Leo’s body craved for sleep but deep worries made his mind go crazy. He couldn’t keep himself from imagining scenarios where the merchants would try to harm him or would kill him in his sleep. The two merchants worked in shifts, traveling day and night. At night the woman rode wile the man took the day shift. We should arrive in something close to eleven days. The cart is way slower than riding a horse but they do go day and night. After some long hours passed Leo’s body collapsed.
He fell asleep on the cold wooden floor of the vehicle which was bound to happen as he had ran two days straight with extreme thoughts pushing him to his limit. Both mentally and physically the boy was at the end of his stick. If any of the tribe members had seen him they would’ve thought he was a possessed demon. The once sweet and friendly son of the tribe head was now filled with hatred and malicious intend. Leo’s entire body was a walking craftwork that barely stuck together.
As he drifted off to dream, twisted versions of the massacre that had passed showed up. His mind recreated the feelings and sightings of how the soldiers had lined up his friends and family in front of him and his father. It was so realistic that Leo didn’t even know he was dreaming. They tortured them in the most unholy way that was possible. Some of the woman were raped in the evening while Leo was forced to watch. It was the most cruel thing he had ever witnessed up to then. The actions got worse the longer the soldiers stayed. Most of the tribe members had bitten their own tongues after a few days because they couldn’t withstand it any longer. This had made Leo burst out in rage but it had been useless, a single hit, coming from a single soldier had made him go unconscious.
The enemies could have just ended them as they were ordered to, yet they chose to do it in one of the most cruel ways. Leo’s tribe wasn’t very well known because of its small size but it used to be powerful by some means. The dreams turned even darker and more cruel. They made Leo feel the things from different perspectives. Person by person, he warped into every single tribe member’s body and had to feel the torture they received. Every time he was chained up to a wooden pole or laying defeated on the ground. Whiplashes, limbs being cut or pulled off, eyes being pierced by needles. Only when that person had died he would move on to the next. He had tried so hard to resist, to try and act tough even though it was only a dream, but he faltered.
At only the third warp he lost his spirit and became numb for emotions. The rest of the warps he just looked from above as a spectator, not having to feel any pain. In the end, after having gone through over seventy different warps he awoke, instantly throwing up outside the cart. Water mixed with blood and some half-digested herbs he had eaten before flew out as he gagged out all of the impurities in his stomach. I’m pathetic. The rhythmic sound of horseshoes on the parched earth filled the forest. “You okay back there?”, the man asked from the front part where he was controlling the horses. The early spring blossomed in the highly dense forest. Vivid colors of flowers made it look all nice and happy, as if the world didn’t care about what had happened. “Yeah, I’m fine”, Leo lied.
He felt terrible. The immense dose of adrenaline he had gained from surviving death had finally started to work out, making him feel all of the wounds and scars on his body like they were brand new. The shock faded even slower than he had hoped. Without having any entertainment for hours straight, Leo started to count the wounds on his body. The boy did this so that he could look back later to see how many healed. 43?! That’s without my fucking back! Fuck I’m way more vulnerable than I thought. How did I actually not bleed dry? I might need - “I have a proposal for you boy and I think you might like it”, the man said, interrupting Leo’s threads of thoughts. “Hmm?”, Leo answered.
It had surprised him a little that the man had actually interrupted the endless silence between them. “Me and my wife talked about it while you were asleep. We want to give you the opportunity to get some quick money for yourself on this trip. Although we have a lot of work that has to be done, we can’t do it if we want to travel efficient. The pay is nice and it might kill your boredom. So, what do you think, it’s a win win right?”, the man said it with pride thinking he had just made the most generous proposal anyone ever made. “Sure, what kind of tasks are you thinking about? I don’t see a lot of items left in your cart.” The man turned around his head and smiled at Leo with a playful expression through the opening between the two parts of the cart.
“Just some simple things you know? Maybe start with sorting the stones inside that small black box. There’s 726 stones inside so don’t even think about taking one for yourself. Sort them by size, color and shape. It will keep you busy for a while.” Still tired, Leo nodded and went to sit in the middle of the cart. The black box sent of a soft expression that would have went passed Leo’s knowledge if he didn’t have sensitive wounds on his hand palms. The boy flicked open the lock and was amazed at the inside. The interior of the seemingly normal box was made from expensive oak wood that looked older than anything he had ever seen. With fine details, a pattern of snakes was carved into the sides. Mana stones.
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They might be small but there are some rare ones amongst them. Mother said that magic elements were very complicated but easy to divide. You had the standard, advanced and special cases. “Every being has at least one element linked to them even if they don’t have a lot of mana”, she had said. The standard elements were water, fire, wind, lightning, earth, light and darkness. Advanced ones could either be born with or be learned when a mastery in a standard type reached a certain point. Those would be like magma, ice, necromancy or plants. Mother said that special cases were magical arts that were bound to a race or that are just extremely rare. Our storm arts are a prime example. Only our tribe can use them, although lightning is pretty rare on its own the arts of the storm are peculiar to us … to me. Mother also said there’s ones like taming and void.
The box had dozens of little holes and sealable areas where items could be sorted in, perfect for a merchant who traveled by horse. Leo began dividing them by element and kept on creating sub categories until he could start ordering them by size and alphabetical order. The child was happy he could distract himself from the unstable status his mind was in. He finished late at night, unable to quit before finishing the last stones. It had always been like that, Leo couldn’t stop when he was reaching the end. He just had to complete it. At night the same dream pestered him. This time he lasted until the fifth warp before he gave in to the dream and became numb. Waking up, the boy had to throw up again.
His face was wet from the tears he had cried in his sleep. One of the wounds had gone open again from twisting the wrong way, a small flow of blood slid down his arm. “You awake kiddo? I saw that your first task was already completed. I must say I’m impressed by how well you sorted them. On top of the two bronze crels I was planning to give you I’ll allow you to take one of the stones to your choice. Just take the one you like the most or that you feel attracted to”, the man said. He must think I don’t know what the stones are. The pay is nice as well. Oh fuck I have to throw up again.
With his head back outside, he threw up for the third time on the ride. “Uh, are you sure you’re okay? Do you perhaps have motion sickness boy?” After recovering from the terrible feeling Leo answered: “Ye-yes sir, I suffer from motion sickness. Are you sure I can take one of those stones, they look quite precious.” The man just razed his thumb up as a sign of approval. Leo didn’t even hesitate to open the box. He had already laid his eye on a certain stone when he was sorting them. He opened the little, section sealed with a lightning bolt symbol and grabbed the lightest one out of them. For most type of mana stones the darker meant the better but it was the opposite for lightning type stones.
They were required to have a more compact amount of electric energy, making the purest ones look close to white. There were a lot of merchants who messed up their aspiring dreams because of lightning stones. This was because the low quality ones resembled water stones and the pure ones looked like ice or light type mana stones. Leo grabbed the light-blue stone and put it in his pocket. Although it was on the smaller side it had very condensed energy inside. It gave of a soft electric field that interacted with his hands by giving of minuscule sparks. He couldn’t use it yet because he hadn’t awakened his mana yet. It would be suicide to take in pure energy without anywhere to store it.
His next task was to tie multiple pieces of rope together to make a few usable ones. Leo had thought it would be easy but learned that tying them to be strong enough was a challenge. While trying out all different types of knots the man began a conversation, he seemed bored. “What’s your name kid? My name is Jeff, my wife’s is Eli. Please call us that for the remaining time because we’ll have to stay in each other’s company for more than a week.” “It’s Leo”, he answered without paying any attention to the man. “Leo… That’s a name I haven’t heard anywhere. It’s nice, short but powerful. You must be out to the capital for the upcoming ceremony. You look old enough, may I ask how old?”, the man spoke carefully, not wanting to hurt any feelings.
“I’m fourteen, far from fifteen. Why do you ask?” The man let out a deep sigh. “You know you don’t have to do it yet right? Fourteen is the minimum age, you can always take it in a few years. I’ve also done the awakening ritual like almost everyone on this continent. This was when I was sixteen already and even then I was struggling to make it out alive. I saw almost all kids your age getting severely wounded or dying. Please think about it twice. I also heard that this one would be more intense than the last ten years.” Leo’s muscles tensed hearing those words.
I know it’s dangerous. I’ve heard hundreds of horror tales about the trials like every normal child but what does it matter? Everyone says you should be sixteen to enter but two years is two big of a gap. I can’t miss such a good start. If I’m not prepared to put in the risk and effort, how will I ever get what I want. “Just keep your opinion to yourself”, Leo said colder than he wanted, “I know what I’m doing and don’t need your opinion.” The man went quiet for a while before completely changing the subject to kill the awkward silence.
“We’ll be arriving in nine days, hopefully we won’t be getting any troubles on the way. The roads we take should be safe although they’re a bit bumpy.” Leo ignored him, focusing on his work again. The man seemed a bit weird in these situations. Leo couldn’t help but be a bit distrustful of him. He acted as if he was hiding something. Always turning his head scanning the sides of the road. Is he being followed? Does he have to hide something? Leo could hear the man gasp to air out of shock. “What’s up?”, Leo asked.
“There’s something laying on the road ahead. It looks like a body. have to stay near the cart. Uh, I-if you go check it out I’ll pay you a bronze coin.” Something is off this scenario doesn’t look natural at all.