Aelf, now washed and in clean clothes starts heading to his mother so they can leave for the ceremony. His mother spending a few seconds making sure he's presentable before leaving the house and heading to the centre of the village where the ceremony will be held.
"What do I do at the ceremony? do I have to say anything or pray to anyone? Why hasn't anyone told me much about the ceremony besides that I could potentially gain a special spirit." Aelf asked his mother, worry, annoyance and anticipation on his face as he was faced with so many unanswered questions.
"Don't worry my little nightingale, all you have to do is drink a special alchemical elixir and sit down on the stone platform, the rest will be up to you." Ell calmly answered her son with a knowing look on her face as she too went through the same process of anticipation and worry when she did the ceremony.
Aelf heard his mother but chose to ignore the annoying nickname she gave him after hearing him beautifully play the grass whistle, a skill he taught himself to pass the time and something not quite seen before by any of his family members, comparing it to the enchanting song a nightingale sings in nature.
Spending a few minutes walking to the ceremony, when Aelf and his mother finally arrive he noticed that almost everyone in the village was here even when they don't have children who can participate in the ceremony, as they were either from the previous batch or they were too young to participate.
"Children it is now time for the ceremony to start, so would all who are participating please step forward while those who are not please step back, thank you." an old man in robes yelled to the audience surrounding the ceremony platform.
Aelf, feeling his mother let go of his hand, decides to start getting in line for the ceremony, taking a place in an already forming queue near the end as he arrived slightly too late to get to the front. Slowly as went past and each person from the line had drank the elixir the robed man started giving out instructions.
"Alright everyone, now that all of you have drunk the awakening elixir it is now time for you to try and contact your fated spirit, whether you get one or not is highly dependant on you after this so listen carefully." As these words were spoken shining runes started appearing on the circular platform covering the whole place in a fine mist that seemed to draw in the mind of any who look into it.
"Listen carefully as I'll only say this once, this special mist will react to the heavens and the elixir inside of you to help you slip into semi-consciousness and allow your spirit to partially exit your body to enter the spirit realm..." as each word was said all the participants slowly started to lose focus.
"all you have to do is search for your fated spirit, how that happens and what you get is highly dependant on you and no one can help you, good luck! you'll need it" as these final words were said all the children started to lose consciousness before they felt a pull from deep inside of them.
"Huh! what is this place?" having entered the spirit realm all that Aelf could see was a dense fog covering his view, yet he seemed to sense a weak tugging direction coming from inside of him, pulling him forward. Choosing to follow this feeling Aelf decides to walk towards the direction of the tugging, the feeling getting stronger with each step.
Finally after what felt like hours the tugging sensation finally disappeared but what lay in front of him, the end result from his hours trekking, was a stone platform with a plinth in the centre, a small glass orb laying on top, glowing a mystifying gold. Walking over to it Aelf decides to pick it up.
Yet as soon as his hand touches the orb he felt an unimaginable pressure exert itself upon him, slowly getting stronger each second, Aelf managing to keep himself from falling to his knees but sweat slipping of his brow, this lasted for a few minutes before the pressure disappeared, just moments before he collapsed, and the glass orb shined bright gold before flying into his head. Not knowing what to do Aelf tries to sense the newly connected spirit inside of him but is stopped by another tugging sensation coming from his left, choosing to try and find the orb later he gets up and follows the tugging sensation pulling him to the left.
Gradually the stone floor he once stood on started to transform into greenery, blades of grass being stepped on with each step. Aelf continues walking before he suddenly found himself in a grove with a beautiful tree in the centre, not noticing anything dangerous he decides to start walking to the tree, only to suddenly stop 5 paces from the tree when he heard a...
"Hisssssssss..." snake. Sensing danger Aelf jumps backwards away from his spot, happy that he trusted his instincts, as he heard a thud plant itself where he presumed he once stood. Now knowing that he's in danger Aelf uses the martial knowledge his grandpa drilled into him through all of the training sessions.
Looking at where he once stood he sees a giant serpent: black, glistening scales; two protruding horns on either side of it's head; shining, golden eyes; a large mouth and long body that could easily keep other from seeing hims visage were to to be eaten.
Noticing that the tugging sensation had disappeared he comes to the conclusion that this serpent must be his fated spirit, or at least one of them, and came to the conclusion that to gain this serpent as his spirit he must beat it.
"Well at least now I can see whether the martial knowledge that grandpa has taught me will help me survive in the world." what ensued next was a life or death battle between boy and serpent lasting hours, no opponent gaining the upper hand before their opponent either adapts and uses this newfound skill to their advantage or found a way to escape their predicament.
"Hisssssss...*sizzle*." looking at the boy in front of itself the serpent spits some venom in the boys direction trying to gain the upper hand. Managing to get a few drops of venom on the boys clothing, completely melting the fabric of his shirt, panicking Aelf quickly rips his shirt off to stop the venom from attacking him. Using this to it's advantage the serpent lunges at the boy's body to strangle the boy and squeeze him to death. A look of fear appears on the boys face before it is quickly washed away by a mischievous smirk, a look that is all to familiar to the villagers, as well as, his family as this simple facial gesture tells them that they've already lost.
"Hahaha! too predictable." Aelf chuckles to himself before he quickly dodges out of the way and delivers a powerful kick to the serpents head, shattering one of it's horns and disorientating it long enough for Aelf to land safely on his feet. The serpent, after getting it's head kicked to the ground tries to gain it's sense of balance back but the kick it took to the head was too strong and any attempts at regaining it's balance was futile.
"So are you going to give up or am I going to have to remove your other horn too?" Aelf asks the disorientated serpent with a look on his face as if he already won. Giving his opponent some time to gain their balance he prepares himself for any surprise attacks in case it got any ideas of attacking him again.
The serpent, spending a couple more seconds trying to regain it's balance back, look at his young opponent, gazing at it's young opponent with it's golden scrutinising eyes, as if to look for something. The serpent closes it's eyes for a few seconds before re-opening them again, the serpent takes one last look at the boy before it turns around at start s to head back to the tree disappearing from sight.
"I guess this fated chance wasn't meant to be." sighing at the decision that the snake turned around and disappeared from sight Aelf decided to turn around and leave, but just as he turned around he hears a rustle from the tree leaves behind him, turning around he find his serpentine opponent staring at him. the serpent, noticing the boys halted his leave slithers over to the boy, Aelf's body getting ready for a sudden attack. Now in front of the boy the snake decides to reach behind itself and pick something up using it's mouth.
Turning around it uses it's tail to reach for Aelf's hand, indicating with it's eyes its' wish for the boy to open his hand, Aelf notices this look and hesitatingly obliges to his serpentine 'acquaintance' intent and opens his hand, not easing a muscle in case of trickery nor taking his eyes of his opponent, taking in every muscle movement of the serpent.
The serpent, seeing that the boys hand, is open slowly, and tentatively, leans it's head forward to drop something in the boy hand. Aelf, feeling the sudden weight, looks at the cause of the sudden weight increase and sees in his hand: a small oval object; and a small seed that shines with a multitude of colours, both quickly flashing golden, before sinking into his palm. Seeing the flash of gold the serpent disappears for good slithering back into it's, presumably, nest.
"Two more spirits?..." feeling another tugging coming from his front Aelf waits a while, watching out for his serpentine 'acquaintance', waiting for a few more minutes and noticing the lack of movement Aelf slightly relaxes his body and tries to examine his new spirits.
Closing his eyes he searches inside of his mind scape to try and find his first spirit, the crystal ball. Entering his mind palace Aelf is shocked by what he saw, looking at the centre of his mindscape he finds the small oval object and golden orb next to a multi-coloured tree sapling that had already started sprouting, only feeling a connection to the oval object and not the seed.
"So it wasn't another spirit, it really was just a seed, then what is this oval object, it seems too small to be an egg when looking at that damn serpent. It's children should be many times bigger than the average snake so it's eggs should be a lot bigger than the average snakes too." pondering over the answer and coming up with nothing Aelf decides to exit his mindscape, resting for a few minutes to recuperate before he started to focus on the tugging sensation that appeared after he bonded with the oval.
Like it's predecessors the tugging sensation got stronger with each step, and it wasn't long until his surroundings started losing it's lush greenery and gaining sand. Unlike the previous times where he went to search for his new spirits, this new spirit took hours of traversing the desert landscape to even catch a glimpse of it, looking in the direction of the tugging sensation all Aelf could see was a shining ball of light comparable to a mini sun, the surrounding temperature getting hotter and hotter the closer he got, getting to the point where he had to fight to stay conscious, or he may suffer a heat stroke, now only about 100 paces from the mini sun.
Pushing his body forward Aelf continued to walk: at 10 steps he started to feel his skin get hotter and hotter; at 20 steps he felt his skin start to burn and his throat start to dry; at 30 steps he started to lose the moisture of his skin; at 40 steps his skin began to crack from the loss of moisture; at 50 steps his hair lost it's gloss and became as dry as the desert sand he stood on; at 60 steps he lost most feeling in his body yet kept on walking forward, thinking of giving up but removing that thought at the power this sun could give, determined to gain the sun he journeyed further; at 70 steps his remaining clothes set on fire and turned to ash; at 80 steps his hair did the same; at 90 steps his body was set ablaze, slowly burning to a crisp; now in front of the sun, only a few centimetres away, Aelf stretched his skeletal hand forward, feeling his hand heat up before his vision darkened and everything turned to black.
Opening his eyes Aelf found himself wrapped in bandages, from head to toe, completely covered yet not feeling the slightest bit of pain.
*creak*
"Huh!?" "Huh!?"
"Uuuh!? Hey mom, how's it going?" Aelf asked his mom, slowly seeing her face change from shock, to sadness to anger before finally settling on happiness.
"AELFRIC!" just as these words exited her mouth Aelfric found himself wrapped in his mothers arms, tears streaming down her face as her hold on him got tighter and tighter. Aelfric wanting to breath yet his mother refusing to loosen up enough to be able to do so.
"Goodness Ella! why'd you scream so loudly!? did something happen to Aelf? quickly move out of way." Ella mothers yelled at her, trying to get a good look at her grandson, seeing his flailing arms she sures that he's alive but now she's got another problem to deal with.
"Ella quickly let go of Aelf you 're suffocating the boy, not to mentioned he's still injured."
"Aaah!" after hearing her mother's scream Ella quickly leapt off her son while keeping her eyes on him checking to see if she made things worse.
*Gasp* now being able to breath properly Aelf takes in a deep breath of air.
Aelf, now having regained his breath, looks at both his mother and grandmother. Both woman, seeing that their little boy wasn't in pain as he neither screamed nor had any tears coming out of is eyes, walked in front of to examine him further.
Aelf, noticing their investigative gazes, let out some reassuring words while slowly taking off his bandages.
"Look! I'm not injured so you don't have to keep on looking at me like that."
Aelf's grandma, noticing the lack of any sort of pain from her grandson she got up to examine him further, reaching out her hand to examine his body and make sure that he truly isn't injured. After a few minutes of thoroughly examining Aelf's body she let out a relieved breath, her gaze softening as she looks at him, but quickly steeling over as a thought passed though her mind.
Looking at her grandsons, a steely look still on her face, she asks the question many people wanted an answer to.
"Okay young man! what happened in the spirit realm that caused your body to completely cook over? and I expect an honest answer" Aelf's mother listening in on the side suddenly turned her look away from her mother and gain a steely look that matched, perhaps even worse as it promised punishment were he to try and lie to them.
" Before I answer that what happened to me on this end? How did I end up wrapped in bandages and here? wherever here is? I promise I'll tell you what happened to me in the spirit realm as long as I hear what happened here." Aelf answered both woman back wanting to get some answers himself.
Hearing his response both womans faces froze, staring at eachother as to decide what to do before nodding to one another. Looking at her grandson Aelf's grandma decided to answer his question, herself and her daughter's steely looks completely vanishing and being replaced with an immense amount of worry.
"It all started when the spirit mist activated..."