Happy Birthday!

"Spirits? Syr? Contractors?"

While waiting for his senses to return Kaiden tried to make sense of what exactly he was thrown into. Everything just felt like some kind of fairy tale or comic book that all his classmates keep talking about. Suddenly, even though he was more than unwilling to go along with such an annoying and frivolous God, Kaiden started to get excited at the thought of a new world with more knowledge and challenges to over come.

Taking a deep breath, Kaiden quickly collects himself and focused.

'Naturally, I need to plan out what I actually will be doing once I get there,' he thought.

'God mentioned that fun was the goal right? I don't believe for a second that there isn't something else going on, but fuck it. You know what they say: When in Rome, do as the Romans do!'

For the first time in years Kaiden was looking forward to what the future held and actually enjoying his new life. Who knew what he was going to experience? Adventures? Friends? Badass battles? Dare he even dream of it.... love?

'Nah. I don't even know how to talk to a girl, much less make moves on one!' he chuckled.

Mid-thought everything suddenly everything went dark and he could feel a gentle breeze on his face. Confused, Kaiden slowly opened his eyes and looked around.

He first noticed that he was laying down on a bed in a wooded room with a window open. The sun just started shining, bringing some more light into the room and letting him see more of what is around.

Sitting up on the bed to get a better view, he started to get a better feel for the room. It wasn't too large but left a good amount of walking room in between all the furniture and not be blocked by anything. His bed was in the center of the room against the back wall with the door being in the corner opposite to him.

There was a wardrobe to his left and a desk to his right in their own corners with the window being positioned close to the chair so it can be easily opened and closed while using it along with a medium sized chest with the name Kaiden engraved on it with a nightstand next to it close to the door.

As he goes to get up off the bed, it suddenly felt like he couldn't move his body as easily as before.

"Shit!" *THUD*

Just in time he was able change his position from slamming his face into the floor and knocking himself out to falling busting his ass instead.

'Why does everything feel so clunky and heavy??'

Managing to stand up through the pain, he remembered God's words. "Do you want to be reincarnated as a baby or a ten year old?"

"No way. I didn't really think he was going to do it!" Kaiden muttered to himself.

He looked back at the nightstand, saw a small hand-mirror and went to grab it.

"I don't know whether I should be happy or not..."

When he looked in the mirror, Kaiden immediately recognized that he looks exactly like his ten year old self back in his original world!

He was slightly disappointed since in all the conversations he overheard from his classmates about stories like whats happening to them, the main character almost always turns into some kind of handsome prince. But at least this will make the adjustment process a lot easier since he won't have to get used to a new face.

Putting the mirror down, he looks at the painting and drawings that cover the rest of the nightstand almost dropping one of them. Not only did he look similar to his younger self, his parents also looked the same but younger and healthier. That's right. Parents! In this world his mom was alive!

Barely managing to hold back tears, he noticed there were loud footsteps coming towards his room. After quickly pulling himself together, he tried to get back to his bed as quickly as he can.

As soon as he managed to get himself onto his bed, his door swung open revealing two people who screamed "Surprise!"

Kaiden sat there stunned for a second as he wasn't able to fully prepare himself for seeing his parents for the first time. He felt like the paintings didn't do them justice as they looked even better in real life!

'When was the last time I saw Mom and Dad so happy?' Kaiden thought to himself.

Without missing a beat after seeing his shocked face, his parents continued and said "Happy Birthday Kaiden!" with large smiles on their face.

Pulled out of his reverie, Kaiden just exclaimed with an equally big smile, "Mom! Dad!" and finally breaking into tears.

Believing they accidentally scared him, his parents started hugging him close and started sking if he was okay.

"I'm fine! I'm fine! Just happy to see you." he explained.

Taking his word for it, his parents finally let him go.

"Are you ready for your big day?" his dad asked.

"Big Day?" Kaiden questioned.

"Don't tell me you forgot!" said his mom "It's the first day you can try to awaken you're very own spirit!"

'That's right! My spirit!' he thought excitedly. "Of course I remember! I've been waiting for this for forever now!"

"Good! Now let me help you get dressed so we can eat breakfast, and then start making our way the forest behind the house!" his mom told him.

With his mother's help, Kaiden was quickly dressed and rushed down stairs to eat breakfast.

"Don't eat too fast or you will choke yourself to death before you can even try to meet your spirit!" his dad laughed.

"Jarold!" His mom scolded, "Don't scare him like that! You know how exciting it is to be able to bond with your own spirit."

"True. True. I can remember it like it was just yesterday!" responded his dad. "Do you remember everything you've learned up until now about spirits and how we bond with them?" he asked Kaiden.

"Uhhh," Kaiden said. Even though he could remember what God told him, he never mentioned the specifics so he acted like he had a hard time remembering.

"It's okay honey. Don't panic. I will explain it again for you since you father probably left out some details," his mom joked getting an embarrassed "Satra!" from his dad.

"Spirits are very mysterious and form naturally over time as a persons body absorbs more and more Syr into their body. The normal ways to gather syr rely on both meditation and eating animals and plants that naturally gather syr in their daily routine. However the spirit needs at least five to ten years of constant syr accumulation to awaken and the time it takes depends on how fast a person can gather the required amount of syr into their body and the spirit is often more powerful the faster it awakens. When the spirit is awakened and is bonded by giving it a name, the person then becomes a Contractor," his mom explained.

Kaiden quickly interrupted her asking, "How come you and dad sound so confident that I can awaken my spirit?"

"That is be cause we luckily live next to a forest that contains a good amount of spirit plants and magic animals contained with above average amounts of syr and we have been mixing in bits and pieces out of them we have gathered more and more as you grew up so you should have enough syr to awaken it. You just need to learn how to use it!" his mom replied patiently.

"Along with a bit of luck!" his dad shouted from the living room gaining a scowl from his mom.

"Anyway," his mom continued, "Using a meditation technique in an area with dense amounts of syr will help you sense the surrounding syr and gather any extra you need to awaken your spirit while also helping you direct all the necessary syr towards your abdomen and to the spirit's 'egg' to awaken it. When the spirit awakens it will create a Spirit Palace that only you and the spirit can enter and it is then when you will give it a name and form the bond needed to become a Contractor."

She continued before Kaiden could interrupt again and answered his question almost like she read his mind, "Meditation techniques are mostly unique to each individual as there is no strict way to do it. All you have to do is sit down and focus on drawing in the syr around you. Some people even hold certain poses with their hands and arms that come naturally to them believing that it helps focus syr better and faster. There are also rumored to be items made out of magic beast cores that can help with gathering syr but no one has ever seen one as it requires a high level Contractor to achieve and unfortunately there isn't one that lives nearby."

"Are there any more questions?" his mom asked.

"No ma'am!" Kaiden responded.

"Good because the rest can't be taught and only experienced," said his mom with a smile.

"Now then!" his dad said as everyone got up, "Let's get a move on to the forest and we can hopefully awaken your spirit!"