BrightMoon: Path of a Witch King

Chapter 2

Even as I drifted off to sleep I could feel something different than normal, I felt a pulling sensation as I closed my eyes. It felt like I was dragged through a tunnel. Slowly at first but it wasn't long before it became harsher, 

Just as I started to panic, the pulling sensation ended, I opened my eyes to pitch blackness, the smell of rock, soil, and dust slammed into my nose making me cough. A soft yellow light peeked through my closed eyelids while I was clearing my lungs, which felt heavy like I haven't breathed normally in a long time. Cracking my eyes open, I found a tiny yellow orb floating in front of me.

“The hell?” I choked out in a raspy voice.

The yellow light flared briefly, “Finally you're awake.” A singsong voice chimed from the orb. “An earth spirit is born! Praise be to the immortals, it has been some time since the last earth spirit was born at such a depth. Getting here took weeks of burrowing through solid rock! Thank goodness I found you before you awoke! Okie okie, Hi I'm your guide. You can call me Petra! Now before you ask any questions, I have only been asked to guide you while dealing with normal day to day life. They said briefly after you wake you need to and I quote, “Grit your teeth and bear with it kid.”, not sure what that means but they said I need to wait till you stop squirming before we get going.” the singsong voice of Petra blasted information at him.

‘Ok so, I am an earth spirit. Not sure what that means, but I'm assuming my race in this plane. The guide doesn't know much about me, and will only help me with "normal” things.’ I felt a migraine coming out of nowhere. I thought it was because of the dust or lack of air, but it got so bad that I couldn't even make out the tiny orb of light.

I grit my teeth just before what felt like a sledgehammer slam into my brain, a voice that rattled me to my core said something in a language I had never heard before but I understood what the voice was trying to tell me.

“Greetings young mortal. This world has the name of Yallahn, this world is filled with a myriad of species, some will be similar to the races in many fantasies of mankind of your world. This world is on a different path of advancement than your old world. The people of this world chase after immortality instead of living within their natural lives like your old world, in this world you were reborn as a spirit. The path to immortality for you as a spirit would normally be to sit within the earth and contemplate its mysteries over the centuries. That path has been disrupted since I have started your reincarnation early, while you will have some abilities like other spirits to mold the earth. I have thought of a more interesting path for you.” I could hear a smirk in the mysterious voice.

“Your heritage as both a native of your land and a descendant of witches interested me, so I have devised a supplementary path of power for you. It isn't your main path, but something to give you an alternative on your path. I wanted to give you the option to be less on the front line of things should you wish it, the markings on your body is a living grimoire which will grow along with your path and choices, to summon it just think about it appearing in your hands. I won't ruin the surprise so just pour your mana into it and explore what it has to offer, good luck BrightMoon. I hope you enjoy your next life more than your last one.” The mysterious voice grew quiet.

The pain slowly subsided leaving me with bits of knowledge, like how to absorb the mana from the surrounding air, how to initiate an aspect, and how to call my grimoire. They were like memories except they felt foreign, like a false tooth, it was there and you could touch it but it was fake.

“Well that was weird. Are you all done with whatever that was?” Petras’ singsong  voice took my focus away from the false memories.

“Sure Petra, what's next?” I asked the little golden creature. I couldn't stay down here, wherever I was, forever. 

“Okay! You just need to tunnel us up to the surface, then I can lead you to the closest town and help you get the lay of the land. So let's get going!” Petra moved back and forth excitedly in front of my face.

“That's an excellent plan. Except that I don't know how to do that.” I corrected my ball of light.

Petra zoomed up to my face. “I guess you did just wake up, ok ok ok! Just circulate your mana into your heart and just do it.” Petra said with such confidence like it was absolutely normal, though I guess it probably was normal to them.

Thinking back to those false memories I focused on the one about absorbing and circulating mana, essentially I needed to sense the energy around me and absorb it into my heart before I circulated the mana throughout my body. 

I wasn't really sure how to start so I closed my eyes to try and concentrate. “What are you doing?! Don't go back to sleep! I don't want to be trapped down here!” Petra started screaming at me.

I cracked my eyes open at the little light, “Hush, I'm trying to concentrate.” I said to the little light creature.

“Oh. Sorry.” Petra whispered back and dimmed slightly.

I closed my eyes again and proceeded with my earlier attempt, ‘ok so first thing I need to do is sense the mana.’ with my eyes shut I just stood there trying to find whatever it was that I was supposed to be looking for.

I didn't have a way to tell time but what I felt like for half an hour I sighed in frustration, “How am I supposed to sense something I have never even come into contact with, Petra what does mana feel like?” I looked to the only person who could answer my questions.

Petra brightened up, “This is easy, the mana that you have not circulated or stored within you is like very small lightning bolts, gives you a tingly feeling. It is wild and moves around like crazy dust in the air, some places are more naturally dense with mana and it's easier to feel it there but there is plenty of mana here so just try again. Just look out for that tingly feeling, okay?” Petra explained happily and zoomed around my head.

“Okay.” I said back. So maybe it was almost like static? I closed my eyes again and started breathing deeply, I kept my senses at the ready for anything that could be static. It was what I thought was an hour later that I felt a tingling static move across my chest. Before I could process that it was what I was looking for it flowed over my skin and disappeared a moment later.

I smiled and redoubled my efforts, the next time I felt the wild mana it crawled over my back and this time I was ready for it, I followed the instructions in my head and thought about the mana flowing into me.

Strange was the best way to describe the feeling of mana seeping into my skin, as soon as it broke through my skin however the tiny amount of mana shot through my body and went directly into my heart.

My heart seized for a second before it started working overtime, I felt like I was about to have a heart attack. I could feel the tiny amount of mana that I had put into my heart quickly spread throughout my body. Trace amounts of the warm substance were scattered about, but it wasn't enough, I could feel now that my body craved the substance known as mana. 

I could nearly feel my body scream for more, I hadn't realized it before but I felt incredibly weak, it wasn't hard to tell that it was my lack of mana that was the source of this weakness. I felt more mana crawl across my arms and back and focused my mind again to draw it in, this time more mana flowed in. and as it was dispersed I started to feel more mana all across my body.

So I drew in more and more until I started to feel mana all around me.

“That's it, now you got it!” Petra cheered. “Now all you have to do now is to send your mana out of your body.” I followed the little lights instructions and imagined the mana flowing in me being released from my body.

“Crap! That's too much, stop! Stop! Oh Shi`!” The little light started to yell but before I could stop the earth around me shook violently before we were shot upwards like a rocket. Petra screamed, I screamed back as we were now on the world's scariest elevator.

The ride didn't last long. Soon we went from ascending to free fall, it would appear that I had been in an egg shaped cocoon made of stone, bits had broken off on our way up and I could see the sky above us, until the egg flipped and showed us  that we were near a hundred feet in the air.

“Petra! If we die I am going to kill you!”

“f**k you spirit boy! Haven't you heard of moderation!”

Our screams continued up until the egg made contact with the ground.

“Petra! You ok?” I called out while coughing to clear my lungs. I seemed to be ok, just a few bruises. I wasn't sure where my guide had gotten to, the egg had shattered and sent up a cloud of dust.

“I am alright!” the sing-song voice called from above. “Quit playing in that dust cloud, so we can head to town and get you some holy s**t you're a horse.” I stumbled out of the dust cloud to hear Petra whistle at me.

Looking down I saw that I was nude and covered up my member, “Shut up Petra, besides I'm just above average. Now help me get some clothes.” I said as I felt my cheeks heat up.

The little pest of a floating light giggled and let loose a few more cat calls before telling me to follow it into the woods.

“So here is your first lesson, in the event that you have no money, you can always hunt for food or clothes. In your case you need to hunt for food, clothes, and money. You can hunt both monsters and beasts, monsters have an open bounty on them so all you need to do to collect the bounty is bring back proof of the kill, like an ear or emblem.

“Beasts you can hunt for their pelts, meat, and other materials that can be used in various other ways. Which can be very lucrative once you kill some of the more uncommon beasts, though you will probably make the most money from other people when they try to kill you.”  The little light zoomed around a tree as it called back to me.

“Wait, why are people trying to kill me?” I called and chased after Petra.

“Well there are lots of reasons,” I almost ran into the ball of light as I came around the tree, “They could want to kill you for your possessions or because you offended someone. Maybe you just ran into some bandits or one of those crazy people who just like to kill people. Who knows really, like I said there are lots of reasons why someone would want to kill you.” Petra explained it as if it was common, like getting food at the market. “First lesson of being on the surface. How to hunt.”