I assume I'm supposed to consume these… one at a time right' I thought staring at the small pea sized pill. They don't give off any particular feel to them. They have no smell; nothing seems particularly weird about the shape of them either.
Tilting the container to the side, I allowed for one pill to slide into my hand. Its neither too hard, nor soft. 'What happens after I eat this' I thought staring at the small pill. The story said those who consumed the blood of the "creature" were changed. Is it a physical, psychological or spiritual change?
After wondering for a while, I looked back over the story, from what the creature says I'm guessing the change that happens is physical. Seeing as the demon specified power, its odd but maybe power is something that could be gained from ingesting its blood. Maybe through something like a metamorphosis, or a mutation from taking in something so foreign.
I refuse to believe that ingesting blood could give you magical abilities though, what sense does that make. Enough about that, the more pressing issue is what the hell happened, why am I here. The last thing I remember… not as Mikiyell… but as Michael. Was being robbed… there was a fight… I had a knife pulled out on me… we wrestled I got the knife… then… bang bang bang.
Everything was coming back to me now. The life I once lived felt like a movie experience, like I watched it a while ago and now I was trying to remember all that happened. Trying to remember what the background of each scene looked like but being unable to.
But I know for fact… I lived another life as Michael. But it fells off strange even, aren't I still Michael. Hasn't it only been a few seconds sense I died? Aren't I still me? I sat there in the medical room; my eyes glazed over. Unable to look away from my burnt hands, tightly wrapped in bandages. The life of Mikiyell kept coming to mind… then as though the thought snuck up on me, I wondered
"What do I… no what does Mikiyell… look like."
With that thought I wanted to rush towards a mirror… this is it. Maybe I'm still me. Maybe what truly happened was, before my death my body and mind were teleported to a different world ha-ha. That's it I thought, I mean surely, I wouldn't be able to just take another person's body right…?
As the thought filled my mind. In the heat of the moment, I wanted to get up and look around the room, maybe catch my reflection in something, but as I went to turn my head. A shock of pain rippled through my body, followed by a series of head splitting headaches. My eyes grew weary now with nothing but sleep on my mind… 'the pills…' I thought before falling asleep.
....
Sleep came quickly, my mind in a state of turmoil was unable to resist the powerful drug placed so near to me…
'Where am I' I thought floating above a black rocky platform. It wasn't required that I look too hard, for to the right of me stood the spirit of my previous life, with all my memories laid out behind him, a shiny blue river though the memories themselves painted a more dire picture.
And to the left of me stood my current self, memories also flowed behind him, memories of training and pedestalized predetermined destiny. These were the memories of the body of Mikiyell, though the burns weren't present, and his face was completely undiscernible.
Minutes passed, neither my former nor present self-moved at all. They stood unaware of each other. Growing tired of this I yell out attempting to gain the attention of either one of them. Yet nothing happened, more and more time went by, everything felt, so long. Every thought felt as though it had been had before.
'What am I to do?' I thought staring at each of them. 'Am I supposed to choose between them…. No, how would that work, I can't just go back… I died' with that thought it all made sense. I died, no longer am I Michael, nor am I Mikiyell with the memories of both flowing through my mind I can truly only call myself a joining of the two yet neither. With that thought, the spiritual form of my pervious life's faded into the void… its odd though I still remember, yet I feel no attachment…. Its sad… right… like I'm supposed to be grieving a great loss. Tears flowed from my eyes, as both fully faded, leaving only me.
...….
Ugh I awake to head splitting pain, my body was still every bit as burnt. It's awful I had hoped to awaken healed.
"I don't know many who cry in their sleep. You're a first."
The voice belonged to the woman who had been nursing me back to health, despite that I oddly felt nothing, it was the feeling of being somewhere else yet still present. Because of that I stared up at the grey hide ceiling for an unknown period of time indifferently, my odd behavior had attracted her attention. But before she could speak, I informed her, quite coldly.
"I wasn't crying, you're mistaken… could you take back what you left here."
I said my voice now an assertive, low and slow-paced. By now she stood by my bed, reaching down and placing a hand on my forehead, from her hands I could tell she wasn't a sword user, not to say that it's because her hands were in anyway delicate.
No, she held many calluses on her hands, but these weren't the calluses gained from wielding a sword but a weapon it must be.
'she's changed out my bandages' I thought I could tell she changed out my bandages due to how drenched I felt. And the intense smell of medical concoctions that filled the room.
After checking my temperature, she reached over and picked up the container, opening it up she gave a confused look.
"You didn't take them?"
'Ugh' shifting in my bed and siting up. The whole process caused me great pain. I laid upright starring into her black protruding eyes.
"Wasn't that your test? To see if I'd take the easy path?"
She gave out a large sigh, took a glance at the container in her hand, then began speaking.
"A test… no I have no intention of testing you. Your choice is your choice, it will lead you where your meant to go, that's all. For don't be mistaken you haven't changed your destiny at all."
I wanted to burst out laughing, destiny huh if only she knew my destiny had already been changed twice now.
"You speak as though you know of my destiny? Were you given a good look at it? Tell me what happens next for me?"
As I spoke those words she seemed taken aback. Surprised by what she must have perceived as a change in my personality. She opened her mouth, I anticipated what her response would be but just as quickly as her mouth opened, she closed it and preceded to begin walking off.
"What's your name? I'd like to thank you for all you've done for me."
Saying that stopped her in her tracks, she turned again to give me an odd look, and another sigh.
"I'm Nurtarla, I'll amuse you just this once and give you a glimpse into your future. It goes like this; the trainer of your division will pay you a visit. Demanding your return to the training field, once there you will be unable to compete in which… you will be removed from the division. Then… ha that's enough aid."
She sounded elated when she spoke those words, this must be a warning and like she said… aid from her. Though I doubt she can actually see the future. But even so I do believe everything she said will soon happen.
'How should I prepare for this?' I thought watching her walk out. Staring at the sword placed against the wall near my bed, just about a legs length long it had a brown sheath and a purple cloth wrapped around the slightly curved cross shaped hilt and guard. I doubt I'll be able to even wield that let alone swing it.
Looking around the room, in a dusty corner I glance at what I assume to be a mirror… slowly sliding my legs off the bed, I brace myself for what I know to be a painful experience. My feet touching the ground sent ripples of pain throughout my body, though it seemed the medication she gave me had dulled most of the pain, allowing me to get up and walk towards the corner.
When there I saw the truth of my reality, the face that starred back at me wasn't my face. My hair was long for a male. Pitch black in color with bangs hanging slightly past my eyes. My skin is tan, with a streak going from my right eye down to the middle of my cheek. Moving my bangs out of my face to get a better look at my eyes I see a dull pare of eyes devoid of any actual emotions. They're green in color but not a bright and vibrant green.
My frame was skinny but on the taller side… from what I can remember. Taking a few steps away from the mirror I glance over the room again, this time. Walking towards the sword near the bed. Picking it up, didn't cause me much stress, only when attempting to take a proper stance with the weapon did I feel the mind-numbing pain my body was in. At most I could do five swings of the sword before I couldn't bear to hold it any longer.
Though I was completely exhausted my body refused to produce any sweat. Dropping the sword, I again lay on the bed. It took several minutes for me to regain my composure; this was a level of exhaustion I'd never experienced before, every aspect of my body hurt.
This was all the confirmation that I needed. "I won't be very good with anything revolving around doing physical labor." I thought looking over to the blood red pills, there wasn't anything brought with the pills that expressed exactly in what manner the pills were meant to be taken, but I knew that awakening a unique power was the only way forward for me.
After looking through this life's memories I seemed to piece together how I should go about this. I first started with taking one pill by mouth. Due to my burns, I wasn't able to get into anything resembling a meditation pose but I figured that just lying there and focusing on feeling whatever effects came would be just as good.
Placing the pill in my mouth gave an almost instantaneous reaction, the pill immediately dissolved in my mouth, it was the feeling of having hundreds of bugs crawling around, inside the flesh of your mouth. I gripped the bed as hard as I could, feeling the sheets tear and my burnt flesh seethe and my hands begin to spasm uncontrollably.
The feeling of bugs racing throughout my mouth slowly diminished as some seemed to crawl down towards my throat and others raced up towards my brain, the ones who crawled towards my throat were lost to me. Like I wasn't able to follow them with my senses and was forced to follow the ones racing towards my brain.
They seemed to fill in some vacant spot there, pilling in one after another, I wasn't sure what was going on... fast! everything was happening so fast. I would wince in pain, grip the sheets harder, unable to open my eyes, fever sweets drenched my face and I would hear things... strange things, I couldn't make out what was happening but something... no everything was being destroyed all around me.
The last sound I could make out was the shattering of the mirror, I felt the fragments of glass dropping onto me. My mind felt broken, then repaired, my eyes wouldn't open and sleep came shortly after.