Reaching for the Stars

Chapter Eleven

I woke from a strange dream with a start, startling the little monster who had been curled up on the pillow next to me, was it a dream though? It felt so real, so unimaginable, could I really think something like this up? I was a great many things, but a great storyteller was not one of them, I don't think I could dream up something this complex. But then that meant it had to all be real right?

I had been having the same dream for days now, somehow forgetting about it when I woke up the past few days, and yet now I remembered it all. I suppose there was one way to check for sure, I cross my legs and close my eyes, this was not the most accurate way to evaluate one's cultivation level, but it would allow me to roughly understand where I was at least.

Having been at the same level for ten years now, I was intimately familiar with how it felt, so when I closed my eyes and concentrated, I could tell the difference immediately, a smile broke onto my face, it wasn't very big, but it was there, for years this had been my dream, and now it was finally here, I was finally at the third common qi level, for others this may be nothing, in fact I would be considered close to trash to only be at this level at my age, but for a decade's worth of effort, nothing pleased me more than this seemingly insignificant achievement to others that meant so much more to me.

Of course, the final way to test whether my dreams were truly real or imagined was to see if the shrine truly opened to me when I gave it the key. The little beast glared at me in annoyance for disrupting his sleep, but in this moment, I couldn't care less, I quickly got up and ran outside, grabbing my bucket, I fill it with water, I wasn't at the level of cultivation to freely summon the elements to me, I had to do a bit more work.

My breathing is heavy by the time I finally make it to the shrine site, the graves looking oddly beautiful in the dawn light, this was the earliest I had ever been up, the sun was only just barely peeking over the mountains in the distance, only the barest hints of light was reaching the forest. Except now that I was here, I feel trepidation upon seeing Nero's grave and the four dragons surrounding it.

One wrong move and I could die here, it had to be in the right order, and the right dragons, but the dream world had a slight haze to it, it made it hard for me to remember which dragon was which, but I had no choice but to push forward, I couldn't live without finding out whether I had truly imagined it all or not. "Blood." That was the first step, my voice sounds oddly loud in the quiet morning, even the birds weren't making noise yet.

I step up to the shrine with resolution, summoning the little amount of qi energy I had, I direct it into a tiny blade at the tip of my finger, which I use to slice my palm open, when the first drop of my blood hits the shrine, the ground beneath my feet trembles, I watch as the story of Nero is revealed to me again, only this was is rougher, hard to see, the stone distorted with age, but I remember it clearly enough when I was shown this in my dream.

I glance at the dragons with a slight uncertainty, I was almost positive that the dragon to my right was fire, if it was, I knew where the rest of the elements would be, but when one mistake could cost my life, I wasn't sure almost positive was enough, unluckily for me, I didn't have much choice but to trust my gut. Pulling out my fire stick from my waist pouch, I blow on it to ignite the flame, using my thin qi I direct the flame into the dragon's mouth, to my relief it's eyes light up with a burning red light, meaning I chose correctly.

I draw a thin stream of water from the bucket and into the next dragon's mouth, it's funny, even though this change in cultivation might not be much to some, this difference made things almost impossible to me before only slightly hard to do. I was beginning to sweat, the effort exerted by me to control the elements with my miniscule amount of qi was immense, but I was determined to see it through.