All Endrian wanted was to rest as he had had a hard time sleeping last night. Apparently, though, that was too much to ask. Either his mind wouldn’t let him rest or something would need his attention. While he was waiting on the healers to get a chance to look at him he had closed his eyes and once again his mind started churning over the memory of the lady in the mound. He knew intellectually that she was going to die anyway so he didn’t really do anything that wasn’t already going to happen. He also understood that he is on a new world and that any social beliefs or understandings he had from his previous world didn’t necessarily apply anymore. Still he couldn’t get the ladies face out of his head. He didn’t even know her name. As his mind kept worrying these thoughts, like a dog to a bone, someone came over and started speaking to him.

“Are you Endrian?” the voice of Rantak sounded out.

Opening his eyes and looked up to take a look at Rantak. As his head kept moving back he couldn’t help exclaim in english “Holy shit!” What he saw was a giant unholy cross between a mongoose and a werebear on steroids. Sitting on the deck of the ship his head came to the middle of her shin. Being only seven that wasn’t too bad but even if he stood up he would barely be taller than her knee. He wasn’t sure how tall she was but he guessed at least 2 meters if not 2 meters 30 centimeters. There was nothing small about her. He ballparked her weight at around 120 kilos or more. Her fighting form looked to be a mongoose, at least based on the shape of her head. Her arms were as thick as Endrian’s entire body. The only real thing that softened her appearance, from being completely terrifying to Endrian, was her golden fur.

“Excuse me?” she said after hearing Endrian’s exclamation.

“Ah, sorry. Yes, I am Endrian. I was shocked by your… appearance.” he said feeling somewhat sheepish.

“Well,” she said with her deep voice “I can say that your appearance is no less shocking.” An easy smile appeared on her face as she squatted down. “Now let’s talk about all that’s happened. I need details of what happened at Landow and what happened after.”

After hearing her statement many thoughts flash through his head. Why not ask the only surviving adult. Why not ask the other older children. Hell, baring the unawakened children he was probably one of the youngest here. “Why ask me?” he asked her as he tried to wrap all of his thoughts into this simple question.

“I want your description because you seemed to be the only one to be able to keep your head during this incident. You gave detailed and usable information in a high stress environment, which is very admirable. So I am hoping that you have a good memory and can give me a better account than what I have gotten from the few others I have already questioned.” She said this and there was a look in her eye that Endrian couldn’t quite place.

Sighing in defeat of his token resistance to recalling the details, he started his narration. It took them about two or three hours before he was able to finish. This was due to some pointed questions that Rantak asked him to get more details that may have been missed or describing beast he had seen etc. She had also asked wanted more details on his reasons for leaving the ship instead of trying to save everyone. To which he had explained that there were multiple reasons the first of which was he didn’t trust anyone else with the lives of his family. Secondly everyone in his family are children and who is going to listen to them during a crisis. Third he wasn’t sure how far the beast horde was from them based on the fact that they were attacked and had crashed not long after leaving Landow. Finally he had been knocked out during the crash and it could have affected his thinking.

After their long talk she said “You are a very unique person Endrian. If you were older and had already gone through Chikran then I would definitely look to add you to my and my sisters’ family.” With one last smile she turned and left.

Endrian wasn’t sure how to feel about this. By this worlds social standards Rantak was drop dead gorgeous. Big, strong, capable, and a little extra cushion for the pushin. She also probably worked for the government which most likely meant a noble background. Even though he understood this he was definitely not interested. He was so flustered he even forgot to ask what the word Chikran meant.

Shaking his head, and fearing for his future romantic endeavors, he realized that there was no one being seen by the healers. He was both intrigued and afraid of the level of medical care they would be able to provide. They rinsed his wounds with water and removed the bandaging that had been applied. He explained where he was hurt though they didn’t seem to interested. After they had cleaned him they stood on either side of him put their hands together like they were praying and after a brief moment started to rub their hands together. They did this for a few moments and then opened their hands towards him like they were offering a blessing or Moses parting the red sea.

He hadn’t watched the healers do their work prior because he had been trying to rest and then Rantak kept his full attention during her questioning. So when he saw them do this he couldn’t help but feel a little dubious. He could hear them muttering “Lord we ask that you heal this child so that he may feel your mercy.” He couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Fortunately they didn’t see this because their eyes were closed in prayer and supplication. However, in just a moment his wounds started to feel better. Surprised he glanced over at his shoulder that had been torn open by that earth swimming mouse like thing. When he looked he could visibly see the wounds healing. The skin had closed and even his scales were being regrown. He thought ‘Holy crap.’ and then he was overcome by the sudden urge to do something truly idiotic. Before his mind had a chance to process it, and tell him not to do it, he jumped up and said, with 1980’s televangelist voice, “Hallelujah! I am healed! Praise the lord.” Everybody stopped whatever they were doing and turned to stare at Endrian. As he stood there for a moment, letting the awkwardness drag on, he realized that this was not his finest moment.

“Um.. thanks?” he said tentatively. When everyone just continued to stare at him he decided it was time to make a tactical retreat. He wasn’t running away at all, nope. Moving towards his sisters, who were now doing their best to pretend that he didn’t exist, he sat down and did his best impression of tree in a forest. He could hear scattered voices asking if he had suffered a head injury or if the trauma of what happened was too much and his mind had snapped. The more he heard the more he just wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. Unfortunately the boats that they were on right now did not have that luxury.

Without looking at him Elva whispered “What was that?!?”

“An overactive imagination?” he said looking to see if anyone bought it. Seeing no one was going to buy that he searched his memories for a plausible explanation. He remembered when he was younger he had heard his mother and Ratrece talking about him. Ratrece had said that he was very different and that his mom would have to watch out for a more intense male instability with him. Latching onto this thought he said “Male instability?” Seeing their look of sudden understanding and relief his only thought was ‘Seriously?!’ What happened next really blew his mind.

Elva looked around at the rest of the people on the ship and yelled out “It’s okay! It’s just a case of male instability. He awakened seven days ago so this should be his first time.” He could hear murmurs of understanding and sympathy coming from all over the boat.

‘What the hell. Is this like this world’s version of PMS?’ Endrian thought as people were saying that it was so unfortunate that he had to go through his first instability under these situations. In some ways it felt like a get out of jail free card and at the same time it was vaguely emasculating. He wasn’t sure if he should be bitter, annoyed or happy. Mentally throwing his hands in the air he decided to ignore it as everyone seemed content with this explanation. Endrian decided to close his eyes and try to rest some more. On the bright side he now had an excuse to be eccentric. As he started to drift off he could here the song Creep by Radiohead playing in his head. Specifically the part about being a creep and a weirdo.

Endrian was next awoken by someone shaking him gently. When he opened his eyes he could feel that the boat was starting to slow down. Looking around he could see that all of the kids, his sisters included, were hanging on the rails and staring over the sides and forward of the boat. He realized that it had been Zakoya that had shook him. Seeing that he was awake she lifted her chin to indicate that he should take a look. Standing he stood up and lifted himself high enough so that he could see of the rail. That’s when he got his first look at Ampleforth.

For a medieval city it was gorgeous. With the sun setting behind them and slightly to the left the sky had shifted colors and the town was painted by the setting sun. Oranges and reds, pinks and peach could be seen on the bluff face and the fields leading to a forest. Everything was sitting at the top of an escarpment that Endrian had a hard time judging the height of. From the edges of the forest area the top of the escarpment was covered with grass and what looked like fields of different types of grain or wheat. He could see a river meandering through the trees to cascade in a gorgeous glowing waterfall off the side of the escarpment. An unknown distance behind the forested area there was a huge mountain. It had multiple different snow capped peaks and it seemed to provide a natural defense that wrapped around the area where the forest of trees were.

Endrian couldn’t see very many buildings because there were too many trees covering everything. Only the fields that looked like they were grain producing were not covered by the trees. As they got closer he could finally make out some people moving in the fields and below and even in the trees. It was then that he realized that the forest was the city. Assuming the people he saw moving were roughly 2 meters tall then that would make the trees something like 100 meters tall. The width of the trees was at least 10 to 12 meters in diameter. He couldn’t even comprehend what the root structure was like. There were road made from the interwoven limbs and vines. The leaves were a riot of colors containing blues, greens, reds, yellows and even some violet colors. Close to the middle of the city there was a large gap in the trees where a grouping of pearl colored spires could be seen.

The boat turned slightly to the port side and Endrian lost most of his view of the city after that. They were heading to an area where there were a number of houses with courtyards made from earth and rock. There was also a tall structure that looked like a train platform 2 meters in the air. As they maneuvered the boat Endrian got a better look and the closest way he could describe it was a 2 meter tall shed with steps on one side and a bunch of earth or rock pylons on the other. Underneath was a spot that had a birth for a ship to rest on. On top there were some seats and a covered sheltered area for people to sit and wait. When they docked and secured the boat Rantak got out and yelled to get everyone’s attention. When they were paying attention she started giving out directions.

“I want everyone to move with their families. We have some temporary housing that you can stay in for as long as you like. Please make sure you keep your unawakened siblings cared for. If you there are more unawakened then there are awakened please wait here and we will have some adults help you to a residence. If your parents are not back by the time that your siblings wake up the give them an excuse if they ask. You can say something like they are having a meeting or have gone out to get food. We understand that there will be some discrepancies in the homes just let them know that when your parents are back they will explain everything. Food has been provided and will continue to be provided until your parents do return. On that note we have two additional ships that are performing a detailed search of the area and will bring back everyone they can as quickly as possible. If you need anything there will be a healer stationed at each house all you will need to do is contact them and they will help you with anything you need.”

After that everyone was organized and settled into their various houses to wait for whatever happened next. For us our parents did not arrive before Ethese woke up. When she woke she was initially a little worried but seeing that everyone was all there and that there was no one hurt she calmed down. Elva and the others told her that we had already moved and that our moms were out looking for a new house to living in permanently. The next day their parents still had not arrived this caused the other girls to start to worry. There was tension and forced smiles as they tried to hold everything together.

Endrian for some reasons wasn’t that worried. He loved his mom and dad in so far as they had watched over him and protected him for seven years. So he knew and felt the strong familial bond with them, but for some reason he just didn’t feel concerned. He wasn’t sure if it was his age and knowing that he had no control over the situation so relaxed or if it was stress from the incident or maybe it was the fact that he took over the lead for the most part and felt he needed to be the rock for others. One way or another he just didn’t feel worried or concerned. So when Endrian saw that Ethese was getting distraught over her mom or the other mothers not showing up for so long he distracted her by taking her through his daily routine.

That evening their parents returned. The girls freaked out but in a good way. Though Endrian felt a little bad for his dad as none of the girls seemed to worry or care about him. They all ran to their respective mothers crying and hugging as jumbled information was traded back and forth. After the initial happiness and emotions had passed everyone gathered around to talk about what had happened. Endrian had moved over to his mother to express his concern and worry for her seeing as she had some serious injuries. She had a bandage over one of her eyes and looked to be missing a few fingers. He was going to ask more about it to make sure that she was okay, but she held up a hand saying that they would discuss all of the options as a family so that there were no awkward questions later. It turned out that his mom had lost her eye as well as some fingers when she was driving a beast back that had caught Ratrece by surprise. Ratrece had actually lost her right arm just above her elbow. From the story they heard after the ship’s flight array had been damaged and finally destroyed by Afroiffit, which was something like a griffin with two heads and a spear like flexible tail. After the array had been damaged the crew had very little control of the ship and anyone with air control was doing their best to guide the ship to a safe landing. Unfortunately as they had pitched the bow of the ship up due to the uncoordinated effort of the crew and the people they didn’t see the large tree that they hit. After that they were all flung off the ship even the ones that had a hand or had used their wood element to anchor their feet. The force of the hit had broken the anchors which had been just strong enough to hold everyone against the wind and the pitch while they attempted to land.

When they hit the tree and the ship started spinning everyone was eventually thrown off. Some even jumped off when they saw their family members fly out so that they could stay closer together. Allyce did this when she saw that Ratrece had been thrown over. She couldn’t quite catch up to Ratrece though even with her Air control. After they had landed Ratrece hadn’t really taken much damage but had been stunned due to impact. Her cultivation method and elements reinforcing her body so that she could withstand the impact of the fall. Allyce on the other hand was slightly more graceful but as she had jumped after Ratrece she had overshot Ratrece’s location so had to backtrack to find her. When she did she found Ratrece being attacked by some beast that was eating her arm. It had the lower part of the arm in it’s mouth and was trying to force Ratrece closer. Ratrece had lost her hammer and so was pounding on with her fist wrapped in a rock gauntlet. After they had killed the beast which was surprisingly difficult, they noticed that there seemed to be some type of black poison with red lines in it was moving up from her hand to her wrist and proceeded to move up her mangled arm. Since they had no healers and knew nothing of the beast they decided to cut it off so that the poison didn’t spread.

After everyone had met up again they started to move towards the crash site. They were not more than a day’s travel from the ship but they had taken almost a day to find each other. After that they had to hide from the beast hoard on the ground that had caught up with the flyers finally. They also ran into one more of those strange corrupted beasts that looked like corrupted version of a normal animal with strange reddish veins all over it’s body. Even the eyes of these beast were glowing red. It was also different from the one that ate Ratrece’s arm. It was something very bizarre that the women had never seen before. After the stories about the bird beasts that had attacked the ship and the other beasts that had gone crazy and attacked them without fear for life or death. They also gave some explanations to the children about what was going to happen now.

Etopha and Lisyth were both extremely worried for their mom, though they were very happy that she was back and alive. They both asked how long it would take for her to get healed. However, they found out that the chances of her recovering her arm were not very great. Ironically not because it wasn’t possible but because the healer had to be at a certain level and would have to spend more than a month with her to do it. This was a privilege that even nobility had to buy for an exorbitant cost. When Endrian found out that Ratrece couldn’t be healed easily he became more worried for his mother and asked about her eye and fingers. He learned that the eye wasn’t missing so it could be easily repaired and the fingers usually only took a day to heal so she would be back to her old self in no time. This then made him curious about what would happen to Ratrece. If she couldn’t get healed she wouldn’t be able to fight any more which was really what she lived for. Thinking to here, he decided to ask “Mother Ratrece couldn’t you just create a fake arm with your element?”

That one question set off a debate in which Endrian had to defend himself from all sides. Everyone had a knee jerk reaction where they said no, but then they thought about it and started to ask questions. ‘Haha! I have finally corrupted them with knowledge. Or at least the concept of questioning established concepts.’ Endrian thought when they started questioning if it were possible, either way he would take it.

Finally after a full day’s worth of discussing debating and arguing Ratrece had a temporary arm. Though she was very clumsy with it right now it was better than nothing. On top of that with practice she should have much better control. After the long debate over the use of a prosthetic arm for Ratrece the women started working on securing a new home. While this was going on Davian and Endrian had taken stock of the family assets. What they had managed to keep was the tools for making bows as well as various money that had been hidden on their person. The amount they had was 15 gold, 53 silver, and 89 copper coins. Interestingly, at least to Endrian, was that houses were free. You had to pay taxes on the house for a year in advance but you didn’t have to purchase the house itself. You did have to furnish it though still it made things easier from a monetary standpoint. The different houses had different tax rates based on their location and they had found one close to the school that Endrian would eventually go to. Unfortunately the tax on this house was 5 gold coins a year as compared to the typical 1 gold coin a year for taxes. He also found out that tuition for him to go to the school was going to be 10 gold coins for the year. So they were going to have to earn 15 gold a year at minimum just for him to go to school and to keep their home. That wasn’t including living expenses and other costs.

Speaking of school Endrian also found out that it was required that he pass a preschool education course since he wasn’t of noble birth. Fortunately this school was offered free to everyone that owned a home. So after some talks with the family they decided on the cost to produce recurve bows in their new location and what they would need to make. They were able to learn that the recurve bows that were supposed to be sold to the city defense. They learned about this was thanks to Rantak talking with his parents when she saw the recurve bow that Shyael and a number of the other villagers had. This also brought her back to Endrian once again when she learned that he was the one that “invented” the recurve bow. After some discussions Endrian’s family was able to secure an order for 5 recurve bows every lunar conjunction at a price of 65 silver per bow. In the past they were able to produce as many as 10 bows per month. If they could maintain that production rate they should be able to live pretty comfortably.

Over the course of the next few weeks Endrian and his family settled into their new home. They established a workshop for Shyael and located a good source of wood to use for the bows. With the increased in the amount of money that they received from the sales they would even be able to afford to send the Endrian’s sisters to school. There was an enrollment two weeks after they arrived but they were still in the process of getting settled in and there was also a requirement to pass a basic test on reading and writing before they could enter Ampleforth’s academy. For Endrian this wasn’t a problem, but his sisters had not been formally trained on letters and especially on numbers at this point. So they had to go to a prep school that gave them the basic knowledge for classes. There were many complaints from the girls when they found out that they were going to be going to school as well. Not understanding why they even needed to be able to read and do numbers. At least until Endrian gave Ethese a practical lesson on why knowing how to read and write were useful if for nothing else other than selling the family bows.

He brought out a copy of the government written order for the bows they would purchase each year however he changed the number on them. When he showed them how easy it was to be taken advantage of if you couldn’t read properly they then complained that it was the men’s place to take care of these things. To which they were dismayed to learn that most men did not do this kind of work. Davian and Endrian were just freaks. Endrian also gave a valid demonstration on why understanding math was helpful as he used the conversion process to rip off the girls. Since 100 copper coins was the equivalent to 1 silver coin he pretended to buy a bow and offered 45 silver and 60 copper instead of the 65 silver and then just bluffed his way saying that he had run out of silver and that he was using copper to make the difference. He also did it the other way as well giving a gold coin and asking them to make change for him. This gave the girls a much better understanding of why they needed to understand these things.

Other than that the only news of import was Endrian’s advancement in cultivation. Within a week of awakening he had reached the 3rd level of the Gathering stage. After that he had been stuck for a few days where he had tried to understand what was required to progress. Eventually coming to the understanding that he needed to compress the mana that he had gathered in his body. This actually took a little bit of time because he had to picture the cells in his body filled with mana that he had gathered and then compress the mana in each cell. The mental image was somewhat overwhelming and difficult to process and this caused Endrian to stall for a few days. Once he finally broke through, however, his cultivation proceeded very quickly and the next bottleneck that most people experienced he sailed through. At the end of a two lunar conjunctions he was already at the 7th layer of gathering. His speed in cultivation was mind blowing for the rest of the family. To which he could only shrug. To him it was easy because he was absorbing so much more mana than everyone else would since he didn’t limit himself to just mana that resonated with him. Interestingly when he compressed his mana in his cells the second time to break into the 7th layer all of the different types of mana seemed to merge together inside his cells. He had felt this was a significant change but so far hadn’t found any real verification as to why. Shrugging mentally he continued on.

Over the next 4 lunar conjunctions he had advanced his cultivation to the peak of the 9th layer of the Gathering stage and was just trying to break through to the next stage. He had a concept of what needed to be done but there were three issues. First the mental imagery for what he felt was necessary was really hard to hold in his head. Second wanted to see some of the cultivation methods that the school had so he could compare and possibly change how he cultivated. Currently he was using his own mental image cultivation technique and he was unsure how this compared to other techniques. He was also unsure if there were changes when moving from the Gathering stage to the Condensing stage or beyond. Third he was warned that if he was too outstanding it could bring him problems later so it was better to slow down for now. During this time he had registered for classes and was preparing for the entrance exam.

The girls were still working hard at the basics which somewhat mollified Davian as all of his progeny weren’t complete freaks like his son. They wouldn’t be able to take the test until a year after Endrian had already entered the academy. This actually worked out for the best as it would allow Ethese to go with all her sisters at the same time as their pride. Interestingly while it cost 10 gold per year for Endrian it only cost 35 gold per year for each pride regardless of how many women were in the pride. Before Endrian knew it was going to be cheaper for the girls to come in as a pride he had been working on a new bow design for the family to help increase their revenue so the girls would be able to attend. The new bow design was what people from his old world would call a compound bow. He understood the math behind the bow strings and the pulley system the problem was that there were no standardized weights or measurements so it required some experimentation with a number of broken strings and bows not to mention a lot of personal injuries of his mothers. He had sold them on the idea with a small version that was child sized that worked for Endrian. However when he scaled it up the draw weights started to exceed the tensile strength of the bow strings. After a lot of trial and error they were able to find a suitable material for the bow string for the compound bows. They didn’t have a measuring device to determine the fps of the fired arrow but when compared with the recurve there was an obvious gap between the sounds of the arrows hitting their target with the compound bow being significantly faster. He also showed how they could offer additional features such as a sound dampener for the string, a counter balance and string stopper etc. Even going so far as to paint the bow different colors. This opened a whole line of products for them to sell.

Not long after they started to get the new line of bows being produced it was almost time for the entrance exam. Tomorrow was the big day where Endrian would enroll in Ampleforth’s academy. It was going to be a long day as there were going to be many children from 7 years of age to 14 years old going to test. The testing included level of cultivation, level of elements, number of elements, element types as well as reading and writing comprehension and basic math comprehension. The first part of the day was the written portion where they were given a test for math and reading. After that an elder would test the age of a person by asking them and a known relative what their age is. Endrian thought that was a little sketchy but who was he to judge. Finally was a test for elemental affinities, the level of the affinity and then the level of cultivation. This would give them a concept of each person’s ability to learn and cultivate effectively. It would also help the school understand what level of cultivation techniques they would be able to comprehend and how best to guide them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Up in the heavens the god like beings were watching over this. Most of them were gratified with this champion’s apparent ability to handle a rough situation. Though almost all of them laughed when the Parrena had jumped on his back and he had freaked out and jumped into the stream. To them he showed his ability to know when to step forward boldly and when to retreat. Still there was much for him to learn. They were also very surprised by his ability to kill the older woman. Based on their understanding of his old world he should have not done that and instead fought for her to live. This again made them feel even more gratified about their choice because if he didn’t have the stomach to take a life then he would be a complete waste. Even Aysus had to admit that he was surprised at the champion’s choice. It would have been second nature for most of them but for someone from his background it was an impressive choice in their opinion. Especially the fact that he didn’t look away from her. That he watched her and was with her until the very end not shrinking from the responsibility of the act of mercy. After they had finally made it to the relative safety of Ampleforth there was a collective sigh of relief. As much as they wanted to test him and make sure he could handle the realities of his new world there was still the chance that he could die and if that happened it would be a terrible waste.

After a few weeks of them living in Ampleforth and getting settled in Aysus was getting antsy. They had sent down a prophecy of the phenomenon so that members of the church could come and pick him up as well as guide him in cultivation so that he stood his best chance to deal with their enemy. However, after the few weeks there was no one that had come by. This caused Aysus to start getting impatient. He knew how important those early years of cultivation were especially in this case. Ileshea had had 50 years of time to step into the level of power she had which was already at the peak of the 7th stage of cultivation and she was by far the most gifted they had ever seen. She had over 7 different elemental affinities and her comprehension of different skills was beyond amazing. Yet in the end she still failed. Endrian on the other hand was only going to have 27 years of time or rather 20 years after his awakening.

After a month of them living in Ampleforth and no sign of any of the churches or their people showing up, Aysus lost his patience. “Azmera! Why haven’t your people or Joslena’s or anyone that worship the pantheon that you guy area part of, why haven’t they shown up yet? He needs to get training and the sooner the better we can’t just let him sit idle!”

Azmera looked at Aysus and then to Joslena and Mophina. With a slightly gentle and tender atmosphere she said “There are some complications.” she hoped he would let it go at this but he lived up to her expectations of not being tactful at all and bulled ahead.

“What complications can cause our champion, our last hope to languish in ignorance?!” he asked bluntly.

Sighing she said “Well apparently there is some infighting with our followers as they are trying to fight for the right to bring him in so they can rope him into their family. We have already done a sending to the prophets so that they can guide our followers and they are sending someone now but they won’t arrive for at least a few months. We were also prevented by the celestial rules from sending a picture of him so even once they get to Ampleforth they will have to search for him. We were able to pass on that he had four elemental affinities though.”

When he heard this he was a little more at ease. If things worked out in the worst case they should still be able to find him during the school entrance exam. Also Endrian was still cultivating so he wasn’t really losing any progress. So Aysus contented himself to wait as patiently as he could. Unbeknownst to him Kyrus was of the same mind, he was just able to restrain himself better.