1 Twice Awakened

'where am I?'

A series of muffled clinks resounded in his head

'what?'

The clinking sound increased its pace

'what the hell is that?!'

The noise is becoming more intense, the sound has become unbearable, waking him in a daze.

"Oh you're awake, care for some coffee?"

The strange man stopped stirring his cup and put down the spoon.

"Huh? Who are you?"

The questions slid out of his mouth his eyes immediately widened, his body automatically moved into a stance as he noticed the surroundings.

They're in space he can see heavenly bodies spanning across his field of vision.

He cupped his mouth checking for air then proceeded to looked at his feet he might fall so he didn't dare move.

"Don't be so tense, relax have some coffee, Its what you guys call Arabica"

As the mysterious man gestured to a set of table and chairs

"What.. what do you mean? Who are you? Why am I here? Answer me"

His instincts kicked in immediately making out this situation he's in, he knows that the person in front of him is someone he has to be cautious about.

His eyes darted everywhere analyzing the surroundings, thinking of an escape plan.

"Have you never seen a handsome god before? It seems you forgotten that you've died."

"What?"

Recollection of the event hit him, the moment of his death he remembers them clearly. The moment he got stabbed in the back by his partner while on a mission to assassinate a high profile individual. The mysterious man proceeded to talk.

"Where you are now is not really important. what's important is where you're going. I'm giving you another chance at life"

"Why me? Return me back, I have to kill that son of a b****"

The god acted like he didn't hear him as he sips his cup of coffee. The conversation doesn't really help with the gods leisure behavior, as if his guard is down but at the same time, it's not.

"In time you will, by the way, the world you are heading to is prosperous of magic, ruled by kings, where strength is authority, towering beasts roam the land and rather obscure phenomena... Enjoy!"

Without a moments notice a force immediately pulled his body, flying into the galaxies warping the light around him. The light creeping into his sights slowly till completely engulfed his vision.

Waking up as a baby in the arms of a tearful but smiling young woman lying in bed, while surrounded by a midwife and a nurse. He is still processing what just happened it was so fast that he hasn't had a chance to make sense of it all.

A rustle was heard outside, the door opened there was a lanky man about mid-twenties walked inside the bedroom panting and Rushed beside the bed.

"Have you decided on a name yet Sanda? Hello little one I'm your father"

The man openly asked, while playing with the baby's hand.

"Let's name him Sage"

The proud look is seen all over the man's face, he took the baby in his arms and carried him like an expensive vase, while the midwife and the nurse collected their things and excused themselves out of the room.

The husband muttered.

"Why the name sage exactly?"

"Because of the premonition I had, I mentioned this the other day"

Sanda props herself on the bed leaning back against the headboard Aries is rocking Sage to sleep. Sanda gestured to Aries and he complied, handing her Sage.

"Right. "That" premonition, but isn't he saying gibberish in your premonition maybe there's something wrong with him"

"Oh, quiet Aries you know my premonition happens most of the time, besides you're not exactly the brightest of the bunch when we're younger. But look at you now a splendid water wielder"

"You mean both of us are splendid wielders? Anyway if its gibberish then I wish his name guides his growth"

Aries trusts Sanda's premonitions, in fact, she was a candidate in becoming the town's oracle, but being with Aries together it never pushed through. While the couple continued to chat away, Sage is observing the man that calls himself his father he raised his hand and by some mysterious force move the sweat off of the mother's forehead in mid-air out of the window.

Sage was shocked of what magic looks like and decided to imitate it, he raising his little baby arms and tried to move water just like his father, but what happened was it was not the water from the bowl that moved, it was air. His father felt a light tap of air somehow so he got up his seat and closed the windows.

"It's a bit chilly today huh Sanda?"

The father walked to the windows to close it then walked back to sit beside the bed, then clean the towel inside of the bowl. Sage tried again raising his arm, but now the mother noticed it. Sage raised his arms and unnaturally moved them following a breeze.

Aries felt it again and shivered slightly, the mother saw it happening Sanda realized the breeze from earlier was from Sage her eyes darted from the window to Sage and to the father several times. Her face had amazement written all over it, the father seems to not have notice of what was transpiring at the moment he was merely getting the chills.

The day was cloudy, the mother is preparing their breakfast and practicing her "we've been through this already" face for Sage. Sage is fixing his plain linen garments that resembles that of a button-down shirt that he specifically requested to his mother.

Getting ready to head out, he fixed his dark dirty grey hair but immediately stopped trying for the fact that it's unruly and wild, his hair was never like this in his past life. He got out of his room and headed straight to the table to grab a bite. The mother quickly spoke like she's been planning this her whole life.

"So you're going out again? I don't want to see you going out all the time, coming home late, covered in dirt, and soaking wet. I haven't even seen you play around with the other kids"

"Its fine mom, I'm too old to be playing anyway, I'll bring home something you can cook on my way back"

"What do you mean too old? You're only 6 years old, play with them. Have fun and stop going into the forest alone. Do you remember what we told you about the forest?"

"Yes. Never go too far into the forest cause it's too dangerous."

"Very good, oh I forgot, go to the village hall when you heard a frogs call, the chief said he will play it today"

After their short talk Sage swiftly wolfed down his food then quickly headed outside. He felt the never-ending rain on his head, the kids were playing by the rope swing on a huge tree, just as he was about to go to head into the forest to do his daily routine a strange watery didgeridoo-like sound filled the air.

The kids by the swings quickly ran towards where the sound is originating. Apparently it was the frog's call her mother was talking about he soon followed them making his way to the village hall, it's a huge descent sized building the establishment have enough room to enclose all the people in the village for announcements or indoor festivities.

Upon entering the building they're met with an open space with the instructor, the village chief and the girl that the kids were with were standing in the front. They are here to evaluate the young children the assessment was to identify what type of element they are blessed with. It was not an obligatory thing in the village, but kids are generally curious about these things.

This was the thoughts of his mother that told him of this gathering to let him mingle with the other kids and for him to make friends. Some kids up front were first given instructions to strike a protruding flat stone connected to a huge stone basin filled with water, and in the middle of the water-filled basin is a lit candle. The basin was an ancient tradition the rock basin was built by the early earth wielders

'How will they know what element I have with just this?'

Sage thought to himself, the line is getting shorter the kids were thrilled that hey had water as their element the sign of pride for this village and it was common for the village to have this element. The kids were boasting to each other of their discoveries. As the last of their friend got assessed they exchanged high fives, one kid looks at sages direction because he was next to strike the basin. He saw the instructor leaned over the village chief to whisper something to him.

"Chief who is this kid? Is he from around here?"

"Of Course he is, he's a Son and the child of the twin sharks"

"Twin sharks? Oh really? Why haven't I seen him before? I've been living here forever you know. You're a Son aye? Son Sage... Well then let us see what you got, boy!"

Apparently, Sage's parents are famous, his ears twitched a little when he heard them, their whispering is not exactly silent. Sage felt their expectation is rising through the roof but Sage doesn't really care so he quickly struck the stone with his palm but nothing happened whatsoever, no vibrations was seen on the water no movement of the basin the flame of the candle didn't go out but it only moved a little. The instructor's eyes widen in disbelief letting out a deep nasal psych. His face is obviously riddled with disappointment.

"You have such a weak element with low influence on said element to boot. Boy, air doesn't have any use in fighting nor anything to make a living. You have next to nothing in terms of power but you can still grow strong you just have to believe"

When the last words escaped the instructor's mouth all the kids started laughing as if they were told the funniest joke of their lives. This is when Sage learned the harsh hierarchy of elements, the discrimination in this world exists but in a completely different form.

The weakest being the air, second is water which is the common element of the village third is fire and lastly earth the two elements fire and earth have the same power but they are fighting for supremacy. Apparently, it was rare to have a diversion of elements from the parent's existing element let alone both parents having the same element it was strange, but what's stranger is the strength of his force it's abnormally low when most kids his age with that element can put out the flames of the candle.

When comparing a blast of water to a blast of air the two is immediately known what is more powerful this is easily the mindset of these people, you are already garbage in their eyes.

He ignored all the laugh and insults of the kids, he headed out of the hall Sage proceeded to walk outside the door. He quickly ran to the direction of the forest the thought of playing with the other kids is an utter waste of his time, he was too old for that kind of thing. As he ran he felt the presence of someone following him but he just ignored it and he just ran off towards a spacious hill to conduct his solo training.

He thought he had run fast enough to shake the stalker loose, he noticed that it was the girl he saw with the instructor and she was the kids' playmate. The kid had hidden herself maybe to observe him, but he didn't bother with her, the girl doesn't know exactly how to hide properly.

He walked by the open area and started to train, his movement was captivating yet bizarre for the girl, because the girl knew nothing of martial arts the otherworldly cultural difference was alien to her and left her breathless.

As Sage continued his martial arts training he sensed more people coming closer, he suspected that those are the playmates of this stalker girl, they seem to have followed her here. It's highly doubtful that they just want to observe too, but he continued to train he did many forms of martial arts such as Shaolin, Taichi, Muay-Thai, etc. to avoid the sharpness of his techniques from dulling.

Back in the mundane world, he was an orphan adopted by an organization that trained him in becoming an assassin he had many hardships far more than a child could handle, from intense martial arts training, torture training, espionage, and the art of killing. It was when he was a teenager that he reached the best of the best assassin to ever set foot on the world he has little talent in fighting but his killer instincts are abnormally higher than an average human that's why he has a strange obsession of always training martial arts.

While he's training the leader of the kids that he saw at the hall suddenly came out from where they were hiding followed by his minions.

"We never knew that a weakling is also a weirdo in our village"

Sage didn't bat an eye from his childish taunts, he continued to train. The kids became annoyed by his lack of interest in them and shouted.

"Hey!, you dumb kid you can't even control water like us,

you are useless, weak and a dumb weirdo."

The leader of the kids raised one of his hands, the other kids followed. Their open palm were accumulating water slowly, painfully slow. The kids prepped themselves for their strongest attack yet but the water they launched looked like, a lobbed thrown water balloon coming at him slowly, But he didn't dodge them he let it hit him. He treated it as a refreshing bath from an intense training, making him chuckle from the childish efforts of the kids.

"Hey! Why are you laughing you think this is funny?"

The haughty leader shouted as he rushed to him with his tiny army.

"You think you can laugh at us? you stupid talentless kid"

The leader of the kids quickly ran at him catching Sage's hand trying to immobilize him, the leader kid tried to push him down but he doesn't budge it feels like he was pushing a tree. The other kids followed but he quickly took the kid's leader down flipping him like flapjacks holding only the kid's wrist a move of what looks like Aikido, After the leader slammed to his backside the kid started to cry then the whole band of kids followed crying in unison. They ran home with their tails between their legs, they were just kids after all.

He noticed the stalker girl didn't join the little army she never came out but she disappeared with them. The sun flew past he was heading home, he was close to getting out of the forest when someone slammed him to the ground. It was an older kid, he had noticed its presence but his body wasn't able to move like that of an adult to counter their attack.

"So a stupid kid like you think he can mess with my little brother?"

"They started it they tried to hurt me"

"I don't care. You hurt my little brother when you hurt him you answer to me"

He suddenly took a stance then punches Sage right into the face but Sage quickly avoided it.

"You got some moves"

Then the big brother charged at him but Sage quickly jumped on the trees, the big brother was amazed that the height of his jump, Sage jumped higher than his height. Sage disappeared into the trees like a predator, while the boy is cautious of the situation scanning the trees. Sage took out his pocket knife and cut a piece of branch from a tree he was hiding in.

Moments past the big brother thinks that he had run off but just as he turned to walk away he was met with a slap to the face with a leafy branch, quickly the boy followed the source of the branch but Sage disappeared the boy getting increasingly annoyed. Sage swatted the boy again but on the opposite side. Sage was behind him all along mocking him playing him like a fool. Sage returned to the trees, the frustrated kid now screams at him.

"Come out and face me!"

The angry kid spent more time searching for him by the time the brother realized his enemy would not show up Sage already fled back to his house.