Nothing but fog all around, Vance felt like he was trying to fight off going back to sleep in the most comfortable bed possible. Why was he here? He couldn’t remember much. What was that noise he heard? It felt like it was calling him from the other end of a sound dampening room. “Vance Elwood, can you hear us?” Who is that? Vance thought, it sounded like a chorus of wind, grass, rain, and all of the earth's sounds speaking at once. Feminine, soft and graceful, but seems to permeate through everything and come from all directions. “Who’s there?” He mumbled, half heartedly through the fog. A new voice answered this time “We call you with an offer Vance, your time on earth has come to an end. Your actions have given us hope.” This voice sounded masculine like a chorus of rampaging beasts, the roar of hundreds of monsters, loud and powerful. What actions do they mean? Vance was lost and he felt as though his mind was covered in sludge and his thoughts were moving at a snail's pace. “He is confused, Geia, his soul has been in the fog for too long. I told you we must find a fresher one.” “He is the only one that will work and we don't have time to find another. It may still be too late already.” The male voice sounds more irate and gruff while the more female voice sounds sad and exasperated. “Pfft the mortal thinks you gruff Leonidas.” “Enough fooling around Geia, let us give the mortal our offer and perhaps not all is lost.”
This time both voices spoke as one “ Vance Elwood we are gods of a world different from your own. Our domains are The Wilds and The Beasts that inhabit them. We offer you a new life, with gifts from us to help you thrive. In exchange, we ask you to spread your influence and restore order to the world. To repair the wild places that are getting corrupted and poisoned. You may do what you will as long as you restore nature and preserve the beasts.” All he could remember at the moment was his name. Along with some random knowledge about plants and animals, the rest was a blur. He feels that he is missing a large part of who he was, but their words seem to resonate within him. They feel right, like he had heard those words before, but couldn't remember where.
“I’m already dead, it seems I’ve lost many of my memories, I don’t have much to lose.” Vance thought, “I’ll accept your offer,” he stated. “Thank you mortal, our powers are limited and it will take much of our energy to bring you a new life in our world.” “We won’t be able to offer you much, if any, help after you begin your quest, but we will pave the way for your growth. We will forge you a system to help guide you and your growth on our plain. This will cost almost all our already declining energy, we will be in a state of hibernation until we regain enough energy.” “If you are able to revitalize the wild places and strengthen the beasts, and their influence, we may wake up sooner. If we regain enough energy we may be able to assist you further.” “This world will be very different from your old one, the most important thing for you will be to gain strength. With your new body you should have no excuse to fail. With strength you can do anything and without it you will be controlled by the whims of fate and the commands of others.”
Vance felt as though he could see two shapes starting to appear, as the deities spoke each image was becoming clearer. From Geia, the image was a large tree that seemed to pulse with power, great veins of water running up the trunk to reach the crown of the tree, which had many leaves giving off light like thousands of suns, with great balls of earth hanging from the branches. The tree gave off a feeling of life, power, and growth, like an unstoppable tsunami or rockslide, while also gentle like the warm embrace of the sun on a chilly day. While from Leonidas the image was of a great beast made of blood, scales, and many other parts that shifted around. Sometimes appearing as a lion, a dragon, a phoenix, or some mixture of them all. He gave off a feeling of power, of bloodlust, and of regality, like a lion looking at young gazelle that is too small to be worth hunting, with a prideful arrogance that is justified by his overwhelming power.
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As the images pushed through the fog becoming larger and clearer, Vance felt a great pressure on him, as though his soul would be crushed by a single thought. The pressure kept building. As Vance thought his soul may collapse if the pressure got any greater, the gods spoke, “This will be your first and most important test, fail and your soul will be injured beyond repair, you must keep yourself grounded, keep your sense of self and remember our words. Fail and we will know that you weren't worth the trouble we took to drag your soul from the fog, don't disappoint us mortal.” “Our boons are not easily given and not easily received, you will start off with only as much as your soul can bear. You must also keep your self steady, merging with your new body. We know we ask much of you Vance, but even if Leonidas comes off as aggressive, we both place a great deal of hope on you and we believe you will succeed.”
Both of the images were extremely clear now, towering above Vance in the fog. A root from the tree and a claw from the beast launched themselves out towards Vance. Vance tried to cover himself with his arms, when he noticed he was just a sphere of a blue wispy color. Both the claw and root reached him at the same time, they were absorbed into him, dying his soul with a vibrant green color and a deep crimson.
All Vance could feel was a great weight on him and a barrage of foreign emotions and instincts slamming against his already dull persona. An urge took root to grow, to absorb and spread, clashed with a violent instinct to kill, eat, devour, and dominate. The only thing that the two sides had in common were the desire to grow stronger and push forward. Watching the soul that was Vance, you could see the sphere swinging back between red and green with a tiny sliver of blue retreating into the center as the other colors fought to encroach throughout. Vance felt as though he was pushed deep into the sea, everything was fading to black as his personality was being erased. What was once a blur of memories of his childhood and his friends, and the life he lived was quickly becoming naught but a void in his mind. Until one memory flew past and Vance focused on it. It was him and his grandfather, a retired WWII veteran. After Vance got lost on their first trip to the woods, he was crying. His grandfather said, “Vance many things can happen in life and those things can change people. Either for better or worse, but one thing you can choose to do is to hold onto a few things that are truly important and let those influence how you change. Center yourself and you’ll never be afraid of getting lost, no matter how the world changes around you.” It was that memory that Vance held onto along with his other trips into the woods, with his grandfather and his years studying animals and plants. Those were his favorite memories and a huge part of his life, from that point on for every memory he lost, he was able to keep one safe too.
Vance slowly started to get used to the different urges that were affecting his consciousness, as they started to become controllable, instead of acting like an invader trying to erase him, now they were like two extra hearts that were a part of him taking in his power then pushing out more. Slowly as the pressure that built from the merging process as well the mere presence of the deities began to dissipate, and the new power within him warmed him like a home cooked meal, his consciousness faded and he sunk into a peaceful slumber.
Watching the blue soul slowly change color and absorbing the new colors instead of getting overtaken, were two beings. An older woman who looked ill, with green hair and flowers strung between them, unnaturally pale skin, and clothes made of all shades of brown. Her eyes, many shades of blue, twisting and turning. Sometimes the soft blue of a gentle river and sometimes a deep blue almost black, like the bottom of the sea, widened in surprise at the soul. She looked to be on her last legs. Next to her was a large man wearing armor that covered half of his upper body, around his head was what once was a glorious mane, now looking more like a mangy alley cat who lost a fight. On his back, tattered wings with a mix between scales and leather. A long serpentine tail cascaded past his back, and wolf ears adorned the top of his head. He looked as though he had just run a marathon and his serpentine eyes shook as he watched the scene before him. “He’s done it,” said Leonidas, he sounded relieved. “We’ve done all we could, little Leonidas, the rest is up to him now.” ”Yes Earth Mother, I just hope it wasn’t in vain.” Both deities looked even worse now then they did before, both had hair falling out and looked to be on the verge of collapse. Their images were now clouded and were fading away. “Let us rest and recover what little power we can Leonidas, the rest is up to the boy.”