Once the awakening started in the swamp, nothing could stop it. Nothing could get in its way.

  The whirlpool began with a ripple—no wind, no movement, like a single drop of water hitting an ocean. The frogs fell silent. The cicadas, the crickets, even the buzzing of mosquitos all ceased. The wind seemed to pause, thick with humidity.

  The process altered everything, bringing life to the lifeless.

  Chaos ensued.

  The awakening began with the primary element; water.

  Far west, in the high basin of Valles Caldera, NM, the earth exhaled, breathing for the first time in a million years. At first, a mere tremor, one that wouldn’t register on the Richter scale, vibrated throughout the basin. Only the animals felt it. Elk lifted their heads from their early morning grazing, and birds took flight. A coyote stopped mid-chase, its hunger dissipating for the moment; the prey barely escaped death.

  Ancient lava shifted. Hot springs and sulphuric acid fumaroles heated to boiling, casting steam into the atmosphere. The obsidian veins running through the rock merged with blue energy veins, carving new paths slowly and methodically.

  Julie Esperanza, a ranger on patrol at the national park, found a few scorched patches of grass in perfect circles. She noticed new steam vents that hadn’t existed the day before blasting their hot gas into the atmosphere. Julie, now suspicious of a dormant volcano becoming active, inspected a local meadow. The tall browning grass swished with the late morning breeze, but no animals grazed in the once popular feeding ground.

  Julie’s body shivered, hair stood on end, and her gut stirred anxiously.

  She had no way of knowing, but she felt it in her core as magic stirred the fire lingering beneath the ancient volcano.

  In Sky Meadows, VA, the wind changed direction; simple shift that would have gone unnoticed by even highly trained meteorologists.

  Breezes coming from the west now whispered from the north. Fog unnaturally formed at midday. Clouds gathered at a central point in the sky. Birds moved from their nests or shifted course to avoid the unnatural weather patterns. Trees leaned ever so slightly in a slow, steady dance with the new wind. The forest animals stopped as if they were listening.

  Air experienced a new life unleashed from the steady weather patterns.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Deep in Mammoth Cavern, KY, the lights flickered and dimmed. Earth remembered its weight and its form.

  Several hikers felt a minor tremor. Campers shuddered in their tents and RVs.

  Rickey Thomas, interpretive ranger tour guide (Level 2), who should have been promoted at least to Chief of Interpretation or Park Manager (Level 5) because he knew way more than his current Park Manager, told his current group of ignorant tourists to keep calm and slowly make their way through the cave system.

  “I realize how inconvenient this is for everyone,” he said curtly, “but for your safety, we are ending your tour a little earlier than usual.”

  As he finished his sentence, a cauldron of bats flew from their perch as if startled by a gunshot. Thousands of various spiders and other crawlies evacuated their nests and hiding areas and made their way past the tourists. Several took pictures and videos on their phones, while some women, children and even some men squirmed and screamed.

  “Please put your phones up and exit the cavern.” Rickey tried to remain calm, but senseless people pissed him off so much.

  Further beneath the continent, the events stretched across two thousand miles. The planet gave up its hold on the mana it had kept imprisoned for thousands of years.

  The process took its time. It didn’t just suddenly erupt. It was as if the Earth reached in a deep, tectonic stretch, like a person would crack his or her back in a chiropractic release.

  Earth, once a magical place alive with magical beings and elemental harmony, awakened for the second time.

  The first time Earth awakened, God created a beautiful, peaceful paradise full of life. Then He created humans. He gave them free will. They crossed the line, overreached, and demanded divinity; to be like God himself.

  So, God acted. He used every ounce of power he had left, compressing the world’s mana into a single subterranean vault—beneath what would one day become American soil. In doing so, He displaced the water from the deeps and the firmament above, triggering a worldwide flood, drowning nearly all humankind.

  God’s divine will sealed the elemental forces away, buried beneath the stone, drowned in the swamps, trapped in the atmosphere, and covered by volcanic ash and obsidian.

  As God released his grip, magic felt free to re-create. Re-imagine. Evolve.

  Silence cannot last forever. One cannot restrain magical energy indefinitely.

  Mana had leaked in small amounts since the beginning of recorded history. Many legends were born during those accidents.

  Quetzalcoatl rose to power from a celestial mana flare and transformed into a feathered serpent deity, part wind, part fire.

  Arjuna emerged during the Kurukshetra war in India when a mana vortex opened beneath the battlefield. The exposure to raw energy enhanced Arjuna’s archery ability.

  Sun Wukong became the Monkey King when he absorbed power from a stone atop the Five Element Mountain, causing a chaotic rebellion across Chinese territories.

  J?rmungandr, a serpent born from a deep oceanic rift, destroyed ships exploring the North Atlantic Ocean. His growth resulted from unchecked mana absorption.

  The Native American Thunderbird manifested from a mana burst from the volcano in Yellowstone, WY. Its wings stirred storms, and its feathers hummed with lightning mana.

  Ammit, the Egyptian Devourer of the Dead, was a mana-infused chimera born of judgement—part crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus. She lurked at the edge of the afterlife, consuming the souls of the unworthy.

  Men of renown, heroes for the ages, creatures of the damned, monsters of the deep—all a small part of what mana can do once released.

  Now, nearly 4000 years later, Earth’s bindings have weakened, and the release of the mana is inevitable.

  The consequences would affect everyone.