In the darkness, I could hear voices. They were all jumbled up and barely coherent. Some screaming, some hollering in celebration, and another impersonating…a monkey?

I wanted to open my eyes and see what was around me, but it just wasn’t feasible. I didn’t have enough energy, and, to be one hundred, I’m pretty sure I’m dead. Not that I would know what that feels like. It would explain why I’m able to think in the darkness of supposed unconsciousness, though. At least I assume ghosts would have that ability, I thought to myself.

“What would you know about ghosts, child?” a low, rumbling, male voice retorted. The darkness that was around me began to swirl. “After all, you're still alive…for now,” it spoke, almost seductively. “Not that I would mind seeing you dead. Being passed on to any of your siblings would be an improvement. If it were up to me, I would have let the bone man rip your throat out.”

The thing’s words were getting on my nerves. “Who are you? How are you in my head?” I screamed out.

“So easily Aho is swayed to help his children. The First King is soft.” The voice disregarded me.

I felt my hands clenched in rage. “Hey! Don’t ignore me! Who are you?” Silence permeated the dark vortex. I wondered if the being had left.

“Teke lava lea fakatonga?” it finally asked.

“Uhhhhhhh what?” I questioned in confusion. I felt a strange sensation, like a wild beast was prowling just out of sight.

“What a joke. You can’t even speak our language, and you want our help.” From the darkness, I saw a man appear. His dark skin covered in tattoos, his presence that of a wild animal. As angry as I was, it was nothing compared to how much malice was dripping off the man. It was as if I had killed someone close to him.

Before I could get a word out, he rushed me. In an instant I went from watcher to participant. Like a dream had just started. I moved to dodge his rush, but he was too quick.

“You fat idiot!” he yelled, as his punch connected with my skull. The blow rattled my brain.

I staggered, trying to hold myself together. “Don’t call me an idiot!” I stammered out, fury on my breath. I collected myself just enough to throw a punch at him. He grabbed it with ease, as if I was nothing but a feather.

“Oh? What should I call you then when you do something stupid, huh?” Sarcasm oozed out of him as he threw another punch to my rib. The swing was like a sledge being brought to my side.

My ribs shattered. It took everything I had to stay awake, but I was not going down without teaching him a lesson. “I don’t care what you call me, just don’t say I'm an idiot!” I roared, managing a swing with my other fist.

Before it could connect, a pain shot through my body, completely stunning me. I looked at the hand he was holding and realized it was no longer attached to my body. The residue of a scream was all I could muster as I knelt there, shocked.

He clenched his teeth. It was like the sound of steel cables tightening. “The weak have no right to demand a thing. Do the maggots stop eating when the dead body begs? Do the waters of a tsunami cease their advance when the child cries? Do the pillagers of a village stop raping and stealing when the women protest? No. And neither will I cease to call you what you are: a fool; an idiot; a child stuck in the past, wishing mommy and daddy loved him; a useless brother who can do nothing for himself because he fears his own freewill. You worthless imbecile! How dare you call yourself our descendant!” He kicked my jaw, breaking it. “I want you to use that small, little, emotional brain of yours and think. Should a fat man, whose stats are focused on attack and defense, try to dodge, or should he tank the damn hit and kill his target who only had 75HP!” His face was now in front of mine, hatred for me was overflowing.

I tried to speak, but my lungs weren’t taking air. “C-can’t b-breathe,” I spluttered, spitting out some blood.

He groaned. “Then we’ll just have to try again.” He punched his hands through my teeth and ripped out my tongue.

I woke up again in the dark room with the man sitting in the middle. I stood up, still angry at being called stupid. He rushed me.

I’m not sure how many times we fought. It felt like an eternity, but one thing was certain: I was no match for him. I never even came close to winning. After a long time, I knelt on the ground, constrained by his overwhelming might. I wanted so badly to beat him and make him take back what he said, but fighting was meaningless if there was no chance at victory.

“Get up,” he commanded from his seated position in the middle of the room. The way he said it was familiar, as if I had heard it before.

“No,” I whimpered.

“Get up!” It now demanded. The room trembled as he growled.

My head dropped. I felt the dark strings of the past pull on my mind. They never missed a chance to drag me deeper into sorrow.

“That is enough, Sai. I have given you time with him, and your methods have failed to teach.” Another man appeared, standing next to my opponent, his voice regal. He also had tribal tattoos, but not to the extent of the other. Adorned on his head and draped around his body were fine, chiefly clothes.

The man who had been beating me did not look up at the other. “It is because he lacks talent, intelligence, and will. I’ve never seen a boy so adamant on doing nothing for himself. Any of his other siblings would have understood the lesson.”

The chiefly man's eyebrow moved up. “I wonder about that, Sai. Maybe it is the way we teach that may need to change. These methods worked on us, and so we used them on our children, but something we forget is that we were warriors. The mentality for battle was our every breath. The swing of a club, the movement of the fist were the very poetry we understood. This child is a construction worker with the training of a warrior, not a warrior with the skills of a construction worker. Slowly, he will become a warrior–it is the only means he can survive in this new battlefield, but only if taught correctly and gently.” The chief's voice was both absolute and pondering, as if he was also learning as he spoke.

“Then, he will gain no more power from the Predecessors. I will never acknowledge a child playing warrior,” Sai spat, turning his back to me.

The chief walked towards me. With my will still in tatters, I kept my head low. I felt his hand rest on my shoulders. “I understand that all this must be confusing, my son. I understand that you must be very distraught at the way we decided to teach you. But I hope you can understand that we are learning as well.”

I sniffed, my nose beginning to drip boogers as I forced tears of frustration from falling. “H-he called me s-stupid,” I struggled to say.

The chief chuckled. “Of all that has happened, you worry about his opinion regarding your wit?”

I nodded, unable to speak as my powerlessness weighed down on me.

“I see. No greater shackles than those of the past, I suppose. But in the same thought, there is no greater freedom than the waves of the future. Before you is an opportunity. You can cry for the boy you once were and let Sai continue to doubt and ridicule you, or”–the chief grabbed me by my arm and raised me to my feet–“you can envision what you want to be in the future and start now to live up to those expectations.”

My heart quivered at the words. I've defined myself by the traumas of my past for so long that I was unsure what it meant to see what I could become. Tell me what to do, brother. The words rang in my head. Did I even know who I was now?

The train of thought I was building crumbled as the ground around us shook. The chief looked up at the cracking black sky. “It seems our time is up.” He turned his attention back to me. “I know you can grow, Steven. I have placed my trust in you, and hope you will do what generations before have failed to do for the old and forgotten: remember us.”

The ground beneath me gave way and I fell back into unconsciousness.

“Lia, get down from there. Right now!” a female voice commanded impatiently.

“Ohhh, ohhh, ahh, ahh. Climb,” the voice of a baby answered.

My senses returned to me one by one as I regained consciousness. The pain in my body demanded it, knowing full well that getting everything back at once would send me into shock.

It started with hearing. Besides the two distinct voices, there was a constant drip, drip, drip that reverberated about the area; a slow, low hum of a breeze that indicated we were inside; and the ever so faint clanging of rocks and movement of dirt as the two strangers played a game of cat and mouse. I wondered if I had been taken inside the truck stop. From the sound of rocks and dirt, this truck stop must have been filthy.

The next sense to come back to me was smell. I was instantly hit with the subtle scent of sulfur. I tried to cover my nose, but my ability to move wasn’t restored yet, so I just suffered through it. This could still be a truck stop, to be honest–I mean, I’ve smelled some pretty bad ones in my life.

Then, my ability to feel returned. Within seconds, I knew I was not in a truck stop. The ground under me was hard and rocky. It was cold to the touch and almost sucked the heat out of my body. Unless this truck stop had a giant slab of stone sitting inside it for no reason, then I was certain that I was not in one.

With my feeling back, I was able to twitch my fingers a bit. I wanted to move my whole hand, but that wasn’t gonna happen. I idly wished that I could see my HUD so I could deduce the damage, when poof, my vision started blurring in.

My whole HUD was red and flashing. There were so many status effects that I just closed them all out and looked at them from the main character sheet.

*

Name: Sitiveni L. Lotu Race: Human Age: 27

Active Effects

HP: 1/130

DNA Combination: (N/A)

* Thirsty

* Hungry

* Healing Pains

* Broken Middle Finger

* Broken Rib

* Untreated Deep Wounds

* Untreated Shallow Wounds

* Mental Trauma

* Emotional Trauma

* Unwashed (Level: 3)

* Forced Usage of Unauthorized Powers

* Tilted

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

MP: (N/A)

Totem Name: (N/A) Strength 6 (-6)

Skills

Inventory Endurance 0 (N/A)

- Retain Matter

- Fear Not

- Royal Mangle Matter Predecessor 2 (-2) Intimidation 3 (-3)

I paused at the status “Forced Usage of Unauthorized Powers,” and examined it.

Forced Usage of Unauthorized Powers

You have accessed a MAS exclusive skill with a practice unit. In abidance with Galactic General Council Law, all stats are reduced to zero for two hours. Next infraction will result in the termination of your being. Tread lightly.

That was a pretty terrible punishment for something I couldn’t control. Flashes of the dream I had entered my mind. Not sure if I ever want to access that power again anyway, I mused to myself.

My eyes then affixed to the change in my stats. My strength had gone up to 6 and my Predecessor attribute had gone up to 2. They were both at zero for now, thanks to the Unauthorized Power debuff, but I wondered how much stronger I was with two more strength than before. I benched 415 as my max when I had 4 strength, so at 6 strength….. I tried to do the math in my head, but it just wasn’t coming to me. That's what I get for skimping on math classes all my life.

After closing out the main character sheet, I was met with another surprise. My HP had jumped from 110 to 130. Like I had mentioned before, any change in stats without a MAS unit was insane. To see several in such a short time is practically unheard of. I say ‘practically’ because my sister had done it when she was five, which I don't think counts because she is a freaking monster.

After closing out all the HUD notifications and reading through most of the status effects, I let my eyes adjust to what was around me. Instead of a roof to a building, my eyes were met with the ceiling of a cave in all its gray, rocky, mossy beauty. Confusion gathered in me as I remembered the desert I was just in. Could a cave like this really exist in a desert? I pondered. I spent a minute or two on the idea, but quickly got bored, figuring I knew nothing about caves to begin with, so trying to understand why a cave would be somewhere was useless.

I turned my head slightly to see more of the area. Doing so took a lot of the little energy I had. I was in a small room that appeared to lead into a large cavern. The area just outside the room was lit up with the brightness of the setting sun, which meant that I was located near the entrance of the cave. The room itself was very near the measurements of a queen-size bed. I was laying on a stone slab that was elevated just above the ground. The area around the slab seemed to be damp with water. Every once in a while, a drop would fall from the roof onto the ground. The smell of sulfur seemed to be wafting in from deeper in the cavern.

A strong interest to explore took hold of me. It was only halted by two things, the first being the condition of my body, and the second was worry for my brothers. I didn't want to go adventuring if that meant delaying finding them. I hoped they were just outside with the other people I was hearing. If they weren't….

I bit my lip and tried again to move my arm, but with no success. If they weren't out there and I was alone, then…then...

Tell me what to do, brother. The words filled me with anxiety. "I've never seen a boy so adamant on doing nothing for himself." Sai's visage was clear in my imagination as I remembered his rebuke. I wanted so badly, at that moment, to tell him he was wrong, to teach him a lesson, but I couldn't. I was weak. More than that, his words held a truth I couldn't deny.

I tried to put those thoughts in the back of my mind, but they pushed against my attempts, overflowing from the box I tried to squish them into.

In the midst of my overbearing thoughts, a figure darted into the room. It was clad in a red coat with golden inlay, similar to royal, ancient Chinese attire. On top of its head was a tiara, made of silver, that glowed purple. As it neared me, I realized just how small it was. The size of a twenty pound medicine ball at most. I also noticed that it ran on all four limbs, like a dog, but I knew it wasn't one. Looked too human to be a dog.

It then effortlessly jumped on my chest. I turned my head to look at it directly and was met with the face of a baby and a set of obsidian eyes looking down at me. Its face was framed by a mane of fur that collected at the top of its head. As gracefully as it had jumped, it was now trying its hardest not to fall as it waddled around my chest catching its balance.

It was actually pretty adorable. If this thing was a Mangle, or Manglet Formation, then dying to it would be a solid cleanser to almost dying to the demonic design of the Ash Collector. I doubted it was going to attack though. I don't know how to put it, but it looked like it didn't really know what was going on. I counted my blessings as I hoped it was the only thing out there.

Then, I remembered, weren't there two voices? A shadow from the outside came into view. A monstrous thing with horns on the top of its head that branched out like the antlers of moose. It walked with a limp, giving off an eerie feeling as it neared. The little monkey-baby, which is what I thought it was, started to lower itself behind me, as if hiding. I saw its face as it put on a scared demeanor. Then, I heard the groan of the monster getting closer.

I tried again to move my arm, but I was only able to slide it off the slab. Having no power in my body, my hand just hung there.

My heart started pumping as I saw the hand of the shadow wrap around the entrance of the cave. It was big, like a baseball glove. The top of it was covered in fur, like it was half-animal.

I looked at the timer on my Unauthorized Powers debuff. I still had twenty five minutes.

The being then slowly turned its body into the entrance, its shadow now swallowing most of the light entering the room, and, "I’m gonna get you, Lia!" it screamed, absolutely scaring the piss out of me.

The person who stood at the door was massive, probably 7 foot something, and had to bend over to get into the cave room. Its horns scraped the top of the roof, still, despite that. I would have pooped my pants if it wasn't for the little monkey-baby laughing as it jumped and spinned, saying, "Again! Again!"

It was jumping on my chest, but the fact that I didn't really feel it was a testimony to its light-footedness.

"Don't jump on the dead man, Lia! It's rude," the huge monster said. She eventually got close enough that I could make out the details of her face. Her eyes burned with a violent violet that almost glowed, her hair was brown, in a cascading braid, and there was fur on her ears that made her look almost elf-like–ironic, considering her height.

I sighed a breath of relief when I checked her neck and saw that it lacked the tell-tale black band all Formed Mangle sported, indicating that she was either human or an alien I wasn't aware of.

She reached out to grab the monkey. As she did, I saw the MAS unit in her ear. It was the same shape as a practice unit, but was white instead of black. My mind eased. I don't know what the monkey-baby is, but at least I know the monster before me is human.

I tried speaking to her as she held the baby in her arms, but nothing came out. Only little grunts that were barely audible.

"Gray ties!" the baby yelled as it excitedly bobbed in the MAS user’s arms.

"We don't have any ties here, Lia, you're being silly. Now let's get going. We've given the guy the best burial spot we could. Hopefully no Mangle finds him before we can come back and burn him."

I tried again to speak, but nothing. Damn this debuff.

The baby looked confused at her comment. "Ties?" it questioned.

"Yeah, ties like the one you wear, Lia," the woman gently replied, gesturing with her free hand as if she was tying a tie around her neck.

The baby's confusion didn't go away. "What's wrong, Lia? Oh, Don't worry about understanding it now. When I find a real tie I'll show you what I mean." The woman began to walk out.

Once more I attempted to lift my arm, but I could only manage the faintest movement. Then, the baby touched the woman's face, right under her eye. "Ties?" it asked.

The woman, with confusion on her face, began to think. "Gray eyes?" she pondered out loud.

The baby smiled, "E--ii…ties!" it announced, making a funny little laugh.

"I don't have gray eyes, Lia. Your MAS unit and mine are special, so we don't have gray eyes. Only people using regular MAS units and practice…" She finally noticed that I had been looking at her this whole time.

I let out a small grunt, only able to be heard, now that she had stopped talking and moving.

Startled, she raised her head up, forgetting she was too tall for the cave. "Ow!" she exclaimed, as her antlers hit the ceiling. She petted the top of the horns, nursing them, then looked at me.

"How are you alive?"

I pushed every ounce of strength I had to say, "Help."

Her eyes widened. "Okie dokie! Lia, it's time to play the sitting game, okay? I need you to sit next to Mr. Almost-Dead and make sure he doesn't pass out again."

The baby had no idea what she was saying, but sat next to me nonetheless.

"I'll be back. Hold tight, both of you." Like the start of a race, she sprinted out of the room and darted towards the cave entrance.

She was fast. At least faster than anyone I'd ever seen run, besides Ma'he, but he doesn't count. What he does can barely be called moving.

Several minutes passed in which the monkey-baby and I sat in silence. The baby was still confused, but it seemed to be distracted by something. I tried to see where it was looking, but with no success. Instead, I focused on the silver tiara it was wearing. Something about it felt familiar.

The sounds of speedy footsteps then echoed throughout the cave. The woman slid to a stop, just outside the opening. She then walked into the room with my duffle bag and Spiderman backpack. They were both drenched in Mangle matter and smelled something awful.

She put the bags on the floor and riffled through them until she pulled out a few items: bandages, Neosporin, scissors, ibuprofen, and some other things. I realized she was just pulling everything from the bags that looked medical.

Monkey-Baby was interested for a second, but went back to staring at the corner of the room almost immediately.

When the woman collected the objects, she began applying Neosporin to all the open wounds I had. The sensation was a little painful, but I really appreciated it. You never know when pesky germs will make their way into your body.

Next, she dressed what needed to be bandaged, namely, my chest, right arm, and left leg.

She tried to feed me some ibuprofen, despite the fact that I was unable to swallow. She gave me a weird look as the pills just sat there on my bottom lip.

“I know, I should have washed your wounds first, but we have very little clean water. And the water here…well…smells like crap, so I’m not going to use it,” she announced.

I could tell it was awkward for her to be the only one speaking, and especially to someone who could understand, but couldn’t reply. She was probably wondering what I was like. I wanted to offer some comfort to her by grunting, or saying something that might help her to believe I was a good person. “Wanting,” being the main word here. All the strength I had was used in just uttering “help,” the first time. There was nothing left for me to call on to do anything besides lay there and be in pain.

When she was done with her first aid, she stepped back and looked at me. Her eyes lit up, showing her HUD. She was examining me.

“That is a whole bunch of debuffs. The fact that you're even still alive with all this racking your body is actually nuts. I’ve done everything I can, the rest is up to you and fate,” she said, seeming proud of the work she had done.

A moment of silence passed, then she started to mouth, “Fate. Fate… Oh yeah!” She put her hand out, palm facing towards me. I felt as if a strange aura was getting sucked into the center of her palm. I witnessed a little light appear where the aura was disappearing into. A moment later, a fist-sized ball floated out. It was reflective and was tinted green.

“You have called for my assistance, Makiel?” the ball asked, floating around the lady. It sounded like two different voices were speaking at the same time. A man and a woman. Weird, I thought to myself.

“Yeah. I want you to tell this man's fortune. At least for the next few days,” the lady named Makiel commanded.

“Doing so will put Fortune Teller on a 24 hour cool down. Is this acceptable?” the robot replied back.

She nodded.

A rainbow of light emanated from the ball. The baby, who had been transfixed with the ceiling of the room, now reached out to the shiny ball. I could hear it breathing deeply and saying, “Ting ting,” over and over as its tiny little hand got closer to the ball.

Before the child could get to it, Makiel grabbed her and held her in her arms.

“Fortune complete. Likelihood of survival…” a noise like a computer fan roared inside the ball, “99%. Time required before full faculties return: 24 hours. Would you like to reveal likely fate, in accordance with the will of the Council, within 70% accuracy?” it asked Makiel.

“Yes.”

The fan noise I heard from the orb before was now almost the sound of a running car. It lasted for about three minutes before it died down.

“The Tower looms over the Descendant. The Hand and the Hermit watch, disappointed. Will the Descendant rise or fall? Fortune is now outside the 70% limit. Nothing more can be said.”

The Orb then returned to floating around Makiel. The baby looked hypnotized as it tried grabbing the orb when its orbit was within range. It then yawned and snuggled into Makiel’s shoulder. Makiel looked like she was tired herself, but kept a smile across her face.

“Aren’t I just the best doctor?” she mused to herself. The satisfaction on her face was as though she had slain an army of Mangles on her own. She pointed her finger at my head. “You owe this doctor big time,” she declared, a massive smile stretching across her face.