The world finally stopped spinning for Champ and his breath slowly returned to him. He sat up gingerly and stared at the decayed grass around him, he was almost amazed at the small contained destruction he unintentionally made.

“Let me try once more please, I’ll try not to ruin your yard this time, Minara,” Champ said. He was already back in the proper form, seated cross-legged, eyes closed, and he jumped straight into another attempt before she had the chance to answer.

“Wait Champ don’t-” Minara tried to shout at Champ, but Simon outstretched a hand toward her and waved for her to stop.

“No no, he’s close Minara. Let him have his moment, this is the basics, and he's eager, it’s a positive thing,” Simon replied in a quiet voice. His face showed intense excitement and focus on Champ's every action.

Champ fell back into his rhythmic state of tranquil and focused breathing. His thoughts started swimming but this time Champ focused on how he felt moments ago when he had the energy stored within him. How it felt as it welled up inside him, and just how easily it flooded his body. The warnings of strain, injury, and, potentially worse, caused doubt in Champ, but he pushed it aside. His goal seared bright in his mind's eye.

“Less, less, less, less,” Champ repeated over and over in his mind.

Champ was confident in his assumptions of what went wrong. He figured he was just too excited last time and overwhelmed himself with Brand energy. Something Minara warned him of, that he realized now, he should have listened to.

“But this time was going to be better, it had to be! Something’s different, and different is usually good right?” Champ thought before he realized his attention wandered.

Champ's consciousness wavered abruptly. He tried to move his body, but nothing moved, he tried over and over to squirm any part of him that would budge but Champ was frozen in his meditation. In the next instant, it seemed like he was sucked out of his body at a rapid speed. He watched his body grow smaller and smaller until all he could see was an ever-expanding darkness. It felt like one of those moments when you catch yourself falling in a dream and just before you hit the bottom you jump awake.

Darkness wasn't quite the right word Champ realized. The place he was now in, felt like the in-between moments of shifting dreams. If someone had asked Champ to think back to a time before he was born, this would be the place he could describe. As if nothing manifested itself, into something.

Champ waded in that endless dark expanse. He felt like he was swimming in a starless sky. In an ocean made of nothing. He knew he was in a different place, yet he still felt his body back near the lake. Faintly as if it was a distant memory, he felt the light breeze as it brushed his skin, and he even smelled the grass and slightly humid air that surrounded him. As he looked around in this darkness aimlessly, all at once with exuding force he found something, or rather it found him.

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An immense light that burned endlessly. A monolithic pillar that dwarfed Champ in this space. He couldn't see where the light began or ended. A truly unfathomable size that caused Champ to feel just like his surroundings, like nothing. Like a mere speck of sand amongst the entire desert, a drop of water in the ocean.

Champ outstretched a hand toward the behemoth light.

“If you are the Brand, may I- well, um could I borrow some of your light?” He asked meekly.

The all-consuming light immediately blinked out and left Champ surrounded in complete darkness except for one small marble-sized source of light. The small rapidly spinning sphere hovered gently toward Champ. As the brightly burning marble approached him, he felt its warmth as it covered him like a warm blanket on a winter's night. He cupped it carefully in his hands and stared admiringly into it, a small sun in the palm of his hands.

He snapped out of his awestruck gaze at the marble in time to remember to thank the entity for the gift. He didn't know if this was proper etiquette, but he didn't feel like his ignorance was a good excuse for poor manners.

“Oh! Um Th-Thank you for this gift I'll do my best to use it, um properly! Now I just have to figure out how to get back to my body. Any ideas?” Champ said as he looked out into the darkness. No other noise was present other than the faint low hum of the small sun in his hands.

“Well I'd, um, like to head back now if that's alright?” Champ called out. His voice was awkward. Champ was still new to all this, he thought it wouldn’t hurt to just ask for guidance. A voice suddenly shot into his mind.

“Interesting. The few I bring here from my various worlds and realms are often afraid. Very few handle this as well as you do, with open and honest enthusiasm. As you wish, your requests have been heard, Herron Champine. Return to your physical body. Grow strong, young fate changer.” An ethereal sourceless voice responded

“AHHHHH,” Champ screamed out in fear. He never expected a response. Then again he never expected a small marble sun to float toward him either. Or any of this for that matter.

Once more his body felt like it was being sucked out of this nothing space. He plummeted toward his physical body that was still seated by the lake, the familiar scenery growing closer and clearer. Champ's eyes opened wide. There he was once more seated in the center of the field. Minara and Simon stared eagerly, almost expectantly at him.

“Well, do you feel like you have some Brand energy stored up or is it too much like last time?” Minara asked him, an earnest smile on her face.

Champ opened his mouth wide revealing the mark on his tongue. What surprised Minara and Simon wasn't the mark. It was the small dense sun-like marble that floated there. Pure, condensed brand energy, and a lot of it.

“I say that will suffice young sir,” Simon said, he shook his head in gleeful disbelief.

“Yeah no kidding! Okay okay, before we lose concentration, do just as Simon taught you before, pick something to focus on in your mind. Something that makes a noise. We think your power lies in the realm of imitation. Maybe another animal to start with.” Minara said almost too excited to be still.

Champ's mind raced at the possibilities.

“Imitation? I could just magically copy anything that I can recreate the sound of. Okay okay, animal uh, elephant I guess?” Champ said

Champ pursed his lips tightly and blew out air. He recreated the sound of an elephant's call that they made with their trunk.