The Fall of the Society

Chapter 36: Growth and Development

     The two sat in silence for some time, the sun was lowering in the sky casting large shadows over their surroundings. Dark shadows were appearing under Sid's eyes, giving him a sinister appearance in the fading daylight. Rose watched him, waiting for him to continue, but also wondering what everything he was saying had to do with him calling her a phoenix. She had heard of many other heroes whose abilities where based in fire, and while her powers where unique, she did not feel much different than those people.

     Lost in thought her eyes had glazed over, and Sid was now staring at her. "The past influences our futures, often in ways unforeseen until the future becomes the past." His words snapped her back to the present and she cleared her mind to listen once more. "After leaving our cave I wandered for a while, learning about nature and what I found there. I studied plants, animals, the way the wind blew, anything that could be observed, I studied. Before long I desired to learn even more and found my way into a war camp. The soldiers were very dismissive of me, but they had a blacksmith in tow that agreed to take me in as an apprentice. I worked for a place to sleep and an amount of food that would have starved a normal person. Forging was an immensely satisfying process for me, I relished being able to change something rough and raw into something beautiful and elegant. Much to the surprise of the blacksmith, I picked up the skill very quickly, much more quickly than he thought I ought to have. His suspicion of me grew, but not enough for him to get rid of me because he was claiming he was making the items that I had forged."

     "When I was not forging, I often watched the soldiers train, and when they were engaged in skirmishes, I would find a place and watch the battle unfold, learning everything I could. This process helped me learn swordplay, proper use of a shield, triage, and how truly fragile the human body happens to be. The blacksmith I had been working for did not like that I would wander off and that he could not completely control me as well as the fact I was now better at forging than he was. One night when he thought I was sleeping, I noticed him watching me and decided that the time to move on had come, even though it was winter and leaving the comfort of a warm tent seemed a poor choice. Over the week following that night, I gathered what supplies I could in secret and made myself a sword and an axe, knowing that I would need them. Once I had what I felt I needed, I slipped away under cover of darkness."

     "I was wandering once more, toward the rising sun, not really sure what to do or where to go. Soon the language those in the villages I passed no longer spoke the language of my mother, which made bartering more difficult. At that point I decided to take up watching the villagers as they went about their days, and found patterns in their speech, picking up and learning what they were saying. This process was by far the hardest task of learning I had ever engaged in, but I managed. Each person I met along my travels offered me a new opportunity to learn, whether they were willing to engage with me or not. I had been on the move almost two years since leaving the cave, but my appearance had not changed at all. While I had grown stronger from training with my sword and carrying everything I owned everywhere I went, my body was still that of a nine-year-old child. A lot of people dismissed me, thinking me a begging orphan, but they were much mistaken. I made my way around the town, working at any shop or farm that would allow me, most of the time for little in return, but I was not interested in money or items. The only thing that interested me was knowledge, and as soon as I had mastered the task I would move on, sometimes much to the dismay of the one for whom I was working."

     "I spent roughly twenty years, doing exactly this, moving and learning, the whole time my physical appearance did not change. Worry had started to well inside of me that I would remain a child forever, but at the same time it did have some advantages. People found me less of a threat than an adult form would have warranted. None the less, I had hit a wall in what people would allow me to do for them, claiming I was too young for certain types of work. My frustration with the lack of advancement in my training and education was increasing so I returned to the wilderness in order to get a grasp on a way to change myself once more. It was this decision that led me to return to the cave of my mother, even though it had been over twenty years since I had left. During my time traveling I did not focus on my abilities as much as I probably should have, the prospect of all the other things I could learn was at the forefront of my mind. I spent a lot of time in the cave or in the surrounding areas meditating, searching within myself for the answers I wanted, as this could be the only place they existed. My search was exhausting, often painful. The journey within myself was much more difficult than any other journey I had taken part. Early childhood, while hard, I had my mother to support me. With all the other task I had set out to learn, there was always someone to watch or to emulate, but this process was something I, and only I could partake."

     "After a few months I finally tapped back into the portion of my mind that would allow me to change my appearance. Surprisingly, this time was immensely more painful than the first time I had done so. The original time I had only wished to reshape my form, not forcing growth, just repositioning. Forcing my body to grow and stretch into the form of a full-grown adult was both awkward and painful. I had become disproportionate once more, and being half adult, half child made things exceedingly difficult and I had made the mistake of not preparing extra cloths to account for my incredible growth. Luckily, the way my body works prevented me from feeling cold most of the time, so the lack of clothing was not really an issue. It took me an additional three months before I had managed to complete the process and rendered myself as an adult. My body was completely drained afterwards, and I stayed in the cave for another month to rest."

     "Did you take the look you have now then?" Rose asked him intently.

     He shook his head, "I have changed the way I look countless times over the ages. If the face I was wearing began to draw too much attention I would have to undertake the process of modifying myself once more. I became much better at it once I mastered my nervous system in order to shut off the pain. There is also the simple point that the way humans look has changed since my birth, we have evolved, molded ourselves into the future, so I have had to adjust myself to fit in otherwise I would stand out far more than desired. Remaining undetected through time has definitely been a mighty task, especially since we have moved into the digital age and there are cameras everywhere."

     "Back to the point, I was not an adult physically and I hoped it would open up a greater set of opportunities for me to partake. The greatest opportunity that opened to me was that I was now able to join military groups, I was able to further refine my combat abilities. I grew faster, stronger, and more intelligent while studying anything I could on the battlefield. I learned first aid as well as how to perform field surgeries. After a while people would start to notice that I never got wounded in combat and that I eventually outperformed everybody on the battlefield. When this would happen, I would fake my own death and move on to learn something somewhere else. Luckily, humans enjoy killing each other so there was always a new battlefield for me to learn on. It was at this point that I found myself in a small kingdom that has long been forgotten, erased from history. It was known as Kullerin, and was ruled by a man who was charismatic, but also held a much darker side. He enjoyed human trafficking and it was common for him to host lavish parties that would in turn be the worst day of prisoners and slaves lives alike. There were a couple of occasions in which I came across the local enforcers trying to round up those that were just passing near the lands of Kullerin." Sid took a moment to think about what he wanted to say next. "It was around one of these parties that I found her, she had been sold into our lands, meant to satisfy the desires of our lord. I did not know what she was at the time, but our eyes were drawn together, and I knew at once that I must free her from his tyrannical ways."