The reality of reality is that it is what you want it to be.

It was just another day on the sand bar that never changed.

I got up to complete my normal routine. I brushed my hair down combed my teeth and set out to my job.

My job, that's right it was fishing I was a fisherman for the village. But not the type of fisherman that comes to mind when thinking about fishing.

All of the creatures in the ocean were heart beasts. It could be best explained as they had the ability in there heart to generate mana. Some of them could become terrifying in their old age and were classified as deep-sea kings.

The way I fished though was with cages between the sand bar and the ocean. Were it was extraordinarily shallow so none of the heart beasts that lived there could be too strong.

It was a hatchery for heart beasts, one that feeds my entire village. And there were so many fish that the deep sea kings didn't seem to care about the measly amount we took out.

I arrived at the docks, really it wasn't the type of docks you would typically think off. It spanned almost the entire length of the water all the way up to the mainland.

What I did was simply lower cages from the dock down into the water and hoist them back up once they were full of fish. It wasn't really fishing so much as it was trapping aquatic baby monsters.

My day passed and I headed home. Just a normal day for me I suppose.

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The journey home was quick nothing out of the ordinary happened. Looking back I can't seem to remember anything at all about the walk back.

Before I knew it I was at my doorstep. Nothing was wrong the door hadn't been broken I remember that much. I pushed it open to see an almost unreal sight. It was like a hideous painting had been laid out before me in my house.

My mother was at the stove with a bright red hole in her back, my father was sitting at the table

with his head thrown back and coffee still in hand. Destined to never move again.

Did I mention that day was my birthday?

It was painful to recall that detail, I'm writing this all in my journal as I lay in the sun on the next day.

I'll spare you the details about the rest of my family, but my heart was awash with sorrow. But more then sorrow was the gigantic hole of despair that had been torn open in my heart.

The way of the world is a funny thing. It wouldn't just allow the heart beasts power if we couldn't have power. Everyone in life has something they must grab onto. And for us, it was an ability.

On a youths 16 birthday, they were allowed to offer a token to the heavens and in return, they would be given an ability based on there token and there desire.

Most people would offer up things such as a sword or a fisherman's net and ask for the ability to protect their family. That was what most people would ask for. Some of the high ranking families would offer up things like heart beast hearts and weapons infused with mana

But the funny thing was if they got an ability that was too powerful they would be sent out of the village as part of an expedition team in order to find a new spot to set up a village or an outpost.

So the trick was to gamble that you could get an ability that was powerful but not so powerful that you had to go on an expedition.

Anyways, my heart was empty and it couldn't hold anything in it anymore.

I thought about grabbing a knife and wishing for a super-strong ability to get revenge for my family. But anyone strong enough to murder an entire family on a tiny sand bar in broad daylight was surely strong enough to end me before I could develop the power for revenge.

So with an empty heart, I sat down next to my father at the table. A ray of light shone through the window and warmed my face. Just a tiny bit of warmth but it was enough for me to believe I could make a worthwhile wish.