Part 3: The Journey is the Destination
The chakra turtle had told its summoner its name, Ningame, when the boy asked.
Ningame told him more than just his name however, he enlightened the boy of another world he had not thought possible. An entirely different landscape with people like him, that could perform extraordinary feats with their energy.
The still shirtless boy was amazed at the implications, and it instilled a profound sense of curiosity to explore this unknown terrain his summon spoke of. Would his burning desire to train himself be realized if he ventured out? Perhaps it was his destiny to fight this opposing summoner, Might Guy, a ferocious warrior who trained as hard as he did according to Ningame.
Long after Ningame had disappeared in smoke latent with 'chakra' (he mentally snorted at the name given to his energy) leaving him with Komo as company once again, his mind still turned over the intriguing information of what could be past this empty desert, or the barren as Komo called it.
"Komo, how long will it take us to reach the end of the...barren?"
The giant tortoise scoffed, as he had become accustomed to.
"Fresh out the egg aren't ya hatchling? No patience I tell ya" Komo continued to grumble. "Ain't no way of telling boy unless.." here a guttural laugh escaped its beak "Unless ya lost lookin fer' a never ending!" The elder finished breaking off into its strange sound of amusement.
The boy had long since become used to Komos indirect way of speaking, and wasn't bothered by the nonsensical face value of the tortoises words.
He had learned in the jungle that such a strange world wouldn't always have straight answers.
The days passed slowly in a methodical manner. During the long days he would trek on with Komo, passing the time with idle conversation trying to ignore the heat. He found himself severely missing the ambient nature energy he was accustomed to, instead of the few sparse cacti they found to consume.
The nights were a cool reprieve, the familiar sight of countless stars shining off the empty dunes of sand helped them continue on as Komo had once told him that the tortoise had aged past the need to sleep, and so would carry the boy on its shell as they slowly moved forward.
Although he feared his hard earned abilities to manipulate water were suffering with the limited amount in the barren, his wind skills were kept sharp as they tended to whip through the sand as if trying to block their path.
He was struck with a fierce pride when remembering the massive storm of sand that blocked out the horizon, filled with natural energy. Komo had insisted they burrow down when the elder sensed how powerful the natural disaster was, but was confused when the young summoner simply raised his hands with wind buffeting their backs. That confusion quickly turned to awe as the aged tortoise watched the boy part the storm making a funnel for them to walk through while the storm raged on either side.
He knew that with his current level of wind manipulation he could fly hundreds of times faster than the pace they trudged at, but Komos words headed him of the potential danger exploring the barren alone, being lost forever to the dunes did not sound very appealing to the boy.
Besides, he didn't mind having Komo for company instead of clones.
The amount of time spent in the barren desert was unknown to the boy, but he had picked up little signs with his enhances senses. The cacti had become more numerous the more they moved on. Komo had begun slowly picking up his pace, though it took the boy a few days to notice, and had increasingly been grumbling to himself too low for the boy the hear all of it.
The one word that he could make out of Komos beak was, "closer".
The young summoner did not know the destination, but all of these signs were telling him that his journey with Komo was soon coming to an end.
His assessment was proven correct when colors other than the usual blinding gold he associated with his surroundings appeared in the distance. Still too far to clearly make it out, the first details his enhanced eyes picked up was blue, with whites and greens everywhere in between.
His anxiousness got the best of him, and Komo let out a startled huff when the boy propelled himself forward in the wind quickly leaving the giant tortoise behind as a small dot in the background.
Once his speed had taken him far enough to see clearly what was beyond, he was taken of his breath and lost for words.
The lake he had lived by in the jungle could never have prepared him for the sheer vastness of water that laid in front of him. Giant waves crashes upon each other spraying salty mist into the air, something the boy was grateful for as he greedily extended his energy to the water and became lost in the push-pull of the surrounding world.
Further towards the huge expanse of water the sand of the barren pooled into it, becoming dense and tightly packed by the tide that lapped onto the shore.
He was briefly taken back to his discovery of movement on top the world mountain, as he could now not only see but feel himself being propelled forward at a velocity that greatly contrasted the surrounding waves.
Once again the natural energy around him surged into his body, to which he let out a sigh of relief at being filled with the comfortable feeling. As he habitually extended his senses in all directions, he was not surprised in the least to find the open waters went far beyond his limits. What did grab his attention however, was the deep pool of sentient energy coming from below it him. It felt...vaguely big, as well as sacred just how the hollow tree, the crystal cave, and the mountain top all felt.
His erroneous decision was reinforced by these past positive experiences of this type of energy, and with the full confidence of his years of training to rely on, he plunged feet first into the green and blue waters.
Warm currents instantly torrented his body underwater flipping him head over toe before he firmly reached out his will unto the water and halted his momentum, as the surrounding water not controlled continued to surge past him.
Once again the young summoner was amazed at the unrelenting force of nature, especially in comparison to the beasts of the jungle whom he had once thought were the biggest threat to his health.
'It's chaotic, much harder to see in than the lake' he thought to himself.
Despite the crashing of the ocean there was a sudden stillness in the water that set off warning bells in his head, one that came in every animals base instinct to survive.
His experience had honed his sense of danger to a heightened degree, the same gut-twisting adrenaline that shot through him before the centipede had violently slaughtered its prey, or the few precious moments before the avalanche had come crashing down returned with tenacity now.
Belaying his self assured praises of maturity through meditation, he whipped his head in a panicked state, eyes glowing green with natural energy desperately trying to look past the murky waters.
The loudest sound he had ever heard came through the water, similar to when he would swing a stick except thousands of times deeper vibrating every molecule around him and shattering his previously firm hold on the first element he had learned.
When he quickly looked up he saw what was causing it. Where once there had been the ocean and all its massiveness, was now blocked by a dark object of force rippling through the water and completely blocking out his field of vision.
His water and wind training had allowed to him a small pocket of air underwater before, but he lost that as the water surged around him due to the mass coming at him.
The precious few seconds it had taken him to understand the danger was too late.
All the boy had time to do was flinch his arms in front of him, before he was rocketed down to into pitch blackness.
Numb shock ran through the young boys brain blocking out all thought.
When his consciousness began to return it once again was filled with panic.
'Dark it's so dark it's too dark' he repeated over and over to himself, the mantra sending him back to flashes of dragging a summoner verging death to an unknown destination with his brethren being picked off in the shadows. Those nights had engrained a deep rooted sense of fear to the bitch black dark he found himself in.
The crushing pressure of the water around him would've caused his body to burst, had he not long ago mastered that particular art atop the lake by the great tree.
The freezing cold should've frozen his blood solid, but as deep as he was the boy still assumed the mountains were of greater height to the ground, and had learned to regulate his body temperature at will.
If not for his studious use of energy both inside him and of the natural world to strengthen his body, then the monstrous set of teeth that suddenly clasped his entire torso and legs would have instantly killed him.
As it was, although the unseeable creatures set of misshapen fangs broke against the boys skin, he screamed out of terror.
He reacted frantically, boiling the water around him with such intensity pockets would evaporate and pop loudly as the ocean rushed to fill its gaps, while simultaneously reaching out to the minuscule particles of air and pushing back with all his force.
As he had that first fearful night waking up in the strange rain forest, the boy called upon his energy, the bright spheres of chakra illuminating the chasm of nothingness around him.
Desperate to return to the natural light of day, he shot upwards fleeing the inky blackness with as much speed he could muster. As the boy ascended he could once again make out the deep blues and green above, as well as more of the gigantic objects of mass that seemed to methodically strike through the water in a rhythmic fashion, all four of them.
'It looks like it's...swimming?'
He was far enough below that the boy was able to recognize the movement of his home matched that of the four giant limbs. Still he was swayed back and forth by the amount of force applied every time one moved through the water.
Patiently he floated, timing out the pattern of the fins and sensing how the swells of pressurized water fluctuated before his nature enhanced body shot through the water. His movement looked erratic, propelling himself to extremely small spots of neutral momentum and pulling back suddenly, before shooting off again until his path reached the source of energy he had sensed on the surface.
There, at the front of all four limbs, attached to the home he had grown to love, was the giant head of a turtle.
His blood began to sing.
Every sense he had called out to him as he subconsciously locked eyes with the singular right one he could see of the turtle.
Without thinking of his actions, the boy reacted by bowing his waist and pulsing all the nature energy he possibly could, saving his life from judgement without the summoner actually knowing it. The only response that was natural, which he had become part of, was complete surrender to such an ancient being.
The small fraction of energy he could sense from this god dwarfed that of the great tree, or the world mountain, and even the sleeping fox and crow.
The intent was neither good nor bad, it simply was, as if it always had been and always will be.
The world started again. The turtles eye inched away from the boys and it's movement continued to pull against the natural current around them, quickly he willed himself to the surface chasing the air he had lost when smashed to the very bottom of the ocean.
Gasping gratefully as he emerged, the boy from the jungle neared the moving beach and pulled himself ashore, coughing up bits of water as he manipulated it out of his lungs.
The environment around him looked eerily similar to before he went into the water, but his regained natural senses disagreed with his eyes and told the boy he was far away from his starting point and by extension Komo.
For a few sweet moments the boy basked in the open light of the sun on his skin before standing up, his brow furrowed in thought.
'If only Komo were here, I've grown used to him'
His eyes widened by a fractional margin as his blood called to him, still vibrating from his meeting with the ancient one.
A small gust of wind escaped his index finger and with honed precision a single drop of blood appeared from his arm. The summoner drew the energy not his own from his veins and mentally focused on the image of Komo.
Seconds later and a cloud of smoke enveloped the area big enough to cover a being of Komos stature.
When the vapors translucency diminished it revealed a thirty-foot tortoise glaring at him, stubbornly not talking.
Traveling with the creature so long, he had grown used to its personality and tantrums like these were an unfortunate part of that behavior.
"Aww Komo come on, you know I was coming back I just got so excited!"
The elder continued glaring in silence.
"Besides, did you know that this whole island is one giant turtle! I went beneath the ocean and met it!"
Komo refused to open its beak, though the boy could make out surprise on the aged leathery features.
"Komo..."
"Is this because I summoned you?"
"Hmph!" The giant tortoise huffed.
"Bit cracked in the shell ain't ya hatchlin? Ere' ya go chakra calling ole' Komo right before he takes a nap dragging yer sorry green tail through the barren"
"Ah...sorry Komo" he said sheepishly rubbing the back of his long hair, thankful his vine and only memento of the forest survived the ocean.
"Wait, I thought you didn't have to sleep?"
Komo simply continued to grumble under his breath about 'youth' and 'forest snappers'.
Despite the boys supreme control of precipitation and body regulated temperature, a single bead of sweat dropped from his forehead.
"What is this place really Komo? What aren't you telling me?"
An unusual bout of seriousness passed over the elders facial features, making the boy subconsciously straighten his back.
"Mmm" Komo growled in its deep voice "This is our home hatchling, and now it's yours too"'
He was taken back by the show of trust put in him by the normally unreadable tortoise.
"I know Komo, but...I can't stay. There's something more out there, the reason I've been training" he clenched his fist at this "Stranger things than the supernatural"
Komo grunted in understanding as if he had expected the answer.
"I hope ya find what yer looking for out there young one" the boy was relived when it let out its characteristic short bark of a laugh "course a web-toed snapper won't show ya!"
Smiling at Komos rivalry with others of his kind, he bowed deeply as he had with the ancient one, except this was not involuntary but out of respect for his only real friend so far in this life.
Trotting to the shore a drop of blood ran down his left arm mingling with the chakra of his summons as his stretched hand hit the water, bringing a cloud of smoke as it had with Komo.
There, waiting subserviently in the water was a beautiful green and brown shell attached to a set of teal fins.
Komo trudged onto the beach to bid the boy farewell, the whole time words escaping its beak about 'pretty shells' and what it meant if you cared about yours enough to groom it so much.
Tactfully ignoring Komos comments, he turned to the elder. "Where do I go past the ocean?"
Muttering something that suspiciously sounded like 'no patience' the tortoise cleared its vocal chords sounding like grinding on a whetstone.
"Past the krágmá sea's no place for a barren walker hatchling"
He frowned, if Komo did not know with all his gained knowledge than he would truly be on his own once he set out, falling back on his skills to survive.
"Course ere..." Komo grumbled more "If ya find yer self on your shell soft belly up summon me...good luck kid".
He softly smiled, his friend had a soft side unknown to him until now. "Thank you Komo" he said, truly meaning it.
With temporary goodbyes said, and promises to reunite made, the boy from the jungle step foot onto the turtles beautiful shell, slowly drifting out to sea, watching the only home he had ever know disappear in the horizon.
AN:
Thanks for reading this far!
Turtle island (Parts 1-3) is officially wrapped up.
My guy Komo damn near shed a tear the big softie.
I took a long break as I was admittedly a little disheartened by the lack of reviews, but I re-read this story and decided to continue it, CashMoneyThePoet shouldn't care about reviews anyways but on the plot and world building which my plans have been the same for since chapter one and I'm really excited to let everyone who invests time to find out.