Time passes so quickly… one moment you're emerging from your mothers womb the next your grandchildren watch you in a casket. Life is too precious to waste among those with a shortage of it. It inspires creativity and ingenuity in seemingly insignificant beings. Farmers may rise to be legendary heroes, mad scientists, great craftsmen, or the worst of villains.
I awake suddenly. I feel as though my heart will rip out of my chest. I feel a dreadful emptiness inside me yearning to be filled, the isolation tearing me apart. I feel so much I feel as if I'm drowning in a sea of emotion. The reality of being the only thing in existence shakes my very being. It feels as though my inactivity is going against the very thing that makes me who I am. My head is pounding although I have no head. I want to weep but I have no eyes to weep from. I start to weave and thread desperately trying to feel the hole inside me. At last I feel as though I’ve done it. A sharp pain goes through my head and everything slowly fades to darkness.
[Ralk POV]
Looking into a calm stream, I prepare to go on my first hunt. I’m greeted with acidic yellow eyes and dark raven hair. Today is our coming of age tradition: a hunt to show you have become a man you must kill a named beast and bond with it. There is only one named beast for the ceremony a year so you must compete with your peers to be a hunter. Getting up I fix my earthy animal skin shirt and pants also remembering to grab my dulling bone spear. I reminisce about my life. My mother died while giving birth so I was raised by my dad to take care of me. In his mind my mother died because she was weak so I was forced through spear training. Although it was tough I would be lying if I said I wasn’t grateful for it. Throughout my training and his sulking it only made him more reckless on his hunts while villagers would praise his name. I could tell he really only wanted to die and take the ‘heroic’ way out. Eventually he did end up under the cold hard ground revered as a hero and soon forgotten. Simply another coward who took the easy way out. On my way to the elders house I hear a voice that jolts me out of my thoughts “Ralk is that you?!” Turning around I see a young girl running towards me with rich chocolate eyes and deep lavender hair with a cute black tail that had a heart on the end. “No, I'm a random stranger, Len.” “Then how would you know my name?” Noticing there was no longer a way to dissuade her I simply continued walking. Whilst walking and taking in the view of our relatively large village consisting of ash and wine colored wood huts with straw tops, mothers wishing their child good luck, brothers and sisters on the border of letting the waterworks flow. A neverending sickening ash falling from the sky, For as long as the world existed that ash was there. Elder Rune had already peered into the past confirming it. Due to it many elders are unable to leave their hut without a nasty case of sickness possibly leading to death. “RALK! RALK! RALK!” coming back to reality I see Len tugging on my pants in an attempt to gain my attention. Turning towards her I ask “Len what is it?” While brushing my pants off in a slightly annoyed tone. “Ralk why does dust fall from the sky?” For the 500th time I gave her an answer “It just does.” Arriving in front of the elder’s house a grand hut I walk in along with the other children.
[??? POV]
Waking up I’m greeted with a ginormous amount of information shoved inside me, the sheer scale of it overwhelming me for a second. The current state of the world and inhabitants. There seems to be a total of 4 different sentient races on the continent although each has several different variations. The first and highest in population is beastmen, a race that resembles several different animals while retaining mostly human features and their counterpart the exact opposite of them known as werekin resembling mostly animal with a few human features they have little talent for magic but can innately enhance their bodies. Next are humans although they seem the least threatening of all races they have a high talent for magic and a strong physical body with their counterpart being Faes that look mostly human except their tails and horns they also have an equal talent for magic and body. Next are elves possessing an inhuman affinity with nature and strong talent for magic and a nimble body. Their counterparts the dark elves have a strong body with a near-perfect affinity for earth and metals. The last one is known as a slayer not naturally born and is gained after a feat of strength is shown they have no counterpart. Upon becoming a slayer you become stronger in every way and can start to touch on divine territory. Turning my attention away from the overwhelming amount of info. I Check the state of the world and I notice a clean slit in the sky. Souls seem to be sucked to the slit and coalescing into a giant sphere. Diverting my consciousness inside the slit I immediately feel as though I’ve lost all connection to myself. I’m disconnected, empty, and sluggish. It's as if I have reached the final destination and no more needs to be done. Letting myself wind down and become loose I slowly sink in… Suddenly, a giant hand seemingly made of the world's most precious metals reaches for me and throws me out the gap. “What an odd one,you seem to have nearly destroyed yourself before you even began. Interesting.” Coming out of the gap I begin to scold myself for how reckless I was. One mistake would’ve led to the end of me and my world. After a quick scolding session I begin to ponder on the hand and voice while exerting my influence to draw out the souls and close the gap. Though it’s taking a lot more out of me than I expected . Although drained, there is still work to be done.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Arriving at no conclusion regarding the origin of the hand and voice.I turn my attention to setting up a way for souls to recycle since there a finite resource. Without souls the traversers of my world are simply empty hollow shells. Reaching inside my memory I notice information that wasn’t there before seems to have entered. Looking at my options I narrow it down to a few. I decide to take from the idea of the River of Styx along with the principle of reincarnation with a splice of judgement based on karma. But before I can start on that idea I need to fix the damages the hole in the sky has caused. It has stunted the growth of the world, keeping it around the same size as Asia. The cause for it being the ash that has stained the entirety of my world with not a inch being uncovered. I first attempt to directly remove the ash, but it proves impossible without ripping up my world in the process. So after a while of debating I decided since I can’t remove I’ll just transform it. I begin to turn the nauseating ash into abominations of pure madness and hatred fitting for it, monsters of every kind from 3 headed lions to snakes with several pairs of bat wings. Although the ash still remains, it's been transformed and no longer clogs the joints of my world. Running very low on energy I simply decide to bottle up souls for now and deal with them later. Letting go of my consciousness I fade again.
[Ralk POV]
After entering the hut we’re all seated, a bald elder with deep wine eyes and a surprisingly buff stature begins to explain about a wondrous thing called magic “Magic has 3 uses it allows us to bond with animals and take on some of their properties whether that be there ability to blend in or super strength, it’s second use is it allows a select few to enhance their bodies to superhuman limits! An even rarer group can peer into events that will happen or have already happened we’re called shamans. We help set up bonding rituals and teach those who have potential.” The elder calls in a man “This is Tona he has bonded with the Wrathful Monkey allowing him to well… “ signaling toward Tona he begins to yell and transforms into a bulging mass of muscles with snakelike veins looking as though they're going to pop out his skin . We walk out the hut through the back and Tona runs at inhuman speeds tossing boulders like ordinary pebbles. The elder says something most likely Tona’s power but seeing as though nobody was listening just sighs and gives up. After a while of reckless rampage Tona transforms back and leaves as though nothing happened. While the elder continued his explanation of magic I was only half-heartedly listening but mostly daydreaming about being like Tona. All of a sudden the earth rumbles and the sky begins to seemingly sew itself back together, the ash begins to float and zoom at supersonic speed towards a distant place while the air whipped around the air but surprisingly leaving no one injured “ I can see it!” Elder Rune exclaims “Liyra is moving once again!” The elder begins to shake in excitement. Running outside the elder exclaims “LIYRA IS MOVING AGAIN.”