Liam would be lying if he claimed that Cyrus' words had brought peace to the wild, conflicting emotions afflicting his mind and heart.
However, those words had conveyed an undeniable truth, as well as some hope. Life wasn't black and white. It was complicated beyond Liam's wildest imagination, and learning that legendary figures like the Ancestral Beasts actually played a role in it revealed a fraction of that feature.
So, Liam would give himself a chance. Instead of giving up or abandoning himself to the hatred Crazy Uncle had awakened, he would see the world and learn about it, searching for a third path his inexperience and ignorance couldn't find right now.
As for the problem at hand, Liam's mind didn't harbor any doubts. If anything, he faced it with almost complete confidence.
Trailing prey and following tracks were mandatory skills for a hunter, something that Liam had mastered years ago.
Liam also had unique advantages. His senses were extremely sharp and conditioned to recognize clues untrained eyes would otherwise miss. He knew he could chase after the Guild's caravan, but the task did feature a couple of annoying variables.
The heavy rain was the most obvious issue. Usually, Liam would be able to follow tracks even if they were a few days old. However, the downpour threatened to remove everything in a matter of hours.
That would still be fine for Liam if it weren't for the second variable. He wouldn't be trailing any caravan. The ride in question featured a cultivator, and Liam didn't know what distance would prevent his discovery, if any.
Still, Liam's hands were tied. The rain put a time limit on the trailing mission, and he knew he had to leave. After discovering the magnitude of his crime during the Screening, that was the only option that would keep Cyrus and Adrian safe.
Of course, Liam didn't enter the village. He took a detour through the mountain to circle it, reaching the opposite outskirts, where the path toward the wilderness stretched and branched.
The forest was denser in those areas. Except for the beaten paths, those lands were untamed, ruled by boars, wolves, and bears. They didn't exactly live close to the village, but diving deeper into the wilderness would definitely infringe on their domains.
Actually, there had also been reports of a fearsome magical beast occupying the wilderness' deeper areas years ago, but Liam knew better than to believe baseless rumors. He didn't dismiss them, either, but his trailing mission would theoretically keep him away from those potential lairs.
Reaching the crossroads put Liam before the caravan's tracks. The shallower ones marked the path it had trodden to reach Krosstoen's village, while the deeper ones saw it departing in a different direction.
Those weren't the only tracks Liam found. He recognized the horses' hooves and the grooves from the caravan's wheels, as well as human footprints, two sets small while three sets big.
That wasn't all. One of the big sets was deeper, as if the one who had caused it was overweight or had stomped the mud. The rain was already erasing that evidence, but Liam followed a hunch and crouched toward that footprint, inhaling deeply to catch any scent that might have survived.
It took a few seconds, but Liam's nose eventually caught a scent that confirmed his hunch. He smelled the faintest trace of blood from one of those deeper footprints. It seemed the hunter he had injured earlier was following along the caravan, hopefully slowing it down.
As for the other footprints, one had to belong to the second hunter, another to a merchant from the village, while the smaller ones probably came from kids with decent potential to become cultivators.
'One hour away,' Liam thought. 'Three hours at most.'
Once Liam finished his calculations, he darted after the trails, making sure to leave the beaten path. He couldn't follow the caravan in the open, so he climbed a nearby tree barehanded before proceeding with his chase.
The forest's thickness played to Liam's advantage, creating an alternative, secluded path he could tread without risking exposing himself. He could jump from branch to branch while remaining hidden, knowing that the rain would suppress any noise he made.
Liam was already a master of navigating trees. He earned the name of monkey-boy in the end. Yet, as he jumped, swung, and ran over various branches, more of the changes he had started to experience became evident.
Jumps that would have previously taken long runaways barely demanded any effort. Swings flung Liam farther than they had ever done. He advanced faster than ever, displaying complete confidence in his skills, as well as a pristine balance that even the narrower branches couldn't disrupt.
And that confidence only deepened, pushing Liam to go even faster, wanting to see how far he could actually go. He almost felt born anew, but the exciting experience didn't make him forget his mission.
Every once in a while, Liam hopped toward the trees closer to the beaten path to check that his direction was still correct, and a final confirmation eventually arrived.
At some point, Liam began to hear horses' neighs among the heavy rain, pushing him toward a branch near the path again. The downpour tried to hide every distant object, but Liam's sharp eyes saw predictable silhouettes behind that curtain of water.
Of course, Liam couldn't spot details that far away. However, counting the silhouettes confirmed his initial guess. He couldn't really know whether the third grown-up was the village's merchant or someone else, but that hardly mattered.
'Is this distance fine?' Liam couldn't help but wonder, taking a break from his chase. He had caught up with his target, but the real trailing started now, and he couldn't allow himself to be discovered.
The caravan kept advancing until the downpour hid it, but Liam still didn't move. Instead, he retreated closer to the tree's trunk, finding cover under its leaves before drawing something from his pouch.
A scroll made of bark ended in Liam's hands, and he carefully unfurled it to expose its contents. His father's simple map appeared in his vision, giving him an idea of the caravan's general direction.
'It's not going toward nearby villages,' Liam pondered, 'This is the path for the Outer Circles' insides.'
The Dragon Kingdom was split into Circles, Outer and Inner, with the Dragon Palace at its utmost center. Liam didn't know how many of those existed, nor how vast they were. Still, he was aware that the closer he got to the Dragon Palace, the richer those areas became.
That didn't mean much on its own, but Liam could guess that proper towns or actual cities might have information on the legendary Sects. At the very least, they had to be better than poor villages in that regard.
'But,' Liam realized, carefully storing the map, 'I didn't consider the other kids from the village.'
The initial idea was to skip the middleman and go directly to the Sects. However, if kids from Krosstoen's village were to join the same organizations, Liam's identity would be exposed.
Now, Liam hadn't thought that far. Realizations were still settling in. He had basically just acknowledged that it was better to hide from where he came from, but the presence of kids from the same village would ruin his plans.
'What now?' Liam wondered, feeling as if his naive plan was already crumbling down.
As if called, Liam's forearm started to itch, bringing a human hiss to his ears. 'Kill th-.'
"Shut up," Liam promptly said, shaking his head, rubbing his forearm. He wanted to believe that there was another way, a path that only following the caravan to its destination might reveal.
And if that way didn't exist, Liam would have to make the decision he didn't want to make.