Avon was completely stupefied by what he saw.

When he came to the end of the path, without a doubt he was no longer in the village he was standing in a green grass plane.

"Don't fall behind..."

Avon didn't move off immediately he just stood there looking at the grass plane.

This was his first time seeing something anything like this, if he knew what ocean was it would be the best comparison for this, an ocean of grass.

After a while, he had to suppress his curiosity follow the chief and just like before he was completely ignored.

As they continued to walk deeper into the graces land it started getting colder and colder, eventually, the ground was covered in snow even though he was freezing his ass off he momentarily forgot the cold and started admiring the falling snow.

"Boy keep walking we don't have a lot of time"

Just like before the chief only spoke up in moments like these and nothing else afterward.

Avon decided to just follow behind him without saying a word its not like he'd get any answers anyways.

"We're here"

Directly in front of them was a huge structure, a huge stone tower in front and some giant statues that he couldn't clearly see starting from the left and right side of the building forming a circle.

Avon sixth feet stature wouldn't be as large as one of the statue toes.

"Stop staring and let's go"

When they were on the steps in front of the stone tower the once freezing cold complete vanished, there was no evidence that ever existed unless he looked back at the snow that was still falling behind them.

The chief didn't immediately go inside but turned to Avon and looked at him speaking very slowly like he was talking to a few month old child but despite his tone sounding bit condescending, his express showed that he was dead serious.

"When we get inside just follow behind me do no stop or pick up anything, we do not have a lot of time left here so we have to be quick, do you understand?"

Avon didn't hesitate he started nodding.

"I don't need you to nod, yes or no?"

"Yes chief I understand"

The chief pushed the huge creaking stone doors, dusty and other small stones fell as he pushed.

When he stepped inside only the sections of the floor that he stepped on glowed with an orange light and nothing else, Avon did as he promised and just followed behind the chief.

Less than five minutes later he was outside of the stone tower and inside the circle formed by the giant statues.

The chief walked up to the stone altar in the center of the circle and cupped his hands and dipped them in the stone basin and drank the water, he then kneeled down in front of the altar and began to pray.

"Immortal mother, beacon in the dark, your humble servant requires your aid. Sustain him so he may exchange him childlike ignorance for wisdom. I plead this of you in your eternal light, O light in the heavens. Grace him with your eternal grace"

At first, when he just started praying nothing happened but as the prayer continued the markings on his skin started glowing, his gray hair started returning to its original black color even his face looked like it aged a few years backward.

After a few seconds of that, the eyes of each of the statues started glowing bright blue one after another.

When all the eyes started glowing a few voice were heard all at once, young, old, male, female, the seven voices all blended perfectly with one another none overpowering the other.

--Khan why have you come?

It was only then that the glowing on the chief's body stopped and he opened his eyes but still didn't stand.

"I brought a young man with me, the mother has visited him in his dream and offered him a gift..."

The voices didn't sound out again as if they were thinking.

--What was the gift that she offered you?

Avon was standing there completely expressionless, his mind was completely blank.

How else was he supposed to react?

The chief had to kick him on his leg to wake him up out of his dazed state.

"I-I-I don't know s-s-sh-she didn't te-tell me"

The voices once again went quiet.

--Mhmm, what happened when you tried to pass your day of adulthood

This time Avon was no longer in his dazed state so he answered almost immediately.

"Nothing happened at all"

This time when the voices went quite the voice of a child asked a question.

--What did she call you?

Avon thought for a second speaking his thoughts aloud.

"What did she call me?........She didn't - Mansa....."

The moment he said the name a dry wind blew forcing Avon and the chief to cover their faces and close their eyes.

When the wind subsided and the opened their eyes they were standing in the middle of a desert.

Khan immediately got down on his knees and started praying again.

Avon wasn't the same he was already familiar with this place the only thing different was the seven statues giant statues that were still staring at him with their glowing eyes.

--Mansa

This time it wasn't one of the seven voices that spoke but instead a familiar one 'his own voice'.

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When Avon looked up he saw the woman slowly descending from the sky with his signature smile.

The voices simply said one word in greeting but it was filled with the utmost respect.

--Mother

When Khan heard the greeting and looked up at the woman who had just made contact with the ground he didn't utter a single word his eyes just rolled over.

He fainted.

"Chief!"

Avon ran over to him and started jerking his body trying to wake him up.

--Khan is fine, he's just sleep

It was the voices that spoke up again, Avon didn't believe right away instead he put his hand over the chief's mouth to test if he was breathing only after he heard that did Avon get back up.

--Have you thought about my gift?

It was only now that Avon came to his senses and realize that the woman who he'd spoken to so casually previously before was the other god who'd fallen with Alaric, the mother.

When he tried to kneel down and beg for forgiveness he felt two hands holding his upright.

--There is no need.

It was 'his voice'

He had intended to just ignore it and still bow but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't the hands held him firm in the end he could only give up.

--What will be your answer?

When this was brought back up the already glowing eyes of the statues glowed even brighter showing their interest.

Avon didn't know what to say he couldn't turn her down because she was 'the mother' as well as if he did this it would probably count as him becoming an adult but he didn't know what it was so he was hesitant.

--I will not harm you Mansa

Avon looked deep into her eyes then took a deep breath.

"I.....I accept"

No reply came from the voices or 'his voice' when he looked at 'the mother' she was still smiling at him.

When his eyes met hers he couldn't look away he felt like he was trapped but not in a bad way it felt comfortable.

A warm burning sensation was coming from his lower back coming up in two straight black lines on the left and right sides of his back which then branched off with a line running along each of his ribs, all the lines met in the center of his chest with only the points touching each other.

Despite all of that he didn't flinch he captivated by her eyes.

[ I'm not really sure what happened after that but it was pretty much the last time I saw anyone in the village for a very long time, I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to them ]

When Mansa spoke he looked a bit sad while speaking to his daughters so they didn't say anything.

.............

When Mansa woke up his mind felt a bit groggy, his body didn't have much strength in it so he didn't bother trying to get up.

The sun was in the middle of the skin and it was beaming down in his eyes, turning his head to take in his surroundings the place looked familiar but he knew this was his first time he's been here.

This place was singed-brown. He could see small little insects crawling around before burying themselves in the ground. The land was filled with hill but all of them had the same brown color and all of them looked barren.

This place looked nothing short of a place you would come to die, a kill or be killed type of environment that lacked the basic necessities needed to sustain life.

The only thing that looked like it didn't mind this environment was the odd little tumbleweed that would roll by and force him to close his eyes because of the dust it was carrying with it and also the birds that were circling above him, their number just kept increasing.

This was the place that he saw countless times in his dreams although there was some difference it was pretty much the same thing.

'How did I get here?'

Mansa couldn't remember anything after holding onto 'the mothers' hand, everything after that was just blank.

No matter how hard he tried to recall he couldn't remember anything at all.

--This was my promise to you.

It was 'his voice' again.

"huh, promise?"

His tone was filled with utmost respect, even though he was hearing 'his own voice' he know that he was speaking to 'the mother' but after saying that she didn't say anything else to him.

"Promise?.........What promise......."

Mansa was trying hard to recall if 'the mother' had ever made him any promises.

'The world is so big wouldn't you like to see it all? or would you like to stay where you are?'

After thinking for a few minutes that was the only thing that remembered a promise that he could remember.

She told him that if he accepted her gift he'd be able to see the world, thinking of it that way this was her keeping her unofficial promise.

It was around two hours later when his strength finally returned to him and finally stood back up.

The birds above his head finally started to disburse after seeing him stand, they couldn't speak but he could feel their disappointment.

Mansa didn't bother to observe his surroundings when he got up he just started walking in a random direction, he had no idea where he was going but he just wanted to leave.

After staring at the same thing for over two hours as well as the burning hot sun added to the fact that he was dying of thirst, his head was killing him.

While walking he started to observe the clothes that he was wearing, once again this was something that he had no memory of, he was wearing full body brown animal skin cloak with a hood that covered him from head to toe.

Around his neck was a soft piece of cloth that was attached to the cloak, he was sure what it was for so he pulled it, it covered his entire face only leaving his eyes upward exposed.

Although the outfit that he was wearing could be considered strange to him it wasn't so out of the ordinary that he'd become fascinated with it what really held his attention was what he was wearing under the cloak.

Underneath the cloak, he was wearing an open-collared necklace made of gold filled with black and blue jems, on each of his hands was a gold and blue wrist cuff that extended from his wrist almost reaching his elbow, his feet were no exceptions they were clad in gold greaves that extended all the way down to his instep.

At least he was still wearing his loincloth.

If it was anything other situation then he would've stopped and tried to think as hard as possible and try to take them off.

Believe it or not, this was his first time really seeing jewelry of any sort and he really wanted to take them off but he didn't have the time to stop and try it right now but most important they didn't have any ways to take them off.

[ how comes you don't wear them now papa did you find a way to take them off? ]

Mansa didn't answer he just smiled and opened the wrist cuff of the long sleeve shirt he was wearing and slowly rolled it down to reveal the gold and blue wrist cuff.

[ After that I honestly never tried to take them off, I honestly forgot about them... ]

............

It's been over four hours since Mansa started walking to try to leave this barren land but for the past four hours, it just felt like he's been walking around in circles no matter how far he walked it was just the same thing.

He felt tired, he was thirsty, he felt like he was being roasted alive. When he just started walking his back was straight he was full of youthful spirit.......but now his back was slouched and he was having a hard time taking another step forward but at least those birds from before came back to keep his company.

At this point, he wasn't even sure if it was just his mind playing tricks on him or if he was actually hearing something.

For last minute or so he started hearing a distance muffled grinding sound that sounded like it was getting closer, as well as the wind, started picking up a little bit but he didn't really pay much attention to that, the only thing on his mind right now was seeing grass and drinking water.

After few minutes as well as the sound getting closer Mansa could no longer ignore it when he turned around what he saw shocked him.

“Oh shit!!

Mansa turned around and with a surge of energy that seemed to come out of nowhere, he started running like his life depends on it........it depended on it.

Behind was the sand had risen like it planned on taking over the earth it didn't slow down at all, it only seemed to be getting stronger, as it raged on it started to cover the sky as if trying to shroud the desert in darkness.

Rawr!!!

A roar came from sandstorm that made his blood run cold he was scared out of his mind but that didn't mean he'd slow down, in fact, the complete opposite happened, the energy he didn't know he had before flowed like a reservoir.

As the saying goes 'the impossible becomes possible when you're in trouble'*

The current situation that Mansa was in was the physical embodiment of that saying still no matter how hard he ran the sandstorm was only getting closer, the winds had already caused his clothes to start fluttering he could already feel the stinging pain from the sand on his skin.

Rawr!!!

"Shit!"

At this point, Mansa was pretty sure that there was something else in the sand because that roar wasn't from the sand it was from something else and based on how loud it is was he was pretty sure whatever was making the sound was huge.

From his peripheral vision, he could make out a huge shadow in the sand and his curiosity got the better of him so he looked.

Mansa instantly regretted it.

In the sand was a giant worm-like creature that seemed to be devouring the sand, in its rows upon rows upon row of teeth but even with all that extra motivation he couldn't run any faster if anything he was slowing down because the sand strong was so close he had to cover his eyes so he was instinctively slowing down trying to be careful without realizing it.

Rawr!!!

Mansa stopped and turned around staring at the beast with fear in his eyes, this roar, unlike the others, was like beast seeing its prey it was full of intimidation.

'I'm going to die, aren't I?'

Instantly his already slightly glowing blue eyes started glowing brighter but the giant creature didn't seem to pay any heed to it and just dived down swallowing everything.

Mansa vanished.