The Beginning of Time

Copyright 2021 by Kat Thomas

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Canva Kat Thomas

Book design by Kat Thomas

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Due to many thefts of online work This copyright notice will be there on every online posting from now on. I will also say I will take action on any person or company who posts my work without permission.

The forest was completely green, to the untrained ear it was silent, but the young woman who was standing in a dense circle of trees with her head down could hear everything. The voices that were calling out from everything and from within the earth itself, they were calling out to her. She rarely came to this place, she had begun to when she was a young child who followed her mother to the same place. She and her sister had been “tested” by their mother to see if either one of them was different. Both girls showed signs, so she chose her eldest born to be her successor only to realize too late that the daughter she picked was different, but not different like her.

The young woman who sat now in the crop of trees was left untrained, now her mother was gone, and her sister was gone. She was left to figure everything out on her own. This forest had been the source of her mother’s ability or so she thought, but it didn’t end when she wasn’t near the forest, the voices didn’t stop at the forest edge. She was lost in her own mind as everything, everything called out to her, everywhere. She had come to ask something bigger than herself to help her, but she didn’t even know how to do that. Her mother had only shown her the circle of trees, nothing about how to make things stop talking. She wasn’t the chosen one she had been told, she didn’t need to know. With the absence of her sister and mother, she had become the chosen one, and she knew nothing. That left her scared and alone. She needed to at least quiet the voices in her head that she knew they were from the things around her and not made up as if she was going crazy. She was going crazy, but it was from the fact she didn’t know how to control any of her abilities or even the small fact she didn’t know what her abilities were really.

She had tried clearing her thoughts, that was harder to do then she had thought. With everything yelling for attention and her own insecurities she sat in the middle of the corpse of trees and began to cry. “Why?”, she asked herself since no one was around for miles. “Why and how? I have no idea how to do this! Everything is too loud I can’t stop the voices.”

A split second later it was silent. It was completely silent in the circle. “All you needed to do was ask.”, she heard the voice come from behind her.

“What?”, she said as she jumped up. She turned side to side looking around, but no one was there. However, there was a presence there that she could feel. It was as strong as if there was a person standing before her.

“Little one, we know of your pain. We sense it.”, the voice continued, “We remember you.”

“Who, who are you?”, she asked still looking around. “Where are you?”

“We are the ones. We have no name really, a label given is often not correct anyway. To answer the where we are everywhere, the air you breathe, the wind you feel on your cheek, the grass under your feet, the trees surrounding you. Simply we are a part of everything.”, the voice said.

“How many is we?”, she asked.

“Many, too many to name. There are more like us but not the same.”, the voice replied.

“What is your purpose?”, she asked.

“To continue life.”, the voice began, “When the world was created many holes were made on different planes of existence. We needed help continue to grow and help all the life on the planet, so we enlisted the help of a woman, a mortal woman, so many centuries ago. Hundreds of centuries ago. We gave her the ability to talk with us and the life surrounding her. With one condition that she have at least one daughter, we should have had a few more, but that was our only one.”

“Why?”, she asked.

“That is not important.”, the voice said. “However, the answer is in your blood. If you looked within yourself, you could find the answer within.”

“So, are you gods?”, she asked.

“The term Gods is a human one, not one we created. By the human standards we are sort of, but by the standards by which we exist no, we did not create the earth we only help keep the balance.”, the voice said.

“Where are you?”, she asked.

“We told you that already. In this circle, we can talk more clearly, and as one, outside of it, we are more scattered. You will be drawn to other circles as well, it is in your blood as we told you.”, the voice said. “However other things will also be drawn to you, things we cannot control, that is also in your blood.”

“What does that mean?”, she asked.

“Other creatures are drawn by your power, the abilities we gave to your grandmother so many years ago, others crave it and will try to change it, pervert it. You are not just a child of the planet, but you have pieces of all the creatures surrounding it running through your veins. Human terms like angel and demon, these apply to you as well.”, the voice said.

“So, I am a descendant of a woman who can talk to the earth, and I am both angel and demon?”, she asked she was now shaking her head as if she didn’t believe it. She really had to wonder if this was a bad dream. She had so many questions, and this voice was only answering what it wanted and with halves. She knew there was much more than what she was being told.

“And much more as well. You are a target to be controlled, and harnessed.”, the voice said softly. “ A great power in the grand scheme of things.”

“But if all I can do is talk to you why is that a great power?”, she asked.

“You can do much more than just talk to us.”, the voice replied. “You are more powerful than your mother, probably because of your father. Your sister was never our speaker, the choice was wrong, but your mother did not listen. It was always supposed to be you.”

“You didn’t talk to me when I came when I was little.”, she said. She recalled the day she sat in this area with her mother. Her mother kept asking what they were saying to her, but all she heard was the birds in the sky, the slight sound of the gentle breeze. She knew she was being ignored by whatever her mother believed in and she was not the one chosen to follow in her footsteps. She was a younger daughter. She had watched her aunts only refer to themselves that way, they were simply the replacements if something had happened to her mother. That was how they saw themselves. That was how she felt as well. She was the second replacement for her mother. She was also the replacement for her sister. Now the voice had told her they were all wrong. It was always supposed to be her. That wasn’t possible. Everything she knew was a lie. Her whole life had been based on this one choice by this voice in the middle of the woods.

“We did not talk to your sister either.”, the voice said. “We needed you both to grow before we could. We watched as you and her, fought your internal battles. She succumbed to the power before her. You did not. Test after test you passed whereas she failed. We have waited a long time for you.” “You said because of my father, why is that?”, she asked.

“Your father is one of the collectives, not ours but related sort of.”, the voice said.

“The collective? Like you but different?”, she asked.

“We can say no more about him. You need to ask him.”, the voice said. Her father had always been the one who brought balance to the family. She had to wonder now what he had been hiding. What was it about him that made these voices speak of him? She wanted to know. She wanted to know much more than she did and she wasn’t getting the answers she really wanted from the voice.

“So, what happens now?”, she asked.

“You need to learn quickly, we think a guide should do.”, the voice replied.

“A guide? Like a supernatural guide?”, she asked.

“Such terms do not apply, Little one.”, the voice said. “The guide is awaiting you outside the circle.”

“What will this guide teach me?”, she asked as she turned to look around. Through the tree branches, she could see a figure in the distance. Where did they come from? How did they get there so quickly? Now she had more questions and most importantly what was her guide?

“Everything, Little one. Absolutely Everything.”, the voice said as it began to fade. “The more you come here, the stronger you will become, we recommend at least once a week, twice is better. Listen to your guide. They will not steer you wrong.”

“I will try.”, she said as she heard them fade away. The voices were still there but only whispering not full on screaming,

she could push them away. She began to clear the trees back into the main part of the meadow within the forest. In the middle of a meadow was a man. He was taller than her by a foot maybe a bit more, his hair was as white as a freshly fallen snow, his eyes a piercing color of fool’s gold looked her over as she did the same to him. “Hello.”, she called out.

“Hello, Princess.”, he replied as he bowed in her direction.

“Are you my guide?”, she asked.

“The collective sent me, yes.”, he said. As she got closer, she noticed his eyes were a piercing yellow with a glow behind them. “They thought you would prefer me in this form to any others.”

“In this form?”, she asked as she stood before him.

“I am not human, Princess. Like you I am from many different species. Human, unlike you, is not one of them though.”, he said.

“Oh.”, she replied unsure of him now.

“Like you, I am a mix of good and evil. I will help you learn the ways of both.”, he said smiling, the smile he had was not a nice one and it didn’t go to his eyes. His eyes glowed much like an animal in the night. His slight movements were also very much like a caged animal. He was elegant in a simplistic way. Everything about him screamed that he was enjoying making her feel uncomfortable.

“Both? I thought I was supposed to be good.”, she said.

“That is your choice, Princess. We all have a choice in what we are, how we act. You need to learn both sides, or you are unbalanced. Your sister was unbalanced, and the evil took over. If you do not learn both you really can be neither.”, he said shrugging his shoulders.

“What are you, good or evil?”, she asked.

“Both, whichever suits me at the time.”, he easily replied.

“Suits you at the time?”, she asked. She almost laughed. She still had no idea what this man, and she used the term loosely, was. That almost frightened her.

“I forgot how much humans like to talk.”, he said shaking his head. He looked closer at her as she stood feet planted in the dirt. “You look like her.”

“Who? My mother?”, she asked.

“No, the first.”, he said. He looked at her closely. He was letting his eyes wander over her form and settling on her face. He had to smile. Though he had not personally met the mortal woman, he had seen her. For a mortal she was passable he had thought at the time.

“Oh, but that was thousands of years ago.”, she said.

“So? You are her descendant. Not your hair or eyes, those are different. Something though. I can’t place it. The more I look at you, the more I can see it.”, he said as he reached out to touch her hair.

“You knew her?”, she asked.

“Yes well not really knew. I knew of her. I did see her many times during her life which had been short enough.”, he simply replied. “She was a beautiful woman willing to become a slave for all humankind.”, he said. As she tilted her head to his answer, “Did your mother not teach you anything?” though the question was that of censure there wasn’t much in his voice. He was serious. He really wondered how a mother could leave her offspring so untrained when he could clearly see the untapped power strumming through the woman in front of him.

“No, she didn’t.”, she said shaking her head, “She thought my sister was the one to take her place, not me.”

“Your sister, hmmm?”, he said as he stood there looking at her. “No, she was never supposed to be the one for this job, others yes, but not this one.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”, she asked. She had tilted her head as she pondered his words. What other job could her sister have had?

“You will see.”, he said as he took her hand and started to leave the meadow back to the car she left. “Princess, you will begin to see everything now.”

“What do you mean? And what is your name?”, she asked.

“Princess you ask many questions. Too many for right now. You can call me”, he started to say as he looked up to the sky, “Yes perfect, call me Mitsuhide.”

“Mitsuhide?”, she asked.

“Yes.”, he replied as he continued to tug her through the darkened forest. The sounds in her head where quiet now and she could think again. This was almost too much and way too overwhelming, but she knew somehow she would be okay in the end. It was a calming presence that had surrounded her. She didn’t know if it had something to do with the voices or the creature standing next to her.

“Is that your name?”, she asked.

“One of the many I have used as I have lived with humans.”, he sighed. “I always liked the sound of it.”

“Fine.”, she said as she again shrugged her shoulders and then squared them away. “It’s is nice to meet you, Mitsuhide.”

He stopped and looked down, his eyes flashed in the darkness. “Hopefully you continue to think that way. Let’s go, Princess, you have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Where are we going?”, she asked.

“Home.”, he said.

She didn’t know if he meant his home or hers. She wasn’t sure she knew what was going on, or if she really even wanted too anymore. The voices stopped, and she was going to be schooled on all her different sides, she wasn’t afraid, but she was slightly alarmed. It was going to be a long night either way she thought.