The sun moved higher and higher in the sky, while everyone was still asleep.

Orion's massage seemed to have greatly helped the girls to relax their tired body. Two of them even had three thousand years of stiffness in their muscles.

He had woken up earlier than the girls, already training his body to prepare for the day.

This morning lead to a different experience than he was used to. Mist formed by the lake's water blocked his sight.

He imagined himself fighting a horde of corrupted inside the mist. For him, there was no better hiding place than the mist. This led to a terrible fate for his imaginary enemies.

If they had smell and touch, Orion had his hearing. Smell was once of the greatest sense to track someone, but hearing was especially strong for someone that hid from a vantage point.

He finished for the morning, avoiding to strain his body when he himself told Amelia not to overexert herself.

He had already avoided being scolded the day before because of his mistake during Drania's attack. An angry Amelia is never a good thing.

The mist began to clear when he arrived at the temporary house. He looked inside, and saw no one. He assumed that they were still sleeping.

He looked at the sun's position.

'Around 8AM?'

He walked to the lake to wash his steaming body.

'I already miss the baths.'

He cleaned himself, then put on another shirt.

~

*crack*

Amelia opened her eyes after being woken up by a strange noise.

*clack*

She looked to her right, where Karteira was supposed to be sleeping in.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"

Karteira whispered quietly, as to not wake the two sisters still soundly sleeping in front of them.

Amelia, only half-awake, rubbed her eyes.

"What are you doing?"

She whispered too unconsciously.

Karteira, in her underwear, was in weird position. She was on all four, her scorpion tail curved above her back, completely stretched.

*CRACK*

"Ah!"

The base of the tail, on her lower back, shivered and cracked some part of the joint. It seemed to hurt a lot, as she let out a loud cry, who luckily didn't woke up the sisters.

She immediately covered her mouth.

Amelia watched this scene for a minute before her brain finally registered what was happening.

'What's going on with her?'

Karteira was panting at each cracking and clicking sound, enduring a pain similar to having her spine shattered again and again. After five minutes, it stopped.

"That damned Orion, what did he do to me?"

Removing her hands from her mouth while cursing Orion, then she tried to look over her shoulder to see the place that was hurting for few minutes, unsuccessful.

She sat on the bed and touched her back.

"What's this now?"

She felt something different than her soft tissues that were there before. It was harder, tougher and heavier.

"Amelia, could you look at it for me?"

"Sure."

Karteira stood up from her bed and turned her back to Amelia. She looked at the joint, and indeed, it was different.

"There's a spiky shell around the base, it's covering a bit of your skin and a bit of the first segment? Also, you're bleeding quite a bit."

Karteira touched her back, and her looked at her hand. There was definitely blood on it.

"It's not bleeding anymore, but you'd better go see Orion later, just in case."

Her eyes twitched when she remembered the massage she was forced to endure last night.

"I'm sure he has something to do with it."

She was angry at him for multiple reason. The shame of the day before, and the terrible pain she had to endure right after waking up.

In reality, it was indeed Orion's fault, but what he did was simply restart her physical growth. Her body was supposed to continuously grow, but the stress and her past injuries made her unable to push to the next step.

By releasing her stress, relaxing her body and mind, while also healing her previously, the mechanism inside her that was supposed to slowly perfect her body entered it's full throttle, and sent everything she had missed in that small time frame.

Amelia thought about it.

"He definitely doesn't know about that, don't be ridiculous. Isn't it your own body simply growing?"

*sigh*

Karteira let it go. This had been the second most exhausting morning she ever lived since that day she trained with Orion under the rain.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"I'll go see him."

Karteira was about to leave the room.

"Put your clothes on before you go!"

Karteira looked at her state, and turned around toward her folded clothes, a slight blush on her face.

~

"Orion. Morning."

Karteira walked to Orion who was waiting at the table outside, a book in hands.

"Morning Karteira."

He removed his attention for the book, and noticed something weird with her.

"Why are you standing so far away?"

He didn't understand.

"No reason."

She shyly walked toward him, and sat next to him. Just by remembering what happened, she couldn't contain her blush.

"I see. Do you need something? It's rare for you to sit next to me."

"Is it that rare?"

With a pink hue on her cheeks, her blue eyes stared inside Orion deep slate colored eyes.

"Yes, it is. Anyways, let me repeat, do you need something from me?"

He ignored her state, which reminded him of Amelia.

'Did she speak some nonsense to Karteira for her to act like this?'

Orion imagined the two girls speaking about that kind of stuff.

"Could you... heal my back please?"

"Just that?"

Karteira nodded, and turned around. Orion looked at her back.

'I never realized that her clothes had a cut in the lower back for her tail. Wait-'

"Is that blood?! Karteira, what happened?"

Without hesitation, he applied his light element on his hand to fasten her natural recovery.

He rubbed his hand all around the base, noticing the changes near her the base of her tail.

The heaviness she felt before began to fade, which seemed to come from an internal injury under the newly formed shell.

While he healed her, she explained what happened when she woke up.

"I see, good thing you came to me. Can you still move your tail even with this new layer?"

"I haven't tried yet. It was still hurting before I came to you."

'She's back to being herself. Did she think I was going to ignore her?'

Karteira stood up, lighter than ever.

"This feels weird."

She slowly moved her tail like she usually did. The tail moved left, right, stretched, curved, everything was possible to do still. It seemed that the shell was still flexible enough to keep these movements possible.

There was no discomfort coming from there anymore. Intrigued, Orion left his seat, and touched her tail.

Karteira was used to have her tail being studied by Orion, so she let him be.

'This joint, has it become stronger?'

Gently, he moved the tail in direction that would have hurt her before. He twisted the tail left and right, without receiving any complaints from her.

"Your tail is way more flexible than before. Do you feel anything from me doing this?"

He carefully pushed down on the tail, making the stinger almost touch the ground with it's back.

"No, it feels normal."

'Her tail developed. I found it weird that she had so much pain just by moving that tail around. It was just a question of growth then. Her body wasn't in it's perfect shape so far.'

"Then it's good. It won't be a bother in your life anymore. That's how it was supposed to be."

A smile on his face, Orion removed his hands from her tail, and walked back to his seat.

"Thank you for healing me again."

"Don't worry, it's there to be used. I prefer it when you girls come to me more than me finding about it too late."

Karteira stayed silent when she thought about Amelia.

-

"You'd better go see Orion later, just in case."

-

When she thought that she almost refused to be healed, she could only stay silent.

After standing there for a minute, her tail still touching the ground, she returned to herself. She walked to the table and sat next to him.

"What are you reading?"

She began to show interest in what Orion was reading. He knew a lot of things that could be useful to her in the future.

"It's a book about the world. See the mud around the lake? You can create it by combining the earth and water element by using magic. But it's still different than the world's natural mud. Once the magic is released the mud disappears, does that mean our world isn't magical to begin with, or is it a constant magic? Look at this one-"

Orion began to explain like he usually did with Amelia. Karteira carefully listened to Orion speak about his thoughts on the world and the various reactions between the elements until everyone had awaken.

'He certainly like this world. He knows so much about it, more than anyone else in this world.'

She learned about the clouds, the volcanos, the sea, even about the steam she created under her plates armor. All that knowledge slowly took it's place inside her memories.

One day, her knowledge and ingenuity would lead to the most dangerous ability at her disposal.

~

Drania, Dramia and Amelia all walked out of the house. It was around 10AM.

The three walked upon Orion teaching Amelia the way of the world.

"What's going on over there? It's unusual for Orion not to be training."

Amelia, having taken a long time to carefully comb her hair and put her ponytail on, said while looking at Karteira nodding at what Orion was pointing at on the book.

"The only way to know is to go there!"

Before anyone could stop her, Drania was already behind Orion.

"She will never change."

Dramia shrugged and walked toward them.

Amelia kept looking at the scene of Drania laughing, talking to Orion and Karteira. Dramia arrived and sat in front of them.

'Orion. Have you realized?'

Amelia kept staring at him.

'You who thought had no allies, no friends and no family in this world. This is what your actions have gave you.'

She was glad, truly glad that he had more people to care about. Looking at him smiling toward the girls, Amelia felt a bit left out.

Just then, Orion turned to look at her. She read on his lips "Good morning."

With a smile, she walked toward them and said to him.

"Good morning, Orion.

~

The situation was turning sour in Hocride.

Multiple attack squads have already been intercepted before they could cause havoc in her city.

Kamala herself defended her city. She was tired from fighting continuously.

She suffered light injuries, shallow cuts, bruises. She was currently resting in her room, her body covered in bandages.

'This is never going to end like this.'

Ivan was relentless. Each day, he sent a hundred soldiers toward Hocride, just to weaken Kamala. It was working, because Kamala was at her limit.

She could stand strong for about a week.

'I have to find a way to stop him from sending these uncontrollable soldiers.'

The problem was that Ivan himself never moved along his own forces. He was a treacherous man that would strike at the best moment to get what he wanted.

'He's waiting for me to be exhausted, unable to defend myself.'

'The worst part is, I can't do anything about that.'

Many thoughts entered her mind.

"Is this how I'm going to die? After everything I've done, what a pitiful end."

She was alone in this. If it was not about defending her city, she would have already went to him, and give a piece of her mind, but this man was decided to destroy her life and take over Hocride.

"I don't know what to do anymore."

As she looked at the ceiling, tears began to flow on her face.

~

"So, everything is good? Everyone have their belongings?"

Orion looked at his feet, where his, Amelia and Karteira's bag were.

"Wait a bit."

Amelia crouched and brought two other small bags from inside her own. She looked at the sisters.

"Here's for you two. I've prepared some food for your trip to the dragon's nest."

Surprised appeared on their face.

"You said it was two days at top speed yesterday, so there's two days of dried meat and preserved food. It's not glorious, but it should be enough until you arrived."

Drania, tears in her eyes, jumped and hugged Amelia.

"Thank you so much!"

"Thank you, Amelia."

Dramia bent slightly to show her gratitude.

"It's just food! You don't have to exaggerate it."

They took the bags with the food boxes inside, and with a hard face, finally said.

"We have to go. Be careful you three."

"Yes, also, don't forget about us!"

The sisters walked away and waved at the three.

Orion, Amelia, and Karteira waved at them in return. The flew straight up slowly, and just like that, the two sisters were nowhere to be seen, flying in the direction of Ormdivin, the dragon's nest.

"We have to go too, are you ready?"

The two girls nodded.

"Alright, then it's time to leave this forest."

The temporary house Amelia created crumbled to dust, and they all left the forest. Everything returned to being quiet, devoid of life. The lake disappeared once again into the deepest darkness of the dead forest of birch tree.

After an hour of walking, they managed to get out of Dead White forest. They walked toward the direction Drania kindly pointed at the day before, and they officially returned to their exploration of the world, hunting the Apostle, and the threat that was the corruption.

Two days later, Drania and Dramia arrived at Ormrdivin without encountering any trouble, and Orion, Amelia and Karteira managed to find the village they needed to stop at.