Sevastion roused, eyes still closed trying to remember the dream he’d had. It was a wild one, the edibles had really messed him up. He got robbed by a friend, shot by his own gun, died. He smiled in amusement and lifted his hands up to rub the sleep from his eyes. He placed both his palms on his face, finger on his forehead, and dragged them down, his thumb hitting a bumpy rash on his neck. “What the heck?” he touched it again; it wasn’t itchy or tender, but it felt so… familiar? He swore he’d felt something like this before. His face scrunched in thought trying to remember when he noticed what he was laying on, and where he was.
“How the fuck did I get outside??” His eyes widened in shock, and he rotated his head around to see if one of his friends had moved him as a joke. No, he was in a god damn forest, there aren’t any forests like this in South Florida. The trees were… “Wait a minute…” he breathed out, looking straight up at trees that easily scraped the clouds – some were piercing straight through them like a spear in flesh.
He fell back, breath coming and going in rapid intervals, eyes so wide they wide get stuck that way. “There aren’t any trees like this on Earth! Where the fuck am I?!” he shouted “Guys?? Anyone??”! He called for them again, this time more pleading than concerned. His hands pushed down on the needles that fell from the trees; they were huge, forearm length, and resembled brownish green pine needles but not as pointy. They were soft and had little hairs like spider legs.
As he was swiveling and checking his surroundings, he noticed his clothes were covered in dried blood, shorts ripped; he only had one slipper on for goodness’ sake. “What the?...” he started puzzling out loud. While he was thinking, Sev started to remember his dream in vivid detail.
He whipped his head to the side to look at his shoulder where he’d been shot in the dream. It would be the easiest one to see. His mouth went dry, there it was, a scarred over gunshot wound, pink skinned and shiny. His neck… he touched it, not a rash as he’d thought, a scar where a chunk of him had been blown off. His thought process shut off, he just blinked, rubbing the scar, mind racing but about so much he couldn’t focus on one single thing. It felt like his mind was just screaming.
“This… am I dead?” He stood up slowly, taking in his surroundings again, this time really looking at where he was. One of his favorite places to visit growing up was a park in California that had the tallest trees in the world, the Seqouia’s. The trees around him, though? Dwarfed those like branches to toothpicks. The coloring was almost the same, but the colors of these trees changed from lighter toward the base to a darker bark like color the higher up it went, were these trees... tanning?
The sky stabbing trees here had many more branches than the sequoias he was used to; you could probably climb up one of these pretty easily, if you could breathe in the stratosphere. “He told me you weren’t from this planet,” a grandfatherly voice toned “seeing as your eyes are about to pop out of their sockets. It would be a pretty good guess to say you don’t have trees this big on your planet”.
Sevastion closed his eyes and halfcocked his head like he'd heard something insane. He cleared his throat, turned, and practically shouted “On my PLANET?"! Apparently, he wasn't even worried about someone creeping up behind him in an area he’d never seen or heard of before. “What the hell does that mean?" he yelled, locking onto the man who spoke. Hunched over and tired looking, graying hair that had been a light shade of brown or dirty blonde before being taken over by age.
His eyes were full of life and a twinkle of curiosity as he spoke to Sevastion. He wore loose clothes in earthy tones, dark tan pants, worn down comfy looking black boots, and a forest green shirt with the sleeves rolled up showing two tattoos that stretched from his elbows down his forearms. There were strands ending on his hands and palms that hadn't faded like normal hand tattoos would. If someone had asked Sev he would say they looked badass. He shook his head and focused on the topic at hand, he really needed to stop spacing out so much.
Resolutely he returned to his previous question “What do you mean my planet?”. He unconsciously took a step back, not sure why, maybe it was just now starting to dawn on him that he was in an alien area... planet? and had no idea how he got there or if he was danger; or if he was even alive. One thought did bring him comfort, if he had to, he could outrun this old man. Even if he was out of shape and would run out of breath from a light jog, Sev was confident about that fact.
“It means you aren’t on your planet anymore.” The man said flatly, no hint of a joke.
“I.. ah, hmmm” Sev looked like he’d been slapped in the face, “but I died…” he pointed at his neck then lowered his hand and flipped his left palm flat. Like a scale, he put the fact he was dead on that hand, then he lifted the other hand and motioned his head to the right as he continued “now I’m not dead and I got some old guy telling me I'm on a different planet. Excuse me for being a little confused, buddy”.
“What’s a buddy?” the man asked, not waiting for Sev to finish the rant he looked to be starting.
“It's a way to say friend but it's kind of passive aggressively...aggresive?” he started waving a hand while he explained. “Wait what do you mean what’s a buddy, you’re like eighty years old, dude, you've never heard the word before”?
“DI-FF-ER-ENT planet, we don't have your invented slang terms here, you can tell me about them though”. He smiled at Sev warmly, a small hint of greed in his eyes.
“Where is here?!” Sev put his hands up as he yelled.
“Silva!” he said calmly. He watched Sev narrow his eyes.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"And what's Silva? Is it like a VR thing that holds me in stasis so they can... No Sev that doesn't exist... probably. Maybe"?
The old man sighed heavily and rolled his neck, “this is going to take longer than I thought”. He looked at Sevastion who now had his hands on his hips; the buy was looking around again, he looked thoughtful and impressed, no doubt some other weird idea going through his head. This will be annoying, but I'll get to learn about a new world, the old man thought to himself before the boy spoke again, using another word he didn't know.
“Did I get fucking Isekai’d?” Sev pondered aloud.
“Did you get what?…” the old man asked curiously. Then, thinking better of it, he turned to leave. “Never mind, come on let’s get out of here, I’m hungry.” Sevastion watched him walk and shouted at his back.
“Wa- hey, wait! Who are you?!”
“J’Ree” he yelled back. Sev made a face at the odd name.
“Ok, J’Ree,” he said it in a disbelieving tone, “how did you find me and what's Silva”?
“He told me you were here; he asked me to teach and train you, so I will. And it's the planet we're on”.
“Teach and train me?” Sev scratched his beard and started walking. “Who told you and how did he know?” he sped up to catch the old man, the needles feeling odd on his one uncovered foot, he hopped on one leg while he took off his other slipper.
“Freedom did”.
“Freedom?” Sev smiled at the joke, “You mean like freedom-freedom, the” Sev thought of the best way to describe it, “the idea of being free told you I’d be here”?
“No, not the idea of freedom, Freedom himself”. Sev concluded the guy was looney.
“Dude, what the fuck does that even mean?” snapping at the old man, Sev didn't want all the cryptic storybook bullshit. The old man stopped abruptly and looked at Sevastion.
“What does ‘dude’ mean? You keep saying it.” he asked innocently. Sev looked like he’d been slapped again.
“It’s like.. I don’t know, calling someone ‘guy’ or something”. J’Ree looked thoughtful and turned to walk again.
“Come on, dude.” J'ree said. Sev now looked like he’d been punched, and he couldn’t even see the shit eating grin on J’Ree’s face.
“Did, wait, are you fucking with me”?
“I don’t like men.” The old man stated flatly.
“No, not like that- AHH” Sev yelled in impotent fury “will you just tell me something?!” he pleaded.
“I’ll explain everything while we eat… we’re almost there so just walk and enjoy the view”. Sev took a deep breath and let it out angrily, starting a breathing technique he’d developed when he was in his prime sick-boy years.
It slowed and calmed him down, helped the nausea, focused him. This time it felt completely different than it usually does, it was like lightning, fecundity is gas form, his whole body felt like it was smiling. The air felt thicker, like invisible viscous gas. When he focused on the feeling of it entering his nostrils, he could feel the gas… splitting? Half, at least, what felt like half, filled his lungs fully as a normal breath would. The other half rushed up his nostrils and felt like it was sucked into his head, swirling around inside like water down a drain.
It made Sev jolt, he hadn’t felt this good in years. “Wow.” He whispered reverently. He took another breath, focusing on the feeling as he walked. He felt the swirling and tried to control it; he could sense something... a funnel? Somewhere the swirling gas wanted to go, so he led it there.
He didn’t remember anything after that, he only had impressions of the feelings and emotions his body had gone through. Pain. So much pain it knocked him out instantly. Before he lost consciousness, he had milliseconds to register what his body was feeling through the pure distress of it. His thoughts didn’t register pain they reacted to the state of immense shock his body was put under before the dark took over.
Under modern technology one would see his brain swelling and pushing up again his skull, pulsing in an odd way. Someone Eather-Bound from Silva would know that it was his Engine not processing the Eather he had pulled in, swelling the Engine and his brain in the process. It was completely fatal if a healer couldn't get to it quick enough.
This was usually caught early as children on Silva developed their Engines early in life, if they developed them at all. Healers were always kept close for an awakening of a child's Engine for this reason. Unknowingly, Sevastion had cultivated Eather, in such a massive quantity it almost popped his brain like a grape. This was impossible for someone who had never cultivated before let alone someone who had been on the planet for less than an hour.
If Sev were awake he would feel pathways in his body light up and radiate heat; it would feel like he was injecting the sun directly into his veins. His unconscious form screamed and his throat tore. The abnormal scream that poured from him sounded like multiple over lapping screams. His body seized, tearing muscles and tendons; it’s a blessing he couldn’t feel the pain.
J’Ree gawked at the boy, complete and utter astonishment clear on his face. There was an enormous rush of Eather, more than he’d seen pulled in by a single person since he was a part of the Hierophant Council. That cultivation technique the boy just used was on par with some of the strongest Engine users on Silva and he’d been conscious on this planet for less than a half hour. J’Ree had no idea where the boy learned a technique so insanely powerful, but he wanted to know. He needed to know. His face morphed into a maniacally greedy grin before it melted away and he rushed over to the form writhing on the ground.
The old man knelt and took in a deep breath that echoed through the trees like a whisper on the wind, his eyes started to glow a pale light green, and his hands began to glow with the same color light. He put his palms on Sevastion’s temples before closing his own eyes. “What is wrong with this Engine?” his face scrunched in disbelief. “It’s got holes in… it’s so underdeveloped… no wonder he hurt himself with that technique. That much Eather should’ve burst an Engine so young… no not young, the boy looks to be around thirty. No Eather on his planet, maybe”? The old man mused aloud as he pulled the Eather from Sevastion’s Engine.
He removed one hand when Sev stopped flailing and opened one of his eyelids. He saw the black orbs that were Sev’s eyes suck back into the abnormally dark brown irises leaving his normal eyes. “Going to have to stop him from doing that again until he’s ready. I guess I should get him into a bed, he’ll be out for a while”. He bent and picked up Sev surprisingly easy, cradling him like a damsel in distress as he walked down a worn forest path.
The path wasn’t overgrown but large plants and bushes crept onto the edges like waves on sand, the crunch of leaves muffled by the thick needles. It dumped out into a massive grass filled clearing surrounded by the towering trees. In the center of the clearing were a few buildings, a long barn-like structure that looked to be made of a dark gray wood. It had stacks on top with no smoke coming from them at the moment. A tall lodge, the main residence, and the third building was closer to a pavilion, it took up the most space, but it was basically just a roof. Inside the pavilion were hanging leathers, tables with tools, piles of leftover beast parts like tusks and bones, it resembled a butcher's shop mixed with a tannery.
