Being a baby was pretty nice, I could just laze around, I prefer not to talk about the humiliating parts, its better for my sanity... I also slowly got to learn about my new world and the 'Vikings'.
From the things I heard we are in a territory called "the frozen wilds" a land of mountains, ice and snow.
The place I was born in is a mountain called mount Refius, the key word being in. Apparently the top of this mountain was hollow, looking up from inside you could see a dome of glass and ice connecting to a cilinder of stone a few miles wide within of which a beautiful and lush terrain prospered.
From what I overheard from the hunters and scouts that exited the mountain and came back, this dome that lets sunlight into this mountain isn't visible from outside, it looks just like a normal mountain top which makes this place even stranger.
Speaking of the hunters, the inhabitants of this place that raised me are the Valhallans. They, I mean we, are a tribe that strives in most domains, we have a great agriculture, our warriors are powerful and most of all we are smart, our clan's motto is "Knowledge is power and wisdom is our blade". I still think they found this cringy motto somewhere but I don't know the complete history of our clan.
We obviously live in a sort of stone age yet the concept of medicine, smithing and writing are well developed, apparently everyone here can read, write and fight, a requirement to become a 'real' adult.
What has always bugged me is that the technology necessary to build a giant underground complex and one way see-through glass dome is impossible for my tribe, are we some kind of experiment? Maybe...
My batch of birth was taken care of by the whole clan, this is supposed to make sure that one child won't be favored by high standing members of the clan and that all of us would see the entire clan as our family. And I must admit, they are kinda good at it.
But the strangest thing I discovered beyond a comunistic primal hermit clan was a story told by our elders when we turned five years old, it was a story about the past of this world.
"Today you have passed the age of thought and will soon pass the hatching ceremony. We the elders have deemed you ready to hear of this worlds and our clans history and secrets"
"A long time ago, the ancient ones ruled this world and stood atop the chain of life as the Apex. Believing in their right to domination, they turned their backs on the gods.
Through the usage of their skills and knowledge they waged a war against nature and themselves.
But their greed and their senseless actions were too great of an insult and they were struck with divine punishment.
As the eye of Helios, the sun rose, the clans and conquered territory that the ancient ones controlled fell apart, half of them watched as their own bodies started to rot while the others… changed. "
A kid in the back suddenly asked " What do you mean they changed? "
"Haha, aren't you impatient? Yes, the gods cursed their bodies to become fused with the living beings the ancient ones killed, as a punishment for their insolence.
That day more than half of them died from this curse while the rest were split between the ones that turned and the ones that didn't.
This gave place to another war, one between the remaining ancient ones that didn't see their previous mistake and the demi-humans born from the blessings of the gods that sought to change the world for the better.
This war lasted for countless moons and ended with the victory of the demi-humans; to this date, no original human has been found. "
" Wait, does this mean we are demi-humans? " was the first thing that I noticed
" Indeed, our clan is born from the earth and we are given a blessing before we are even born. From what we were able to find out about the outside world, there are many other clans that share our demi-human ancestry but unlike them, our beast spirit is not transmitted through blood but by the gods themselves.
Each and everyone of us has a different beast spirit living within us given to us at birth by the gods. And as children of the mountain you will be taught how to awaken your beast during the hatching ceremony.
Now, please, enter the white nests, the 13 of you will have to enter different nests and stay alone. Do not forget this, follow the voice of Hermes without doubt, for he is the guide and messenger of the gods that will help you awaken."
Most of the things he said didn't make much sense to me but as I have never believed in the presence of God's and spirits... well I suppose I did meet one...
We were then guided by the warriors that accompanied the elders through a long cavern lit by small candles and decorated with multiple wall paints representing hatching eggs and half human half beast creatures.
This gives me chills, I hope I don't end up as some disgusting monster.
The warrior guiding us stopped and proclaimed "enter into these doors, you shall not leave until you have obtained the gods grace and hatched out of your shell!"
Slowly entering the door numbered 03, I felt a flow of warm air caress my face.
This newfound comfort abruptly stopped when the steel door closed behind me and left me in this room, accompanied only by darkness and the beating of my heart.
[DING!]
The lights gently lit up revealing a white cubic room only containing a lectern with a hand imprint in the middle.
The voice of what sounded like a young man then announced.
[Welcome to the training facility under the Hermes prototype program, please place your palm on the device.]
I did as instructed and felt something prick my hand, drawing it back I saw a pearl of blood sliding down the palm of my hand and dropping to the floor.
"Outch"
[Your blood sample has been scanned, discovered genetic code of following living beings :
Human, cuttlefish, giant squid, jellyfish and black mamba.]
"Nice, I guess?"
[Simultaneous awakening for all DNA codes not found, initiating manual survival awakening.]
"Not nice ?"
A robotic arm pops out from the ceiling and captures my five year old body while simultaneously injecting me in the neck with something.
This situation was so abrupt and unexpected that my mind went blank, only when I felt the result of the injection did I realise what was happening.
It burns, not just my neck. My whole body is on fire, not on fire, its melting! As if someone poured a gallon of sulfuric acid down my throat!
PLEASE STOP! IT HURTS! IT FUCKING HURTS!
GLADOS I WILL FUCKING MURDER YOU I SWEAR! I'LL GOUGE OUT THOSE FUCKING EYES OUT AND-
And... I passed out.