Waking up, I feel sun rays in my face.
One of the first times the sun has awoken before me, in maybe two years.
I never really had the easy way of waking up so I made Sply wait outside sometimes on many occasions.
I don't get up, no, I know that the sun just rose, because it's still just there above its horizon.
So I just lay there, feeling it, enjoying the sunshine, knowing that I don't have to even worry about training, then I remember the choices given to me last night.
The door shuts, and I hear loud footsteps outside leaving the house.
Bringing myself up, I look out the window beside the couch and see that Steel is leaving, and for some reason he has brought his gauntlet with him.
'Wonder where he's going?'
I think to myself, then:
'Crap, what am I going to do?'
The first time I'm given a choice of adventure, instead of work, and I don't know what to do?
'Maybe I should ask around, and I definitely need to check with Marcilene, she… she probably angry about the fact that I might leave her, but her decision will very likely be the one that makes me decide.'
I swing my feet over to the ground and leave it there as I sit then stretch my back, with a very slight pop.
My eyes burn, maybe from just waking up.
For a second I feel my left eye naked and begin to feel around for where my eye patch is, just for me to remember it broke.
Turing my head, I lean forward and see it still on the table, and so is my more than half eaten apple.
'I should throw that.'
Getting up, I give myself now a fulI body stretch as I stretch myself out, I slight shake my legs.
When I leave the the livingroom I go over to the kitchen and grab the apple. And the eyepatch, looking at it flipping it then putting it back down.
The apple is still red and hard, meaning it's still good, I take a bite of it, and it still taste good, and sweet.
I continue to eat it as I put on my sandals and leave the house.
I turn to my left and instead of leaving the property I go over to the side of the house and around to the backside.
Still taking a bite of the apple, every few steps, as I chew and swallow.
Eventually I'm at the back and I see that the are other houses, the gate still closed around the back as well. And a small clothing area for our clothes, that are most likely washed by Steel every other day, so that we don't end up naked.
Two sticks stabbed into the ground and a line between them, being used as the one thing that holds the two sticks from falling down.
In one corner are a few flowers that look beautiful and shrubs that are pretty high up there, the other corner, one further away from me, is a barbecue pit area that has some charcoal from wood used and extinguished. A grill at the top with a darkened steel look. A small outstretched part of cement, for a place to put all the stuff needed when you are going to use the grill.
Going further, I move around the hanging area and toward the shrubs that are right next to the gate, my face seeing the moss that even growing on the gate.
I take one last bite of the apple, that, makes me finish it and I drop the apple in as I chew the rest of it and back away from there.
Turn around I see the back of the house this time, seeing that two story facade from the outside, and not a single window on this side.
Seeing that, it doesn't seem to matter anymore to me, as I begin to walk off.
As I do so, I remember a training that I was doing yesterday, wanting to try it out in the free open-ish area I have here, I feel like trying it again.
I stop beside the hanging area, at one of the two stick sticking out of the ground.
I close my eyes and imagine myself moving.
Then I open my eyes and feel myself in a different area, more specifically at the other stick.
I grow a big smile on my face, knowing I've just did something that would have took me forever if not for Apatite's help.
Trying it again, without closing my eyes I find myself at the side of the house, just near the backside, but then I feel myself a tad bit light headed.
'I'll stop before I end up falling, just like yesterday.'
Walking to the front now, instead of trying to Soul Displace myself infinitely.
Walking over to the front I see that there are very little amounts of people that are going outside this early in the morning. Small amounts of their auras showing just off of their skin.
I decide to do the same. Walking over to the gate I head out, pushing the small door open the gate open for me to leave.
Once I leave the place I begin to walk in a direction that is the same direction I'm familiar with, heading over towards Rez's house.
As I'm walking over toward Rez's house, passing a few houses a very familiar face is shown to me, but this time with a different style.
Her hair, put into a bun, but when it's put down, her golden hair reaches her knees.
Her eye lids showing her eyes even more, as she smiles. Her yellow aura coating her body.
Wearing a dress that flows down to her knees, that was beautiful, yellow with the same damn insignia from Flock.
'Is this guy the only person that makes clothes here?! Damn!'
I think as she comes up to me, now just the same as Marcilene, just a few inches taller.
"Hi Lazi."
Elsa say to me as she stops just in front of me:
"How's your day going so far?"
I shrug my shoulders.
"Don't know? Just started."
She chuckles a bit.
"Oh yeah. Well. See you."
She says as she walks past me to head towards my house most likely.
I wave to her as well.
"Bye."
Our relationship has grown more, but it's common for females to stick together, compared to males.
She walks off and I go to her house, not inside, but to see if there is anyway that Wes is outside training.
It take me a few moments to get to their house and find Wes outside alone. Practicing his swordplay. With a blue aura around himself and his wooden sword.
He does moves that to me are more than just very hard to explain, but he cuts at the air in front of him, while sidestepping and jumping forward when ever he needs to just to spin around as he tries to parry the air in front of him.
'He's imagining himself in a battle right now?'
The thought plays in my mind as I see his movements perfectly replicate as if he is in a fight against someone suing a sword as well.
He brings his sword up high, following with his father was doing. His aura around the sword growing brighter and brighter.
And I catch a look on his face, a look of determination.
"How's your training going!?"
I call out to him from the stone gate.
Right before he attacks the air in front of him, he turns to me.
Brushing off sweat from his face and his hair as well, while wearing what seems to be small leather armor for him, he sheathes his sword in a leather sheath by his hip.
"Okay."
He pauses then comes toward me:
"Yours?"
"I'm free today. Never had the chance to do anything like this in forever, so I don't know what to do."
I say as Wes now standing on the polar opposite side of the stone gate to me. His aura calm now.
We hit the hand shake that we practiced.
"So what do you plan to do?"
Wes asks me and I shrug my shoulders.
"No clue. Haven't really figured it out."
"Well, I think the colosseum is open for fights today. Wanna watch them?"
"Don't know, you have coin?"
I ask Wes giving him a slight side eye.
"Do I?"
He chuckles.
Then he turns.
"Give me a second."
Wes runs back inside his house as he clanks around with his aura around his body.
I hop up on the stone wall, wobbling as I do and sit there for a while.
I sit there for a few minutes still waiting for Wes, but while that happens a few little kids come up to me, as I sit on the stone wall.
All three of them with faint auras, green, blue and one of them with a color that I've only seen once, purple.
"What's your name?"
One of three kids ask me.
There are two little girls and a little boy. One of the girls dark skinned.
The one with the purple aura is one of the little girls, a shy little one behind the other taller girl with a blue aura.
The boy is the one in front that asked me the question, as he stands tall with his yellow aura.
"My name is Lazuli."
I answer him.
"Why do you have two eyes?"
"I don't know. I was born that way."
"Why are you on the rocks?"
"Because I wanna sit down."
"But why are you sitting there?"
The girl in front of the purple girl chims in.
"Because I don't have a real chair."
"Then why not sit on the ground?"
The boy again.
"Because it's dirty."
"But the stones are dirty too."
"Well I didn't wanna sit on the ground."
"Are you lazy?"
'God they have so many questions!'
"No."
"How come your eyes are two different colors?"
The girl asks this time.
"You asked me that already."
I say confused.
"Oh yeah."
She says as she taps her chin.
"W… Why do you go into the forest?"
The girl with purple aura asks me, very timidly.
And the other two in front of her look at her and cover her mouth, like she asked a forbidden question.
"Well… my friend lives in there."
"Why does your friend live in Warren Forest?"
Purple aura asks.
"It's scary in there."
The boy says as if adding onto what the other girl said.
"Well, she's different from me and you."
"How?"
The blue girl asks.
"She's… different that's the best I can tell."
"How is she different from me and you?"
"I guess… she has a different skin color."
Both the boy in front and the girl in front look back to the girl with purple aura.
"Like Daisy?"
"No, not like daisy."
I say slipping my mind that I forgot that she's a different skin color.
"I mean, like she's just scared."
"So you go into Warren Forest alone?"
I shrug my shoulders.
"I guess so."
The boy looks at me in awe now.
"You're super brave then?"
He says.
"Do you plan to become a knight or maybe a hunter?"
"A hunter?"
"Really?! You're going to be a hunter?"
"What's a Hunt..."
"OKAY!"
Wes' booming voice yells out from behind me.
Making me jump off the wall in surprise.
"Don, Daisy and Mazie. Let's stop harassing my friend."
He says as he get through the gate and puts his arm around my neck.
"But he told me that he's going to go to become a hunter."
The boy says.
"I want to hear about him leaving the place and exploring Reight."
Wes chuckles.
"This guy isn't going to leave this place, he a daddy's boy, that is stuck to this place."
Wes laughs again.
I turn to face him.
"Yeah, man I gotta talk to you about something."
I say tapping his shoulder.
"Yeah, sure."
He says as he walks toward the square, ignoring the kids.
He walks as they look saddened.
"Okay, let's go guys."
The boy says.
"But Don. I wanna ask more questions."
Mazie, asks. The blue aura girl.
"Well, Wes is just stealing him away, plus. Won't he just say to stop bothering him again?"
Don says as he walks off.
Mazie following close behind him, as Daisy stays behind.
"How different is your friend?"
Daisy asks once more.
For some reason, when it's not being accompanied with twenty different questions, this one question brings a smile to my face.
"Very different."
As I walk off, I get a tingly feeling in my stomach again.
The same one, I'm not very familiar with.
I jog off to keep up with Wes.
We both get halfway toward the sign that says we are entering the town square, before I get to him.
Looking at him better, he's wearing clothes that are much more cleaner and better looking.
Like a button-up and jeans, that stop at his ankles, with shoes this time, instead of sandals like mine.
"Was that why you took long?"
Wes turns to me.
"Which?"
"Your clothes?"
"Oh, yeah, I had to grab some coin and my mom caught sight of you outside, thinking that we were going somewhere, And being right about that, she made me change into not sweaty clothes, even took my sword from me."
"Wait, that's actually your sword?"
He stops and looks at me, making me be side by side to him.
"I've told you this so many times already."
He says sounding slightly deranged.
"Anyway, what'd you wanna talk about?"
He says, as he continues to walk again.
"Oh yeah, What should I do?"
"About what?"
"Me leaving."
He grips both my shoulders.
"YOU'RE LEAVING?!"
He asks very loudly.
"NO!"
He releases my shoulders.
"Then what do you mean?"
"You remeber the reason I picked up the bow in the first place yeah?"
I continue walking again.
Wes, following right beside me.
"Yeah. You did it to protect your sister. Why?"
"Because I wanted to see. What would you, think, that she would think if I told her this?"
"What are you saying?"
"Im asking what do you think she say?"
"It's to protect her right?"
I nod my head.
"Then why the hell would you leave?"
We pass the sign. Entering into the cement paths, heading toward the colosseum.
"Because Steel and Sply say that, I won't be able to fully protect her if I don't know the full dangers of the world, especially if I'm stuck in the corner of Reight, with little to no need for worry about danger."
Wes takes in that peace of information and nods.
We pass many people as they pass us as well.
They all have different colored auras, but non of them give me a piece of mind, and the same can be said for me. They are just people around us afterall.
"I'd think she'd say: "She wants you to know, they she would respect any decision you make. regardless of what happens."
Wes says to me as we continue walking, the colosseum visible in the distance behind a few more blocks of houses.
"Is that what you really think?"
"Dude. I don't know..? Maybe?"
He shrugs his shoulders.
"But. I do know that she is very caring about you. And anyone she deems nice enough to be her friend. And, she is amazing, and cool and.... I'm gonna stop."
He goes heart eyed for a second.
"Thank you."
"Anyway. I believe she'll let you do what you wwant to do. afterall, it's not like she'll stay here forever to."
He pauses for a second.
"Would she?"
"Don't know?"
We end up a few more yards away from the colosseum, but we are face to face with the giant, hulking place in front of us.
We walk right up to the colosseum and in front of us, stands a hulking, giant man.
Standing at a good, six foot tall and dark skin and a nasty scar from the top of his right eye, toward his jaw, with only shorts on and a leather sash around his torso, that holds a giant battle axe on his back
"What?"
The man says.
"Uh...?"
"Me and my friend are here to watch the tournament to see who'll enter the Strongest in Reight."
"Coin?"
The hulking man asks.
Wes nods and he pulls out a pouch that had been on strapped to his ass, and I didn't even see it.
"Yup."
Wes says, not intimidated in the slightest of the giant man in front of us.
"That'll be ten each."
"Wait what?"
Wes looks at me confused.
"We can just enter a colosseum?"
"With the right amount of coin yeah."
Wes reaches into the pouch and pulls out what seems to be copper coins, with the insignia of a snake eating its own tail.
"That's a cool coin insignia."
I say as he passes the coin over to the giant man.
Counting it as he goes.
One all the way to twenty, so that we can both enter the place.
After that, we enter, not noticing the giant line also forming behind us.
We enter, the entrance being this grand doorway, with no door, dark, before we are greeted with a big gated place that stops us from getting any further, along with the two other guys, holding a sword each weapons, acting as guards, less intimidating but still very much scary.
A rope, just in front of them, that has a sign on it, reading:
Do NotPass.
And just before the guards is another fork, that breaks up into two other halls, that are much closer to the walls that block us from entering the place in front of us.
There is a fork just before the rope and gated area, with two very steep stairways going upwards toward the next floor.
With a sign that reads: Left
And another that reads: Right
Wes taps my shoulder.
"Hey, let's hurry, we are one of the firsts."
He says as people now begin to swarm into the place.
Wes runs up, toward the left side of the fork, running up the steep incline of stairs. His aura wizzing right past my eye.
As he weaves past a single old man that just stands walks up the path with no care in the world.
I follow after Wes, not wanting to get lost, then having zero freaking clue on how to get to where he is.
As I reach the top of the stair case, the first thing both me and Wes do...
Is take the biggest breathe of air, that was the most intense workout ever and I've ran about a mile to and back for Sply's training.
"Don't... EVER... make us do... that dumb... stuff again."
I say, taking massive heaps of breathe as I spoke.
Wes tries to stand straight but his breath betrays him and makes him bend right back to his knees.
"Atleast we are the first ones here."
He says.
I nod.
"Cool. Let's just get the first available seats."
As I look at the seats, they are just rows, on rows, on rows of long and interconnected seats, that are just there for people.
"We'll just sit here."
Wes says as he gets the literal closest seat to the stairs, but even that is about a few feet away, to give people space to enter the area.
I sit down right next to him and I look at the arena.
A giant open space for people to run around in and engage in combat, two different other doors in the arena, that look like they were made as exits into the arena.
"Holy Shi..."