“A perished world, which begins, fifth life abounds, nix sin.” - Last word of the Second Divine Envoy

  The words Hugh's father spoke yesterday left his mind in turmoil. After walking around the village, asking about what everybody did in more detail, he spent all night restless, his mind turning through his previous life, even when he tried to push the thoughts down to sleep.

  How could he sleep?

  If what his father said was true, then a person really could control the elements. If people could control the elements, then, was the end of his last life really caused by somebody who could?

  That thought sent chills down his spine when he first came to that realization. Running away from the thought in his head, rejecting it outright. But no matter how many times he tried to think of anything else after that, it plagued his mind, consuming his thoughts and filling him with despair.

  His mind tumbled over and over, reliving the moment before the end of his last life. At first, it was the whole minute he relived in his mind. The terror-stricken mother, squeezing and cradling his four-year-old self. Almost a suffocating tightness wrapped around him, death's embrace that wouldn’t let go. The backdrop of loud shouts, faintly heard through the walls releasing the emotions of those around. The fear, anger, and bitterness in those voices cut through any barrier that had previously sheltered him in peace. Even the moment of annoyance he recalled feeling at his mother's initial smothering that scrunched his nose into her shoulder, and lungs breathless as she squeezed him tighter than ever before.

  The night waned on and Hughs focus shortened toward the end of that last minute until it was just the last couple seconds from when the voice spoke. The voice still echoed in his mind, “So. Be. It.” The simple, calm declaration to the end of that life sounded almost bored like it really didn’t matter and probably all those he had ever known in his short time there didn’t matter to somebody who could do that.

  The memory continued through everything becoming blindingly bright, and then to a weighted rapturous pain enveloping him but for an instant. Then, nothing.

  The only thing Hugh could recall giving a similar feeling was another memory of when he had burned himself on a fire in his first life. Except it wasn’t just part of his hand but everywhere at once.

  Was that fire?

  An all-consuming fire?

  He lay there, wide-eyed at the revelation and a thought occurred to him. Triggered by a recent memory of words his father had just spoken and mumbled to himself, “more agile than water, stronger than fire, harder than rocks, and faster than wind. Stronger than fire. STRONGER THAN FIRE.”

  It was at that moment, that he began to mentally dig himself out of the self-induced despair he had been in as he followed a new thought.

  If nobody was stronger than fire, then wouldn’t everybody soon kill each other in the blessed lands?

  Hugh didn’t want to be subject to that again as the idea began to take root. He would become one of those people. While Hugh had no idea how to achieve that goal of being stronger than fire, he felt like he knew it was possible. He just had to find out how to do it. The last few hours of the night were now filled with excitement at the idea that he might be able to stand at that level.

  -

  Rays of light from the sun shone through the window to land on Hugh's face. He was so tired after staying up late lost in his thoughts, but the day wouldn’t wait for him to catch up, and neither would his mother.

  Hughs mother standing at the door to his room called out, “Comon’ Hugh. It’s already late in the morning. Any longer and people will think you’ve come down with something and breakfast is already cold.”

  Hugh groaned and mumbled out a reply as he rolled back over. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore so he got up after letting his eyes adjust to the blinding light.

  Heading to the living room, he saw his father was still at the table and not working the fields. His mother sat by his side at the table as they were waiting so he knew there was going to be another discussion.

  Yando spoke first, “Have a seat son, and tell us what your thoughts are after asking around yesterday.”

  His mother looked at Yando and said, “At least wait until he’s done eating dear.” Turning to Hugh, she continued, “Go ahead and eat first and get the sleep out of your head.”

  Hugh knew there was no getting out of this as he trudged over and took his usual seat where there was an egg and a piece of bread at the table left for him.

  What followed was a long back and forth. Hugh shied away from taking any job in the village, rebutting that he didn’t want to do any of those things. His goal was firm in mind after last night, so he continued to bring back that he wanted to learn how to control fire.

  After ending the discussion in frustration on all sides, Yando left for the fields and Hugh's mother said, “We want you to live a long healthy life Hugh, and most people who practice magic end up dying young. If it wasn’t as dangerous, we would try to figure out a way for you to do what you want, but where we are, there is barely any ambient energy for you to even practice.”

  Attention now focused, Hugh said, “But I can still practice?”

  His mother let out a sigh, “Of course that is the only thing you hear from what I just said. Your father and I don’t have any specific methods on how to practice, but if you promise me to choose a mentor in the village, then I’ll tell you what I know about practicing with natural energy.”

  Hugh smiled widely for the first time today and hugged his mother while thanking her before running out the door and back to the village.

  In the house, his mother let out another long sigh and a worried look appeared on her face as she thought to herself. This child, I hope he grows out of it soon.

  Hugh was stoked about what his mother had said as he rushed out of the house. He just had to figure out what he wanted to do for now and find a way to leave to the blessed lands.

  Instead of going to any particular person to become a mentor, he ran to the other side of the village to find his friend, Gris.

  Passing the shoddy wooden structures, and quickly reaching another side of the little village, Hugh's thoughts tumbled. Hugh spotted Gris and slowed down his approach, losing a little of the excitement as he called out, “Gris!”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Gris was about a year younger than him and pudgy was the best overall description he could think of.

  Gris stood from where he was and walked the last couple steps to meet Hugh while scratching the back of his brown curly hair, “Did ya figure out what you wanted to do yet?”

  Hugh stopped short with a wide smile, “I know what I want to do, but it isn’t something here in the village.”

  Gris was pretty quick on the uptake and reasoned with what he knew. Speaking a little slowly as his mind caught up to what Hugh had just said, “So.. You want to be… a trader? Like Kino? He barely even talks to us though, how are you gunna get him to agree.”

  Hugh shook his head left and right, “No. Kino isn’t very friendly, and I don’t want to be like him. Plus, he always pushes too hard for deals that are worse than last time. I do want to leave though, so maybe a guard at first like the man who follows Kino around. But, I want to learn magic!”

  Gris looked at his friend for a moment, before asking, “Like the stories? That would be great but those are stories. Unless… “ Gris cracked a smile and filled his tone with a playful suspicion, “Did Kino’s guard show you some magic and you didn’t tell me!?”

  Hugh lightly punched Gris in the shoulder, “No! But… They’re not just stories. People really can do those things in stories, but just not here. We have to go to where other people learn magic.”

  Gris raised both his hands as if to calm Hugh down, “Alright, alright. But why wouldn’t we be able to do magic here too?”

  Hugh calmed down and leaned in. Almost conspiratorially and with a quiet voice he said, “There’s not enough magic here to start practicing so that’s why I am going to leave. Do you want to come with me? We could both learn and then not have to live in the middle of nowhere.” Hugh knew all too well Gris’s weakness when it came to being adventurous.

  Gris knew what Hugh was hinting at and matching his friend's volume he said, “You wanna go to Belford!”

  Hugh nodded and smiled lightly, “We have to start somewhere.”

  Gris was excited as he always wanted to go to Belford, the nearest town they knew of and it is where Kino is from.

  Seeing he had his friend hooked, Hugh continued, “We need a reason to go first.”

  Gris asked, “Why not just go? We can follow Kino when he leaves and since he has a guard, if anything happens, we can run over to him for protection.”

  Hugh thought that could work and said, “Let’s do it!”

  -

  Hugh and Gris had several weeks before Kino’s next visit and during that time, they had spent it preparing. Sneaking food to hide away in a pack mostly. They had to start over again at one point due to an animal getting into their stashed supplies, but Kino was leaving the next day and they were as ready as they could be.

  The morning came and Hugh had finished breakfast early. Giving his mother a hug before leaving, he said, “I’m going to hang out with Gris until his father is ready.”

  Leaving his little home, Hugh could not help but be more aware of the well-traveled dirt path as his steps brought him closer to his goal. Looking up, he saw the wood fence that was built when their closest neighbor cajoled Kino into bringing them chickens, though his father actually handles them.

  A little bit further down the makeshift path between houses, he looked to his left. The largest building in the village. Even compared to the building he remembers from his past lives, it was still pretty big. He had only been in it a couple of times though, and that was always in an area where you waited.

  Hugh thought that was an odd thing to waste a room on but after he asked his parents about it, their explanation convinced him otherwise. The other room he had been in was a little like a dining room, but eating was not done there. Their place is the only one in the village that had images hung on the walls, or paintings as Yando called them.

  Hugh wondered for a moment, do the houses on the blessed lands all have paintings and waiting rooms.

  Turning away, Hugh's steps carried him not to Gris’s place, but in a direction leading out of the village. Quickly, the path faded and each step fell on lightly padded ground. Although the land may not be called blessed, grass carpeted the light woods that surrounded the village.

  Soon, Hugh made his way through the area, climbing up when he needed to and finally down into a small ditch that was more rocky than its surroundings. That is where the foodstuff for the journey was being kept.

  Hugh reached into the smaller nook to pull the burlap sack everything was stashed in only to find the spot empty. Frowning, Hugh took a deep breath and looked around the area to see it there was any trace of what happened only to find clues wholly absent.

  Letting out a small yell in frustration, Hugh sat on a nearby rock as he thought, “What are we going to do now…”

  There was enough food in there for two weeks if we were careful. We even placed it so far away from the village that I know that none of them found it. Not even the hunters come this way because there are barely any animals.

  As he sat there, he pulled out the last small bit of bread he was sneaking away today and began nibbling on it.

  A few moments later Hugh’s head shot up to look into the surrounding trees as his thoughts were interrupted.

  A voice called out, “So the owner of this little stash is just a kid.”

  Hugh finally spotted two men approaching him by the end of the statement. Both wore similar clothes to him but theirs were notably dirty with a couple of holes that needed patching. The man who spoke was slightly leading the other, he had a placid smile on his face as he continued to get closer. Hugh’s eyes were not particularly down to their features, as the scar across the second person's cheek wasn’t anything he cared about, but the sack held by the man who spoke was.

  Hugh stood up as the man continued, “Now, what would a pipsqueak need so much food stashed fo,r way out here?”

  Word caught on Hugh's lips as he was about to chastise them to give it back. Like a gust of wind from hell that only he felt, the memory of being caught in his second life flashed through his mind. Spine-tingling in a moment of fear, the words in his mind remained unspoken.

  The man turned to his partner a little, “Do you think we would get anything if we turned his obvious theft into the nearby village?”

  Hugh felt the tension internally built up slacken a little at the words until the other man spoke, “No. They don’t have anything worth it. Let's just keep the food and lose the kid. I don’t know why we approached him anyway.”

  The man turned back to Hugh, “See kid, my friend doesn’t even think we should meet the one who stashed this food away for us. I have a different thought. I began to wonder when I saw you look for the sack. I asked myself...”

  The man's eyebrow raised as he looked up and away a little while gesturing with an open palm, “Why would a kid stash away so much food, especially this far away from the nearest village? Yeah, assumptions were made, but I’d take a guess that you have somewhere to go. Which leads me to why I even revealed myself to begin with.”

  Hughs thoughts raced, as his eyebrows rose in surprise that somebody who he had never met before guessed his intention. Finally, he managed out a meek, “Yes… I do…”

  The second man sighed at his partner's theatrics and crossed his arms to wait until he was done.

  The man in the lead's face changed to be more serious, “We can take you to a nearby town, and I even know of somebody who is willing to give you work…”

  Hugh thought he misheard as his attention focused on every word as the mans pause ended, “But you can only come along if you stay quiet and eat only what we give you. No questions, no whining, no slowing us down, and you must swear to do what we ask while we travel.”

  Hugh's brows creased as he thought about what was said. The conditions weren’t that bad as he would be protected somewhat, and there would even be somewhere for him to work once they got to town. He could cook a meal or two or whatever they needed on the way there, as long as he got there!

  Thinking like that, Hugh nodded, “I want to come along.”

  The man said, “You must swear it, or we’ll leave you behind. No questions, no whining, no slowing us down and while traveling, you will always do what we ask.”

  Taking a deep breath, Hugh stated, “I swear that I, Hugh Greenfield, will not ask questions, whine, slow you down, and do what is asked of me as we travel.”

  The man with a scar shook his head as he unfolded his arms and asked, “You done here now?”

  The other man smiled wide as he turned slightly to answer, “Just about.” Turning back he continued, “Now, Hugh. You can call me Jack, and my partner here is Koel. Take this.”

  Jack removed a bag he was carrying and handed it over to Hugh stating, “You’ll carry this, now follow us and remember what you have sworn.”

  Hugh was a little confused as the man named Jack handed him a different bag that was on his back before. Putting it on the same way, he slowly followed Jack and Koel further and further away, only turning back once a couple of hours later to give a silent apology to which Gris would never hear, only to see that he didn’t even recognize his surroundings anymore.