"I'm gonna cut them," Jak muttered as he finally pulled himself over the last few feet of the sheer cliff he had been lobbed off some hour and a half prior. "Both of them."

"Is that so?" Mako questioned, gesturing to his soaking wet friend with a sandwich clutched in hand, left cheek full of food. "With what weapon?"

Jak ignored him entirely as he rolled onto the soft, dry grass right in front of the cliff, his entire being completely drenched from both the dip in the ocean and the pounding waterfall that had impeded his climb back up. To say he was exhausted would be a complete understatement, especially considering the day he had just gone through. The walk back into Intok where he had to fight an entire guild out for his head, the Adventurer Exam, the mock battle with Mako, and just recently the climb back up two and a half kilometers of a vertical rock mountain under eight times gravity. He wanted nothing more than to lay down and call it a night, to place his troubles and worries on the coming day rather than that particular moment.

Sadly, he wasn't granted that luxury just yet. He still had to make his way back up to Hadok's Manor.

"Shut up," Jak muttered as he let some of his magic run rampant. Fire ran along his body, engulfing his soaked clothing and even his hair, evoking a cloud of steam as the fabric quickly began to heat up.

"Oooh, neat trick." Mako took another bite if his sandwich.

"Yeah," Anatarope chimed in, divulging in what appeared to be a tuna fish sandwich. Jak had already sensed her presence long before he climbed up due to the overwhelming stench of tuna and ham. "You would make a great campfire Jakky."

"Why are you guys even here?" Jak questioned as he finished drying himself off, cutting off his own magic. "Go drop kick babies or better yet, go throw them off a cliff."

"Oh honey, we only did that because we love you," Anatarope explained between mouthfuls of shredded fish and ham. "It was nothing personal."

"Yeah, think of it as tough love."

Jak said nothing as he pushed himself up onto his feet, brushing the grass off his ruined white shirt and pants. After he was sure there was no dirt left on him, he turned around and walked to the edge of the cliff, looking down its immense height. It was almost impossible to make out any sort of details about the ocean below, but the redhead kept on staring as if it was the most natural thing for him to do. After a minute of staring, the two finally opted to speak up.

"Whatcha lookin at," the Amazon asked, finishing off the last bits of her meal.

"I heard a Mastalon Whale on my way up," Jak explained nonchalantly. "Was hoping to see it."

Mako almost immediately made his way over and took a spot next to the redhead, craning his neck to see over the edge, excitement as clear as day on his face. "Do you see it? I've never seen one in person before."

"No clue," Jak said, backing up slightly. "Why don't you get a closer look."

The young Elemental Rookie raised his foot and kicked the blue haired idiot on his rump, right when the youth was at the edge of the cliff face. Mako let out a small yelp as he tumbled over the side, swinging his arms in order to grab something to halt his fall despite how futile the action was. One moment he was on the cliff, the next he was getting up close and personal with all the sea life Auntro had to offer. The satisfaction was almost enough to make a grown man cry.

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Almost.

"Well that was just rude," Anatarope stated, rising up from her seat. "You should have grabbed the sandwich first."

"I think of it as tough love," Jak rebuttaled calmly. "Just give him two hours and he'll be back. Maybe a half hour if he uses magic."

"Can't believe you stabbed him in the back like that," Anatarope shook her head as she dusted herself off. "No sense of loyalty."

"Where did you put my sword," Jak asked, completely ignoring everything Antarope was spewing.

The Mastalon Whale was a rare monster that lived primarily within the depths of the Auntro Ocean, though they did occasionally tend to migrate to any of the five other oceans throughout the Main World. Jak had been able to see and hear several of the monsters on numerous occasions throughout his lifetime, on the account that he had been thrown into the same said Ocean by Hadok time and time again. Mako, on the other hand, had had no such luck upon seeing one, and it had been his dream since the two of them had first met eight years ago. Jak hadn't expected that trick to work fully since three years had passed when he had initially left, but it was cool to see that not many things had actually changed. It was due to this reason that Anatarope had accused him of backstabbing, using his friends desire to throw him over the edge.

Not that he cared much.

It was just tough love, after all. Not like it was anything personal.

Well, maybe a little personal.

The redhead found his sheathed katana in the same spot where he had been launched from, about a mile away from the edge of the waterfall. Picking it up, Jak reattached the weapon back onto his right hip, making sure it was nice and tight.

"Okay, now, continue from where you left off before," the youth said, acknowledging Antarope as she walked up behind him.

"Left off?"

"The situation of Iroas."

"Well, it's a bit late for all of that," Antarope said, moving past the bright haired individual. "Just get inside, get washed up, and call it a night. Maybe get yourself something proper to eat."

Jak contemplated for a moment before nodding his head. "Okay."

"Meet me at the Stomping Grounds tomorrow morning, and we'll talk things over then." Anatarope turned around and began walking in the other direction. "There're things you missed out on in the past three years. Trust me, you'll need the rest."

Then, she vanished, flickering out of existence.

"Well, that's an annoyance," Jak muttered as he watched the spit Anatarope had once been. "She hasn't changed at all."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The hike up to Castle Shimura was exhausting, to say the least, especially given what had just happened. The hill itself wasn't particularly steep, but it still remained an arduous task since it was a LONG trek upwards.

Jak tried to pass the time by looking at passing architecture, some interesting looking buildings he hadn't seen within the last 3 years, but it was to no avail. Reminiscing about the old days didn't help the walk either, instead even seeming to make it all that much worse. On top of being physically exhausted, emotional exhaustion was now heaped onto the metaphorical steaming pile of the redheads issues. All he wanted to do now was freshen up with a nice hot shower, eat something substantial, climb into a warm bed, and attempt to get some semblance of a good night's rest.

Heck, in reality, given the opportunity, Jak would have been just fine sleeping by the waterfall. It would have just been a hassle to explain to Antarope and Mako the very next day.

As the fiery haired youth passed by the outer walls of the castle, Jak stopped and took a quick look back, crimson hues gazing out at the starry night sky. The two moons cast an unearthly glow over the landscape, giving a sort of majestic feel over an already beautifully built miniature city. Perhaps for the first time since his arrival into Intok, Jak truly felt like he had returned home, waves of memories long forgotten pouring in from a time that felt like another era altogether. A distraught run, a speech from a stranger, a newfound purpose, unending training, losses and gains, more training, happiness and comfort, agony and grief. It was like his life flashed before his very eyes in that one moment.

"The moons sure are bright tonight," Jak muttered to himself, the evening breeze ruffling his wild red hair.

The winds seemed to pick up suddenly after words were spoken, the sharp gusts of air barreling through the empty city streets.

Without a word further, Jak turned around and continued his journey towards the castle.

There were three main parts making up what was arguably the largest structure in all of Intok.

The outer part of the Castle, the very section that Jak currently found himself in, was the smallest and least crowded of the areas. There wasn't really much to speak on the entrance other than the few houses lining its borders and the wall itself, which rose and fell in intricate patterns.

The second part was the garden and courtyard, a piece that was just on the other side of the castles wall. This section was the chunkier of the three areas, making up more than two-thirds of the Castles interior. It branched off in multiple areas and wrapped around the entire castle, containing countless rooms and independent structures. It was in this section that one could find the rooms where Mako and Jak had called their homes for more than five years of their lives, their rooms being fixied to the back of the Castle near the Old Stomping Grounds. This section was so beefy that it took Jak twenty minutes just to reach the place where the Dual Elemental Rookies had worked their asses off, day in and day out. A patch of ground free from any obstacles, obstructions, equipment, or anything that could get in the way. Just a slab of bare dirt that brought back more and more memories the longer Jak stepped over its firmly beaten land.

This was the place affectionately referred to as the Stomping Grounds.