Chapter 17

Friday, 6/3/119

“Ugh. I never imagined traveling could be so … boring.”

Traveling. Adventure. Excitement. Those three words are supposed to go together, however, based on what I’m experiencing right now, I feel no adventure and certainly no excitement.

“You're already bored?” my traveling companion asks me with a sigh. “It can’t be exciting all the time. You should learn to enjoy the quiet moments in life.”

There he goes talking like an old man again. Dude, what the hell kinda life has this guy had in the like … 20 years he’s been alive. I assume he’s twenty just on looks, but the way he calls me kid and the fact that he has a fondness for observing nature as a pastime, in lieu of conversation, makes me think he’s actually an 80 year old in disguise.

Woah, that would be cool though. Would that mean he’s wearing a face-mask or that he found the fountain of youth?

Anyways, this old-young guy, Ethan, and myself Chris have suddenly found ourselves on the trek of a lifetime. Well, at least for me it is, but I’ve ran into a bit of a snag. Since we don’t know that much about each other, our talks don’t last very long, and even if they do, I always get the sense that he enjoys the quiet so I stop bothering him.

But like, it's so boring. He may find enjoyment training his senses or observing nature, but poor old me is craving some excitement, or at the very least, just some conversation.

It’s been two day since we left my hometown, and so far, all we’ve seen is road, trees and open land. While that’s very majestic, being one with nature and all, I can’t pull any enjoyment from such a landscape.

Maybe I’ve become addicted to action. I mean, everything went to shit when Ethan first showed up in my town. I had lived my entire existence in boredom. Life was good but tedious. I needed some tragedy in my life god damn it!

Nah, I’m just joking. But serious, my days took a complete 180 once he got into town. I mean, I saw him flip a car outside of the grocery store for god sake. You could say I never expected, in a million years, for that to happen.

That was my first dose of action. I then fought Ethan in front of my house, thoroughly destroying Joe’s field.

Oh shit. That field never got repaired. Ha! Guess he’s gonna miss pawning his chores onto me.

The fight with Ethan was crazy though. Obviously, I had never been in a fight. If I had, I would have killed someone. I think I did okay for my first time. I mean, I got utterly destroyed for the majority of it, but like, who cares? It was fun.

I then got into a park shooting. Ok, to be honest, that wasn’t fun. People actually got hurt because of me. It’s the same with the attack on my school. It wasn’t fun because people died due to my mistakes. I’m having some nightmares because of it.

However, that doesn’t mean it was tedious. Even though bad shit was happening, and I felt worse than I ever felt before, not to mention I still ache everywhere from the fights, I also felt alive.

I always crack jokes whenever I can because that was the only way for me to enjoy my life before. They were to spice up my everyday routine.

Every once in a while, I would play pranks on my teachers or parents, and sometimes just say nasty shit so they’d get mad. That way, my life would be interesting.

But man, even though people were dying, and my friends were hurt, as guilty as I am about this fact, I was satisfied. My life, in those moments, felt vibrant, and I was almost happy I had an excuse to be angry at an enemy, because I hadn’t experienced that before.

I won’t kill people. I don’t feel that I should be responsible for removing someone from this world, as I don’t think I’m worthy enough to make that call. And besides, if my nightmares are bad now, killing someone would make them a hundred times worse. I would rather avoid guilt if possible.

But if others, mainly Ethan, kill people, then I don’t care. Of course, I’ll stop him if he tries to kill innocents, but he wouldn’t do that.

However, defeating bad guys, even if that means he kills them, is adventure. That’s exciting, and while I want to help people, I also want my life to continue being vibrant, as terrible as that makes me.

Eh, whatever. I don’t really care what others think about me in the first place. I’ll just do what I want. I mean, that’s the whole reason I started traveling with Ethan is because it’ll allow me to go on the adventure I wanted.

Or at least I thought. And back to the problem at hand.

Why is it so boring? It’s been two day since we left Arbhar and nothing is happening. Ok, the day before yesterday was cool cause he straight up lasered some road bandits.

Yes, it was cool until night came. Now, let me just say, I am actually quite the clean freak. My room and school supplies were always neat. The overstuffed bag I’m carrying right now is organized as well. So, for me, not taking a shower is a problem, but I could get over it if one, it weren’t the middle of summer, and two, if I didn’t have to sleep outside.

Yeah, we slept outside the last two nights. Luckily I had a sleep bag to use but I still felt dirty when I woke up. Not a pleasant feeling. So onto top of being bored, I feel like I desperately need a shower.

But I can’t say any of this outloud to Ethan. After all, I requested to go on this trip, and I have a feeling things will become more enjoyable once we reach the next territory. Until then however, I am just … ugh.

Yep. That’s the best way to describe it.

On another note, the conversation has been dead for a while, so I think I’ll bug him some more.

“Hey, Ethan, are we there yet?”

“No. Could you stop asking this? You will clearly see it on the horizon when we get close.”

Oh man, he answers so earnestly. I can tell this guy has never heard of a joke before. Moving on, a new question pops into my head, one which I have been meaning to ask for a while.

“You said before that this route is infamous for bandits right? But you also said before that Arbhar was rich because of its farms. How does the territory make money if they can’t send or receive shipments because of those guys?”

Upon hearing this, Ethan turns to me with a calm expression, but I can tell, from the look in his eye, that he’s quite impressed with my inquiry just now.

Is he impressed with my question? Or just surprised that I could even think of it? It better be the former.

“I’m only 90% sure about this but most likely your territory doesn’t even try to trade with the territories beyond this route. Instead, they trade the northern territories, since not only are those places safer to reach, but they are also colder and have difficulty growing crops. By doing so, they reap a massive profit and it's the main reason Arbhar has become self-sufficient.”

Yo, even though my town is in the middle of nowhere, we were actually doing really well? Seriously? I didn’t even know.

“You’ll be able to tell the difference once we reach the next Territory.” he then tells me. Ooh, that sounds quite ominous. Just tell me they have showers. I don’t care about anything else right now. I’ll even use the weird communal showers if they got ‘em.

“May I inquire about something?” Ethan asks me.

“Um … yeah.”

“You are extraordinarily bored, but let me ask you, what did you think traveling would be like? You couldn’t have thought every moment would be fun.”

“Uh, well, yeah see …” I hesitantly say, “It’s not like any expectations are being defied or anything, but, like, I just didn’t think about this aspect. I forgot that travel time exists since everything has always been within a five minute running distance for me.”

“I see. That makes sense.”

“Well then … my turn to ask a question.” I say with enthusiasm. “That guy two days ago yelled that you're a Geinta Master. Is that true? Also, are your skills the result of your training or were you born with them like me?”

“Firstly, we can’t assume you were born with your powers.” he responds. Jeez, I might as well have been. I had them before I was even adopted. No need to get technical.

“About me being a Geinta master; no, that’s not true. Although I’ll accept being called one by amateurs, as from their perspective, I probably seem like one. However, a true Geinta Master is someone who not only has complete control over their energy but has created their own signature technique. I don’t have either of these traits, so I’m probably just an ‘expert’ rather than a ‘master.’”

“Ohhhhhh. So what am I?” I ask.

“A complete amateur,” he roasts me bluntly. “You can’t control your energy in the slightest. I think you're the only Gem user who has no idea what they’re actual Gem ability is. You're even worse than the Ghosts.”

“Stop! Stop! My heart will break if you continue.” I say in the most melodramatic fashion, clutching his chest as if it’s aching.

“You asked.”

Our conversations flow much like this for the rest of the trip as we slowly make our way to the next Territory. Today feels even longer than the last two and I can CLEARLY see the sun getting lower and lower.

Eventually, just now as I’m about to throw a fit from walking, Ethan taps me on the shoulder.

“Hey … look.”

He points off into the horizon. I squint my eyes through my glasses to see the silhouette of small structures, and as we get closer, I can tell I’m looking at buildings of sorts.

“Is that … a town?! I can barely see it with my shit vision.”

“Yes, we have arrived in the next territory. Earlier, you didn’t notice the sign that said ‘Entering the Territory of Harrelson.’”

“Yeah, your right. I didn’t see that at … Ethan?”

“What?”

Just now, when I had looked out of my peripheral vision, I thought Ethan had a very serious look on his face as he had said the name Harrelson. Was I mistaken?

Oh well, if he has a problem with the place, I can hear all about it later. I don’t care much right now because all I can think about is the shower and warm bed waiting for me.

Ah bliss. We gotta hurry it up to a motel right now!

Ethan clearly sees the excitement on my face because he joins me in walking a bit faster. An hour later, we finally enter a border town of the Harrelson territory.