2 1. The Kingdom of Spirits

I woke up reluctantly, but finally I was awakened by incomprehensible pokes in the body. When I opened my eyes, I definitely did not think that I would see a parody of Sun Wukong. Even as an ape, he was more human-like than any previously encountered life forms. Most importantly, he could talk. Not by transmitting thoughts through emotions, but in a simple and understandable language to me, although it looked more like a mixture of Oriental languages from a past life.

"Interesting," he said after a few more finger jabs into my body.

What exactly was interesting didn't bother me much at that moment, but I came across a non-aggressive and reasonable representative of the local fauna, so to speak.

I stirred and started to get up. All this time he was staring intently at something in me, as if looking into the very essence of me, it was a little unnerving.

- Hi, who are you? - I decided to stop our mutual staring and start a dialogue. Communicating your thoughts is getting easier and easier. It seems that this form of communication is laid down on an instinctive level in people like me.

At that moment, his narrowed eyes from under bushy eyebrows acquired a round look, and his mouth opened with the letter O. A second later, he already jumped away from me a few meters.

- You can talk?! - this monkey started shouting and pointing at me with his finger.

- You too?! - I decided to keep up with him.

Calming down, he came close to me and began to sniff me. Honestly, it was strange, I was already taken aback for a while. Without having time to be indignant , I heard him:

- Where are you from? Why don't I feel an element in you? How did you become intelligent being a lower spirit? - questions started pouring in from him.

- Stop, stop, stop, let's first explain to me where we are, who you are, who I am, and then I will answer your questions – I managed to say before he started asking new questions.

- OK, my name is Wong I am a baboon spirit, a supreme spirit already in his 730 years - he finished the sentence with pride. Judging by his continuously twitching tail, he wanted to find out about me right here and now, but decided to refrain.

For several hours, listening to all the incoming information from the talkative Wong, I began to understand what kind of world I found myself in.

As it turned out, we are now in the spirit world - even its inhabitants themselves do not fully understand this place. As Wong says, you can walk along an already familiar road, but eventually get to another place altogether.

There are two main types of spirits here, these are the spirits of darkness and chaos, and light and harmony, but this does not mean that these spirits command darkness or light, no, it means their path of development, or the direction of their energy. All spirits become small, but stronger and more intelligent as they live, this applies to both the first and the second. The main difference is that the light spirits themselves are peaceful by nature, do not see the point in senseless violence, they become stronger and smarter as they comprehend themselves or the world around them, as well as as the quality, density, and quantity of their energy increase.

While dark spirits are more prone to chaos and destruction, they can become stronger from killing spirits by absorbing their energy. This cannot but affect their so not very adequate mind, the spirits themselves are energy, that is, when absorbing someone else's energy, the spirit absorbs the essence of another spirit into itself, which shakes the psyche more. It is not often possible to meet an adequate dark spirit that will not immediately attack you. In essence, dark spirits who are not strong-willed rarely, when they can stop from an easy way of becoming powerful, they are no longer just dark spirits, but possessed.

As he said, it can be very difficult to determine what exactly the spirit is, if you do not see external signs of what it refers to, or do not feel its energy. And there are a great many different types of them, both dark and light can be at least a spirit of water, a cat or even some inanimate object. But the main inhabitants of the spirit plane are still the spirits of the four elements - fire, water, earth and air, as well as the spirits of various animals. Then there are many derivatives of spirits of these five types, such as, for example, the spirit of the stone badger, the spirit of nature if its energy is properly mixed with the energy of water and earth, and this list can be continued indefinitely.

The spirits themselves can live indefinitely, but already the oldest spirits are not interested in being, and they dissolve into the energy of the world. According to him, he became a higher spirit despite his young age by the standards of spirits.

- What is the higher, lower spirit? – I ask in perplexity, it often slipped into his stories.

There is a gradation of spirits, all spirits are born inferior, of course, except the great ones, those already remember the spirits have always been. My friend leaf head turned out to be the same inferior spirit. Their features are the mind of a 5-7-year-old child, a small energy density and a small amount of it, usually they cannot control their element far from their body. The next step is the average spirit, the energy itself is already more dense and the reserve of such spirits is several times larger than the lower ones, the mind already resembles a teenager more, owns its element much better, already consciously trying to know itself, the world, as well as its abilities.

Already the elite of spirits are the highest, not much different from the average person, more often in some matters even wiser, some can turn into different beings. All energy parameters are several times better than average spirits, and the most important thing is the appearance of a source of his energies, that is, he does not need a highly saturated place with energy to replenish his reserve, he has enough energy actually produced for living and in human terms. He can use his element as he pleases, and an understanding of the adjacent areas of the element is already beginning to appear, such as in water, this knowledge is not pure water, but in general a liquid as a whole, it is blood, clouds, even just dirt.

The ancient spirits are almost the very concept of something definite, they may have appeared a little later than the great spirits. Stronger than the higher ones, there are often some hiccups, so it's better to avoid them if you're not sure exactly what kind of spirit it is. They may not be attached to a certain element, as well as be almost its embodiment, this is how he knows Tui and La, the Spirits of the Moon and Ocean who have not been seen on the spiritual plane for a long time, or the Mother of Faces. At the mention of her, he turned a little pale.

And I repeated after him, at the same moment. I immediately remembered the cartoon about the Avatar, now I really see the similarity of the creatures inhabiting it and viewed in the animated series. It even became much more joyful from this news, yet if the story goes according to the script here, I will be able to participate in these events, and maybe even become like the main character with a harem. After all, there are too many TV series and books on all-powerful heroes with a bunch of girls in my memory. Only it is necessary to find a way into the world of people, and most importantly to become a man again, of course, in life you can find advantages in spirit, but being a man is closer to me.

The most powerful spirits are the great spirits of Rava and Vatu, as Wong knows, they have always fought only with each other, you could just leave them alone to live on in peace, their parity lasted for centuries. From his mouth it comes out that with the advent of the age of avatars, the life of spirits has changed, the balance maintained during the struggle of the great spirits is gradually being destroyed. Rava, while living on the plane of spirits, unconsciously supported and helped the appearance of light spirits, while Vatu took away excess dark energy from the dark ones. Now there are more dark spirits than light ones, and they have become much more aggressive. As he knows, spirits used to often be at enmity with people, and now they have to pacify dark spirits. On the material plane, most people no longer remember about spirits, human life is short, as is memory. But a lot of spirits that were able to adapt in terms of people began to mutate into various animals, and some had the strength to remain the same, like for example dragons and spirits of the place that passively feed their existence.

When he finished his story, Wong started asking me about everything I know about myself. In his life, he has not yet seen a purely neutral spirit, which has at least a small, but at the same time having a scanty amount of energy and with a small density. And to be at the same time a reasonable inferior in his opinion is unrealistic at all.

I didn't tell him about my origin, I don't think he should know it yet, yet I know him only a little, although he seems to be quite a friendly spirit.

Having failed to get clear answers from me, he waved his hand, but at the same time looked quite pleased. Almost all the intelligent spirits he knows are very boring in his opinion. Every now and then they either sleep, meditate or go about their business and ask him not to disturb. And with those who can keep him company, he himself does not want to make contact, he says too many cockroaches in their head. He can be understood by the standards of spirits, he is very young and still can't sit still.

- Eh-eh and what's your name? he asked, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, only remembering that he didn't know my name.

I myself booted up for a few minutes, a lot of names came to mind, but it was as if I felt in my soul that the time for a name had not yet come.

- Hey, it's not a problem, I generally learned my name already being the highest, and it somehow came, probably you're not ready yet - said Wong, seeing my difficulty - let's just call you a friend for now?!

- Do you mind being my friend? he asked excitedly.

Having agreed with him, I was amazed for the umpteenth time, his joy from simple communication, he was lonely without an interlocutor, since he was so happy with simple things in my understanding.

And I wasn't against his company, anyway, I'm safer with him, dark spirits won't threaten me. Seeing that I would be with him for the time being, his face took on a happy expression. As for the spirit, his facial expressions are too lively.

- All right, friend, let's go, I'll show you how strong I am, - he said, puffing out his chest with a wheel, just recently dark spirits settled at the nearest reservoir that attack the light ones under his protection.

In order to somehow help their smaller brethren, they recapture their territories from the dark ones that strive to eat peaceful spirits, not everyone is able to fight back, some do not even have attacking abilities.

Walking together, he began to talk about the times when he was just beginning to realize himself and how he bothered everyone with his questions. The other spirits of the campaign just decided to give him a task to protect the spirits so that he would finally get rid of them. And he is happy to help the defenseless.

After walking along a well-trodden path, we came to a small pond, where dark spirits of water settled, which looked like overgrown piranhas on earth. There was a whole flock of them, led by an average spirit and three of the lowest.

- Stand behind me, usually average spirits already know how to use different tricks – all this was said with a serious expression on his face, his whole appearance acquired some animal grace, and his step was springy.

Obediently standing behind him, we began to approach. As the distance shortened, the spirits began to growl and come closer. Although the leader still feels that the monkey is a danger to them.

Almost approaching them, I began to feel their emotions, there was excitement and just a huge feeling of hunger. It kept sounding in my head: "food, stronger, mine" from the lower ones, the middle one was silent and prepared an attack.

The tension was growing, as the dark spirits jumped on us in a single rush, Wong did not lose his head, increased his wooden staff by almost five meters, and in one blow killed the lower ones. Seeing such a quick reprisal, the average spirit slowed down a little, but still continued the attack. The spirit was already a meter away from us as Wong tied his body with his elongated tail and simply flattened it into multicolored particles of energy.

Not having time to be surprised by such a quick reprisal and the strength of a new friend, as most of the energy from the destroyed spirit flew around Wong absorbed into my body.

With the last particle that entered my body, the mind was flooded with pain, as when touching nerves in a tooth, only my whole spirit was the focus of it.

- Eh, how so? - I managed to hear from Wong how, I lost consciousness.