Truth Behind The Veil

In a dense jungle bustling with wildlife, a young boy with handsome features lay upon a hammock high up a tree. The breeze rustled his hair lightly and the hammock swayed, waking him up from a deep slumber.

His eyes fluttered gently revealing a mesmerizing hazel color. His tanned face showed confusion as he gazed upon a sky littered with tree branches.

Scanning his surroundings, he found himself on a hammock set up on a tree of great size. 'Where am I? And why am I so high up?!'

All of a sudden Isaac spoke loudly, as he landed on a nearby branch, shaking the whole tree."Finally awake, Eli?"

"WOAH, careful! Is this thing even stable?!" Elias grabbed the sides of the hammock with as much strength his small stature could muster.

Looking down again, Elias flinched and pressed his back firmly to the back of the hammock.

From his makeshift cocoon, Elias asked his dad in fright "Where are we dad?"

Isaac looked at his son's silly behavior and cracked a small smile. However, reminded by the graveness of the situation, he sighed heavily and grabbed his son's attention. "Take a breath boy. I need you to calm down and listen closely."

Isaac looked at his son solemnly, he approached him, and began explaining their current situation. "Listen Eli, at the moment, we are an area called the jungle of wildlings. As to why we are here, well its for your protection. You are a smart kid, I'm sure you've noticed how we kept you inside the house most of the time, save for allowing you to hunt. The reason for that is because we have been hiding you from enemies that wish us harm. There is a rebellion in the Lyndell Empire, and the ones who started the rebellion are after us. In order to keep you safe and lose our pursuers, I took you here."

"Wait a minute! That still explains nothing, what does the Lyndell Empire have to do with us?! Besides, how did we even get here? The last thing I recall was being at home, and mom tapped my head with a blue staff, and then!…then I'm not sure". I grabbed his arm and cut him off, stopping him in his tracks.

Isaac clicked his tongue at his son's impatience and waited for him to quiet down. He held his son by his shoulder and called out to him slowly. "Calm down, I'll explain everything to you, just take a deep breath and listen carefully."

With a heavy sigh, Isaac adjusted his position on the branch and a somber look surfaced on his face. "Eli, your mother tried using divination magic, to discover and awaken your element, remember? Awakening your element caused an earthquake, among other... phenomenon to happen."

'Huh, I caused an earthquake? Is that normal?'

"During the divination, a God interfered and warned your mother that the enemies we were trying to hide you from, discovered our location. Even though we made an effort to keep you hidden all those years, we were discovered nonetheless. That is why we are hidden in a jungle... and why neither your mother nor Sophia are with us."

Isaac muttered the last part in a low voice, hoping his son would not catch on, yet he was unsuccessful.

"Where are they if not here?" Elias asked.

Isaac sighed and clenched the bridges of his nose tightly. "They stayed behind with Otso and Kyra to hold off our pursuers."

###

A bomb went off in my head, all that information was too much to handle. My mother, that kind woman whose eyes carried nothing but gentleness and love, was off fighting some armed men. And granny, that woman with her pale skin and grey hair she always wore in a tight bun, gave off such a strict and strong demeanor, but she is no warrior. Why the in the hell, did my father leave them behind and run away. The more I thought about it, the more I could feel my body burn up.

Unconsciously, Elias's body released a golden green hue, as Aeter circulated in his system. His body became heavy and filled with strength. The hammock creaked, and so did the tree he was on.

Looking at Elias engrossed in his own thoughts, Isaac stared in shock as a greenish golden energy enveloped his body and lit up his eyes. Elias's breathing became erratic and the tree beneath them twisted and compressed.

'I must teach him to control his emotion. It seems the boy inherited some of my berserker genes, this cannot do. Without control these genes are more a curse than blessing.'

Right when Isaac was stuck in his thoughts, Elias lunged at him without warning and grabbed his tunic with both hands.

"How could you!? Why did you run away like a coward!?"

I could not control myself, at some point I felt like I was a prisoner in my own body. I did not want to talk to him that way, I knew there as more to the story but I could not stop myself. Before this could go on further, I felt a stinging pain on my right cheek.

In shock, I slowly let go of his tunic and put a hand over my cheek while staring at my father wide eyed.

"Better?" he asked, concerned.

"Much better. I'm sorry, I, I didn't mean it."

"I know you did not. And before you ask me what's going on with you, everything will become clear to you in a moment."

Father sighed for the umpteenth time and began recounting all the information he hid from me.

For the next hour or so I sat there incomplete silence, as I listened to my father recount the events of the past ten years. Most of the stories he told me were unbelievable, he revealed information about the closest three people in my life that never once crossed my mind.

Apparently my mother is an S rank mage, one of the ranks not too far from the strength of gods and one of the strongest existences in the world. And yes Gods exist apparently.As if that was not mind blowing in itself, it turns out she is royalty in one of the strongest empires in our world, the Lyndell Empire.Granny Sophia on the other hand, was the royal head maid and a past master of whispers, some kind of espionage and assassination expert.

The rebellion in Lyndell was caused by many noble families and kingdoms under their rule, trying to overthrow the current royal family whom are matriarchal in nature. Before I could ask him why the rebellion started, he mentioned a very important detail that shook me greatly.

Each empire on the Acacia continent worships gods of the same nature, for example the Lyndell Empire worships gods and goddesses, whose divinities are shape them out to be nurturing, and part of the force of nature. The empire north of the Lyndell, called Adriam is an empire who worship gods whose divinities cause destruction outside of nature and the cycle of life. The gods the Adriam Empire worship, are gods who cause havoc upon mortals and other gods alike, for their own amusement.

The Adriam Empire controls a land with little resources, only relying on expeditions to the two other continents to feed its people and nurture its warriors. Taking advantage of the disappearance of the goddess Atharvana Bhadrakali, the Adriam Empire colluded with high ranking nobles within the Lyndell Empire with promises of power, in order to weaken it, and launch an attack claiming more land for itself.

I could not help but think internally about this world's peculiarity. 'It seems this world is heavily tied to Gods, and myth. I was always an avid reader of such category of history, I hope my meager knowledge can amount to something,'

My parents hid away as it was their only choice, afraid that the rebels would target me to get to them.

My father's background story was much less impressive, yet very troublesome for my future. My father is from a tribe that lives in the Lyndell Empire called the warriors of Kali. Apart from their amazing physiques and great compatibility with forests, and jungles, a minute percentage of the kali warriors possess a unique racial ability, called rage of Lyssa.

It is an ability that increases a warrior's magical and physical prowess in exchange for his rational mind. It is said that warriors who master that ability, are able remain sane and benefit from the physical and magical boosts they obtain. However, on the flip side, those who overuse the ability do not live past the age of twenty.

'Great, so my father is some kind of amazon warrior, whom I inherited berserker genes from, that could kill me, while my mother is some magic princess of the strongest empire and all her enemies are after me. It's not a big deal right? Right?'

###

Unconsciously, Elias held his temple frustratingly and pulled on his short brown hair while hyperventilating. A faint glow resurfaced in his eyes while the tree creaked and splinters broke off of the branches.

Isaac was quick to act and interrupt Elias's panic attack "Eli! Hey! Breathe! Breathe."

Slowly the glow receded and silence reigned again. Even the ever present animal noises in the forest all came to a halt.

Isaac patted his son's head comfortingly, and reassured him. "Elias, I know that you feel weak and scared, but know that strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle. For the next few years I will be training you to the best of my abilities. Although, your mother is a much better mage than I am, you will not find a better warrior to train you. Even better, in these terrains your father is invincible."

With a manic grin, Isaac gripped his son's shirt and threw him down the tree.

'What the hell?! He just threw me out of nowhere!'

Elias tumbled in the air and hit a few branches on his way down. With a heavy thud, he fell with his back facing the ground knocking all the air out of his lungs.

Groaning and sitting back up, he could no longer find Isaac anywhere in sight. All of a sudden a voice reached his ears. "Hunt yourself some dinner, then dismantle the game and cook it."

'What am I supposed to hunt? And how? I have nothing but my bare hands.' Elias groaned internally.

It was then, in the middle of the monologue that he discovered a simple steel ring wrapped around his right pointing finger.

'No way, could it be the most common item in fantasy? A dimensional ring?' Following the known narrative, Elias closed his eyes and tried to focus the energy that he's come to sense in the meditation sessions.

Slowly but surely, a faint stream of Aeter escape Elias's body and seeped into the ring. He waited barely a moment before a few items materialized on the ground in front. A bow and a quiver, a small hatchet and an envelope along with some leather braces and a weird glove appeared before him.

###

I was instantly attracted to the bow, it had a dark green color, blending in with the surrounding environment. It was a sleek recurve bow with dark steel, lining the edges and forming into a sharp end. Dark leather straps hugged the wooden body providing a better grip on the weapon and enhancing its beauty. The quiver was filled with runic patchwork, entrancing any all who chanced upon it.

The gloves were a dark green color, the same shade of green the bow had, however, they were bazar. They did not cover the palms or all the fingers, only three. Consequently they were the fingers I use to draw the arrow.

The bracers were nothing special, they were a sort of brown scaled leather, patched together that worked its way all up to my elbow ending in a triangle shape at both extremities.

The most remarkable items by far were the envelope and the hatchet. The hatchet was similar to the one I use when I hunt, yet I could feel it was much sharper and more resilient.

Finally, the last item I inspected was the envelope. It was a normal one, as far as envelopes go, yet it refused to open. Seeing that ripping it was not working, I tried one last trick up my sleeve, infusing Aeter.

Lo and behold it worked, well not entirely. When I infused my Aeter into the envelope, four words etched themselves onto the front of it; "when the time comes".