Flaming steel
[Sorry for taking so long with my chapters but I am making them as I go and I have lots of commitments.]
----------------------------------------------------
The Rage of a forest fire
The Stillness of a lake
The Strength of a mountain
The Agility of a breeze
The vision of daylight
The stealth of night
The knowledge of the stars
The emptiness of the void
The beginning of life
The ending of death
----------------------------------------------------
The surroundings blurred as I came back to the painful reality of my fatal injuries. Following asking to say goodbye to my family the green robed stranger pressed one hand onto my chest and I felt some strength flowing into me. “This is all the time I can give you so say your goodbyes”. Upon regaining consciousness I became aware of other people standing in the room around my bedside. I say ‘became aware’ as I could feel their presence but could not see due to the severe burns and the worst pain I have ever felt racking every cell of my body. My strength was already fading from the amount I received a moment ago so I decided to keep my farewell short.
In a moment of pain filled clarity I could feel a small delicate hand on my own (probably the girl I rescued) and I uttered out a few words to the effect that I was happy she is alive and she gripped my hand tighter in response. Someone was stroking my hair and drops of liquid were falling on my cheek who I can only assume was my mother with my father possibly gripping the other hand on my left. With everyone here I said the most inspirational last words ever which were to the effect of “Procrastination produces 9/10 of ideas; the rest is inspiration” what can I say I was delirious and my philosophical words obviously had nothing to do with dying but who wants to talk about the obvious.
As far as goodbyes go I have no regrets left except maybe not having a girlfriend even though I had plenty of opportunity to. As my consciousness pulled away from my body I felt a floating sensation and a sudden tug as my essence was pulled towards a green light in the darkness. The same room as before appeared minus the hospital bed of before and instead a 2 seater table setting was there with the stranger in green sitting on one side. He picked up his cup of tea and gestured for me to take a seat as I found I had legs again walking over to the table I sat down on the table opposite the man in green. He produced his hand from his side and gestured for me to do the same, I held his hand as the conversation began.
“I am a shepherd of souls between the world some call me ‘god’ others call me a gatekeeper to the afterlife point is you are now dead. By the grace of your new world’s god you were able to say goodbye to your family and now you are here at the crossroads of rebirth. I will give you a gift to make it easier to talk to me.”
As the bearded stranger transmitted these thoughts I also received knowledge of the language he was speaking and our conversation continued without telepathy.
“As you will be reborn in a new world there are some inconsistencies that need to be fixed with your soul to adapt to the new world. The world you are going to is Cendari a world that exists next a star that radiates an energy specific to that reality, that energy is called mana. All living things on the planet absorb mana as it permeates the planet and mana is able to pass through and be absorbed into all things. Living beings are able to control mana with their affinities to certain substances as an extension of their soul. You are being given a choice of what affinities your soul can attune to so choose wisely although everyone on the planet can attune to all affinities to varying degrees by default.”
“Can I keep my memories from my past life?”
“As you are being given affinities I can let you choose between having all elemental affinities or having one god level wish and only 2 elemental type affinities. You can use the god level wish to keep your past memories but the limitation is only being able to use 2 elemental affinities with only one subclass from each. What would you like to do?”
“If I can use my knowledge from my past life in the new world I would sacrifice power, what elemental affinities can I choose from?”
“Elemental affinities refer to natural phenomena on the planet that can be controlled so they are categorised into 5 main classes: Earth, water, fire, wind and lightning each of these is then divided further into subclasses which you can choose one of, which affinities do you choose?”
“Earth and lightning”
“The subclasses for earth are Metal, Plants, dust, soil and for lightning there is only movement of electrons. Which subclasses do you choose? Keeping in mind that you can still get every attribute and its subclasses if you sacrifice your memories”
“I will choose Metal and electron movement because they are what I am familiar with the most; also I wish to keep my memories”
“Very well you will be reborn from the beginning, here we go”
“Wait! What do you mean ‘from the beginning’?!”
“Well you know ‘the beginning’ tell you what I’ll let you skip the first 9 months of boring stuff” (I can write this part if you’re into that 0.o lol)
Still not fully understanding or wanting to understand what was meant by the beginning I was started on the path of reincarnation which is quite a drawn out process so let me summarise. The new powers were attached to my soul which feels sort of like being forced to drink water but never becoming too full to drink more. In this stage I tried to drink in as much of the power as possible to help me on my next life up until the limit for a human soul. Following this there was the time where the soul journeys between worlds which actually takes several days of gateways and side passages moving mind numbingly slowly through the outside of reality until reaching the new reality. When the stranger in green sent me off he told me he would help by making me skip the first 9 months so when I reached the gateway to my new reality I entered a slumber.
After 9 months I entered life screaming, ‘why’ you might ask? Because being born freaking hurts! Not that anyone would remember that normally... Anyway I managed to stay awake long enough to have my first meal and view the small candle-lit room I was in with a dark haired person I assume is my father and a light haired woman who is my mother as well as a midwife. A man in armour stormed into the room just as I was slipping off to sleep, as I tried to stay awake to hear the conversation. “Asdcbjajnd! Sdfncd dfjs dfkam!” I could not understand and eventually succumbed to sleep. (Note: Above is gibberish)
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
The first morning after being born I awoke in a crib with soft sheet coverings unable to move because I still have no muscle mass as a child to even tilt my head I simply laid there listening to my parent’s voices. From what I can tell I am human and unlike before I could now understand my parents to a certain degree as the gift of speech I received earlier now came into effect. When I say I could understand the words my parents were speaking I actually meant that I could get only the implied meaning and tone from the words putting together the different emotions expressed in the words I could glean that there is a problem and given the soldier returned again the problem was military in nature. My father and the soldier had several heated discussions it reminded me of the few times I had seen superiors addressing a subordinate at work.
As my mother picked me up and brought me to the window I saw for the first time the world I have been re-incarnated into. The sky was painted a vibrant blue with still a tinge of mid-morning light sneaking in. People were rushing about down the street with worried looks on their faces and soldiers prepared weapons shouting their orders to the other lower ranked soldiers and townsfolk. The weapons soldiers carried looked to be a type of bladed staff like a glaive with several decorations down its length. As a cart was approaching down the street I was turned around from the window my father came in yelling repeatedly about the ‘Carrok’ or something similar and I was quickly bundled into a cloth by my mother.
Upon catching a glimpse outside the cloth bundle as we rushed out the door I saw black smoke and flames back down the street and what I can only describe as a dust explosion destroyed three houses spraying bricks and roof tiles everywhere. A large brown lizard like creature emerged from the wreckage crushing several soldiers underfoot and uttering a deafening roar it was by far the most powerful thing I have seen in my memory, its powerful muscles tighted as it prepared its onslaught. The men in armour moved to engage what I can only guess was the Carrok while unfastening their weapons a hum of power was heard from the staves they carried. The captain had moved forward with his weapon and then slashed downward diagonally in the creatures’ direction emitting a glowing line of fire from the end of his weapon which flew forward with great force towards the enemy which had now increased to two.
Impact from the explosion pushed the air outwards as the searing hot wave of heat impacted the Carrok. My mother shielded me from the blast as we moved towards the now slowly rolling carriage, men continued to fight and fall from the onslaught of the Carrok which had now increased in number despite the one taken out by the Captains attacks. As we got on the carriage my father along with the other men continued to hold off the advance of the enemy and they also boarded carriages behind ours. We exited through the city gates continuing to fire out burning crescents of flame as we made our retreat. Several groups of soldiers stayed behind at the city gates to give us more time however thankfully father was not among them, because they were quickly overrun.
After travelling down the road several miles I could see people in the carriage and other carriages were in varying states of sadness, shock and injuries but the most prevailing emotion I could feel was fear. My mother who I found is called Rin was stroking my head and staring back towards the burning city. After several minutes she was joined by my father and they talked worriedly with occasional glances to me as well. At this point in time I felt that sleep was impossible to avoid and it was really a miracle I had stayed awake this long through the ordeal so I quickly succumbed to the gentle rocking of the carriage.
Riding along the road for hours the light began to dim and we came to a spot where we would camp for the night. I was awoken by the stopping of the momentum of the carriage and my father who is called Abram helped my mother who was holding me from the carriage. After setting up the tent I was again fed and then whilst sitting around the campfire with the other villagers felt sleepy once more. Looking up at the sky that had two moons of white with a blue tinge and foreign constellations I went to sleep in my mother’s arms until very early in the morning.
----------------------------------------------------
Shadows shifted under the moonlight as we slept in the camp terrifying predators stalked beyond the light of our torches. A pack of wolf like monsters hid outside of the camp waiting for the right moment to strike. The creatures were called Argent and are able to channel torrents of ice through their almost white pelt. The leader sensing the time was right gave a low growl to signal the attack to its brethren leaping for the nearest sentry. The icy cold chill of the Argents fangs deprived the sentry of the ability to cry out however the impact from the leap knocked also over a sack of equipment causing the large sound to alert the camp. The leader of the pack finished with the sentry then let out a blood chilling howl which literally froze its immediate surroundings it moved forward and engaged the warrior who approached it.
----------------------------------------------------
I was awoken by the sound of fighting and shouting outside while lying in my crib, my mother and father were already up and my mother was helping him with his armour. Suddenly the side of the tent ripped and a large paw with razor icicle like claws entered in which was first parried by my father and then sliced off causing frost to spread up his glaive however this was quickly defrosted. My father exited the tent outside with the sounds explosions of flame and cracking of ice coming through the tent my mother bundled me into a sling on her back as we waited out the battle raging outside.
-----------------------------------------------
Thanks for reading my fanfic so far please leave some constructive feedback :)