Ash shouted out his finding to the rest of his group as he came up to the tree. He chanted a basic water spell to put out the small fire. The water, collected from the atmosphere, combined to put out the fire. He was just about to report back to his clansmen when he noticed a glowing spot of light behind the blue tree.
Ash couldn’t help himself. He walked up the battered ground and found himself in the presence of a God.
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It was at this unfortunate moment that the countdown hit:
4 Days 23 Hours 0 Minutes 0 Seconds.
After that trailed 4 more digits of varying importance.
Steve was hit with a sudden feeling.
Confidence flowed through him like a drug. It was like somebody had flipped a metaphorical switch in his mind and the whole of his light body felt amazing.
While Steve was taking in this new feeling, a boy nearby popped out of the woods and began to prostrate himself on the dirty forest ground.
Shortly after, a young girl and an older boy also came out of the forest and into the clearing. They gawked at Steve’s form, and also began to kneel on the ground.
“Steve, we have visitors.” the Voice happily reminded him.
It had been a whole minute since the three children had arrived, and Steve was still basking in his newfound emotion.
“Hmm? It seems like my presence has attracted visitors!” Steve noticed the prostrating children. “Arise, people.”
Steve only had an inkling of an idea pertaining to what he was saying, but it didn’t matter. He felt wonderful.
The children looked at each other, then slowly rose. They kept their eyes on the floor, not daring to look at his godly form. Finally, the first child spoke.
“To which God are we finding our lowly selves in the presence of?” the child asked.
“My name is Steve!” Steve exclaimed. All this time, Steve still didn’t know if his name really was Steve or not. There was no way to confirm at the moment, anyhow.
“Oh mighty God Steve, I, on the behalf of my village, beseech you to bless us with your presence!” the child continued with his request. “Please come meet with our elder.”
The other two kids started looking around. They seemed a bit shocked at what they saw, and started whispering to each other. The older one looked especially shocked, to the point of widening eyes and an open mouth.
“I think we should take this opportunity, Steve.” the Voice sounded crafty this time, almost like it wanted something to stave off boredom. “We could learn a lot from this village.”
“I will come with you!” Steve confidently stated. “Lead the way, good peoples!”
It was at this moment the two children at the side stopped whispering. The older boy took a look at the surroundings once again. Then he looked right below where Steve was hovering.
“May I take one of Your elemental stones back to the village?” the older boy chanced.
The younger boy instantly shot a death-glare at him and started to plead to Steve.
“Please, he meant no offens—“
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“That’s completely fine!” Steve magnanimously cut the younger boy off. “You may even have two!”
At this point, Steve was completely overcome with his newfound feeling. He had absolutely no control over it. It gave him a rush whenever he applied his confidence to a situation. Steve was definitely feeling good.
The older boy immediately started collecting the two rocks he was allotted. He chose a red rock and a blue rock, both not too heavy for his abilities. The younger boy, not knowing what to do after the greater being deemed his words unnecessary, waited for the older boy to finish. He then started the conversation again.
“O mighty God Steve, please follow me.” the younger boy said, pointing and gesturing to the two kids around him. “I am known as Ash, but you may call me whatever your esteemed being deems convenient. This is my younger sister Azra, and this is Lemoy, but we know him as Loop.”
Ash started walking towards the thicker part of the forest, away from the edge of the clearing. The two other children followed, one of them holding two rocks in his arms.
Steve took one last look at his starting point, took a metaphorical deep breath, and followed Ash.
They moved at a leisurely pace. Ash and Loop eventually took turns holding the red and blue rocks, since the rocks were quite heavy. The younger sister didn’t speak a word yet, staring at the forest ground seemingly interested. Once in a while, she would sneak a peek at Steve, thinking he wouldn’t notice.
Of course, Steve noticed.
After they completely got out of the forest clearing, Steve noticed that the trees and rocks took a different shade completely. The ordinary blue and multi-colored rocks changed to be green and grayish-white respectively. After a while of seeing this phenomenon, Steve reasoned that he was in a special place before, which caused the environment to change color. Steve once again checked the countdown. It read:
4 Days 22 Hours 40 Minutes 3 Seconds
He felt that there was something more to the countdown than met the eye, but he couldn’t quite place the feeling.
The four beings walked and floated a few more minutes until they came to the edge of the forest that met a plain. The plain was filled with blue grass that grew to the childrens’ waists. There was a small grey stone path that led somewhere, and Ash was currently standing on it with one red rock in both arms. He was sweating quite heavily, and looked like he was tired. Loop wasn’t much better, as he tiredly walked forwards to meet Ash.
“Eh... I really thought it would be more fun than this!” the Voice complained. “We’ve been doing nothing but traveling across a rather drab forest.”
This confirmed Steve’s thoughts. The Voice in his head was a bored Voice, through and through.
“Just up ahead is our very own Niti Village!” Ash exclaimed. “We are but a simple farming village.”
Steve decided to float far above the somewhat neatly trimmed blue grass stalks. He found a rather large, simple looking village. It had buildings and strange creatures, along with people that looked just like the children he was currently with. Only, these people seemed to be having some sort of gathering.
The group walked a little bit more, and arrived to the village entrance. There was a brown pole with a somewhat larger block of brown on top. On it were strange characters Steve didn’t recognize. As they walked further up, Steve noticed something.
All of the older people there were wearing dark pointed hats.