The Dou-Jin Apprentice of Monsters and Men In the Beginning

Journey to the Dou-Jin Temple Part 2

Stephanous found it difficult to release the Spirit. He wanted to stay in the Spirit forever it felt so good. He had never felt anything so calming. He tried to pry himself away from the spirit but he couldn't let it go so easily.

"I can't do it." He said in a labored voice to the two Dou-Jin masters. Stephanous was beginning to sweat with the effort of trying to release the Spirit. He was worried the Spirit was going to hurt him now even though it felt so good.

"Concentrate on your breathing and the Spirit will leave on its own. Don't think about the light either just your breathing." Michale instructed him.

Gradually the levitated objects descended and landed softly on the ground and Stephanous was back to just breathing once more. The fire returned to normal and the two Dou-Jin Masters had visages of shear utter surprise upon their faces.

"You may open your eyes now." Michale informed Stephanous.

"What did you experience?" The Dou-Jin asked trying to hide his shock.

"I felt at complete peace. Like someone was there with me taking control of me and guiding me." Stephanous answered. "I could feel everything around me and in my mind I pretended to pick them up, I even made the fire grow hotter. It felt wonderful! I have never felt anything like it before in my life!" Stephanous was bubbling over with great enthusiasm. He felt like he was going to burst with energy from the occurrence and he wanted to share it with the world! "But then I was afraid the Spirit was going to take total control of me and I would be its prisoner. Then it left me because I was afraid of it. It didn't want me to fear it."

"I'm glad you enjoyed the experience." Michale said trying to stay calm and cool. ""The Spirit doesn't want you to fear it. It wants you to love it and be your companion. You did very well for your first time, but we shouldn't push you so hard. We should eat and get some rest."

"Aye laddie." J.D. said in agreement with Michale. "Uh young man like yerself should notta be pushed tuh hard hes first time out. Dona be tryen any uf thes stuff weth out any supervision now. Yuh could really hurt yerself or someone else."

"Yes sir." Stephanous answered respectfully even though he really had to concentrate on what J.D. said because of his accent it was difficult for him to understand what he was saying. Stephanous was always doing what he was told by his elders unless it was illegal or immoral.

Stephanous helped himself to some stew and ate quietly and wondered about the mysterious cloud that he had seen in his mind. It had been so peaceful and yet so strong and formidable. It had wrapped him up and had made him feel powerful. He really did want to see it again, but the Dou-Jin men said that he wasn't to try and see it without them being around. He didn't see how he could hurt anyone by looking at a cloud in his mind.

The cloud hadn't hurt him or the two men, but they were older and wiser so he figured he'd best leave things well enough alone. The Spirit had scared him though, but it didn't hurt him. His mother had always told him to respect his elders. Stephanous was always one to follow rules and did what was right to please those who were older than he was.

He lay down for the night and went to sleep upon a bedroll that J.D. had given him. He liked sleeping outdoors he could look up at the billions of stars and saw the three moons that sat in the sky over Theara. One moon was crimson, one moon was azure, and the third moon was emerald. He had always wondered if there was life on the moons, but he had no way to get there. He had heard the great wizards had traveled to the moons and said there was life upon the blue and green moon, but the red moon was lifeless and desert-like.

Once in a while a shooting star would flash across the night sky and wink out just as quickly as it had appeared. Stephanous made a wish on each and everyone that he saw streaking across the sky and every wish was the same. He wished that he could be as good a Dou-Jin as Stephanous "The Great" and Aaron "The Brave".

The only bad thing about lying out on the ground was that you sometimes got a bed buddy and not always the good kind. There were knifetails (insects that were twelve inches long and had pincers and a stinger for a tail that carried poison), shakers (six foot long chameleon snakes that had three six inch long rattles on their tails), blood suckers (worms that borrowed up from the soil and found exposed skin and had razor sharp teeth that a person couldn't even feel cut a person and had a tube for a tongue and sucked your blood).

But sometimes you'd wake up and have a rabbit or other furry creature in your bed and that was always a nice surprise. One time to Stephanous's surprise and fear he woke up with a cougar cub sleeping with him. He wondered where the mother had gone, but the cub hung around for a little while and then disappeared into the forest.

For several days the group traveled south each night Michale ran Stephanous through the exercises and Stephanous kept performing admirably beyond expectation. Until one night Brady snuck into camp while J.D. was on watch. Michale jumped up and found J.D. with his crimson spiritaxe in hand and Michale was quick with his violet two-handed spiritblade to confront Brady.

J.D. wielded his axe in an arching motion that clashed and threw large molten drops through the air as the black depraved spiritblade of Brady's sword connected. Brady's blade was powered by the son of darkness Asmodeous. Michale tried to catch the vile intruder off guard, but Brady was like a viper in his movements and deflected the blow with the easy of water off the rock in a river.

The three danced with their weapon showering liquid metal that bounced off the ground and vanished as soon as it had bounced two or three times. Brady was a great Roda-Ki to keep Michale and J.D. busy for as long as he did.

While the trio skirmished Stephanous looked for a way to try and help in the fight, but all he could find is a stout stick about three feet long. He brandished the branch like a long sword and to his shock the branch bursted into light and flame violet like Michale's spiritblade. hurled thee at Brady wouldn't get burnt by the flaming stick, but as soon as he released the branch the light and flame wink out and the branch hits Brady in the back of the head. The attack caught Brady off guard. J.D. and Michale were able to capture him with little effort after that.

They bound Brady with special cords that the Dou-Jin had made especially for the Roda-Ki so that they could mystically undo the knots of their bonds. Stephanous stared at Brady and walked over to him after he was tied up.

"Why do you want to kill me." Stephanous asked curiously with his head cocked to the side. "I've done no wrong to you or your family or your friends."

"I don't want to kill you unless you don't join the Roda-Ki." Brady answered with his teeth gritted. "If we can't have you then no one will have you, especially the Dou-Jin!"

In a murky chamber a couple, a shadow elf and a human second in command of the Crimson Sanhedrin, prepared an alter. The shadow elf was a bald man, named Edralve "The Dark" San'tini the third in command of the Crimson Sanhedrin, with six earrings in each pointed ear and a mythril chain that lead each earring to a nose ring on the left side of his face. The right ear had a variety of dangling earrings. The hair the dark elf had came from the crest of the back of his head and was woven into an inch thick braid that was decorated with precious stones and metals ranging from diamonds, sapphires, rubies, gold, mythril, and tenson.

The female, Lavanna "The Wicked" San'tini, was a priestess had done most of the preparations. She had lengthy curly blonde hair that she had pulled back tight into a ponytail. She had high cheek bones and a slender figure and a petite body and would have been mistaken for an elf if she hadn't had rounded ears.

The after was of a giant spider with the head and torso of a medusa. At the base of the alter lay a royal elven child of no more than three years of age. The child lay motionless and pale upon the slab that was the alter; the child had had all his blood essanguinated from his tiny body.

"I think Lilith is pleased." Lavanna said in a pleased tone to her dark husband. She had a broad grin on her face as she gazed down at the sacrificed child. She was a an extremely proud woman and she took even more self-importance in her work. She