Siegfried felt a bit elated after Ryden confirmed their hope. That he really did have the potential to become strong once more. Alas, one glance at Haylee and his elation gave way to guilt and shame. But if it was guilt that dominated his subconsciousness, he would just use that guilt as his motivation to work even harder.

"So… how do we go about that?" he asked Haylee. "I don't even know where to start."

"You mean your ability?" the cat-girl asked, tilting her head to the side in question. "Why would you want to start with that now? We have the most amazing healer I've ever heard of with us, and I'm sure he would be inclined to help with—"

"No, Ryden should save his energy," Sieg interjected. "I can heal myself, even if it takes a bit longer. And also, I… just have to do this now," he stated with a tone of finality.

Haylee shot Siegfried a concerned glance. She wanted to argue, but after he confided his story to her, the cat-girl understood his need to act. "Fine, but we should move a bit away. I doubt you'll be able to keep your voice down if anything goes wrong." A quick shudder rocked Haylee's body at the thought of her own first transformation.

Sieg felt his stomach drop. It really had to be a horrible experience for the lethal young shapeshifter to be stirred up like that. But he didn't press her. Instead, he quietly snuck into the cave once more to retrieve their rucksack. The sun was still rising when they left the plateau in search of a suitable training area. Not far from their cave, they spotted a broad ring of dense bushes in the shadow of a large, jagged stone pillar. Upon breaching the natural privacy shield, a shallow pond revealed itself, surrounded by a bed of lush grass and yellow flowers.

"It's beautiful," Haylee breathed. Movement on the far side of the pond attracted their attention. A pack of cat-sized, furry animals rushed through the grass and quickly out of sight.

"I've never seen a rat that big," Siegfried exclaimed in wonder. Haylee couldn't stifle a chuckle.

"Those are capybaras Siegfried, not rats! They are harmless. Actually, they are even friendly with most other animals."

"Well, at least the dense bushes should keep us out of sight and don't let the sound travel too far. I can also still see the plateau from here, so we should be fine," Sieg stated. He sat down cross-legged and looked to Haylee for guidance.

Her smile turned into a grimace, but she reluctantly sat down next to him, clearing her throat. "For me, leaning to shapeshift only partially was a bit like building muscle memory. My body knew already how to change fully into a big cat, and I went from there. In your case, the only things you instinctively know is how to revert your body to its pristine form and how to conjure those bone blades. The first step is trying to conjure that same blade elsewhere instead of your hand."

"I get what you are saying," Sieg mused. "But I never paid much attention to what exactly is happening at that moment. I just will it to appear, and it does. I don't feel physically doing anything special."

Haylee sighed. "You're blinking countless times every day, but you're hardly ever aware that you are just moving your eyelids, right?" she tried a different approach. "But when you consciously observe yourself while it happens, you know which muscles are moving. You can feel it. And that's why you can also do it on purpose. Same thing on a different scale."

Sieg nodded, comprehending the theory. In practice, it was still not that easy. Whenever he willed the blade to appear, it jutted out of his palm in the blink of an eye. There was not much time to feel anything. Retracting was a different kind of feeling— he could tell that much at least.

Nearly an hour of frustrating attempts went by before he thought to have sensed something. Alas, his irritation just grew when he still wasn't able to grasp it.

"That's infuriating," Sieg growled, punching the dirt beneath him. Haylee left her post near the bushes, from where she had monitored the wide clearing. She cocked an elegant eyebrow in question. "I can feel something there," the warrior explained. "But the process is just too quick to get ahold of that feeling. It's too complex." Haylee crossed her arms and tilted her head a bit to the side— an indication that she was thinking hard, as Siegfried knew by now.

"That does make sense from my point of view," the cat-girl intoned calmly. "I can see even less than you might feel, but basically, it looks like you punch through your skin and flesh while instantly healing it again and then harden the skin around it. That would be three different kinds of… motivity if you want. You could try focusing only on the first sensation as you can do the healing consciously afterwards."

Siegfried didn't miss the uneasiness in her voice when Haylee proposed this kind of approach. Nevertheless, his mind was set up. The visual description certainly helped him, and the different sensations were growing more distinct with every try. He couldn't feel how his bone changed or grew, but more like he used a strange kind of muscle, just like Haylee told him.

"I think I'm ready," Siegfried said, holding out his forearm and focusing on the upper side.

A few minutes went by with nothing happening. Haylee could tell from the intense gaze on the warrior's face that he was continually concentrating, though. "Try with the blade from your palm again, and right afterwards again somewhere else. Better if the feeling is still fresh in your mind," she suggested. The cat-girl watched with sharp attention as the blade from Siegfried's palm shot out and retracted. Nothing else happened. It shot out once more, retracted once more.

The instant afterwards, a spike of bone shot out vertically from Siegfried's forearm. It was covered in blood. His pain-induced shout came only a blink later, but he bit it down to a grunt. "Now heal it!" Haylee shouted, her heart racing.

Sieg tried to concentrate through the pain. To revert back his flesh and skin while simultaneously keeping the finger-long spike outside. It was like trying to stand up and remain seated at the same time. He was sweating profusely from both pain and exertion by the time he managed to isolate both. A jolt of electrifying agony that nearly robbed him of his consciousness was his reward.

"Stop it, Siegfried!" Haylee panicked. "Change it back," she tried again, but Sieg didn't react. Lifting his head with both hands to face her, the cat-girl attempted to get his attention. "Picture your arm as it always was," she urged him. "Like it was just an hour before. There is no spike, no hole, no blemish on your skin. Picture it!" Relief flooded her when his eyes momentarily focused. His body was still shaking uncontrollably, but the spike retracted quickly, making way for flesh and sinew to join once more.

Sieg was still breathing heavily and sweating all over, but his gaze was clear. "Okay," he panted when he registered the pained expression on Haylee's face. "I'm okay."

"I'm sorry, Siegfried," the agitated young woman apologised. "I wish Eurydike was here. She would have known better than—"

"It's not your fault!" he interrupted firmly. "It was my decision. And it still stands," he added while trying to take deep, slow breaths. "It was just the first try. It didn't work, so we find out what went wrong and try again. I promise to stop right away when I feel something goes wrong," he pleaded.

With a helpless sigh, the cat-girl relented, "okay, but if you try to push through the pain like that again, I'll knock you out, is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," he chuckled wearily.

"I mean it, Siegfried. If you feel like having to punish yourself or something equally stupid, you can do it without me. I was honestly worried just now!" The accusing tone of her voice was still laden with shock.

"Okay, I'm sorry, Haylee. I really am. And I didn't have any ulterior motives here— I just wanted it to work. Wanted to get stronger," Sieg explained. "But I get now that I can't force my way through like I did with physical training." He locked eyes with the beautiful cat-girl once more. "I'll be careful. Please help me once more."

The honesty in Siegfried's serious gaze calmed Haylee, and she nodded in acceptance. "Then let's try to figure out what was different. What exactly did you try to do, or envision, when the pain started to get worse?."

Siegfried explained the process in detail, watching Haylee furrow her brows, contemplating. Until she palmed her face with an annoyed grunt.

"Of course it didn't work like that," she exclaimed. "I just told Ryden the same… you don't heal yourself— you shapeshift and try to return your body to a scatheless state. In this case, your muscles and nerves would have tried to grow together. But the space between them was already occupied by the bone. You constantly tried to shift the nerves against the bone… that's like applying constant pressure on an open wound," Haylee concluded, her voice growing faint at the idea. "Do you feel any pain at all when using the blade from your palm?."

"No, not even for an instant," Sieg answered.

"Then my best guess is that you, somehow, shift your muscles and nerves aside before the bone grows out. The nerves would never be cut that way. Maybe if you understand how it works now, you could get a better feeling on the whole process?" she asked, hopefully.

"Yeah… back to stabbing empty air," Sieg muttered but got to it right away. Haylee just smiled and went for her lookout post again, leaving him to his own devices.

††† Sally †††

Sally forced herself not to stare at the mutilated corpse of the goat-man, propped against the tree. Showing even a shred of empathy, let alone remorse, in front of Jenna could very well lead to her own demise. Fortunately, she was reasonably adept at hiding her feelings behind a mask of indifference. Otherwise, she would have shared the fate of the many 'corrupted souls' in the prison cells of the first sector. They combed the forest for hours before dark and started again with the first light, but without success. The area was too vast, hiding places too numerous for a single squad. When her squad leader, Jenna, finally called them together, Sally expected them to give up the futile endeavour.

"We're changing tactics," Jenna declared. "I got the location of several settlements in the area. The boy can't hide forever, but we need more eyes, so we're going to threaten them into scouting for us. I don't care how we achieve it— just remember not to diminish their numbers too much. I'll assign each of you to an area. Status-meeting in two days from now. Questions?."

Sally groaned inwardly when their youngest member stepped forward. He joined their squad recently— recommended for his talent but lacking experience.

"I don't get it, squad leader," he intoned. "Why are we going through such lengths to catch that man? Wouldn't a—" he lost his breath when Jenna's fist appeared in his guts the next instant.

"Because the first enforcer said so," Jenna snarled with finality. "Are there any other questions?" she looked at each of her squad members, her glare indicating that the inquiry was purely rhetorical.

Sally waited quietly for her assignment. She just hoped that there wouldn't be too much resistance. But she would do what she had to do— as always.