The Big Day

Udr woke up from a deep sleep very reluctantly. The dream had been good. He had had a successful hunt and had been surrounded by beautiful females upon his return. Or at least until the morning rays of sunshine had forced him awake, making him realise that he might have slept for too long.

His desire to continue sleeping vanished instantly when he remembered what day it was. Today was his 20th birthday. It was also the day he would depart for the Odros, a rite of passage and a tradition that his tribe had been following since time immemorial.

During the Odros the young aspirant were to survive outside the protection of the clan for at least a week. During that time, they had to successfully hunt one of the massive beasts living in the forest and bring it as trophy to the tribe.

"Oh man, I can't wait to get out. Everyone's faces would be so worth seeing were I to come back with a dragon!" Urd snickered quietly to himself.

By hunting alone the aspirant would prove their worth earning recognition as a brave. They would also become a full-fledged member of the tribe. The deadlier the prey, the more merit they would gather, giving them the chance to rise up faster in the hierarchy.

Udr swiftly stood up, shaking the stiffness from his limbs. The nights had been becoming colder and colder, signalling the coming of winter. Everyone else had already woken up to do their daily chores, leaving him alone in the hut.

Towering at a height of 2.6m, he was a sight to behold. A member of the otsone race, he had the appearance of a bear with pointed ears and a lengthy snout. His arms were longer than what you would expect from a bear and ended in 20cm gleaming black claws made for climbing and slashing.

Members of his race were usually a diverse range of colours, their coats ranging from light brown to black and grey. He stood out from the others for he was the only one with white fur and blood red eyes.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Udr stepped out of his hut. Before him unfolded an awe-inspiring scene. Located in a forest filled with colossal coniferous trees similar to redwoods was the tribe's camp.

A small settlement built high above the ground into tree canopies. Cozy wooden huts were built around gargantuan tree trunks, some carved into them, decorated with bones and weaved wooden ornaments. Massive branches used as bridges crossed from tree to tree.

A thick blanket of snow was covering everything the eye could see and people were already working, conjuring heat to warm the air around themselves and melt the snow.

He exhaled slowly, releasing the breath he had been holding in. "Hey! Good morning Ebjenn."

"Ah, morning Udr. Big day today, eh?"

"Yeah... Need any help?"

Ebjenn, a female with a light brown coat and a twinkle in her green eyes looked at him. Then she raised her lips in a mocking sneer that revealed her sharp fangs.

"Hah, you just go back and sleep. Doubt you're gonna get any out in the wilds, what with this snow and all. Besides, what help could you be when you can't even manage to conjure a bit of heat?"

Conjuring was an incredibly difficult act, in which one took in mana from the environment and used it to make changes to their surroundings. The otsone could normally do this at around 15 years of age, when their bodies matured enough to handle the flow of mana. At that point shaman Bhal would teach them the basics, like creating small amounts of water to drink, or heat to keep themselves warm.

Most weren't capable of anything more. The truly exceptional – who could better handle mana and really understood how to weave it to suit their purposes – would be taken in by the current shaman to train under them. Urd on the other hand, had never been able to manage even the simplest bit of conjuring.

"Ebjenn, if you don't shut up, I'll bring back dung flowers and hide them under your bunk!"

"Ha, I'd like to see you try."

Grumbling Urd continued on his way. And it's not like all hope was lost. After he had completed the trial a ritual would be held and te patron god of the otsone, Rang, would give them a blessing. At that point the brave would grow stronger and would unlock the ability to wield a small part of the thunder god's power.

That was consequently the reason why Urd could do nothing but endure Ebjenn's jabs. Being older than him, she had already gone through the trial and could easily kick his sorry ass.

Turning his attention back to the trial in an attempt to raise his mood again he started walking toward the shaman's home. He had seen his fair share of braves leaving for their trials, but one could never be too sure what kind of special rites went on behind the scenes.

The shaman resided in a natural cave carved into a sheer cliff, just on the outskirts of the village. At the cave's mouth were large totems made of reddish tree trunks. Just looking at the faces carved into them made him uncomfortable, but at the same time he felt an odd sense of reverence.

"Bhal, you there?"

From the depths of cave came curses followed by an ill-tempered voice. "And whaddya want kid?"

"I wanted to ask you some questions about the odros. And I'm NOT a kid."

"You haven't gone through the trial so as far as I'm concerned, you're still just a brat whose too curious for his own good."

"I'm as big as anyone else. Besides, some have even gone through the trials before their 20th birthday. And-"

In the back of the cave two blue lights ignited, stuffing Urds words back into his mouth.

"Yada yada, stop yapping and get in."

Stepping inside the cave, Urd found the old shaman sitting on a log holding a piece of bone. The fiery crone seemed to have shrunk from the last time they had met. But as soon as he stepped close, she threw the bone with extreme precision, hitting his eye and revealing that she was still as energetic as always.

"Look what ya did ya imbecile! The statue's ruined now!"

Indeed, she had been in the process of carving a statue closely resembling an otsone. On closer inspection it appeared to be the look alike of Udr, except the statue was missing its arm.

"Ya better go and get me a new bone to carve since ya ruined that one."

"Ow, sorry, sorry. But hey, what's with the bone? I thought that the statue's supposed to be wood, right?"

"On top of lacking proper manners like considerateness, it seems that you don't even use your eyes. The color of the statue's s'posed to match the fur of its model, but since there ain't white wood around here, I gotta use bone."

Wanting to avoid the ire of the shaman, Urd hurriedly scarpered away to find a similarly sized piece of bone. Since almost nothing was thrown away in the tribe, it took a lot longer than he had thought. When he returned, it was just before midday.

Hearing his footsteps, the shaman shouted "Urd, ya finally came? About time."

"Yep, sorry it took so long, I had a bit of trouble finding it but here's the requested bone."

The shaman was sitting inside the cave, with a beautiful and intricately detailed statue in front of her.

"And what am I to do with it? Ya took so long that were about to start soon and I had to do everything myself to get it ready. If today's anything to go by, ya better stick to the small prey like rabbits."

Too excited to care about the shaman's nasty comments, Urd practically jumped forward.

"Finally, I've been waiting for this all my life. Do I need to know anything? When can I go?"

"Calm down, yer squirming like a shocked snake. No, just try and not to trip over yer feet, I'll handle the rest. Now come here I gotta slather you up."

Taking a deep breath Udr adopted a somber and noble attitude and stepped forward. Bhal pulled out a bowl of indigo pigment and started painting markings on Urd's coat. As she was painting, she started lecturing him.

"Now this is so that Rang can see that yer an aspirant, ergo don't rub it off immediately. Not that you can do so easily."

Udr nodded silently, invoking a string of curses from Bhal.

"Don't move ya dunce or it'll get ruined. As I was saying, be careful out there. Better go after a stag or canine. Maybe even one of those oversized birds if you're stupid and ambitious enough, but don't go after draconids. That's a sure way to end yerself"

"But don't braves do so in stories? All the heroes have taken them down."

"Yea, they're stories boy, not life. Draconids here pose a problem to even large groups of braves, let alone a single aspirant who hasn't even received a blessing yet."

"But-"

"NO BUTS." Bhal snapped. In an almost inaudible whisper, she continued: "I don't want to see you dead."

In that moment Urd swore to himself that he would follow the old woman's advice. Not that he could even find one, since they were exceedingly rare even in their habitats, the mountains. More so in the forest where he was supposed to go.

The "Paw" as the tribesmen called it, was a large mountain bowl covered by a forest of massive evergreen aesis trees, some climbing as much as 200m to the sky.

As it were, the mountains were practically impossible to pass, and the tribesmen didn't remember how their kin had found their way to there. Even Bhal didn't know, though she remembered that their ancestors had escaped some sort of peril and ended up here.

"All done. Now let's get going."

On Udr's arms and back were detailed lines and tribal markings in blue. Under his eyes Bhal had pained bolts of lightning.

Bhal grabbed her staff along with the minifigure she had made and together they walked to the cave's entrance.

Walking on the snowy ground, it was obvious that tribesmen preferred the trees. There were no footprints in the snow, except on the edges of the camp where hunters had returned from their trips.

Realizing they were getting closer to the ritual site at the camp's border, Urd was starting to get nervous. He could hear all the people that had gathered before he even saw them.

Suddenly in front of him was big clearing filled to the brim. Everyone had gathered here, and only a small handful were left to keep guard. In the middle of the plaza there was a massive statue carved out of a dead aesis tree.

Carved out of the stump was a giant otsone. It was painted grey and dark blue, the same colours as the storm cloud it was depicted to be holding. Cobalt bolts of lightning were connecting the otsone and the cloud, with some coming out of its eyes. Above the cloud the tree continued upwards, grey and dead. With a diameter of over 20m and reaching the height of 140m, it was something to marvel at.

At the statue's foot were a lot of minifigures. All colors and sizes representing different otsone. There were also a couple, which looked like they were shattered.

His heart beating fast Urd followed the shaman in the most dignified way he could muster. Kneeling in front of the statue he suddenly felt very anxious. He had yearned for this moment for so long .

The shaman put the minifigure of Urd next to the others and started chanting something in a harmonious and hypnotizing note. Udr felt like he was in a dream, The world around him blurry as he stared at the ground. Everyone else joined the shaman in the chant, while he barely heard it.

After what felt at the same time like an eternity and only a couple of seconds the shaman gave him a signal while whispering almost imperceptibly.

"Good luck, kid."

Entranced, he stood up and walked towards the forest leaving the chanting behind.