Yuga spent the rest of the day fighting for his life in danger zones. They visited three different zones before Yuga declared he was done for the day. When he was done he made his way back alone, to the house they were current staying. A brick house on a high hill. It was night time and the already cold weather was getting even colder. Luke was cutting logs in preparation for a fire. Unlike the voyagers, he got cold. About an hour later he’d finished with the logs and set up a fire at the chimney. When he was done, he sat close to the fire to keep warm.

“Cutting logs is really hard.” Luke said with a sigh.

“But that’s what you wanted to do.” Yuga reminded him.

“It’s hard but I like it. It makes me feel strong like papa and mama looked when they did it. But cutting logs is hard.” Luke said with another sigh.

Yuga was sitting on the floor, cross-legged. He had a red gem in hand which he was carving with a sharpened rock, leaving shards on the floor.

“What’s that rock?” asked Luke.

“Something I got from a beast in the danger zone. It looked cool so took it.” replied Yuga.

“You know how to sculpt?”

“I’m not sure, but it feels….. natural.” replied Yuga, pausing his carving to answer Luke.

“Does that mean your memories are coming back?”

“No, that hasn’t changed. And they might never come back but that’s ok.” replied Yuga.

“They’ll come back.” said Luke with certainty.

“What makes you think that?”

“Bonds between people never really go away. In your past you must’ve had friends and family. People you loved and smiled with. And those feelings will always be here.” said Luke pointing at his heart “Like mama, papa and Reilaria are still in mine. It’s just waiting for when you’re ready.”

“That’s a really warming thought. I’ll hold on to that.” said Yuga with a smile.

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TWO DAYS LATER

Yuga and Luke were playing on the snow, with mimic who was back from wherever he went to when he disappeared for days. Yuga had asked him to change into that black ball they drew on last time. But he wasn’t able to no matter how much he’d asked. It was as if he’d forgotten how to. If he’d forgotten then it was possible that there was a limit to how many things he could remember at once.

The game they played was a bit more complex than what Yuga played with mimic in the past. Luke would throw an item and mimic would transform into a different item, which Yuga would use to respond to whatever Luke threw. Luke threw a ball first and mimic changed into a bat which Yuga caught off the air and smacked the ball with. Then Luke threw a snow ball and mimic changed into a shield. Luke threw a fruit and mimic changed into a bow. Yuga picked up an arrow and fired it off the bow. It burst through the fruit, scattering juicy fruit flesh on the snow. As they were doing this, Kirveas was approaching which made Yuga stop for a moment and he turned to ask “Is it time for another danger zone?”

“It’s interesting that the two of you can understand each other. The language you speak isn’t commonly used. Must be a family tradition for Luke.” said Kirveas ignoring the question. “And no, we won’t be going to a danger zone this time. You’re beyond tier seven danger zones at this point. Like I mentioned before, I’ll be teaching you something this time.”

“Right.”

“Follow me” said Kirveas.

And at that the both of them walked down the hill, leaving Luke by himself. They walked down to flatter land not too far away from the hill. As they walked Kirveas spoke “You said you’ve been practicing aias transmutation, how far as that come?”

“Hasn’t gone anywhere. All I can do is stop things from dying for a while” replied Yuga.

“Your talents in aias might not lie in healing”

After they’d walked for about a mile he stopped and turned around. Yuga had also stopped and was observing Kirveas. “Attack me” said Kirveas.

And without the slightest hesitation, Yuga lunged at him, opening his attack with a punch aimed at Kirveas’ head. Even the normally unfazed Kirveas was startled, he didn’t expect Yuga to be so battle ready but he was able to handle it regardless. He easily dodges the punch by cocking his head to the right then counters by striking Yuga’s head with the heel of his palm, sending him flying several tens of meters back. Yuga quickly gets up and attacks again. He jumps into the air and comes down with a kick from above which Kirveas blocks with his left arm. He drops to the ground and tries to sweep Kirveas off his foot but Kirveas jumps and dodges then stomps him into the ground making small a crater with his body.

But Yuga caught the foot with both of his hands and threw Kirveas off of him. He backflips out of the crater to gain distance and without wasting a moment he attacks again. This time he throws a barrage of punches at Kirveas hoping to overwhelm him with sheer speed, but Kirveas was faster and dodged every attack with ease moving backwards as he did. He dodges to the right moving out of Yuga’s way then plants his left foot firmly on the ground, pivots his body anticlockwise while swinging his left arm at the back of Yuga’s head. Yuga ducks low, turns around and throws a punch aimed at Kirveas’ abdomen. But Kirveas blocks it by raising a knee, he proceeds to straightens out his leg, kicking Yuga and sending him flying back again.

He’s able to keep up with me in raw speed now. Incredible progress thought Kirveas.

Yuga got up again and paused, observing Kirveas, thinking of how best to attack this time. But before he could make his move this time, Kirveas suddenly vanished from sight.

Where is he now? thought Yuga as he scanned the area around him for Kirveas while keeping his guard up. But he didn’t see or sense anything, to him it was as if Kirveas had completely left the area even though he hadn’t. The next thing he knew, he received a strike to his chin from an uppercut he couldn’t see. The force of it shook his brain and left him disoriented. He tried to get up but he stumbled and fell back down, lying flat on his back in the snow.

“You did impressively but that’s as far as you go.” said Kirveas, popping into sight again.

“Was that a type of cloaking technique?” asked Yuga still on the ground.

“No, I was simply moving too fast for you to perceive. A level of speed you’d barely get a fraction of even if you trained your body hard for the next century. Like I said before, voyagers are those who traverse the stars. And for one to be able to do that, you’d have to move at unfathomable speeds, enough to move through the vastness of space in reasonable time.” Kirveas explained “The skill I used is called shooting star and it allows me to move at such speeds. If voyagers are those who travel the stars and shooting star allows us do that then it can be said that one can’t really be a voyager without mastering this skill.”

“If it lets you travel space does that mean you can fly too?” asked Yuga with excitement.

“No. With it you can propel your body at high speeds and quicken all your movements but you can’t actually float.” This reply caused Yuga to frown in disappointment.

“There’s three aspects to learning this skill and it normally takes years to master for effective use.” said Kirveas “I’ll tell you the basics of them, the rest is for you work on.”

“The first aspect of this is boosting your speed.” Kirveas elaborated while facing Yuga. Yuga had stood up and was listening attentively, having recovered from the blow to his chin.

“Doing this is different from merely boosting your physical abilities by letting drive energy flow through you. To use shooting star, you explode drive energy in your body. There’s not much to tell you besides that. I’ll use shooting star at a slower pace a few times. And while I do that, try to perceive what is going on within me, to get a better idea of how it works.”

And then he moved, out of sight to a spot far behind Yuga. Then he moved again, popping in and out of sight through out the area around them. Yuga couldn’t keep up, he kept turning in the direction of wherever Kirveas appeared but each time he was only able to tell when he’d moved in the short moments before he was gone again. But in those moments he tried as much as possible to understand what Kirveas was doing using his senses. And finally Kirveas was in front of him again to explain the other two aspects.

“The second thing is your reaction. Increasing your speed would only be detrimental if your reaction is unable to match it. You wouldn’t be able to control your movements.” explained Kirveas “The last of them is efficiency. Exploding drive energy in your body can be extremely wasteful and quickly burn through your reserves. After moving for a short while you’d have burnt your entire reserves of energy. Too little is achieved at a high cost.”

“That’s all you need to know.” said Kirveas. But Yuga was already lost in thought.

Exploding drive energy…He stood still, closed his eyes and imagined his body was bursting with power. A minute after nothing happened, he stood concentrating hard, trying to ignite the drive energy that flowed through his body but he remained the same.

Ignite…..

Ignite….

Burst!

And with a loud boom he bolted through the air, so fast he couldn’t handle the speed. He flew far into the distance and crashed into a hill, obliterating the top of it, scattering debris around.

At the very least he did use it thought Kirveas, looking up at the hill with a now renovated top.

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“Aaarrgh, really hate this blasted planet. Always snowing and gets my shoes wet. And this dumb war is making it worse.” cursed Marrow as he walked through the detestable snow. He was exhausted from the ongoing war. Walking for days to find shelter and most importantly food. He was deathly hungry. He’d come across trees with fruits but he wasn’t going to eat that, fruits were boring and unfilling, he needed meat. As he walked he came across a small animal, it looked it would make for good meat. But he didn’t go for it, because at that moment he could tell there was something even better close by. A very special type of meat he thought to himself, a wide grin on his face.

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One from the right Yuga thinks before he bends forward, successfully dodging the projectile aimed at him.

One from the front. He prepares to dodge but his body wouldn’t move, or to be exact, it was too slow at the moment.

Ouch.

He watches as the projectile flies at him, hits him square in the chest and knocks him down all the while unable to do anything about it.

Kirveas was already preparing to throw another rock but dropped it seeing as Yuga couldn’t dodge the last one he threw.

“Your reactions are enough to keep up but your use of shooting star still isn’t consistent.” Kirveas said to Yuga who was still on the ground, too exhausted to get up. “And your efficiency has barely progressed. Which would sound bad only if we ignored that it’s been just a week. Carry on by yourself from here.” And with that he was gone.

Yuga was still lying on the ground, waiting to recover some energy and continue training for the day.

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Luke had been mostly by himself for the whole week. Yuga was out training every day and mimic was nowhere to be found. It was lonely, he’d never been this alone before because his family was always there. But it wasn’t so bad. Being alone was nice sometimes.

Another day and more wood to chop. He was getting better at it now and his palms had blisters from constant use of the axe. He walks to the tree stump he cut logs on and prepared to start but then he heard the crunch of snow from footsteps behind him. He turned around expecting a familiar face.

“Yug-” But the person in front of him was quite unfamiliar. He reacted instinctively and attacked the unfamiliar figure with his axe. He realizes what he’s done and drops the axe in fear.

“Are you ok, sir?!” Luke asked the man in alarm.

A very tall, large man, donned in ragged clothes stood in front of Luke. He face was covered in a thick beard, his skin was light but tanned and there was a large mace strapped on his back. His appearance was intimidating.

“Don’t worry about that, that won’t bother me. You see, I’m a voyager.” the man said cheerfully. Then he raised a hand and flicked Luke’s forehead, knocking him out cold.