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

Part 2 Journey to the Dou-Jin Temple

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.