Shadows flickered across their campsite from the flames dancing between them. The grass along the edges of the fire pulsed a faded purple as if in response to the new warmth. As Milo hammered in the last tent stake, he took a seat.

“The fire’s getting low. Can you add another branch?” Ezra requested.

A mischievous smile spread across Milo’s face, and he snapped his fingers at a pile of sticks a few paces away. One of the branches shook and levitated off the top. Hanging uneasily in the air, the piece of wood made its way over to the fire. With another snap, the stick fell into a plume of smoke and ash.

“When did you?” Ezra glanced at the stick and then back at Milo, an expression of bewilderment on his face. “How did?”

“Since yesterday.” Milo calmly responded. “I thought you would’ve checked your skill screen by now.”

“Skil screen?”

Milo pulled a gray disk from his pocket. “You didn’t pay attention to the presentation at all. Did you?”

“I heard the first bit about pocket rankings.”

“So not much.” Milo tapped the center of the disk, and a gray screen projected in front of him.

Milo Jastram

Level 3 . . . Rank: Seeker

Robustness Lvl 1 Distribution [Lvl 10 required]

Skill Lvl 2 Evolution [Lvl 50 required]

Clicking on skill, another screen appeared to the right of Milo.

Skill [Anti-gravity]

When activated, any inanimate object touched will defy the force of gravity and bend to the user's control. Effects last up to 20 seconds. [Rank up available at Level 20]

When nothing pulls you down, the stars are within reach.

“What’s a star?” Ezra asked.

“Absolutely no idea. I wonder if yours has a cool tagline too.” Milo clicked the x at the top right corner of the screen. “Now you try it,” Milo prompted.

Ezra sluggishly pulled the device out of his pocket and tapped its center.

Ezra Arkin

Level 4 . . . Rank: Seeker

Robustness Lvl 0 Distribution [Lvl 10 required]

Skill Lvl 0 Evolution [Lvl 50 required]

He pressed skill, and a screen different from Milo’s popped up.

Would you like to distribute points to your skill? [0 / 4]

Ezra kept his mouth shut, wondering what he should do. He certainly wasn’t going to ask Milo. He had already embarrassed himself enough.

“Click the zero to make it increase,” Milo said, despite never being asked.

Ezra tried to suppress the frustration in his voice. “But I don’t even know my skill yet. Why would I want to put points into it without knowing if it's worth it.”

“It didn’t let me see my skill until I put a point into it. A stupid design, but that's how it is. Just put one point in for now.”

The screen read [1 / 4], and Ezra clicked confirm. His skill screen materialized, and he read its description over and over until Milo interjected.

“So what is it? I told you mine, so it's only fair you tell me yours.”

“Time-scale,” Ezra said, a torrent of thoughts still racing through his mind.

“Okay.” Milo’s patience was running thin. “But what does it do.” Ezra continued to stare at the floating white lines of text. “Fine, if you won’t tell me, I’ll come look at it myself.” Brushing dirt off his trousers, Milo rushed behind him.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Seeing the words on the screen, he froze with the same shocked expression as Ezra.

Skill [Time Scale]

When activated, the user can push time forward or backward for one inanimate object of their choosing. The effects last the entire duration as long as the user has not selected another object. Time can be changed up to 30 seconds at the current level. [Rank up available at Level 30]

May you mold your future with careful consideration of the past.

Milo slapped Ezra on the back to shake him out of his daze. “Dude, that's sick. Probably the craziest power any Sky-seeker has ever had.”

“Really?” Ezra was sure those in the upper layers had powers that defied comprehension even more so than his skill.

“Yeah! This is Voyager level material.”

Ezra canceled out of the menu and shoved the device into his pocket. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

Milo frowned. “You're not even going to try it out?”

“Maybe tomorrow. It still doesn’t feel right,” Ezra said, wrapping a cloak around himself. He knew he would have to use it eventually, but he still couldn’t stomach how he had obtained it. Was that monster in the testing area really him? The more Ezra thought about it, the more he realized he didn’t feel a speck of remorse for killing those people, and that bothered him.

“It’s your power,” Milo muttered as he shuffled away and into his one-person tent.

Ezra stared beyond the flames and pulled the fabric around himself tighter. Sweat beaded on his forehead. A few creatures chirped in the distance, and Ezra raised his gaze to the forest of lights. Despite the soft glow of the fauna, shadows wove their way into any available crevasse. Marcus was likely out there somewhere—experimenting with skills that would only make him stronger.

Ezra pulled up his skill screen again and read the description for what must be the dozenth time. ‘Only one inanimate object.’ The words rang in his ears like they were screaming at his failure. Time manipulation. Since that day, he wondered if he could turn back time. Change the outcome. Make things right, and never let Owen die. He had the power to change time, but he couldn’t save even one person with it.

Anger rose within him, and he threw the gray disk into the fire. A piece of wood cracked and fell into the blackened charcoal. The disk remained unharmed. Each pillar of fire reached up to grasp the air, only to fall back down and shimmer across the metallic surface.

“This is stupid,” Ezra grumbled and used the folded quarter staff to remove his pocket from the fire. The grass around it sizzled until he stomped out the heat. As he reached down, something felt off.

Leaves rustled, and branches snapped in the distance. A flock of small birds flew overhead, and then everything went eerily silent. Ezra brushed his fingers against the disk’s surface and recoiled from the burning sensation. Gripping his hand, Ezra stood paralyzed once he saw a pair of glowing orange eyes in the dark.

Fear filled his body. Ezra was too afraid to blink or move a single muscle. He wanted to call out to Milo, but his throat clenched shut. The air felt dry on his tongue, and the night breeze froze every droplet of sweat. Slowly he crouched down, picked up a thick branch, and wrapped it in his cloak. He set one end of it in the fire, never taking his eyes off the mysterious visitor. As the cloth caught fire, he raised the makeshift torch above his head. With one continuous motion, he chucked the torch into the undergrowth.

It took a few seconds, but the flame caught. A fire burned between him and the beast. As the blazing light reached further the orange eyes blinked and disappeared. Ezra let out a sigh of relief.

The fire crackled and was still growing. A glowing vine exploded in a shower of luminous liquid and then another. The substance caught and spread the flames further. A feverish wave of heat hit Ezra’s face, forcing him to realize the reality of the situation.

Idiot, what were you thinking? You panicked. Still, he couldn’t have expected this forest to be a tinder box waiting to explode. Think. Think. The metallic glint of the disk beneath his feet caught his eye.

Pulling his sleeve over his hand, Ezra picked up the pocket. Focus on the torch. Picture it in your mind. Reverse. Go back. Time-scale. A box flashed in front of him.

Would you like to activate your skill [Time Scale]?

“Yes, do it now. Go back,” Ezra shouted.

A whirlpool of flashing gas and blazing liquid swirled in front of him, all to where the torch lay. Flames roared like a terrifying wind, and plants uncurled from their ashen graves. The flaming torch flew through the air, and Ezra snatched it before it could fall on the tent behind him. Milo peeked out of his tent and saw Ezra holding a stick with the cloak wrapped around its tip.

“What are you doing?” Milo made it quickly apparent he didn’t appreciate his sleep being disturbed.

Ezra pointed to the patch of shadow where orange eyes had appeared.“There was a creature out there.”

“And you were planning to bludgeon it to death with a stick? A stick wrapped in a soft piece of cloth.”

Now that Milo had put it like that, Ezra realized he did look pretty stupid. “I scared it off with fire.”

Milo nodded slowly with an incredulous look. “Thanks, but I think you should get some sleep. It’s been a long day.” With that, Milo obeyed his own advice and ducked back into his tent.

Ezra lowered the useless weapon and stared into the darkness. The orange eyes did not reappear, and he hoped it stayed that way.

“You're just tired. That's all,” Ezra said to himself before entering his tent.

A few rays of light peeked through the tent flaps and onto his face as Ezra yawned. With the morning light, the reminder of humid air returned as he peeled a sleeping bag off his drenched body. We have to figure out a way to clean these things, he thought. Extending his arms to the polycotton roof, Ezra checked that the Thorin-sphere and his pocket were still by his side.

The sounds of the forest were lively today, he noted. Birds seemed to screech from every treetop. Suddenly, the wind hit the side of the tent, bubbled the inner wall, and then left as fast as it came. Ezra shoved both the Thorin-sphere and disk into his pocket and began putting on his boots. A dim thud rebounded through the trees, and Ezra hurried to tie his laces. What was going on? The pitter-patter of tiny creatures rushed past his tent, and a thunderous boom shook the ground. He had to see if Milo was awake. Shoving the few items he removed from the Thorin-sphere last night, into a backpack, he rushed outside.

Everything erupted into a cloud of dirt and wooden splinters. Five people with silver breastplates rushed past him, and the sound of a vibro-crystal gun going off made Ezra cover his ears. Stone cracked, and another gust of wind, even stronger than the last, slammed into him. Barely holding his ground, Ezra glanced behind. Where his tent should be was only a plot of dirt.

“Come with me. It’s not safe here!” Someone shouted at him from the brown mist. He couldn’t tell which direction the voice was coming from.

Another person screamed, and the ground shook again. A bloodied arm fell at Ezra’s feet. He could feel his throat getting tighter. It was hard to breathe. The dust choked him. The arm isn’t Milo’s. The arm isn’t Milo’s, he told himself, hoping that saying it enough times would make it true.

A hand shot out from the dust and latched onto Ezra’s arm. “We’re falling back. Follow me.” The young man who stared at him wasn’t much older and had eyes as innocent as Owen’s had been.

Ezra’s legs moved on their own as the young man dragged him along. Thoughts flooded his mind until it went blank. One more time, he glanced behind, looking for Milo, but all he saw was two orange eyes piercing the dirty haze.