The explosive sound of rain pelted the soft earth on the outskirts of Aegis. A lone man wandered the woodland surrounding his cabin. With a squint of his sunkissed eyes he peered beyond his shoulder and back towards his home away from home.
"Well this is awkward," he murmured, "I could have sworn I left the lights on."
With a shrug he pressed onward, his pale hand gripping a pink umbrella in anticipation. Even the thunder failed to mask how his heart pounded in his chest. Squish, splash. Mud raced from beneath his feet creating an unreliable pathway occasionally causing him to lose his footing. However, the man had an exceptional sense of balance. His muscles rippled with delight as the elements tried their best to topple him over. Where the rain and wind failed to stop him, they managed to snap his umbrella in half. Causing his neatly styled emerald hair to droop in front of his eyes, partially blocking his vision.
"And that is rather unfortunate..." He sighed, "Oh well, I doubt it's much further now."
It didn't take more than a minute for his Kirbo graphic tee and black joggers to begin weighing him down from the rain, "There!" His voice jumped as he breached through a wall of brush. His eyes shone in the darkness as he stood trembling over a crater that's depths seemed endless.
"I can sense it, but... What exactly is it?"
He placed his open hand on the edge of the chasm and focused mana from within into the ground, sending it out like snakes on a hunt. After a few moments of searching his eyes opened slightly.
The man gasped as a feeling of malice embraced him from behind,
"⌇⏁⏃⊬ ⏃⍙⏃⊬!!!"
Subconsciously, his body bolted to the right, "Huh?!" He watched as a beam of light tore apart the ledge he was standing on moments ago.
The shockwave from the blast caused the ground beneath his feet to rumble, and nearby trees to have their bark ripped from their trunks. Beyond the debris the man saw a mirror image of himself. Even the soaked clothes and dripping hair were replicated perfectly.
"A mimic? No, this thing feels different." He thought out loud. "I'm Jamie of 'The Fool's Carol', can you understand me?"
"⌰⟒⏃⎐⟒ ⋔⟒ ⏃⌰⍜⋏⟒!" His replica snarled in return.
It quickly shot off another beam of light in his direction. This time he popped out of its field of view and reappeared behind it. With a swift chop he struck the back of its neck. It let out a cry before whipping its front leg towards Jamie's abdomen. With a swipe of his arm he redirected the kick throwing his clone off balance. Something feels off, it feels scared more than anything. Jamie took a step back and raised both of his arms.
"Listen! I'm not going to hurt you anymore if you can just stop attacking me for a minute."
His clone took a step forward and began to speak but before the words could come out it collapsed onto the mud riddled ground below. Walking over to his presumed enemy he looked down upon a pint sized blob of pure mana. It had catlike ears and seemed awfully squishy.
"I'm sorry, what the hell are you?!" His initial shock was so great that he even surprised himself.
Quickly regaining his composure he inspected the pure black thing in front of him. It appeared to be slime-like in nature and its exterior seemed to be skittering about itself. His arm wearily reached out to the blob, he hesitated for a moment before placing his hand on it. A strange pull from his gate lasted only for a moment. Ew, that was gross. Felt like something was probing around inside of me. Huh? What's this? The blob began to ripple, shaking side to side before taking the form of a short haired black cat, with paws the color of snow matching the tips of its ears and tails. W-wait... Tails? Yes, tails. The cat seemed to have two twin tails protruding from it. Jamie bent over gently lifting the cat up to his chest. Oh no, what am I doing? How do I explain this to Karyl and the others? Against his better judgment, he shielded the newly formed cat from the storm as he brought it back to his home away from home. I knew the lights were on. He laughed wryly as he hurried inside.
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(Uploaded version is the initial draft of the work LxD. The final edited version will be available for purchase in the future and you can check the progress of the book by visiting Lucky's streams twitch.tv/TheLuckyTempest)