Chapter 15! And now a big turning point for Kuna, and the story in general. This is something I’ve been eager to get to, so I’m excited to finally present it. There’s more excitement on the horizon, too. Hope you enjoy!

-Llox

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Early the next morning, both Lykou and Kuna woke up to the sound of something stirring in their campsite, when they both opened their eyes and each realized it wasn’t the other, they quickly got up to see who the intruder was. Only a yard or so away, there was some kind of quadrupedal creature munching on one of Kuna’s gourds. At some point in the night, despite the extra fuel, the fire had gone out. The sun was still early in its descent, bathing the area in a dim golden glow.

The creature itself was low to the ground, walking on four thick, strong looking legs. Its back was covered in thick, natural armor. It almost resembled an enormous armadillo, except it also had a long, thick tail with blade-like protrusions on its sides. And it had a pair of sharp, jagged horns on its similarly-armored head. When it spotted them moving, it snarled and turned towards them, tilting its head down and pointing its horns at them.

“Shit, move!” Lykou said as he bolted up and around to the side. Kuna quickly bolted away in the other direction.

The creature seemed conflicted for a moment before deciding to charge after Kuna. Fortunately, the sereva was nimble enough to avoid getting gored by its horns, but the creature turned to keep coming for him.

Lykou quickly grabbed his spear and ran up to try and stab the thing, but the spear just broke on it’s back as it quickly turned to face him, its tail narrowly missing Lykou’s legs as it spun around.

“Shit, w-what now?” Kuna cried out, taking several steps back.

“Stay calm, I’ll deal with-” Lykou began to say, but had to stop as he jumped out of the way of another charge. “Shit. See if you can distract it-” again, he was interrupted as he dodged, this time wincing as the tail grazed his shin. “-so I can grab my knife.”

Looking around for a moment, Kuna found the biggest rock he could get his hands on, and hurled it with all his might. Which, unfortunately, wasn’t much, but at least it got the creature’s attention when it clattered off its back. That gave the konuul just enough time to grab his knife from his bag. He spun back around at hearing Kuna cry out. The sereva had just managed to avoid another charge, though he, too had received a small cut from its tail.

Lykou quickly looked down and grabbed another large rock and hurled it at the beast to get its attention again. He then braced himself up against the rocky wall behind him. “Okay, let it focus on me now. Just try to keep away for the moment,” he called over to the sereva, who nodded in response, clearly more than a bit terrified.

The beast again spun around and wasted no time in barreling towards the konuul. At the last moment, he pushed off the wall and jumped past the creature. It managed to grind its feet into the ground hard enough to avoid colliding with the wall with as much energy as Lykou had hoped, but still struck it a bit roughly. More angry than ever, the beast let out a snarling roar before it came at him again. This time, he jumped down around its side as close as he could and slammed his knife into its unprotected side. The momentum from its charge made the cut worse.

The creature let out a howl of mixed pain and anger as Lykou pulled the knife out and pushed himself away. Unfortunately, he was ever so slightly too slow, and caught a much longer swipe from the beast’s tail along his thigh, causing him to yelp in pain as it ran away into the woods.

Kuna was by Lykou’s side in an instant, wide-eyed and teary as he looked down at the large cut. Luckily, the canid’s pants slightly reduced the impact, but there was still a red, bloody streak below the tear in his clothing.

“Fuck!” Lykou cried out, wincing in pain. “Bastard got me good…”

Managing to snap himself out of staring, Kuna quickly grabbed his bag and pulled some things out. “Hold still, I’ve got s-something for this,” he assured the canid. “Actually, go ahead and pull those off so they’re out of the way.”

“Heh, just trying t-” he started to say, then winced and sucked air in through his teeth for a moment as he carefully removed the garment. “...to get me naked again, huh?” He finally finished with a pained smirk.

“Really Lykou?” Kuna responded with a slight frown. “Not the time.”

“Hey I’m the -ngh- injured one here, I can joke around if I w-want t-.” the konuul pointed out, but was interrupted with another pained yelp. He winced as Kuna pressed a bundle of some kind of leaves that’d been soaked with an unknown substance onto the cut. “Fuck that stings! What’s in that??”

Kuna sighed as he wrapped a patch of meshweed around the konuul’s thigh to hold the leaves in place, then used the needle to attach final layer of thicker, waxy leaves around the outside. “Something that’s supposed to keep it from getting infected. Comes from a particular kind of thick purple leaf thing, I forget what its called. Pain should subside soon.”

“I should hope so. Might crack open one of those damn gourds myself at this rate,” Lykou said, his eye twitching a little.

Once the bandaging was finished, the two sat by the burnt-out firepit and took stock of the situation. Luckily, the only thing the creature had gotten into was the one gourd, and the rest of their stuff was accounted for, if slightly scattered around. And Lykou still had one or two of the spare spears he’d made for himself, to replace the one that broke.

“Well this morning’s off to a rotten start,” Lykou commented as he bit into a piece of salted meat.

“No shit,” Kuna replied flatly as he began stitching up the hole in the canid’s pants as best he could. “What’s this side bit made of anyway? Never really gave it much thought, but I haven’t seen anything like this before I met you.”

“Er…” the canid grinned somewhat sheepishly at him. “Well… it’s called leather…”

Kuna gave him a sidelong look, then rolled his eyes. “Lemme guess, more dead things.”

“Pretty similar to the waterskin, yeah. Except lined with softer stuff on the inside.”

“So I see,” Kuna replied as he worked. “Weird texture, wouldn’t want that rubbing you all the time.”

“Nah but, well, obviously it has its perks,” the canid said, gesturing to his bandaged wound. “This would’ve been a fair bit worse if it wasn’t there.”

Kuna raised a brow and fiddled with the pants a bit before continuing the stitch-work. “Yeah I guess it is a little bit tougher than most plant stuff. Was pretty well made, too, looks like.”

“Yeah we have some good leather workers and weavers. You’re getting pretty decent at that yourself though.”

Kuna shrugged. “It’s the only other thing besides gathering that I did regularly.”

“Well I really appreciate it,” Lykou said, gently rubbing the sereva’s back. “And the bandaging. I know you’re always putting yourself down, but I really wouldn’t have made it far without you, you know.”

Kuna glanced up briefly, then blushed as he refocused on the stitching. “Just glad I can pay you back a tiny bit for what you’ve done for me,” Kuna said with a faint smile.

Lykou wrapped his arm around the sereva and squeezed him gently. “You’re understating it, but hey, that’s progress,” the canid said, smiling back. Then he winced again as his leg shifted. “In all seriousness, I think some of that juice might be good.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Kuna asked warily.

“Well, we need to climb this mountain, and that’s not going to help this pain, so… yeah,” Lykou said as he cut open one of the remaining four gourds. “Don’t worry though, I know to mix it with water,” he added, shooting a playful smirk over at the sereva, who just blushed and rolled his eyes in response. “We can split it into the empty one. Then you can have some too. Will make the travel a bit more enjoyable, too.”

Kuna looked at him a bit anxiously, ears folded down. “I don’t know, Lykou…”

“Relax, neither of us will overdo it this time,” the canid reassured him. “Remember how it was with the shakonu? Just tasty, pleasantly warm, and put you at ease. At worst this might be a little stronger than that and you’ll feel even better, without getting outright loopy.”

“Well… I guess if we just take small sips at a time,” Kuna said with a faint grin. He did enjoy it back at the shakonu camp, after all. “With plenty of water.”

“Exactly,” the konuul said as he poured half the fluid into the gourd that Kuna had previously mostly emptied. He then, carefully, walked over to the creek and filled each one the rest of the way with water. Once he came back, he saw that the sereva had finished fixing the tear on his pants, so he handed the gourds over for a moment while he put them back on. “I guess we’ll have to hold these two while we walk. Next time we stop, we should see what we can do to make them easier to carry and… I guess put some kind of stopper in them.”

“Could just use the tops for that last bit, for now,” Kuna pointed out.

Lykou shrugged. “Makes sense. Long as we keep them held upright.”

Kuna quickly ate his own breakfast while Lykou finished his, then the two packed up and resumed their journey- albeit at a slower pace, thanks to both the mountain climbing and Lykou’s stinging injury. Fortunately, the juice did help, though they were careful not to drink it too quickly.

*****

After a long, slow day of travel, they were lucky to find a rock formation to work into a crude shelter using some logs and ferns nearby. It was small, but by keeping the firepit near enough to the entrance, it meant that there was less chance of a repeat of the morning’s intruder, as long as the fire was kept going. And they’d be reasonably protected from any rain, should the weather suddenly change.

They ate dinner by the fire and gradually sipped down the rest of the watered down juice in each of their gourds- especially Lykou. In fact, once everything else was taken care of, he gulped it down and munched at some of the fruit inside so hungrily that Kuna briefly worried about him overdoing it. When the sereva voiced that concern, the canid just chuckled and shook his head. “Much as you might want to see me get all sloppy, I’m just finishing this and heading straight to bed. Between that hike and this literal pain in my side, I think I want to conk out a bit early tonight.”

Kuna smiled sympathetically at him. “That thing’s going to take a while to heal completely, but it should be a bit better in the morning. Sleep well, Lykou.”

“Thanks Kuna. And hey, I hate to say it, but with the chance of more dangerous critters being around, we should probably sleep in shifts. You up to watching the fire for a while?”

Kuna frowned a bit. “Oh. Sure, I guess that makes sense…”

“Hey,” Lykou said, embracing him for a moment. When he pulled back, he rubbed the sereva’s head softly. “We can still cuddle. Whenever you want to get some rest, wake me up and I’ll let you doze off in my lap. Alright?”

Kuna smiled a bit at that and nodded. “Okay. Goodnight, Lykou.”

“G’night, Kuna,” the konuul said, before crawling into their makeshift shelter and collapsing onto their sleeping mat. It wasn’t long before he was sound asleep.

*****

Kuna took his time finishing his own juice-water, idly poking at the fire for a while. An hour or two passed. He was a bit tired, but less than he would have expected. Over time, he started to get that strange feeling that he was being watched. It set his nerves on edge, and he was considering waking his friend when he suddenly noticed something odd in the fire. He’d been watching it for a while, so the gradual change had slipped his notice initially. But now that he looked at it again with his nerves on edge, something looked off. Two small gaps in the fire stood out. The flame circled around a couple spots in such a way that they looked like eyes, which were staring right back at him.

He started to become more uncomfortable as he stared at them. Finally, his uneasiness was seemingly justified when they rose up, along with a circle of fire that drifted away from the rest in a very unnatural way. His eyes went wide as he nervously scooted backwards, his cry out to Lykou caught in his throat. He’d encountered spirits before, but aside from the recent ghost incident, none had ever come this close, much less paid any real attention to him. And this was the first time he’d ever seen a fire-related one. Sure, there had been a number of earth, wind, and even water ones at various points, especially once he was on his own, but fire? That was new. And it seemed specifically interested in him.

Suddenly, a voice rang out from it, with an androgynous and vaguely resonant tone. “Hello, Kuna.”

And that was new, too. Never before Tareq’s echo had one bothered speaking to him. “H-h-hi?” he nervously said, barely above a whisper as he stared in astonishment- and some small amount of fear- at the strange fiery spirit. He thought for a moment and glanced down at the empty gourd by his side, and his eyes darted between the spirit and the gourd suspiciously.

“Oh, I’m very real, make no mistake,” the entity said as it drifted a little closer to him, further separating itself from the campfire.

He gulped and took a deep breath to steady himself. “W-what do you want?”

“What do YOU want, Kuna?” the spirit asked, staring at him intently.

A thought occurred to the sereva. They were supposedly on the side of some mountain related to enlightenment. Stories supposedly abound regarding people finding answers to ‘big questions’ there. Was this his chance? He decided he’d better go for it. “The way home. Er, Lykou’s home. L-Lakefire. How do we get there from here?”

The spirit stared at him for a moment longer, then chuckled and narrowed its eyes. “No. That is not at the top of your mind. You’re still nervous and uncertain about that. Speak your heart truly, young sereva.”

“Huh? Y-yes it is, I-” Kuna replied, then cut himself off as the spirit started to slowly drift around him, trailing small sparks that faded into thin air as it went. With some thought, he realized it was right. He still had misgivings about the Ashsers accepting him, however much Lykou genuinely seemed to insist they would. And more than anything, there was something else he wished for. “I… I just…”

“Yes? Speak the truth, Kuna,” the spirit said as it drifted back around in front of him. “What lays on the surface of your soul?”

Kuna’s gaze dropped, along with his ears. “I don’t want to be so helpless anymore. I just… want to be worth something. Not feel so… so useless.”

“Interesting,” the spirit replied. “What if I told you I could help you begin your journey to unlocking your true potential?”

“What ‘potential’?” the sereva asked with one eyebrow raised with skepticism. “And how do I know I can trust you?”

“The potential others have seen in you, that you hide from yourself,” the spirit answered cryptically. “And do you doubt the word of a spirit?”

Kuna stared for a moment, then narrowed his eyes and looked away, an unusual feeling of defiance rising inside him. “Not like most of you have given me reason to do otherwise.”

“Perhaps you’re right. We’ve only had the natural order of the world to attend to, why shouldn’t we drop that to help a lonely boy struggling with his mortal problems?” the spirit responded with a strangely icy sarcasm.

The sereva looked somewhat abashed and his face fell. “Sorry, I-”

The spirit cut him off with light laughter. “Only giving you a hard time. It comes with the territory,” it said as it drifted in a circle around him again. “You’re right, you have no particular reason to trust me. So instead trust yourself. You know there’s more to yourself that just hasn’t had a chance to shine. You’ve felt it, but it always gets buried under all that fear and doubt.”

Kuna sighed and curled his legs up and wrapped his arms around them in his anxious-mode position. “Easier said than done. How do I know I’m not just looking for something that isn’t there? I’m no good at anything. If Lykou hadn’t found me when he did, I probably wouldn’t have lasted through the next year. Or season, even.”

“If you won’t trust me, or yourself, why not trust in those that have already seen something in you worth preserving?” the spirit asked. “Your grandmother, your parents… or indeed, Lykou.”

Kuna was silent for a moment and looked away before finally meeting the spirit’s eyes as it floated back in front of him, a bit closer now. Oddly, despite it being comprised of flames hovering in mid-air, he didn’t feel any particular heat coming from it. “...okay. What is this ‘potential’ you’re talking about?”

Suddenly, a crooked, jagged grin appeared in the flames beneath the fire. “I think you know. I’m speaking of the secret of your ancestors. Of the art. The craft. That which keeps your people safe and grants those that learn it a closer tie to the spirit world itself.”

The sereva stared at it for a moment, and his eyes gradually widened again. “You mean…?”

“Yes, Kuna,” the spirit answered without answering. “So, are you interested?”

Kuna looked anxious again, his eyes darting around as he contemplated the situation. On the one hand, this was a strange spirit that he had no particular reason to trust, and while most spirits were said to be benign and even crucial to the world’s natural functioning, he knew there were bad ones out there- corrupt ones, demons. Still, the thought of finally learning magic, even if it might risk his own life, was admittedly enticing. Finally, he took a deep breath and slowly nodded. “O-okay. W-what do I do?”

“Good,” was all the spirit said.

Suddenly, the world started to go dark, and the spirit’s flames started to spread and surround him. Kuna instinctively shielded his eyes with his arms as he felt himself being engulfed.

*****

When he opened his eyes again, the sereva found himself laying on his back in a dark void. Immediately, he was worried he’d fallen asleep and ended up in another of his bad dreams. But this felt more real than any dream he’d ever experienced. As he sat up, he saw some shapes forming in the void. Small pinpricks of light floated around in the air in random positions. And underneath him, there was a faint, glowing circle of light.

“Welcome, Kuna,” said a voice from all around him, and yet nowhere at the same time. “To the astral realm.”

Kuna nervously stood up and looked around. All he could see was darkness filled with tiny glowing specks of light. “W-what?” he asked as he hugged himself nervously. Much to his chagrin, he was completely naked again, and felt slightly chilly.

“Here, you must travel the astral path through the lands internal, and face your trials, to unlock your soul from its cage,” the voice explained cryptically. As it did so, the light underneath him began to extend off in one direction, flowing over unseen rises, falls, and wavering textures in an otherwise invisible landscape. “Good luck.”

“What the fuck does that even mean??” the sereva nervously snapped out loud as he stared out at the mysterious non-landscape. But no response came. Eventually, seeing no other option, he hesitantly took his first step along the path. When nothing happened, the started following it.

After walking some way, he started shivering as he felt eyes on him from out in the darkness. Multiple sets of them. Periodically he jumped or flinched when he felt or saw claws or talons lash out at him from out of nowhere, and occasionally he thought he felt the hot breath of a deadly predator on the back of his neck. But every time he turned to look, he couldn’t see the source of any of it.

Eventually, faint, the mystery attacks subsided as red-tinted visions started appearing, floating in the dark ether all around him. As they took shape, he shivered slightly as he recognized the faces of people from his tribe. Fuck, what is this, a new nightmare? he wondered. But it feels real… too real. And I usually don’t know when I’m in a dream…

As usual, the images began their verbal assault. “Why are you still alive? Still spreading your curse to others?” one said.

“You can’t do anything right, even dying!” one accused, pointing at him.

Kuna glared down at the path, and continued to hold himself, trying not to look at them as tears began forming in his eyes. It’s just a dream, he reminded himself repeatedly. They’re not real.

“What’s the point of even going on? Not only are you foolishly prolonging your own suffering,” another explained with condescension. “You’re tainting everything you touch.”

The onslaught continued for some time as he continued walking, but he gradually started to slow down as the harsh words began to overwhelm him.

Eventually, Niric’s face appeared in front of him, albeit much bigger than him, despite clearly still being a child. “You got your parents k-”

“SHUT IT, NIRIC,” the sereva suddenly blurted out. All the voices suddenly fell silent as he looked up at the apparition with a piercing glare. “Just SHUT. UP.”

The phantasmal Niric looked surprised, but then it grew larger and sneered at him. The others did as well, looming in closer as they began spewing even harsher, more hateful words at him. Their faces became more menacing, growing sharper teeth and their eyes began turning blood red. They were looking more and more like vicious monsters and less like sereva with each passing moment. Niric was saying something, but he was no longer hearing it. He hands balled into fists and he teeth grated together.

Then, all of the sudden, Kuna hauled his fist around and decked the image of Niric right in its oversized nose. “I SAID FUCK OFF! ALL OF YOU CAN FUCK ALL THE WAY OFF!”

Again, the phantoms were taken aback. Niric, in particular had cracked like a broken piece of pottery, his eye twitching for a moment before the entire vision shattered and vanished.

“I may be a fuck up, I may be a weakling, and I sure as fuck can’t do much,” the sereva seethed, glaring around at the different apparitions one at a time as he spoke. “But I am NOT a damned CURSE! The only curse around here is you fucks!”

Practically out of instinct, without even thinking about it, he bent down and grabbed a rock seemingly out of thin air near the ground, then hurled it at another one of the apparitions. “I am TIRED of your shit! I’m not a dumb kid anymore! I know you aren’t really here. You ditched me, so just fuck off out of my head once and for all! I am THROUGH with your shit!”

The apparition shattered. He quickly grabbed and hurled a few more rocks around, shattering a few more, then paused to catch his breath. The rest of the phantoms faded away into the darkness. He stood there for a minute, panting, with clenched fists. Despite tears in his eyes, his bitter look slowly shifted to a faint grin. That felt… good, he thought to himself. “And STAY the fuck out!” he shouted into the void.

Once he’d finally recovered a bit, he looked around again. Suddenly, his eyes widened when he looked back and noticed the path starting to fade behind him. Not knowing what would happen, he tentatively knelt down and tried to touch the ground in the darkness next to the glowing light underneath him. To his horror, he realized there was nothing there. Fuck, if this thing vanishes with me on it, I’ll fall, he realized. Is there even a bottom down there somewhere??

Not wanting to take any chances, he turned and started sprinting forward along the path ahead, while the path behind him continued to steadily fade away. Soon he realized things were getting… stranger. The path was not only going up and down, but also side to side and even inverting itself. All the while, he never fell, but he noticed at various points he was running with the remaining path he’d just traversed floating above him, or off to the side. This place makes no damn sense, he thought. Where is this thing taking me??

Then the path came to an abrupt stop and he barely caught himself from falling over a ledge. He looked down and saw a large, round patch of shimmering light like the path several yards away, and twice as far down. He briefly turned to check behind himself, and he saw the encroaching darkness that was swallowing up the path getting closer. He looked back and forth for a moment in a panic, before finally deciding to take his chances and jump to the circle of light.

At first, he wasn’t sure he’d make it. But his feet just managed to catch the edge as he landed. As he did, he dropped into a roll and ended up sprawled out in the middle of the circle, panting hard. After catching his breath, he sat up and looked around. There was no sign of the path, but he once again felt eyes on him. And this time, he saw them- numerous glowing yellow eyes slowly approaching in the darkness from all directions. Slowly but surely, a number of konuul stepped out of the shadows, looking menacing with extra sharp teeth and claws, licking their chops like wild beasts.

“Well well, looks like you came through for our dinner,” one said.

Kuna scrambled away from them, but soon realized another was approaching from the other side. He turned and stood up on shaky legs, terrified.

“Yes, thank you for bringing us this morsel, Lykou.”

On cue, the last pair of eyes, directly in front of him, stepped out of the darkness. It was an equally frightening version of his friend, with a wicked grin. He slowly unsheathed his knife as he approached the sereva. “No problem. This idiot actually thought we were friends. Imagine that- a konuul friends with a leaf-biter!”

All the konuul laughed as they closed in on Kuna. Suddenly, his fear started to fade as his eyes narrowed. “Nice try, but I’m not falling for it. You’re not Lykou.”

“Oh? I’m not real, am I?” the extra-predatory figure asked as he advanced on the sereva. Unlike the phantasms from before, these figures definitely looked more solid. Suddenly, he lashed out, slicing a large gash into the sereva’s arm.

Kuna’s fear returned as he winced in pain. But then he grit his teeth and dodged another cut. “No. You’re not. I know the real Lykou wouldn’t do this.”

He suddenly felt clawed hands gripping him from the sides, and from behind, pinning him in place as the evil-looking mockery of his friend lifted his knife high, taking aim at his heart. Still, Kuna didn’t let the fear consume him. He clinched his fist, and just as the blade was coming down, he managed to pull his arm free and shove something in the entity’s face. In his hand, glowing like a miniature sun, was the stone, the reddish smudge now dripping as if with fresh blood. “Not. Falling. For it.”

Instantly, all of the konuul, including the not-Lykou, fell apart into a pool of swarming shadows. They collectively fled around the sereva and crawled up a new path that’d formed away from one side of the circle of light, until they vanished in the distance. As he stared off in the direction they’d gone, he saw something floating in the air at the far end of the path. Something about it called out to him. Like it belonged to him, and was waiting for him to come and take it.

Slowly, he started walking up the path towards it. He winced as he rubbed his arm, the gash still very much there, and bleeding, albeit not severely. But it still hurt- a reminder that he could definitely be injured in this place. A faint smoky mist began to creep in along the edges of the path as he gradually made his way towards the floating, glowing object.

The area around the object was lighting up, and he could see terrain beginning to form around him besides the glowing path. Before long, he realized he was in a dimly-lit forest. A familiar one. In a very familiar area. He paused to look around and saw a certain collection of large, standing stones behind him. He started trembling as the location sank in, and he slowly turned back around as he felt something manifest between him and the glowing object.

Sure enough, standing in front of him, was the ultimate source of his nightmares. The hulking, deformed visage of a menacing ravager. It was larger than in any of his other dreams, and more terrifying than ever. Its face was bathed in shadow, but he could still just barely make out its piercing eyes and its toothy, wicked grin, dripping with blood from a fresh kill. Yet again, it was coated in viscera from two almost unrecognizable bodies laying behind it- the key word being ‘almost’. And it wanted more.

He’d stood up to the other things this place had thrown at him, but the ravager was too much. He turned and bolted, instinctively heading for the standing stones just in time to avoid a massive clawed hand swinging down after him. The claws lightly grazed him, leaving a set of painful red streaks along his back as he fled. He made it to the stones as he heard the creature stalking towards him. It wasn’t even running, as if it knew he wouldn’t escape no matter what. And to his horror, he realized there was no way he’d fit in the same spot he’d hidden in before, seeing as how he was now an adult, and too large to fit inside.

But then the familiar voice of the spirit finally returned. “Will this be your fate forever, Kuna? Always running, always hiding?”

“Get me out of here!” the sereva begged, frantically looking for another hiding place as fearful tears streamed down his face. “Please!”

“Will you not face this challenge, like you did the others?” the voice continued.

“I can’t! I’m just a weak loser, I can’t fight,” Kuna whimpered, bolting around to the other side of the large pile of stones as the ravager crept closer. “Just get me out of here!”

“Is that what your parents saw in you? Or your grandmother?” the spirit asked. “What about Lykou?”

Kuna paused and curled into a ball behind the stones, still trembling, but mulling over the spirit’s words in silence.

“Is this really who you are?” the spirit continued. “Stop running, Kuna. It’s time to take back what is yours.”

Kuna continued shaking, trying to parse the spirit’s words. Something rang true about them, even if he didn’t quite understand it.

“Your childhood may have had its difficulties. But you were loved,” the spirit reminded him. “You had family. You had joy, despite it all. You knew there had to be more to yourself. That you were worth something. And that beast took that from you.”

Kuna’s brow furrowed as he continued listening.

“Are you going to let it continue stealing from you? Continue robbing you of yourself? Of everything that your family gave to you, and Lykou or anyone else gives to you now?” the spirit continued, its voice growing louder and more insistent. “Will you let yourself forever be deprived of what is rightfully yours, or will you stand and put a stop to it once and for all?”

Gradually, Kuna’s fear started to give way to anger. He could feel the truth in the spirit’s words, speaking to a part of himself that had been buried deep down for a long, long time- left neglected to wither up and all but die. But now it was reawakening. Slowly, he stood up, his trembling subsiding. A strange charge pulsed through his fur as it began to stand on end. Soon even the anger faded and he felt a new sensation overcome him- a cold, calm resolve he’d never experienced before.

Slowly, he turned around and found himself staring at the beast, only a dozen yards away. The landscape had shifted when he wasn’t looking. The stones and the forest were gone. There was only the path again, a bridge between where he stood and the floating, glowing object, with the ravager standing on it between them.

“Take back what it stole from you, Kuna.”

Slowly, but with purpose, the sereva started walking towards the hulking monstrosity. The monster, in turn, started stalking forward to meet him. He met its bloodthirsty eyes with an icy glare of his own. As they approached one another at a seemingly glacial pace, the fear started to come back. But this time, he ignored it. He could feel the beast’s hot, foul breath on his face as he came well within its striking distance.

The ravager reared up and threatened to bring down a clawed hand powerful enough to shatter stone. Kuna balled up his own fists, then… kept walking. He felt the impact, but not in any way he’d have expected. The creature fell on him like an avalanche, but it felt more like stepping through a waterfall. There was pressure and force, but he pushed through it.

And just like that, the monster disintegrated around him as he pushed through its form to the other side. Shadowy claws reached out from the darkness, slashing and tearing at his naked body, leaving behind angry red streaks of blood. He winced, but otherwise ignored them as he approached the floating orb. Finally, when he reached the orb, he paused for a moment to stare at it. The thing felt intensely familiar, somehow. Like a part of himself he never knew he was missing. Slowly, he reached out to grab it, as the shadows did their best to tear him away.

The moment his hands touched it, however, they were utterly obliterated as a powerful light filled the void, temporarily blinding him. When he could see again, the inky blackness remained, but it was now filled with beautiful glowing lights of all different colors, and he could feel unknown energies flowing through and around himself. The orb was gone, but when he looked down at his hands, he saw that he’d changed. His flesh was transparent, and he could see a glowing, shimmering pale blue light, similar to what the orb had looked like, within himself, following the contours of his body.

All the anger, sadness, bitterness, and fear fled from his mind and he was suddenly flooded with a strange, but powerful sense of euphoria as he looked back up and around at the glowing lights. He felt like he was floating, but gradually dropped down to rest at the top of the glowing path, which at that point only consisted of a small circle of light underneath him. Somewhere down below, he saw a shimmering, silvery portal open up. It was a long drop and a few yards out, and a shiver of nervousness briefly returned to him. But almost effortlessly, he swept it aside and grinned with a newfound determination. He took a deep breath, then leapt off his perch and down through the portal.

And everything went dark again.

*****

Kuna awoke with a start, sitting bolt upright. He was awash with a cold sweat as he looked around. It looked like he’d dozed off next to the fire. He had no idea how much time had passed, but the fire was still going strong. The sky was still filled with stars, and the full moon shined down on him. There were no wounds on his body, other than the small scrape he’d sustained from the previous morning’s intruder. He found himself wondering if the whole thing had been a dream after all, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of the words that’d briefly rang out in his mind just before he woke up- “Your training begins tomorrow night.”