[ Back then nothing was impossible you could rise up from the lowest of places and seize everything you desired but the hard part was keeping it, but things weren’t as easy for us now as they are now mhmm I'm going to start from the day that started everything ]

...............

A vast endless rocky desert, no matter which direction you chose there was nothing but endless rocks and sand.

Avon was standing in the center of it all, this wasn't the first time that he'd been here nor was it the second but no matter how many times he came here it was always the same.

No sound, no wind, there wasn't ever any signs of life anywhere in this place but this time was different there was a woman stand to his left with her hand stretched out to him.

He'd been staring at her now for what felt like days now but he knew it's been a few seconds, it's always been like this like time had no authority here.

She was wearing a white tunic with a gold open collar necklace in this place, without any wind, her black kinky curly hair and tunic were swaying ever so gently but that wasn't what drew his attention it was the loving motherly smile that she had on her face.

After few seconds he'd already placed his hand on hers, her hand were cool almost cold which was a welcome relief from the sun that had been beaming down on him like it had a vendetta against him before he knew it he was already in her embrace but she still had that smile while she patted his head.

"Avon"

He looked up at the woman slightly taken aback but she was still smiling.

"Wake up you lazy bastard!"

Still, her mouth didn't move it was still the same smile as before but he could hear the voice as clear as day and it sounded very familiar.

"Mo-"

A splitting pain came from his side causing all the air to escape from his lungs leaving him unable to finish his sentence.

The pain had dragged him out of his dream state and completely woke him up, what greeted him was the angry face of a short woman in a raggedy nightgown that beggars wouldn't want.

"Little bastard weren't you supposed to get up early to go into the forest to get wood for the construction of the chiefs house mhmmmm"

For the entire time, she was talking she hadn't taken her foot off his side even applying pressure and twisting it while she spoke.

"Ah, that was today? I forgot but I'll get going right now"

All he could do was feign ignorance and slip from under his mothers heil and run to the 'bathroom'.

The house didn't have a proper bathroom all that was there was a container with water and a shabby piece of fabric that could be used for privacy, in fact, their house didn't really have any rooms it was just one rectangular space with each of them taking one of the corners as a bedroom.

The beds were just two pieces of logs put together with some hay and other soft materials on it while they used giant tree leaves as covers, the kitchen had taken up another corner but all it consisted of was just fire coal on the ground surrounded by rocks with two pieces of wood sticking out of the ground vertically on opposite sides, as for a dining room table there was none.

"Where do you think your going you lazy bastard! You're not going to use the water that a fetched yesterday to wash the steps! When you get to the river you can wash up there!"

Avon knew him mothers temper quite well so even though he towered over her standing at six foot two inches he had no choice but to change direction and to the ax leaning on the door hinge.

"Where are you going?!"

When she spoke her voice sounded like a deep growly.

"To the forest...."

"You haven’t even washed off the step and do you plan to leave the bed that you pissed for me to clean!?"

"Mom you know I sweat a lot wh-"

"Get.It.Done.Now"

Avon didn't have much of a choice all he could do was turn back to pick up the hay and other stuff that made up his bed then pick up the ax from the doorway and go behind his house and spread it out.

Behind the house was a small garden that had ground provisions, it was the same across the entire village, all the houses were made the same way except for the chiefs house and the temp, so although the description of their home made them sound poor they were in the same situation as everybody else.

"Avon you really have to stop pissing the bed, it makes me look bad"

Avon had just set out his bed on the ground and put some stones on it to stop it from blowing away when he heard a voice from the house next to his, the voice wasn't all that loud but it was loud enough for him to hear.

It was his childhood friend who had just spoken.

"Come on Conrí you know that's not what happened!"

Conrí was the same age as Avon but he was slightly taller both boys were medium built with well-defined muscles but unlike Avon who grew out his hair and caught it up in one Conrí's hair was basically none existent.

In term of skin tone, both boys were basically the same in fact everyone in the village basically had the same skin tone either slightly darker or slightly lighter.

"Avon did you piss the bed again!"

This time it was the lady to across from them but unlike when Conrí spoke for only him to hear she didn't she spoke for the whole village to hear.

Avon froze for a second before forcefully turning his head to look at the lady.

"Of course not auntie, it's just that I sweat a lot-"

"Of course he pissed his bed again! Oh, Alaric what sins have a committed to deserve a son who pisses his bed!"

When his mother heard the neighbor she quickly chimed in to kick him while he was down and just like that all the women in the village started on him.

"Come on Avon you can't still be wetting the bed my daughters already seven and she stopped a long time ago"

"Avon what's wrong with you your already sixteen!"

............

[ hahaha did you used to wet the bed and dad you grew up in a village? ]

[ yea and who's Conrí? how comes he never comes to visit us? ]

[ Grandma is kind of........uhmmm so that's grandma huh ]

His kids had started interrupting the story to ask questions or just to say whatever they liked but they didn't forget to also take some jabs at him.

[ So that's why you always constantly bother us to pee before bed you don't want your children to feel the SHAME you felt ]

Their father was completely left speechless.

[ Shut up! Do you want me to finish the story or not! ]

The twins immediately stopped talking but his teenage daughter wasn't going to let this chance slip past.

[ Touchy Touchy Touchy why are you so touchy-feely dad, we've all wet the bed before........just not till we were teenagers ]

The twins who were quite before immediately started laughing, their father couldn't do anything about it all he could do was with a gloomy expression.

[ That's it stories over, go to bed ]

When they heard that they all scrambled to grab their father who was already getting off the bed.

[ Alright dad we won't interrupt anymore! ]

[ and the sarcasm? ]

His attention was directed at his eldest daughter but contrary to what you might believe she didn't immediately answer in fact she looked like she was making a life and death decision. To be sarcastic or not to be sarcastic?.

[ I promise I will do it LESS ]

He knew that she wouldn't get a better offer from his daughter so all he could do was accept.

[ Fine, where was I? Oh right sweating- ]

[ Pissing ]

Even though she had just promised she still didn't let the opportunity slip by.

When he heard that he immediately stared at her while she, in turn, lowered her head.

[ sigh, this story is going to take longer than I thought ]

-:-

Once everyone had gotten tired of making fun of him, he and Conri left the village to go into the nameless forest behind it.

"Ugh, what kind of sins did I commit to deserve this!?"

On the entire journey, Avon had been complaining, it wasn't the first time that everyone had decided to make him into a laughing stock but he still hadn't gotten used to it.

Conrí could only force a smile while trying to soothe his friend.

"It can't be helped your already sixteen and yet you still haven't undergone Alaric's trail nor the naming ceremony, so of course they're going to make fun of you by Alaric's law your not man"

Alaric is the name of one of the gods the villagers worship, the villagers believed that when Alaric was still a young god he and another young goddess ran away into these mountains to get away from their families, while they were in the mountains they had a son and a daughter.

When their families found out they sent a massager to order their return but they didn’t listen so, their families descend on the mortal world to take away their children while as punishment they sealed the powers of the two children they had and trapped them in the mortal world.

If Alaric or the unknown goddess were to ever return to the mortal world their children and all their descendants would be killed erasing the entire lineage.

The people of this village believe that they are Alaric’s and that unknown goddess descendants.

At the age of sixteen, all the children whether girl or boy are required to stay in the temple to pray, once their prayers were answered a symbol would form on their skin which would represent that you're officially a man or woman.

Shortly after that, you'd be given a new name that you would be known by for the rest of your life.

"I know all that but it isn't my fault, every time I go to the temp he doesn't answer me"

Just talking about it was making both of them feel exhausted.

"Complaining about it won't do anything, you just need to do over the trial.......where almost there go get ready"

Before Avon could respond it started.

"Hey Conrí and the little kid are here"

With just that one remark all the men and women stopped working and started teasing him.

In terms of height, the women didn't lose to the men at all the shortest woman in the village was five feet seven inches and that was his mother but no one dared to tease her about it because of her nasty temper.

When it came to looks there was no comparing the men and the women very few of the men in the village could be considered average, everyone else would be considered handsome.

As for the women they could topple empires, they were all stunning beauties when coupled with the fact that they all had the aura of a warrior as well as the markings they'd receive when they passed Alaric's trial they were all beautiful.

There were about forty or so men and women in the area with axes in their hands, about a hundred or so trees had already been cut down by them.

"Hey kid come over here"

The voice that called him didn't have the happy go lucky tone that everyone else did so he immediately looked for the source.

"Coming, Al-Amir"

The person who called him was the village chiefs son as well as the strongest warrior in the village.

Irregardless of age or gender from the moment they could walk every one in the village knew was taught how to fight, they didn’t learn any particular techniques just how to make every single movement as deadly as possible.

"Since you were the last one here and the rest of us were here before the sun rose. We're going to go back to get something to eat, we only need about eight more trees you can manage that can't you?"

He might've phased it like a question but everyone knew it was an order.

It wasn't that Al-Amir and the others wanted to purposefully make things hard for him but until he passed Alarics trail he really was nothing but a child to everyone in the village.

"Sure I will do my best"

It wasn't impossible for Avon to refused but he still chooses to accept it because if he started complained that it was too hard and he couldn't do it he would be proving to everyone that he was a child who couldn't handle a simple task of chopping down some trees.

"Good, one you're finished here get some rest we’re going down the mountain to hunt for the festival"

With that settled everyone turned around and left including Conrí who just arrived with him, he looked especially happy waving Avon goodbye.

Once everyone cleared out of the area Avon immediately started feeling depressed, the trees that were needed for the chiefs house were your ordinary trees.

The trees in the forest like a lot of things in the surrounding mountains didn't have names because the villagers didn't put much importance on material things whether man-made or from nature unless it was related to Alaric it wasn't important.

The trees he needed to cut down might not be towering trees but they were thick it would take at least six of him to surround the trees.

"Faster I start faster ill finish"

Taking a few deep breaths he picked up the ax and got started.

Bang

Bang

Bang

The sound of the ax banging against the tree rang through the forest, it was the only thing that could be heard since there were no animals this close to the village.

Avon eventually got into a rhythm and eventually got lost in what he was doing.

In the blink of an eye, four hours had passed and two trees had already fallen.

His breathing had become completely ragged his entire body was drenched in sweat a small pool of sweat was even formed around his feet.

The muscles in his arms were pulsing like crazy, they hurt like hell too but he refused to stop he chose to walk over to the next tree with both his arms hanging from his shoulders like dead weight.

[ Wow you sure are determined, if only you've channeled that determination into not pissing the bed. ]

[ .... ]

The man didn't even nothing answering her he just continued the story.

Avon had already gotten bad into his groove from before completely ignoring the protests of his muscles but unlike before this time after about thirty minutes, he lost consciousness.

............

In his dream state

He'd turned into a six-foot egg with his two feet protruding from the bottom of his shell and one arm from the side.

There were no holes for his eyes he was just doing everything based on instinct.

He was running around the slight dark forest with a spear in his hand for some unknown reason but he felt a sense of dread but the fact that he was an egg didn't seem strange to him it felt normal.

Even though he was still six foot tall, in the forest he still felt extremely tiny like a regular egg.

Without any warning or any form of disturbance from the space around him two giant men appeared they were at least nine feet tall because he felt even smaller in front of them.

Both of them were dress in full white from head to toe, their lips were deep unnatural red.

At this time he'd already found a fallen tree to hide under but that didn't help much the men seemed to be able to sense him so within seconds of him hiding they flipped over the tree like it was a piece of paper but they didn't move to grab him instead,

They started jumping up and down around him letting out some exaggerated laughs for no apparent reason.

After a few seconds of that everything started to slow down and began to distort before it all disappeared, Avon was taking deep breaths like crazy he had no idea what was happening or how to stop it.

As soon as he regained his composure something else happened a man started descending from the sky, Avon didn't get a chance to see his face because before he knew it the man had already picked him up with one hand and ascended.

In the middle of the sky, the man started waving his free hand in a circular motion and a black hole formed Avon didn't get a chance to raise any objections before he knew they were above a city.

Everything was happening so fast that it was getting harder and harder for him to process things.

The buildings all looked strange to him, they were all many times larger than the largest house in the village, the top parts of the buildings all pointed up towards the sky with the topmost parts being extremely pointy.

Observing the people below he'd never seen such strange looking people before, none of them looked like him they all looked like they spent most of their time indoors avoiding the sun and barely ever set foot outside.

All of the people below looked extremely malnourished they weren't even half his size and they were all dressed very strange they wore metal as clothing and those men who didn't wear metal clothes were all dressed like women covered from head to toe.

When he wanted to switch his attention to something else he felt his body descending and fast.

The pointy top that was once far away was now getting closer and closer to him, in a few second he'd be dead but no matter how much he struggled he couldn't move no matter how much he tried he couldn't scream.

But it didn't seem like that was his fate a woman who looked just like the pale malnourished people below appeared out of thin air and gripped the man's skull.

When she did so a clear crisp cracking sound could be heard followed by blood pouring down his face, the woman just simply tossed the man aside before grabbing him by his hand.

Looking at the difference in their skin tone he couldn't help but smile.

Everything changed again.

This time he was standing in a pond surrounded by big luscious trees and colorful plants, all kinds of insects could be seen crawling around some of them he didn't recognize.

The woman who'd just saved him was sitting down on the outer edge of the pond staring at him.