Sachihiro
The journey from the Jotnar Woods is mostly uneventful. I hunt for food often as the hateful woman is constantly hungry, her stomach an unquenchable maw that swallows everything only to want more a few hours later. I've never seen the likes of her affliction, it reminds of ma's stories about ancient humans. Humans with a hunger bred for war, a hunger that could drive them towards atrocity.
A shver runs through me just at the though of it.
She shit all the time as well, I have never suspected that a human being could eat and shit so much in my life. Even with her glares and scowls she is flushed red half the time to the mountain from embarrassment every time she digs a ditch but it at least made them easy to follow.
If her affliction wasn't so tragic it would be hilarious. What would I if I was reduced to this, slave to my appetites.
I suppress another shiver as I watch her unpleasant scowl as she stomps back from her little break.
Without a word we are back on the road to my destiny.
I try not to judge, the silence helped as well. I even have an ever ready fresh supply of coco wet leaves for her to wipe her ass.
She had no idea what to do with them when I first presented them. I had to mime the action for her and her flushed face with a pretty little scowl was enough to convince me she understood though it left me wondering what they wipe with in the south if she doesn't recognise the leaves.
We travel slowly but we travel even through the night. The same reason I caught up to them so quickly but it's a bit frustrating for me so I range ahead scouting our path. Stretching my legs, getting some time alone with nature to better contemplate Br. Asriel's meaning. I think I would have been frustrated by the pace if I wasn't taking to heart Asriel's words. I try not to always focus on the destination but to enjoy the journey.
It takes us 6 days to reach the base of the mountain. The entire time in silence except the natural sounds of wildlife and the soothing voice of Asriel on occasion.
The man is a genius to me, the most accomplished fighter I have ever seen. The most able person I know of outside of stories or speculation. His knowledge and insight must have no bounds for him to bring Awakening to others and not just himself.
To him it's probably things he thinks everyone should know. Knowledge he dispensed without a visible price. But I'm sure the elders rewarded him somehow, how could they not?
I watch him as he surveys the sloping rock face mountain, the raggered stones, the white caps seen intermingled with the smoking wind that steams into clouds as it blows against the peak. I also look for an easy route to climb.
The first few hundred feet we can walk up easily enough then it gets stepper after that. To the point that it's a sheer cliff at a perfect right angle to the ground, I look at the Southern girl Mira. Sweat streaking down her brow as she chuck's down on the waterskin.
I could probably do the climb given a few days and a lot of rope. But the girl, Mira? There isn't a chance and by the look of it she knows it.
The girl is sometimes very difficult to read but other times as easy as a coming storm. If she could speak I bet I would have been cussed out daily, in that way she is transparent and wears her emotions all over her body.
I've never spoken to the girl yet I think I have a fair grasp of her personality. She tries to act meek and obedient when dealing with Asriel directly, yet an almost completely different person with me.
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He has seen through her act of course and has let her know he has without any words. Simply catching her sneering at his back a few times. Giving lectures that are probably directed at her. Things like that, and his patience is legendary, I'd have smacked her by now.
Da would have clubbed her over the head by now. But she is also starting to forget to pretend meekness making her opinion known through her body language more freely. Her antics have been my only source of humour since I've been here, truly she is like a child.
Looking at her study the mountain in increasing horror, it's evident she fears us leaving her. The girl has been pushing herself to exhaustion every day yet she still needs to sleep four times a day. I pity her, I admire here determination.
Whatever her sickness is, it's very scary. I'm not sure I could endure it. Needing to sleep every 24 hours is basically being a cripple. I'd probably go out and live with the hermit. Or beg the fae for healing.
Lately Asriel has been helping us through guided meditation by talking us through it the entire time. It helps, as all I need to do is follow his voice and push to do as he directs me to do. As I said, the man is a genius and if he tells me to hold my breath till I pass out. I hold my breath till I pass out.
What he has I also want for myself. What he has accomplished I desire to accomplish. So I will do everything he says I should do without complaint or second guessing. Unless he tells me to question everything he says, like he did a few hours ago.
'Fear and doubt are gifts from the gods. Fear protects you and helps preserve your life, it teaches you lessons that are vital for survival. It makes you fight harder, run faster, accomplish great fits while holding your heart in it's grp. Without fear there would be less satisfaction when it is overcomes.'
'Use fear, but don't ever let it control you.' With those words he contradicted a thousand years of Barbarian tradition and he could clearly see the questions on my face. Which is when he encouraged doubt, encouraged me to question everything.
"'Never rely on what you think you know. Remember your god in everything you do and he will direct your path,' a passage from a book tested for it's practical verocity," he said to me. 'Stop making such lofty plans Mira. You are not smart enough to know your own limits let alone what will happen tomorrow. Let tomorrow worry about itself.'
His teachings are strange and foreign to me. But I take everything in like dry ground taking in rain, and then I question it for that too is part of the lessons.
We set up camp at the base of the mountain during the 10 ten hours of night remaining. The beasts here haven't attacked us at all which is odd, I suspect that they are avoiding Asriel.
After watching Mira eat, Asriel sits us down for one of his talks, but this one is different.
"Mana is an internal power that comes from an external source, ether. You know this Mira. All living things are exposed to ether to a point that the body eventually becomes able to make it into a usable tool.
"But even unAwakened benefit from ambient ether. The reason you tire and need to eat so often is because you have no ether in your body at all.
"It will take many decades for that ether to saturate your cells to a level whereby you are normal again. Or maybe sooner if that passenger of yours can help.
"But there is another energy source, an internal energy source that all creatures subconsciously tap into now and again until they learn to harness that power. Chakras are basically wheels of energy the body builds up located at strategic places in the body.
"Chakra isn't chi, chakra isn't spiritual energy, and it isn't mana. But it does help all three. It promotes wellness and balance more than anything else. It helps with your spiritual, physical and emotional health.
"But like all energy sources it can be used for other things if you learn how. There are three phases to chakra points. Balanced chakra energy, opened chakra energy, and harnessed chakra energy but I will teach you all that at a later stage.
"There are seven chakra pools in the human body that affect the body by their state of being. The basal or root chakra located at the end of your vertebrae. This chakra is mainly about your balance in life and connection to the world. It also has some other benefits I will mention later.
"Then there is the sacral chakra wheel, which located behind and below your naval. Promoting openness, creativity and sensuality to name a few.
"Then you have solar plexus chakra in your stomach. Helps with confidence, digestion, and willpower to name a few.
"Then there is the heart chakra, which promotes compassion, understanding, empathy intimacy.
"Then throat chakra, helping with expressing yourself, and helps connect the heart and mind.
"Then the 3rd Eye chakra, which helps with intuition and insight among other things. Lastly we have the crown chakra which basically keeps you connected to things you can't even currently imagine."
Both Mira and I are listening as hard as we can and I find I respect her for paying attention. We've both seen what this man can do, and though she likes being contrary. She isn't foolish enough to be dismissive of him.
We are all ears as he speaks of the benefits of balanced chakra.