~~(Brooks)~~

I can't feel my Ability at all. This feeling is disturbing, and all I can do is hope I can find my partner soon. Abilities and magic work different, here, if at all, but nothing was said for aura. When I used it to shield myself, it worked fine.

This place focuses on aura usage, that's how we're supposed to survive. My brothers and I will be a little bit fine, but combat might be tricky. Our village trains us in some basic aura survival skills, due to where we live. There's Ruins nearby, and they can interfere with Abilities and magic. If we got stranded in the woods, we'd need to be able to do things like aura filters for water and defend our body from small stuff.

Well, the latter was something they trained us for anyway. Rare is an incident where anyone from our village over the age of ten receives a cut or a scrape from a trip or a tree branch.

My first order of business after landing is checking my surroundings for threats. Finding none, I shrug off my pack and check my supplies. Tarp, rope, twine, combat knife, flint and steel, basic first aid, two water bottles, map, compass, two waterproof pouches, a mess kit – basic stuff.

Need to find my own food and water, too – don't even get to start off with it. That means they expect us to find it shortly after where we arrive, which means there are either multiple sources nearby, or strong clues as to a single source nearby.

I pulse my aura, verifying once again that there are no monsters around, and determine that there's no food in my immediate area. Three herbs, but all of them toxic or for medicinal over filling purposes.

Regardless, I collect the ones that can be used for medicinal purposes, putting them into a pouch in the pack.

That done, I pulse my aura again, then begin walking, pulsing it every couple of yards. My aura can only reach out about five feet with a pulse, though Flame can pulse his almost twenty feet out.

I really wish he was here right now. That boy is reckless, hyperactive, and often clueless, but his presence is the most comforting thing in the world to any of us. Cliff, Gale, and I all find him annoying, but we all miss his presence when it's gone.

Unfortunately, we're not partners, so if we do meet up, we're limited on how long we can stick together.

Flame is powerful in every sense of the word. His Ability, his aura, his combat skill – they're second to none back home. The rest of us have to struggle to keep up with him, and that's not even enough. None of us managed to break through to A-Rank before basic training, yet Flame just jumped to it as if it were nothing, and still doesn't realize just how amazing that is.

He probably has access to his Ability here, even if limited. I fear for any monster that gets in his way – especially if he can still use his 'dragon' abilities.

I highly doubt they're a part of his Ability. They're fire, alright, and he calls them 'dragon' for whatever reason, but they're unlike any other aspect of his Ability – or the Elemental Abilities we know of. No one can just 'control' the fire of someone else.

Flame has shredded right through it from a distance just by clawing his fingers and raking them through the air, and the person burned from the inside out in the form of claw marks.

That person didn't survive very long. I won't, either, if I don't get out of my thoughts on Flame and focus them on surviving.

An hour of wandering later, I sit down and snack on the nuts and berries I located. I put an aura trace on my partner, so finding him won't be too hard for me, since I can still sense it.

They stuck aura traces on us, and I have to wonder why, since they're not here. Maybe to track us down in case we're not all at the gathering point? I'm not sure how to remove them – Dad could, but he was the only one back home able to remove aura traces.

Heh. The look on his face when he realized all four of us could sense aura traces on ourselves. That's apparently not normal, but we didn't know it and didn't mention it until one day when Flame asked why he kept sticking aura traces on him when he kept running off into the woods.

Focus, Brooks. You're not Flame, you're you. Keep your mind on-track.

After my snack, I walk to the nearest water source and do an aura pulse. This one's clean, but just in case there's something my aura didn't detect, I perform an aura filter as I fill my bottles. I'm good, but I can't detect everything.

My bottles filled and my own thirst quenched, I set off to find my partner. Judging by the distance, it will take me a few days to reach him, with minimal stops. A week is more realistic, accounting for monster encounters and his movements.

Provided neither of us die on the way. Receive an incapacitating injury. Become some monster's snack.

There are any number of things that could stop us from meeting up. And when we meet up, there's the possibility we won't be able to stand each other's presence, too.

Hours pass before I see signs of animal life, and luckily, I sense it through an aura pulse before it noticed me.

Or maybe I let it know I was here...

It moved out from around the tree it was sleeping at, and began staring at me.

Well, crap. That was my own fault.

And this is a rare breed of leopard, too. Dark blue fur with dark red spots, golden eyes, and a powerful aural defense. Only two people from our village ever managed to kill one, and they were both S-Rank Superhumans. Dad was one of them, and Mom was the other. It took both of them to kill it.

Slowly, I raise my hands and take a step back. The leopard takes a step forward. Every time I step back, it steps forward, stalking me until I'm against a tree.

No way in hell am I going down, but no one survives against them. S-Rank monsters with powerful aural defense that can shrug off almost any attack – be it mundane, aural, magical, or Ability; they also have high speed, high strength, high senses. They're one of the ultimate predators of forests, but usually only live in mountains. For them to be in the Enchanted forest does not bode well for trainees who are caught unaware.

It's one of the few creatures I know of that can sense aura pulses.

The leopard crouches, preparing to pounce, and I prepare to run out of the way, my aura shrouding my body in the hopes of enough boosted speed and enhanced defense to possibly make it out of here alive.

The leopard pounces, and the moment it does, I move, dodging to the side and running past it.

The leopard slams into me as I do, sending me off-balance and rolling in the dirt, slamming into a tree, myself.

“Oof!” I grunt in pain.

What the hell just happened?

The leopard's fur is singed in a spot about the size of my fist on its side. It stands up and shakes it off, looking through the woods. It can see what I cannot, in this filtered lighting.

“You leave my brother alone!” An annoyed voice yells.

I have never been more glad to hear that voice in my life.

The leopard pounces at something in the shadows, and in a quick flash of fire, it is sent flying into a tree. A moment later, I catch a glimpse of Flame moving behind another tree. The panther goes after that tree, then circles it, looking confused.

“Over here, mean kitty!”

When did he move over there?

I watch as the leopard attacks Flame, who punches or kicks it with enough force to slam it into at tree or the ground or just the air. It takes me almost a full minute – seventeen strikes – to notice Flame's movements.

The moment he goes behind a tree, he does something insane. He uses his fire to temporarily boost his speed in an explosive burst, shrouding himself in aura to shield his body just in case he crashes. I can barely catch the movement.

Once I catch that, I begin following him, focusing on speeding myself up with aura to keep up with the fight. Even doing that, Flame is moving incredibly fast.

No wonder he has enough momentum to send the leopard flying. But how did he get to me so fast? He was dropped off over eighty miles away from me. And how is he using his Ability? This is the same form of it he used back when we were younger, but on a smaller, more focused scale. It's as if he still has access to his Ability here.

The leopard doesn't give up. Flame's strikes aren't enough to actually hurt it, just singe its fur – which heals moments later.

It knows that it will wear Flame out before Flame wears it out.

Closing my eyes, I listen to the battle as I focus on my own Ability. Flame's insane, and he's impossible, and he exceeds any norm there is, which is probably why he can use his Ability here, why he can break through Ranks so easily. He will likely reach S-Rank long before the end of training.

Me? I need to work for it. I can't connect to my Ability, but I can move fast, and I can fight hard. We're fighters and survivors, those of our village.

And we don't give up.

I will connect to my Ability.

So as Flame fights, I focus, knowing I'll have enough time. He won't give up until it dies, even if it kills him to do so.

There is water all around me. I can manipulate that which is there, as well as increase its amount. Once I reach A-Rank, I'll be able to manifest it on my own, I believe.

All I need to do is sense the water around me. A minute passes. Two. Three. Four.

There!

Just a small flicker of my Ability. I focus on it again, sensing the water around me in flashes and flickers.

Five minutes. Six minutes. Seven.

I catch the flicker, feeling the water around me. Not very far out, but enough. I focus more.

Eight minutes. Nine minutes. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.

With explosive force, the water under my feet gathers and bursts, launching me forward.

That was an accident, and I land in a roll, thankful for my auric defense. I'd have broken an arm without that. Or maybe a few ribs.

The leopard looks at me, earning itself another flame-coated fist from Flame, who promptly vanishes. I didn't catch that one – is he getting faster as he wears out?

Flame and the leopard resume their fight, and I wait until the beast is in the air to perform the leap again, this time, bringing my fist forward and slamming into its side.

Not with the explosive power of Flame's punches, as he's probably using the explosive force on contact as he is with his leaps, but still hard enough to throw it, from my momentum.

Now, Flame and I begin a dance with the leopard. We beat on it, pound it down, throw it around, and eventually, it stops moving.

Flame appears in front of me, a look of concern on his face, and I take a step back in shock.

His hair and eyes aren't their usual red. Well, his hair is, but his eyes...it's like they're fire itself.

“Are you alright?” He asks. “The meanie didn't hurt you, did it?”

“How did you get here so fast?” I ask. “And how did you go for so long using your Ability?”

“I used my explosive leaps,” he answers. “I put an aura trace on my partner. He's not far from here. You were a happy accident. If I didn't come along, who knows how long you'd have survived.”

“How were you able to use your Ability so much?” I ask. “I could barely do it now.”

“My reserves are big,” Flame rolls his eyes. “You should know that. Even though we're restricted, we still have our reserves. I wasn't creating fire, I was simply using the heat around me. It's humid here. I could probably work with that, if we managed a Unison Strike or if I got to a source of water.”

A screen of fog. He'd fill the air with it, and still be able to fight. I could, too. We've done it numerous times before. I'd be sensing the shifts in the fog, and he'd be sensing the heat within it.

“Thank you, Flame,” I wrap my arms around him in a hug.

“For what?” He asks. “Of course I'd save you – no one messes with my brothers!”

He pumps a fist when he does that, and accidentally hits me in the stomach. We stare at each other for a moment, then laugh.

Once we stop, we decide to take the leopard to meet up with his partner, and work as the three of us for the day we have together.

The moment we decide that, Flame grabs the leopard and throws it over his shoulder, then takes off running, his explosive steps taking him far ahead of me.

“You are so lucky I put an aura trace on you, Flame,” I mutter as I follow him as quickly as I can.

He stays in my sight at all times, but I still wasn't expecting him to just take off like that. I should have known better.

It's Flame, after all.

Twenty minutes later, I'm out of juice and we're with Flame's partner, a boy around fifteen I vaguely recognize from one of my classes. He's an Enhancer who can enhance his resistances, and he looks like he's in a fair bit of trouble, with another one of the leopards attacking him.

Did they purposely drop us near them? Or was that an accident or coincidence?

They wouldn't drop powerful cadets off to die on purpose, would they? Especially not Caleb – he's too powerful and valuable to lose.

So it was probably an accident.

Either way, there's no way I can go for round two – not after round one and the bursts to get here.

Flame drops the leopard, stops running, brings his hands up and crosses them, making claws.

Why am I not surprised he can do this?

As he drags his fingers through the air, flames trickle from them, and the leopard screams, flames ripping through it as if Flame had clawed his fingers through it instead of the air.

“That's my partner you were trying to kill,” Flame says casually to the leopard. “Please don't do it again.”

“Considering you ripped it to shreds with your Ability,” I say. “I highly doubt it will be attacking anyone again.”

“Just in case it returns back as a ghost,” Flame looks at me.

Ghosts don't exist, Flame. That's been proven time and again.

“Ghosts don't exist,” the older boy looks at Flame like he's an idiot. “I can't believe I got the hothead for a partner.”

“Who are you calling a hothead?” Flame glares at him.

You're getting upset over that, Flame. Who do you think he's calling a hothead?

“You,” the older teen says. “You're getting upset already. I'd rather have one of your brothers as a partner than you. Looks like we're already on the timer for twenty-four hours. How much longer do we have?”

“Roughly twenty-three hours,” Flame continues to glare at him. “And ghosts do exist – Caleb said so.”

“The daydreamer who wanders off by accident?” The teen scoffs. “And how much of the stories he tells do you believe?”

“You do realize he's the most powerful cadet in the facility, right?” I ask.

“That's what they say,” the teen laughs. “I haven't seen his Ability, nor have I felt it. I'll believe that he has such a godly power when I see it for myself. I've never heard of that form of Territory before, and I'm pretty sure the Alzir kids made it up just to screw with people, and that the facilities who lost helped, because they didn't want to admit that the weakest branch got the upper hand.”

“Hey!” Flame growls, his eyes burning hotter than the sun. Oh, crap. Gotta cool him off, and fast. “Caleb really did create his own reality marble! I got stuck on the street because of it! He's powerful as hell, and there's no way he's lying! Ghosts do so exist! He said so!”

“Flame,” I put a hand on his shoulder. “Calm down. You have to admit that Caleb's Ability is pretty unbelievable. It's even rumored that he used magic to cross the ocean.”

“But-!”

“Flame,” I keep my voice calm. “You know it's true, just let him find out on his own just how real Caleb's power is. As for the ghosts thing – I'm still not sure what to make of that. If they were real, then how come their existence has been disproved time and again?”

“Caleb says,” Flame begins, looking at me like I'm an idiot. “That they're undetectable by current methods. You need to use ancient forms of magic and perception to perceive them. He theorizes that Kieran can, due to Kieran's Ability of perception.”

“Now do you see why it can be pretty unbelievable?” I ask. “Caleb says it requires lost techniques to detect them – which means pretty much no one can.”

“I suppose,” Flame sighs, then looks back to his partner. “But you need to apologize for insulting Caleb. If you don't...”

“Whoa,” the older boy takes a step back, holding his hands up as fire surrounds Flame's. “I didn't mean to upset you, Flame. Caleb isn't crazy.”

I think Flame is terrifying this kid.

My brother is in way too much love with Caleb.

“Where's your partner at?” Flame asks me.

“I don't think I have enough juice left in me to make it to him,” I tell Flame. “I'll need a few hours to recover.”

“Oh,” Flames looks in the direction of my partner. “I forgot that I can sense your aura trace.”

With an explosive step, Flame vanishes. His partner looks at me in confusion.

“Aura trace?”

“We all have them on us,” I look at the teen. “Probably so they can track us down if we're not at the rendezvous point at the end. It's a small trace of aura placed on you that lets someone keep track of you. They, like most, touched us to place it, but we were taught how to do it without touching where we grew up. I put one on my partner, and Flame put one on you. He passed me up on his way to meet you. Sometimes, I wonder if the energy he's using is even his.”

My partner sighs, then looks at the two leopards and asks if we should start preparing them.

“I found some salt leaves,” he informs me. “We can use to cure them, make them into jerky.”

We get to work skinning and cutting up the leopards, cooking a little bit on a fire as we cure the rest. We sit on opposite sides of the fire, eating in silence, and once we finish, he sighs, then looks at me.

“I didn't mean to upset your brother,” he says. “I'm just a little bit irritated from the fight earlier.”

“I understand,” I say. “Flame does have a temper, but he also wears his emotions like a jacket. It's always visible, and changes immediately. He's friendly as hell, but he's also a complainer. If he gets hungry or tired, be assured that you'll know. If he's in a good mood, he'll be humming or singing or whistling. Unfortunately, he's not like Caleb, who can just kill whatever comes his way, which has led us to some interesting encounters back home.”

“Really?” He asks. “Like what?”

“You should hear Flame's version of events,” I laugh. “He tends to embellish his stories. If he tells the story of how he rescued you, he'll probably add a few leopards to the story, and change their sizes a fair bit. He'll make it seem more difficult than it was. He can't stand leaving a story as normal. Our village learned quick that if he told a story, that it probably wasn't how it actually went down. He once changed an ordinary garden snake into a basilisk with two heads.”

“That's...wow!” He laughs. “That's not a side of him I've ever seen. I've only ever seen him getting mad or being hyper as hell.”

“That's Flame for you,” I grin at him. “Does what he wants and doesn't give a damn what others think of him. Be careful on the subject of Caleb – he tends to crush on every cute guy he sees, and his crush on Caleb is bigger than the sun.”

It takes Flame quite awhile to return to us, and by then, we've already packaged up the cured meat as much as we can and devoured the meat we could. I shared some of the nuts and berries, and now, we're sitting with our backs against a tree, staring at the fire.

“How do you know what's good?” My partner asks.

“What do you mean?”

“You knew the berries and nuts were fine,” he answers. “And you've been showing me different herbs the last twenty minutes and telling me what they can be used for. Where did you learn all this?”

“We come from a village of people with colorful hair,” I answer. “It's high on a mountain, but has plenty of nuts, herbs, and berries around it. We're all taught aura once we turn ten, and before then, our time is filled with learning how to survive off the forest. We're taught aura because many beasts with a natural affinity for aura tend to be resilient to magic and Abilities, and those two things can get weird in some areas, particularly near the Ruins up the mountain.”

Three hours after Flame leaves, he returns, laughing as he drops my partner next to me. My partner looks stunned and terrified at the same time, and has claw marks on his arms.

“That was so much fun!” Flame exclaims. “I want to do that again!”

“That's because you're insane,” I look at him. “What happened to my partner?”

“He was under attack when I arrived,” Flame answers. “So I grabbed him and ran, then got lost, then had to rest up and recover, then we got attacked again, so took off again. We made it here alive!”

“We did,” I stand up, looking around. “But my aura pulse just detected several monsters on their way, and I don't think either of us have the Ability energy left. We'll have to use aura to fight them.”

~~(Kieran)~~

A new batch began today, just as I arrived. Forty boys and girls between ten and fourteen, each one a Superhuman who wishes to join the GSDF or at least undergo its training.

I've been watching them the last few hours, as the instructors test their limits and look for their strengths and weaknesses, and now, they're beginning the part where they test their Gifts.

Through all of this, one boy has stood out to me. Thirteen, with blond hair, brown eyes, and a splash of freckles across his cheeks. Lean, but with defined muscles. He's quiet, but not in an aggressive way. He just doesn't talk much, sort of like Caleb. They'd make a cute couple.

He'd probably pair up with Jared nicely. Or Flame, probably. I'm sure Flame would like him. There's this girl in the group here that he'd probably get together with, if he swung that way. If not, there's another boy here that he'd pair nicely with as well.

“I'm curious about his Ability,” Irina says, and I look at her.

She's talking to Fowl, who's observing the cadets as they demonstrate their Ability with an instructor. I haven't actually told them I'm here yet, and I'm not infusing my aura with the sense of unease.

“What is it?” Fowl asks. “I didn't quite understand it.”

“I've never heard of it before,” Irina says. “But Colonel Reynolds says it's one on par with some of the more powerful ones he's encountered, even if it's only a Transmuter Ability.”

His Gift is a Transmuter one, and Colonel Reynolds says it's powerful. I wonder if it's as powerful as Caleb's.

Wait – does that mean this kid, Noah, grew up with Caleb?

“Colonel Reynolds,” Irina says. “Also says that the two of them never crossed paths, and that he did his best to keep Rivers from finding about about Marins in town.”

“Another survivor?”

“No,” Irina answers. “He wouldn't expand on why. 'Adaptive Attributes'. I really want to know what that means.”

Noah walks up to the field, and Sparks approaches him. She lifts a hand, sending static shocks toward Noah, who grits his teeth in pain, nostrils flaring and body tensing. I can see the fight in his eyes, and then after a few moments, it fades, but so does the effect the electricity have on him. Sparks increases it, and he adapts to it. It takes him a few moments, but he adapts to the situation. When she uses a lot, he doesn't adapt, though.

“So,” Irina says. “That's what Colonel Reynolds meant – Marins adapts to the situation. Looks like extreme shifts, he can't keep up with, but smaller ones, he can. We'll stick with the ranking Colonel Reynolds gave us of D-Rank, for now. To think that's a Transmuter Ability...there really are Abilities out there that are unexpected. I've never heard of it before.”

I have.

Noah Marins...

He's not a survivor, but there was someone else with that same Ability at the orphanage there.

As Marins is freed, he suddenly shifts, looking around, his eyes growing steadily closer to me. I freeze up, and his gaze locks with mine. I move, and he follows me.

“Marins!” Fowl snaps, and Noah looks at him. “What are you looking at?”

“There's someone standing right there,” Noah points at me. “My Ability adapted to whatever he's doing to hide himself.”

So he can't control what his Gift adapts to, just whether it adapts or not. He must have been trying that entire time, and it adapted enough for him to see through my own Gift.

Impressive.

I have ways around that.

“Are you telling me someone snuck in?” Fowl walks over to him. “Because that's impossible to do, only a Colonel of the GSDF can make it through the lobby without permission, the magics that protect this place set that into stone a long time ago.”

“He's about fourteen or fifteen,” Noah looks back at me. “Black hair, black clothes, looks kind of moody, and has azure eyes. He also looks impressed and annoyed at the same time.”

“Thought your aura made everyone uneasy?” Irina looks where Marins is looking, even though she can't see me.

“It annoyed Caleb,” I unweave my aura. “He told me to stop adding that in.”

“That wasn't a passive effect?” She asks.

“I had to do it.”

“Oh,” she says. “And to think I've known you all these years, and didn't figure it out. What are you doing here? Thought you were stalking Caleb?”

“Two-month training mission,” I say. “Enchanted Forest training for his aura.”

“Um,” she suddenly looks nervous.

“What?” I ask.

“I'm from one of the rare times that mission happens,” she says. “Less than five of the twenty recruits who go in there make it out alive. They send the best of the best in, in the hopes of strengthening their auras and teaching them more techniques, but they almost always end up dead. I got lucky and barely survived.”

“Oh,” I frown, then shrug. “It's Caleb, he's got more luck than Lord Luck himself. Anyway, I'm going to lurk around here until his mission's over.”

I wrap my aura around myself once more, and Noah frowns, then begins focusing again, but grows increasingly frustrated.

As stated, I have ways around it. I thickened the amount of aura used and mixed in my Perception Gift a little bit more. It's enough that he can't force his Gift to adapt him to it, he'd have to go in slower blocks, but since he doesn't know exactly what it is I'm doing to block him, it'll take him far longer, and if I keep leaving his range or he gets interrupt, it'll take him even longer.

I move out of his range and Irina looks at Noah.

“Kieran,” she says. “Is the powerful former night guard of the Alzir Branch, who has temporarily resumed his post. Don't be surprised that he has a way around your Ability – his best friend is one of the most powerful Superhumans in the world, and we're pretty sure he has a crush on Rivers, too.”

“Caleb Rivers?” Noah's eyes widen.

“Are you sure Kieran's left?” Fowl looks at Irina.

“Unless he's extending his range of Perception,” Irina nods. “And yes, Marins, Caleb Rivers. You know him?”

“No,” Noah shakes his head. “But I've seen him from time to time, and I've heard stories about him, back home. An orphan, like me, but we lived in opposite ends of the town.”

Heard of him how?

Irina echoes my question.

“That kid is one talented guy,” Noah laughs. “He was in a cooking competition a few times, a few art competitions – I got to see this one sculpture he made, it was so cool. He did it in a magic sculpting competition, though. I thought you couldn't use magic if you had an Ability?”

“You can,” Irina states. “It's just very difficult to do so. Caleb has a natural affinity for it. Back to training!”

~~(Jared)~~

The first thing I'm aware of is a body pressed against mine. The second is a burning sensation in my arm. Groaning in pain, I slowly open my eyes to find Bari, the boy from earlier, sleeping on the mat, curled up against me. We're underneath a fur blanket, and the air under here is quite warm.

We're also both quite naked.

I scramble back, and the moment I'm out from under the fur, I'm freezing. The burning in my arm burns even hotter then, and I hiss in pain.

Bari's eyes open, and he frowns.

“Get back under here,” he hisses quietly. “It's freezing at night!”

I noticed.

“Why are you under the blanket with me?” I ask.

“For the warmth,” he responds, looking around nervously. “And keep your voice down – monsters that come out at night have good ears. We need to be quiet.”

“And naked?”

“We all sleep naked here,” he asks, and I realize there's another person sleeping behind him. “Now get back under here, it's way too cold to not be under the furs.”

It's fucking cold out here, but no way am I going under the blanket!

“Plus,” Bari whispers, looking over his shoulder to the other boy, then to me. “My aura has passive healing properties. Sleeping with your arm touching me was healing your bite. That, and their venom kind of screws with it. The colder the air around it, the hotter it burns. In about twenty minutes, the temperature will drop below freezing. It will keep getting colder for another hour before it finally starts to warm back up, but won't go above forty until after sunrise. Get your butt back under here, or not only will your arm get to the point where you'll be screaming your head off and attracting monsters from all around, not only will your arm not heal, but you'll start getting frostbite, and probably lose extremities.”

Fucking hell. I crawl back under the blanket, and he grabs my arm, pulling me against him as he closes his eyes. Not even a goosebump on him as he pulls the blanket back over our heads.

There's a faint glow surrounding him, giving off a soft, cool light, just enough for me to see by. I didn't notice it before, but I think it was there already. The other boy looks like they could be brothers or cousins.

This place is messed-up.

Closing my eyes, I try to drift off to sleep. I can't, though. I can't believe I'm sleeping like this, my arm's in pain – though it does ease up as time passes – and I can hear the monsters out there, sniffing around.

Even under the blanket, my skin is still cold, even if I'm warming up. Yet Bari's entire body is warm, unaffected by the cold. The fuck?

When the sun finally rises, the other boy wakes up first, shucking the blanket off of us and then pushing Bari into me. He looks up and sees me, then giggles, then starts flicking Bari's ear until Bari wakes up.

Wakes up and bites the finger.

“Hey!” The boy giggles. “I couldn't just push you around! You had someone else sleeping on your other side!”

They start wrestling around, and the air is still chilly, even if not freezing anymore, but they don't seem bothered by it.

I inspect my arm, finding two small, nearly imperceptible scars where the snake bit my arm. I'm also covered in goosebumps from the chill, but they aren't.

As they wrestle, I realize that whatever they are – brothers, cousins, whatever – they're lovers. Little nibbles they give each other, a nip on the neck, a quick grope – these two are definitely in love.

Blargh. Not what I need first thing in the morning in a strange place with total strangers.

When they finish wrestling, they sit next to each other, breathing heavily, and then I remember that I'm naked and look around for my clothes. I can't find them.

“Watcha looking for?” The other boy asks.

“My clothes,” I answer. “And my pack, actually.”

“Be right back,” Bari scrambles out of the room – still naked.

When he does, I realize we're not in a room, we're in a hut by ourselves. As the flap over the door opens, I can see outside. He just ran outside butt-naked.

A moment later, he returns with my clothes and pack, and drops them down by me.

“They were sanitizing them,” Bari tells me as he opens up a chest and starts getting dressed back to how he was looking yesterday. “Just in case any venom got on them. How's your arm?”

“How did your aura heal me?” I ask.

“Some people,” Bari answers. “Have latent properties within their aura. Some have to put them in, some have to keep them from influencing it. Mine's the kind where I have to keep it from influencing my aura, so by sleeping coated in my aura with you next to me, those healing properties seeped into you.”

His boyfriend starts getting dressed as well, and I grab my clothes and pull them on as I think about that.

“How are you two not cold?” I ask. “It's still chilly.”

“We use our auras to counteract it,” Bari answers. “We can do it to a degree, but the coldest part of night, we still need to sleep under the furs.”

“And you are?” I look at the other boy.

“Eldir,” the boy dips his head to me. “Bari's husband. I'm also the son of the chief of this village.”

“Bari's dad isn't the chief?”

“Rugli?” Eldir laughs. “No, just our best warrior. He's my dad's best friend.”

We step out of the small shack, and onto a platform. We're...in the trees. The village is built above the trees. As I look around at the buildings, platforms, and bridges, I notice that I only see males. No females at all.

“Where are all the girls at?” I ask Bari, and he frowns. “What?”

“I forgot,” he says. “Upworlders need females to reproduce. Our people, down here, are all born male. We have no females in any of our villages.”

“Something's wrong,” Eldir frowns. “Dad's aura's grown panicked.”

Eldir and Bari run out, and I follow them across the bridges to the largest hut, right at the center of the village. Inside, Bari's father and another man are staring into a mirror, speaking quickly to a reflection that's someone else entirely. Something about 'the boy with light' and 'emergency healing needed'.

The boy with light?

Wait.

Caleb?

Did something happen to Caleb?

“What's going on?” Bari asks once the image fades and the mirror reflects us back.

“It appears,” His father looks at Bari, then to me. “That your friend and his partner were not able to handle the monsters that came after them. Your friend can fight, but only when he's hunting. To fight a group of monsters is beyond him.”

“They were attacked during the night?” I ask.

“Yesterday,” he shakes his head. “The boy with light used his strange Ability to shield them, and lasted through most of the night,” surprising, considering you said he was exhausted yesterday. “But they were hit hard early this morning. Abilities, in the forest here, along with magic only attract monsters, and every time he used it, more came. Intervention was required, as our people will not allow someone with so much light in his aura to fall to monsters.”

Using Abilities in the Enchanted Forest actually attracts monsters? Damn. I guess it's a good thing no one in our batch, other than Caleb, can use their Abilities here. That would be disastrous.

Especially if Flame could.

“Which village is he at?” Bari asks.

“Neltar,” the other man responds. “Rugli has told me of our young warrior's fondness of this boy. We will monitor the situation, Upworlder. Do not worry – Neltar has the best healers of all our villages. If he has a chance of survival anywhere in the forest, then he will survive in their hands.”

Caleb better not die. He's an idiot at times, and absentminded, and weird, and strange, and annoying, but he's also the kindest, most sensitive person I've ever met, he's powerful beyond belief, and he makes life interesting.

If he dies, I will probably find a way to connect to my Ability, and do something rash. He needs to survive.

“Hey,” Bari puts a hand on my arm. “Why don't we go spar? A good fight will get your mind off of this, since there's nothing we can do. It'd probably take us a couple of weeks to get there,” how did he know I was wanting to go there? “So if we taught you how to fight with your aura instead, you'd be able to protect him. And then, once you meet back up with him, you can impress him with your fighting skills and maybe get into bed with him.”

Uh...

Not sure how to react to that, but I could definitely use a fight right now.

~~(Caleb)~~

My body is screaming in agony. It feels like it's been ripped into a thousand pieces and someone tried stitching it back together. All I remember is being attacked by a horde of monsters and freaking out.

Is Taylor okay? Someone's screaming. Is that him screaming? Maybe it's me? I'm in too much pain to figure it out. I can't open my eyes.

I hope Taylor's okay. He needs to be okay. I don't know what I'll do if he's not okay. He's a nice guy.

Why am I in so much pain?

Aura...

I need to activate my aura.

When I try, my body feels like it's been salted, then set aflame, then dumped in lemon juice. It hurts so bad. Something's blocking and eating my aura. Venom. A monster's venom. There are a few that can do that.

I need to counteract it. I need to use my aura. My magic. I need to use my magic. Something's blocking my magic, though. I can't use my magic. I need to use my aura. I need to protect myself. I need to heal. Shrouding one's aura around oneself can accelerate healing.

Screaming from the pain, I taste blood in my mouth as I force my aura to push through the venom cycling through my body. Someone's saying something. Their hands are so rough and furry. Paws. Those are paws, not hands. It's licking me now. Oh. Doggy. It's a doggy.

I wanna wrap my arms around the doggy, but it hurts too bad.

“Down!” Someone snaps. “Adder! Get off of him! Dumb dog! Get down!”

The dog gets off of me, then I feel someone's hands gingerly running across my body. They're soft and smooth, and gentle. My body still hurts like hell, but wherever they touch, my body feels fine, if only for a few moments after their hands move from there.

“Calm down,” he says gently, softly. “Don't force your aura to work, Lite,” did he call me 'lee-tay'? Why? That's not my name? Then again, they don't know my name. “You'll only burn it up, there's too many toxins in you. We're doing our best to counteract them now.”

Pain flares through my body again, and I scream.

“Shh,” he soothes me a little more with his hands. “You'll be okay, Lite, just stop struggling. You've proven yourself a true warrior.”

How? I freaked out and couldn't fight. That's not being a true warrior.

“We're going to do our best to heal you up, Lite,” he says. “You shielded your friend from attacks. He got hurt, too, but healed much faster. It takes a true warrior to sacrifice himself like that.”

I couldn't let him get hurt. He's my partner.

“We're going to do all we can to heal you,” the man says softly. “Stop struggling against it, Lite. The more you struggle, the more it'll hurt. Just relax, and let it happen. The more you struggle, the longer it will take to heal.”

He talks to me softly, and as he does, I relax. I'm still in a lot of pain, nigh unbearable pain, but as I relax, I can feel the healing properties of his aura working more as he touches me.

I don't know how long he treats me for, but it's probably days. Eventually, I'm well enough to finally open my eyes. I'm in some sort of hut, which means I'm probably in one of their villages. A large dog is sitting next to me on the mat, and the air is chilly. First thing in the morning, then. That, or last thing before sundown. The Enchanted Forest gets freezing at night, but those who know how can use their aura to keep them warm.

Triggering my aura, I feel a bit of pain, but push through it as the toxins continue to try to stop me. It takes me a few minutes, but I manage to shroud my self with my aura, and after that, it only takes but moments to purge the toxins out of me and finish healing my body.

As I finish, my aura fading, a man enters the hut, and he pauses when he sees me.

“You're...healed.”

“I know how to cycle aura and heal,” I stand up, stretching. “I'm stiff. Where are my clothes?”

“In the chest over there,” he gestures, and I walk over to it. “I feel I should warn you, Lite, that you shouldn't use your Abilities here. Abilities and magic attract monsters, and we've been lucky – ever since we brought you here, we've had monsters attacking us often. We've never seen this before, and believe it's because of how much of your Ability you used before.”

“It's not,” I hold up my hand. “This ring stayed on my hand.”

“We kept removing it...” he trails off, and when I look at him, his eyes are wide with realization. “It's magical.”

“It automatically returns to its owner's hand,” I explain, turning back to the chest to grab my gear and get dressed. “It's an artifact on par with some of the most powerful ones ever forged. The monsters are probably sensing it and coming to its location. As long as I'm here, your village will be under attack. I'll be leaving as soon as I regain my bearings. How is Taylor?”

“The other cadet,” he says. “Is worried about you. You took a turn for the worse a few hours ago, I only left you ten minutes ago to get more salve. To see you up and about...it's incredible. I doubt even our strongest with aura could do that.”

“I can forcibly awake dozens of people by releasing less than a percent of my aura,” I say. “That's how powerful I am. I can crush trees with that same small force, destroy buildings, shatter glass, and nearly kill people, too. I know how to wield aura. It looks like I'll be needing to get over my issues with actually fighting close-range, since I'm a walking target. The one thing this ring decides to keep while we're here is its return function, and I'm alright with that. I just hope I make it to the end. Please, take me to Taylor.”