TASTKA POV
There was another me.
I’d felt this for a while now. Ever since the first night I went to sleep with my [Essence Host] class. The strange class that claimed I wouldn’t dream, and instead gave me something… else. A something that let me glimpse a confusing, jumbled series of feelings and impressions, of visions and snatches of thought that made no sense, but still forced me to wake up screaming from that first awful, terrifying night.
It had gotten easier after that. The visions didn’t come every night, and when they did they were less intense. I began to understand some of the feelings and thoughts, even if it was still confusing. I understood that this was never meant to happen, that it was an accident. That I was special, somehow, but never supposed to touch what I had touched. I felt regret there, worry, and curiosity. And… kinship.
I didn’t tell anyone what I felt. It was too strange, and after that first night it was much more bearable. Over time, I not only started to understand some of what I saw and felt, but also understand the feelings. They were deeper than mine, complicated. Yet in the moments after awakening every morning, the faint echoes of those same feelings lingered.
It was a tale of the Sylen elves that made me realize what I was feeling. They say that the Sylen elves can sometimes speak to their dead ancestors, inside their heads. They can remember things long lost, or times far gone. It was that thought that made me realize I was not just seeing confusing images of someone else, but of another me. A me that was somewhere else. Maybe somewhen else.
As I learned this, I also learned how to use that knowledge.
I learned that this other me could see us – could watch us, somehow. Whenever I tried to use anything I learned, my sleep the next night had more feelings and impressions than before. Feelings of curiosity, fear, and amusement intermingled… along with a certain hint of pride.
Our clan was growing much more now. I had been very careful about what knowledge to use. I couldn’t explain where I got it, so the only time I had said anything was to guide us to a different place in our migration one time, a place where Aqua Mana was strong and created a series of natural springs to keep everyone cool in the heat of the warmest days.
My impulses told me to show off more, but the feelings I had in my sleep that gave me this knowledge urged caution. It was difficult, at first, but I learned to just try to develop my class instead. Or classes as the case may be. Too bad I had yet to level up my [Essence Host] class, but it had only been one turn of the seasons.
To get to the point, I had a bit of influence and notoriety amongst the clan, though I was still too young to understand it as such. To my still teenage mind, they just listened to me more than others, and I didn’t quite grasp why, even if I had some reasonable guesses. I thought they just realized I knew things. I didn’t quite catch on, yet, that they feared me as well.
“Tas! What are you doing here?” A familiar voice called out to me from nearby, pulling me out of my meandering thoughts. Fisk had chosen his [Leader] class just last Move, as everyone had expected. He’d likely open up the [Clan Guide] class as an adult, and take that as his second Primary Class.
Right now, he was hurrying over to me at a lazy lope, springing along the dewy grass in easy half-leaps. Fisk always had an odd way of running, almost like he was ready to drop to all fours like a beast… but he never quite seemed to go that far.
I flicked my tail dismissively, but made sure to keep it low so as not to insult him. Fisk could be sensitive. “I was going to talk to the guide before Eyssa did her choosing,” I answered without thinking.
That made Fisk’s ears perk up in surprise. “You think she’s going to be doing it now? Do you know?”
I sighed, as Fisk knew about my so-called ‘magic knowledge’ that even our [Lumin’s Eye] couldn’t even match. I shook my head, then decided I could reassure him a little bit.
“I know it will happen today, but not exactly when,” I replied. “But it’s not like anyone expects it to take longer.”
I’d been walking along as I explained, letting Fisk match my easygoing pace. I saw our guide right away, between two of the shelters atop the small knoll, speaking quietly with an adult I didn’t know very well. He saw me, and I tilted my head to the left and flicked my right ear, letting him know I wanted his attention without demanding it.
He said a few more words to the stocky and shorter elf beside him, then dismissed the stranger, who backed away and turned to dash off. Either they had just finished or it wasn’t important, because our guide turned to me with tailtip raised in curiosity of his own.
“Forward One,” I greeted, keeping my voice respectful. I didn’t need to do an act for that… even if I knew things he didn’t, I had great respect for the elder who had guided us for so long. I knew that before I’d been born, the clan had fallen on hard times, and it was his guidance that had saved us.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Tastka,” he acknowledged. “You rarely come to see me. Have you knowledge I should know?” His eyes turned to Fisk, who was still with me and twitching his tail in agitated boredom. “Or did the two of you ‘find’ another itching bush?”
My ears heat with embarrassment as he teased us about that, and I felt Fisk shift about awkwardly beside me. Even though it had been two eights of Moves ago, that incident with the bush and how I’d needed three days with the healers had ended up a ready-made tease. I was sure he knew we’d broken the rules for that, but for some reason never punished us.
“No, Forward One,” I replied when I’d pushed away the memory. “I… came to tell you about what will happen when Eyssa chooses her Path.” My tail flicked a few times. “I don’t know what is going to happen exactly, but… something in our Menus will change. I think… I think it is going to be a good change, but I’m scared.”
Saying I was scared was an exaggeration. Worried, maybe, but more about the reaction than the change itself. I got the impression that my other self was behind this, somehow, and had prepared for a long time. How my other self could change the Menu, I didn’t know… and that terrified me more than the change itself.
Fisk looked at me with uncertain disbelief, and the guide smiled, “Perhaps you have this feeling, but the Menu has been the same for… as long as any of us know. I believe you may be seeing an unusual Path for Eyssa instead.”
“Maybe,” I mumbled. I knew that wasn’t the case, because I also knew that something special was planned for Eyssa. I knew it had something to do with our need to expand, to see the huge world that I also knew we only wandered a small part of.
We would all find out soon, too. Eyssa, as it turned out, was already here. She’d been making her way to the guide while we were talking, and her ears perked up brightly upon seeing Fisk and myself.
“Fisk! Tas!” she called, waving before hurrying over. “My class unlocked! I can’t wait!”
The [Clan Guide] nodded solemnly, but despite the importance of this ritual, I could see now that it was less for the formality and more for a way for the children to be recognized. We had a good guide. I could see his eyes light up at the excitement and joy in Eyssa’s voice and posture.
My new class had aged me, for me to see this so soon after my own experience.
Eyssa’s tail flicked suddenly as her ears lowered, face showing puzzlement now. Yet before she could say what she saw, an adult hunter yelled out to the guide.
“FORWARD ONE! MY MENU HAS CHANGED!”
This man was Totus, the greatest [Hunter] in the encampment. He was starting to get older, and soon his lean body would likely start to weaken… but not for a few more turns of the seasons, I thought.
Distant shouts could be heard, and everyone around me took on that brief, distant look that they usually had when examining their Status. I did the same, since I wasn’t sure what this change would be either, so I expanded some of my attributes this time.
I twitched ears in confusion. “My levels and everything have two numbers now. What is Tier?”
“Mine too!” Fisk added, shaking his head. “All Tier 1.”
It was Totus that stilled his tail and realized what was happening. “My level in [Hunter] was once something I could not read. Now it says… Tier 2, and then a 3.” He hadn’t been a successful hunter by being slow to pick up on patterns. “I think it is telling me how much stronger I am beyond sixteen.”
Suddenly it made sense. I had gotten the vague feeling of frustration sometimes, that sensation that ‘we’ weren’t doing something right. The change in the system… it was so we could understand how far we could go. But surely there was a better way?
The guide let out a breath. “It’s true. A change in the Menu. Small, yet…” He lapsed for a long moment, considering the implications.
Eyssa looked upward. “There’s a class here I’ve never heard of, Forward One. It… it looks like one that I’d like.”
That made the guide’s ear twitch. Eyssa’s class unlocking hadn’t taken extra time like mine had, so he was curious, but probably thought it was just a strange one or even a new name. Sometimes the class names changed, or their descriptions, but they rarely changed what they did. The menu itself changing was far more unprecedented. He motioned for Eyssa to continue.
She read aloud, voice quivering with excitement.
“Horizon Bearer. Boundaries and the known are shunned by the one who carries their own horizon within. Their talents let them travel far, and the unknown gives them power, not fear. They will seek out the new, so that the land and people they hail from may expand and grow.”
The guide inhaled sharply, and Fisk’s ears perked up, his tail whipping about in excitement. It all fell into place for me as well. I’d felt frustration, and seen glimpses of things I’d never imagined. While the elders thought, I couldn’t help myself from blurting out my realization.
“That’s for us,” I breathed. “The menu, the new class… we weren’t meant to circle and stay here.”
Eyssa, young as she was, perked in delight. “We’re meant to spread!”
And I knew just where we should go first.