“Am I crazy, or did the jungle get scarier overnight?” I asked Ren as the both of us stood at the foot of the greenery. Ren was silent for a moment, and the both of us simply stared into the ominous shade of the jungle.
Finally, Ren shrugged. “Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Not like we have any other choices.”
I nodded. “Well, no use standing around. Let’s do this.” With that, I stepped forward into the waiting maw of the jungle, pole gripped tightly in hand. Ren followed just a step behind me, with only his dagger in hand. He’d lost his walking stick somewhere in space apparently, although he couldn’t seem to recall exactly when the thing had slipped out of his grasp, oddly.
The serene quiet of the jungle was shattered as the both of us fought our way through the dense thicket, rustles and cracks echoing out in the silence as we made our way in with clumsy footsteps.
It wasn’t until fifteen minutes into our foray into the jungle that we finally found some kind of cleared path, making our progress much faster and easier. We didn’t really have a destination in mind, so we’d decided to simply pick a direction and walk straight until we came across something – or anything.
Not wanting to risk ending up walking in circles, we’d picked the direction of the sun’s arc over the sky to follow; which meant that for half the day, we’d walk straight away from the sun, and the other half we’d walk straight to the sun.
It was quite the intelligent plan, and I was more than proud of myself for coming up with it.
Once we got onto a proper path, I noticed that the sounds of walking behind me immediately quieted. The sounds quickly became so muted that I had to turn around occasionally and make sure Ren was actually following behind me. The only sound that I did hear periodically was Ren’s whisper-like breaths, and even then, I had to strain my ears just to catch them.
It was an unnerving feeling, like I was being hunted. I could feel the eyes on my back, but all my other senses warned me of nothing behind me.
Eventually, I forced Ren to go in front of me, nominally for the sake of learning from him, but we both knew that it was because I didn’t like the feeling of being stalked so silently.
Not that I wasn’t trying to learn how Ren moved, either. We were going to be in the jungle for the foreseeable future, and even with my general ignorance of living in the wild, I knew the importance of being able to move silently.
Unfortunately, copying Ren’s movements was much easier said than done. I tried my best to emulate every single movement he made, but it was like my body just naturally made more noise than his.
Beyond my own failures, however, getting to watch Ren stalk through the forest was truly a treat, like watching an artist paint. I could see what he had meant when he’d said that he was most comfortable in the shadows. His every moment seemed so natural, so fluid, it was mesmerizing to behold.
I followed behind him as quietly as I could, my full focus centred on trying to learn as much as I could from him. Time slipped from my mind as I tried and repeatedly failed to silence my movements, the rest of the world blurring in my mind as I slowly made progress.
It was only when Ren suddenly came to a stop that I was wrenched out of my focused state. Turning to look back at me, Ren brought a finger to his lips in the universal command for silence.
“Stay here,” he whispered. “I need to check something out. I’ll find you in a few minutes. Try not to make too much noise.”
I nodded, my face blank as I tried to hide my dejection. Ren hadn’t said it, but I knew he was leaving me behind because I would make too much noise for where he was headed.
With a quick smile, Ren turned back and headed off the path, stepping into what I only then noticed was a thinner, more obscured path. With a muted sigh, I sat down right where I stood and closed my eyes as Ren disappeared into the dense undergrowth.
Knowing that my paranoia would get the better of me if I did nothing, I busied my mind with Flux. I still hadn’t had the chance to sit down and think over what had happened during my fight with that first pirate. I’d been so busy with everything that had been happening that it’d fallen to the backburner until now.
But now, in the tranquil silence of the jungle, broken only by the occasional buzz of the insects or the more terrifying howls and roars of whatever larger animals inhabited the place, I finally relaxed enough to go through what had happened.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
What I knew was that somehow, I’d gained the ability to command the Flux around me almost as well as the Flux that flowed within me, which went against every assumption I had based my understanding of Flux on. I had thought that Flux was simply a power that my body could only passively absorb – barring Revives, of course – and that its only function was to make my body stronger and faster.
But now, not only could the Flux within me come out and ignite on my command, but I could do the same with the Flux around me. It was only a small radius that I could interact with, a sphere of barely half a meter around me that I could only really sense when I focused. But nonetheless, it was incredible. It was like awakening an entirely different sense, both similar and, at the same time, wholly different from each of my other senses.
It was like a colourless smoke that hung around me in a sphere, that I could only see in my mind. And when I closed my eyes and focused really hard, I could see what Ren had meant. I could sense the way it warped and twisted around objects that entered it. Of course, my radius was nowhere near Ren’s, nor was I able to sense it at all times, but I could see the beginnings of his incredible ability in what I could sense, and it made his feat all the more impressive.
Although the control my mind had over the Flux around me was not as precise as the Flux within my veins, the boost in strength it offered was amazing. I no longer had to worry about expending the limited pool of Flux within me to fuel my flames. Instead, I could use my Flux to only strengthen my body and occasionally add heat to my flames when I needed it, and the endless Flux of the atmosphere to fuel my flames normally.
A snap suddenly sounded out in front of my closed eyes, startling me so badly that I almost yelled. Thankfully, I managed to clamp my mouth shut just before I could make a sound, my eyes snapping open to find Ren barely holding in his laughter in front of me.
“Sorry,” he whispered under my glare, sounding suspiciously ingenuine. But before I could say anything, he continued on. “Guess what I found,” he asked, a twinkle shining in his eye.
“What?” I whispered back.
“Goblins,” Ren answered with glee. “A whole lot of them.”
I raised an eyebrow at his excitement. “And that’s a good thing?”
“Depends on what you enjoy, I guess,” he answered, his grin taking on a malicious tone.
I looked at him in confusion, not sure if I had understood him correctly, and hoping that I hadn’t.
Instead of responding, Ren gave a little huff of laughter as the glint in his eye vanished, his lips curling into a wide smile that held no trace of the bloodlust it just had.
“I’m just kidding,” he said, chuckling. Then, sobering up, he continued on. “More importantly, they seem to have some kind of really interesting treasure that I want to get my hands on.”
“Treasure?” I asked, confused. “And also, why are we whispering?”
Ren grinned, with a face that instantly told me that whatever he was about to say, I would not like in the least. “Because there’s this massive gorilla thing sleeping a little bit to our left. Pretty strong by the looks of it.”
I stared at Ren in silence for a bit, before nodding to myself in resignation. “Yeah, I thought it’d be something like that. I never trusted this jungle.”
“Wow,” Ren said. “Wasn’t expecting that.”
I smiled. “Having to react to every new surprise gets old real fast, y’know.”
Ren nodded in agreement. “Fair point.”
“So, what’s the plan?” I asked.
“Follow me; stay as quiet as possible; we go around the gorilla and raid the goblin camp; steal their treasure; get rich,” Ren fired off in rapid succession. “Any questions?”
“I still don’t get why you want this treasure, but sure, let’s go. Not like I have anything better to do.”
“Trust me, when you get this treasure in your hands, you’ll thank me,” Ren replied with confidence.
I smiled at him. “I’ll take your word for it. Lead the way.”
Ren returned the smile before wordlessly turning around and stepping back through the leaves. I followed as closely as I could, careful to stay just out of the range of the branches that were whipping back at my face.
Now that he was actually trying to stay silent, Ren was on another level of undetectable, putting my meagre efforts to shame. He moved like a ghost, somehow managing to stay entirely silent while also keeping up a shockingly quick speed. Compared to him, I felt as clumsy as a giant in a dollhouse, making what sounded to me like a deafening racket with every step I took.
Splitting my attention between trying to stay quiet and following Ren was incredibly difficult, especially because I more or less only had my eyes to track him since he left little to no audio clues for me.
Thankfully, on the plus side, the path Ren took gave the gorilla a sufficiently wide berth, enough that I didn’t get the chance to even see the gorilla from a distance, despite my best efforts.
Finally, after a stressful hike that felt long enough for a lifetime, Ren began to slow down a little, before quickly coming to a stop. Slowly, he dropped down to a prone position, making himself comfortable hidden in the dirt and green shrubs.
I made my way over to him and got down beside him. The wet, earthy smell assaulted my nose as I did, stronger than ever before. The dirt under me was damp and moist, but I ignored the sensation as I tried my best to hide myself.
Following Ren’s gaze, I quickly spotted what he had been referring to, nestled neatly in a vast clearing almost a dozen meters away from where we were, and just a little below: the goblin camp.