While the forest below was already enveloped in darkness, the sun was still setting above the redwood canopy. From their perch at the top of the forest, Iris and Victoria looked out across a sea of leaves bathed in warm, orange light. With the sun to their backs, the dimming sky ahead revealed an early glimpse at the orange-purple moon. The pair sat cross-legged on the branch, eyes closed and taking slow, measured breaths.
"Everyone can sense auras, even those without powers," Victoria explained, keeping her eyes closed as she spoke, "the higher your spirit attribute, however, the more sensitive you'll be to them."
"I don't feel like I'm sensing anything," Iris said, also keeping her eyes closed.
"You are, you just aren't noticing it. Auras are all around us, bombarding us from all directions at all times. Every living thing has one. If you sensed them all the time, and without the proper training, it would probably drive you mad."
There was silence for a while as the two focused on their breathing.
"Have you ever noticed how things feel calmer in the winter?" Victoria asked, "not just quieter, but somehow slower, more still?"
"Yeah, winters are always slower. That's because there's less animals around, right?"
"Yes, and fewer plants, too. It doesn't just feel calmer because it's quieter. It feels that way, in part, because there are fewer auras, and the life that remains is often less active. Pay attention to the life of this forest, imagine how it might feel different in the winter. In that difference lies the auras you're looking for."
Several moments passed before Iris spoke again.
"It's like a pressure," Iris said, "like the air itself is thick."
"Yes, that's the feeling. It's not the air that's thick, though. It's the ever-swirling soup of auras all around you. Focus on that, get familiar with it."
Iris did her best to do as she was instructed, but the feeling she was trying to focus on wasn't really even a feeling. It just sort of felt like something she knew, something she was aware of without actually feeling it at all. It reminded her of how it felt when she used her teleport power, though different in key ways. This awareness was distinctly external, and much more discrete. It blended seamlessly with her other senses, sometimes leaving her to wonder if she was actually aware of anything at all. The warmth of the sun on her back, the humidity of the air around her, the distant audible hum of a lively forest below, these were all things that she consistently mistook for the aura soup, only to then notice they were coming from her other senses.
She sighed suddenly, "I don't think this is working."
"You're doing great," Victoria assured her, "it'll get easier as you level up, especially as your Spirit attribute rises, but you'll be better off having started now. Keep breathing."
The two sat in silence for quite some time, until the sun had set behind them and the breeze had chilled. Then the faint scent of a different kind of soup caught Iris's attention.
"Do you smell that?" she asked, opening her eyes to look at Victoria.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Snake soup," she replied, meeting her gaze.
"Race you to the bottom?" Iris asked
With a nod, Victoria began disintegrating into fog that fell down and around the branch towards the forest's floor. Iris rolled backwards, letting herself fall from the branch and tumble in the air on her way down.
She teleported side to side to dodge branches on her way down, falling faster and faster as the ground below raced upwards. When the ground grew close, she spun in the air and blipped a short distance upwards, reversing her momentum. Her stomach lurched at the peak of her arc in the air, and in that moment of stillness she blipped to the ground, landing lightly on her feet just outside of the tree trunk camp. Even as her heart raced in her chest from the thrill, she smirked at Victoria's cloud form trailing behind her.
The camp was lively upon their return. Autumn was tossing pieces of snake meat into the air for Glimmer to gleefully catch, Titus was carrying branches and leaning them up against the tree trunk to provide more cover for the entrance, and Eli was carving even more runes into his staff.
"It's about time!" Autumn said, as Iris approached, "grab a bowl!"
Everyone took seats around the campfire within the trunk, forming a circle that was becoming quite familiar to Iris. Autumn usually sat to her right, and beyond sat Titus. To her left, also as usual, was Victoria, and beyond her was Eli. As they each filled their bowls, Autumn told them every detail of how she had prepared the meal, spending quite some time on the intricacies of snake meat and how the temperature and cooking times vary compared to other meats.
Titus asked Iris about her aura training, and Iris explained the parts she struggled with while excitedly exclaiming that she was still glad to be doing it, and couldn't wait to learn more. Titus insisted that she promise it wouldn't overshadow her martial training, which she did.
Eli was the first to finish his bowl, and soon after he started a more serious conversation.
"We'll likely see nothing but forest again tomorrow," he started, "but the following day we should reach the shore of the lake. The good news is that we'll only be a day out from Giantrock at that point, the bad news is that we should expect to start running into other adventurers. We're lucky we haven't yet."
"I still don't understand why that's such a big deal," Iris said, having heard Eli mention other adventurers in an ominous tone several times now.
"We haven't had any trouble yet," Eli said, "before you showed up we came across a few old camps, at one point we saw another party in the distance, but our paths didn't cross. I've heard stories worth being wary of, though."
"What kind of stories?" Iris asked.
"Robberies, disappearances, blatant murder sometimes. One guy in Tinton told me about a team a few Hunts back that would kidnap stragglers from other teams and use them as bait for monsters."
"Adventurers wouldn't do that," Iris replied, almost angrily.
"You're in the wilderness now," Eli said, "this isn't a magazine, and reality is uglier than you think."
"Nah," Iris said, suddenly dismissive, "I like to think reality is actually a lot prettier than people think. And sillier."
Eli laughed, half earnestly and half with pity, "check back in with me in a month or two, let me know if you still think that."
"Will do, captain."
"Don't call me captain."
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Iris had first watch that night. As the others settled down to sleep, she sat outside, on the edge of the cone of light spilling of from the entrance to the tree trunk in which they camped. Turning so the light would catch the pages, she opened her Adventurer Journal. It flipped to the usual page, and the words began restructuring as the information was updated.
IRIS ORION
Hero Rank, Level 4
Experience Points: 5904 / 6510
Progress to next level: 90.69%
Iris was shocked at the progress she had made, but more so she was overwhelmed with excitement. She remembered she could expect a new ability at level 5, and instantly her mind started racing about what it might be. With only one ability to base it off of, however, she found her ideas quickly getting away from her. Still, she couldn't help but daydream. Before she lost herself in her fantasies, she decided to ask the others tomorrow about her sudden progress, and what she could do to reach Level 5 as soon as possible.