“It’s him, I know it is,

It has to be,

I can feel it in my bones,

Why does he have to follow me wherever I go,

Haunt me,

I can’t escape his actions no matter where I go!”

“Get some sleep Lyra, no use stressing yourself on a description

We can’t be completely sure it is him,” Apollo tries to comfort her

“Hmn!” Lyra snorts rolling into her futon,

It feels much better to be a bed for once after spending days travelling, sleeping in the carriage,

“Huwahh!” I let out a huge yawn

(This has been one long day)

“You know you have me Lyra,

That person isn’t your family anymore, ” Karina states frankly

“……..” Lyra does not reply,

“You need to stop upsetting yourself over past relations,

I am your family now, we, except Kage, are,”

“Nice of you to specifically exclude me,” I grouse,

“Well, you are still a newcomer lest we forget, Kage,

You may have had some ‘crazy experiences’ with us, but you don’t share our history,”

“Can we all just sleep!” Claude barks,

“Is someone missing their sister?~” Lyra taunts,

“She left of her volition,

All I said was that we are staying here whether she likes or not,” Claude retorts

“Orr, so you tried to play the boss,” Apollo coos,

“That was never going to work, you’re twins

You can’t just try to order her around of course she would deny it,”

“…….

Cawwwwww!”

Claude fake snores

………..

“You all can go exploring or whatever to prepare for our attack on Ginobelucci,

I am staying here to get as strong as possible,

I want the final blow,” Claude mumbles off before actually falling asleep

……….

The room goes quiet as we lay tiredly letting the night draw us into our subconscious conscious,

Slowly drifting away to sleep one by one—

……..

— “What are doing?”

I groggily wake up to Karina slipping into my futon in the dead of night.

“Trying to sleep,” she replies,

“……”

“Can we talk?”

(No, let me sleep)

“Yes, what is it?”

“Have you figured out what your goal is yet Kage?”

……

(That’s random)

“Umm, right now, we have to prepare to fight a dragon,

I haven’t found the time to think about myself…” I yawn

“That’s why you should, Kage,

Escaping Ginobelucci really made realize,

Well not realize, it made me reprise my old feelings, from Soterra,

That feeling of just waiting to die—”

“No one said we had personally fight Ginobelucci Karina,” I assure

“Are you planning to run away then, Kage?”

“No, I’m just following my flow,”

“Your flow?”

“….

Something I feel like is guiding me in a certain direction,

I can’t explain it but….

I don’t know, I just have to follow it for the answers I want…”

…….

……

“Is that all you care about?”

“Maybe.”

“…….”

…..

We both stay quiet for a few minutes…

…...

“You know I hate silence,” Karina finally speaks,

“I always like to voice my thoughts and emotions the moment I feel them

Be as frank as possible,”

(How do I reply to this?)

“Mhhhm” I mutter,

Squeeze!

“Aww!”

Karina pinches my leg tightly

“Are you listening to me?”

“Yes, how could I not, you’re so close,”

“Am I?

Because so far, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface with you Kage”

“…...

That’s not what I meant by close, but ok”

“What goes inside your mind that you are able to keep a straight face no matter the situation?

You know I’ve never seen you genuinely smile”

“Well—”

“I’m finished talking, goodnight, Kage.”

“…..”

(Sweet dreams... I guess?)

……..

(Stop thinking about it Kage, just keep going

Going where!?

Why are you always in my dreams telling me to go somewhere vague?

We are not in our dreams, we are we speaking with us,

Well, if you are me tell me where I came from, who am I?

We are us, and we came from that which we are going to return...

What!?

……)

****

And my head keep spinning♪

I can’t stop having these visions♪

I gotta get with it♪

……

****

“I know the halls are tedious to walk through but you don’t have to be all depressed about it,” Chief Aki looks back at me disapprovingly,

“Huh? no,

I was thinking about something,”

“All morning?” Lyra adds interrogatingly

“I had a ‘strange’ dream, I can’t stop thinking about it”

“Must have been a nightmare,” Lyra taunts,

“If you got spooked by yourself, just say so Kage,”

“It was a lovely dream, I’ll have you know,” I retort sarcastically,

“Oh, the sweetest of dreams I’m sure~” Lyra crows

“You lot are annoying,” the chief groans,

“Is this how all you Soterran people act?”

“They’re actually much more polite people than us,” Apollo interjects

“I would think different, since you are supposedly their king, yet you don’t seem to want to be there,” chief Aki says sounding somewhat disgusted

“I am only king in name, that title holds no power,”

“Ok, well let me give you some knowledge on our previous chief,

He was my father, and he was lazy, got complacent because he didn’t think being the chief meant you had to actually be the strongest,

You know what happened to him?

He died in a sparring match. Pathetic,

After that grandad had me and my halfsiblings, those other three, I’m sure you saw around.

We were raised to be the best from the moment we could crawl

And I, the strongest of the four, took the title of new chief,”

“What exactly am I supposed to take from this?” Apollo tries to be indignant

“I am saying its all fun games when you were given a title for free, unlike others who have worked for it and….

….Here are the stairs, you may leave now,” she cuts herself off now that we’ve reached the exit,

……

****

“Alright, now that, that business is sorted, where shall we go now for these two months?” Apollo tries to sound cheerful but it’s clear he’s still bothered from the Chief’s words,

“Apollo, tell me,

Do you still have that same goal from before?” Karina confronts him

“What—”

“—Yes or no,”

“I don’t know anymore”

(What goal?

What are they talking about?)

“Stop pretending Apollo, if you want to do achieve that goal stop letting yourself be held back by others opinions,

Be selfish for once,”

……..

The weird exchange between the two ends leaving us four standing awkwardly in front of the ‘grand tent’

…..

“Is Claude really staying behind,” I try breaking the tension

“Mhm,” Apollo nods,

(Didn’t work)

“I was thinking we could go to the ‘Silver’ mountains,” Lyra brings up

“I remember Saito told me the only way to get to the path up them was from his homeland,

So this may our best opportunity to visit,” I agree

“Another adventure it is,” Apollo decides

“Pinoki would be excited by this,”……….

…..

After stocking up with more supplies, we headed for the large grey mountains that had been ‘watching’ us ever since leaving Soterra, no guide was needed to show us to the tall alps….

Transitioning out of the Tonbo district, the scenery now, is less field-like and quaint, opposed to the other area’s we came through before, the terrain becomes hard and rocky,

Less greenery can be seen overall, despite the fact that we passed a few small rivers no shrubs grow around them…

The day passed then night and day again, we didn’t except it to take this long, but the tall mountains gave the illusion of them being closer than actuality…

…….

“Hhhhh

We should have brought the carriage,” Apollo huffs,

“No good it would have done, it’s all rocky here” I reply

………

“At least there are some people here,” Lyra points,

As we near a narrow trail leading up to the base of the mountains the outline of a small settlement become visible

Well not settlement, rather a couple of ‘tents’

………..

This is rest stop for people going up the mountain, no one lives here

A sign is plastered in front of the tents

“Lucky us” Lyra says sarcastically now that we see the place is very abandoned,

The inside of the tent is dusty and filled with junk—

(Wait...

Junk?)

The inside of the ten is littered with scraps, wires, electrical supplies, old helmets, watches flashlights, you name it

(This is where they came from?

Am I close?)

“What even are all of these objects,” Lyra holds up a lens,

A red dot beams out of it onto her face,

“Move that away!” I slap it out her hand,

“That could be recording,”

“What?”

Whrrrrrrrrrrrrr

“It’s a…

Wait,

Do you hear that?”

A familiar humming sound catches my attention,

Whrrrrrrrrrrrrr

(Could it be?)

“It’s under there—" Karina points to a large pile of rusty metal,

Heave!

Apollo sticks his sword into the pile moving most of the junk away at once,

I hurriedly sift through the rest until I come to the source of the sound…

Whrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It hums steadily,

A blue light appears as I gently pull the device out…

Another ‘blue flame.’