Hey! Author here. New elements of a different nature will start appearing. Y'know, since training has basically turned into adventuring now. Sorry for the late chapter. Uh.. enjoy? I don't think I forgot anything. Next chapter is a side story, still part of chapter 5. Then it will be 6! We're finally moving the story along. Well, I am at least. More action awaits!

Tell me if my story makes sense so far. I want to know.

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Finally, the strap on my forehead was loosened, and I slip myself out of the chair, sliding on to the floor. I am extremely exhausted, especially just above my ass. My tail flops down next to me, and I make it wrap around my hand. The tail felt foreign, and yet it felt like I’ve always known how to move it.

I suddenly feel a slight pressure above my eyebrows, and I close my eyes to try and block out the pain. It fades just as fast as it appears, and I open my eyes to find.. a wooden room. A very familiar room.

On the tables, a deck of cards lay. Borin and Mana are staring intently at each other, and I swear I can hear their teeth grinding. I pause my breath, waiting for the obvious action that comes next.

“Do yer have a.. 2?” Borin asks, his hands shaking.

“Nope, Go Fish!” Mana cracks out, and tilts her head to laugh. Borin solemnly grabs a card from the small deck of cards.

They were playing a game of Go Fish.. Did Mana take that from my head too?

“Ah, looks like the first part of the training is done. That actually didn’t take that long.” Mana comments, and puts down the cards in her hand. Borin jumps and shouts with cards flying out of his hands.

“I won! Finally! Against the Tricky Bi-.” Borin’s mouth is then stuffed full of cards by Mana’s instant reaction. Mana walks over to the chair I was on, which surprisingly was real. Or did Borin say that the chair was real? I can’t remember, it felt like days.... I can’t really expect an answer from him now though, and I send a glare towards Borin.

“Good to know that you got out of my illusion.” Mana says to me.

“That kind of felt like an illusion if that makes sense, so I’m guessing I have to train my tail again?” I ask. I look down at the still form of my blue tail.

“No, you did train it. You just have to train your body to match your thought processes.” Mana pats me on the shoulder. “Before you ask, let me explain.”

I give her a look, and she smiles while Borin coughs out the remaining cards in his mouth. “My illusion ability allows me to manipulate your senses, I’ve told you this yes?”

“You may have… skimmed over the subject, Mana!” Borin yells right into Mana’s ear. In return, a fist hits him in the nose.

“Well, as I was saying.” She gives Borin a glare before continuing. “I can manipulate your senses, and this also means your internal clock. So what I am trying to say is that your thought processes are thinking at a much higher pace than the world around you at this moment.” She points over to a table where a spider is crawling conveniently.

“Look at that spider, and tell me, doesn’t it seem to scuttle slower?”

“I’m not going to be tricked. Don’t you have me in an illusion still?” I cross my arms and give her a small death glare. Mana is unaffected and continues to point at the spider. I sigh and look over to it, and that’s when I realize I can see the spider’s legs moving one by one.

“It’s so slow!”

I get hit in the head by a karate chop. “No, you are thinking much faster. Your chip in your head is allowing this to happen, and only you can control the speed.” Mana explains. I nod my head in firm understanding, because of how simply she said it. I could’ve worded it much better than her, I think.

I get a chop in the head, again. Cringing from the subtle pain, I look at Mana with tears slightly in my eyes. “Why did you do that Mana?” She turns away and walks towards the door. Mana looks over her shoulder and beckons me to follow. “Because I felt like it, little lizard. Now follow me.”

I walk forward, everything around me going at a slower pace, even my own walking. Borin begins to say something to me, but I can’t make out what words he is using. And even if I replied, I would probably talk too fast. I walk past him, glancing toward him and raising my eyebrow, before moving on ahead to the door, where beyond that threshold I know that I will be pulled through.

Reaching the doorway, I don’t pause and step into the darkness, where the outside world should be. I close my eyes for the light to shine on my face as soon as I feel soft dirt beneath my feet. Wait, dirt? Wasn’t I in a city with pavement?

I open my eyes to find an entire jungle before me, complete with vines and snakes, as well as the other animals that lived in tropical rainforests. Rain showered down, as I could hear the drops hit palms way above my head. I mutter to myself, “Where the hell am I, Mana.”

“Well, you’re in the forests of Ganmar, the kingdom of beasts.” I hear a voice coming from right behind me, and I turn around just in time to find Mana sticking her head out the doorway that was now only up to her nonexistent chest. A space too small for my frame to fit through.

“Why am I here?” I ask her.

“Well, you need training, and nothing is better for training than real life.” Mana smiles, a wicked gleam in her eyes. “It’s also for all those times you called me flat-chested.” Her brows turn into a frown.

“I-I-I never s-s-said that, M-m-mana…” I stutter, as I could REALLY see where this was heading. My thoughts flash back to when Borin was trying to tell me something. Something… well, this must’ve been what he was trying to tell me. Well, I could guess at what he was saying, but it’s too late now.

With an evil smile, Mana dips her head back through the remaining door space, and disappears. Leaving me alone in this jungle in a place I don’t even know of. I begin my exercise by venting my lonely anger onto a tree that stood not that far away from me. I kick with my right foot, and follow up with my tail lashing across the trunk. It falls over from the force I exhibited, and I turn away from the tree.

“Let’s see… I wonder how I’m supposed to train..” I mutter to myself. I look around at the trees, the vines, the trees again, some different trees… “This forest is very repetitive..” I continue looking around at the trees. Feeling the need for a change of scenery, I begin to walk between two trees that could be mistaken for twins… If trees had families like that, that is.

Walking between the trees, more trees appeared. Nothing out of the ordinary made its steps towards me. However, something in the ordinary did take a step towards me. Between two other twin-like trees prowled out a beast of an orange magnificence, and black with white stripes criss-crossing its entire body. Each time it moved a paw, I could feel something stirring the air, as if the thing’s presence could affect the very surroundings.

Wait a minute, that’s a tiger!

I clench my fists, and get into a basic stance for fighting. One fist up, one fist pulled and ready by my side. My tail I let be, as it relaxed on the ground. I stared at the tiger, as it stared at me with a guttural growl.

It continued to move forward until it was 3 yards away from me, with a couple trees barring its way to pounce on me. It growls, the piercing gray eyes looking directly at me. I give it the best response I could think of.

By charging straight at it.

Running past the trees, I shout at the tiger. “Come on, overgrown fluff ball! Time to beat you black and blue!” I bump my shoulder against a tree, spinning myself around to the right. The tiger prowls towards me, and begins to run at me as well. Looks like this is no pussy cat, as the strength it releases kicks up the soft soil and some tree roots into the air. It leaps off the ground and using its claws, digs into the bark of the trees, gaining some lift into the air.

I charge straight at the tiger, my mouth open with a yell coming out with a tinge of a roar. My left arm is in the air, with my scales clinking together. Pushing through the air, I swing my fist. The tiger is right in front, its mouth open wide displaying its toothy might. Its eyes stare down at me as I glare at it, with my fist just entering my vision.

The tiger sees my fist coming, and its eyes widen slightly. The sight was comical, but my fist came driving into it’s face, and as my speed of thinking was still high, I could see the little fat on the tiger’s face ripple to the other side of its face. Then the tiger slowly moved away from my face and instantly sped up.

I look in wonderment at my fist, not even paying attention to the tiger that had landed on its feet a dozen yards away, with trees snapped in half between the two of us. I looked at my normal arm, wrist, and fist. The scales had disappeared from existence, and I looked at the rest of my body to find the blue scales still there, with a slightly duller color blue as its color.

Beginning to see a connection between my perception, the scales, and my radiation strength, I look up at the kitty cat with a lopsided face.

Raising my right hand to the beast, I beckon it towards me. “Come on, you fake Halloween decoration. I’ll show you what’s really scary.” The tiger growls at me, and begins to run with its head hanging lopsided. A snarl emanates from its face, as I begin to feel the scales on me shift slightly, as if growing and retracting.

ba-dump

ba-dump

Growing with the beating of my heart, the azure scales grow back onto my arm, my perception slowing slightly as I feel a weakness in my legs. My knees wobble slightly, as I take a step forward. The tiger begins to run faster as I take a deep breath, letting the information I just discovered to be put to good use.

The tiger pounces once again, claws out and the mouth open. To me, the tiger appears in slow motion as I use my arm as a sword, the claws at the end of my hand extending slightly as my arm goes straight. The tiger is in mid-air now, as I push off the ground. Moving forward, I reach into the tiger’s maw.

The tiger lands behind me as I stop my forward momentum. The tiger falls over, the entrails giving the forest floor a colorful scene. I smile as I look at the pierced heart on my hand, and then I fling it away into the depths of the forest. I hear the sound of rustling grass, as I begin to walk away from the scene of carnage.

“Well, now to train this radioactive ability of mine.” I mutter to myself, when I suddenly feel a splitting headache. I grasp my head, as I fall onto my knees. Closing my eyes, various pictures flash before my eyelids. Each depicts a different scene of carnage, love, sacrifice. Each scene contains different information, of blue trees and purple skies, of red grass and blue mountains. But each scene that flashes by shows me something in common, shows me something I’ve never thought to see again.

That colorful being that brought me onto Vernier. His species were in each scene, with their skin aglow and no longer so… colorful. Could this perhaps be their.. actual bodies? If so, how else are they connected with me?

The headache disappears as soon as that last thought drifts into my head, and I pick myself up off the forest floor. Numerous thoughts enter my head, as I think on each thought of my own.

Do I continue to pursue those I hold dear, or do find out what is behind those images? Obviously, I already made my decision as I look to the sky, where only the trees swayed.

I have a family to find, the mysteries of my mind will have to wait.

…...

But is Mana going to come back for me?