Chapter 55: Pursue
‘Five hundred and fifty-five…’
So far there were five hundred and fifty-five different pathways that branched from his left shoulder down to the elbow. In comparison, his human arm had six. One line that flowed down from his shoulder to his hand, and separated to his five fingers.
Zan breathed out deeply. The process of remembering each one while making sure they were etched deeply in his mind was exhausting. In fact, Zan was pretty sure he had really only remembered two hundred and twenty-two of them over the past few days.
While the youth was talented in combat and energy manipulation, his memorization skills were only better than average. Maybe someone with a photographic memory could memorize each and every pathway within just a blink of an eye, but Zan could not. He could only strenuously stare at each one for hours at a time until he was sure the feeling of filling them with energy was deeply ingrained in his head.
The youth groaned and on his five hundred and seventy-seventh pathway, he looked away from literally placing his eyeballs on top of his arm. Eldritch skin seemed to have veiling properties towards energy infused sight. Swinging his head back, he laid on the comfortable floor while looking at the tent ceiling. There was one clever thing he did think of, and that thought gave him comfort on his short break.
During his three hundred and thirty-third pathway, Zan wanted to bang his head on the ground, but instead he used that noggin for some good thinking.
‘How did I use it when I was fighting anyway?’
‘That’s right I just forced it through. And that’s why it was so wonky.’
‘Wait…’
The youth then discovered that if he simply wanted to flow energy down a certain limb, he simply had to navigate the maze with one pathway that went all the way down towards the end of that limb. Though of course, the power sustained and used this way could only measure up to a tenth of the total energy output he could muster. At least he did not have to worry about energy stopping in the middle of his limb though. Making sure his energy flowed smoothly was what truly made him more comfortable within fights. That wonky uneven feeling whenever he moved or swung a fist would go away.
‘Maybe I’ll go outside and watch the clouds again, that always stops my headaches…’
Zan picked himself up off the ground and headed towards the exit of his tent.
When he opened it up, he was met not with the light of the sun, but with the glow of the luminous moon and twinkling stars.
‘Figured it must have been a while.’
The youth looked around and saw one of the members of the owl girl’s crew passing by.
‘Hey, you!’
Scared shitless, the girl walking back to her tent looked towards the shouting voice and found that it was that menacing stranger calling out to her.
Nervously she stammered out, “Ye– yes?”
“Go and fetch me the owl girl.”
“Uh! Uhh! Oh— Okay!”
The girl then proceeded to run for her life as Zan observed her sprinting towards a direction.
‘They’re very devoted…’
Breathing out deeply once again, the youth laid on the floor as he waited for his nightly conversations. Normally it took around fifteen to thirty minutes for the owl girl to come around, so he could use this time to simply lay there, thoughtless, and enjoy the present moment.
“Hey,” she said calmly as she entered the tent.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Zan clambered up from the floor, surprised at the sudden voice.
“He– Hey, you’re here early.”
“Uhh…yeah I was around the area, so.”
“That girl sprinted after you, I guess that’s how you got here so fast. She’s really devoted to you.”
“Uhhh! Yeah! Yeah, she is…”
Gayle sat on the tent floor. Looking down at the luxurious silk sheets, she thought about what happened today, hours before their current meeting. The owl-eyed girl sat upon a thin branch on a tall tree. She was in that tree for what must have been hours. At first she was simply zoning out on Zan’s tent, but with the soft breeze and calm atmosphere her focus started to waver. As she laid her head on the tall tree, her eyes fluttered before fully closing.
When she awoke the sun was setting, and blue and purple hues covered the sky and earth. Surprised and flustered, her startled figure quickly stood up from the branch to immediately leave.
‘Did I really just sit outside his tent, waiting all this time!?’
The girl bent her knees to leap off the tree, but within that same moment she hesitated.
‘Well, you know…’
Gayle, in her eagerness for their coming conversation, figured she might as well wait a little longer…
…
Just two hours later she saw as the red haired youth exited his tent and commanded one of her members to look for her. It was kind of normal to see him do such things, but that companion he asked turned out to be the same timid one that had asked her if she could get him to leave. The frightened girl ran off, not to the tree and not to her quarters, but her own damn house!
Gayle jumped off the tree and stood outside Zan’s tent, taking a moment to calm herself down and act like her usual cool and collected self. Yeah…cool and collected…
Zan looked at the girl who seemed to be zoning out on the floor.
“Got something on your mind?”
“Huh!? What?”
“Uhhh well you usually just start talking about the last thing we talked about or just mention a random topic. But right now you’re just silent so…”
“Hey umm…what’s your name?”
“My name?”
“Yeah. I still don’t know your name.”
The question was simple, but for a girl who usually didn’t converse with people it was quite a difficult question. At least, it was a difficult question because the person in front of her was actually someone she liked conversing with. In front of Zan the girl looked calm and nonchalant but behind her back she was already nervously fidgeting with her hands.
“My name is Zan.”
“Zan?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s a weird name.”
“Well, what’s your name then?”
“Uhh– well– my name is Gayle…”
“Gayle?”
“Yes.”
“Why’d your parents name you Gayle?”
“I don’t know, why’d your parents name you Zan?”
“I guess they liked the name?”
“Same thing for me I guess.”
“...okay.”
“Pfft.”
“What? Why’re you laughing?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
‘That wasn’t so hard.’
‘And it wasn’t that awkward either.’
The girl relaxed her body on the comfortable floor and slowly the two went back and forth about both mundane and supernatural topics of conversation, starting to get back into their normal routine.
“You’re quite into combat aren’t you?”
“I’m the strongest.”
The youth mightily declared.
“Uh huh, sure you are.”
“Who’s the strongest person you’ve seen, then? Heh, apart from me of course.”
“Confident, aren’t you?”
“Why can’t I be?”
“You’re strong. Stupendously strong for someone your age, but—”
“Wait…how old are you??”
“I’m fifteen now.”
“...Seriously?”
“What?”
“You look…older.”
“I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not.”
“Wait, how old are you?”
“I’m sixteen.”
“You’re older than me?”
“Duh. I just said a number higher than yours didn’t I?”
“Okay, Gayle.”
The girl visibly flinched back from hearing her name but luckily the youth wasn’t paying close attention to her.
“So? Aren’t I the strongest person you’ve ever met.”
“...No.”
The boy swung his head to look directly at her.
“I’m really not?”
“Sure, you’re ridiculously strong but you’re not the strongest person I’ve met.”
“So who is, then? And where do I rank?”
“Well, the strongest person I’ve personally ever met…was my mother.”
“I told you that she fought in the war between the Western Flame Alliances and the Western Greatforests, right?”
“My mother was one of the elite and before—
“...before she had me she was knighted as a Royal Guardian of the Obscure Waterfall Pass.”
“A royal guardian! Someone that was attuned to the Will of the Forests and the World Soul!”
“What I’m trying to say is, she was strong enough to govern over a medium sized territory of the Western Greatforests.”
“And that required strength rivaling a flame sage, a true dragon or a reborn phoenix from the West Flame Alliances.”
“She was out-of-this world strong, umm…much stronger than you.”
“But…all those accomplishments of hers were taken away from one of the Green Palace Lords when she birthed me into this world…”
“...That seems unfair.”
“It is unfair.”
“I…”
The girl clenched her fists in frustration and bit her lip, she bit into it so hard that blood started to come out.
Zan watched her as she started to drown in her emotions. The youth knew he should do something even if he did not know what, but slowly, he did. Raising his hand, he reached towards her…