Astonishment, shock, panic, fear, and many other not-so-pleasant emotions were raging through Connor's mind.
His body was trembling in fear. Where is he? How did he end up here? Connor turned his head to the right to see vast fields and big, majestic snowy mountains beyond them, and his... little arm? He hastily observed his body to see that he was in the body of a child, around 4-5 years old.
When Connor realized that, his fear multiplied.
Fear covered him like the freezing cold he was currently experiencing. He screamed as loud as he could, but there was only one response - Connor heard silence, only some short and distant echo of his screams after it.
It took a while for Conor to calm down. After the panic faded out and he began thinking, a small problem popped out.
He will freeze to death. Only shabby clothes protected him from deadly frost. If he couldn't find a source of heat, he would surely die! Connor tried to stand up, but he failed every time he tried.
His body was small. He wasn't used to it!
He fell once, he fell twice, he fell thrice, he fell twenty times, but Connor couldn't afford to give up. The freezing cold was giving a great motivation.
Thirty attempts
Forty attempts
Fifty attempts
One hundred attempts
And yet, he still couldn't walk normally. His record was three steps, every time he lost his coordination shortly after standing up, and right now, his body was running out of stamina. He heated a little by constant attempts to walk, but this won't be enough in the long run.
He muttered to himself: "Okay, Connor, think, what can you do right now?". He needed the source of heat, something like a fire or anything that could warm Connor up. What could be used to produce heat? His physical and mental endurance will soon run out, so he can't use body movement to produce heat.
But what else remained in this beautiful frozen wasteland? Could hope and determination produce heat? What options did the little child have in this awful situation?
Connor tried to bury himself in the snow, to at least save some heat and extend his existence in this white world. While he wrapped himself in a white blanket, only his head remained slightly visible from the outside.
Connor looked at the stars. For the first time in his life, he was really looking, not studying the processes inside the stars, not looking at the picture of stars on the internet. Connor enjoyed the beauty of light dots in the sky without a second thought.
View of the beautiful stars reminded him how he ended up here. He thought: "This tunnel of light was something beautiful, and that feeling was bizarre..... wait, feeling? What was it?"
From the moment he got into this world, Connor couldn't calm down and didn't have time to analyze what had happened to him in the last few hours. Still, right now, he was lying on the snowfield silently waiting for his death, so he could at least try to replicate that strange feeling just out of curiosity.
Connor's breath was tranquil. He could even be considered dead If someone didn't watch closely, but in reality, he was trying to grasp the feeling of energy he had experienced beforehand. As he concentrated, apparently, he felt the presence of purple energy. He felt an inconspicuous trace of this mysterious power in snow, in the light emanating from stars, in the cold air around him, in the earth beneath, inside Connor, Energy was everywhere.
A faint feeling of power that connected everything in this world now has become clear to Connor. He could even feel it inside his body. Purple Energy had its own passways in Connor's body. Just like blood vessels, energy traveled through its own canals. He inhaled it with every breath. This power flows in his body in a specific manner, creating a cycle.
Firstly, it goes to his stomach. Then energy evenly distributes itself to his inner organs. After inner organs, it flies to the limbs. Finally, the remaining purple energy will return to the stomach, and the cycle will start. Every moment, a small portion of energy dissipated from the body through its pores. The rate of absorbing energy through inhaling was equal to the dissipating rate. Connor tried to breathe more frequently to gather energy inside him, but he couldn't do it because the dissipating rate adjusted itself to the absorbing rate.
"If I want to store it, I need somehow concentrate it... Huh, what is it?"
As Connor continued to explore his body through this mystical energy, he noticed that he had some kind of hollow sphere right in the center of his body, which was connected to his energy channels. Still, the purple energy never flew in there. After that discovery, a thought suddenly popped into his mind.
"Can I control energy inside me?"
At this moment, Connor became focused. He concentrated as much as he could on the energy flow inside his body. Slowly, Connor stopped paying attention to the world around him. The feeling of cold that had already penetrated his body slowly faded away. The snow around him became a blurry mess, then it completely disappeared from Connor's consciousness, and finally, the stars vanished.
Only one thing left in his mind - energy channels, a complex system of the curved lines that transferred mystical power inside his body. After observing this complicated drawing, he sensed the purple energy itself. It seemed like a small river calmly flowing through channels. Right now, he could tell precisely at what point every most minor portion of this energy was located. This flow was an ideal cycle. All of the purple energy flowed without any problems. The body of Connor was a perfect small system inside a large perfect system called the universe. Every ounce of energy flows through him, never stopping.
But it has changed.
A little part of the overall stream broke away, crushing the perfection of the flow. A tiny piece of energy was now residing in the middle of the hollow sphere, silently levitating. The dot of energy broke a perfect cycle. This tiny piece was no longer energy that belonged to the universe. It was Connor's Energy now.
"A pleasant feeling, huh."
It doesn't solve any of Connor's problems right now, but he was a scientist, so at least it could satisfy his curiosity for the time being.
Connor continued to fill a sphere in his stomach with purple energy, step by step.
Purple dot of energy....
Purple ounce of energy....
Purple piece of energy...
Purple chunk of energy....
Purple big chunk of energy.....
Purple ball of energy.....
Connor was becoming better and better at controlling the energy. If he could only extract a small portion from the stream in the beginning, now he can route half of the stream in his stomach. Energy absorption caused a meditation like-effect on his mind. Because of it, he was quite relaxed, so he continued to collect that purple energy.
Some time passed, and now he could route all of the energy income into a sphere inside his stomach. Connor suddenly remembered his attempts to breathe more actively. Previously he doesn't know how to gather energy inside his body, but the situation has changed!
He inhaled deeply, and an abundant amount of energy rushed right into his body. Oh, what a great feeling! Connor greedily absorbed all of the energy, but then the realization suddenly struck him like lightning.
"Air has become..... warmer!"
The temperature has risen! He felt it! The air was warmer than before! It may be the key to survival! Hope was born inside Connor's mind. Right now, his brain worked at 200% to figure out how to use his new discovery.
"Last time I tried to breathe more actively, the air wasn't getting warmer, so what has changed?"
His knowledge finally broke out from the depths of his mind, and he truly started thinking for the first time in this cold wasteland! He was a scientist. He carries the knowledge of humanity with him! So what does Science do? It asks and answers questions! And Connor asked himself a question.
How does heat work?
What is the temperature in the first place?
An answer came immediately.
It is speed!
The speed of molecules actively bumping into each other!
So why does the temperature of the air has risen?
Because its speed has increased!
And what could increase the speed of air right now?
"Energy! It's that mysterious energy!"
The answer was given, and Connor finally felt hope, burning hope inside his soul!
"I'll survive, no matter what, I will survive!"
Connor knew that energy could fasten up the air, a.k.a heat it up, so the only thing left for him was to make the energy that he had accumulated inside his body heat up the air around him. He was already skillful enough, so he just took part of the energy from his stomach, carefully transferred it to the tips of his fingers. Tiny dots of purple energy appeared on top of his nails. Then energy was carefully levitated to the space between Connor's palms.
He concentrated. All of his remaining mental energy was used to focus on the faint purple energy that flew between his childish hands. He imagined how the purple dots of energy pushed the molecules to other molecules to make a chaotic scene where every molecule flew with an immense speed.
Slowly, the cloud of purple energy began to vibrate. It looked like water was boiling between Connor's hands, and suddenly, in the center of the purple cloud appeared a yellow-red dot, which emanated light. Dot transformed into two, two transformed into a small sphere of yellow-red light, small sphere became a big hand-sized sphere
A wide, happy smile appeared on Connor's face
"Warm..... So warm"
In the centre of the white wasteland, abandoned by everyone, sit a child with a light in his hands, it heated up the air around him like a radiator, a pleasant warm feeling was covering Connor like a blanket"
"I survived, hahaha, I SURVIVED HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
A loud laughing echoed through the land