1.The Kingdom of Spirits
The main thing was that 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 previous life.
– Interesting, – he said after a few more finger jabs at my body.
What exactly he found interesting in me at the moment was not very interesting. My head, or in my case its likeness, was filled with a lot of questions, although I was a little afraid to start a dialogue... I noticed that the "pressure" from the monkey would be even stronger than that of yesterday's acquaintances. But it seems that I came across a non-aggressive and very reasonable representative of the "local fauna".
I stirred and began to get up a little. All this time, he was staring at something in me intently, as if he was looking into the very essence of me, and it was a little unnerving.
- Hi, who are you? – I decided to stop our mutual staring and start a dialogue. Communicating by thoughts and emotions is getting easier and easier. It seems that this form of communication is inherent on some instinctive level in creatures like me. And still want to understand who I am...
At that moment, his narrowed eyes turned round from under bushy eyebrows, and his mouth opened with the letter O. A second later, he jumped several meters away from me.
- Are you reasonable?! – He shouted excitedly, starting to poke at me with his monkey finger.
- You too?! – I decided to keep up with him.
Calming down, he came close to me and began to sniff very actively. To be honest, it was strange, I was already taken aback for a while. Before I could really get angry, I heard a whole machine-gun burst of questions:
- Where are you from? Why don't I feel a single element in you? How did you become intelligent, being a lower spirit? – he started asking me questions that I didn't understand.
– Stop, stop, stop, let's answer my questions first, and then I'll answer yours, – I managed to say before he started asking more questions. - I'm here, you can say, for the first time... And, what's your name? Where are we? And what kind of creatures are we anyway?
- Great! My name is Wong, and I am the spirit of the tree baboon... The Supreme spirit in myalready seven hundred and thirty years! – He finished the sentence with pride. Judging by his continuously twitching tail, he wanted to know everything he could about me. Right here and now, but I decided to refrain.
For several hours, all I did was listen to all the incoming information from the talkative Wong. And little by little I began to understand exactly what kind of world I found myself in.
One of my theories has been confirmed – we are now in the spirit world. This place is not even fully understood by its indigenous inhabitants themselves. As Wong says, "You can walk down a familiar road, but end up in a completely different place".
There are two main types of spirits here - these are the spirits of darkness and chaos, and light with harmony. Only this does not mean that they can command darkness or light. No, it only indicates their further path of development, or the direction of their energy.
All spirits become little by little, but stronger and more intelligent as they live - this applies to both the first and the second. Their main difference is that light spirits are peaceful by nature. They see no reason for senseless violence. What for? After all, they are becoming more powerful and smarter as they comprehend themselves and the world around them. And also as the quality, density, and quantity of their energy increase.
Whereas dark spirits are more prone to chaos and destruction – they can become stronger from killing other spirits by absorbing their energy. This cannot but affect their already inadequate mind. After all, the spirits themselves are energy, that is why when absorbing someone else's energy, the spirit absorbs the essence of another spirit into itself, which greatly shakes their psyche.
It's not often you can meet an adequate dark spirit that won't attack you in the first few seconds. In fact, weak-willed dark spirits can rarely stop from such an easy way of becoming powerful. Mired in devouring their own kind, they are no longer just called dark spirits, but possessed.
As he said, it can be very difficult to determine which element the spirit belongs to. Sometimes you just don't see the outward signs of their direction. You don't feel which direction he or she belongs to. In addition, some spirits are adept at hiding their energy.
And according to Wong, there are a great many spirits. Both dark and light ones can be at least spirits of water, a cat, or even some inanimate object. But the main inhabitants of the Spirit Realm are still the spirits of the four elements: fire, water, earth and air. As well as the spirits of various animals with the addition of four elements, 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 almost indefinitely.
The spirits themselves can live indefinitely, but even the oldest spirits simply become uninterested in further existence. Such spirits simply disappear into the energy of the world. According to a new acquaintance, he became the highest, despite his young age by the standards of all spirits in general.
- What is the higher, lower spirit? – I asked in perplexity. It often slipped into his stories.
As it turned out, there is a gradation of spirits. All spirits are born inferior, of course, except for the great ones, who, as the spirits themselves remember, have always existed.
My friend, the leaf-head, turned out to be the same inferior spirit. Their main features are: the mind of a child of five to seven years old, low energy density and a small amount of it. They usually cannot control their element far from their body.
The next step is the average spirit: their energy is already more dense and the reserve of such spirits is several times larger than the lower ones, and their minds are more like human teenagers. They own their element much better, and are already consciously trying to know themselves, the world, as well as their abilities.
The higher ones are already the elite of spirits. They are not much different from the average person, more often in some matters they are even wiser. Some of them can transform into different creatures. All their energy parameters are several times better than average spirits, and the most important thing is the appearance of a source of their energy, that is why they do not need a well–saturated place with energy to replenish their reserve. They have enough energy actually produced for living even in a human world, where is much less energy. Higher spirits can use their element as they please. An understanding of the adjacent areas of the element begins to appear. Take the same element of water, further knowledge of it will give not just control of the liquid, but will already allow you to change its aggregate state.
Ancient spirits are almost the very concept of something definite. They appeared much later than the Great Spirits. The ancients are stronger than the higher ones, there are often some hitches, so it's better to go around them in a big arc, especially if you're not sure if it's dark or light. They may not be tied to a specific element, as well as be almost its embodiment. As an example, Wong took Tui and La, the Spirits of the Moon and Ocean, who, by the way, have not been seen on the spiritual plane for a long time.
Hearing familiar names, the memories of a cartoon about a boy with tattoos that I had once watched immediately burst into my head. Now I really see the similarity of the creatures inhabiting it and those I noticed in the animated series. It even made me feel much happier about this news. After all, if the story follows the same scenario here, I will be able to personally participate in these events!
I need to find a way into the human world as soon as possible, and most importantly, to become a human again. Of course, I can find advantages in living by the spirit, but being human is closer to me.
Meanwhile, Wong continued to enlighten me. The most powerful spirits are the Great Spirits — Rava and Vatu. As far as Wong knows, they have always fought only with each other – you could just leave them alone to move on with your life. Their parity lasted for centuries. From his mouth, it turns out that with the advent of the age of Avatars, the life of spirits has changed dramatically. The balance maintained during the struggle of the great spirits is gradually being destroyed.
During her lifetime on the spirit plane, Rava unknowingly supported and helped the appearance of light spirits, while Vatu took away excess dark energy from the dark ones. Now there are many times more dark spirits than light ones, and they have become much more aggressive.
As far as he knows, many millennia ago his relatives often feuded with people, and now they have to pacify dark spirits. On the material plane, most people no longer remember about spirits, after all, human life is short, as is their memory. But many spirits that were able to adapt in terms of humans began to mutate into various animals. Only a few exceptions had the strength to remain the same, such as dragons and spirits of a certain place, which passively fuel their existence.
When he finished his story, Wong started asking me about everything I know about myself. He has never seen a spirit like me in his life. Being an inferior, I already have at least a small but working source that generates a type of energy unknown to him. And being a reasonable inferior, in his opinion, is generally something beyond reality.
I did not tell him about my real origin. Still, I don't know him very well, even though he seems to be quite a reliable spirit. Maybe later, when I can trust him more.
When he didn't get any clear answers from me, he waved his hand, but he looked quite pleased with himself. Almost all the intelligent spirits he knows are very boring in his opinion. Every now and then they meditate or go about their business and ask him not to disturb them. And with those who can keep him company, he himself does not want to make contact, he thinks the have too many cockroaches in their head.
– Huh, what's your name? – he asked in embarrassment, rubbing the back of his head. I just remembered that he doesn't know my name.
I booted up for a few minutes myself, a lot of names came to mind, but I felt with every fiber of my soul that the time for a real name had not yet come.
- Hey, it's not a problem! I actually learned my name when I was already a higher one, and it somehow came by itself, probably you're just not ready yet, – Wong said, seeing my difficulty. – For now, I'll just call you a friend!
- Do you mind being my friend? – he asked excitedly.
Agreeing with him, I was struck once again by his sincere joy in simple communication. It was lonely for him without an interlocutor, since he was so happy about simple things in my understanding.
And I didn't mind 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. As it turned out, dark spirits have recently settled near the nearest reservoir, attacking the light ones under his protection.
In order to somehow help their smaller brothers, they recapture their territories from the dark ones, who strive to eat peaceful spirits, because not everyone is able to give a decent rebuff, some of them do not even have attacking abilities.
During the journey, he began to talk about the times when he was just beginning to realize himself and how he annoyed everyone with his questions. And most likely, the other spirits of the campaign just decided to give him a task to protect the spirits so that Wong 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. They looked like overgrown piranhas on Earth. There was a whole pack of them, led by an average spirit and a trio of lower ones.
– 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 became springy.
Obediently standing behind him, we began to approach. As the distance shortened, the spirits began to growl, taking reciprocal steps in our direction. Although the leader seems to feel that the monkey is a considerable danger to their lives.
Already almost approaching them, I began to feel their emotions – excitement prevailed there and just a huge feeling of hunger. It kept sounding in my head: "Food! Faster! Mine!". However, only the lower ones were shouting, the middle one was silent and was preparing to attack us.
The tension was building, when suddenly, the dark spirits jumped on us in a single burst. Undeterred, Wong increased his wooden staff by almost five meters, and in one blow killed three of the lower ones. Seeing such a quick reprisal, the average spirit slowed down a little, but still continued its desperate attack.
The spirit was already a meter away from us, when suddenly Wong tied his body with his elongated tail and simply flattened him into colorful particles of energy.
I didn't have time to really be surprised by such a quick massacre of the spirit, as most of the energy from the destroyed spirit, having flown around Wong, was absorbed into my body.
With the last bit of energy entering my body, pain flooded my mind. It felt like a nerve in his tooth had been touched, only my entire spiritual body was the focus of the pain.
- Oh, how is that? – I had time to hear from Wong, when the world went dark.