling water. As it rolls down my throat I feel like I was about to catch on fire. But I drank it greedily as that pain it caused couldn¡¯t compare to the pain I had already felt from the fight. Still thirsty I gather more snow into the pot and place it next to the fire again. ¡­ By the time the meat was completely cooked I had already burned the two pieces of clothe from trying to use them to pick up the pot. So I had resorted to using my hands even against my better judgment. I had drunk seven pots of water like this by the time I thought the meat was cooked completely. The meat was a bit burnt on the outside but retained most of its juices and was kind of tender. It tasted great considering that I had never cooked by myself before. And I was shore that I wasn¡¯t going to get sick from the under cooked meat. Mother warned me that a little raw meat was fine but too much cooked meat was never a problem. Today was the first day that I had fought for my own survival. Now I know I need to be stronger if I want to live. Much much stronger. I have to train more, I¡¯ll gather mana constantly, and move it around my body as I work throughout the day. I also need to find stronger beasts and fight them. Once I fight a strong enough beast I¡¯ll go and fight weaker ones without the help of mana. But I must remember that I can be killed at any time on any given day. That¡¯s how it is out here. So I have to grow stronger than I ever thought was possible. As the sun set I noticed that the mark on my shoulder was glowing faintly. I wonder if this is related to the fight. But there are too many immediate problems to worry about right now. I need to focus on survival. I¡¯ll ask the elder about my mark when I get back. Then I drift off to sleep. CH 11 And I thought I was the predator. CH 11 ¡­ Day seven ¡­ ¡°Arh-wooo¡± I snap awake at the sudden sound. This howl was much louder than any of the other howls that I had heard during the nights. They were close and that howl signaled the beginning of a hunt. I fear for the prey that the wolves hunt. And I can only hope that the prey isn¡¯t me. ¡°Arh-wooo¡± ¡°Arh-wooo¡± ¡°Arh-wooo¡± ¡°Arh-wooo¡± ¡°Arh-wooo¡± Then the silence of the night was pierced again and again with howls in reply. Some near, some far. But none were as close as the one that I had heard first. Fearing an attack I sat awake peering into the night. With my spear in hand, watching, waiting, and cowering in my shelter, hoping that the pack wasn¡¯t after me. And don¡¯t forget my glowing shoulder that just draws attention towards me, it is a beacon right now as it grows brighter. Man I hope nothing finds me tonight. ¡­ After a stressful night the sun slowly rose into the sky and the howling of the wolves subsided. Unfortunately for me I still hurt every ware and my shoulder refuses to turn off, stupid mark. I¡¯m still afraid that I might be attack. So today I¡¯ll stay here and prepare for the worst. First I gather some meat and skewer it onto a stick like I had the night before. I add a few more sticks to the fire just too make shore it won¡¯t go out. Now it¡¯s time to cook the meat. I place the skewered meat onto my little spit. Now I begin the ridiculously painful and long process of melting snow in my pot to get what mother called ¡°safe water¡±. I would drink it as soon as I saw that it had melted. For some reason the water didn¡¯t feel as hot as it did last time. Better not question it and accept that it benefits me. After I¡¯ve eaten and effectively burned my mouth a few times I get ready to prepare for the worst. I go and gather more sticks and add them to my pile. Then I take the pelt that I had skinned off of the frost rabbit and laid it on the ground in my shelter. That should help with the cold nights. Now I need to get ready for a fight. I take a few of the larger sticks and carved there ends into sharp points, just like I had done with my first spear. I make spear after spear until I have ten of them. But will these wooden weapons do anything to the wolves if I face them. My dagger barely cut into the frost rabbit. Wolves generally have thicker fur. I hope my dagger can cut into it. I have to make a stronger spear. But I need my dagger on hand so I can¡¯t attach it to a spear. So what can I use that¡¯s harder than wood but not my dagger? Well if I think about it if I hit a rock with a stick the stick breaks but if I hit a rock against metal the rock supposedly breaks first. That¡¯s it I¡¯ll take a rock and make it into a spearhead. If I want the best spearhead I should use the shiny rock that I had used for the fire, it seems to be pretty strong. I walk to the shiny patch of the bolder and begin to move the snow around to uncover the small rocks underneath. I find dull rock after dull rock until I find two small shiny rocks that are a bit duller then the shiny patch on the bolder. It¡¯s kind of hard to tell. Now it¡¯s time to head back to the base and make some spears. Once I¡¯m back to the base I notice that the sun is halfway down from its peak. I grab two sticks, two strands of cloth, the two rocks, and my dagger. First I have to make a spearhead out of the rocks. ¡°chenk chenk chenk¡± I start by chipping the rocks edges with my dagger trying to make it into a point. Man this is much harder than thought it would be. ¡°chenk chenk chenk¡± ¡°chenk chenk chenk¡± ¡°chenk chenk chenk¡± ¡°chenk chenk chenk¡± ¡°Aww that took a while.¡± After chipping one rock into a point the sun had almost reached the ground. My hands are shaking from all the impacts I had made against the rock. I better eat before I start to work on constructing the stone spear. I cut some meat off the frost rabbit and skewer it like I had done this morning. I place it over the fire to cook, and then I gather some snow and place it in my pot so that I can get some warm water to heat me up. As the food is cooking I take the two strands of cloth and cut them again on their lengths. Then I take a stick and split its end into fourths. Now I can secure the rock to the end of the stick. I place the spearhead onto the end of the stick hoping that it will stay. But the spearheads edges are sticking out at the bottom. I have to take some more off of the sides. ¡°chenk chenk chenk¡± I finish making the indents in the sides of the spearhead and place it back onto the end of the stick. I grab my four strands of cloth and wrap them around the end of the stick where the spearhead and stick overlap. The cloth is overlapped and placed into the crevices of the spearhead to hold it tightly onto the end of the stick. And now it¡¯s done. I hope that these will do better than the wooden spears. It took a lot of time to make this so it better be worth it. Is something burning? ¡°OH NO THE MEAT.¡± Ok it¡¯s not too burned but I¡¯m afraid that the wolves will catch its scent. No matter I¡¯ll have to fight some of them eventually. Why not now? Please not now¡­ Aww this meat is still delicious no matter how burnt it is. And the water I¡¯m drinking doesn¡¯t hurt so much anymore. My shoulder is still glowing faintly for whatever reason, hope that stops soon. Whatever, I have to sleep while I can. I crawl into my shelter and check to see that I¡¯ve got everything in order, one last time, as I fall into a faint sleep. ¡­ ¡°Arh-wooo¡± I hear them. There howling sounds like their closer than they were last night. I really hope they aren¡¯t looking for me. I can¡¯t fall asleep now. I fear that their looking for me. That fear won¡¯t let me lower my guard so that I can fall asleep. So I just lay there wondering if I¡¯m the pray they hunt. And all I can do is hope that I¡¯m not found. ¡°Arh-wooo¡± They¡¯ve found what they were looking for, I know it. How you might ask? Well, I know it because I see a set of glowing green eyes peering through the night. I can¡¯t tell if those eyes are watching me or the corpse of the frost rabbit I had killed. Either way I think I¡¯m going to have to have to fight. Because I¡¯m not going to give up my food to anyone who tries to take it for themselves. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!Luckily for my there seem to be only one pair of eyes in the night. Unfortunately that doesn¡¯t actually mean that there aren¡¯t more of them out there. And because it¡¯s so dark tonight I don¡¯t know how big it is ether. Let alone what kind of physical shape it is in. All I know is that there is a pair of eyes watching me, preparing to attack. So how am I going to fight this? I could charge in and kill it while it¡¯s alone, maybe. I could wait for it to start eating then stab it in the back, doubtful. I could throw my spears at it until it¡¯s crippled or dead, but the spears might not be able to pierce it. Or I could go out and challenge it head on for the rights of my food, which probably will get me killed the fastest. What to do what to do. I don¡¯t want to charge at it. When fighting the frost rabbit I saw that this was not an effective way to fight the beasts. And if there are more of them I¡¯ll be killed instantly. I don¡¯t want to throw my spears at it and lose all my weapons in an attempt to stay safe. And I refuse to be a coward and let the beast take any of my food for any reason. So I guess that leaves me with only one option. I¡¯ll have to stand and challenge it to a fight to the death, I¡¯ll probably be the one to die. Well crap. I hate all of these options. Well I better stand up and fight, even if that means that I¡¯ll die. I doubt that I¡¯ll be able to come home with pride if I don¡¯t do at least this much. Father always told me to respect your enemies when you fight. ¡°Up we go.¡± I stand outside of my shelter with my stone spear in my right hand and one of my wooden ones in my left, with my dagger at my waste. I stand tall and walk calmly over so that I stand in-between the peering eyes in the dark and the dead frost rabbit. But really I was ready to wet myself at any given moment. ¡°Gerrrr¡± The wolf snarls at me. ¡°This is my food beast. I will not give it up.¡± I yell sternly much like my father had when disciplining me or brother. I¡¯m hoping this will be an acceptable way to challenge the eyes that stair at me. ¡°Arh-wooo¡± It howls as it steps out into the light of the fire, reveling itself. It is about the size of the frost rabbit that I had killed only a bit smaller. It had dark black fur with small silver streaks running along its side. It had large white fangs and claws that shone in the fires light. And it looked like its whole body was made of dense muscles. It was a night wolf. And I was as good as dead. ¡°Gerrrrr¡± Until then I had only noticed the one set of eyes in the darkness that surrounded me. Only now did I notice the other wolves appear out of the woods one at a time. They stayed in the woods only letting their eyes be seen. From my count it looked like there were around ten new pairs of eyes staring at me. I am so glad I didn¡¯t charge this night wolf. So there we stood staring at each other in the light of the fire. Me ready to wet myself and it ready to eat me as I wet myself. None of the wolves around us had moved forward but they had all gone quite after the wolf in front of me took a firm step forward. I doubt that they will interrupt this fight. But if I kill that wolf will they attack. Who knows, but I won¡¯t know until they attack. The other option is that I die. Soooo I¡¯m going to hope that they don¡¯t attack me. But I don¡¯t trust them so I¡¯ll try to keep an eye on them while I fight. I ready myself and stab the wooden spear into the ground next to the dead frost rabbit. Then I spread my legs apart and point my spear at the night wolf. ¡°Gerrrrr¡± It growls at me and we begin to circle each other. Then I notice that my back is now facing the night wolfs pack. Crap. I glance behind me and notice that they haven¡¯t moved an inch. I messed up again. I turn around just in time to see the wolf running at me with full intent on killing me as fast as possible. I side step to the left and swing my spear around and hit its head slightly pushing it to my right. I narrowly escaped a quick death after I had lost my focus on the night wolf in front of me. I can¡¯t lower my guard against this beast. But I also have to be aware of the night wolves that surround us. Man this sucks. How am I going to be able to see everything around me at the same time? I only have two eyes. Just then I remember something the self proclaimed goddess had told me. She said something about everything having mana in them. Whoa that was really close. As the night wolf swung its claws at me. I had stepped back narrowly avoid its attack. Man I have to pay attention to this fight and get series. I¡¯ll have to use my mana if I want to get out of this alive. I begin to pump mana through my body. Hopefully this will make me strong enough to beat the night wolf. But I still have to watch my surroundings and I know that they have souls so why does it matter that they have mana. Wait, if they have mana then I can absorb the mana from my surroundings and sense the pockets of mana that move away from me and towards other body¡¯s. After all souls have large stores of mana inside them and are always gather more unconsciously. Shiri found that out when she was studding mana control. ¡°AHHH¡± I scream as the wolf cuts a light gash into the side of my stomach. I have to stop daydreaming and focus on this fight. I¡¯ve been dodging most of the attacks the night wolf has thrown at me but it seems to me that it¡¯s getting serious. Man that blow to my stomach hurt. Ok there we go I¡¯m absorbing mana now. Awww there are the other night wolves and surprisingly the trees. Oh crap got to dodge. I jump back avoiding its attack again. But now that I can feel the movements of the other night wolves, I can give my all to fighting this one without having to worry about a surprise attack from behind. I get back into a stance and prepare for its next attack. But it jumps back instead and stairs at me. It knows I¡¯m paying attention to it now. So that must mean that this fight has just begun. I can really get into it now. <============> Hey author here. So I¡¯m wondering whether the chapters are a good length or not. So please take the poll and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. Ch 12 Dual in the dark CH 12 I watch the wolf as it moves around me looking for the opportunity to strike. I shift into a stance like Jager had taught me and turn my body so that my spear is always pointing at my enemy. It circles around me a few times looking for an opening then dashes forward towards my right leg. I thrust my spear down towards its leg. But it jumps to the side and leaps towards my exposed back. I spin around barely elbowing it in the face as it scrapes a chunk of flesh out of my back. ¡° AHHH¡± I yell as I take the offensive. I make an attempt to stab the night wolfs head. But it jumps back and avoids being hit by inches. But I keep pushing the attack and kick it in its side. It jumps away trying to avoid being hit. The kick still connects to the wolf but it doesn¡¯t get hit nearly as hard as I wanted it to. It does get sent a few feet away but it hopes right back up. As it gets up I charge at it in an attempt to keep presser on it. I trust my spear and scrape its side as it jumps away to avoid another attack. Then it jumps at me its mouth ready to chomp me into two pieces. I shove my spear into its mouth in an attempt to block the attack. It pushes and pulls in an attempt to get the spear out of my hands. I plant my feet and twist my body around which through the night wolf off of my spear. As it landed I see an opportunity to strike and thrust my spear towards its gut. But this time it doesn¡¯t just dodge it jumps up over the point of my spear and lands on it cracking it in half. NOOO it took so long to make that. Ahhh I don¡¯t have time to worry about that. The night wolf leaps at me again as I¡¯m distracted. I roll under it and pull out my dagger. I really don¡¯t know if I can survive now that we¡¯re fighting the way the night wolf wants. We stop our attacks and look at each other. It is bleeding from the scratch on its side but other than that it looks fine. I on the other hand have a large gash in my back that¡¯s leaking blood and a lighter scratch on my stomach that has scabbed over sometime during the fight. I¡¯m pretty sure that the night wolf is better off than I am. I have to finish this soon or I¡¯ll die. I hold my dagger in my right hand and the back half of my broken spear in my left as I prepare myself for the next attack. The night wolf rushes me with its full strength. It jumps up and try¡¯s to bite my head. I block its bite with the back half of the broken spear. And with it attached to the spear, I through it down onto the ground and jump onto its back. As soon as I get on its back it let¡¯s go of the broken spear and tries to bite my leg to pull me off. I let go of the spear myself and grab onto its fur for dear life. I know if I fall off of the night wolf I¡¯ll be killed instantly. And as it spins around trying to through me off of its back and biting at my feet I start to stab into its back with my dagger. I stab it over and over again until finally I¡¯m thrown off. I get up onto one knee and stare at the wolf as it bleeds from the new injuries. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. But it doesn¡¯t back down. Instead it lowers itself and prepares to attack again. Why won¡¯t you die? Well I don¡¯t want to die ether so I guess I can¡¯t really ask that. ¡°Arh-wooo¡± The night wolf howls. Then I sense the mana of the other night wolves around me begin to move slowly towards us and more precisely me. This thing is trying to get its followers to kill me for it, that ass. I can¡¯t sit here and wait for them to kill me I have to act. I charge toward the night wolf with the little strength I have left. I jump into the air in a despite attempt to kill it. If I¡¯m going to die so are you, you mutt. ¡°AHHHHHHH¡± I crash into it as I land. Its mouth has clamped down onto my left shoulder causing it to bleed immensely. And my dagger is stuck into its throat. It is shaking my body around trying to tear out my flesh. While I just keep pushing my dagger deeper and deeper into the night wolf, twisting my dagger around as it spews out blood onto my hands as I try to kill it. Blood flows down my arm and back as we try to kill each other. The heat is quickly draining out of my body as more and more blood leaks out of my injuries. I never knew I could get this cold. I start shaking on the inside. I feel so tired. I can¡¯t go to sleep yet. My senses are leaving me. But I have to kill this night wolf first. Even if I die here this one dies with me. Ahh. Everything is getting blurry. I don¡¯t even have the strength to stab this beast again. But the night wolf isn¡¯t moving ether. I can barely feel its breath on my shoulder. So it¡¯s still alive, I think. But if it¡¯s not moving ether. Maybe it will die here with me. Haha I won¡¯t be going back to the spirit plain on my own then. But neither will you. We will go together and leave this world fighting. It wasn¡¯t a long life but I enjoyed it. Maybe the goddess will send me back quickly since I had such a short life. I don¡¯t even feel cold anymore and all I see is large shades of grey. ¡°Ahhh good bye¡­¡± I mumble under my breath. As I lose the little consciousness that I had left. CH 13 The next breath CH 13 ¡­ -Rhonda POV- ¡­ ¡°Well will you look at that. He¡¯s is out cold again. Even battle crazed warriors didn¡¯t bleed out at that age. Oh well maybe he¡¯ll come back to us.¡± I hope not then we¡¯ll never find out the potential of his soul. And I¡¯ll lose my cute lit¡­ ¡°Woof¡± ¡°Oh you¡¯re going to see him now?¡± ¡°Arf¡± ¡°haha I¡¯m sorry Moilf but I think your blessings will be better for a later time. He needs to learn how to use the gifts he already has before we give him any real power.¡± ¡°nnn-nnn-nnn¡± ¡°Oh don¡¯t be sad. And didn¡¯t I already apologize for keeping him to myself the last time.¡± ¡°Woof¡± ¡°Ok, ok, next time you get to be with him alone.¡± With how fast he gets knocked out we¡¯ll see him soon enough. ¡­ -Martoel POV- ¡­ Day 10 ¡­ ¡°De-haaaaaa haaa huu haa¡± It feels like I¡¯m breathing in solid metal right now. But since I¡¯m breathing I guess I¡¯m alive. It feels so weird to breath. This was nothing like the last time I went to the darkness without a body. I feel less mana flowing through me too. Also the goddess didn¡¯t speak to me, so I must be better off than I was last time. I hope¡­ ¡°Ahhhhh¡± Pain shoots throughout my body causing me to shake. What could cause such immense pain? Then I look at myself, trying to find out why I was in so much pain. ¡°There is a wolf stuck to my shoulder!¡± Ok. No you can¡¯t pass out. Not right after you just woke up. Hold on Martoel, come on just hold on. Breathe in and out. I mean it¡¯s just a wolf attached to your shoulder. With its mouth¡­ As if it was trying to tear my shoulder out¡­ Which it was¡­ Man I suck at motivating myself. I notice that there are slight scorch marks on the ground around me. There obvious compared to the fresh blanket of snow on the ground. The night wolf and I also have a dusting of snow on us too. The scorch marks remind me about mother had told me about my incident. When I asked mother what happened to me that made me pass out she told me I played in a storm. She told me that I was hit by lightning and caused an explosion of ice shards and black snow. From what I can see, the area around me looks just like what mother had described to me, but not as grand. Let¡¯s see how much mana drained out of me this time. As I looked at my mana I felt pulses of mana run through my body. It starts from my core then it moves out into every part of my body. It then bounces off of my outer frame and back to my core. It moves rapidly in that pattern as it tries to escape me, but something is containing it. The mana is constantly moving around my body making it hard to figure out what type it is. So many things are unclear. I don¡¯t understand anything about the situation I¡¯m in. But I know that I can¡¯t to die out here. Otherwise mother, father, brother Jager, and sister Perla will be sad. So I must survive for them and to find the answers to my questions later. But first things first. I have to get this Night wolf off of my shoulder, without losing the ability to use my arm. I begin to pull my dagger out of the wolf but it barley budges. Man I feel pathetic. Come on Martoel you have to push through this or you¡¯ll die. You¡¯re already talking to yourself so that means you¡¯re already craze. But that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m allowed to be week. So let¡¯s do this. ¡°AHHHHH!¡± ¡­ After pulling on the dagger for hours I was finally able to pull it out of the night wolfs throat. OK. That took too long for such a simple thing like pulling a dagger out of a corpse. And I thought I was going to be able to do something else today. The sun has already reached its peak. There¡¯s not much I can do about it though. It¡¯s not like I can do anything else in this position. ¡°Huuu¡± I¡¯m so tired. I never thought I could get tiered from pulling on a dagger. I just want to fall asleep against the night wolf. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. It¡¯s so soft compared to the ground. My eyes are barely open. And there soooo heave. If I wanted to I could just drift off like this¡­ Drift to a better place of dreams¡­ Drift back my family¡­ I could just drift off and die¡­ ¡­ WAIT Did I just think it was ok to die here? I can¡¯t die out here. I just can¡¯t. ¡°I REFUSE!¡± My blood starts to pump through me faster than before. All my weariness just vanishes from my body, leaving me to wonder if it was even there in the first place. I have to get moving. If I slow down and start to think, I¡¯ll spiral back down the path leading to Helhiem. I¡¯ll start by removing this wolf from my arm. I take my dagger in my right hand and slip it in between my shoulder and the night wolfs attached jaw. It takes some time to get the dagger into the space between us. After wiggling my dagger around I finally managed to get the dagger far enough in so I could try and pry its lower jaw off of my shoulder. I shake the dagger back and forth in an attempt to make a larger gap. The goal is to make a big enough space between us that my hand could fit into so I could pull it¡¯s fangs out of my shoulder. As the gap slowly widens blood begins to trickle down my arm. I hope I didn¡¯t get infected. Well since I¡¯m still breathing I know that the night wolves¡¯ fangs aren¡¯t piousness. Well, at least not this one. I keep on widening the gap between us until I realize that the dagger isn¡¯t being useful anymore. I hope I wasn¡¯t doing that for too long or I just wasted a lot of time. Now I take my dagger and trace my way up its jaw until I find the point where the jaw hinges. Then I stab the wolf corpse in that part of its mouth. I really hope this makes it easier to pull its jaw off of me. I slip my fingers into the gap I had made and began to pull my arm forward. It doesn¡¯t budge so I take the dagger out of its head and stab the other side at the same place. Then I pull the dagger out and drop it into the snow. I grab the night wolfs jaw again and pull with all the strength I could muster. ¡°Crack crack¡­Snap¡± ¡°Finally.¡± The wolf¡¯s jaw must have shattered from the sound it made. And now that the wolf mouth isn¡¯t clamped onto both sides of my shoulder I can push it off of me. I lean forward as I push its head off of me. As its fangs pull out of my shoulder blood starts to spill out of me again. I should take care of this bleeding. I¡¯ve been bleeding a lot today I hope that doesn¡¯t stop me from getting back to my shelter. I need to get in there and wrap up my shoulder and make a sling for my arm. Ok. Let¡¯s get up and walkover there. ¡°Hup¡­¡± ¡°Puff¡± That didn¡¯t work. Let¡¯s try again. ¡°And up we go.¡± ¡°Puff¡± Well my legs aren¡¯t working right. So I guess I¡¯ll just have crawl back to the shelter. It¡¯s only a few strides away. ¡­ ¡°Haaaaa Huuu Haaaa Huuuuu¡± I never imaged that crawling such a short distance with a broken arm and weak legs would be so hard. But I¡¯m here now. The fire was dead so I didn¡¯t have to go around that. If I had it might have taken me so long that the sun would have set completely. The sun is pretty low right now, hovering just above the horizon. That doesn¡¯t give me a lot of time to wrap up my arm and try to get another fire started. Well my priority right now should be my shoulder. If I can¡¯t start a fire tonight I¡¯ll just have to freeze another night. I grab a strip of cloth and lay it on top of my shoulder. I force my head and shoulder together to keep the cloth in place. I then take one end of the cloth and pull it under my armpit. I bight onto that end then I grab the other end. I wrap the ends around each other and pull tightly with my free hand. Then I loop the ends around each other again making a tight knot. I keep tightening the cloth around my shoulder until I feel presser on my shoulder. Ok that should work for tonight. I¡¯ll make a better bandage in the morning. But first I have to make a sling for my arm. I take two pieces of cloth and tie them together at both ends. Then throw it around my neck and slip my left arm into the other end. I could do better but I¡¯m too exhausted to worry about it. I¡¯ll worry about everything tomorrow after I get some good sleep. Hopefully¡­ CH 14 Starting Up Again CH 14 ¡­ Day 11 ¡­ Once I wake up my stomach feels like caving in on itself from hunger. I look towards the frost rabbit. Well I would have if it was there. ¡°AHHH! Those mutts. They took my meat.¡± Where the dead frost rabbit had been laid there is now a faint trail in the snow that lead of into the woods. Oh, I¡¯m going to get those mutts for taking my food. Latter though, right now I¡¯m too weak to fight anything. But that doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t track them and find out where they live. But first, food. And a fire for that matter. I take some cloth and some sticks and bundle them up together. Then I grab one of the shiny rocks I have and start to strike my dagger against it. ¡°Chenk Chenk fwuosh.¡± The fire started relatively easy compared to the other times I¡¯ve started them. Maybe I¡¯m getting the hang of it. Now it¡¯s time to get some food. I look at the dead night wolf and hope that it hasn¡¯t rotted any. But with this cold weather it shouldn¡¯t have. I really hope its ok to eat it. I walk over to the night wolf and skin it. Then I cut some chunks out of it and put it into my pot. Then I fill my pot with snow and set it into the fire to cook. Hopefully this will make the meat safe enough to eat. Man, mother would kill me if she saw me eat this meat. As I wait for the meat to cook I decide to remove the bandages from my wounds. Now that I think of it I should have used those to start the fire. Oh well. My shoulder is still raw to the touch, but it isn¡¯t bleeding anymore so I¡¯m not going to place a new bandage on it. But my forearm is the real problem. As of now I can barely feel it at all. From what I tell I didn¡¯t break anything. But I can¡¯t move it well and when I do it hurts like crazy. All I can do for my arm is put it back into the sling I made and hope it fixes itself. But just to be safe I make another sling and put it on for extra support. Once I finish treating my wounds I look into my pot. From what I can tell the meat looks like it¡¯s been sufficiently cooked. So I grab the pot and drink everything in it. It¡¯s still scalding but I don¡¯t care anymore. I¡¯m still hungry. I gather some more snow and place it into the pot to let it melt. Then I walk over to the wolf and cut another chunk of meat out of it. I put the meat on top of the melting snow that¡¯s in the pot. Then I take the wolf¡¯s pelt and bring it back to the shelter. I don¡¯t know what to do with this yet so I¡¯ll just toss it into the shelter for now. The sun has already started falling from the sky. I must be moving really slowly whale I¡¯m doing things with only one arm. But I can¡¯t help it. That¡¯s just the situation I have to deal with right now. ¡°Huuuu haaaa¡± What to do what to do. Actually, I need to go find my spear, well what¡¯s left of it anyway. I get up and start to look around the area for the remains of my spear. I find the front half fairly easily. But no matter how much I look I can¡¯t seem to find the other half. Oh well, I only really cared about the spearhead. I get back to the fire and see that the meat is done cooking. I grab the pot again and chug down its contents. Awww, that hits the spot. It wasn¡¯t as good as the frost rabbit but it will do for now. Haha, like I actually have a choice. That¡¯s kind of sad to think about. Well on that happy note and the fact that the sun is setting, I guess I¡¯ll go to sleep now. ¡­ Day 12 ¡­ ¡°Awwww¡± Another wonderful day. The sun is up. There is beautiful white snow every ware¡­ Ok. Check that. Most of it is still red. But other than that everything is fine. Sure it¡¯s really cold. And my arm is busted up. But I¡¯m alive. That¡¯s good¡­ ¡­ It sucks out here. ¡­ But I¡¯m not dead. ¡­ Yet Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡­. And on that wonderful note time to do something other than think about how bad my situation is. First things first though, replacing bandages. While I don¡¯t think replacing the sling for my arm will help much, since it¡¯s not bleeding, I know that mother would break my other arm for not doing anything to help it heal. I slip my arm out of the sling and lay it down to see if I need to adjust anything. Luckily I don¡¯t, I think. But before I put everything back into place for the day I should try moving my arm around to see if it¡¯s gotten any better. First let¡¯s gently straighten it out. As soon as my arm is fully extended I feel a jolt of intense pain shout through my arm, causing me to feel light headed. Thankfully I haven¡¯t eaten yet, otherwise I would have vomited all that I had eaten that instant. My arm hurt for a few seconds then dissipated into a fuzzy feeling. I guess that¡¯s an improvement to barely feeling anything at all. I just hope that means I¡¯ll be able to use it in a few days. I put my arm back into the sling. My arm still feels tingle and when I moved it back into place I felt some pain shoot through me every once and a while. ¡°Ok, what to do now?¡± ¡°Grumble.¡± Well that answers that question. It¡¯s time to eat. I get up grab my dagger and walk to the night wolf. A few pars of it aren¡¯t as red as the rest of it. It¡¯s probably starting to rot. I¡¯ll have to harvest the rest of the unspoiled meat off of the night wolf¡¯s corpse before it all goes bad. But I¡¯m getting ahead of myself here. First I have to eat. I cut some chunks of meat off of the night wolf that don¡¯t appear to be spoiling and put them into my pot with some snow. Then set the pot into my fire like I had done the night before. While that cooks I¡¯ll harvest the rest of the unspoiled meat off of the night wolf¡¯s corpse. But how should I store it so that it will last. The frost rabbit didn¡¯t spoil. So why did the night wolf? The only thing I can think of is that it was a little colder when the frost rabbit was laying dead out here then when the night wolf was. I guess I can try that since I can¡¯t think of anything else. Who knows that might have been the case. But how will I keep the meat cold? I mean it can¡¯t tell me it¡¯s cold. So what can I do? ¡­ Oh, I got it. The snow feels colder then the meat does when I touch it. And if it feels colder then the meat does, that means if I beery the meat in the snow it will get colder. First I¡¯ll divide the meat up into piles with portions that will last me a whole day each. I dig five holes in the snow for each pile of meat, along the side of the bolder. Now I cover them up in lots of snow so that I can¡¯t see any meat peaking through. And just to be sure that I don¡¯t forget where I put them, I place a few rocks on top of each piles of snow in the shape of an ¡°X¡±. The meat should be ready now. And my stomach is just begging to be fed, from all the noise it¡¯s been making. I take a seat by the fire and grab onto the pot full of meat and water. I slowly drink it all down as I take a look at the area around me. It¡¯s pretty calm out here, now that nothing bad is happening. There is an absurd amount of blood dyed snow a little ways from my shelter but other than that everything looks like it¡¯s in the right place. I wonder how mother and father are doing. I remember that when Jager came home they became much happier. Now I know why and it is amazing that he came home in one piece. I wonder if father had to do this when he was a kid. Well I can ask them about it later. Right now it¡¯s time to make a new spear. I take the spearhead out of the stick that had broken when I fought the night wolf and set the spearhead aside along with the cloth that I used to tie the rock onto the stick. Then I take another long stick and start to make it into a solid staff by griping to the stick in pain with my left hand and carving with the dagger in my right. I cut the notch onto one end of the stick like I had before and get ready to place the spearhead into the notch. Wait a second if I put some sticky stuff into the notch of the stick the spearhead might become better attached to the spear shaft. I hop up and walk to the nearest sticky tree and cut a notch into the side of it so that some sticky stuff leaks out. Then I coat the back end of the spearhead in the sticky stuff. I place the spearhead into the notch on the staff and wrap the cloth from the broken spear onto the new one. Hmmm. How else can I improve my spear? Oh, I got it. When my spear broke I was left with the back end that didn¡¯t have a point. So if I carve a point onto the other end of my spear, I¡¯ll be able to fight with it even if it breaks. I should do that with the rest of the spears too. By the time I finished putting another point onto all of the spears the sun had gotten fairly close to the ground. There¡¯s so much to do in so little time. I have to gather more food, maybe even a larger verity instead of purely meat. I want to hunt down the rest of the night wolves since they took my frost rabbit. My arm has to heal first though. I should probably experiment more with my mana in this area since I know no one is around. I would also like to find out what direction the village is in. The man made it seem like I had to find out on my own. I¡¯ll worry about that latter on though. Overall I just have to survive. ¡°Ahh.¡± These next twenty or so days are going to be hard, aren¡¯t they... CH 15 Stuck and hungry Hey. Sorry for not being able to post anything in a while. I''ll try to get another chapter up in a day or two. But life got hectic and just started to make me feel like I couldn''t do anything. I don''t mean for this to be a pitty party so I''ll stop talking and let you read. Thanks for reading. It means alot. <=============> Ch 15 ¡­ Day 13 ¡­ There¡¯s no time to sit around and twiddle my thumbs. Well, maybe just for one day. The reason being is that it¡¯s snowing right now. Weird, it¡¯s falling sideways. So yeah, I can¡¯t really go outside today. So for now I¡¯ll see how much my arm has healed. It isn¡¯t tingling anymore, I can even feel the sling on my arm. I think that¡¯s a good sign, I hope. Next I think I¡¯ll try and move it again. I¡¯ll try to slide my arm out of the sling without my other hand. After a while I manage to remove my arm from the sling. Moving it hurt like crazy and it took longer then I thought, but in the end I think my arm is doing better. In the end I think it was worth the slight pain to find out how I¡¯m recovering. After I had put my arm back into the sling, I notice that hunger had crept up on me. But there¡¯s a problem, I can¡¯t get to my food stash while the blizzard is ragging. I could eat the cured meat that I had saved for emergencies. Is this an emergency? ¡°Grumble¡± It¡¯s enough of one for me. I take a chunk of meat out of the cloth it was wrapped in and eat it slowly in little pieces. I try to make sure to saver every bite since I can¡¯t really justify eating this¡­ ¡°Ah! The fire is getting smaller.¡± I grab some sticks from the pile and place them on the fire. They don¡¯t catch as quickly as they used to, weird. I have to pay attention to the fire or it will be put out by the snow. And if that happens I won¡¯t be able start another one until the blizzard ends, which would ruin me¡­ For the rest of the day I sat and tend to the fire while I collect mana. Outside the blizzard gets worse by the second. I don¡¯t know when it will end but I hope it¡¯s soon. ¡­ Day 14 ¡­ When I awoke the sky was covered in glowing clouds. I think that means the sun is up. It¡¯s still snowing, not as much as yesterday but still a significant amount. I doubt I¡¯ll be able to get out and do anything today. ¡°Haaaaaaa.¡± Ok, let¡¯s think. What can I do today, so that I don¡¯t go crazy? I need to tend to the fire, I can gather mana. But I have to do those every day soooooo, it¡¯s nothing too special. I could try and make another stone spearhead. I do have another rock that I could use to make one. But other than that what could I do? Whatever, I¡¯ll worry about that when I actually run out of things to do. I¡¯ll start working on another stone spearhead for now. There¡¯s not really a need for one but it can¡¯t hurt and I needed to do something. I start the same way I had with the other spearhead and use my dagger to chip off the excess stone. Slowly but surely the stone starts to take shape. The new spearhead was wider than the first one. This should make the spears attacks inflict more damage with larger entry wounds that can cause major bleeding. But in comparison to the first spear it shouldn¡¯t have as great of a penetrating power. With these two spears I believe I can have a good throwing spear that can pierce through tuff hides and a fighting spear that can inflict devastating wounds. Of course this was all an assumption for now until I could try them out on something. But for now I just have wait for the blizzard to blow over¡­ ¡°Huuu¡± It should end tomorrow judging from how much it¡¯s let up today. But I can only hope. ¡­ Day 15 ¡­ Well this sucks¡­ The blizzard hadn¡¯t stopped over night. Instead, it seems to have gotten more ferocious. As of right now the snow probable reach¡¯s up to my stomach while standing. I don¡¯t really know though since I¡¯ve been stuck in my shelter. It¡¯s not big enough for me to stand up in though so I¡¯ve been sitting, crouching, and laying down in my little shelter for two days strait now, with no way to fully extend. Also major problems are appearing since I haven¡¯t been able to get to anything, like my food stash or the trees to get sticks to fuel the fire. I don¡¯t know how long the blizzards going to last, but the longer it does the worse off I¡¯ll be. I¡¯m trying to keep my mind off of the fear of dying out here by doing small things like focused mana collection and manipulation, to counting out all the scrap cloth I had, as well as striping the fringe off their edges. Now I have 32 strips of cloth in the back of my shelter next to the small pack I had been given and a pile of the fringe I had cut up, leaning up against the rock face are all the spears I have, ten wooden spears and two stone tipped spears. On the floor lay¡¯s the pelt of the frost rabbit I had first slain. And lying bundled in the corner of the shelter is the night wolfs pelt, I¡¯m still not sure about what I¡¯ll do with it but it might be helpful. Overall my supplies were looking pretty good. But it smells awful since I can¡¯t get out to relieve myself¡­ let¡¯s just say that there is a good chance that I¡¯ll leave this shelter to find another one once I can leave. There¡¯s also a good chance that I¡¯ll light it on fire¡­ For nooooo reason in particular¡­ ¡°Grumble grumble.¡± ¡°Aww I¡¯m so hungry.¡± I do have one more chunk of cured meat but I don¡¯t want to eat it just yet. I¡¯m not in a situation where I¡¯ll die if I don¡¯t eat so I¡¯ll just suffer through for awhile. ¡°grumble¡± ¡°shut up!¡± ¡­ This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it From what I could see the sky hasn¡¯t stoped glowing this entire time. So until I get tiered I¡¯ll concentrate on mana collection and compression. It didn¡¯t take too long until I felt my body begin to crunch down on itself from weariness. So with and empty stomach I began to fall asleep in my smelly shelter. ¡­ Day 16 ¡­ When I woke up I saw that the fire had died while I was asleep and that the snow hadn¡¯t stopped falling. With nothing else to do I decide to test out my arm again. It was perfectly fine now which is a pleasant surprise. There were still scare marks and it was sore but I could move it around like before with no problems. But now I have a few problems to face that I wanted to avoid. Like how I¡¯m really, REALLY, hungry. ¡°Grumble¡± ¡°Stop it!!¡± I only have enough food for a single ¡°meal¡±. Or like how am I going to avoid freezing to death, without a fire. I'' even started to wonder about how I¡¯m going to get out of my shelter once the snow finally stops falling. As of right now it should reach my chest and if it keeps snowing I¡¯ll end up completely covered in snow. ¡°AHHHHHH¡± Now there are so many problems I have to deal with. Curse me and my complaining about there being nothing to do. Why couldn¡¯t I have just been happy with what I had¡­? ¡°Huuuuuuu¡­¡± There¡¯s no reason to just sit here and let more problems pile up. If I don¡¯t eat today I won¡¯t be able to move very well tomorrow. But if I eat then that¡¯s it, there¡¯s no more food. And there won¡¯t be any more food until the storm clears out. And even after that who says I¡¯ll be able to find food after that. Just think about how long it took me to happen across that frost rabbit¡­ ¡°Huuuuuu¡­¡± Ok Martoel this is what¡¯s going to happen. I¡¯m not going to eat today or tomorrow and then we¡¯ll eat the day after tomorrow. This is the best option, right? ¡°grumble.¡± ¡°Quite you!¡± Now let¡¯s think about how not to freeze. I can¡¯t start a fire in my shelter or the pelt might catch on fire and I¡¯d burn myself in here. Also I don¡¯t a good supply of sticks left to fuel a fire. So no fire... But what else could I use to stay warm. I don¡¯t have a blanket or anyth¡­ I¡¯m an idiot aren¡¯t I... I have a night wolves pelt that I¡¯m not using. We use pelts all the time at home as blankets. There dried and embroidered a little bit. So why didn¡¯t I think of this sooner. The reason¡­ I¡¯m an idiot. Well now that that problem is solved, it¡¯s time to work on making sure I don¡¯t get stuck in here. I have to move some of this snow out of the way, that¡¯s the only solution. But if I move too much snow then snow will blow into my shelter, and I don¡¯t want that. So I can only skim some of the snow off of the top of the snow piling up in front of my shelter. ¡°Whelp let¡¯s get to work.¡± I grab my pot and start to scoop some snow out of the way and toss it to the side. I only take the width of my hand off of the top the snow pile that is in front of my shelter. Hopefully this won¡¯t allow too much snow to blow into my shelter. ¡°grumble¡± ¡°Shut up stomach! I¡¯m done with your winning!!!¡± ¡­ Day 17 ¡­ ¡°grumble¡± ¡­ ¡°grumble grumble¡± ¡­ ¡°grumble¡± ¡­ ¡°grum¡­¡± ¡°AHHHHHHH¡± All I¡¯m trying to do today is ignore my stomach. ¡°grumble¡± And experiment with mana since I can¡¯t leave my shelter yet. ¡°grumble¡± ¡­ ¡°grumble¡± ¡­ Day 18 ¡­ ¡°grumble¡± ¡°STOP!!!¡± ¡­ ¡°grumble grumble¡± ¡°Please¡­¡± ¡°Grumble¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡­ ¡°grumble¡± ¡°Just for a little bit.¡± ¡­ ¡°Thank y ¡¯GRUMBLE¡¯¡± ¡­ ¡°grumble¡± ¡­ ¡°grumble¡± ¡°I can¡¯t take it anymore. Come here meat!¡± ¡­ Whelp I¡¯m out of food. ¡­ Crap¡­ CH 16 Stomach and I Ok. So a short chapter today, it''s mostly dialogue. Could be qualified as a sub-chapter. (probably is one in all honesty) While I was wrighting I just felt like this was a good place to cut off. So yes there is more. No I don''t know when I''ll post it. Sorry about that. But anyway, thanks for reading and enjoy. <=============> CH 16 ¡­ Day 19 ¡­ I didn¡¯t notice yesterday but I think the snow might have stopped sometime during the day yesterday... ¡°I blame you stomach.¡± ¡°Grumble.¡± ¡°No you had your meal!¡± ¡­ Now I need to work on getting out of here and finding a new shelter. Well just getting out of the shelter will be hard enough from all the snow that¡¯s packed up in front of the entrance. it¡¯s only a little taller than me so I should be able to handle it. I suck at looking at the positives¡­ But that¡¯s no reason to push it off. Let¡¯s dig. ¡­ The sky I can see the sky! I¡¯m getting closer to freedom! ¡°FREEDOM!¡± ¡­ After a day of digging I have just enough space to stand up in front of my shelter. The sun is already setting and I¡¯m dead tiered. ¡°grumble¡± ¡°SHUT UP! Please just shut up.¡± ¡­ Day 20 ¡­ When I wake up I am greeted by a dazzlingly bright sun reflecting off of the snow. It¡¯s blinding. So to avoid it I put my head down and started to dig like a mole. ¡°Digging, digging, digging, we just keep on digging.¡± ¡­ By the time the sun had begun to set, I had cleared out just enough snow that I could take two steps away from my shelter¡­ This is taking much longer then I wanted it to. ¡°Grumble.¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Did I mention that stomach has refused to SHUT Up the entire time I¡¯ve been working? No, well he has and frankly I¡¯m sick of him. I mean really I know he¡¯s hungry but there¡¯s nothing to eat and I¡¯m not going to feed him my arm! There¡¯s plenty of snow maybe he¡¯ll shut up if I feed him loads of snow. That¡¯s it that¡¯s what I¡¯ll do. And so I began eating the snow away instead of shoveling it away. ¡­ ¡°Ughhh.¡± I don¡¯t feel too good. ¡­ Day 21 ¡­ So. Apparently someone doesn¡¯t appreciate a full snow diet¡­ Stomach Also unfortunately for me he knows just how to hurt me to make me do what he wants. So it¡¯s back to digging today. ¡°grumble¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± ¡­ So I looked up today and realized something. The snow that¡¯s above my head is only that high at the areas next to the rock. The rest of it is just a little above my waist in height I think. So that means I only have to get to that snow level and I can stop shoveling all this snow. Right now I¡¯m working on snow piles that reach my neck. And if I dig around the area to the right of the shelter I should be able to uncover the meat I had buried. Hopefully today, stomach is getting restless. ¡­ ¡°FINALLY!!!¡± I found one. I finally found one of the stashes of food. ¡°Grumble.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right stomach we can finally eat.¡± I uncover the last bits of snow that cover the meat and grab some of it. it feels like a brick. Whatever its food, now it¡¯s time to eat. ¡°Cunck¡± ¡°Oww¡± Wait it can¡¯t be¡­ The meat froze, and now I can¡¯t even bight into it! ¡°NOOOOOOO!!¡± ¡°GRUUUMBLEE.¡±