Edited and reposted 8-19-18: edit in the dates/days.
Edited and reposted 5-13-18: minor detail updates and wording.
I am writing songs for this story. You can find the links to the songs in my profile: Austin101.
Chapter 3: Motivating Strangers
October 15th, 1303 NB (New Beginnings): Afternoon, through the Violet Forest.
We departed the morning of the 12th, walking for three and a half days.
"Are we there yet?" We're still walking through the Violet Forest, and it doesn't feel like we're getting anywhere. Yukino has been bugging Hazel to get bananas all afternoon.
"Nope! Still have another day to go," Hazel replied, being the one to lead me and Yukino out here. I give a heavy sigh. Hazel tossed a banana to Yukino to get him to stop chattering in her ear. Yukino quickly catches the banana, peels it, and slowly takes a bite into it.
We have already been walking for half a day, I didn't want to go through another half a day in this miserable forest. As I thought this, more noises were heard from all around, and I jumped without realizing it, including the white panther Hazel is mounted upon. The white panther has light purple paws, muzzle, and at the tip of the tail.
Fifteen minutes later, I look through the trees to find an open flat field of black grass, quickly turning to Hazel. "You said it would be half a day before we get out!"
"Yea, I lied. Was getting pretty tired of your impatient questions." Hazel admitted. "Like I said before, there's still a few days until we get to the small town. Doesn't it feel great that we're out of the shadows faster than you thought we would?" A soft growl came from the panther. "Oh, yea, Rory. The best feeling."
"Come on, now," I hear behind me. I find Yukino trying to get the attention of a nearby bear but instantly turn away, uncaring about what happens. When I pass by the last of the black and purple trees, I took a heavenly deep breath. I was at peace with the change in scenery. It didn't last long, though.
"I love you," I hear behind me and I jump around only to find Yukino hugging the arm of the bear. With a sigh of relief, I turn back around to the view. The wind blew from the left, my hair flying left. ...I mean, the wind is coming from the right. ...wait… what?
Hazel beat me to noting the wind. "The wind is blowing from opposite directions. We wouldn't want the weather to turn on us so soon." Hazel grinned, her green eyes flickering over towards me. "From here, it'll take a couple days to reach the town, then a couple more days to reach the border of the Shadow and Ice territories."
"Whatever." I turn away from her while putting my hair into a bun to keep it from blowing everywhere. As I do, I see a large cloud of smoke in the distance, followed by the delayed sound of an explosion. The field went quiet before the creatures began to chatter in the forest again. Now that we're out of the forest, I don't need to go anywhere with her. I'll have to ditch her somehow…
The bear Yukino was hugging is startled and runs into the forest. "Nooooo!" Yukino falls to his hands and knees in despair.
"...Let's go find out what that was. Onward, Rory!" The white panther she is riding on moves forward in the direction that she is pointing, towards the explosion.
I, on the other hand, want to avoid going towards possible danger. I don't want to get stopped by anything unnecessary, including an explosion. If people are hurt, there should be enough room to get away from the fire and extinguish it. I walk to the right away from the explosion. If I leave her company, it doesn't bother me in the least, and Yukino has to follow me. I'm not going to go anywhere near trouble, only to the Ice Country.
After ten minutes of walking in another direction than where Hazel and the explosion are, I think I hear something calling my name. I turn to my left and find Hazel on the white panther coming my way.
"Whatever it is, no!" I start running away from her, grabbing at my locket that holds the power to speed up. Before I could do anything, however, a massive figure appeared and prevented me from moving forward.
"You really know how to make sushi?!" The figure puts its hands on my shoulders, my heart beating hard. I turn to Hazel who gives me a massive grin. That… she…. Freaking! UGH!
"Of course I don't! I can only make so many things, but sushi isn't one of them!" As I say that, his hands slide off me and he starts to cry. This man is in his twenties, nearly twice as tall as I am. His clothing consisted of something you would find when traveling in a desert or hot place, and he wore a red bandana across the top of his head. Seeing how sensitive he is and suddenly feeling horrible, I shrug helplessly, unsure of what to do.
"Tyba, you know that I can make sushi. We can eat sushi for dinner." Another figure appeared beside me. He… was extremely short, maybe half as tall as me.
"But you're sushi tastes like s-"
"What did I tell you about language?"
"Sorry…" The midget walks over to Tyba and pats his hand.
"We'll find somewhere to eat sushi when we get to the Ice Country."
My heart stops.
"Oh, so you're going to the Ice Territory, too?" Hazel asks. Please no!
"That's where you're heading?" The short one asks back. I grab at my hair angrily.
"Yukino, what do you think about them joining us?" The lot of them turn to Yukino who is still mourning about the loss of his bear after being startled. He didn't hear her question because of that. "I don't see why not." She doesn't bother asking me, and I throw my arms in the air.
"No! Let's leave them to whatever they're doing and let's go!" I start walking away, but the big guy, Tyba, once again steps in my way and gives me a surprise hug.
"Let's travel together! It'll be fun!" I struggle, trying to get out of his grasp. But it 'twas in vain. I go limp, unable to get out of his grasp.
"Let's get going, Yukino!" Hazel calls over to him, but he continues to lay face first in the dirt. As soon as Tyba let me go, I start speed walking in the direction of the Ice Country. The two strangers watch in awe as Yukino's limp body slides against the dirt as I walk on well ahead of them. Hazel points in the same direction and the panther starts walking in that direction as well. The duo follow because they are hypnotized by this strange… thing going on.
While walking, a golden butterfly flutters in front of my face for a brief moment before flying on. Hypnotized by its gleam, I watch for a moment until it disappeared from the human eye. The others didn't notice, being a ways behind me and chatting about whatever weird people talk about.
We walk for a few hours before the flat plains of black grass start to form hills in the distance. For some reason, this Tyba person would occasionally try catching up to me to talk to me, but I kept my distance. I don't want to talk to anyone. I just want to become a Fourth Ranker. While it's true that my strength isn't all that impressive, the things that really shine are my stamina, movements, and the fact that I focus entirely on enemy vital nerves to end fights quickly. None of the people in Patsu know of my being a Taishiru.
Also for the duration of walking, Yukino would tripping over the tall black grass. I increased the distance required for him to be near me so that I may stay away from him and everyone else. I'm still very unhappy to know that Yukino has some locket that gives him impressive defenses. It's a waste, knowing he is an idiotic brat, and I plan to take the locket for myself. It isn't possible to use a locket that was made using someone else's soul, but perhaps the locket casing can be used to harvest some of his defensive power. If a locket is used enough, the power emitted from the soul object covers the locket like dust, therefore being possible to get some of that " power dust" on my own soul object and have a change to merge with the "dust." The possibility of it working is under 3%, though.
Hazel and Saku, the short older brother of the two strangers, were quietly following, the panther seeming happy to be in the tall grass.
There isn't really much to see. Literally just black grass everywhere I look except from behind where the Violet Forest is located in the far distance. A pink doe decides to pop up from the black grass and trodd further ahead towards the hills, which was a pleasant change of scenery. I've grown up always seeing these animals look and be different, but I've been told that they weren't always like this, that the animals used to have limited colors and be really simply creatures unlike nowadays. To me, this is normal, seeing animals like this.
I begin going up the hill, the same one the doe coincidentally took. Everyone else is still well behind me, and I find myself smiling again. It's been a while. The breeze feels nice, a beautiful change in scenery, everything makes me forget about everything and want to stay here. I walk to the top of the hill, now with my arms out.
"This is really nice…" I open my eyes when I hear a loud crunch somewhere in front of me.
I look down to see a pile of bones peeking out from the black grass. And that wasn't there before. The doe from earlier trods in front of me near the pile, and it suddenly disappeared, blood flying in all directions.
That's when I saw it. A filthy green piranha jumping out of the ground above the grass.
Just like the Denizen, there are only one race of animals or creatures that hold some sort of power for each element. These piranhas are not one of those creatures. These piranhas simply swim in earth rather than water and drown if they are in water for too long. I skimmed over the inhabitants of the Black Plains when I was looking up information about the Shadow country, not thinking it would be important to know. But now I wish I knew any bit of information I could about these things.
I immediately run down the hill the way I came, the others just arriving at the bottom of the hill.
"Awe, look, she missed us," I heard Yukino call out with two thumbs up in the air. As I ran, a few piranhas jumped out of the ground towards me but missing, causing Yukino to squeal like a little girl. "Angry fish!"
"These little buggers again," Saku sighs.
"She'll be fine when she gets down here," Hazel points out. Just like she said, I was fine when I reached the bottom of the hill. The piranhas didn't go any farther than the bottom of the hill. "The hills are their homes, and they're very territorial."
"What are we supposed to do then? That would mean we have to go around all these hills or deal with these piranhas, and I don't want to take a longer trip than needed!" I stomp my feet. Saku rolled his eyes at me.
"Deary, there's nothing to worry about. We'll get through here no problem, no one's going to get hurt."
"Do show me what you mean, then," I snap. Without a word, the big younger brother Tyba walks up to the bottom of the hill, gets on one knee, and places both hands on the earth hiding in the black grass.
A few seconds pass, and the grass around his hands begin to freeze. Another few seconds pass and the ice starts spreading up the hill until it finally covered the entire hill.
Hesitant and shaking, I step back. "W-what?"
Saku sighs, applauding Tyba. "Tyba is a Candidate for the Ice Trials."
"Ice Trials? Does that mean…?"
"Yep. The Ice Denizen is dying."
A Wytsu status, which no one can achieve under normal circumstances, is Candidate. A Candidate has one of the eight elemental powers that a Denizen would have. A Candidate receives their power, they aren't born with it.
It all starts with the Denizen, as we are told. When a Denizen is knowingly about to die, parts of his or her power seeps away from him or her, and that power seeks out worthy Candidates to become the next Denizen of that element. When a Denizen dies suddenly, the power entirely leaves the Denizen and seeks out worthy candidates, which usually leads to finding more Candidates than the former rule.
The purpose of the Candidate Trial is to gather the Candidates when able and make them fight to the death. The purpose of fighting to the death is to find the true Candidate meant to be the next Denizen of that element: no two people may live and hold half or all of the Denizen elemental power for too long. If too many have the Denizen power for too long, then the weaker ones find their energy being taken away from them until they die. Once a Candidate kills another Candidate, the fallen Candidate's power is absorbed by the winner.
Tyba is an Ice Candidate. So that means he has to find other Ice Candidates and kill them if he wants to live.
"I've beaten a few other Candidates so far, which is why I'm able to freeze an entire hill now. In the past, it would have taken me quite some time," Tyba comments.
"Yep." Saku nudges his frother.
I tremble. Now that I know he's a Candidate, and now that I'm basically a First Ranker again, I slowly start to bow. Before I bring myself to do a full bow, Yukino starts laughing and running towards him. I flinch because if you don't follow protocol, those with higher status can kill you without punishment!
"Freeze my head!" Yukino puts a finger on his head. Tyba laughs back and obliges, freezing only the scalp of his head. Yukino skips in circles.
"I wish you good fortune, then," Hazel comments to Tyba while still sitting on the white panther.
Saku smiles and nods his head, pleased with his younger brother. But none of them understand the situation! You're supposed to bow to those with status! Hazel turned to me, realizing my conundrum.
"It's fine. None of us care about the status rules."
"Huh?"
"It's common to find random people in a forest or somewhere like this place, and they usually don't care about the rules of status. We all just want to be equal."
"That's right," Yukino grins. "Status is for weak people who just want to beat up other people and take over everything." He taps his still frozen scalp with his fist and laughs. "We want everyone to be equal and just have fun!"
My entire body twitches. This just isn't right! You're nothing if you don't have status to earn money and be able to support others, you can't do any of that if you don't have anything!
"Onward!" Yukino puts a hand on his frozen scalp and points with the other up the hill, making his way up the hill. The frozen pointy black grass makes for good footing. The panther Hazel is on begins to climb along with Saku and Tyba. With clenched fists, I stomp after them.
"Once I get to the Ice Country, I'm going to ditch these people," I note to myself angrily. "These people are crazy."
"Let's see what you got!" Tyba challenges Yukino. They both start running down, but it's clear who's going to win: Tyba. Yukino stumbles around and falls a few times onto the pointy frozen grass while Tyba storms down without a problem. Yukino just can't do anything. He has no strength and no speed, but he has some locket that gives him incredible defense.
"Loosen up," Saku said while hitting my back, nearly making me lose my balance. "I can tell that something horrible happened, but that's all in the past."
"I don't want your help. I just need to get my status back and come back here to save my friend."
"Oh? So this is for a friend? Then let me ask you this: do you think this friend of yours would be happy to see you so angry and hateful?"
"Don't talk to me like you know everything."
"You're right, I don't know everything. But I do know this: all we can do is move forward and become even stronger so that we can do what we need to do. I don't have anything back home that I need to do, but I made some terrible mistakes and hurt my brother. There's nothing I can do right now to apologize to Tyba. All I can do right now is support him and be there for him during the Ice Trials. When everything's all over, I'll likely be strong enough to become a Guard for him." Denizen have two Guards to protect them and to do anything they ask them to.
"So you're just telling me to get stronger and live life while a friend is in danger?"
"Yes. There's probably nothing you can do except to become stronger and make more friends. You can get help if you make friends to rescue your friend."
What he's saying isn't false, but I don't want to accept it. I would just like to be able to go save Lily and Kisa now. But I can't. I already planned on working to get stronger so I can save them. But I need to do it as fast as possible.
"Push-ups!" I hear Tyba call out at the bottom of the hill with Yukino. Yukino attempts and fails to do very many push-ups while Tyba speeds through them easily. No-good-Yukino. "Sit-ups!" Ignoring them and Saku, I walk down the hill, Tyba freezing each hill we came across in the Black Plains.
October 17th, 1303 NB: Late Afternoon
It's been two days of walking through the Black Plains. The sun is setting and the moon is in the sky. I love the night. Everything looks and feels more beautiful during the night. Makes me want to dance my night waltz. Kind of hard to see where I'm going when the black grass makes it harder to see where I'm going, but the moonlight helps with that. Which is really nice.
"There's supposed to be a town somewhere, right? It's supposed to be the midway point from the Black Plains to the border of the Ice Country."
"That would be correct," Tyba confirmed. "I also checked the best route to get there back when we were in the Fire Country."
"Good to see you being a bit more friendly," Hazel comments, and I immediately turn away.
"Whatever. Still doesn't change the fact that I lost everything because of him."
"Nope. It doesn't change that fact." I puff my cheeks and continue walking.
"It's because you're starting to like me, isn't it?" The big guy, Tyba, smiled pointing to himself.
"Of course not," I remark, but I have to admit that he is starting to rub off onto me. Both he and Saku.
"Land-ho!" Yukino yells directly into my ear, causing me to react with a jab to a nerve on his side and sending him to the ground.
"Don't do that!" Although I hurt him, I don't care. I heed his words and look in the distance. It was faint, but that definitely isa town in the distance. Without another word, I start running towards the town, already at the bottom of the last hill.
"I'll beat you to the town!" Tyba yells out to Yukino and everyone else, making a run for the town as well, unfreezing the rest of the hill they were on. Saku jumps around everywhere to avoid the piranhas, Hazel and the panther quickly got off the hill without any worries, however Yukino was skipping with high knees while squealing, trying to get away from the piranha attack that were happy to have their freedom to attack again. As I run, Tyba and the panther run past me, mentally bothering me since I pride myself in my speed. Guess I have more work to do.
We finally reach the town, but it wasn't what I thought it would be: the town is nearly deserted, very few people around, all being First Rankers, meaning poor people. The people here also look lifeless as if they have no energy, sitting against the small house walls outside on the dirt path. I walk along the dirt path towards the middle of the town where a fountain stands. The water is still running, and it looks like the majority of the people can be found here.
"Look, dead people!" Yukino exclaimed loudly.
"No, Yukino. They're not dead," Hazel responds, and he leans his head back.
"It's so boring here!"
"If you're so bored, go chop some trees and build yourself a house," Saku sighs. "It's what we had to do when we told our parents we were bored or didn't know what to do." I laugh.
"The Lightning Country was always exciting. I really wish I could go back and visit," Yukino mumbles.
"You actually managed to go around all of Wytsu, Yukino?" Hazel asks.
"Yep! It didn't take very long!" Yukino puffed his chest and gave a large smile. "I even made really good friends in the Lightning and Wind Countries! I don't think one of them really likes me, though. I must have said something, I guess, but I don't remember what I said…"
"Typical," Hazel sighs.
"We actually ran into Yukino before, but he didn't see us as he was in a hurry or something," Saku sighs again.
"Really?!" Yukino brings his fingers to his brain as if it will make him be able to remember.
"When he ran by, I had just finished with my third Ice Trial victory. There was someone chasing him, I think," Tyba mentions.
"Everyone's after me," Yukino sighs. "I'm just that good looking."
"Or you break and ruin things for everyone and they want to kill you," Hazel smirks.
"That, too, but let's not get that mixed up with the fact that I'm just so good looking." He poses himself to try and look masculine. I, for one, just thought he was hilariously stupid looking in that pose. I was curious about something, though.
"What kind of powers do you have right now, Tyba? You said that you beat three other Candidates, and a Candidate is supposed to take on the Ice power that the losing Candidate had?"
"Heh, you want to know?" He motions me to come closer, but he just boops my nose when I get close enough. "Sorry, I don't share that information, who knows when you have someone lurking around watching what you do. What I will tell you, though, is my own personal unique Ice Power that allowed me to win my fights. It's so powerful that I am very confident it won't matter if people know of it." He reaches down and freezes a small portion of the ground. He stands up and waves his hand in a strange way. Looking down, I see what's going on: the ice that he froze is now dancing like liquid, but it's still frozen. "I can make Ice that I touch move around like water and still be as hard as ice. You can't find anyone else who can actually manipulate the ice like this." I suddenly got extremely excited with Tyba's abilities.
"How much ice can you manipulate like that?!"
"I can manipulate a massive amount. This is nothing!" He laughs, proud with himself.
"I can't wait to see your next fight!"
"Who knows when it'll happen, but I'll make sure to let you know so you can watch me be amazing!" He raises his hand for a fist pump, and I gladly oblige.
"Girls," Yukino mumbles. "Getting so excited over weird things." As he says this, Hazel pulls a banana out of her bag.
"Hey, Yukino," she calls to him. He looks over and starts jumping to reach the banana which is out of reach due to her height on the panther.
"Gimme!"
"You're excited over a simple banana, so don't criticize others with what they like."
Yukino puffs his cheeks. "Fine. Whatever. Gimme!" Hazel drops the banana and Yukino snatches it. Like a wild monkey, he runs off so he can eat it peacefully.
"Do you know when you'll get to fight," I ask Tabu.
"Nope. I'm just heading towards the Ice Country so that I can meet up with other Candidates heading that way and challenge them."
"I hope we don't have to wait long."
"When two Candidates are in the same area, the Denizen who acts as the referee appears and orders the Candidates to appear somewhere. For the Ice Trials, the referee is the Lightning Denizen, Pachi Kashim."
"You have to become the Ice Denizen, or I won't ever forgive you!" I'm not entirely sure why I am rooting for him. I don't even know him.
"You can count on me!" Tyba gives me a thumbs up and I snicker. While I hated the idea of running into people when I was mad, I'm glad I met Tyba and Saku. They can help me rescue Lily and Kisa when I'm strong enough to go back and confront the Shadow Denizen as a Fourth Ranker.
"So… what now?"
Hazel looks over to me and Tyba. Saku does the same with his hands still in his pockets. "Rory here should get some rest, so I say we find somewhere to stay until morning." Now that I think about it, the sun is already partially behind the horizon.
Every time I see the sun go down, I think about myself. I get very selfish in the aspect that I want to dance in the night and that I have to dance around when I have an attacker. My Night Waltz. It's always been my time to shine in the night, always has when I were to perform back in Patsu City. I have to try and not be so worried anymore, though. I just need to get stronger.
"I'm going to get a drink at the fountain, then," Tyba announced. Saku followed him with a smile, still proud of his brother. I watch them until they are no longer in sight.
"I'll see you later, too," Hazel says as she asks the panther to pick somewhere to lay down and rest.
We all rest for the night.
October 18th, 1303 NB: Morning
I wake up to a loud commotion. I quickly get onto my feet and look around to find a bunch of people roaming the path, trying to get to the fountain area. I see Hazel nearby and run over to her.
"Do you know what's going on?"
"No clue."
Just then, a voice echoes from the skies above us. "Two Candidates are in the town. If you are an Ice Candidate, please make your way to the center plaza." I look up to see a man in a yellow robe. "I, the Lightning Denizen, am the referee for the Ice Trials. The battle will commence in ten minutes." The Lightning Denizen flashes and disappears just like lightning.
"We actually get to see Tyba fight another Candidate so soon?! ...I'm actually kind of happy to see Tyba fight, he seemed really anxious to find another Candidate to fight." I turn to Hazel with a smile, but she didn't return the gaze. Instead, her eyes were closed and her fingers interlocked with each other. "...what? You aren't excited?"
"No. I'm not." Without another word, Hazel pats the panther below her and they change course, towards the center plaza.
Confused, I follow close behind. "I wish Yukino were back by now, he'd be happy to see Tyba fighting, too. He really needs to stop being such an idiot, getting excited over one single banana." My heart races as I can't wait to see Tyba in action.
When Hazel and I reach the center plaza, Tyba stands on one side of the fountain and the Lightning Denizen stands in the middle, blocking my view of the competition.
"Both Candidates are here." The Lightning Denizen raises his right hand. "I commend you two for being here, taking pride in the power of Ice and in yourselves. I pray that the winner will continue to work towards becoming the next Denizen, and I pray that the defeated will be able to rest in peace knowing that they did their best." He pauses. "Let the battle of Ice begin!" The Lightning Denizen disappears like lightning again. Tyba gets into a fighting position with his large body, his arms up in front of his face.
But that isn't where I am looking. My excited heart from before is now a stopped heart. Saku's fists are also clenched at the sight.
Yukino is posed on the other side of the fountain from Tyba with a serious expression on his face.
The Country of Lightning
A woman in black with some purple patterns rolls up back to her computer with multiple screens after having gone to get something to eat. Typing away, her ear starts buzzing. She brings her finger to her ear and presses something.
"Yes, *chingu?"
A man's voice came through the earpiece. "The next Ice Trial battle has just been declared."
"Yea, yea, I already know that bit. I figured it out as soon as he appeared in that little town. You should be thanking me for placing a tag on the Lightning Denizen, no?"
"While we do appreciate it, my father is still a man to be respected and I promise you that you will regret it if you use him in any other way."
"I get it, I get it, don't worry, chingu." The woman starts typing away again. "He isn't and likely won't be my target at any point of time. You know who my target is."
"Yes, I do. Please take care of him. We can't let him become a Denizen and ruin my father or any of the other Denizen. It's what I'm paying you to do."
"A very considerate amount at that, too. Don't worry, I'll take him out before you can say 'sweet cheeks.'"
"'Sweet cheeks.'"
"Awe, how sweet of you." As the woman makes that remark, the earpiece goes silent and she laughs. He hung up. "Alright, Yukino. You're time is nearly up." She hits the 'enter' button. As she does so, she raises her other hand and waves her fingers, purple sparks between her tech-gloved fingertips. "Better be prepared to die, chingu."
*Chingu - Korean for "friend"
