It was many years later when the Child left the tribe once more to explore. He had grown in many ways under the shamans, his magic had grown and he was able to use it for small things. He had been taught the histories of the tribe and was in all ways an equal to them, except for in magic.

He left in a different direction this time, with the intent to do nothing but wander. For several years he did wander, seeing many sights. But like on his journey back from the first trip they all seemed empty and hollow.

In a repeat of the Child's first journey he once again encountered the strange ethereal land. This time however the Child could see far more than he had dreamed of the first time he encountered the ethereal lands.

It was not wonder and glory he saw the second time. Instead he beheld the nature of the world and the nature of man. It was far more terrible and glorious than he could have imagined. The sights he saw were ones that no mortal should ever see. He saw a twisted view in which the world itself was made from the suffering of man.

He saw a vision of the greatest heights man had achieved then he saw those same heights turn to a nightmare of fire. He saw a void that was inhabited by man and he beheld a man that was home to a void. He saw a great tree that encompassed entire worlds twist into a grotesque sculptor of eyes. There he wrenched his gaze away but not before he saw his world from a different perspective. One in which nothing changed, a vision of what might yet be.

He tried to flee the ethereal place this time, but as before he walked onto the path. This time he was alone on the path, and even if he had not been he would have seen nothing as his eyes were shut.

He reached the center of the ethereal place, and as he opened his eyes he saw the Serpent for the first time. The serpent was strange. The Child felt as though it was a representation of an idea more than anything tangible. He felt as though any one who saw it would see something different.

The Boy saw a vision of the serpent that was closer to real than many would ever be able to. He saw that its nature was a cycle, that it had no real beginning or end. But he also saw little beyond what he wanted to, and to his eyes its form was a manifestation of the world. A serpent large enough to circle the world and bring it to ruin, a serpent that was life and death.

Its eyes though, its eyes were a window to the past and the future both. They drew the Child into their depths. He felt as though an eternity passed in the brief moment he looked into them. In the moments the Child looked away from the Serpent, the Serpent moved. The boy found himself far from where he had entered, near the center of the center of the ethereal land, with the snake wrapped around him.

The Serpent smiled down at the Child, and spoke in the manner it had previously. “So a Child Returns to a land incomprehensible to it. A child comes to claim what is owed. So to a Child, what is owed shall be given.”

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Having spoken its piece the Serpent struck down with its head. The blow was fast and slow, but it hit nothing but the Child's soul. Having knocked loose the Child's soul the serpent raised it into the air before pulling a substance that screamed of magic from somewhere beyond where the child could see.

It then wove the magic into a great tapestry which it laid over the soul. This done, it spoke once more, its voice ringing with authority. “Clad now in raiments forged of magic, the favour to the Child has been fulfilled. Go now, Child. Go and see your fate so that you might return to the cycle.”

Having spoken, The serpent returned the soul of the Child to his body. As soon as the Child was whole again, the serpent and the entire ethereal land wavered then vanished. The Child found himself near where he had first entered the ethereal lands, but the ethereal lands were gone. In the place where they had been there was a new environment. One that was far more mind bending than most others the Child had encountered in his travels.

The environment in front of the Child was one rooted in the mundane. It was a vast pit filled with fog, in the depths the tops of tree-like structures could be seen. They seemed as though they were made of ice and crystal. They were of many colours and they glowed with an inner light. As the sun caught the structures the fog seemed to become for a brief moment iridescent.

The child paused here for a time. He sat beneath the open sky and reflected on what he had achieved. In his mind bloomed the potential of the magic gifted to him. He saw the ways to use it and what could be achieved by it.

The magic the serpent had given him was named, by the serpent or perhaps something far more ancient and all encompassing, Totem magic. It was unlike the magic practised by the Shamans in that it did not rely on the natural world for power, nor the life of the user. It was more a method to create through the bounty of the earth a long lasting effect on a limited number of people.

The knowledge the Child had received detailed the process for making simple totems as well as showing the Child what might someday be possible. It was a collection of ideas: ways to enhance his magical capacity, hints on how he could increase the power of hisi totems, relations between the form of totems and their effect, and many other things. Above all however the knowledge granted to the child showed a way that he might achieve a kind of immortality. He, at the end of his time, would be able to bind a portion of his soul to a final work to watch over the tribe.

After many days pondering on what he had received he once more began his journey. He travelled back to the tribe and his family. He spoke little in the days after he returned, thinking in solitude. In time, he went before the Shamans to ask of them advice.

He told the gathered shamans of what had occurred on his journey. He spoke of what he had learned of the totem magic; he asked for their counsel. He had in his reflections on his magic learned the truth of it, it required a soul to serve as a focus. This was not an evil thing, but it was something that the Child was unsure of. The Shamans, perhaps predictably, advised that the Child do what benefited the Tribe. Regardless, wasn’t the magic designed in such a way as to not require to take from a living being, nor require special circumstances?