3 Chapter 3 - Dead Man Walking

"Stand up straight, so when our bubble makes contact you won't hurt yourself." Said Mai.

"Have you been controlling the direction we fall in this whole time?" Kaden asked.

"Yes, and you've been making it a bit hard to concentrate."

"Wow, you really are amazing."

Just like before she looked over her shoulder at him and got flustered for a second.

"This isn't anything to be impressed by." She replied.

"Everything you've shown me so far has impressed me."

"Any resident of the Land of Aestus could've showed you these things. I've done nothing special."

Kaden watched as her subtle smile disappeared from her face.

Nothing special huh? I've heard that before...

"Yanno, looking at it better now, I can't really call this place a city. It's more of an extensive village." Kaden exclaimed.

"I mentioned before that our land is the most connected to nature. We don't see the need to build particularly large structures or to defile our environment in any way."

As the bubble they were in came in contact with the ground, the water began to disperse into the grass around them. When they emerged from the water, everything finally became clear to Kaden.

"A village within a forest, inside of a cave, under a lake that's surrounded by mountains." Kaden stated. "Nice. So what's that light source in the distance? It can't be sunlight right?"

"It's an artificial sun created by one of the early deities that made the lands." Mai replied.

"Everything I've seen today seems like it came straight from the mind of J. R. R. Tolkien but that, what you just said, doesn't make any sense."

"Believe it or not stranger, but that's what happened." She replied walking ahead.

Without warning, water shot from the ground directly in front of Kaden. He stepped backwards as the raging torrent of water swiftly surrounded him and completely blocked off his sight of the area around him.

"Miss Aira, the insurgent has been captured." A man said after approaching her. "Are you okay Ms. Aira?"

"I'm fine! Release him, he isn't an insurgent!"

"He sports the colors of an Ignus warrior Ms. Aira, please do not be deceived by this man's words."

"The reason I brought him here is so that Elder Treya can validate his words for me. This man claims to not know how he appeared here and resides in a land that we've never heard of. I trust his claims, but Elder Treya will have the final say so release him Kenzo!"

With a stern expression on both of their faces, it was clear that both of them were firmly planted in their beliefs. However Kenzo wavered and released Kaden from the prison of water.

"Yanno I didn't find it strange that I wasn't wet before but now that I am, I'm a bit bothered." Kaden said as he was now drenched in water.

"Elder Aira was concerned something happened to you because you were late to return." Kenzo stated.

"Like I said I'm fine, I'm more than capable of handling myself." Mai answered.

"By the way your name is Mai Aira? I'm gonna end up calling you Maira."

"Watch how you speak." Kenzo said approaching Kaden.

"I can't physically watch how I speak without a mirror good sir."

"Stranger that's enough, let's go." Mai said walking away.

"I told you my name but you still call me 'stranger'. That's kind of rude." Kaden said as he took off his tracksuit jacket and tied it around his waste.

Kaden followed behind Mai, and Kenzo followed behind the both of them at a slight distance. Kenzo wore a full body dark blue and black suit with a dark blue jacket. He also carried what seemed to be a sword holder but there was no blade in it.

"Hmm, that guy's following us." Kaden whispered to Mai.

"Well, I guess you can say he's doing his job." She replied.

"This place has professional stalkers?"

After walking for a few minutes they came across the first populated area of the land. Adults and kids who were going on with there normal lives all stopped and stared the unfamiliar face wandering through their village.

"Did no one ever told you people that it's rude to stare." Kaden asked.

"It's not everyday they see someone come through here dressed in your colors." Mai replied.

"If all it takes for them to antagonize me is dressing in the wrong color, then this place isn't much different from where I'm from."

"Are you with the red faction in your homeland?"

"Oh no, I just like the color." Kaden replied. "What's your favorite color?"

"Blue."

"I don't know why I thought you'd say anything different."

The path they were on weaved its way through more of the village before heading uphill towards the Elders meeting place. The path uphill was covered overhead by white trees with bright orange leaves that slowly danced their way down onto the path.

"This place sure is beautiful." Kaden said softly to himself. "Didn't the swordless swordsman back there mentioned one of the Elders shared your last name?"

"That's my grandmother." Mai replied.

"Oh so you're like royalty essentially? Granddaughter of one of the village's matriarchs."

"If that's how you want to think of me then you wouldn't be wrong."

"Now it make sense why he's been following us." Kaden said pointing back at Kenzo. "He's your bodyguard."

"I wish he wouldn't follow me. I'm more than capable of handling myself."

"Yeah I can tell that much." Kaden replied.

"We're here." Mai stated as she stopped.

Kaden turned and realized that Kenzo had stopped following them a while ago. He stood halfway up the path facing downhill.

"Only a specific few have permission to come up here. Everyone else must be accompanied by someone who has permission."

"That someone for me is you right?" Kaden asked.

"Come on." She replied continuing to walk up.

As they came over the bend, the summit of the hill presented itself to them. The path continued into a hexagon shaped courtyard that contained a fountain at its center which appeared to contain water that was flowing upwards into a spiral. At each corner of the courtyard was a white seat. Sat in two of the seats were old women who were dressed in clothes that were predominantly white with blue trims.

"Sorry to be a disturbance." Mai said as she stood at attention and lowered her head.

"We were waiting for you Mai." One of the women said as she stood from her seat. "Sister Faye told us that a mysterious presence was sensed coming through the lake alongside yours. I assume that it's this young man here."

"Good afternoon." Kaden said as he smiled and waved.

"The colors you bare are very telling of the situation." The other lady said watching on.

"Are they really?" Kaden questioned.

"You're an Ignus refugee are you not?"

"Sorry mums but you're mistaken. I'm not from this world at all."

"Not from this world?" She asked looking over to the other Elder.

"Elder Aira, Elder Treya, I found this man trespassing on our lands in a red uniform however he denies any connection with Ignus. I brought him here to validate his words and to provide him assistance because it seems he may be a lost traveler."

"You made all those assumptions yourself." Kaden said softly.

"What's your name young man?" Elder Aira asked.

"Kaden Adams."

"Kaden, where are you from?"

"The country of America."

"I've never heard of such a place." Elder Treya stated.

"Yeah I figured that."

This is dumb. Kaden thought to himself. This isn't gonna get me anywhere.

"Step to the fountain young man." Elder Treya said.

"Huh? What for?"

"Tell me young man, what's the last thing you remember before coming here?" Treya asked while walking over to him.

"Um, well. I was with some friends of mine playing a game when, things got a bit heated between me and some other guys. To make a long story short, they ended up shooting both me and my close friend."

"But you're uninjured now." Mai stated.

"I realize that, but I'm being serious. I saw my own blood leak out around me. I thought I died."

"Thought?" Treya asked. "You did die."

"...what?"

"His story is the truth Mai." She said with a smile. "Young man may you please step up to the fountain."

Kaden gave a cautious look to Elder Treya before directing that same gaze towards the fountain. As he took his first steps toward the fountain, Elder Aira walked pass him and stood beside her grandchild. Kaden stood directly in front of the fountain and was looking up towards the top of it.

"Extend both of your hands and be calm." Treya said.

He peeked back at them before raising his hands to the fountain as if he were asking for hug. Suddenly the water began to glow, and the water at the top started to bend towards Kaden. It flowed towards him in a spiral before splitting into two streams, both of which engulfed one of his hands. The water crept up his arms before quickly flowing over his entire body. The Elders and Mai watched on as the water outlined Kaden's body and soon after, it began to react. As if it were boiling the water began to bubble and soon after, steam was released.

"No need for the concerned look Mai." Elder Aira said as she placed her hand on Mai's shoulder. "I promise you he's alright."

After a minute passed, the bubbles and steam stopped appearing. Some of the water began to pull away from his body creating a ball of water behind him about the same size as a fish bowl. The remaining water returned to the fountain, revealing Kaden's unconscious body. He then collapsed to the ground and Mai quickly rushed over to him.

"Don't worry Mai he'll be fine." Treya said as she walked over to the ball of water.

"What's that?" Mai asked.

"This here, contains just a miniscule amount of the essence in his body. The fact that he collapsed means he isn't use to essence leaving his body."

Treya reached her hand out and a small portion of the ball drained out into her hand.

"The normal person would have traces of life essence and whichever elemental essence dominates their blood. However this young man, has traces of all four elemental essences."

"What! How's that even possible?" Mai exclaimed.

"That's not even the most interesting part though. Sister Aira, this young man has no traces of life essence inside of him. He's very much a dead man."

"But... I don't understand." Mai said looking back to her grandmother.

"Mai, I'll inform you and him what's happened once he awakens." Aira told her. "This is a very rare occurrence that I've only witnessed twice before in my long life. This really is an interesting turn of events."

Twenty minutes passed before Kaden finally woke up. As he came to, he realized that he wasn't in the same place that he collapsed in. He was laying on sand and somebody was sat with their legs crossed right beside his head. He rose to a sitting position and noticed that it's Mai sitting beside him.

"You really have never used spiritual energy before." Mai said.

"Well all that stuff about essence and shit doesn't exist in my world."

"Language young man." Elder Aira said as she was sat on the other side of Mai.

"My bad mum I didn't notice you there." Kaden replied.

"So you're implying that it's okay if you said it and I wasn't here?"

"And show some respect, like you said she's one of the matriarchs of our village."

"Although I would like it if you started calling me 'granny' again instead of 'Elder Aira'." She stated with a smile.

"I was gonna ask about that." Kaden said.

"Don't!"

"She tends to get flustered whenever I talk about her childish tendencies."

"You know this but you do it anyway." Mai said softly.

"She boasts about you more than you think." Said Elder Treya.

Elder Treya was stood on a small sand stump in the middle of a pond. Kaden, Mai and Elder Aira were all sat by the edge of the same pond.

"So I've got several questions." Kaden exclaimed. "First, how do you know I wasn't lying back then?"

"Your heart rate didn't rise when you were answering me." Treya replied.

"Wait you could've..."

"I'm sure there's a lot you want to ask, but for right now we'll give you a short summary of what you may be experiencing." Elder Aira stated. "Firstly, I must explain the relationship between your world and ours, and how you might have ended up in this situation. You see, it was long believed that this realm we exist in is just one of many different realms."

As she spoke, Elder Treya manipulated water from the pond to create a visual representation of what was being said.

"These different realms can not be reached by physical means, but instead a spiritual form of transportation would be necessary. This is because these realms exist on top of each other on different physical plains."

Treya shaped the water into a pillar, divided into several different even parts.

"It is also believed that among these realms, exist the mythical lands we've come to know as heaven and hell."

It's crazy they think of heaven and hell as mythical while living in a world like this. Kaden thought.

"When one dies, their soul becomes detached from the restraints of a physical body, and is able to then traverse the different realms. The heaven realm or the hell realm would be the usual destinations of these lost souls, but very rarely they end up going to neither. Instead they materialize inside one of the other realms. We believe this is what happened to you Kaden."

"Wait, but if that's the case why do I have the exact same appearance as when I did back in my world?

"To be honest with you, I don't really know. Maybe your spirit took the form of what it last remembers looking like when it was last physical."

"So the reason he doesn't have any life essence is because he technically already lost his life." Mai stated.

"How often does something like this happen?" Kaden asked.

"This is an extremely rare occurrence that I've only seen twice before in my long life."

Which means the chances that Aaron also came to this world is very slim. Kaden thought to himself. Most likely he's actually gone... I'm sorry buddy.

"So Kaden being in the unique situation that you're in. What would you like to do next?" Treya asked.

"I guess I have to adjust to this world."

"Not necessarily. What if I told you that there may be a way for you to return to your home world."

"That's possible?!"

"It is, but the means of doing so is extremely difficult."

I left so much behind. So much I wanted to do, so much I wanted to see. So much I needed to apologize for. This world is amazing, but this isn't where I want to be.

"Tell me how to get back. I want to go home."

"Alright young man, prepare yourself, because the path you've just chosen is not an easy one." Elder Treya said to him.

"Nothing in life is easy."