‘Sigh’

Aiden exhaled deeply as he lay, face up, on the grass. He was at the top of a cliff where greenery stretched on for a few acres or so.

He squinted at the sun hidden behind the clouds in the sky. Being lazy by nature, he had left the cattle to graze by themselves, occasionally just glancing around to ensure that they hadn't run away or jumped off the cliff.

‘The last time I lost a cow, the Landlord’s son almost skinned me alive.’, he shuddered at the memory of the whiplashes he had received 3 years ago. Right now, Aiden happened to be a child of 12 years.

‘Well, at least he is going off to the Trimshire Academy next month and I won’t have to bear with that fat oaf.’

Aiden was an orphan. As a baby, he had been left abandoned at the top of a cliff, and Mr. Jefferson, the Landlord, had found him there in the morning when riding his horse. Or at least that's what he had been told.

But contrary to what you might think, Aiden did not feel the slightest bit of gratitude towards him.

Kindness and generosity were not words that you could find in Mr. Jefferson’s dictionary. All he had ever given Aiden was the cowshed to sleep, leftovers as meals and clothes that could definitely have passed as ancient relics for sale. Rather, he had ensured that Aiden would stay and repay the debt of having saved his life when he was a baby.

Still looking up at the sun, he guessed it must already be time for lunch. ‘But there’s not gonna be anything good anyway. I’m just gonna stay here and catch some sleep. I’m sure the cows won’t go off anywhere’

“Right?”, he turned to a cow on his left and asked lazily.

“Moooo?”, The cow looked over in confusion while still chewing the grass in his mouth.

‘Nevermind’, he thought to himself and smiled as he closed his eyes.

Two minutes later, just as he was drifting off to sleep :

“Mooooooo!” “Mooo”

“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Aiden got up irritated, “What the hell!? Can’t you even let me enjoy some sle..........WHAT THE HECK IS THAT??!!”

Before he could lash out at the cow for ruining his afternoon, he saw a huge ball of blinding light descending from the sky. And huge as in, spanning a diameter of hundreds of metres.

And apparently.......it was headed right towards him.

‘God I know my life sucks but that doesn’t mean I want a premature death!’, he looked on in shock and helplessness. At this point even if he made a run for it, he knew he wouldn’t be able to escape the effective area of the ...whatever-that-thing-was.

Knowing there was nothing he could do he just closed his eyes and waited for whatever would happen.

5 seconds.

10 seconds.

15 seconds.

...................

“What?”, looking up, there was nothing to be seen. Just a clear sky with nothing special. Oh right, the sun still hurt his eyes.

The light heading towards him had disappeared. The cows were no longer panicking. They had gone back to peacefully consuming their greens and releasing their blessing of fertility on the soil.

‘Was I just hallucinating?’, he thought to himself.

“Sigh, I must be going mad.”, he was just about to go back to sleep, when an unbearable headache hit him and he lost his balance.

“Oh great! Just what.....I ...nee...”, and he lost consciousness.

Poke. 

Poke poke.

Feeling a finger against his cheeks, Aiden slowly opened his eyes.

"Oh finally awake. I was worried I accidentally killed you.", A man's gentle voice sounded.

Looking around, Aiden realised that everything in his surroundings was white. Absolute white. The sky was white, the floor was white…..white until his eyes could see. 

Looking to his left, Aiden found a man with short white hair and a trimmed ashen beard. "Sorry but who are you? And where am I? …. actually rather than that, what was that about accidentally killing me?", With each consecutive question, Aiden's voice grew more concerned.

Ignoring Aiden's barrage of questions, the man replied calmly. "I'm Denzel. I'm………. Hmmmm….. How should I phrase this? I guess you could call me a god."

"A god?", Aiden asked with raised brows that radiated skepticism.

"Yes, a god. However, I grew tired of my life at the peak of power and..... it was very lonely too so I thought it'd be fun to descend to your realm and follow you in your journey to greatness."

"Whoa whoa, slow down. So you are telling me that you are a god and you decided to wreck my brain cause you were bored? That ball of light was your doing? And what 'journey to greatness'? I'm an average nobody you could find anywhere on the continent. There's no way I'm gonna achieve any kind of greatness."

"That's where you are wrong Aiden. Your are not average in the least…."

"....well….thanks I guess. But how am I specia….", But before Aiden could speak further

"You are below average."

Aiden "..."

"But don't get me wrong. You are a bit special. Just a teensy bit. I couldn't see your fate through my techniques of divination. That goes to prove that you are one who's fate even the heavens can't predict."

"Divination? Heavens? Fate? What are you talking about, old man?"

"You don't even know heavenly divination? I sincerely apologise. Below average was a gross overestimation of your abilities on my part."

"You do know that holding back on those insults won't kill anyone right?", Aiden chipped in with a slightly irritated tone.

"Well everything aside", Denzel ignored Aiden's retort, "I'm going to be residing in your mind for……..hmmm?", Denzel tilted his head to the right as if keenly listening to something. "Looks like someone's here. I'll talk to you later. You should go for now."

"Go? Wai..", but once again before Aiden could complete his sentence, he felt his vision blurring and he found himself lying on the grasslands once again. The cattle were still grazing. 

"Was it all just a dream?", Aiden still felt a bit unsettled at how vivid his afternoon dream had been.

Just then, a grumpy voice called out to him from behind.

"AIDEN! Humph! Sleeping off during work are we?"A plump boy was walking towards Aiden at the moment. Looking back and seeing his round figure, Aiden sighed. 'Fatso Jack is here again'

"If you are slacking off again, I'll report it to my father and have your meals decreased. You should be thankful we are even letting you live at our home."

Aiden ignored the shouts and calmly gathered the cattle before heading back with Jack. Needless to say, Jack was still bickering on with his shouts and threats. 

After walking for an hour or so, Aiden and Jack finally stopped in front of a two storey brick house. While Jack proceeded into the house, Aiden locked the cows up in the cowshed right beside the house, before proceeding to a small corner at the end of the shed.

It was already nearing evening and the shed was just bright enough to differentiate colours properly. Lighting a small candle, Aiden sat down on a clumsily-made straw mattress. Slowly the exhaustion from the day set in and he started recollecting everything that had happened. While he still thought it was nothing but a dream, he had a small glimmer of hope that it wasn't. Even if not a God, the old man at least didn't treat him like filth or some inferior creature, much unlike Mr. Jefferson who was sitting inside the comfort of the house right beside him.

"But you ARE an inferior creature. It's just that I'm kind enough not to mention that because that might hurt your sentiments."

"THE HELL? WHO WAS THAT?", Aiden shouted as he abruptly stood up and examined his surroundings. But there was no one in sight. He knew it was the same voice as the old man who called himself Denzel, but where was he speaking from?

'I'm going mad ain't I?', he thought to himself dejectedly. First he was seeing things, and now he was hearing things.

"You most certainly are not. I assure you that I've checked your brain properly and you do not show any symptoms of neural damage, although I must say, your physique really is quite a weak one.", the voice came again.

"Where the heck are you?"

"I think I already clarified that I'm in your mind, so obviously I'm speaking from inside your mind. Seriously, how dumb can you be to not even understand that?", Denzel retorted indignantly.

At the same time, a soft feminine voice came from nearby the shed entrance, “Umm, Aiden are you alright?”