“The detective is up,” Byung said as he walked out of the tree line behind Falreath.

“I heard; I take it he woke up a few moments after I left.” Falreath stated more than asked, his voice still devoid of most emotions.

His mind focused on the task before him. He slammed the edge of the deer crossing sign into the earth and grunted. A small bit of earth was tossed into the air.

“More or less. I helped him bandage his chest.” Byung answered as he walked up the landslide. “He thinks he broke a rib or two in the fight.”

“If that is all that he broke, we can count him a lucky man.” Falreath answered as he took a moment to stare into the hole he was digging. Though he has been at this for more than five minutes, the dent was barely a foot deep. He was clearly doing something wrong.

“So, do we have a plan?” Byung asked as he stopped above his car.

Falreath grunted as he slammed the poll end of the sign into the dirt. The action caused a slight reaction and a chuck of the ground fell away.

“Find us a bear or two and test Cyprus’s theory.”

The pole slammed into the ground once again and Falreath levered against it. Each swing as monotonous as the last.

Byung shrugged. “As good as anything I guess.” He replied as he got down onto his knees and began to scoop the loose dirt out of the way.

The next time the pole slammed into the ground, it shifted some earth. The minor landslide unearthed a piece of flesh.

“Found one,” Falreath said, his voice as emotionless as before. He stood back to examine the creature; afraid the thing might still somehow be alive.

“Good, save some for me, I’m getting hungry.” Byung laughed as he stood from his small hole to look toward Falreath. “Though, if we could start a fire…”

The man trailed off as he began to move his head.

“I’m not sure eating this would be the best idea.” Falreath answered as he tentatively drew his hand close to the creature. If Cyprus was right and these creature’s had xenoid, something would happen. Pondering that event unnerved Falreath quite a bit.

“Have you ever had bear meat?” Byung asked as he headed back into the forest. “Besides, didn't your horse say we needed to consume the zenoid.”

“I believe the words used were drain,” Falreath answered as his hand finally fell onto the piece of dead flesh.

The instant he touched it, a bolt of some kind, not electricity though similar, jumped through his arm and into his chest. On reflex, he pulled his hand back. Seconds passed as he looked between his hand and the fur. Eventually, he started to examine how his body felt, and sighed. There was no damage as far as he could tell, and that meant he should continue.

“I feel like consuming the meat would be a sure way to drain whatever it is your horse wants.” Byung answered as he walked out of the forest, various bits of wood in his arms. “We should take any advantage we can.”

Falreath mostly ignored the man, focused instead on the energy that was flowing through his arm into his chest, or stomach, or heart, into his abdomen somewhere. Soon the flood became a trickle and eventually it stopped.

The man stood and flexed his hand a few times as he searched for any sign that something changed. As the tingle faded, he found little different from before. He honestly would have thought he imagined the whole thing had he not seen Cyprus.

“Do you have a knife?” Byung asked as he fiddled with the wood before him. Falreath finally acknowledged the man spoke and turned towards him. The sight of him standing there in his boxers over a hole filled with wood stunned him.

“An axe or hatched would also be useful, how about a lighter.” Byung continued as he turned to face Falreath.

“Are you seriously trying to cook this meat?” Falreath finally asked as his brain caught up with what he was seeing.

“Well, a fire would be useful for more than just cooking the meat. We could dry out clothes and perhaps use it to signal where we are.” Byung answered as he stood and looked at the trunk of his vehicle. “We don’t even know when rescue might come, so it is best to be prepared.”

Falreath stared for a few more seconds, mind trying to work though what this man was saying. Again, he made a sort of sense, though he knew that a copter was on the way, so why go through all this work.

“You a boy scout or something?” He finally asked as he looked back over the rubble and tried to figure out where the next bear might be in relation to the one he uncovered.

“Made life,” Byung answered as he moved to the trunk of his vehicle. Without hesitation he began to remove the dirt from the surrounding area.

“Whatever, if we can’t get ahold of the copter that might be useful.” Falreath relented as he turned to look at the landslide once again. As he moved over it, he felt an instinctive pull to a certain section. Trusting his gut, he began to dig once again.

Seconds became minutes as the two of them worked on their own projects. Falreath’s skill in digging with the street sign steadily grew and the hole before him reached nearly three feet before he finally found another creature. Upon the sight of the flesh, he looked up towards the man who was still uncovering his vehicle. Should he try to see about getting him a bond, after all more people able to use the xenoid the better. He looked back at the flesh and continued to ponder. Could Byung even use this without a bond.

He exhaled deeply, his mind set on his action. He would use what he could gather, they could worry about Byung’s bond, if he could even get one, later. Determined, he rested his body on the dirt and stretched his arm in the hole he made. Unfortunately, the flesh of the dead bear was just out of his reach, and no matter how hard he tried he could not quite stretch.

Lifted into a pushup position, he stared down he hole. Should he try to widen the whole, or perhaps. He wondered as he looked down at his feet. His leg should have no issue reaching the creature, he should not need to simply touch it with his hands. With that in mind, he took off one of his shoes and stretched his leg into the hole.

The familiar current of power flowed up his leg into his abdomen. He held the position and his muscles groaned at the current stretching of his legs. Again, the current slowed to a trickle before it finally cut off. At least he knew now what to expect.

****

Eldridge stood as he watched Byung work his way up the hill. He’d told the man he was feeling better after the wrapping, which was true. The problem was, better than excruciating, was still an intense pain. Even as he stood, he was having to grit his teeth to bare the burden. A slow long breath left his mouth as he began his walk. It was slow, but it was doable.

Minutes passed as Eldridge acclimated to the pain his body was feeling. Most of it felt like a soreness, like he had worked out all of yesterday. The sharp pain came mainly from his chest, further cementing in his mind that he broke a rib or two.

A familiar thread shuttered against his thoughts and caused him to pause his next step. As he observed the mild incline before him, he examined the thread-like feeling. If he was right, these were the thoughts of another. As the thread once again passed him by, he clamped down, and found it easier than before.

“…Eldridge is doing alright. He took a beating from the last fight.”

The thought caught him off guard as it raced through his head. After a second, he realized it was C’s mind. Figuring it would be best to give his friend some privacy he started up the hill and mentally opened his clamp on the thread.

“I must grow, we can’t be unprepared, not again.” The intense thoughts blasted through his mind. He tried once more to release the clamp and found it hard to accomplish, it was like the thread was stuck to him. Like a charge of static held it against his mind.

Eldridge tried to force the thread from his mind. As he did, the aspect of the thread shifted from thoughts to vision. This caught Eldridge off balance and he nearly stumbled to the ground. A moment passed as he tried to get the picture of digging a hole out of his sight. Another shot of mental power shifted the aspect once again. The wariness of C doubled against the weariness of his own body and he fought to avoid crumpling under its weight.

His mind struggled to release the thread, or at least shifted the aspect once more. As the weariness faded, he felt the mental strain of his friend. The fear, the anxiety, the concerns, the determination, and the hope. This aspect, more so than all the rest, caught Eldridge up short. It was clear that his friend was carrying more stress than was healthy.

“Is there anything I can do?” Eldridge asked himself as he leaned against a tree for support. “I can feel these thoughts, these emotions. I should be able to release some of them, right?”

With that goal in mind, Eldridge clung to the thread. He probed it, and sought the source.

He mentally flew down the thread and struggled to keep it in his mind. The farther he went the harder it was to keep going. Finally, the single thread bloomed into a massive ball of interconnected threads. He took in a slow breath, his mind solely focused on the ball before him.

He watched as threads grew brighter and others dimmer. The jumbled mess of threads clearly had a pattern and a purpose. Unfortunately, he was too new to understand it all. He did notice, however, that the brightest of the lights kept stopping in an area where it looked like the threads were tied into a deep knot.

“Perhaps,” He muddled under his breath, his voice sounding distant to himself.

Mentally he stretched his hand out to that knot, and as he did his understanding of it grew. It was the grouping of stress that C currently struggled with. He applied some pressure and tried to untie this burden.

Eldridge felt a weight grow on his mind as he stretched it. Fortunately, as he struggled, he could feel the knot loosening. This above all else is what kept him fighting against the weight that grew in his mind, the slowing and clouding of his thoughts. Finally, the knot popped and the glow it had accumulated flooded across the ball of threads. At that release Eldridge found it nearly impossible to keep his mind focused on that ball and it flew back to him.

A long sigh left his breath as he brought his mind back to his own. He hoped he had helped his friend, as it was the best he could do at the moment. As he stood away from the tree, the weight of his own pain flooded his mind once more.

****

Falreath slammed his pole once more into the landslide as he hoped for a third bear. He wasn’t sure how many there would be, but it was best that he found as many as he could. If xenoid could strengthen him enough to rip a sign out of the ground, he could only imagine what he could do with more.

His next swing brought him up short as he felt something snap inside of him, a sense of relief flooded over his mind and his body as the sign collided with the ground. An avalanche of dirt followed, and a bear rolled out of the hillside. He jumped back to avoid the falling creature and held his pole at the ready, on guard for any sign of life. Seconds of motionlessness followed.

Convinced, from his observations, it was dead, he slowly moved towards the beast. With trepidation he placed his hand on the creature and felt the now familiar flow of xenoid through his body. As the trickle came, he thought about how much he would need to gather before he felt any change. In a flash of clarity, the fog of his mind parted and Cyprus’s words came forth.

“Right,” He spoke to himself as he looked around for a comfortable place to sit. “Cyrus said I must meditate.”

As his gaze traveled, he caught sight of Byung crawling into the trunk of his vehicle. That man has been acting strange, though Falreath did understand a bit of it. In all honesty it was probably best one of them was worrying about things like food and shelter.

After a few more moments of searching he found a flattish part of the landslide and sat.

“Now do I sit like a monk to do this?” He asked himself as he tried to get comfortable. “Do I need to hum, or should I focus on silence?”

He continued to orientate himself, his mind trying to understand how to meditate. Finally, a long sigh came, and he just let silence fill the air around him.

Surprisingly, it was easy to calm his mind, the questions, the scenes from earlier in the day were oddly absent. He could remember Eldridge being flung through the air, it just lacked the weight it had prior. Yes, he felt for his friend, felt fear and concern as he relived that moment. It just, felt muted somehow.

Falreath closed his eyes and pushed himself onward, seeking instead the xenoid in his body. He figured if he could find that current, that flow, he might have some answers. As he reached inward to examine his body an image popped up in his vision.

As the image came to life before his eyes, he opened them out of surprise. The screen, the best name Falreath could think of to describe it, was overlaid before his vision. He could either focus on it or the world beyond. It was like something out of a science fiction movie. Not quite the enlightenment he was expecting.

As his focus shifted from the forest back to the translucent screen before him, the words solidified once again and allowed him to read them. The top line read Freki Industries Xenoid Interface V 1.1.003A. Falreath stared at that line for a few moments, unsure of the meaning. Figuring it beyond him, he moved on to the rest of the screen.

To the middle left was a fairly accurate three-dimensional representation of him standing in the Da Vinci pose, with lines and words pointing to different aspects of his body. He read a few of them and moved on as they held little meaning; Strength *** Advanced, Dexterity *** Advanced, Intelligence - Unrefined. To the right was a list of his attributes with numbers beside them.

There was also a button that had a xenoid cost next to each attribute. Unsure of what it all meant he moved down the list. At the lower left he found the words Lose Xenoid; 314 Light 156 Earth 185 Unaligned. Bound Xenoid 1100. It was clear there was much here he didn’t understand, and there was a high likelihood that he would be ignorant until he was able to talk to Cyprus once more.

He looked next to the list of xenoid skills and took note roar and intuition listed there. “What does that even mean?” Falreath asked himself as he found a button that said assimilate new skills. This had to be the thing he wanted; the question was how to use the button.

He lifted his hand up to see if he needed to press it, before his hand even reached above his stomach, the screen shifted a bit and a new menu popped up.

Possible Skills to Assimilate:

Light: 100 Light Xenoid

Earth: 100 Earth Xenoid

Fire: 100 Fire Xenoid

Roar Enhancement: 300 Xenoid

Intuition Enhancement: 200 Xenoid

Charge: 100 Xenoid

Scurry: 100 Xenoid

Not quite understanding exactly what he would gain from each option, Falreath selected light as it was the xenoid he had the most of. As he selected it, he felt a rush of energy flood his body. As the energy flooded his mind, knowledge he never possessed came to the forefront. The energy soon subsided, and a tingle was the only thing left, as if his entire body was asleep.

The numbness made it a bit difficult to move so he focused instead on what it was he learned. Light, as it was called, was a form of xenoid manipulation. It focused primarily on purity and purification. As the sun bleached all, as the light drove back the shadow, so light purified all its contacts. It can be shifted from this aspect, but it will do all it can to purify itself and set itself back on the proper path.

With great focus he held up his right hand, fighting the numbness all the way. His gaze moved to his fingertips and he slowly breathed out. A small dot of light blossomed into a circle, then two and words began to appear in the space between them. I am Football. The words held less meaning than the intent behind them. Still, it had to be a phrase that resonated with Falreath, with his being.

The circle flashed and Falreath felt the numbness fade from his bones. It had been a minor rejuvenating skill, a less potent side of light manipulation. A purifying of the body.

He stretched his body and reveled in the comforting feeling. A moment passed before he let out a sigh as he tried to pull up the screen once again. It took a few more tries before he was able to center himself enough to enter the mindset needed to see the interface.

“I wonder what earth will do?” He asked himself as the screen popped up. He knew that more utility would increase his survivability. But mostly, he just thought that this whole manipulation thing was awesome.

As he moved his focus to the assimilation menu he froze as he saw the changes.

Possible Skills to Assimilate:

Light Enhancement: 200 Light Xenoid

Earth: 600 Earth Xenoid

Fire: 600 Fire Xenoid

Roar Enhancement: 300 Xenoid

Intuition Enhancement: 200 Xenoid

Charge: 100 Xenoid

Scurry: 100 Xenoid

Not only had Light changed to enhancement, but the price for assimilating earth had also skyrocketed.

“Well there goes that,” He mumbled to himself as he thought over what he was going to do.

His plan had been to see what light was, and then pick up earth if light was any good. Now he was left with an earth that was well beyond any xenoid he had, even if he added them all together.

No, if he added his light, earth, and unaligned, he would just barely pass six hundred. Yet, given there were categories of xenoid and earth required a specific type he was sure he couldn’t do that. He was also sure he wouldn’t want to do that, at least not yet. Six hundred seemed like quite the investment.

“So, do I enhance light, or go down some other path,” He mumbled as he looked over the menu and his remaining xenoid.

He found it odd that fire was on the list, as he had none to speak of. He also noticed that his bound xenoid had grown by the amount he invested in light. All this proved was he knew little of the system and needed a long conversation with his horse. Moving on, he chose to enhance light, as he at least knew what that did, and he had just enough to do it.

This time the rush of energy was greater, almost painful. Instead of knowledge, a deeper understanding of the element flooded his mind. Light had an order, it was a constant, an energy of its own. It could repel as well as call out. The energy faded once more and he felt his body fall to the ground, the numbness overwhelming his ability to sit up.

He lay on the ground for a few seconds before he tried to heal himself. This time the circle blossomed from his chest; the words inside changed to, “I am Healthy!” Like football, it was also an aspect that resonated with Falreath, this one, however, also resonated with what he wanted to accomplish. The refreshing feeling rushed through his body and permeated his entire being. His fatigue vanished, though his mind felt a bit tired from the experience.

Given his body felt like it needed to move from all the energy, he rocked himself to his feet and jogged in place.

“Glad to see you’re doing well,” He heard a familiar, though faint, voice say. Drawn to the forest's edge, he saw Eldridge holding his chest as he slowly moved towards Byung’s vehicle.

“Eldridge!” Falreath yelled as he bolted towards his friend, his energy uncontained.

Eldridge reacted as his hands flew into the air. His face winched at the effort. Falreath slowed some, but still made haste to welcome his now awake friend.

“I see you’re doing more than well,” Eldridge said with a slight cough. “Wish I could say likewise.”

His words struck a chord in Falreath and he looked at his hands.

“Let’s see if I can’t do something about that.”

He looked at his friend and held out his hand. A dot of light manifested on his friend’s chest and slowly blossomed into the double circle. Eldridge is Reckless. The words, a manifestation of Falreath’s concern. However, they soon changed to Eldridge is Driven. Falreath afraid of what the prior meaning might do to the healing effect.

Another circle appeared in the center, this one changed into an oval, a representation of the bending of the effect of light. Suddenly, a massive radiant shell of light enveloped Eldridge and energy flowed from Falreath’s chest, up his arm, and into the manifestation. The drain pulled more than his two prior attempts.

Falreath focused on his breathing as the energy continued to flow, and his body grew heavier by the second. Finally, the shell flashed and expanded outward before fading into nothingness. The weight on Falreath faded as well, though he didn’t feel as spry as before.

Eldridge started to flex his body as he looked at it.

“What was that?” He questioned as he started to pat down his limbs. “I feel so much….”

He winced as he tried to bend over. “I guess not completely better. Though the pain now feels more like a bruise than a break.”

“Just a little bit of light magic,” Falreath said as if it was nothing special. Though it wasn’t long before he started to explain what he did and what Cyprus had said.