“Oowee.(Wake up)”, Just a minute, let me sleep some more…..

“Oowee!(Wake up)”, Ok, ok, sheesh. Can’t a guy get some shuteye over here?

Looks like it’s time to get back on the road. I look at the sky and see it’s already sunrise and it’s full of large dark clouds with flashes of light in between. A sign that a thunderstorm is coming.

After mother woke me up, she grabbed me and we descended from the tree and waited for the others to come down. Then we’ve all went to the nearby stream and had a drink before resuming the march to the south.

Along the way, we assumed a loose formation, where the children and the injured are in the center, the mothers and the less experienced Tagan’s are in the middle and the older more experienced ones are on the front.

We continued moving through the grassy fields until we reached a forest of grey trees of gigantic proportions, with tall blue spiky leaves that hang down on the branches. This is the first time we go through here, but as a nomadic folk, we trek through a lot of places that seem to be the first for us. Usually we try to follow old paths, but without any form of mapping or navigation techniques, it all depends on luck.

Everyone was on guard, holding their weapons tightly and keeping an eye out for any threats nearby, you can never know what could come out of the woods. We continued like this for about an hour or two, then we reached a river so we decided to take a break.

Everyone drank some water, and then some tried to spear some fish while others just sat down to relax. I on the other hand tried to find a piece of wood large enough to make a bowl. I never tried woodcarving in my previous life, or any type of art except painting and music, so it was hard in the beginning and I got no small number of cuts, but as the months passed, I continued to improve and I managed to become second only to the toolmaker. In the end it took only a couple of minutes to successfully carve it, though it was just a roughly carved piece of wood with a big round hole in it, but it was good enough to store some water without leaking or giving you splinters when you drink. It still managed to shock them, especially the toolmaker, who took the bowl, observed the design and tried to make his own.

After half an hour or so, it started to rain, so we ended our break resumed our march through the forest. The trees acted as a natural barrier from the rain, but the forest floor still got muddy, which only increased our fatigue as we hauled our feet through the cold muddy floor.

And after the rain, we saw flashes of light and heard roars from the heavens, which caused fear among the Tagan’s young and a few adults. We still marched in a formation, but with a looser one and a quicker pace to get out of this dreadful ordeal. Then it happened.

An ambush from above. Spears and stones were thrown at our group, but most of us managed to get off lightly with only 1 adult dead with a crack in his skull and 2 other who were pierced by spears. One in the shoulder and another in the foot.

We threw our own weapons at the hidden assailants managing to harm 3 and causing 1 of them to fall.

When it fell we saw its form. It was humanoid, but not a Tagan. It had a small skinny body third the size of a Tagan, with smooth grey skin, no hair, hands and feet with 4 digits each made to climb trees and no tail. Its head had large black eyes, large human-like ears, a mouth full of sharp needle-like teeth and a snout. It’s an abomination. One glance and you’d know that there is no way this thing, these monsters could be a product of nature.

The vile thing screeched at us and tried to run away, only to be stabbed in the back by a spear and die. We looked around and found no sight of the things. They escaped with no regard to their kin.

We kept guard for any signs from the freaks, while 8 of us dug a grave for our fallen brother using hand axes, tubers and their hands.

What were they? What could they be? For now, I’ll call them the “Karza”, which means Abnormals. At least until I figure out an appropriate name.

After the burial, we kept moving forward to get out of this damned place. We continued walking under the rain with no regard to time, but then it became dusk and everyone was tired. We managed to find a clearing, which we used as a camp. 5 of us kept guard, while the others gathered leaves and sticks to make some form of wind breaker to protect us from the cold winds and the rain.

After a few hours, we went to sleep while huddling together for warmth. My mother kept me by her side at all times. I thought it was foolish not to place some guards, but everyone was so tired and they never had a reason to before.

Until midnight that is. The karza tried to perform a night attack, but they had a major disadvantage. They weren’t silent, and Our ears weren’t just for show.

When they came close, everyone rose up, from the children to the elderly, and we attacked them instead.

The adults threw their spears at them and then charged ahead, armed with their stone axes in hand. Even we children threw rocks at them. In this battle, I figured out their character. The karza are, despite their small size, strong enough to wield a weapon double their size, cunning enough to perform night attacks and ambushes, ruthless enough to abandon their kin without a second thought, but they’re extremely cowardly and divided.

They were double our numbers, but all it took was for their sneak attack to fail and the death of 10 of their kin to send them running. We chased after them and managed to wipe out another 12 of the foul things.

After the attack, someone tried to cut one of the dead bodies to eat it. Guessing from the smell of the meat, the look on his face, and the fact that he looked like he was going to puke. The meat was worse than I thought. Then we went back to the wind breaker to resume our nap.

---

In the morning, it was still raining, but we resumed our march and headed further inside the forest. There’s something that’s disturbing me. The further we go in, the less sounds we hear. In the beginning you could hear birds chirping and the sounds of other lifeforms, but as we headed deeper into the forest everything became quiet.

As the sounds almost completely disappeared, everyone was on edge, the experienced ones kept their eyes out for any signs of danger. Even they knew that things are weird and something is amiss.

Then I focused and felt it, a high concentration of magic. This’s not good… Hmm? If I can use magic why didn’t I use it before? that’s because of 2 reasons:

To keep it a secret. I don’t know how they’ll react if I display my magic. They may kneel and worship me as their messiah which is annoying, or they may bash my head with a rock thinking I’m some monster, which is even more annoying. I can’t use it properly…

During my life among them, I tried to train my magic, but I couldn’t. The only thing I managed to accomplish by myself without any help after months and months of trying was to sense magical energy and move water.

Magic here was not the same as in my previous world, it was thicker and stronger, but it was also completely different. In my previous world, magic energy came in many different forms and had endless possibilities. It was limitless and free. Spells were only bound by words, intentions, thoughts and how much energy you had. But here? It is extremely different in nature. I once sneaked out to test it and I couldn’t create even a single fireball, nor one of any other element. The only thing I managed to do by myself was what I said above, and even that I could do only once at first. Then I figured it out.

A limited number of times. Magic in this world is not stored in the soul, it is stored in the body in miniscule amounts. It is absorbed from the outside and then converted on the inside to suit the body, and every time you use it, it surges through special veins either to the required muscles, bones or organs, such as the eyes for sensing magic, or through the pores of the skin to interact and mix with external magical energy, which allowed me after countless observations of how it moves through my body, to move water, JUST move water. I couldn’t even launch it 1 meter away from me at the beginning, since the energy ran out.

It turns out external use of magic in this world requires a medium, how do you control fire then!? And to make matters worse, there is the fucking limit. When you cast a spell, whether it is internal or external, it puts a strain on the energy veins, and overuse has an effect that depends on the strength of the spell. It can range from simple headaches to black outs. Trust me, I tested it myself.

On the bright side, the veins recover after some rest and they seem to get stronger every time you use them and you can thus store more energy.

I can now do 3 casts, but leaving it to time wasn’t how I reached this level. During one of my training sessions, I managed to improve my magic sight and was able to see energy in colors.

I found out that every element has its own color, with the exception of internal and raw external energy, which are grey, until you use them, then they turn white in case of internal use and change color according to the element in case of external use, so I thought. What would happen if I change it internally to a different color? The result is that it turns to a lighter version of the color and amplifies the effect with less energy used. You can also convert partial amounts of energy and stack them without them interfering with each other, but it needs an entire day for them to revert back to grey, so you’re stuck with what you prepared beforehand.

Anyways, as I was saying, I felt a high concentration of energy. It was odd, it was not grey or any single color. It kept switching colors and it retained a hint of black at its center. It was wild and chaotic. I really don’t like this.

“Skreeee!”, We heard a screech, then the energy pulsed. And the screech gone silent. Everyone was afraid and they all had reason to.

We saw a ball of flesh with a melting Karza and a crow attached to it. We watched in horror as they mixed together and sunk into the ball. And then it pulsed and we stepped back.

We kept going back while keeping our eyes on the ball, and we saw what we didn’t want to see. The ball started peeling and from within a new creature came out. It had the main features of a Karza, except that its mouth was replaced by a beak and it had black feathers. So this is how they’re made.

Boom!

Thunder roared and lightning flashed as we stood there in silence… and then we ran. It only took that sight for us to run away. We ran to the east, hoping to get out of this forsaken place. As we ran we heard screeches throughout the woods and the Karza came after us.

We fought them off as we ran, but this time they did not retreat, they smelled our fear, and took this opportunity to enact vengeance for the previous night.

They kept chasing us as we ran, for hours and hours, dawn turned to dusk, then as we reached the edge of the forest, they stopped their pursuit, fearing of fighting us in the open fields, and they turned back.

As the pursuit was over, we fell on the ground due to exhaustion. In a few moments we realized that we lost 6 individuals in the forest. 4 adults and 2 children. Even without words to describe it, we all agreed to never return there, or walk through any grey forests again.

After a few hours of rest under the rain, 2 of us left in search of water and shelter, and they found both in the form a river and a nearby cave.

As we reached the river we drank some water and then we entered the cave, where we took shelter for the night.

---

Morning came and the storm was over.

This morning we decided to stay here for a while and most of the adults left to search for food, while a few were left to protect the cave and carve new tools.

As I planned before, I grabbed a sharp stone and started to carve on the walls. The other children and the toolmaker gathered around to see what I was doing.

At first the toolmaker was bemused, since he saw no point in carving on the walls, but as I continued carving the figure, he got more interested. I carved a mighty looking male Tagan. He had a long slim tail, 2 straight horns that challenged the heavens, and held a spear in his right hand and a hand axe in his left.

After I finished the carving, the toolmaker went to carve a figure on stone. It didn’t work so well, since it required more than a sharp rock and skills to carve such a thing.

So I gave him a hand, by giving him a hand axe and a large piece of wood. At first, he was confused, but he understood what I meant. Wood isn’t as strong or durable as stone, but it is an easier to use carving material.

He started carving the piece of wood, looking at the image on the wall and carving its features. Every time he made a mistake, he’d start over again, and again and again. Anyone who mocked his dedication became smaller in my eyes. When they started to ignore him and reduce his food for doing this instead of crafting more stone axes, I started giving him some of my own and so did the other children following my example.

After three days of hard work, he finally did it. A great statue was made. Well, as great as a wooden one made by a caveman would be. It was still quite simple, but compared to what is thought of people at this stage, it was a masterpiece ahead of its time. In my mind, the Tagan surpassed the Homo Erectus. Well, they’d truly surpass them if they manage to build rafts and discover fire in the near future.

The only thing I don’t like about the statue is that he changed its tail from a slim one resembling the one on the wall, to a big fat one. It’s no surprise, since unlike my real body where the tail is slim with a small bone tipped end, their tails are fat with what looked like a blunt spike at the end. Must be a vestigial feature from their ancestors. I realized in this life, we can last a long while without food. The tail must have evolved overtime to act as some sort of fat storage; in case we don’t find food for a long time. But seeing their hunting techniques and the abundance of food. It will lose its function and grow slimmer overtime.

“Awa.”, he said. That’s not a word I heard before.

I look at him confused and he said it again, while pointing at the statue. “Awa.”.

Huh, so he wants to name it Awa. So that means, I’m now Awa. The first named being by the Tagan.

Well, things look good enough. This is as much as I can do without teaching them about controlled fire. I’ll keep that for them to discover. I just need to make sure the others accept the statue, before I leave.

---

And that didn’t take long, after a few days, the toolmaker resumed making stone tools and everyone was curious about the statue. Some of the adults sated their interest, then ignored it. Others liked it and tried to make their own statues, and most of them failed, while those who succeeded now had cruder versions of the thing. And most, if not all of the children liked the Awa statue and some even left a few gifts like berries and nuts under it.

Well, looks like it’s time to leave. Wait, how do I even leave? Maybe if I did the opposite of the steps for reincarnation, I’d be able to do it. If it works, it works, if it doesn’t, I’ll have to live as one of them, until I grow old and die. How long do they live anyway?

I go to my mother and sleep on her lap. Just in case the kid blacks out when I leave. By the way, thanks for everything, mom. It was a good run.

I close my eyes and focus. It’s time to leave this body. Then I black out.

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