2 Ceremony 2

Chapter 2

Lysaria cautiously approached the river, not wanting a repeat of what had happened with the squirrels. She approached the stream and stared at the rushing water, the cool breeze felt wonderful in the warm sun. Her day was greatly improved by walking along the bank and slowly examining the bottom of the stream.

Lysaria finally caught movement and walked into the cold river approaching the fish. She was disappointed that the fish swam away from her every time she stepped. Why wasn't it easier to catch these things she thought. Lysaria noticed that the fish only moved when she stepped, maybe if she stood still it would swim next to her.

The cold water flowed around her legs and couldn't help but shiver, the water had been nice at first but the cool wind made her chilled. She dare not move the fish was slowly moving closer and all of her hard work would be a waste if she accidentally scared it now. Holding her spear point down and arms out she waited for the fish. She channelled her essence into the point of the stick and drove the point into the water.

Lysaria held onto the stick as the impaled fish tried desperately to swim away, the fish flapped its tail wildly covering her body in water from head to toe. She coughed out the water from her mouth and held on to The fish doing her best not to fall into the stream.

She felt bad for the poor fish, that was until a beautiful green essence flowed from the fish and enter her body. The fish slowly disappeared into the essence and was gone after only a few moments. Lysaria was entranced she hadn't expected essence to be this beautiful, the swirling essence caused her to feel warm and tingly even covered in water.

Lysaria was startled, she could see a vase in her vision, The vase was small with a very small portion filled with essence. Lysaria had been warned of this, the vase was her vessel, it was a representation of her soul granted to her by the arbitrator, once she filled the vessel she would be able to ascend. She was not pleased that the vessel only showed she had a pitiful 10 essence out of 1000.

Lysaria walked from the water shaking herself off, her long black hair fell in front of her face and dripped cold water down her back. "light take me!" getting wet in cold water sure was unpleasant. Sitting on a rock she let herself dry off for a few minutes until her vessel disappeared. The vessel must only appear when she received essence.

Standing to her feet, she picked up her wooden stick, the poor weapon was even more curved but it should still work. She followed the river looking for a calm section of water to hunt, that led to a pool. Lysaria walked into the pool and performed her new hunting method, She had to walk much further out and was into the water to her waist now.

She waited, and waited, and waited some more, the fish in the deeper water didn't stray from the current and she was beginning to regret walking in so deep. She had an idea, one of her books said fish love shiny things. Channelling a small amount of her essence she caused the tip of her stick to reflect light. Lysaria almost stepped back, a fish that was the size of her entire arm came out of hiding and started swimming in her direction.

Lysaria felt her essence quicken and rapidly flow, She did her best to stay still. The fish was so close only needing to swim a little more. Channelling more essence into the point of her spear Lysaria stabbed her spear just as the fish opened its mouth to take a bite.

The fish darted away easily dodging the stick. Lysaria glanced from the fish to the spear, she couldn't believe how fast the fish had moved. She looked up at the sky and gauged the day, the sun had travelled a noticeable distance across the sky since she had started. Lysaria walked a few feet from her previous spot and tried her new tactic again. She channelled essence into a small piece of fabric on her knee wanting to make the fish approach the knee and then she could attack the fish.

Lysaria focused on her breathing, It took all of her self control not to move, the big fish slowly approached, its long green body blending into the water. Waiting until the fish was right under her stick, she channelled essence into her weapon and aimed for the head of the fish. The fish didn't react in time and she hit her mark, she frantically held on to the spear. Unlike the first time, she had accurately speared her target and only had to hold on for a few moments before the fish stopped flapping around.

the essence of the fish flowed into her body, She walked from the water and shook out her arms. She had been holding that uncomfortable position for far too long and needed to stretch. Her vessel appeared in her vision, and she was surprised, She now had 25 essence. The amount of essence she got must be with how big or dangerous the enemy. Lysaria started her way further along the river, finding an area that looked deep she waded into the water.

Lysaria speared two more fish, the first fish gave five essence, the second fish only gave 1 essence. She decided that fishing must be getting too easy, the arbitrator must not want to reward her for something easy. At least now she had 31 essence, She told herself that wasn't so bad for most of the day. Lysaria walked along the river, she was soaked and was happy the late-day sun was hot on her skin.

She walked back towards the trees, all of her fishing along the river brought her closer towards the mountain. Lysaria wanted to find something that would give her more essence, She was startled when a coyote walked from the trees. She first thought the animal was a wolf, she couldn't help herself she ran at the coyote, the thought of essence was too good to pass up. The predator ran at her, she waited until the coyote jumped before channelling essence through her stick and stabbing the chest of the predator.

Lysaria felt her weapon pass through fur before she felt the gouging claws of the coyote. She cried out and tried to force the animal away, her arm leaked essence out of the gashes. Lysaria did her best to bear with the pain, she screamed when the coyote bit her arm and shook it viciously for a moment.

She wanted the pain to stop, she lay on her back with the coyote on top of her and channelled essence into her wooden stick. The coyote stopped moving with its mouth wrapped around her arm. She couldn't stop the glittering streams of green that fell from her eyes, She was relieved when the coyote dissolved and essence flowed into her body healing her wounds.

Lysaria couldn't stop holding her left arm, she couldn't help but remember the angel saying she would prefer to ring the bell than die. She now understood what the woman had meant, Holding her eyes shut she took long deep breaths trying to get the memory of the terrible pain from her mind.

Lysaria opened her eyes and smiled and couldn't believe it, the coyote had given her 30 essence. She now had 61 essence in her vessel and was that much closer to ascending. Forcing herself to her feet she pushed back the memory of pain, she only had two weeks to collect all of the essence to fill her vessel. Lysaria walked around the area, she snuck through the trees avoiding branches and leaves doing her best not to get found.

She found a coyote laying in the tall grass sleeping and enjoying the sunshine, doing her best to be sneaky Lysaria crept through the tall grass. She could see the fur on the animal rising and falling in a steady rhythm. Carefully placed each step she moved closer and closer, the animal's long ear flicked side to side. Lysaria held perfectly still until the coyote stopped moving. She stood over the animal and just couldn't bring herself to do it, she couldn't make herself hurt a defenceless animal.

Turning her back, Lysaria crept away, loosing balance she stepped on a small branch that cracked. She ran and only made it a few steps before she felt something slam into her from behind knocking her over.