The time is early morning and the location is an old hut within a wide cornfield. The hut is made of wood, that is connected through some shabbily placed nails, the space within the hut is wide enough to be divided into two rooms and in fact, there is a small wooden fence, that separates the room into two halves. On one half, there is a run-down double bed that looks usable. The word mattress is used loosely, as this is a 3-layers-thick pile of wooden boards that is covered with a thin peace of leather. The construction is elevated from the ground through a stack of Hay. Contrary to expectation, the bed is decently functional as a sleeping place, since the wooden boards used as the lying area are enhanced with the property of flexibility. The existence of the so-called enhancers in populated areas has made the purchase of moderately functional living equipment possible. The boy, who received the offer to use this bed as his temporary sleeping place turned the offer down and instead opted to sleep in the adjacent “room” using his own means. He has waited until the old man fell into a deep slumber in order to “affect” his environment.

..

I sneak behind to the other side of the wall to check on the old man. He seems to be a light sleeper, so I want to give him a little bit of an incentive to sleep longer.

I decide to take a steady posture before closing my eyes and listening to the noise of the night. Beside Mr. Astaros even breath and my own, hushed breathing I focus on the noises that aren’t noises. It is more like a sensation I feel than a noise that I hear. I feel the vibration of the grass dancing in the wind. I feel the wind sweeping through the cornfield and I feel the vibration of it hitting the front of the shack. The feeling changes from a stream of water bashing against a rock within a river and morphs like water trickling through a sieve; the wind is exploring the surface of the wooden house and found the small but existing cracks and crevices of the facade and it enters the building. Unlike the breath of the two living beings inside this house, I don’t hear the wind even though it wraps around me. It is coiling up and down from my arms over my waist and tries to encroach through my face into my body. I feel the coldness of the night around me and I let it envelop me. All the while, I begin to whisper in a whispering voice that sounds like a cold breeze:

<<I am Imogyeran Ashenwald. I am Imogyeran Ashenwald. I am Imogyeran Ashenwald>>

Then I breathe out the chill enveloping me. My body stops feeling the cold and becomes numb.

I feel it, the wind has accepted me as another existence and is attracted toward my soul.

I stretch out my hand and the wind concentrates on its palm. Almost unconsciously, I say out loud in a voice, that only the non-living beings can hear, a voice that only the spirits can listen to:

<<Yun>>, I can feel the warmth of my body returning as the cold recedes and is absorbed by this newly formed spirit familiar.

I show a happy expression on my face, all the while being careful not to be loud in order not to wake up the old man.

<Okay, step 1 is finished. Now on to step 2.>

I let out another small breath and point the finger of the hand, within which my newly created spirit is residing in. I point it towards the old man sleeping on his bed and I start speaking in the silent language of the spirits:

<<I have created you Yun, so you are the property of Imogyeran Ashenwald. In honor of listening to my call, Yun, fulfill my wish. Envelop this being in front of you>>

Step 2 is a necessary step in order to make this man have some sweet dreams tonight...

..

The boy commands the newly created spirit embodying the concepts of both the wind and the coldness of the night. All of the spirit’s ‘meaning’ moves in the direction of the sleeping old man before enveloping him.

Contrary to a possible expectation of the old man being afflicted with the property of

‘cold wind’, the spirits are beings, that are only very loosely connected to the realization of their concepts.

The spirit of the wind and the cold moves using its master’s ‘energy’ as a medium and as a result it does not harm or affect the old man in any way, shape or form.

Imogyeran smiles at his satisfactory resulting

<OK, step 2 is complete. Now for step 3.>

..

After ensuring the completion of the previous step, my body has warmed up considerably. I feel a cozy feeling that is incomparably greater than that of lying in the arms of my parents…

Not good, get rid of those useless fools Imogyeran. Never forget, who you are.

I barely manage to get a grip on myself. At least I know that step 3 is going to be successful,

I smirk and declare in the voice of the spirit.

<I, your creator retract my orders from you, Yun. You are free to act however you like>

With those words I stop acknowledging the existence of the wind in the world. I let go of perceiving my surroundings, close up my eyes and ears and focus back on my own chant.

<<I am Imogyeran Ashenwald. I am Imogyeran Ashenwald. I am Imogyeran Ashenwald>>

I feel the sensation returning to my own body and the warm feeling from before is now gone from it. I wait for a couple of seconds and open my eyes while taking my hands away from the ears I was covering them with. Now, in front of my eyes, I see the spirit ‘Yun’ patiently waiting, looking like a small tornado. With this sight I know it. I excitedly shout out:

<<STEP 3 COMPLETE!! YEAH!!!>>

I check on the old man and I am delighted to see him smiling in his sleep without having noticed my screaming at all. The old man is currently enveloped in the feeling of warmth and coziness that I was feeling only moments ago.

The spirit of the cold wind, ‘Yun’ didn’t interact with the old man before, because it consumed my own ‘energy’ in order to move and now that I separated it from my orders, it naturally moved on its own energy. This means that ‘Yun’ concentrated the coldness and the wind embodying it as a concept and took them with itself, when it left from the old man.

The only thing ‘Yun’ left behind was the absence of ‘a cold, lonely chill’

resulting in ‘a cozy, nostalgic warmth’.

<<With this my sleeping spell is complete!>>, I shout out while flashing a grin.

<Now that he is like this, he is probably going to stay in this state until next morning. This means, that I have enough time to have some fun!>

..

Contrary to his suspicious behavior and his sudden changes in mood, the boy is an honest lad, who wants to make the life of the people around him happy. He would never do anything that would harm those, who show him kindness. Thus, the only goal of his 3-step-plan was to lull the old man into a deep sleep, so that he would not interrupt his next few activities.

..

<<OK! First order of business is going to be a nice party!>> I spread out my arms and twirl around on the spot while watching ‘Yun’ turning to try and follow my movements in order not to lose me. If I didn’t understand the nature of spirits, the little guy would look like a little brother, following me around…

<I am getting depressed again>, I stop twirling and try to focus my attention on the task at hand.

I search for a ball of hay to climb and stand on in this little shack and start spreading out my arms once again. This time, I command ‘Yun’ to stand down, because I need someone to play the audience.

I raise my voice even more and start my show:

<<Now Ladies and Gentlemen,

welcome to today’s little circus show, where we will try our best to cast the spell of a smile on your nonexistent face!>>

I bow down, pretending to hear a wave of applause raining down on me and after a dramatic pause I continue:

<<I would like each one of you to warmly welcome our MAIN ACTOR. Please give him a warm welcome!...?>> Midway sentence I feel a faint emotion within ‘Yun’

<<Oh what is it Yun? Did I say something to hurt you? Oh I get it, I was talking about a warm applause, my bad. I know that you stand for the cool wind and forgot to consider your feelings. I am sorry.>>, I say that and bow towards ‘Yun’.

Even though, it is still young, I can feel a faint happiness emanating from the young spiritual being. I raise my head, quickly climb down the stack of hay and give it the closest possible thing to a bear-hug.

Afterwards I make my climb back on top of my ‘tribune’, already painting from the strain on my body. Well, undernourishment combined with the physical strain of those light exercises combined with the mental strain of creating a spiritual friend, ‘Yun’, inevitably result in me being a little tired out. So I don’t have to be embarrassed about my physical condition.

<Hmmm… I need to persuade the old man to make some trading deals with me. Well that’s for the next day. Today we have something else that we need to do.>

I go back to straightening my back and continue the show:

<<All right, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Where have we left off of? That’s right, we were about to welcome today’s MAIN ACTOR!

Everybody, please give him a welcome of any kind! Whether it be a hot passionate applause or a cool tidal wave of chanting, Give It Your BEST!>>

I look expectantly at ‘Yun’ and this time, the spirit shuffles around a little in order to create a slight cool breeze in appreciation of our main actor.

I smile proudly, seeing the little guy trying his best from the start and observing him developing some basic emotional stability.

<<Cough, THANK YOU for the AMAZING APPLAUSE!! Then, without further ado, please welcome our MAIN ACTOR THE SPIRITUAL FAMILIAR DOGOGOOOOO!>>

At my signal, a yellow blob of clouds springs forth from a small pocket in my pants and proudly flies around me. Once it’s out in the open, the blob tries to snuggle up on me and since this spirit is a lot further developed than the other one, I can actually feel Dogogo’s presence on my body. It’s like a sweet pet, happy to see its master after not seeing him for an entire day.

I burst out laughing at the guy’s behavior and need to put a temporary stop to the show.

<<Haha! Please Dogogo, stop it! I can’t! I am standing on top of something, what if I fall down.. WHOA!>>

I get into a tumbling motion because of me losing my balance for a moment and need to sit down on the ‘tribune’

<<That was a close call. See? Something could have happened if I hadn’t caught myself, Dogogo!>> The spirit halts to a stop and carefully swirls around in front of my vision, seemingly dejected about making me mad. When I see that, I reach out and take him into an embrace similar to the one, I gave ‘Yun’ before. The only difference is, that since Dogogo is already quite developed, I can actually feel myself hugging a cloudy and puffy body of yellow.

I just sit there for a while, quietly petting the guy’s presumed back. After a while, I remember the purpose of the entire show. I signal Dogogo to get away from me and make a trip right in front of ‘Yun’. Since ‘Yun is still very young, it can only barely express any emotions, so I will have to do most of the talking. That said, I go up to ‘Yun’ and make the proper introductions.

<<This is Dogogo, your older brother. He has been born as ‘Donmir’, the spirit of tears of sadness and sorrow. Dogogo and I have been together for a long time now.>>

I gesture Dogogo to make the introductions himself. First things first, he takes a decent amount of distance to observe his new sibling. His attitude is a shy one, so I take a step back and let the two of them sort things out themselves. ‘Yun’ is still very unresponsive, which is why I continue the introduction while Dogogo is trying to get closer to it.

<<You see, ‘Yun’, because ‘Donmir’ and I have been spending a lot of time together, I guess that my nature has influenced the little guy and he has become more like me. He was able to stop being a spirit symbolizing a lonely stream of water trickling down my cheeks and instead learned to accept the feelings of warmth and coziness similar to a bath in hot water.

Funnily enough, I saw him change his nature, when the two of us took a swim in a lake together. >>, I laugh at the memory. It’s been only two months since ‘Donmir’ became Dogogo. I waited for a long time and now I finally feel ready to get myself a second friend.

..

Because of his malnourished muscles and facial features, Imogyeran looks smaller and by extension a little younger than he actually is. Imogyeran Ashenwald was born on

May 15^th in the year 325 RPT and the day, when he met Mr. Astaros, was February 14^th in the year 333. This means, that at this point in time, Imogyeran is close to 8 years old.

Of course, the fact that an 8-year-old child is able to talk, act and evaluate things on the level that this kid is doing, is basically unheard of.

To exaggerate a little, if a child with this kind of talent existed in a moderately influential noble family, then he would not only become the future heir of their family, but the entire family’s honor and social standing would tremendously improve through his sheer existence.

Now the most interesting part about this young boy is the fact that contrary to the picture, he is painting, the boy is by no means even close to being a genius.

The truth is, during his youngest moments as a child, he had no great mind, he had no great abilities. He had nothing except his tears. So many tears

…

May 15^th year 328 RPT

..