Chapter 4.

Winter had come once more to the northern paradise island. Now the trees on the island, its vegetation and even its inhabitants had all grown greatly in size. All over the island birds could be seen flying about while they sang their songs. On the coastline, new inhabitants had arrived and now seals and walruses all shared the coastline. While on the only hillside of the island polar bears slept in a man-made cave.

From the outside, a massive polar bear head could be seen watching over the entrance that was covered by its massive fur. This bear had once challenged the islands only human inhabitant and lost. Now the bears only purpose was to serve as the humans curtain. 

Behind the curtain is a cave covered by smooth wooden walls and floors, with its furniture made with seal bones and leather. There on a throne of bones surrounded by sleeping polar bears sat a boy no more, but a man. Despite only a few years going by the man had grown into a 2-meter tall giant.

Opening his eyes the man made a frowning expression. For years he had waited here for someone to arrive. He always wondered who were those two people he saw that one day. Were they his parents and were they going to come get him one of these days? But now his patients had finally ended and he decided that it was time to leave this place behind himself.

Carefully he stood up and looked around to make sure none of his friends awoke from their winter slumber. Then he walked to the back of the cave where he could see the fist-sized glowing crystal. Some time after he awoke in this place he had decided to experiment with his new body. That is when he discovered his strange but useful light magic abilities. 

He called it light magic since his bodies core seemed to hold some sort of a bright light within it. By focusing on this light he discovered that he could draw some of the light to his hands and use it. With his hands covered in the light, he seemed to be able to heal almost anything and even grow things from nothing. Doing so he discovered that each time he used this magic it seemed to grow stronger and stronger within his core.

Thats when he started to test this magic out on a small smooth rock. Pouring his magic into the rock he discovered that he was able to create an infinite spiral of light energy within the rock that never faded. As he poured more and more of his magic into the stone it slowly started to crystalize and become stronger. It started emitting a bright yellow light and with it, the surrounding of the crystal started to turn.

Slowly all the snow around the crystal light started to melt and in its stead, grass started to grow and later came trees and other things. Impressed by this crystal light which he decided to start calling a light stone, he decided to keep on pouring his magic into it throughout the years. 

But now seeing that his experiment seemed quite successful he decided that it was time to move on. While he would have liked to take it with him and experiment more on it, he didnt want to ruin this paradise he had created for the animals living here.

So with that in mind he one last time poured his magic into the stone and then went to leave. First, he put on a white loincloth made of made out of polar bear hide that also included a belt. Then came his new cape with and polar bear headdress. 

Sadly life with the polar bears sometimes wasnt peaceful and he needed to what he needed to do.

Looking around he noticed his old stone weapons which brought back nostalgic memories to him. A few years ago he used those primitive weapons to hunt, but soon he discovered that there was no longer any need for him those primitive tools. He had already become strong enough to hunt with his bare hands and he had also become strong enough to resist the coldest of weathers.

The only reason now that he even used this polar bear outfit was purely just for aesthetics. And also he didn't want to be naked whenever he saw people again. Although, in the Empires military men and women were naked a lot of the time and nobody seemed to mind.

But regardless of that he wore his outfit and walked outside to the seaside. Standing there he looked at his reflection in the water and thought.

" Damn, I really need a haircut. "

In this life his hair was blonde and his eyes blue. Also unlike in his previous life he was now able to grow his hair and beard long. In the army he was never allowed to do so. To him this was a nice change of looks, but now his hair had become too long. It already reached his shoulders and his beard reached his chest level. All in all he looked like one of those raiding Vikings from the history books of old Earth.

Personally he didn't really understand how any man or woman for that matter could live with such long hair. For him it always seemed to get in his eyes and required constant maintenance. But having already left his trusty stone knife behind he decided to let this matter be for now.

Looking towards the sky a pair of massive three meter long muscular wings emerged from under his cloak. Then as naturally as one would flex their back muscles he started to flap the Wings up and down.

With each flap of the wings powerful gusts of air were sent out that sent small rocks flying. The force was even so powerful that he suspected that most smaller humans would definitely be pushed to the ground.

Then with a few flaps of his wings the man lifted off tough the speed of his ascension wasn't fast. With each flap of the wings he managed to go up a few meters at a time and with each flap of the wings he also used up a lot of his energy.

Looking down the island seemed so small now in his eyes. The place he had lived on for over 7 years now seemed so small that it could fit into the palms of his massive hands. Then as if swimming in water he used his wings to push himself towards the direction he wanted to go.

Now flying to him, although quite exhausting, it felt natural. The feeling was familiar to him, it reminded him of his younger years in his past life when he was still learning how to swim. The sun shined in his eyes as he flew now headed towards the sun rise.

In his mind he remembered that this was the heading of the boat he saw so long ago seemed to be heading into, so with that simple thought his heading was set. Leaving behind the paradise island and all its neighboring small and large snow-covered islands he headed straight for a large snow-covered desolate island in the distance.

Flying over the open ocean between the snowy islands and the large land mass he can feel the chill of the cold northern air hit his skin harder and harder the closer he gets to the large land mass in the distance. Then his stomach grumbles a reminder to him of the zero food rations he had taken along with him. In his eagerness to go find what is beyond the paradise island, he had forgotten the very basics of survival.

Sure he didnt really need to eat anything as his new body seemed to be capable of going on for weeks on end without needing food without any problems. But already in his past life he had needed to go on without anything good to eat in the military, so now that he has the opportunity to eat he was for a damn sure going to eat as much as he possibly could. Now it had merely been three days since he had last eaten anything. His last meal he recalled being a simple walrus that he had shared with his polar bear friends. 

With his mind on food, he looked around carefully at the sea below in search of something quick to eat. Then he spotted something between two floating icebergs and under the waves. There a large shadow of some large sea beast moved.

Without hesitation he pushed himself into a dive and retracted his wings back inside his back. In his back no markings were left behind almost as if no massive wings were ever there to begin with. With his arms above his head he penetrated the sea and dived into the water. 

Coming to a halt underwater he could see a massive shark maybe 5 times his size turning towards him. No eyes could be seen on the creature until two eyes suddenly revealed themselves from under its skin. Then it sped up towards him and opened its mouth filled with 6 rows of sharp teeth. Its mouth stretched over two meters wide. It seemed that it was intent to swallow the man whole.

Despite this, the giant man just licked his lips and smiled as he prepared to meet the beast. When in range the man simply sent an uppercut to the sharks large nose. The punch broke the sharks nose and sent ripples through its body that turned its insides into a mushy liquid. Blood spewed out the sharks mouth as its eyes turned lifeless and it died.

The man smirked at the sight of this and then he grabbed a hold of the sharks tail. Pulling the shark towards him he dug his finger through its flesh and ripped the shark apart. With the tail part in hand and the rest of the shark falling into the deep sea, he felt satisfied. Now his food problem had been solved and he could return back on course.