19th June 2020 - Holly Springs National Park, Mississippi, United States

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” -Leon C. Megginson speaking paraphrasing Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species -1963 A.D

Erik woke to pain, he felt beaten and sore, with no knowledge of what had happened, ah no wait… he remembered he was on a airplane, then the world went white, and it crashed from the sky, he remembered a tree. He remembered fire holding Ceri, and reaching for the emergency release on the door behind them. He remembered fire, he’d lost his grip on her in the fire. He’d failed again.

Nothing made much sense it was all mixed up in his head, but he didn't really care, he hurt too much to care, he heard singing, a low humming sound like his mother used to sing to him, he slept.

When he woke again, he felt hands gently touching he face, rough calloused workers hands. He opened his eyes, he saw another blue box. Unsurprised he minimized it, and was then surprised he knew how to do so, he would have given it more thought, if not for the deer headed man staring at him from a couple of inches away, He would have screamed, but this was like the 12th most frightening thing thats happened to him in the last few days, so screaming seemed like too much effort.

When he paid attention he realized the man didn't have a head of a deer, but rather a deer headdress, like some old medicine man or shaman. He must have known what he was doing because Erik felt a whole lot better, after a few minutes the old man shuffled back and sat cross legged under a tree eyes closed in meditation, tiny yellow and blue blossoms drifting down in the slight morning breeze.

Erik pushed himself up into a sitting position, groaning slightly, he felt bruised and his muscles ached, and he was completely naked. A small wooden bowl of fouled bloody water an a red stained leather cloth within made it obvious he had been bathed recently. He looked around him, and saw a shadowy forested scene, short mossy grass covered the shaded area, and he could make out the sound of running water to his right, it was just the two of them here.

He then made a careful examination of himself, but found no wounds, though there seemed some soft of lumpy scar tissue along the left side of his face and neck, probably from the burns, the skin was still tender, Erik had seen burn wounds before, these felt weeks old.

He saw that next to the bowl, his uniform and underwear lay neatly folded along with his possessions though he couldn't find his shoes, he gingerly and carefully got dressed in them, then checked his cellphone, it was dead.

When he was finished he saw the headdress man looking at him, he couldn't tell how old he was, he looked young, about mid thirty's, but hard worked, like he’d worked on a ranch or farm all his life, weather beaten you might say, he was dressed in animal skins and brown cotton pants and was barefoot, he would have thought him probably some crazy hermit who lived out in the woods, but he’d seen too much weirdness in his life already most of it in the last 48 hours, for him to discount anything.

When he’d finished dressing, the old man was still looking at him, and Erik bowed low awkwardly and said “Thank you for your kindness.” he said in slow enunciated English, “Do you know where the other people from the plane are? Or where we are? I could probably walk to a road and flag down a truck, maybe get some help.”

Silence was his only response as he stared back at feral dark brown eyes looking back at him, he got the feeling that the look was not particularly friendly.

I was about to try again in Spanish, he did kind of have a dark haired Mexican look about him, when the headdress man looked up into the sky, and I followed his gaze, two black crows circled lazily in a morning thermal off in the distance, he fervently hoped the carrion birds weren't above the crash site.

Suddenly a dark figure dropped down from somewhere in a flash of light, crouching down its back toward Erik who startled had stepped back, and fallen on his ass muttering a expletive. Headdress man didn’t look ruffled at all and calmly looked down at the figure kneeling one knee before him.

“Greetings my Lord, my name is Kára, I am a messenger and warrior, and servant of the all-father whom has bidden me to answer your call, a geas is acknowledged, how may I serve?”

Erik realized the figure was a woman, dark red curls beneath a steel helmet, she worn a mix of leather and chain mail armour and carried a spear and small shield, beneath a dark black wool cloak.

The wind stirred, rustling the trees in the forest, a fox yipped in the distance and the piercing call of a hawk could be heard in the distance, the headdress man spoke.

“Greetings messenger, I have need of your service, a small debt is owed this mortal, for saving the life of one of mine, I have healed his wounds, and would now have him escorted from my lands, I bid you to arm him with knowledge and skill to survive the journey, though you may teach him only a single skill of his choice. Guide and safeguard his life, this protection is to last until first light of Lughnasadh at that time there will be no further debt between us, and he is advised to steer clear of my lands in future.”

When finished, the cool level stare looked, was almost murderous, and one of the mans hands was clutched tightly into a fist. I did not know what I had done to deserve this animosity, but I could tell when I was not welcome.

Kára did not rise from her deep bow, nor so much as raise her head, she did turn her head sideways a little and look at me though one bright green eye until she met my gaze. “Go, leave now. Walk west and do not stop before noon, I will find you.” She spoke quietly with some urgency in her voice. Her tone brooked no argument.

I turned around a hobbled a couple of paces away, then remembering I turned back, and bowed low to the headdress man again, saying simply “Thank you.”

There seemed to be the slightest acknowledgment, the smallest hint of a tilt to the giant antlers, then I spun away and continued my limping barefoot walk. I was not imagining it, There was genuine grateful relief in Kára eyes at that acknowledgment.

After about 40 minutes of walking, Erik was sure about one thing at least, he wasn't in Kansas anymore, The forest had started out as temperate woodland, and then merged into giant firs and sequoia trees, which had then changed again to flooded Mississippi lowland forest, with a mix of oak, hickory, pine, cypress and the mosquito's that frequented it, now it was merging into some kind of tropical rain-forest.

He’d picked up a fairly straight piece of red oak from a dead fall of dried wood, about one and a half times as tall as him, and carried it with him, it wasn't much of a weapon but he still felt better having it in his hands, because the animals in this forest were just odd.

There were flighty little colorful birds that flew about, that when putting on a burst of speed left a tell tale bluish after glow in the air, he’d seen a snake whose girth was thicker than his waist slide through a marshy bog, and he’d spotted a red fox with two tails, most disturbing of all he had stumbled upon a clearing with a nest of giant ground hogs in it, only to have a dozen of the little two foot tall creatures emerge carrying sharpened little sticks, and throwing pebbles at him that thwacked off him stinging angrily and threatening him with loud angry chattering sounds, he had beat a hasty retreat when that happened.

His survival training kicked in and he instinctively veered off the westerly direction he had been walking all morning, towards the sound of running water, he emerged from the forest, to a sandy and rocky stream that cut its way through the forest. After watching the stream and clearing for a time he had finally emerged from the forest and sat on a sunny rounded boulder, underneath the midday sky, and soaked his aching blistered feet into the cool running stream.

He glanced up when a shadow fell over him, Kára was standing with her shield and spear looking down at him.

“You will need to be more observant than that, if you wish to survive the forest.” She stated simply and sat down on another boulder a few paces away.

“Can you tell me what is going on.” he asked wearily.

“You are alone in a most dangerous forest, armed only with a stick, which you do not even bother to keep at your side, you're injured” she said, glancing at his raw bleeding feet. “Hungry and thirsty too, I’d wager.”

“Can you help me?” I asked, and looked to her forlornly.

“I am helping you, I have been tasked to answer your questions and keep you safe from some of the more dangerous creatures of the forest”. She answered matter-of-factly, touching a dagger at her hilt, and her spear. “Were I to coddle you from every harm and provide shelter, and food as well, I would be doing you a disservice mortal, if you can not provide for yourself amongst this bountiful forest, then there is little further use for my protection or your survival.”

She paused a moment and looked at him. “Hunger and thirst, are of course most excellent teachers.”

Bitch. She would make for one hell of a army Instructor, I thought idly.

I was really thirsty and the water running at my feet was crystal clear and inviting, but his survival instructors would have had him doing pushups until his arms fell off if he tried to drink that. You could get all sorts of water-bourne diseases and infections from the most pure crystal mountain springs, yet alone a tropical rain forest river, I really did not want to die, and I especially did not want to die while puking and shitting my pants.

I looked back at her and said, “okay, I think I got this.”

Walking over to where I’d left my stick, I emptied my pockets of all my possessions.

I had one leather wallet, filled with some coins and receipts and about a hundred and fifty in cash, one dead cellphone, one leather amulet from Khalil with a stone inside, one slightly used boarding pass and passport, a leather belt and metal buckle, one US army shirt, trousers and jacket, US Engineering corps lapel and pin and briefs dont forget the briefs.

I lamented at my mental list remebering that my service pistol and pocket knife were stowed in secure luggage so I only had what I was carrying in my pockets at the time the plane went down, I had no idea where my duffel, stored luggage or the plane for that matter was.

I wandered upstream for about 150 yards and collected some dried wood from the bank, left over from previous high flooding, and started making a pile of firewood.

When I had enough I started digging a fire pit with one of the pieces of wood.

“Can you tell me what happened to the plane, why did it crash?” I asked Kára.

“The ambient mana in the world grew sufficiently in strength to negate your technology. Magic and technology are anathema to each other, you generally find magical worlds and technological worlds but never both.” She answered.

“I read something about ambient mana, what is it?”

“Mana is the base energy that holds the universe together, it is the most abundant source of matter and energy, it can be manipulated by the will of even simple creatures such as plants and animals and of course sentients.” Erik's head spun wanting to disbelieve what he was hearing but unable to at the thought.

“When magic was released to your world, it started a cycle of events that reached a sufficient threshold to birth the system, but not enough mana to complete the job, so portions of mana poor regions were replaced by mana rich regions from, nearby or other similar locations on earth, or from elsewhere, creatures and people would have been transported as well, this forest for instance portions of it are not of this world, and the rocky mountains, in Colorado are now home to Lhasa formerly of Tibet.”

“The system, thats those blue boxes I keep seeing?”

“Yes partly, Mana tends to increase the potential of materials, objects, creatures and sentients, the fact that you all come from a former technological world, is probably why you view the system as a computer system or blue boxes as you say, but it is a magical informational system, meant to help allow a person to guide their progression, the system is not alive or sentient, it interacts uniquely to each as it is derived from your psyche.”

Erik had paused stuffing dried grass and leaves into his makeshift bundle of firewood lodged into his fire-pit, but her continued, then taking off his belt buckle, he struck it hard against a dry green piece of flint he had spotted. It took him a couple of tries but eventually the flint struck the steel at just the right angle to cause sparks to fly though the air, he held the bundle of dried grass, close to his face and gently blew on the sparks, it took a moment but soon smoke began to billow from the bundled he cradled and he kept blowing gently until a flame appeared, then he placed the flaming bundle amongst the dried wood.

Another blue box appeared but he minimized it again.

“Hold that thought just a moment” I said to myself running back over to the woods, then coming back to the fire, I had an arm load of banana leaf type leaves and began to weave and knot them into a bowl like shape it took me 20 minutes and a couple of attempts and half a dozen destroyed leaves before I finaly had a bowl shaped water tight weave, I dunked the whole thing inside the stream cleaning it out, then placeing it next to the now roaring fire I scooped out a couple of hot stones from within the fire that I had placed there, using two pieces of wood as makeshift tongs, one by one I dunked the stones into the bowl of water until it was steaming and bubbling over, then I placed it on the side to cool, and placed the rocks back in the fire.

I slowly sipped at my admittedly little sandy warm water, feeling better with each sip.

“Want some I asked, its clean!” I offered Kára.

Kára gave a tiny bow of her head in acquiescence at my minor victory, making clean drinking water.

Looking back at the minimized prompt I focused on it.

Gift of Prometheus:

Having shown you have the knowledge to create fire from nothing, your understand the power of controlling fire a little more.

+1 to your affinity with Fire

“Woah!” I shouted, a little startled.

Kára looked about for a minute, and after not spotting any charging Mongol hordes she than frowned and looked back at me, still staring into space.

“What is it?”

“I got a notification that I increased my affinity with fire, I have no idea what that means.” I added quickly.

“Oh really lets see your status” she said casually.

“Just will yourself to show your status to me, don't think about it, do it.”

So when I stopped thinking of how to do what she asked and just did it, another blue box appeared.

STATUS

Name: Erik Torston

Titles: N/A

Level: 1, 0% progress to next level

Race: Human

Humans are the youngest of the common races, and are the most short-lived. Humans are the most adaptable having a wide race of skills and affinities with no bonus to either.

Humans earn 4 attribute points each level, with no extra bonus.

Reputation: Neutral/ None Languages: Unknown STATSTICS

Health: 90/100 Mana: 100/100 Stamina: 100/100 Health Regen: 2 (3) pm Mana Regen: 3(6) pm Stamina Regen: 4 (5) pm STATUS EFFECTS

Slightly Dehydrated: -10% to Health regeneration, -10% to Concentration, -10% to Stamina regeneration

Blistered feet: -3 to Agility

ATTRIBUTES Strength: 10 Agility: 10 (7) Intelligence: 10 Vitality: 10 Dexterity: 10 Wisdom: 10 Endurance: 10 Perception: 10 Luck: 10 BASE MAGICAL AFFINITYS Air: 11 Water: 11 Earth: 10 Fire: 11 Life: 14 Death: 10 COMBINED MAGICAL AFFINITIYS Lightning: 11 Thunder: 11 SKILLS

Herb Lore: Level 1

Able to identify 1 type of ingredient, with hints of knowlege about any effects

Congratulations! You can tell the difference between a seed and a tree

TITLES Blessed By Mana: You have breathed in the very fires of creation, and supped from a wellspring of the most pure mana possible, Mana will respond to your will more readily, and infuse and strengthen your body, you will also be able to recover spent mana faster than before.

+5 to all base attributes

+3 extra attributes every level

+100% to mana regeneration

+10% to all base elemental affinity's

“Oh, is that all?” She asked?

“Yeah, its awesome right, most of these stats max out at level 10, but I got some at level 11 and 14! Fuck yeah!”

I was a little excited.

Kára looked at me in sympathy, “Those are your affinities to magic and are shown as a percentage out of a hundred” she said quietly, As if I was now the proud parent of the ugliest child on the planet.

“The only thing of worth you have is a single Title, also…”

The slap she gave me was so fast I didnt even see her move. I heard and felt the crack of her hand against my cheek and that knocked me ass over teakettle rolling several feet away in the sand, with my head ringing I got up to try and defend myself and stared at the new notification before me dizzly.

Erik received -10 blunt damage

You are disoriented -10% to dexterity & perception for 2 minutes

“Don't ever show your status or affinities to anyone, that you do not trust with your life.”