The crashing waves echoed in the air; the wet sensation of damp sand grazed against his soft cheek felt nice as Victor woke up from his slumber. After coughing out salty water out from his throat, he squinted at the long winding beach while huffing out air and inhaling as much as he could. The salty taste in his tongues doesn’t help with the enormous thirst he felt right now. He glanced at the sky above him, it’s still dark, and he couldn’t tell how much time has passed after he drifted in the sea. Using what few left of his strength, Victor raised himself from the sand and sat on his legs.

“Where am I?” Muttered Victor.

At the distance near the edge of the jungle, Victor saw a blurred campfire, he wiped his eyes and finally saw its surroundings; a hooded figure sat near the campfire while cooking something in a pot. Meat, potato, and the sweet scent of soup caused his stomach to growled and his mouth to water.

Victor lifted himself and stumbled his way toward the campfire. When he arrived near the campfire, he dropped to his knee and breathed in heavily the sweet scent. The boy stared at the delicate thick soup swirling inside the pot.

The hooded figure grabbed a bowl, and with a ladle, he scooped and poured it into the bowl. Victor was captivated by the texture of the soup as it filled the misshapen bowl. There’s nothing more wonderful than what he saw before him. The hooded figure handed the bowl to Victor, and a smile as wide as the sea appeared on his face.

“Thank you.” He took it and bowed his head deeply. The hooded figure remained silent as Victor sipped the delicious soup into his throat. The soup warms his heart and especially his stomach. Finally, something to dissipate the salty taste on his tongue.

However, that was left of Victor’s energy, he sat down the empty bowl and face-planted onto the sand. Opposite to how he woke up, Victor quickly fell asleep and snored loudly.

It wasn’t long before Victor came back to the land of the living. The sun shone upon him and gently caressed his skin with warmth. The young man stood up again and noticed the cloak over his body. He looked around and there was no one, only a faint remnant of the campfire last night, but he did spot a set of footprints in the sand leading back to the jungle.

He looked back at the empty bowl near him and smiled. A faint womanly voice can be heard inside Victor’s mind, he knew who it belonged to and quickly sighed. Victor quickly took the cloak and covered himself then followed the footprints into the forest with the empty bowl in his hand. Victor followed the only path available at the moment after he lost track of the hooded figure’s trails. He sighed as the young man glanced around him, this jungle is different from what he saw back home, more lively and less snow. It kinda reminded him of the greenhouse, and from what he can tell about the plants that are grown in the area, he must be somewhere in the north region of Yakawa.

The shrub beside Victor rustled, he turned to face the bush and took a step back when a large boar emerged from the scenery. The animal was almost the height of Victor himself and it doesn’t look happy to see him. Its left hoof dug into the dirt while Victor slowly backed away. As he was backing away, Victor accidentally stepped on a piece of stick. The noise was all it took to trigger the boar, it charged toward Victor with full speed and was too fast for the young man to evade.

It was too quick for Victor to see it, but the hooded figure had suddenly appeared out of thin air. With his left arm alone against the boar head, he managed to stop it on its track. A blast of air exploded from that one hit and caused the boar to fly into a tree before falling back onto the ground.

“Woah…” Victor was at awe by the strength, the unknown figure showed.

Victor was even more at awe when he saw the depiction of the sea etched into the figure’s arm. It was gorgeous, unlike nothing he has ever seen before. The excited boy quickly came closer to the arm and examined every inch of it, and then realized that it was permanent, it looked like the ink was buried under the skin itself, it must be painful.

“I never saw anything like that before. So beautiful, what is it?”

The hooded figure remained quiet as he walked to the boar and carried it on his shoulder like it was nothing. Without a word, the hooded figure proceeded to walk away, Victor couldn’t help himself but smiled as he followed the stranger.

“Hmm, now I see it. This is more of a jungle than a forest, right?”

“Oh, maybe you couldn’t understand me, but that shouldn’t be possible because I’m speaking in your tongue.”

Victor tilted his head, “Nevermind, then do you know that you’re pretty strong. By the way, how did you get so strong? Also, can you teach me?”

The hooded figure kept his silence as they walked toward an arch bridge. It was made from wood, has a few molds on it, and it was rickety just by the look of it; the river underneath it has a pretty ravenous current. Victor bet that it could sweep anything away in just a few seconds. The Prince kinda remembered the time he had fallen into a river before, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling, and it was very cold back then.

“Back to my earlier question, would you do me the honor of teaching me the ways of becoming stronger?”

“So will you?” Victor flashed a bright smile at the hooded figure.

The hooded figure stopped, dropped the boar, and turned to face the young man. The stranger placed his hand on the young man’s shoulder, and he pushed. Yes, push, the man had pushed Victor off the bridge and into the river. The drop caused a big splash, within a second, Victor had been washed away by the current and was struggling to get out.

He was losing breath and every grip he got was a failure. The rock was too slippery to grab on and he had no idea where was up and down, along with low visibility he couldn’t tell or guess where he’s facing. If this gets too long, he might drown, but not today. He has been in this situation twice, and there’s something that he misses the first time he fell into the river, it wasn’t much different from before when he fell into the sea. That’s why he needs to slow down his heart first and calm his mind, then, focus!

There was a pattern in the flow, it wasn’t the same as the others, but if he let his body be washed away, he can feel the small distortion in the water itself. There it is, a branch! Using his left foot, he kicked himself away from the rock and toward the branch where he hugged his body around it and emerged from the water. He inhaled a breath of fresh air and climbed the branch against the current until he made it to the river bank.

“Whew! Aha, this wasn’t the first time...kinda disappointing to realize that this wasn’t the first time.”

He raised himself so he could stand up and when he looked back, he could not see the bridge anymore; the river must have washed him pretty far from where he originally fell. Victor sighed and grunted before following the river upstream. It took a day hike back to the bridge, the sun had begun to set and night will soon follow. If he doesn’t find shelter and fire, he is going to die tonight.

However, surprise, surprise, the hooded figure already set up a camp near the river and is currently cooking something. It smells delicious from where Victor stood; sizzling steak and a strong scent of black pepper. The boy’s stomach growls, he glances back at the camp and makes his way there.

Upon arriving in the hooded figure’s earshot, Victor began to yell, “Are you crazy? You could have killed me! If you don’t want to be near me, just tell me, not push me into a river!”

“I don’t.”

“Fine.” Victor turned around, clenching his fist.

“Eat.”

“What?” Victor turned back again and a plate of fresh sizzling meat was ready for him along with a cup of tea.

Victor blinked a couple of times, then his stomach growled. Without hesitation, he already sat near the fire and enjoying his piece of deliciously well-done steak. “I knew it! You were a nice guy all along. Most people would have left me behind, I had doubts, but I’m glad, I was wrong.”

“Eat.”

“Yes, sir!” Victor chowed down his mouth-watering steak. A full belly and a hot tea to go along with it, the young man let out a satisfied burp.

“Why did you push me anyway?”

Victor just realized it, “It was a test!”

“Did I pass?”

“Why?” The hooded figure asked.

“Why? Hmm, I don’t know where I’m heading. I don’t know what lies in front of me, but I want to be prepared and strength is needed to accomplish that.”

“Tomorrow morning, you start training.”

“Wooo! I knew it.”

“Sleep.” The hooded figure leaned back against a tree and went quiet.

Victor took off his ragged clothes and placed it near the fire then lay on the ground in a fetal position. Sleeping naked was his only choice, he doesn’t really have any other clothes or belongings so he had to make some sacrifice for tonight. It didn't take a while for Victor to fall asleep, it had been a hectic day for him, he had almost got killed by a boar and almost drowned in a river.

The heat from the fire was soothing, it beat the cold damp feeling back on the ship. However, the sound of water splashing caught him off-guard and disturbed his slumber. He squinted his eyes at the fire and then moved his blurry sight at the river; Victor was mesmerized.

The moonlight brushed over her extraordinarily subtle-blackberry hair that plunged down over her shoulders; over the sea of ink embedded into her smooth-peach skin. Every scoop of water she took, she let it flow down with gentle movement over her slender yet muscular body that’s ridden with battle scars; allowing Victor to sit up and watch in awe. Her beauty was on par with her own mother, and the Empress of Yakawa.

She gently pivoted her head to the side; dark obsidian pupils were dripped of a sense of mourning and deep guilt. Victor’s heart was pumping to the brink that it exceeded his own hearing, he could not look away, but it was rude to stare. Especially when the woman is fully naked, and her bare bottom was visible from where Victor stood. There was something off about her, she had no right arm; it had been cut off from her elbow, a burn scar had marked where the arm was supposed to be.

Victor covered his genitalia and pretended to sleep. He closed both eyes, but his ears heard the sound of dripping water as the woman made her way up the river bank. Then the sound of rustling was telling Victor that she was near him. Her sweet scent lingered under Victor’s nostrils as the sudden shift in the air changed. The woman was standing over him, naked presumably, but to Victor dismay, she did not lay her hand on him, instead, she was laying a blanket over him.

It was hard for Victor to fall asleep afterward, but after a mind-boggling contest of recalling the work of a certain book, he finally fell asleep. However, it did not last long, when the blanket was pulled away from him and revealed his body to open cold dawn. Victor groaned and rubbed his eyes to see the hooded figure over him and immediately blushes while trying to cover his body.

“Can’t you wait? I’m still naked!” Victor quickly took his dried clothes and wore them.

“Carry that.” She nodded her head at the bag behind her.

“Sure.” Victor walked to the bag, and as he wrapped his arm over the strap, he felt the immense weight.

“Why is it so heavy?”

“Carry it,” The hooded woman started walking.

Victor slipped on the straps, and with all his strength, he lifted the bag off the ground while grunting and gritting his teeth together. His body started to tilt over, but Victor maintained his balance and slowly followed the hooded woman.