I awake in the same position I fell down in. With the awkward thought that I wouldn’t be able to move my arms, I jump up from my sleeping position. The sunrise has almost ended, and I have apparently slept through the morning. I look in front of me to see a single moose like creature on the multicolored desert I created yesterday. Soreness radiates through my limbs. Every muscle has its fibers destroyed, and each movement made another tendon creak under pressure.

I feel grime on my hands, and lift them into my view. Suddenly my own aroma becomes olfactible. The odor of a butchered animal left to dry outside hits my senses. Blood in different states of coagulation litter my body. Tatters of once wholesome cloth barely cover my frame.

I turn my head away from the newly materialized dunes. The slight hum of a bustling village is wafting on the wind, and I decide the only thing I could really do was go to Tauss. Hopefully I can wash up, and then possibly find something out about the world.

I look up and clasp my hands together before saying, “Please tell me my plan worked...” I slap both sides of my face and start walking towards the village. The almost constant wind holds moisture in it, and I hurry to try and reach the village before rain hits.

After arriving, I look around the village to see what is happening. Unlike the last time when I arrived, their are many makeshift shelters that somehow make the rustic cabins of wood look like a luxury. The tiny shanty town has been hurriedly shambled together, and many belongings and knapsacks lay around with random villagers who have obviously made a run from the other flattened village.

“Whewwwwwww...” I state while deeply exhaling. At the very least a few of the more eccentric villagers have escaped and made some kind of refuge in Tauss. I walk up to one of the villagers who promptly looks at me as if I am walking roadkill.

He says, “Boy, you look like hell. You survive the coming god’s attack?”

“I guess. I got scraped and slammed into a wall by the shockwave, but I survived.”

“Damn miracles in all directions these last few days. Anybody who got hit was gutted from what I heard,” The old man says while furrowing his head and spitting towards the hollow mountain barely visable in the distance.

“Do you know if Klay or Elaine made it out of the village?” I say while raising my eyebrows, leaning towards the man, and staring him down.

“Eh? Who are they?” The older man says.

“The carpenter and his wife.” I say.

“Ah them? Yeah, I saw 'em visiting Braul’s ol house. Right over there.” He points at a pathway the village has.

“Thank you sir!” I say before moving towards the direction he's pointing. After a short period of time walking in the less heavily wooded village, I find the first two story building. The site comforts me as I start to imagine the village probably has many more prospects than the one I was in previously.

I walk up to the door and I hear constant whacking as though someone is pelting a pile of mush with a stick. The double doors are slightly decorated and have signs of being heavily used around the handles. I knock on the door. After about 6 minutes a girl answers. She has red hair that reaches down to her elbows. It frizzes heavily, and she is slightly plump. Her eyes are brown, and she looks tired.

Her dress is made of a familiar pink material made to link pieces of fur that eventually accumulate into a decent outfit. The fur dress with flashes of pink is incredibly surreal, but I kind of like them. She stares at me, and as our eyes meet it wakes her from her exhaustion. She yelps with a high pitched voice while jumping backwards, and then gathers herself. She quickly changes to being even more exasperated.

She opens her mouth while rubbing her brow tiredly to say, “Who are you? Are you looking for your parents? Who are they?” Her tone of voice made it abundantly clear she had done this several times and now she was exasperated with the process.

“I’m Nox. My parents are Klay and Elaine. ”

Her eyes raise ever so slightly as she says, ’”So you're Nox? Your parents are going to be real angry with you. If you didn’t know this is the village chief's house, and it’s where most problems the village faces are solved. So try to be respectful, but your parents are in the far backroom. ”

I raise my eyebrows and smile as I say, “Thank you ma'am!”

I quickly run through the smooth floors made of cut wood that have beast pelts strewn across them. The walls are made of smoothed trunks of trees glued together with sharply color contrasting pink material. The walls have random possessions and heirlooms sitting on wooden shelves. The house looks rather large but lacks the horizontal size of the first house I saw in previous dreams.

At this point I walk into a larger room after the initial one that has a fireplace in it. There is an increase in quality of the heirlooms and even some weapons and swords are hung on the walls. The fireplace is large and has pink mortar holding the rocks together. In front of the fireplace is an area that is 1 step lower than the rest of the building’s floors, and it contains a table with wooden chairs. A large group of people are loudly talking about something when I finally walk in.

“There is NOT enough room for everybody to move in.” A large man yells over everybody.

“Room be damned. Food is our number one concern! They’ll eat us out of house and home!” A woman says while raising her voice.

A broad shouldered man of about 6 feet walks in. He has a bald head, and a large brown mustache that adds to his already imposingly large figure. He is dressed in robe like clothes that seem to be as ancient as the village itself, and when he speaks everybody quickly silences themselves.

“I know that the Tauss village has never had so many people move in before. But my friends, my brothers, you must all think about the actual impact this will have on the village. If you don’t want to let a family move in with you then don’t let them move in. Crime will be harshly punished, and I can guarantee that with the blue cave we can afford the new comers. We need more labor to gather it! All they need to do is guarantee housing for work.”

“You want to make us slaves! Our village would have helped you anytime Braul! Why can’t you help us now?” A stubby man who is slightly overweight says while waving his arms around exaggeratedly.

He has a slight accent, and he uses it as if it is adding to his negotiation skills. The funny part is that it actually does make his voice more alluring. His slow and deep baritone punctuates each syllable, and makes you want to hear more. He is about 5’8, so the robed man, Braul, towers over him.

“We can’t just give you free food and housing Guaro. You know that’s impossible. What we all need right now is to start working on building new homes. New pens for Choks. New fields for Youse and a new future!” Braul says while both the men orate in front of the crowd as if to water the flames.

“As long as you don’t affect our lives in a negative light then I don’t care what your people do, but understand they are all going to be Taussi. They will pay the tribute each year, and they will be ruled by our laws.” Braul says while smiling and holding up his arms. “We should rejoice at the predicament at hand. Given a year it will all be behind us, and Tauss will be all the stronger for it.”

“But of course Braul! I am merely suggesting you give us some help assimilating into the village. Let us forgo the tribute for a year. Just for ol times sake? Friend? “

Braul looks exasperated as he raises one side of his mouth in a momentary sneer, and then slightly lowers his hands, but he nods all the same. The smaller man instantly digs into the sifted dirt.

“Seeing as how you’ll need more leaders to quell the masses Braul, I would be more than happy to bear the burden of public altruism. If not for the sake of the future of Tauss.”

Brauls face twitches more violently this time, but he responds icily with, ”Guaro...It might help to have the old village leader help with some of the new duties...Everybody!”

The group of people turn to face Braul.

“We have decided to help the Terk village refugees migrate to our village after the great light from the God, but...The Terk villagers will have to work incredibly hard to quickly become members of the village. Terk villagers will also receive larger penalties for crimes, and they will need to sign contracts of our creation before moving in. Any other questions?”

With the speech done, many of the people leave. The Tauss villagers seem incredibly tense. I get the picture that the majority of them believe that refugees should be allowed into the village, but a few who vehemently disagreed with it exist among the crowd. I personally want to start building a new life here with my parents as soon as possible before trying to get some actual goals.

In this sense I guess I can sympathize with them. Some of them are just scared about the future, and they don't want to lose what makes their village...their village. I just hope no idiot from our village ruins it for everybody. With this in mind I walk up to Braul and ask him about my parents.

“Hello sir!” I say while bowing.

“Oh? A polite little one, how refreshing...” He says before turning around to see me, and then he continues by saying,”Good god. What happened? Are you hurt? ”

“I am okay sir, but do you know where Elaine and Klay are?” I say while ignoring his other question.

“Are they your parents? Ahhh, well all’s well that ends well. They are in the other room over there. They are worried sick, so I suggest you hurry.” He says the line like I am an ant in his way, but he helped me so I fret not.

I run into the other room to see a group of dejected parents and children all looking at a small map of the village. The small room is downstairs, and has rock like walls with the familiar pink mortar. Problems arise as I stare at the group of people. Some have minor injuries that are poorly patched, and others are in hot arguments while pointing at the map. I assume it's over future living prospects, and then I see my Dad.

His usual bright demeanor looks like a thing of the past. His usually sharp eyes sit vacant, and stare a thousand miles into the abyss. The glimmer of any facial movement is gone, and he is barely sitting up in his chair. I start to walk towards him, and I sit in a chair right next to him. He is so devastated he doesn't even notice me.

“...Dad,” I say while trying to look into his eyes.

With an animalistic speed he reacts. Every facial muscle contracts, and his eyes immediately start to water. He looks at me and his skin flushes to a deep red. His arms raise upwards, and then he starts to gently grasp the sides of my face. His arms grip me tightly and pull me forward as if to get me as close to his heart as possible.

“I...Nox! You’re alive...I thought...You...” He stutters repeatedly while crying silently.

“I’m okay Klay! I wasn’t even...I was barely even hurt by the light.” I say while hugging his large stomach.

“...I couldn’t...Nox...I’m so sorry I couldn’t find you...” He says while clenching even harder. He holds me as if I'm a figment of his imagination that might disappear if he lets me go.

“I’m sure you looked for me dad, but I’m wondering what happened to the village. Where is mom? Did everybody make it out?” I ask.

“I...About a half of the village got out. Some people did not take the blood warning seriously. Some did not plan to leave until later, but most just grabbed what they could and left.” He says while continuing to hold me. He starts to let me go and he stands me up on the ground.

“Your mom looked longer than I did, but we both got out. We honestly thought the message was written by you...Since you got your new power...but if you didn’t, then we...” He says while looking down guiltily. I cut him off before he finishes his thought.

“I did, but when I broke the tree I ended up falling unconscious. It was...unfortunate, but I was able to get out of the way of the blast. It took me all night to get here afterwards.” I say while trying to calm his guilt.

A beast caged within my mind is finally tamed as I hear the news. A great relief floods my soul, and I think about how I can have them both in my life. I start to gently cry, and my dad picks me up.

“You know Nox. I am so proud of you. You got all the way back here without either me or your mom. Think about that Nox. That’s amazing.” He looks at me as though I am his most prized possession. A sacred jewel box he can't lose.

He sat me back down after I stop crying and he asks me, “Are you okay now Nox?”

“I am dad. I love you, and thank you.”

I feel a knot in my throat form, but I fight it away with the sweetness of the moment.

“I love you Nox. Your mom does too, but she’s meeting up with a possible place for us to stay until we get a new house, but Nox. I need to ask you something really important.” He stares into my eyes sternly.

“How did you know about the god coming?”

The question I knew is coming finally came out. I start to think of excuses, but no way such an event could have happened randomly came to my mind, so I say the next most likely thing.

“When I got my power...A vision of the village being destroyed and us all...dying...flashed before my eyes.”

He stares at me slightly skeptically before saying, “Are you sure Nox?”

“I promise dad. I’ve even had dreams of it before, but I knew it was real after the vision,” I state with many half truths laced between the words.

“Well...Thank god you did. A large portion of the village was saved because of you...You’re my little hero....” he said as the sides of his eyes wrinkled sharply, and a little twinkle slipped through the gaps in his eyelids. I'm lying to him, but I can't think of anything else that he might believe, and it contains some truth to it…

“Well it was easy when I’ve got someone like you to look up to,” I say the line the Nox part of me is feeling. If anything I can feel him strongly whenever I'm around Elaine and Klay. It makes me think he's definitely still alive, and It makes my mind's burden lessen.

Klay laughs heartily while lifting me up and twisting me in the air like he has always done. The same euphoria of back then fills me with a cozy feeling.

After setting me down he looks back at the map, and with renewed vigor says, “So, for now I want you to stay in this building until we find somewhere to stay tonight. I’ll come and get you with Elaine then. ”

“I think...I can go find a job here.” I say while staring at his eyes and clenching one of my fists.

“Nox, you don’t have to worry about that. We will get by, and you are way to young for that anyways.”

“I can do it dad.” I say while not blinking, and clenching my other fist.

“...It’s dangerous to go alone, you are too young, you don’t know any skills, and your mom will want to see you as soon as possible.”

“I can defend myself just fine...I am mature for my age...I can learn quickly...and my mom would probably be even more excited to see me clean, and with something to do with myself.”

“Nox...You really want a job? Because I can make you my apprentice as a woodworker...” he says while awkwardly flushing and shifting his eyes direction left and right.

I say, “Of course I want to do that dad, but right now we need money. You focus on the new home, and if I can help support the family in anyway...I want to do it.”

“You know...It feels like you grew up in one night...” He starts to tear up.

I grab his hand and hold it while saying, “Dad, I’ll be whatever is needed of me. Usually more. ”

I pause and we stay there for at least a minute before he laughs and says, “I must be getting soft. I feel like I’m crying at anything that happens these days!”

“Haha, they’ll call you Mud before long Klay if you keep crying.” I say with a small wry smile.

The joke lacks deep humor, but the heavy conversation needs a break, so he laughs pretty hard.

“Well...stay close to the center of the village Nox, and son-do not use your power unless it is an emergency.” He says while changing the atmosphere to dead seriousness.

“Why?” I ask with honest curiosity.

“The power will drive you insane son. The more you use it the more it affects you...There are tales of people going stark raving mad...and destroying entire cities...” He says while whispering and looking from side to side.

“What stories? Can you tell me?” I say while softly jumping and widening my eyes.

“Guess you still haven’t grown up just yet. Come here” He says while lifting me onto his lap.

“So...Let’s start with...” He pauses to gather his thoughts before he started to tell the story...

*******

Jesus. So much editing in just one day. Good god please tell me if stuff is wrong. Tense. Spelling. You get it