The embers of a campfire glisten through the abyssal forests, crackling amongst the whispers of nocturnal creatures. It casts a warm glow over the campsite whilst Ara sits on her sleeping bag, cozying up to the fire to shield the nipping of the biome.

She raises a spoon full of colourless sludge from the heated tin can in her hands. Gawking at it as if starving is potentially a better option. Her hands are still in pain, nothing she can't pretend doesn't hurt, but enough to pull her attention whenever she grips her spoon too tightly.

Ara glances over to Kimi, who seems to be doing much better considering she was reduced to being carried like luggage. "How're you feeling?"

Kimi raises a finger at Ara, prompting a pause whilst she commits all her energy to swallowing the food and keeping it down. She follows up with a large swig of water before taking a deep breath out, attempting to spit the taste out in the process.

"Your magic is pretty wild," She chuckles. "Thanks for doing a better job on me than you did on Chaung."

"Now now, the two of you need to eat up all your slime before you start chatting," Mumbles Matsuko with her mouth full. Squinting as she lugs it down her throat.

"I'd have bought dinner if everything went smoothly," Adds Chaung.

"Your cheap ass was never buying dinner," Kimi utters, bracing herself for another bite.

"He set us up. He told us to siege when we were never sieging, to begin with," says Matsuko.

"Speaking of which, we got you a book," Kimi says, reaching into her bag and tossing it over to Chaung.

He laughs, glancing at the title as he echoes throughout the forest for any animal or stalker to hear. "No, thanks. I learned enough working for that madman," He tosses it onto Ara's sleeping bag before stuffing his face with a spoonful. "You're the strategist now."

"She will do better job than you," Yasuke remarks.

Matsuko giggles, covering her mouth to hold down her food- "True!"

"What made Commander Nappal a madman?" Ara asks, glancing at the cover before opening up to the first chapter.

"Anything that man has to say in there probably requires the mass killing of women and children,"

"We were one of his squadrons when we all met," Matsuko comments. "Chaung recruited us into his team and we were all operating under Nappal's command."

"He told me I could be a squadron leader if I could convince anyone to be in my squad," Chaung adds. "In hindsight, that was a stupid thing to tell such a young man,"

"Don't be like that," Kimi mumbles, "We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him."

"What was so great about him?" Ara asks. "He doesn't sound like a very good commander,"

"He could read the state of battle like words on a page," Chaung says. "Some of his more foolish decisions are what led him to victory. If you want to win a war, you should start by disrupting the enemy's logistics. He'd always discover the routes a target would use for their supplies and cut it off, bleeding them out before striking days later when their strength diminished."

Chaung drops his cleaned plate beside him, sipping on his water and wiping his face with his forearm. "He'd siege every town he'd come across, regardless of how many civilians were inside. The longest one lasted three months before the town's reserves depleted. They surrendered because their people were suffering, and starving. The death toll in the city began increasing rapidly but he did nothing… nothing. We maintained our position around the city for another month. Our orders were to kill anyone attempting to escape- Many tried. We stopped them. By the time their attempts at freedom died out, we went inside the city and…" He stops, drops his eye contact to the ground, and scratches aggressively at the side of his head.

Matsuko drops her bowl, "Some men succeed in battle because they're ruthless. The suffering of others is a part of the pleasures of victory."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

The site goes quiet, but a loud silence. It screams of trauma and self-conflict over past actions that Ara hopes to never experience.

"Tomorrow we'll meet with the insurgents." Chaung moves on. "Aliim is not too far from here, about a one-day trek. To my knowledge, they are posted beyond the Northern side of the city,"

"Did you get any more details?" Kimi asks.

"Nothing. We'll discuss it with them when we arrive. Are you good to walk?"

Kimi uses all the strength in her arms to lift her body, momentarily stumbling as she finds her footing. She pauses, assessing if she can handle her weight before nodding at Chaung, "Yeah."

He nods in return, glancing at her leg before turning to everyone else. "Zeno could have outposts set up along the way, so keep an eye out for any watchtowers in the trees,"

They all nod at one another, passing glances of affirmation.

"Any questions?" He asks.

"Hey Kimi, do you think you could teach Ara how to throw knives?" Nina says, finishing off her food and packing away her utensils.

"Sure," She responds, looking over to Ara. "Wanna start now?"

Ara nods, "Okay," before shoving the rest of the sludge down her mouth and taking one big swallow.

"You're not going to heal your hands first?" Kimi asks, but Ara shakes her head in response.

"The vinium did its job,"

"But you'll scar,"

"Yeah, I want the scars so I remember."

A grin stretches across Kimi's face with a hidden sense of pride amongst it. "Alright tough guy," She remarks as she removes a small box from her bag that she hands over to Ara. "I don't use these anymore,"

Ara pops the container open to see five palm-sized blades sitting in the box. Each is a complete pearlesque blade with a black material wrapped around one end to create a grip. Kimi gets up and gestures to Ara to follow her as she walks deeper into the forest, the radiance of the campfire still visible in the distance as a small sphere of warmth that's mostly hidden amongst the silhouette of trees. Kimi steps over to a trunk ahead of them, drawing her knife before marking a large X on it.

"Hit the middle, and you're good." She says, stepping back over to Ara. She pulls out a small blade from the box in Ara's hand. "Stronger foot forward, arm raised beside your head, and release at full extension," She says before rapidly demonstrating the process. Before Ara can process it, the blade thuds against the tree. Directly in the center of the target.

Awesome. Ara grins as she pulls out a blade and drops the box, eager to give it a go. She steps beside Kimi before following each motion- Stronger foot forward, arm raised beside her head, and her arms hurls forward, releasing the blade at full extension.

She hits the tree, and the collision echoes through the forest. She missed the target though, the blade was thrown too high as it landed above the target.

"Not bad for a first attempt. You might be a natural at this," Kimi grabs two blades from the box, "Not every circumstance is going to allow you the proper stance, so you'll need to practice hitting the mark with some abnormal throws."

She propels the first blade with her hand slightly outstretched beside her hip, flicking her wrist to swerve the blade up and beside the blade that's in the center of the target. The next blade follows immediately afterward as she tosses it with her weaker hand, flicking it with an underarm motion. It also curls upwards, smacking just below the center of the target to not collide with the first knife.

"This is all just practice," She says, stepping over to the tree and plucking all four of the blades out.

"Alright," Ara says, giddy to try it out for herself considering how close the first throw was.

"Great, I'm going to get some sleep," Kimi says as she walks back towards the light. "Don't stay up too late, it's a long day tomorrow,"

Ara waves before looking back at her blades, drawing one and slowly readying her stance before launching it at the mark.

It whiffs and flies straight past the tree and into the ground. Prompting a disappointed sigh as she presumes the first throw was beginners luck.

She readies her next blade as she takes her stance, eyeing the target and stiffening her arm. She practices the motion a few times, extending her arm from beside her head, outstretched ahead of her, then back beside her.

She takes a deep breath, and follows the motion at half speed, flicking the blade with her hand once her arm reaches its peak. The blade strikes against the bark, crunching as it collides.

Nice! Her mind celebrates, hitting the top right corner of X. Still 'far' from the center, but hitting the target is a win in her opinion.

She holds up the next blade, inspecting the matted silverish texture before taking her stance and lining the blade up beside her head.

"You must venture further into the abyss to uncover the strength to leave it."

- Prophet Rakanin