Scythian was so excited, he was basically running in front of the group. Despite his old age, the rest of them could hardly keep up with him.

'Where is that bozo leading us now?' Wolf asked while panting.

The man wished he could answer, but he had no idea what's gotten into his old mentor. They were looking at the map when Scythian said,

'Oh, I know this place! Come, I show you all something truly wonderful!' And then he barged off in the direction of a hill. They went after him, but any question they asked him, such as what it is he wants to show them or why it cannot wait until the next morning (as it was getting quite late), resulted in zero answers, other than,

'You shall see when we are there! Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!' So they marched on.

'Something wonderful,' that's what Scythian said. Somehow, the wanderer doubted that it could be true. Who would blame him? After all, recently life has been full of hardships and inconvenience.

They had left Paxfort on a carriage, offered by a traveling merchant who was headed the same way as they were. Of course for a good price, but it was a nice change, not having to tire themselves with walking. That is until the carriage broke down in the middle of nowhere. They tried to fix it up, but none of them was an expert. Eventually they got it running again, but only until the next town, where it gave up on them again. They were only about a quarter of the way they planned to travel with it, but they had no choice. They parted ways with the merchant and continued on by foot.

Then came the nightmares, which he had to deal with, although it came with a sort of relief. Still, it was hard to sleep because of them. That, of course, led to a problem where he was tired all the time. Between the walking, the new training schedule set up by Wolf and Scythian (with the goal in mind to get better control over his power), and not sleeping that well, he became easily irritated, sometimes downright unbearable. Of course it made it harder to work on his problems and to improve the way he wanted to. That just added to the frustration. Feeling he was behind was a nagging concern, despite reminding himself that, he makes good progress and to be patient with himself. Once the nightmares stopped, it got a little easier, but he still did not get much chance for relaxation.

Money was another problem altogether. Despite having a good amount of savings with them, in every town, every turn they spent more than it would be sustainable. A good portion of it was spent on the wagon, and of course the merchant refused to give them back the money they gave for the full trip. Without much income to speak of (mainly from small tasks, like delivering letters between towns or scaring off bandits), they had to portion it carefully. Luckily they could save up on the food supplies by hunting and using water from rivers. Still, it was a thing to look out for and another thing to be bothered by.

At least these instances gave him the opportunity to practice control over his anger. Whenever they were training, Wolf purposely pissed him off so he would draw out his sword and then get it under control. Under these circumstances, they might have just skipped the part to get him angry. The first few times were easy, but as the way went on, it became harder. Progress was made, however. With some techniques taught by the Scythian and with a sparring partner like the warmaster, day by day he got stronger. His swordsmanship improved, and his fighting style got more refined. These improvements went unnoticed by him, but not by his mentors. They knew that slowly, but surely, he became a force to be reckoned with. They only wished that the swordsman would give some credit to himself for it.

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Night has fallen down on them, and Scythian was lost to sight. They made their way between the tree roots and the undergrowth of the forest. Wolf and the wanderer could only hope that they were going in the right direction, for not even the moon could penetrate the canopy of the trees above.

'Dammit all!' the veteran said angrily. 'I can not see a damn thing here!'

'Let me try something,' said the traveler. He held out his palm to the sky.

'Starlight, starbright, lend us your light.' Suddenly a small ball of light appeared in his hand. It was bright enough to light up everything in their tracks. The battlemaster was surprised for a moment.

'Nice trick. Why not use the other one, though?'

'Would you like to be roasted?' replied the man. 'It would set the entire forest on fire! Besides, if I am to ever improve, I can't rely on the same tricks all the time.'

They still could not see the old spearman.

'Scythian!' shouted the lightholder. 'Scythian, can you hear us? Where are you?'

From the distance, the scholar's answer came.

'Come on, friends! You must see this! It's just on top of the hill!'

'What is there, you old bastard?' The warmaster has run out of patience. For him, no answer came. 'I swear, once I'm up there, I will throw him down from this goddamn hill!'

The swordsman sometimes could not decide if his mentor was serious or not. At least with the starbulb, it was easier to navigate the woods. In his thoughts, he started to wonder what it could be that Scythian was so determined to show them. What could it be, in the middle of nowhere that is this important?

Finally they caught up to the old scholar. He was looking at the skies when they arrived. Aside from him and the pitch-black sky, however, there was nothing there.

'What is it?' Wolf asked angrily. He was panting a little from the climb. Scythian did not answer him; instead, he turned to his pupil.

'Quick, turn off the light.'

'Why?' the man was puzzled.

'Trust me, lad,' he said with a smile.

The lightholder shrugged and put his hand down, ending the spell. That was when all of them saw it.

It was wonderful. Without the spell, the lights of the night skies became visible. Dancing, with every color imaginable. Bright red beams waving on the black canvas, as if greeting the people below. Crossed by beautiful turquoise lines creating new colors from their union. All of the lines seemingly converged on the surface of the moon, playfully stretching out from it, as if children leaving the family home with their friends. In that moment the whole world went silent around them. All of them watched the sky in awe, staring at the dancing lights. Wolf forgot about his frustrations and glared at the sky. The man got lost in the dance of the lights, trying to count all the colors of it. Even the Hollow was fascinated by them.

For a few moments the swordsman expected something to happen. An attack, an unforeseen tragedy, bad news. After all, that was the usual string of events. But this time nothing happened. In this moment, he was free of every hardship. He finally could just enjoy himself with his companions, staring at something beautiful. No enemy, no financial issues, no breakdown, nothing. Just fascination. He could not remember when was the last time he could feel like this.

It was Scythian who broke the silence.

'In these past few weeks, we had a lot of hardships and setbacks, so I thought that all of us could use a little break. It is not much, but it is important to see the beauty of the everyday events, even if things aren't going great. Think about it, lad: what beautiful landscapes we crossed so far. All the obstacles we overcame, all the improvements you achieved so far. We may have a long way to go, and we may have more hardships ahead of us, but never forget to balance it out with the wonders of the road. Do not forget that this world can be joyful too, not just cruel. That you still have so much time here. So you should make the most of it.'

The old mentor's teaching was something he would take to heart. The travel would have no meaning if he would only do it for the sake of suffering. He did see so many beautiful places, so many new people, and gone through so many new experiences. Why only focus on the hardships? He was a warrior, but not for the sake of being one. He was one for the sake of his goals. And discovering all those new things was definitely one of them.

He smiled.

'You were right, Scythian,' he answered to his old mentor, still glaring at the skies. 'This really is wonderful.'

Behind them, on a tree, was an owl, watching them and the lights. She agreed.