3 A Legend is Born

In the 938th year of the planet Arkane, in the dead cold of a Sorelos night, the town of Skagi was mostly quiet. Although the Skagi Tavern had some folk celebrating. Magni Börsson was going to have a child! A child's birth was the perfect excuse to get stone-cold drunk.

Most of Magni's family and co-workers were waiting for him to arrive as he was the guest of honor tonight. His brother Olaf began to worry.

"Hmm, where is that big bastard Magni anyways? I'm already drinking my second pitcher of ale!"

Olaf Börsson ordered another pitcher and slapped his son on the back.

"Looks like the lad's just about ready as well! How are you hanging in there boy, you'll soon have a cousin! You'll have to show him the ropes ya know?"

"Come on, Dad, don't slap me so hard." The Boy's name was Hagar Olafsson, who was only 13 but was already 6 feet tall. Tonight was his first time out drinking with the men, and he was excited. Plus, his uncle Magni would be here soon.

"Ah, well time to break the seal, I'll be right back lads." Olaf headed outside to relieve himself, and just as he started to spell his name in the snow, a brilliant yellow and white light shined in the Northern sky, over by the Cela Down mountains.

"What in Ozen's name is that!?" Olaf exclaimed to himself as he ran inside.

As he had arrived back in the tavern and told everyone, they started to laugh.

"You've had a few too many pitchers of ale, my boy!" Bör Gormsson (Olaf and Magni's father) teased him.

"No, no! Come outside and see." Olaf insisted, "I've only had two pitchers so far!" Everyone laughed a little more as Skagi's townsfolk always took an opportunity to poke fun at each other.

The 30 or so people in the tavern headed outside to see what Olaf was talking about. Nothing was happening. Bör looked towards Olaf and smiled.

"Aren't you a little old to be telling tall tales, son." Bör and everyone else erupted in wild laughter when all of a sudden, an enormous blue explosion occurred right where the gold and white lights had been.

Shortly after, an intense shockwave blew everyone on their asses.

Bör was dumbfounded momentarily, "By Ozen's name, it must be the work of the gods!?" Everyone outside was stunned! They started to seriously doubt themselves until all the townsfolk were woken up and came out to join the crowd. Murmurs and whispers could be heard.

"Is this the work of Ozen?" said one lady, "By the glory of Ozen Raw!!!" proclaimed another.

Even the Jarl was outside in the crowd now. People were asking him questions but stopped and copied him when they saw he'd began to kneel in the snow towards the Cela Down mountains.

Over a thousand of them were praying in the snow and trembling in the cold.

Skagi was a profoundly religious town that believed in the Goddess Ozen Raw. And this was something straight out of the Holy texts themselves. Many of the miracles had involved massive explosions and feats of great magic.

Although magic and monsters existed in this world, their power paled in comparison to the gods.

It had been about 20 minutes since the blue blast. Faint tremors began to occur. The ground sounded like a cat purring at first. But it gradually became much more powerful.

Could a giant be headed this way!? Giants did exist in this world, generally, in the Arar Spire mountains (to the West). But that was over a thousand miles away. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The ground shook beneath everyone. The Jarl stood up and led everyone in a chant. More and more, they thought it had to be a Giant or even one of their mammoths. If it were either, this would be bad news. Even just one Giant would quickly eat 5-10 people and kill many more. Mammoths tended to be more destructive to buildings but wouldn't pass the chance to stomp some people.

"Oh, Allmighty Ozen, we are not worthy! Praise be to Ozen Raw!" they continued to chant even as the Earth continued to quake more intensely. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The Jarl fell over as the shaking continued. Now they could see a massive cloud of snow coming towards them at high speed. It began to slow down. They Continued to chant.

"Oh, Allmighty Ozen, we are not worthy! Praise be to Ozen Raw!" They screamed.

The quakes continued but were now at the pace of a man walking.

Everyone stood up and were shocked, that was a man! That was Magni? They froze in disbelief.

Magni was slowing down but kept walking past the crowd, heading towards his house.

The ground still cracked with each step he took.

He stopped in his front yard and collapsed. As the book hit the ground, one last tremor occurred, and it released the crowd from their trance.

Olaf Börsson called out and started running towards his brother. Bör and Hagar and all of Magni's family followed behind. As Olaf arrived, he repeated himself, "Magni! Magni! What's going on, are you okay!?"

Magni struggled to speak and was coughing up blood. "He shall ... be named... Mars..." As he coughed up more blood "...no last name...the... book...is his."

"Magni? MAGNI!!?" Olaf shook his brother and felt his pulse. It was very faint. Magni had aged ten years or more from when he saw him earlier today.

"Tell... Var... I love... her."

Olga came outside, holding a newborn baby boy. She placed his hand on the cover of the book. Both he and The Oak book briefly glowed. Everyone had gathered around and watched in awe.

Magni was filled with pride as he looked at his son. He spoke his final words, "Mars... you... are... blessed ...by Ozen.." and died as the happiest man on the planet.

__________________________________________________________________

Everything was black, the same as all those other times. But this time, he had been reborn as a baby boy.

Marston was rejoicing to himself. Free of the cloning fiasco, he figured he could just buy a new ship and head out to where his disaster had happened. But then Marston noticed everything looked low tech!? Was he in the middle ages or something?

Some ugly Old Woman in fancy clothes was holding him and babbling out words he could not understand. He heard some considerable commotion.

The woman brought him outside. It was deathly cold. All kinds of strange babbling were coming from a crowd of sturdy looking people. They had beards, and all seemed to be capable. The woman placed his hand upon the book, and something amazing happened. After the lights ended, Marston could understand everyone.

Everyone was screaming, Magni? They fell silent, and a man on the ground spoke, seemingly to me.

"Mars... you... are... blessed ...by Ozen.."

Was that my dad? Marston wondered what the hell was happening, but he figured he would etch these words in his heart.