1 Air

"Are the chickens on drugs? Why the hell do they sound like birds?"

Nathan opened his eyes, where a powerful light almost blinded him.

But something was wrong.

He's supposed to be in his room on the bottom bunk of a double bed.

Why is there a flashing light above?

Furthermore, it didn't look like a fluorescent bulb. It looked like the sun, but not quite.

In its center is a large black dot, in its edges forms a white outline with two tails that seems to trail away from the center.

After his eyes adapted to the light, he tried to peek once again to the weird sun and noticed a peculiar motion done by the lights.

The visible white light seems to be trying to escape a black hole.

"Is that the sun? Wait, why am I outside?"

Nathan felt a surge of panic.

In his youth, Nathan's upbringing got judged as weird by the other kids. Thus they rejected him. Him getting bullied turned him into an anxious timid boy.

Afterward, every little thing that happened brought him immense fright and panic.

Currently, surrounding him were green grass with patches of red and yellow flowers, there's also a boulder the size of a regular desk behind him.

Nathan was lying in the center of a stone formation. He shuddered at the thought as it looked like he was in a cultish shrine.

Further away, all he sees are trees that veils whatever is beyond its shade. The more he thought about it, the more panic he felt.

Nathan lived his entire life within the streets of an urban city. The only forest that he knew of is called the Amazon forest. Other than that, he was ignorant.

There were times when he and his friends wanted to camp out of town, but all their plans ended up as nothing but drafts.

Although there were plans, all he did was go to school, eat out, and play video games. Traveling was furthest in the list of things he wanted to do.

Fear gradually filled Nathan's eyes.

After pondering for a short while, he felt like last night was another night filled with defeats and memes trying to console his lagging brain.

He was even demoted back to gold from a diamond in the game called "League of Legends," where he fell on a losing streak due to depression.

Even his brother that usually sleeps with him in the same room is nowhere.

"I... I must be dreaming?" he muttered as he rubbed his forehead. "This is surely a dream, yes it's a dream, what can this fucking be except for a dream." He babbled.

Nathan was hysterical.

He had no clue about what's going on. His body kept trembling as his fingers kept scratching his arms. He continued murmuring that everything he's seeing was nothing more than a dream.

Hidden within the depths of Nathan's body, a small white light began to glow and moved upwards.

In the next moment, he felt his mind getting clearer and clearer. The more he breaths, the better he felt.

Once his mind entered a serene state, he fell into meditation, and a pair of words entered his mind.

Void State.

Once all Nathan's senses blacked out, the surrounding area began to glow as if fireflies woke up at night.

These particles began to move towards as Nathan began to absorb them.

Within his mind, his memories began to form a shape. While some were complete, some looked like damaged beyond repair.

Slowly, the glowing particles entered the broken ones. These became bright as if lighthouses beckoning for its missing parts to come.

The fragments flowed towards their respective spheres, and the broken spheres fixed itself.

When all the spheres were complete, Nathan recalled them as if it happened a few moments ago.

Every conversation he had. Every food he ate and its taste. Everything he ever read down to the punctuations. Everything he saw, he remembered.

After forming themselves, the spheres moved away to the side, creating space.

In the space, particles of light congregated and fused into one.

After a while, the large orb of light produced ten smaller lights. The lights left Nathan's mind and body.

As the orbs moved, space around it began to distort like a black hole as they absorb other particles in the air.

As time passed, these lights began to stabilize. Then they changed their paths and entered Nathan's fingers. One for each finger.

When all orbs of light disappeared, Nathan woke up. His eyes were gleaming with calmness.

With a clear mind, he looked around once again before standing up.

Questions began to form within his mind, such as where am I, what kind of place is this, who did this, and other things that occupied his mind.

These questions began to fade as Nathan suppressed them. No one would be able to answer them, and there was only nature around him.

Like a calling, a new thought formed in his mind.

"I need a drink. This is a forest, and I should try to look for a river." He thought.

The thought came from a video he saw long ago. It was about what to do when lost and stranded in a forest. He remembered every single detail in that video as if he watched it a few seconds ago.

Nathan turned his head towards the shadows within the depths of the forest. While the "sun" is up, it was morning, and compared to the sun he knew of, the light giving off by the weird sun is dimmer.

Due to this, the shadow accentuates the mysteriousness of the fog giving him an eerie feeling.

Filled with determination, he began to walk towards the forest.

When Nathan entered the forest, leaves flew towards a certain direction from where he was facing. It was as if the leaves are telling him where to go.

Nathan's state of mind is currently weak but also very calm. Accepting his instinct, he walked towards the direction of the gust.

Observing his surroundings, various trees of various sizes stood everywhere. Some were bearing fruits that looked like a purple pear. Some were golden berries the size of a watermelon.

No matter how hard he looked for it in his head, he did not find anything similar. Thus, he ignored them and moved on. He wasn't starving enough to try his luck and see if the fruits were poisonous.

After walking for a good 10 minutes, he began to think about his current predicament.

"Where am I?" kept ringing within Nathan's head. Sometimes he suppressed it. Other times he felt lost and think about it.

After exploring for a few more minutes, Nathan stopped and sat down on a tree with a large vine to take a breather. Looking back to where he came from, he realized that he couldn't find his way back.

The lights only restored his old memories. It never gave him eidetic memory.

*GRMMMM*

Nathan stupefied at the loud sound made by his stomach. Hunger is calling and thirst drying up his throat.

At this moment, his calm mind began to falter. Other suppressed emotions, such as worry and fear, began to appear again halting his steps.

Nathan began to heave, and his calm demeanor disappeared.

"Wh.. What? What is going on? Where am I going?" he spoke.

He's lost. He didn't know what to do.

*WHING*

Within the calm breathing of the trees, a weak whistle sounded out of Nathan's hand.

A small orb of white light came out from the pinky of his left hand.

Nathan peered towards the light and fell into a trance. A whisper in his ears resounded, beckoning him to control his breathing and enter a state of calmness.

He started controlling his breath was again entering the void state.

As time passed, instead of assimilating, the light began to weaken as if it was going to fade at any moment.

When the light completely dispersed. Nathan opened his eyes once again, his eyes showing calm. He finally realized what was happening to him. Every breath he took had a calming effect and revitalized his mind.

"The air here is really… something…" no matter how Nathan thought about it, he couldn't describe the air around him. Every breath he took rejuvenated and energized that even his eye bags began to go away.

A thought began to form in his mind. Nathan raised his right hand and began to sway his hands in the air.

The effects were so minute that without looking hard at the air around Nathan's hands, it was imperceptible. But with a closer inspection, ripples appeared as if someone was playing with water.

The effect surprised Nathan. He stuck out his tongue, trying to lick the air around him. But all he felt is the cool breeze drying his already parched throat.

He felt stupid for trying, though.

The drying of his throat woke him up from his thoughts. All he knew was that he needed to find something to drink as soon as possible. The weirdness of the air could wait for another time.

While walking, he controlled his breathing to stay calm as he knew that panicking won't help him right now. He also took note of the air around him, and realize something.

He was moving twice as fast as if the air is boosting him in every step he took. The distance he needed to travel got cut in half. His single step is equivalent to taking two.

"This… this should be good, right? It's not like it's pushing me around. It's that walking here is so much easier than on Earth."

Unbeknownst to him, the energy within his body is gushing out, commanding the air around him to help him move. To his current body, the stamina he's using is equal to running. But instead of stamina, the weird energy within him is being consumed. It was half stamina and half energy.

Another ten minutes passed, and Nathan rested on a boulder along the path that he took.

"The trees are getting scarce, and the air around is getting damper."

The sudden thought made him realize. He could sense the changes in the air down to its density.

"This… how am I sensing this…"

With a single glance, he could tell that the air around him is cooler and damp, but the changes were negligible.

On average, a human can sense changes once it reaches at least a 10% difference. For example, if the room cooled down from 25 degrees to 24 degrees, an average person won't be able to perceive it.

But Nathan could.

It was a minuscule change in temperature, but he could still sense it nonetheless.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to do this for the life of him, he began to doubt himself.

"Shit, am I still me?" He thought.

"Nothing I can do about it, I guess." He said as he closed his eyes and began to enter the void state.

This time, he went to the void state with his own will. It enabled him to see the changes within his mind.

There, hovering within the center of darkness, a peculiar object made of energy is resting. It didn't look solid, liquid, or gas. It looked like dust blown around in a sphere.

He could tell that this energy was never there before, but it's now part of him. Another thing is that the glow it's producing was weak to the point that it looked empty.

It didn't stay that way for long since Nathan is in the void state, particles in the air became attracted. It entered his body and filled the congregation of energy, intensifying its glow.

The effect astounded Nathan.

"This energy... it feels so... mystical."

He immediately opened his eyes and began to sway his right hand in the air.

This time he spoke in mind one word.

"Move."

His hand began to glow green as they became visible and moved towards the direction his hands moved.

He could also feel the movement of the energy within him go to his hands and exit there.

Nathan stopped and entered the void state. He wanted to observe the coagulated energy.

Before he woke up, the light was mild and stable, right now, it's dimmer in comparison.

He could pinpoint that it was 16% weaker compared to before.

He then remembered how his movements were faster without getting tired faster.

"This is so weird. How can I sense every minute changes within the air, but not even realize the effects around my body."

He then remembered a quote from the flash. For an outsider, he moves fast, but to him, everyone else is slow.

"Then what triggered it?" he thought, "is it because I wanted to move faster?"

He was spot on. But he couldn't confirm it.

"I guess I should keep going then."

He resumed his void state to restore the weird energy.

Once he felt like the glow of the energy is at its peak, he woke up.

"It hasn't been a day, but doing this has been as natural to me as breathing. Well, I guess it is breathing but still, not as focused and involved like how I used to do it."

With that thought, Nathan resumed his march.