Two days! Papa will be back in two days!

An entire month had passed since the surprise. Where did it go? It passed too fast!

After saying Twilight’s lines to Cain, he hadn’t come to find me. If I knew it, I would had done it the day I returned, not after an entire week of running!

The first days passed weirdly quietly, but it was only after returning home one night and Theodore and Cain were missing from their beds that I got worried. The next day, Papa explained that they went to the mountain, and they would be back in three. It didn’t make me feel better, and my tummy hurt for these three days, but when they returned, it got better.

They had bandages everywhere on them, but they said they were fine. I didn’t think that though. They were different than before. Cain, I didn’t ask, but saw him a few times punching the air. Poor Cain had lost it after our talk. Maybe I was too hard on him.

Theodore was also weird. He wasn’t asking to play with me anymore. Instead, every time I saw him, he was holding books with him, reaching for Mr. Orion’s house when I was at Mr. Herbert buying cake. Papa said that Theodore wanted to learn more because he was a little behind me in our lessons. I just hoped those extra lessons were enough for him because in two days we would be restarting.

‘So exciting!’

Papa was finally coming back! I missed him so much! Seeing him only a little in the morning wasn’t enough!

When I learned of the news, I yelled so loud people gathered around Mr. Orion’s house to see if everything was okay.

‘Oops, sorry, Mr. Orion.’

Thankfully, he laughed at it and didn’t mind.

I usually didn’t scream so loudly, but it wasn’t my fault! It was about Papa coming back, how could I not react like that!? And, Papa coming back wasn’t the only good news!

Today was the day. I could feel it. While Cain was punching the air, Theodore studied, and Papa was getting better, I did my own little training.

Every day, I went to the forest, played checkpoints, and watched the quint in the trees, the flowers, the rocks, the air, everywhere! Even inside me! At first, they were like ten or twelve light dots but every day I looked, more and more were there, and by now there were so much I couldn’t count them! The more of them that went into my tummy, the faster the rest of them traveled. What looked like it would take forever took only three weeks! Almost all the lights were together now, and I could feel the quint. It was a very weak feeling, but it was there and that’s what mattered!

Sweeping away the leaves, I found my usual spot. Winter was close, but the sun beamed at it for hours, so the place was warm. Sitting nicely, I knew what I had to do.

‘Alright, let’s do this.’

Holding my pendant tightly, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The feeling in my tummy increased, and the darkness filled with lights.

This time was different. It felt different. More closed, more complete, more… There were so many more lights than the last time, and they all shone brilliantly, nothing like the dim-gloomy color they once had. And then, there was another, much, much further than the rest. The biggest and brightest of them all. The Last One.

I waited for a moment, then the counting began.

One, two... ninety-nine, one hundred... two hundred... three hundred...

There was no end to the lights. Each time it felt like I was getting closer to the final one, another two appeared in front of me.

Four hundred... five hundred... one thousand, one, two...

I didn’t know what was more than one thousand. Papa hadn’t taught as yet, so I began starting again, holding one finger up so that I knew how many thousands had been.

At one point, however, my hand got tired and closed on its own, losing me the number. I stopped and looked back.

‘It’s okay, I’ll just have to count them from here.’ I thought, but the turn made my mouth drop.

The lights were too much for me to count, but most of all, I was still in the beginning. What I had crossed all this time was just a drop in the ocean. An ocean of lights that didn’t seem to have an end in this dark place.

“I... I will never reach the end...”

Tightening my fists, I began moving faster and counting again, only to lose track around the thousand mark. Still, I pressed further. Slowly but surely, the distance was closing.

“It might not be the next thousand, or even the one after that, but I will reach you!”

I counted and lost track again and again, each time wanting to reach the final one even more.

Ignoring everything, my only focus was the light. Papa, Theodore, Cain... They didn’t matter now. Other than reaching the light, nothing did. That’s what I wanted to believe.

However, what I wanted to believe and what was happening were two different things. Some things did matter. Some that I chose to avoid were still there and didn’t want to be ignored.

Tiredness.

It had become hard to breathe for some time now, and I was sweaty everywhere. It hurt. It hurt a lot, but I still ignored it.

“I won’t stop! Tired or not, I won’t give up!”

Tiredness may not, but what comes with it? Maybe it could…

‘What if I don’t reach it?’

‘It’s so dark…’

‘I can do it one at a time. I can do it. I… can… do… it… I… can… I can’t.’

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‘Where am I? I don’t know. Where am I going? I don’t know. What am I doing? I don’t know.’

Hurt. Everything hurt. It hurt so much.

I didn’t want to reach the light anymore. I wanted it to stop. I wanted it to end.

But...

I didn’t. I was lost and scared, but I didn’t stop, didn’t give up.

What was it that made me keep going? I didn’t know.

Going and going, my feet mixed, and I fell. It hurt, and I didn’t even know how I got back up, but I did and continued following the lights.

‘How much time has passed?’

‘How much have I traveled?’

‘Am I any closer now?’

These and similar thoughts stayed close to me. In the endless run, they were the only ones that could help me think of something other than everything around me, so I held them tight.

‘What is Theodore doing now? What about Papa? Even Cain. Is he still punching the air?’ That last one made me chuckle. I kept asking questions, but the itch of the one I was afraid to ask was getting stronger. In the end, when I couldn’t find any other question and it was the only one left, it came forward.

‘What was I even doing this for?’

I stopped.

...

I didn’t have any thoughts.

…

I just stood there in silence.

...

Turning back, I couldn’t see the beginning. There was only this vast, endless space full of dots of light.

‘Beautiful...’

Maybe... maybe the goal wasn’t reaching the last. Maybe it was this beautiful picture...

Watching all these lights shining was peaceful. It wasn’t tiring. It wasn’t hurting. It was just that... Beautiful, calm, and soft—perfect. Almost. There was a shadow blocking the lights from shining even brighter.

At first, I didn’t even notice it, but when I did, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Why did it have to be there? Couldn’t it leave the lights alone? They would shine so much more without it.

I ended up following the shadow. I had to know why it was there.

As I moved, so did the shadow. It changed, becoming bigger and bigger and bigger, hiding more and more lights. Each time a light was hidden by it, the itch of finding out where this shadow came from was getting stronger.

It covered every light, but I got my answer. From the beginning, I knew it, but I didn’t want it to be true. It was my shadow. My shadow was the reason the lights weren’t shining.

The pain in my tummy after learning the truth hurt more than anything else I’d felt so far.

‘My shadow...’ I was the reason it was ‘almost’ perfect.

I was the reason the lights weren’t shining!

If I hadn’t been here, this would have happened!

How did it get so big? There wasn’t any light stro—

Every thought froze, and every hair in my body stood up. I slowly turned behind me and my eyes widened fully. I’d done it. Furthest away of every light, brightest than all of them combined. The Last One. I had reached it.

My breathing got faster and my heart thumped louder than ever before. Squeezing my hands, I jumped.

“I SAID TOUCH!” Everything I’ve done so far was for this moment and this moment alone. All the pain, all the dark thoughts, were for the moment right here, right now, and I put all of them in these words that I screamed with every part of my body.

Suddenly, the unchanging lights behind me moved, listening to my command. They all combined into one, far greater than the last one, and from them an even greater shadow rose. It moved with me, stretching to reach the light.

My finger barely scratched its surface, and everything froze. No emotion, no feeling, no pain, no nothing. The lights, the shadow, me, everything shrank back, and a sudden blinding light filled it all.

A loud boom sounded, and my eyes snapped open.

I gasped and felt it immediately. The air had a different taste, my body felt lighter, and the crispy sound of the river fell softly on my ears as if it were next to me. Most of all, my eyes. Everything around me looked different, more beautiful, more colorful, more alive.

That being said... I didn’t remember sitting on dirt.

‘Where did the grass go?’

Taking a look around, it wasn’t only the grass missing, but the flowers as well. Surrounding me was mud and dirt with some fallen trees and some half-bend one’s a little further away from me.

‘And why do I feel shorter?’

The earth beneath me seemed like it had a... dent?

“What hap—” Stopping me was a wave of leaves from my right.

Spinning around, a beast jumped out of some bushes and my heart skipped a thump. Big claws, sharp fangs… It looked exactly like an Emberfang only instead of fiery red fur, it was silver.

“A Silverfang,” I whispered.

It walked slowly, licking its mouth. Growling, its maw opened wide, all of its teeth revealing. Suddenly, it dashed in, its claws looking straight at me.

The corners of my mouth rose, and I reached my hand to hide it.

‘A Silverfang is running straight at me, so… why am I getting excited?’

The closer it got, the more excited I became. Before even realizing it, I was moving. I was an Elemancer now. Of course I could deal with a small Silverfang!

As we closed in and the excitement reached its top, a small detail slipped me, pausing me on the spot.

‘I don’t know how to fight.’

The Silverfang jumped and slashed my way.

Panicked, I ducked down, its claws waving my hair.

‘What do I do? What do I do?’

The silvery beast didn’t give me room to think. It slashed, bit, and clawed at me angrily. After the first duck, I somehow was able to dodge most of its attacks, but not all of them. My shirt was ripped, and my hands and chest were full of red, painful scratches.

‘I need to do something, but what? What? Ah! that’s it!’

It flashed on me just as the beast was about to attack again. Papa! Papa was the answer! He dealt with three Emberfangs like it was nothing!

Dodging the following bite, I tried mimicking what Papa did back then. Sadly, my slap to the head wasn’t as effective as one of Papa’s punches. The Silverfang waved his head around, growled, and rushed in again.

Even worse, the beast was very close to me, and I didn’t have time to dodge its bite. I screamed in pain when its teeth bit me a little lower than my neck.

“Ouch! Stupid Silverfang!” I yelled, punching at its nose, stunning it for a moment.

‘What was that?’ My focus turned from the pain to my attack. ‘How did I do that? No, wait. What did I do?’

Looking at my punch, the lights were gathered around it. My eyes widened a little, but before I could finish that thought, the Silverfang was already attacking.

I began running. I had to steal as much time as I could if I wanted to figure out how to fight back. Thankfully, not far from me, there was a fallen tree, and it gave me an idea.

I had just enough time to reach the tree before the Silverfang could attack. Upon reaching in front of the tree, I stopped, and the Silverfang jumped, trying to bite my head off. Ducking down, the Silverfang hadn’t noticed the tree and so, instead of landing softly on the ground, it slipped to the uneven tree body and fell to the ground.

‘Now!’

Just as it was standing up, I jumped and grabbed it by the neck. It barked and gnarled, thrashing around, trying to shake me off.

I held on, trying to figure out what I did.

‘It was Quint, that’s for sure, but… how did I do it?’

The Silverfang did all it could to escape. At first, it was barking and wiggling around, then trying to bite me off, and now was rolling around the mud. The ground hurt, but not enough so that I would let go. What I had enough of, however, was this Silverfang.

Next, I did something I never expected myself to do.

The Silverfang’s eyes widened fully, and a loud howl cried in pain as blood spilled all over my face like a fountain. For a moment it froze in place and then started trying to bite me off even fiercer than before.

Angry, I bit it again, the same howl echoing once more. Tired and in pain, it didn’t fight back with the same strength.

Focusing on the feeling a little over my tummy, I tried to move it to the rest of my body. It was a weird feeling as if it was always there, but at the same time, was not.

Suddenly, the Silverfang jolted and freed itself. With a roar full of anger and hate, it spilled blood and saliva all over the place. Not wasting a second, it jumped straight in. Caught by surprise, I was barely able to jump out of the attack.

There was a small pause from the Silverfang. It looked at me, and I looked back. We were both huffing, puffing, hurting, and tired. The next attack was going to be the last for both of us.

Holding my breath, I moved first, tightening my fist. The Silverfang was only a second late, its claws open, ready to slice me down.

...

...

Thud!

The sound of my punch repeated in my ears as the Silverfang hit the tree right behind it.

Huff... Huff...

‘I did it! I did it!’ I screamed inside me, too tired to do so out loud.

“W-Wha...” A familiar voice came from behind me, cutting my breath short. “L-Lyon?”

Blinking, I quickly whipped the blood off my face before turning to Theodore.

“I did it, Theodore. I am an Elemancer.”