Changing Tides

Learning the great island Sutra went on for ages and Eilan had long lost her sense of time. At some point, the chanting of the tutorial had stopped, but she did not notice. She kept on chanting the Great Island Sutra as if it was the only thing that still mattered.

As time went by she recognized the world around her. The flow of life through everything. She realized her role as part of the greater whole and how the Great Island Sutra changed her role in this cycle.

It came times of heat when the ocean around her was almost gone and she only sat on a rock on a high rock in a desert. There came times when the ocean swallowed her rock, but she did not mind.

As she became clear about her role, she felt the free energy of the world naturally flowing into her. she could feel the warm current pour into her, filling her veins with power, and following the Great Sutra the energy flowed through her into her rock.

Because she and the rock were one. She was the God of this island and her duty was to grow splendidly. All she had to do is to keep chanting her sutra and let the energy accumulate.

The rock below her feet kept growing and soon towered over the ocean. Time did not matter to Eiland, as she kept cultivating her island and every time she would open her eyes it would have become grander and her horizon would become wider.

With the long cultivation of the great Island Sutra, her connection with her island also grew stronger, until she could feel no difference between herself and the rock. She felt the ocean hit cliffs and shores. The sun's burning heat and the water's cooling on her body, that tried to make her brittle and fall back to the ocean.

When Eilan felt part of herself turn to sand, it was the first time there was a dissonance with the Great Island Sutra. Everything was supposed to grow and wither. She, her island would grow, but also be weathered by the elements, to create sand that had its own fate in the great whole.

There was an unwillingness to accept this in her. Why? Why did she have to accept this? She worked so hard to grow, chanting for millennia to grow. How could she accept to be whittled down again?

To have her majestic peaks, cliff and sprawling plained wither away and become jagged and rough. the urges that had been silent for a long time- No. the urges she had ignored for a long time voiced their dissatisfaction.

Still, she kept following the Great Island Sutra. She kept chanting even more fervently to make up for her losses. Soon her shores were lined by long white beaches, the ocean kept bringing back to her.

Eilan calmed down again. What was hers kept returning to her, though in a different shape. Even the dissatisfied voices calmed. She had to admit, that the beaches were beautiful and worth the price.

Still, there had been a change during this time. With how fervently she chanted and tried to make up for what the elements took from her, she took control of the Great Sutra. She gained insights and experience in the flow of energy. Taking more, controlling it more skillfully.

With the changes, her growth accelerated. Her body and her rock, now a bare crescent island, were filled with the power of the world. It was much more than she needed, but she felt so satisfied with this state of beeing.

One day, as she kept chanting the Great Island Sutra and enjoyed being full of energy she reached a point of satiation. At that moment, for just the wink of an eye, she felt as if a knot got untied within her, and all the power within her was condensed.

In her spiritual body, Eilan felt her stomach heat up as the energy condensed into a ball. In her island, the energy condensed into a net of veins that pervade the whole island. From her beached, all the way to her peaks, that made the crescent island look like a crown protruding from the ocean.

Everything was filled with thicker and finer veins like a nervous system.

She was confused at first, but she soon realized, that it became a lot easier to collect and channel the energy of the world, using the newly created network. When she opened her es for the first time in a long while, the weird window of the monkey popped out first.

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Name: Eilan

Age: 1

Great Island Sutra Level 2

Skills: Tutorial. Land creation.>

It had been so long, had something changed? She instinctively noticed that the level had risen and joy she couldn't quite understand filled her heart. the was also a new skill, but she could already guess what it was from its name.

It was something she had already realized herself a long time ago. By deliberately concentrating the flow of energy on a specific part of her island, she could grow that part stronger to create cliffs or mountains.

Looking around for the first time in millennia, she found herself in a cave. Ever since she learned the Great Island Sutra she had not moved even once. She was always sitting in the same spot on the same piece of rock.

As the Island grew and the peaks rose, she was enclosed in a cave. Now, these cave walls were covered in crystallized energy, as all the veins in the Island let to her at the center. The glittering and shallow glow of the crystals in the dark cave made it look like a starry sky.

She took a deep breath and stopped chanting for a while, as she enjoyed this sight. Unlike the sky outside, which always had the color of a dim red with few stars visible, this reminded her of something.

A memory of a place she was sure to have never visited. The picture of a hill, a joke compared to her majestic peaks, but still... but it was so much more beautiful. With a sprawling meadow at its feet and the starry night sky above it.

She could almost feel the cool breeze and the grass below her bare feet. The rustling of the trees swaying in the wind. Eilan's heart yearned for this place and there was an inexplicable sorrow she was unable to understand.

It hurt to think of it, but she still yearned to go there. She yearned for a place just like that. So she tried to create one. It was just a small hill at the foot of her highest peak. Melancholy took over when she realized that this was all she could do.

Bare, grey rocks, surrounded by a dark ocean and a dim red sky. She did not continue chanting for a long while. Even without her intervention, the network would collect energy and further nurture the island.

Eilan rolled together on the ground of her crystal chamber and fled into the memory of this place. The bittersweet sorrow fascinated her but also gave her a sense of belonging and care.