" Now gather in a circle" Ikem said as he let go of zephyr who joined his siblings to form a circle.
After they formed a circle, Ikem bent down and started writing a language he didn't understand around his kids. Each time he wrote something down he looked at the book in his hand to make sure he got it right, it took about a minute for him to finish writing down the word.
Blood red roots stretched out from behind Ikem as it morphed into a small red blade, which he handed over to his daughter Ripple as he gestured for her to cut open her palm, an expression of fear came over Ripple as she looked at her father with questioning eyes.
Ikem stretched out his hand to fumble her hair while speaking in a calming tone " There is no need to be afraid girl, daddy will never do anything to hurt you"
Terra, his favorite kid, calmly took the blade away from his sister and proceeded to close his hand around the blade, while pulling the blade as it cut his hands open and blood started dripping into the writing.
Handing the blade over to ember who with no hesitation cut open his palms as blood started flowing into the writing, zephyr the most excited for no reason quickly took the blade from ember while cutting open his palm, now all that remained was Ripple who after seeing her brothers also no longer hesitated as she cut open her palm.
Seeing that everything was ready, Ikem pulled out the glowing leaf in front of the book and dropped the leaf at the center of the circle, this time it was his turn to cut himself which he did as his green golden blood fell onto the leaf.
Almost like the leaf has been starving, it quickly absorbed Ikem's blood while at the same time changing as It turned to a branch as it dug into the ground with roots spreading out and sucking the blood falling from the kids.
The writing Ikem wrote down on the ground started glowing an eerie purple, staining the branch which was now growing bigger the more blood it sucked, the huge tree felt a similar aura from the purple light as it also started growing purple.
Ikem's breath almost hitched as he felt a gaze similar to his father's come from the now growing branch, the gaze felt empty like it was not really there but he felt it and currently the gaze was looking at the tree.
After a while the gaze receded and was no longer present, Ikem let out a breath as he felt himself perspiring, the branch by this time had grown into a small tree reaching the waist height of his kids and soon after growing a certain height.
Ikem's expression changed as he felt mana start gathering around the tree, the mana elements were different, fire water earth and air, the different mana elements gathered at the tree and soon turned into four fruits of different colours.
The purple glowing writings seemed to come alive as they left the ground while coiling around the trees and getting into each fruit. Once the last writing went into the fruit, the ritual ended as the mana dispersed around the cave.
Ikem kids almost like something that had been holding them in place has let them go as they all fall down with a thud. Ikem no longer maintaining his composure ran to his kids to check on them, and calmed down once he noticed they were just weak from losing too much blood.
" Can you help them Bara" Ikem said to the only one who knows a lot about blood.
" No problem" Bara said as red roots stretched out to the wounds on the kids palm getting into it before glowing red as it filtered the excess blood it had and let the pure blood flow into the kids.
This went on for a while as soon Bara retracted his roots, Ikem stepped forward as his hands glowed green as he healed the blade wounds, this was something he was able to do after the change in the core in his body.
A groaning sound could be heard as the kids all woke up while looking around confused but soon the expression changed as they felt a huge attraction to the small tree holding four fruits in it, they all stood up and walked to the tree with each grabbing hold onto a fruit they were most attracted to.
With no hesitation they easily picked off the fruit while biting into it, soon clarity appeared in their eyes but before they could say anything, a huge cocoon of light surrounded them each. Ikem watched all this Quietly as he said nothing, the journal in his father's book mentioned that something similar was to happen after they took the fruit.
The small tree seemed to have finished its job as it turned into ash and at the center of the ash lay the glowing leaf torn from the book. Ikem went and picked up the leaf and put it back to where it was before.
Back to the the four kids, after the cocoon covered them, their minds was brought to a forest and the center of the forest laid a giant similar to them, the only difference being the horns on the giant head but something they say made them know this was their grandfather, they saw a writing similar to the one's there father wrote on the chest of the huge being.
A huge voice sounded over the huge space bringing their attention back from the giant and listened to the voice "Inherit the essence of elemental fate, my descendants, for henceforth your beings shall be bound to the very elements you now bear. Choose successors wisely, for as each of you designates an heir, bear forth a fruit embodying the wisdom of your elemental journey, that they may inherit both your legacy and the elemental essence that courses through your veins."
After hearing the voice, four curses flew out from the giant before imprinting into four apelings, soon after they were thrown out from the forest. In reality Ikem watched as the cocoon surrounding the kids dispersed with a curse mark imprinted on their forehead which disappeared immediately after.
Zephyr, seeing his father spoke out excitedly " I think we have seen grandfather dad" Ripple spoke right after him also excited " He was huge dad, how come you are not that big" she asked out but Terra stroked her head to calm her down while regarding his father.
" We were brought into a weird space where something was said to us, do you know what that is about father?" Terra asked to which Ikem nodded but before elaborating he asked " How do you feel"
Hearing his question, there expression all changed as they thoroughly looked to themselves to see if there was anything different, it then came to their notice of the changes in the colour of their furs, Ember furs now looked a chase redder than it was before, Terra looked a lot like dusty yellow, Ripple furs looked a lot blue while Zephyr looked a lot like the colour change in Ikem but his was lot lighter green while his father was deep green.
That was the only changes as they felt like there were certain invisible things around them that has a lot of attraction to them, they tried to interact with the elements surrounding them, the element tried to be stubborn but for some reason they felt some small attraction to the apelings which shouldn't be there as there physique wasn't the type they like but for an inexplicable reason the attraction is there.
Clearing his throat, Ikem got back the attention of his kids who were amazed with the mana element around them, "For your situation, i have to inform you that you have been cursed"
Hearing the word "Cursed" the expression of the apelings changed, They don't know the meaning but they subconsciously feel like it is something bad with the way their father said it.
" No need to look so grim, not all curses is bad as in the case of guys, the curse gives you a better chance at succeeding than the other's, I won't go deep into it now as that will be taken in our next lesson of the energy and element you are now feeling clearly which is called "Mana"
" What i can tell you is that the curse has two stages which activates when the condition is right, there is the active curse state where other elements from now won't react well or get closer to you, then there is the state where the curses transfers to all your descendant who gets the elemental attribute you have now that means that some of your kids won't bear the curse only those with the same elements as you will bear it"