I cracked my eyelids open from what felt like an eternal slumber. With every beat of the heart a dull and distant pain reverberated throughout my body. The bed’s heavenly embrace urged me to remain, continue sleeping for another eternity.

‘When was the last time I slept so heavily? So carefree? I need to be more careful…’

There were only wooden planks above me. I closed my eyes to tried to drift asleep but my parched throat forced me out of bed in search of water. A single window let a hazy ray of sunlight illuminate the room. There was a modest cabinet standing against a wall with a silver tray with intricately painted jug and a metal cup.

‘Who left this? Now that I mention it, how many more times will I lose consciousness before being satisfied? More importantly, am I a hostage or a guest?

No, if they had ill intentions a comfy bed would not be the way to go’.

I greedily downed the water and mused over my last memory, of the strange meeting with Eagle and those other people?

‘Was it just a dream?...

...Perhaps’.

Still, I’d need to find Eagle to confirm it. Wasting no time, I grabbed the clothes off the foot of the bed frame, got dressed and walked out the door. On the other side was a simple interior balcony overlooking the first floor. It was in an old-fashioned cabin with a fireplace on one side, several windows for lighting and pieces of furniture lazily sprawled in a way that created a sense of pleasant coziness.

‘Where is everyone?’

There was an eerie lack of noise and commotion, as if the place was abandoned. I put off exploring the place until I find where Eagle or the two monsters are. Thus, I headed for the exit, opened the door and …nothing.

‘Just where the fuck is everyone?’

I circled around the cabin, which revealed little more than trees and shrubs.

‘I wonder if he …’

Sure enough, there were subtle clues leading me to where Eagle went. Two snapped twigs followed by a leaf stuck to a tree by sap at eye-level. Coupled with avoiding other fake, or out of order signs I had no difficulty following the breadcrumb trail left for me.

It took a little while of traversing more forest before a faint smell of something burning became apparent. As I followed the scent, rumbling noises of distant collisions or impacts became audible.

Another short while and I came across a perfectly square clearing. Without warning, the trees suddenly gave way taking the refreshing scent of leaves and grass with them

‘Eagle! Is he … ok?’

He was sprinting across the clearing, chased by the old guy. An invisible wall stopped me from helping him out.

‘Goddamn Marden and his tricks…magic?’

The urge to shout his name welled up but I dismissed it, knowing the risk it posed.

After a short cat and mouse chase Eagle got trapped in a corner of the invisible wall,

‘That fool, he made that mistake so many times!’

Never let yourself be cornered or trapped, figuratively or literally was among the first lessons drilled into every recruit’s skulls, and Eagle completely messed it up.

*Sigh*

I plopped myself down next to the barrier and continued to watch the spectacle before me. It was obvious what was going on. I gritted my teeth,

Training.

There were now a dozen fireballs leisurely orbiting around Marden. Without a single motion each of them shot towards Eagle, each leaving a trickled flame behind.

‘Well shit.’

They had absolutely no affect on Eagle, simply flickering out of existence mere inches from him.

‘I gotta get him to teach me how to put out fires like that.’

Marden wasn’t finished and created half a dozen icicles that shot forward immediately. I looked forward to seeing a neat magic trick,

‘Come on, make them disappear’.

Sadly, instead of disappearing, angled pieces of ice no more than a cm in length and width, intercepted and deflected the projectiles with stunning precision.

Despite not taking any physical damage, Eagle was slouched and breathing heavily. The previous feats clearly took more energy than immediately obvious. A quick shimmer flashed before me, I reached out with my foot and found the barrier gone.

“Eagle, tired already?”

I shouted and jogged towards him. A flash of surprise crossed his face before being replaced by exhaustion once more.

“Cato, you’re finally awake! And here I worried about having to feed you for the rest of my life.”

He took a step towards me and looked at Marden.

“.worromot rof ydaer dna deeps ot pu dneirf ruoy teg ,ffo yad eht fo tser eht ekat nac uoY”

More gibberish left the magician’s mouth.

“.uoy knahT”

It was my turn to look surprised, Cato was able to reply in the strange language without a hitch.

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“Alright, Cato, I’m sure you have a ton of questions so ask away.”

With that, Eagle beckoned for me to follow him as we headed back to the cabin, a grin plastered across his face.

“Can Marden and Barth understand us?”

“Nope, I learned their language while you were out cold, but Marden hasn’t gotten a grasp on it yet and Barth didn’t even bother.”

“Wait, how fast did you learn it? A day, week? I couldn’t have been out for much longer…”

I sighed inwardly expecting the worst. A snicker came from Eagle as he continued to lead down the path,

“Hah, you wish, you were out for about a month, assuming the days here are the same as on Earth. At the very least they seem that way.”

Eagle stopped abruptly and looked to his side.

“A…month? Just what exactly happened back there? I remember you spacing out, I gained an enormous amount of power and killed the wolf. Then immediately met you in a …dream?”

By this point Eagle was keenly staring to our right, a foot long icicle screeching as it spun at head level. However, the last part caught his attention and he stopped.

“Oh good, so we’re on the same page here.”

The icicle flew off with enough speed that it seemed to practically disappear,

“That meeting was eating away at me for a while now. From what I understood, we weren’t supposed to remember much, short segments at most.”

Eagle beckoned for me to follow once more,

“Why weren’t we supposed to remember anything? And where are we headed now?” I asked.

“Hah, nice one - to get our breakfast of course.”

Eagle briefly chuckled before jogging away, leaving me behind.

‘Fast!’

I chased after Eagle, dodging several trees and branches in the process before finally gaining on him.

Eagle was crouched over a dead rabbit-looking creature, gutting it without pause.

“What do you mean ‘we weren't supposed to remember anything’? What was that we saw in the first place?”

Eagle turned towards me ever so slowly, revealing the wildest and most mischievous grin a human could manage.

“Spirits, magic, link. And we got all three!-”

“Damn it Eagle, stay focused!”  

I interrupted him before the train completely derailed. With a slight shake of his head, Eagle finished the messy ordeal.

“Have you ever seen movies where people had fire, ice, electricity or some other gibberish power leaking from their fingertips?”

Eagle wiggled all of his fingers for added flair.

“Sure, those fantasy films with magic. Something like what you were doing with Marden. But what does that have to do with the dream?”

“Right, those are referred to as spirits. There were only three types, curious and intellectual, warrior and survivor. Each represented by various shade of blue, red and green. Allegedly, a huge amount of essence surrounds a child when a link is performed at which point, the child comes into contact with the spirit.”

Eagle got up and carried the bunny by its ears.

“Beyond this, things get murky and unclear because there hasn’t been a single case of anyone remembering what happened as clearly as us - not even close. Just the spirit's appearance is speculated by most. Which is why neither of us will reveal what we saw to anyone. We would be treated as test subjects coveted by all nations and hermits.”

Eagle stopped and looked me dead in the eye,

“Before I continue, I need you to tell me what happened after I left.”

I recalled the events to the best of my ability after his disappearance in the vortex, including the part about my receiving two blessings.

“Hahaha, you my friend, are the pinnacle of bullshit, misfortune and luck, all at the same time. I can’t even-”

Eagle lost it, laughing and snorting to himself as I stood there dumbfounded.

“Does it have to do with the fact that you said there ‘were’ three types?”

“Ding, ding, ding! Before you, anyone could only have one connection at a time, no exception. Ever. However, when I looked at your essence, it wasn’t green, blue or red but yellow. A powerful, solid and heavenly golden colour that goes against everything that has been known.”

Eagle returned to his jovial self and continued to lead the way back.

“Long story short, no one, by which I mean myself and the two guys, have any idea of what kind of power you have, your affinity or affinities but one thing is certain. The degree of power you have received would make any king’s or hero's mouth water to the point where they would rather kill you than let you live if not bound under their control. I’m in the same boat as you in terms of raw power.”

“Got it, keep my mouth shut, my power concealed as much as possible until we both know more of this world and have the ability to protect ourselves.”

“Bingo.”

Eagle made a gun hand gesture at me. Despite the barrage of answers Eagle shot at me I had one more question,

“One more thing, was that really magic? Or is there some scientific explanation?”

The cabin’s outline became visible beyond the trees.

“No idea. For now, it may as well be scientifically classified as an anomaly of all physics. Making something out of nothing other than this mysterious energy in your body. If I had some equipment to analyze data, or heck, at least have access to my computer without its battery running out...”

Eagle shook his head and picked up his pace.

Within minutes both of us were inside the cabin, Eagle sustaining a fire while I walked room to room. The design was simple enough, a large lounge area surrounded a fireplace which was about eight meters to the left of the front door. I passed Eagle to the side opposite of the entrance where the storage section was, separated by a wall that spanned until it was opposite of the door.

To the right of which were two small bedrooms underneath another pair of bedrooms, in one of which I awoke. The only way to access them was a spiral staircase directly right of the door.

“Hey wanderer, why don’t you grab some potatoes and start peeling them?”

Eagle shouted to me.

“Rabbit and potatoes? Since when did those two go together?”

I asked, slightly skeptical.

“My good old friend, don’t judge a book by its cover, how ‘bout it? Just go and peel them. Also, they are called bonis in their language – almost like bunnies.”

Eagle dismissed my remark with a wave of his hand, leaving me no room but to do as he said. It didn’t take long to find a suitable pot and the stash of ‘tatoes as I enjoy calling them,

“Where’s the tap… or water?” I yelled across the room.

“Just have the pot face me.”

A reply came. Curious, I walked towards the empty door frame and had a split second to react as jets of water came flying in my direction. I threw the pot all over the place in an attempt to catch them all, spilling about a quarter in the process. Leaving me thoroughly soaked.

“Couldn’t you just, oh I don’t know, actually had the water flow in a steady stream instead of spraying me?”

I snapped at him as water dripped off my face.

“Sorry, I haven’t learned to control it well enough yet.”

Eagle did his best to stifle a laugh but his voice gave it away.

‘This guy…’

I swore to pay him back, but for now, peeling and cutting potatoes took precedence. Seeing as how each was nearly twice the size of my fist… seven should do. Sitting down, I began peeling with ease - living with Asher for years gave me plenty practise. Both of us had to learn various skills in order to survive, cooking was just one of mine.

‘Wonder where Eagle learned to cook...’

Even then it took me no more than two minutes to completely skin, cut and have the potatoes submerged in the water - a new record.

Within twenty minutes we had a hearty breakfast that could very well serve as dinner. Fried potatoes, rabbit and some kind of salad. As we dug in,

“So Cato, what now?”

Eagle broke the relaxed atmosphere.

“My goal has and still is the same. Tell me, do you have a way a back to Earth?” I asked Eagle.

“No.”

“Do we have enough strength to ensure our survival? Do we know enough of this world and its inhabitants to avoid problems?”

“No.”

“Heck, the monster I came across could easily take out ten tanks, thousands of soldiers and laugh about it. Could we do the same?”

“No”

A single answer came from Eagle,

‘Our situation is pretty damn bad…’

“I suppose tomorrow I will be included in the training regime?”

“Yup, I figured that Barth should be back by then.”

“Then we will take their kindness while we fix our first two issues before moving on. We should also do our best to repay them in the future. Any problems with that?” 

I took a mouthful of steaming potatoes and savored the taste.

“Nope, in fact, I was hoping for such an answer. For me, this is like a dream come true.”

I cherished every bit of peace and rest I had before the torture session began.