An old story told to children - Unknown author or age
“A traveling man had a gentle right hand.
He once saw a snail,
and thought it was frail,
so he carried it off to a faraway land.
The snail pondered the purpose of life.
It believed it was slow,
but who truly could know,
so it left on its quest, with no care for strife.
The man followed after, determined and swift,
he chased far and wide,
never leaving its side,
but the day had grown long, and he stopped for a lift.
The snail, now alone, kept on its long quest.
It searched for the man,
retraced where it ran,
but found only bones where the traveler would rest.
The snail climbed up on the gentle right hand,
thinking it safe,
its life, a proud fate.
But the man, long gone, couldn’t see the new land.”
----------------------------------------
And so our first day out on this trip begins. On the way we pass by many locals who all greet us with a wave. We pass by the gate, the guards see us out with a short bow.
It feels kinda nice, being out and about again. It sort of feels like we’re a group of kids up to no good. We follow the simple road, occasionally needing to slow down because of Nyxie.
She’s struggling to keep up, she’s not that short, roughly half a head shorter than Valerie but she’s clearly not used to long walks. From time to time I ask her if she wants to ride on my shoulders if her legs hurt but she refuses every time.
A couple hours into our trip we take a breather and drink some water. Xerra makes sure that Nyxie’s gear is not getting in the way and stuff. Just a general check, me and Valerie look through the map and are trying to figure out how long will it take us to the nearest campsite.
There’s still a few more hours before we get to it. After informing everyone else we pick up and continue moving towards our first destination. A little while in, Valerie looks behind over her shoulder.
- “Nyxie, once we reach the campsite, Leshy’s going to teach you how to use those blades of yours first, at least a little bit.” - Nyxie eagerly nods, a smile creeps on her face as well. She seems restless for most of the remaining trek.
The campsite looks… normal, it’s a bit bigger than the one we went to when I just came here. There’s marks of tents being placed around the campfire and three flattened logs placed on their side to sit on.
Xerra tends to the campfire, picking up some sticks and brushes to light the wood that’s on it. Not many people seem to stop here, the wood looks barely burnt.
Valerie on the other hand sits down on a log and sighs loudly, massaging her neck and stretching it. With these two doing their own thing, I decide to make sure lodging is secured and ready. I grab our sleeping rolls from each bag and place them on the ground around the fire, making sure every “bed” is set and ready to be used if you need it.
- “Alright, the light’s set. I think it’s time for a little… sparring, don’t you agree Leshy?” - Xerra pokes me with her elbow while walking by. - “She’s your Boot Leshy, you’re responsible for her training.”
- “She’s not even a Boot yet, she’s just a trainee. Besides, I don’t even know what I should teach her with the sparring.”
- “Teach her how to fight. You know how to, hell, you’re one of the very few people I know that can take a pack of Ludocanis solo.” - It wasn’t that big of a deal, you’d take care of them with your fucking pinkie Xerra. - “Just teach her what you learned, you know everything there is to know when it comes to basics.”
- “What basics, I don’t know how to really swing my sword, I do it on instinct. And she uses knives… AND she’s a fucking kid.” - I go over to Xerra and lean in.
- “Look, I don’t want to hurt her. The whole point of us saving her is so she doesn’t get hurt more.” - I push my fingers on the bridge of my nose. - “IF I am to be as rough as you were with me, she’d most definitely get terrified of me.”
- “She needs to learn Leshy, and she’s eager. Don’t kill her, obviously… Just make sure she learns the hard lessons. You don’t even need to fight her just yet.” - I nod back at Xerra and go towards Nyxie.
I take a second to put on my game face and focus up on my ability. She feels content, satisfied and curious. I am very sorry Nyxie, but I have to shuffle those around.
- “Get up, gremlin.” - I pull her up quite forcefully by her arm and onto the road. She looks confused, a little scared. Behind me you hear Valerie yell out “Good luck” as I place Nyxie in front of me and walk back a few steps. - “Pull out your daggers. Now.”
She’s apprehensive, a little shaken but she grabs onto them and slowly pulls them out. They shimmer with a pearlescent light under the afternoon sun.
- “I don’t know… How to use them.” - Nyxie’s voice is a bit shaky but she’s calming down, she understands what's going on more or less.
- “Lesson one, they should’ve been out the moment I pulled you up from your seat.” - I take out my sword and Nyxies face shifts from a bit confused to scared. She’s as tall as my sword is long, it’s an intimidating thing. I’d be scared if someone pulled it on me.
- “But… How do I…?” - She’s looking at her hands a lot, BUT she’s holding SOME sort of stance. Probably whatever feels comfortable.
- “Don’t think about how, you’re looking at your hands wondering what to do with them. You grab your damn weapon and whatever works is what you use.” - I don’t even hold my sword in any specific way… It’s just a “Whatever works” mentality for me. - “Nobody’s going to wait for you to, oh so graciously, set up for a fight.”
- “Right!” - Her response is more eager this time. She’s slowly getting into the training mindset.
- “Daggers like this are more like shortswords for you. But they’re still short range.” - I point my blade at her. - “If you just run at me, what’s going to happen?”
- “I don’t know…?” - She’s thinking hard.
- “I’d stab you. What would you have to do to get close enough and actually land a hit on me?” - The pressure’s getting to her. - “Hey! Relax, think!”
- “Yes!” - Her voice cracks a little. - “I would have to… distract you?”
- “Try. Now.” - I keep my sword pointed at her and wait for her to do whatever she’ll think of.
Nyxie raises her hands and starts running at me. She winds back one of her daggers and throws it at me… Rather, in the general direction I’m standing.
It unceremoniously lands on the ground just in front of me with a plink and Nyxie stops, her face turns red. There’s a second of silence that gets broken with Xerra bursting into an uncontrollable laughter. I take a peek at her and she’s holding herself up on the log while Valerie’s cheeks are blown out as she’s trying to hold herself from laughing.
- “Relax, breathe deeply.” - I kick back her dagger and put a finger on my lips towards the Ladies who do their best to quiet down. - “Pick it up. Throwing your weapon might be a good idea but you need to get good at it. You’ll practice throwing your ‘shortswords’ after every training from now on to get it down, got it?” - Nyxie nods eagerly, still blushing lightly and picks up her weapon. - “It was a good idea Nyxie, don’t let the soulless ginger over there discourage you.” - I point at Xerra who’s still chuckling to herself and tending to her Glaive.
- “Right…” - She looks to have some more confidence but the embarrassment is still there. - “I still don’t know how to use them…”
- “How about you come over here and take a few swings at me, just trying to hit me.” - I sheathe my sword and spread out my arms and legs. - “Just swing, I’ll be fine yeah?”
- “Yes!” - Nyxie comes over and takes the same position she had at the start.
SWING SWING
She makes two very wide swings with each weapon. They’re sloppy and lack sharpness in the movement.
SWING STAB
She swings one back and the other she places by her stomach and stabs. I grab the swinging arm by the wrist and deflect her stab with her own weapon. She gets startled and I flick her forehead with my free hand.
- “Focus!” - With my yell she snaps back to it and continues her swings.
I dodge some of them, deflect others. After a dozen or so attempts of trying to hit me she starts sweating from her forehead and breathing heavily. On the other hand the attacks got better. She’s not just wildly swinging any more and actually trying to hit places.
- “Alright, you’ll pass out on me if we continue. Go poke Xerra to teach you some throws, yeah?” - I slap Nyxie who is gasping for air right now on the shoulder. She nods and coughs a couple of times.
I follow her back to the camp, Nyxie’s immediately glued to Xerra, asking about throws and stuff. I sit down next to Valerie.
- “Well done. You didn’t kill her and taught her something I hope.” - Valerie’s remark drips with sarcasm.
- “Funny! She’ll be fine. As long as Xerra teaches her some throwing and she practices.”
Xerra walks over with mugs of wine for me and Valerie and then goes back to helping Nyxie out with her practice.
We continue chatting and laughing for a little while. The sun begins to set and Nyxie decides to hit the hay after a while of throwing her knives at the ground. The three of us remaining continue chatting about the trip. Xerra out-drinks both Valerie and Me in terms of speed, which isn’t surprising.
Some things don’t change I guess. Luckily though, after a while. Xerra seems to be too drunk to even sit straight so she just goes to her sleeping roll and passes out.
- “It’s exhausting to have two kids like these and take care of them.” - Valerie points out while poking Xerra’s cheek with her finger. In response Xerra swipes it like it’s a fly.
- “Well, one of them can kill me in an instant and the other will die if I look at her the wrong way.” - Valerie chuckles at my words. - “So yeah… Tiring is a good word.”
- “I’m glad you’re okay Leshy. You had me scared after you came back with that alpha’s corpse yesterday.” - Valerie has a strange nostalgic look on her face? Or is it relief that’s showing?
- “There are things a man has to do sometimes… Clearing out that pack was what I had to do at that moment.” - I take a sip of my wine and lean back, putting one leg over the other and stretching them forward.
- “Then you seem to have a lot of ‘things’ to do sometimes.” - Valerie replies in a sullen tone. - “You just keep getting hurt Leshy. You can rely on everyone… me.”
- “Well, I kinda poofed into existence for everyone and started fucking things up from the get go.” - With a laugh I look over at Valerie. - “Even when trying to do the right thing.”
- “Nobody’s expecting you to be some sort of benevolent god that can do no wrong to people.” - Valerie seats herself on the log on my right. She sips on her wine and looks over here. - “During the cave raid, where we saved Nyxie… I saw you.”
I look down and away from her, scratching my chin.
- “You completely lost yourself. That brooch did something… I don’t know what, but you completely lost it when we found you.” - Valerie lets out a loud sigh. - “We nearly had to put you down.”
- “The brooch? I thought I lost it in the battle that day or something.” - Valerie’s eyebrows go up a few notches at my note. And she starts shuffling around her pouch. - “Valerie, that day… I saw a pile of dead kids, and that thing that killed them… that fucking snake of a human acted like it’s nothing.”
- “There it is!” - Valerie pulls out the familiar brooch from her pouch. - “I am so sorry that you had to see this Leshy. And while I wish I could tell you that’s the last time, Spotters deal with all sorts of issues.” - She looks down. - “And sometimes during those issues, people die.”
- “Yeah, can’t save everyone, can we? Valerie?”
- “No, we can’t…” - She responds and slides her finger across the brooch.
- “So what about that thing, why’d you take it? Should I report theft or do I pass judgment myself as a Protector?” - Valerie looks up and smiles at me a little bit.
- “Judgment? You know I created the organization you’re in?” - Right… I forgot about that fact Valerie…
- “Well, we should be able to protect ourselves from a tyrannical government!” - I flex my bicep and squeeze it with my other hand.
- “Anyway you weirdo. This thing seems to be fucking with your Wave use somehow. I can only assume how powerful this thing is to have it make you run wild like that.” - She throws the brooch up and then catches it with her other hand. - “Someone at the Capita, someone I know will look at it and figure it out for us. So the next time you decide to wear it, you can actually utilize whatever power it has.”
- “Honestly we can throw it away if it makes me lose my shit. Why would I want it?” - Valerie facepalms at my remark.
- “EVEN if you don’t want it, this thing is worth more than the entire town of Nova Vertex. You should at the very least consider selling it if you don’t want it.” - Right, she mentioned something about that when she looked at it the first time.
- “Right, it’s worth a lot.” - With a loud exasperated sigh I put my face in my hands and squeeze it, sort of massaging it. - “Do you think I will do fine?”
- “With?” - A curious look from Valerie.
- “Nyxie, I’m just not sure how to prepare her for this world if I don’t know much about it myself.” - Valerie stands up and comes over. After stopping in front of me she puts her hand on my head, it’s warm. My heart jumps a little bit before calming down again.
- “You’re more than prepared to make sure she doesn’t die on us. And the world can wait, just focus on making sure she’s safe.” - She rustles my hair. - “Now let’s go to sleep. Long walk tomorrow.” - She goes over to her bedroll and lies down on it.
I follow suit and hit the hay. The ground is hard but I kinda like it, keeps me on my toes I guess.
- “Good night Leshy.” - Valerie says her last words before turning in.
- “Good night Valerie.”
The sleep was good. I woke up before everyone else and began planning out the pace for our next day of travel. Valerie helped me mark out some of the local campsites that we can use for rest before the last day of moving around.
Taking into account training and breaks during our walk, this day comes out to around six more hours of walking and the rest of the day would be spent on training, rest, planning and whatever else we need to figure out before reaching Varsh.
I take a walk around the area just to get some more context for the general area. It’s all mostly flat with the occasional Titanothar track making a hilly roadblock to cross through.
After returning to the camp I see Nyxie, Valerie and Xerra already up and about, putting out the campfire completely and getting their stuff in order. Nyxie in particular rolled up her sleeping roll and mine, while Valerie and Xerra are doing their usual routine of Valerie nursing Xerra’s hangover.
I pat Nyxie on the head and pick up my sleeping roll, put it into my backpack and then explain to everyone the plan I’ve set for the trip. The group agrees and we quickly set out for our next day of walking.
Just as yesterday, this day is dotted with breaks and Nyxie trying to keep up with us occasionally needing to stop and wait for her to catch up. At one point a rabbit crosses the road. Not entirely sure what spurred me to do it but I chased it and caught it after some struggles.
I then brought the thing to everyone and let them pet the animal, before ultimately letting it go with a slap on its butt. It trotted away from us rather quickly.
Xerra takes some time as we walk to explain how the knives function to Nyxie, more or less starting her Wave training. Apparently they will fly in one direction for a distance depending on how much wave you put into them. After that it falls off quickly. Seems useful for trickshots.
The walk ends with us reaching the next camp site. It’s a little past noon but walking for the rest of the day would be too much for everyone. Nyxie just kinda collapses onto the log around the campfire while the three of us set up the camp just as we did before.
- “Alrighty!” - I go up to Nyxie and gently kick her boot. - “Get up.”
- “I’m so tired, can’t I re-” - Nyxie is a bit mumbly when talking. She’s clearly out for the count, but the training will continue.
- “Get up!” - She jolts off the log and gets onto the road. - “Nobody’s going to wait for you to rest if they want to kill you.”
- “...! Right!” - She’s shaken back awake by the sudden outburst. - “Should I pull out my daggers?”
I raise my eyebrow at her and wait while tapping my foot. It takes her a second but she pulls out her daggers and I cross my arms.
- “Throw one of them at me.”
Nyxie nods and reels back, holding the dagger by its blade. Using her other arm she aims at me and throws it as hard as she can. The distance between us is a tad longer than yesterday but the knife still makes it to me. Or should I say, close enough to me to call it a passing throw.
- “Good! This time it hit the ground with its blade.” - I chuck back the dagger with a flick and it sticks upright in front of her with a thump.
- “Let’s have you try and use the Wave for the first time.” - After making my way over to her I squish her face with my hands. - “Don’t force it, sit down on the ground and take everything in. Let it get loud and overwhelm you.” - I step back
- “Alright.” - Nyxie plops down setting her daggers to the side and closes her eyes.
I focus up and flip the switch on my feel. I can tell if someone’s interacting with the wave, the gentle aura around us gets crunched down to just Nyxie while I continue tuning out everything I don’t need from my field of view.
The light fog swirls and swooshes around her. She feels exhausted but also determined, as minutes pass I see her clenching down her eyelids and grunting. Ultimately she opens her eyes and sighs.
- “I don’t understand what am I trying to feel here.” - Her fists slam her knees. - “What is this everything? Really everything?”
I stretch out my arms in front of her. This one’s from Valerie’s teaching book. We share a gaze while Nyxie tries to understand the meaning of it. After a couple of minutes she closes her eyes and starts the process of tapping into the Wave all over again.
Luckily this time something seems to have stuck, the aura around Nyxie becomes irregular and twists around. She’s just scraping the surface but she’s close. After a quarter of an hour of her just sitting and focusing, her aura molds itself around her. There it is!
- “I can see and hear everything…!” - Nyxie opens her eyes and looks at her hands.
- “Keep it up, I have one rule for you right now. Do not use your full strength. Now pick up your daggers and throw one of them at me again.”
Nyxie stands up and clenches her hands into fists. She then pick ups the daggers and just like yesterday reels back and throws it at me. There’s an audible crack that comes from her hand but the knife sinks the entire blade into the ground.
- “AAAH!” - Nyxie screams and holds her dangling hand.
- “I told you not to use your full strength Gremlin. Come here.”
Valerie runs over and Nyxie stumbles her way to me. I grab her arm, it’s absolutely broken, she has two elbows now. Valerie immediately upon seeing this runs back to her backpack and grabs a splint.
- “No, Valerie. This one’s for myself.” - I stroke Nyxie’s hair, she’s crying. - “Sit down, come on.”
I help her sit down on the ground and take a knee in front of her, holding up her broken arm.
- “Son of a bitch!” - Uncharacteristically, Nyxie curses the broken arm out and grunts through grit teeth. - “FUCK!”
- “Leshy, she needs a splint!” - Valerie kicks my shoe. - “You can’t have her walking around with a broken arm like that.”
- “And I need to learn to use my healing ability, do you have a better moment? Or should I just cut my hand open and try to heal that?” - Valerie’s eyes shut wide open and she quickly steps to the side.
- “Hang tight gremlin, I’ve only done this with my shoulder when it was dangling after a Ludocanis tried to rip it off.” - I start focusing on her injury, feeling her pain, connecting with her body through the Wave. - “Did I tell you the story about that?”
- “No…” - She’s sniffing and crying. I continue to focus on her arm, trying to find all the broken tissue and bone the same way I felt my shoulder.
- “Well, I was training with these two. Soon after I figured out what the nature of my Wave is, Xerra decided we should hunt a pack of Ludocanis Malus. Big dog looking things, furr that looks like worms. Terrifying.” - There! I have it, I can feel her bones starting to reconnect while I hold her arm in place as straight as I can. - “Valerie thought I’m not ready, but in my cockiness of having learned a new power I foolishly wanted to prove myself to them.”
Her arm aligns itself basically on it’s own, her bones are slowly reconnecting and all the shattered pieces are traveling through her arm to fit back into place.
- “So we attacked them in the middle of the night. The beast was maaasive! HUGE! My job was to take out the alpha Ludocanis.” - She’s not crying anymore, though a sniffle comes out here and there. - “I went for a slash, tried showing off and prolonging the fight instead of just chopping its head of right there.”
- “And?” - Her entire torso is shaking with every heartbeat.
- “And I failed. The fucker tried to bite my head off so I used my left arm to protect myself.” - I take off the pauldron from my Revertium sleeve and reveal the massive scars I left behind. - “This is my trophy from this fight.”
- “Did you win?”
- “No. I almost died in Xerra’s arms.” - Her muscle fibers are almost done reconnecting, the bone’s basically ready. I let go of her arm and don’t fully heal her arm. - “You need to be always ready. This is as good as I can get it but you should be able to use it now.”
- “Go, take a rest. Valerie will get you something to eat and drink.” - I poke her shoulder and she reluctantly walks off, then sits down at the campfire. - “Xerra!” - I call out and she nods in my direction. - “Spar with me. I want Nyxie to see a ‘real’ fight.”
Xerra’s face turns from interest to a large grin. She stands up and picks up her glaive. I pull out my sword and point it at her.
- “Watch carefully, you won’t usually see a Guardian and their Protector training.” - Valerie sits next to Nyxie. They’re both looking at me, then at Xerra who is still standing next to them at the campsite.
It gets really quiet. The local birds decide to evacuate and the wind stops itself from interrupting us. I brace.
Xerra with a shockwave blasts off, Nyxie can barely hold her body up, clinging to Valerie.
CLANG
My sword deflects the initial attack from Xerra. I go for a punch on her stomach.
She uses her knee to kick it away and jumps over me. I slash at where she’s going to land.
CLANG
Our weapons connect again with an insane amount of sparks flying from the hit. My muscles pulse and I sink my fist into her stomach.
- “Come on Xerra! Where’s that fire in your eyes?!”
The ground underneath us breaks from the force of the hit. Xerra is flung several hundred meters away.
Over where Xerra hit the ground, a surge of energy comes. A large, red aura emanates from Xerra, her eyes glow bright red. Here she comes…!
Xerra’s perspective…
Fuck! I felt that, boy!
I stomp my leg and hold the Glaive like a javelin, amining it at Leshy. The entire area rumbles.
A bright red flame engulfs my weapon, magma begins to drip off of it. I reel back and use my free hand to aim at him. I send it right at him, a red trail follows the path it took and the air condenses into vapor around it.
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Not enough! I launch after the throw for a follow up. There’s an explosion of dust where Leshy stands, a second later a blink of light from within the dust cloud.
SHEEEEW
My Glaive screams by my head.
Huh…!?
A fraction of a second is all it took. I looked at my glaive for a moment and he’s already here! He’s about to land a kick, block Xerra!
His eyes are like a typhoon hitting landfall. I can feel his leg connect with my stomach, flinging me back to where I threw my glaive from. I hit the ground before my weapon sinks next to me.
I grab it as fast as I can. He lands next to me and swings his sword at me. I meet his attack with my own. Our weapons clash and the entire ground beneath us lowers by a couple of meters. Sparks bounce off where our weapons connect.
A red spot shows up on Leshy’s stomach where he was bitten.
- “STOP!” - I yell out to him but he’s too into it. He’s not out of control, likely just the thrill of the fight.
He swings his blade again from above after our weapons disconnect.
Alright then buddy… I ramp up the speed to lose him. I dash back, trying to get some distance between me and him. He’s locked onto me though, wherever I move he's right behind me.
- “SO ANNOYING!!!” - I wind up my Glaive and make a wide swing around me. How’s he this fucking fast?!
TING
Valerie appears between me and Leshy, deflecting both of our weapons down with her gauntlets.
- “Stop it you two. It was supposed to show Nyxie how…!” - Valerie’s words are cut off by Leshy kicking her in the side.
He jumps away from the two of us and readies his blade. There’s pure determination in his eyes. This is how we’re doing this?
Leshy’s perspective…
- “Come…” - I aim my sword at Valerie and Xerra, both at the ready.
We’ve been in this situation once before, but this time I’m in control. I can test myself!
Xerra’s aura becomes stronger and more fluid, the red glow around her eyes and body gains intensity, Valerie sighs and slams her gauntlets together.
- “You’re carrying my backpack if you lose.” - Valerie takes her stance and narrows her eyes at me.
She reels back and makes her move, Xerra follows suit. I invert my blade and take on Xerra’s attack from the side while I meet Valerie’s gauntlet with my knee.
POW
Shit! I can’t hold it! Too fucking strong!
I’m flung back towards the campsite by the ladies. My blade splits open in the middle and a purplish white glow starts to emanate from it. It looks like an amorphous flame floating around it.
- “Dodge!” - I yell at them and wind back the sword over my head.
YAAAAAH!
I swing it down but before I can let the attack loose Valerie’s under me holding the hilt of my sword, stopping it in place.
Her other gauntlet reaches out to my face and smashes me into the ground. The force is measured, it’s perfectly calculated strength!
DEATH
Valerie’s eyes flash red and her fist stops just before my face.
I take a deep breath and Valerie pulls off from me. FUCK! I slam my fist into the ground and get up. Not even close.
Shit! I overdid it. I’m not bleeding a lot but I can feel the sting now. I look at the bloody spot on my shirt and lie my head back down, thumping it against the ground.
- “I kinda lost myself in the sauce there!” - I look at Valerie, standing over me with crossed arms.
- “A little bit. But you’ll be fine from what I see.” - She reaches out her hand. - “Come on, I’ll change your bandages and see if it’s all still there.”
- “Fine, just don’t yell at me mom.” - I chuckle and Xerra lets out a “pffft”. - “What’d you think Nyxie? Are we not the coolest fuckers around?”
After getting up I sit down on the log next to Valerie who grabs a set of bandages and starts taking off my shirt.
- “I can do it myself Valerie.” - She recoils with a blush. I take off my custom sleeve and take off my shirt. She begins to undo my bandages.
- “That was the craziest thing I’ve seen in my life!” - Nyxie jumps at Xerra tugging at her cloak. - “How do you two do that!? Tell me!”
- “I wish you’d be this eager during our training.” - I mumble to myself and Valerie giggles.
Nyxie is prodding Xerra about how we did the sparks and everything work. Xerra’s just teasing her about feeling the “KaPOW” and using terms like “Like this” when flexing. She’s basically trolling Nyxie at this point.
My bandages come off and Valerie carefully looks over my wound. Pulling the skin a little to see if everything’s alright.
- “You pulled the thing open but the stitches are fine. I’ll tie you up with a new bandage set and you’ll be good as new.” - She cleans off the blood and begins wrapping my wound in a bandage.
- “Once the healing kicks in, that thing won’t be a problem.” - I voice my opinion once Valerie finishes with the bandages.
- “Don’t be reckless. You’re not immortal just because you heal a little faster.” - She gets up and grabs two mugs, filling them with some wine.
She hands me one and sits down on the log next to the one I’m sitting on. Valerie takes a sip and I join her in the drink. At this moment Nyxie and Xerra come over and sit down as well.
The sun’s far along its arc, going down beyond the horizon at this point and the campfire gets lit by me to get some warmth going. The nights can get pretty cold out here.
We chat about the fight a little bit. Nyxie keeps asking questions about how we use the wave. We give her some general descriptions. After a little bit, the group winds down and Valerie goes to sleep, Nyxie passes out on the log next to me so I put her to bed myself.
I sit back down on the log, Xerra’s drinking and looking over the fire next to me.
- “What do you think? Will she handle herself fine once we’re done with training?” - I can’t help but feel worried about Nyxie. Xerra looks over. - “She seems to do fine, I’m just unsure if she’ll manage with my guidance.”
- “Leshy, what did I teach you when we were training?” - Xerra asks, her face looks relaxed while sipping on the wine.
- “Instinct is probably what I’d call it. All the training we did usually revolved around me swinging at you and you dodging and then you swinging at me and getting whacked. “ - I laugh, some nostalgia seeps through into my words.
- “Exactly. You can’t teach someone everything, they have to learn. She’ll either figure it out or… She’ll figure it out, Leshy. She’s a bright kid.” - Xerra elbows me and chuckles. She’s been very positive lately. Usually she’s the hardass of this little group we have here.
- “You've been in a VERY good mood recently, what gives?” - Might as well ask
- “Well, I have a Protector now. Nobody before you fit the bill so It feels good to finally have one.” - She takes a sip and leans back. - “The closest anyone’s gotten is Jax but he refused when offered the position, saying he’ll be of more use on the ground killing stuff.”
- “Somehow I understand where he’s coming from.” - I take a sip and prop myself up on my knees using my elbows. - “Is there anything you can tell me about Varsh? It has a big red X over it on the map, no other town has it.” - I never got to ask but it could mean TREASURE! Like we’re pirates?
- “It’s cursed. A couple of decades ago the Church of Thaton came by with some missionaries who were denied entry. There was a back and forth between them for a few weeks.” - Xerra looks up at the sky. - “Once the scuffle ended, the missionaries left and the town soon after was struck with an unexplained sickness. Now they seem to believe it’s Thaton’s punishment for refusing his guidance.”
- “Interesting…” - I raise my eyebrow and scratch my chin. - “So the missionaries cursed the town, is what you’re saying?”
- “The Church is denying it, but who knows. I’m not even sure how a curse would work for that long. It would take a Wave user to keep one running all the time.” - Right, this isn’t magic we’re talking about .The Wave requires conscious use at all times, otherwise it doesn't do anything. - “You’ll see when we get there. Just make sure to not talk shit about Thaton.”
I nod back at her and finish my cup of wine. Seems Xerra’s been matching my pace and finishes hers. We both reach for the wine at the same time, Xerra slaps away my hand and says “You’re too young to pour, give it.”. She then proceeds to fill my cup and hers to the brim.
- “I was meaning to ask but we never got the chance. Valerie’s been all over you for a couple of weeks now.” - Xerra leans in. - “What do you think of Valerie?” - She wags her eyebrows at me.
- “Where’s that coming from?” - I ask but Xerra just waves at me to keep talking. - “...Well, she’s a very good leader. Knows when to step on someone's toes and when to be good to them personally.”
- “She is, isn’t she? Born to lead one might say. What else?” - Xerra’s curiosity piqued my curiosity, but I don’t pursue it for now.
- “She can kick my ass. It’s a little scary.” - My hands on their own move to massage my neck. I think I’m getting a little tense. - “Why are you asking?”
- “Just curious! Tell me more. I’ve been around that woman for over a century, I’ve seen everything so I’m curious what others think.” - Xerra’s known Valerie for over a century?! My eyebrows just kinda go up as I realize that Xerra might be a LITTLE older than me.
- “You’re really asking hard questions… I don’t know Xerra, I have no idea what you want to hear.” - I slide my hand over my face and sigh. - “She’s nice, genuinely a good person. She took care of me when I was hurt, she helped me with training and sat next to me when I came back from my little excursion.”
Right, whenever I needed her she was there taking care of things for me, helping me deal with my problems as much as she could. I continue…
- “Even now, when I feel more confident than ever I just kinda find myself looking for her input.” - I breathe out loudly. - “This is what I think.”
There’s a short silence. We’re both processing the day before Xerra stands up, finishes her cup of wine and heads over to her bedroll.
- “I’m going to bed Leshy, don’t stay up too long.” - I nod at her and wave.
And so I’m left alone, the night is in full swing, cicadas are making sure the area stays rowdy with their chirps and the night life of animals begins. The flickering light from the campfire illuminates the area with a reddish hue.
I take a sip of my wine and look over the sleeping members of this weird, haphazardly put together group. Scratching the back of my head I wonder for a little bit about what makes this feel like a place where I belong?
There’s nothing tangible connecting us, no years of knowing each other like Xerra and Valerie. I have two decades on Nyxie, the only thing between us is a short past where I put her in danger.
I cross my arms and grab onto my shoulders, squeezing my hands. I was supposed to say what I think about Valerie, instead I just listed out things she did for me. Such a surface level answer, then again I couldn’t articulate what I think about here even if I tried.
Nearly thirty years alive, a third of that with one woman and I can’t figure out what I think about someone. Fucking pathetic, christ.
Time passes, the moon goes up more and more, chasing the horizon. I can’t sleep. I finish the mug filled with wine and pour another one. I’m not trying to get drunk, just killing time.
I pick up the map and look over the remaining distance we have left before reaching Varsh. It’s about a four hour walk from here. We’re going to stay a night over there and then in the morning catch one of those Sledcarts Valerie mentioned.
The topography of the town is simple, it’s a cross of main streets with smaller streets shooting off to the side. The center seems to be some sort of square as well. I try to memorize the way the town is built. I don’t know why but better safe than sorry.
The moon is shifting closer and closer to its final destination. I wish I could feel tired right now. Get some sleep in but no such luck.
A little while passes and the sun begins to peek out from behind the ground’s curtain. It’s time for the ladies to wake up. I poke Xerra and Nyxie awake, they begrudgingly look at me and turn back to try and get some more sleep.
I let them be for now. Valerie’s next in line. I crouch over her and poke her cheek with my index finger a couple of times. She swipes it away probably thinking it’s a bug or something.
I poke her once more, she opens one eye and looks at me.
- “Good morning Valerie.” - She shifts around and then lifts herself off the ground.
- “Good morning Leshy. You have bags under your eyes.” - She mumbles around getting herself in order.
- “Couldn’t sleep. Come on, wake up.” - I stand in front of her and pinch her cheek.
It’s just a short moment, a few seconds where we look at one another. The hand pinching her cheek moves on its own and wants to hold her… Valerie breathes in and then out heavily with her mouth half open.
- “We should wake the others up.” - The spell breaks with her words. It’s a little over a whisper. She turns away and stops in her tracks when she notices Xerra.
She’s up, propping herself up on her arm while the other rests on her knee. She’s looking at us with a gentle smile. Valerie unfreezes and goes over to Nyxie and Xerra follows her with her eye.
I take back my hand and place it on my hip. Deep breaths, I don’t know what happened there...The group gets themselves sorted and we quickly head out.
Most of the trip I stay quiet as does Valerie. Xerra and Nyxie provide the entertainment, with Xerra acting as the “Cool uncle” of the group. Sharing epic stories of how she brought down a Titanothar once and then had to run without breaks back to Nova Vertex and Valerie saved her.
Honestly this is as far fetched as it goes but Nyxie’s enthralled in it. Probably with our fight she will believe Xerra any story she tells. Nyxie makes some distance between her and the group and takes out her daggers.
She swings them around a little, simulating fighting I guess. From time to time Xerra points out some mistakes she makes in her swings. Valerie meanwhile is in front of me walking quietly towards Varsh. From time to time she looks back at Nyxie to see what sort of shenanigans the gremlin is up to.
I can see her flushed face when she does. A warm pulse goes through my body every time she looks back. Sometimes my brain pushes me to talk but nothing really comes out and my mouth ends up staying shut.
- “You two are very quiet.” - Xerra’s voice can be heard.
- “I didn’t sleep well.”
- “I didn’t either.”
My and Valerie’s response is hushed, Xerra’s face turns into a caring smirk but she doesn’t press the topic further. For another couple of hours we just continue walking. We’re approaching a forest but the road seems to go around it.
The hilly plains turn into a flatter and flatter surface the further we go. Xerra explains that multiple Titanothars walked through the area we passed through thousands of years ago, creating the hilly landscape.
Today's trip to the next campsite is uneventful.There was one close call with Nyxie cutting her finger open. She suggested I heal it to train my ability but after my refusal, Valerie put a quick patch up job with a bandage on it.
After a couple more hours of walking we reach our next resting site. This one’s a bit different.
There’s a familiar looking Log Hut placed just in front of a campfire and a couple of logs that work as seats. The hut itself is simple, walls made out of wood logs, no windows and a thatch roof. There’s a chimney just like in the other one I stayed at.
- “This feels familiar.”
- “Yep! We had the same kind of hut built at the halfpoint between all the connected towns.” - Valerie cracks open the door and a cloud of dust comes out. - “Seems nobody’s been here for a while.”
We all throw our backpacks around, each claiming a piece of the hut for themselves. I instinctively throw my backpack close to Valerie, we share a look but not a word is exchanged.
Nyxie looks around the hut, a little confused but after looking at what we’re doing she finds her own little spot and settles down. Valerie starts prepping some food and Xerra pulls out her wine filled waterskin.
I start looking over my gear, polishing my sword and Revertium sleeve. Occasionally glancing over at Valerie and then at Nyxie.
The gremlin is rummaging through her bag with a frown on her face. After a few seconds she squeaks happily and pulls out a haphazardly put together wooden box and opens it. From it she picks up a ripped cloth doll and a needle with some string attached to it. Once she’s propped up against the wall, her hands start working on patching up the doll and her lips hum a gentle song.
- “Aaaah! I need to work out.” - I set my gear aside and head over to the door.
- “I’ll call you over once the food is ready.” - After waving to Valerie and the gang I exit out of the hut.
The sun is now firmly set a nice 45 degrees over the horizon. There’s a few more hours before night comes. I flex my muscles and stretch out, the door opens again behind me.
- “Can I watch?” - Nyxie’s looking through the slit between the door and the frame.
- “You can join if you want to.” - She opens the door and runs out towards me.
- “So, what do we do, Leshy?”
- “I train, and you work out twice as hard as me. We need to get those noodle arms of yours in shape.” - I squeeze her non existent bicep. - “Just do what I do, but for as long as you can before you move to the next thing.
She nods eagerly, unaware of the excruciating exertion ahead of her. I go to the side and lie back down. Time to do some sit ups!
Nyxie follows suit, plops down next to me and starts following my workout, trying to keep up but after 15 or so she starts slowing down, sweating. I keep going as much as I personally can, 50 Sit ups, 50 Push ups, a hundred or so squats. Then a break and back to it again.
On the other hand, Nyxie capped out after her first 10 push ups and is resting now, wheezing. As my body gets used to the exertion and sweat builds up on my shirt I realize just how incredibly powerful this body is.
Even the strongest men on Earth would tap out halfway through this. But. I’m almost at my limit… time to make it a bit more spicy. I close my eyes and call my Wave, pushing it through my body. There’s a slight tremble to my muscles as they try to contain themselves, the exertion made them a bit weak.
- “Whoa!” - I hear Nyxie’s voice, her eyes are staring me down. - “Are you using it now?! The Wave?”
- “Yep. Actually, do it as well and train with it going. Just, don’t break anything like last time.” - I go back to my practice and Nyxie starts to focus.
My entire body feels light as a feather but my muscles keep trembling all over. Nyxie finishes her little ritual a few minutes later and begins at the same place I’m at, following my moves.
We continue on for an hour or so, occasionally taking a break and trying to keep our focus up.
Another quarter of an hour passes and Nyxie’s dead on the ground, gasping for air, whimpering as she moves around. She’ll learn, this is good. I reach my hand to her and she grabs it and shakily pulls herself up.
- “You two telepathic or what? Food’s ready but it seems you two are finished as well.” - Valerie’s hitting the door with a wooden ladle.
- “Ow… Ow… Ow…” - Nyxie takes it step by step, wincing at every step towards the door. I stick behind her and make sure she gets inside without folding like laundry.
- “The fuck did the gremlin do now?” - Xerra peeks out at us.
- “Used the wave to train, she’s about to become a snail so I hope the food is perfect.” - I push Nyxie forward, towards the fireplace where Xerra’s at. She swings her head around and pouts at me.
We all settle down by the fire, Nyxie attempts to sit between me and Valerie but Xerra quickly picks her up like a backpack and settles her down next to herself. Nyxie just kinda accepts her fate as is with a neutral face, holding her food.
- “So! You know, Nyxie tapped out after ten push ups and had to take a break!”
- “AAAH! Stop it! I’m getting bullied!” - Nyxie yells out, stomping her legs on the ground.
We all share a laugh afterwards at Nyxie’s expense who’s now pouting and quietly munching on her food. Occasionally me and Valerie bump into each other as we reach for the Ladle for the same time. Sometimes it’s just a simple look we share.
Xerra’s actively drinking herself asleep, as she usually does. Nyxie’s already out not even half an hour later, dangling off her chair by a thread.
- “You two should probably hit the hay. The gremlin’s about to become furniture.” - Valerie picks up Nyxie and takes her to her bedroll, setting her down. The kid’s snoring already. - “You too Xerra. To bed before you pass out.”
- “Fine fine, just if you two are going to do stuff, go outside and do it behind the hut.”
- “Wha…!” - Valerie attempts to retort but Xerra quickly laughs a hardy laugh, slapping her hip and laying down on her bedroll. - “She’s going to get it one day!”
- “Relax, she’s just being funny. Guy and Girl stay up behind, you know how it goes.” - I make an off mark joke clearly because Valerie’s glaring at me.
- “No Leshy… I don’t know.”
- “Hey, I didn’t mean to make you mad alright? How about some more wine, we’re staying up anyway for a bit longer.” - I reach over for two cups and Xerra’s Wine filled waterskin, pouring us two to drink.
- “Are you not tired after your training?” - Valerie takes a swig of wine but keeps eye contact.
- “Naaah, this much training’s not doing much anymore. I need to find some other way to get stronger.” - I squeeze on my bicep, harder than iron. I can’t help but smirk.
- “You’re strong enough. After a month, being able to even land a hit on Xerra. On me.” - Valerie puts her hand on my shoulder but quickly retracts it. - “You’re very strong Leshy.”
- “Not strong enough…” - If I”m not stronger than Valerie, then there are people who can hurt everything I care about…
I scoot closer to Valerie and reach out my mug. She hits hers on mine and we take another swig.
- “You said I landed a hit on you. And yet not even five seconds later you could’ve crushed my head. There was nothing I could do to stop it.” - I look Valerie up and down. She’s confused at my gaze. I keep forgetting just how crazy strong she is because she’s so small.
- “I had five millennia of training. Why are you even comparing yourself to me, Leshy?”
- “Because you’re the pinnacle of power in my world. You don’t get to be protected Valerie. Not by Xerra and certainly not by me.”
- “And you’d like to be my protector?”
I stop at her words with a response at the tip of my tongue. There’s a short moment of silence where we just look each other in the eyes.
- “I don’t know…” - I fill the gap that our silent looks made.
- “Same…” - Valerie chimes in.
We take another swig of wine together and lean back in our chairs, weirdly in sync.
- “Man, I feel mopey as fuck right now. Sorry Valerie.”
- “What, you want to cry on my chest as you did on Xerra’s after your arm almost decided to have a divorce with you?” - Valerie chuckles and runs her hand through her hair.
- “Why not, maybe you’re the one who’d like to be my protector?” - I wink over at her and she blushes.
- “Stop it….” - Valerie gently rubs the cheek I pinched a day ago when waking her up. Her thoughts seem to trail away a little. - “Haaa…~”
- “What is it?” - Her sigh piques my curiosity.
- “N-nothing.” - Valerie stutters and chugs the rest of her wine.- “I’m going to sleep. Good night!”
She quickly jumps up from the chair and makes her way to the sleeping bag. Funnily enough, we catch each other looking back to see what the other is doing. Soon enough we both fall asleep and time speeds up as it does during sleep.
When the next morning comes. I’m woken up by Nyxie kicking my leg, screaming something about getting up and getting a move on.
- “Hey! Sleepy head. We’ve been waiting for hours.”
- “Fuck…” - After stretching myself out I get off the bed and as quickly as I can get myself in order for the next day of travel.
This day’s not that good, most of the way to the next camp site, clouds are covering the sky and rain shows up from time to time. Nyxie’s trying to shield herself from it whenever it happens but Xerra slaps her hands down and tells her to learn to be uncomfortable.
What’s worse is that I… got a migraine. Haven’t had one since coming to this world but some things just keep following you around. I stop the group more often, usually the pretext is some food or drink, sometimes I just have to rest for real.
Valerie seems to catch on that something’s off, she asks me about the wound which has healed mostly and if I slept right. Xerra’s just being herself and insists that I’m being lazy. Nyxie’s just being Nyxie.
Overall the trip takes us a very prolonged five hours. Although the pace isn’t much slower than yesterday, it just snails on and on. After we arrive at the camp we do our usual set up, but this time Valerie uses some of her Gravity manipulation to lift up the spots where we set our sleeping rolls.
Xerra takes over lighting the fire, instead of using flint and steel she breathes fire onto the wood for a little bit until it finally lights up. Neat trick.
- “Alright Nyxie. Get up.” - With a grunt I lift myself off the log and tilt my head.
Nyxie doesn’t complain and gets off the log. She sets up on the road and readies her blades.
- “Nu-uh. First the Wave. Get it going.” - I massage my face and sigh, Nyxie follows my command and begins focusing.
I join in the act and wind myself up. Today Nyxie takes a surprisingly short amount of time to get herself ready. She takes her stance and points the tips of her daggers at me.
- “Before you do anything. I need you to push further into the Wave, find out how it flows through you, where it’s the strongest.”
- “Right, it’s very loud right now…” - Her voice is monotone and focused.
- “I need you to find what your ability is, I know it’s been only a few days but we have one day of travel left.” - I squeeze my neck and tilt my head left and right, the migraine worse than before. The Wave is definitely not helping here.
Nyxie closes her eyes and stands still for five minutes, ten minutes.
- “What am I looking for here…?” - I face palm at her question. The migraine gets worse from my hand impacting my face.
- “Let me try something different… Focus up again, but listen to me VERY carefully.” - She nods at my instruction and closes her eyes again. I wait for her aura to twist and flicker around, she reaches as deep as she can.
Nyxie’s eagerness and need to prove herself are at the forefront of her drive right now. Can’t have that if she’s supposed to tap into her power…
- “Do you remember your parents?” - Nyxie jolts at my words. - “They’re dead, and I killed them.”
- “Leshy!” - I can hear Valerie yell out but I lift my index at her, shushing her.
- “They abused you, hurt you and used you as a money mule.” - Nyxie clenches her teeth and pulls her limbs closer. She’s keeping focus though, that’s good. - “They wanted to sell you off as a sex slave for some Lord god knows where.”
- “LESHY!” - Valerie runs over and pulls on my shirt. - “What are you doing?!”
- “Shut up!” - I bark at Valerie. - “I put you on that pole, you nearly starved to death because I was being a good citizen. Valerie only protects you because she feels that she didn’t do enough before you joined. Xerra doesn’t give a single fuck about you, she’s only ever focused on what Valerie wants, and you’re what Valerie wants to be ready to fight.”
- “AAAAH!” - Nyxie throws her knife at me. I grab it by the blade but Nyxie’s already holding it, gasping and grunting, her eyes scream for blood right now. - “I get it! You’re all fucking strong. I get it…”
- “Did you see it Valerie?” - I look at her, my hand’s bleeding from Nyxie’s dagger.
- “No…” - Her eyes are wide open and Xerra is now actively watching.
- “Neither did I… Nyxie, do you know what happened?”
- “You were being mean to me.”
- “No. After that, how’d you get here? From over there?” - I point at where she once stood, there’s not a puff of dust, no hole in the ground where she would’ve launched from. - “You teleported here.”
- “...?!” - Nyxie snaps out of it and looks behind her, then at her legs. - “OH SHIT!”
I let go of her dagger, the pain from it cutting my hand open actually killed some of that migraine… I exhale and flick Nyxie’s forehead.
- “Done. Let's move on to the next part.” - I clench my bleeding hand.
- “Leshy, you need a bandage.” - I shake my head at Valerie.
- “Later. I need to finish her training, and we need to talk after it.” - I step forward and wave at Nyxie to move away. - “You need to do it repeatedly, over and over again. Once you can reliably use your ability to some degree, we’ll finish the training.”
Nyxie does as told and begins throwing her dagger and then clenching up to teleport. A few minutes pass, and she was able to do it once more. At this point seems she’s entirely forgot about what I said.
Over the next half an hour or so, the time between each teleportation grows smaller and smaller. By the end of the hour she can teleport around. But there seems to be a limitation.
- “Done for today. Good job Nyxie.” - I pat her head and ruffle her hair. - “Everything I said was a lie, none of us have any obligation to train you. Frankly you could’ve just tagged along as long as you didn’t go back to stealing.”
- “Right…” - Nyxie goes to the campsite.
The clouds are parting and some sunlight starts shining through, we should have no rain through the night.
- “Valerie. Come here please.” - She needs to hear this.
We step aside a few dozen meters from the camp site.
- “You can’t interfere with the training.” - Valerie’s eyes shoot open, it’s followed by a frown.
- “You were abusing a kid verbally in front of us. We saved her to help her, not to make it worse, Leshy.”
- “So you’d rather have her stow away her trauma and never deal with it? Have it bite her in the neck when she grows up?”
- “People get better, things happen but it always gets better.”
- “IT NEVER GETS BETTER!” - Fuck I yelled… The migraine comes back stronger. - “There’s no going back for her. She will cry herself to sleep sometimes, she will be miserable and cynical. But at least she will be able to protect herself if she can face her own bullshit.”
- “But planting ideas about how she’s not important doesn’t help anybody.”
- “You interfered in my training too, whenever Xerra wanted to push me, you stepped in and tried to stop it. But Xerra’s not only stronger than me, she’s your peer so you couldn’t just pull rank.”
- “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The atmosphere is thick as fuck right now. We’re staring one another down.
- “You nearly died because Xerra got reckless, Leshy. How do you want me to protect you or Nyxie if I can’t step in?”
- “Don’t protect us! You don’t need to baby everyone in the group.” - I grab her by the shoulders. This is not the time for a back and forth in front of everyone.
- “I understand that you’ve seen things throughout your life. You’ve been around for so long, so many things have happened.” - I pull her into a hug, she doesn’t push back luckily. - “You can relax, enjoy this trip. Let everyone do their things, okay?”
- “ok…” - She wraps her hands around me and pushes her face into my chest. - “Ohhh…!”
A few seconds later she pulls away with a beet red face. She looks down and a small panic sets in.
- “You’re still bleeding! Come on, let me wrap this up for you.” - She pulls me by the healthy hand to the camp and sits me down on the log.
- “You two alright? It got spicy there for a second.” - Xerra’s rubber ear shows itself.
- “Why don’t you focus on keeping the fire… OUCH… Alive…” - Valerie wraps my hand tightly. - “That hurt!”
- “Shouldn’t have yelled at me.” - She winks at me and puts the bandages away.
- “Nyxie, look at these two. What do you see?” - Xerra pulls her in and points at us over her shoulder.
- “Uuumm…” - She thinks for a little bit. - “That you’re jealous of them?”
Valerie crumbles over the log and breaks out into laughter. I cover my face and Xerra turns beet red this time. This kid!
We spend the rest of the afternoon drinking and chilling. Nyxie who’s been drinking water all this time has decided to join in on the wine. I protest but Valerie and Xerra say it’s fine, explaining that kids in Nova Vertex drink wine during dinner.
The clouds clear out completely with time and the setting sun warms up the area, slowly drying out the puddles around us. With the weather clearing up rapidly, my migraine also decides to calm down, ultimately subsiding entirely into nothingness.
With a clear head I decide to do some more classic training, Nyxie eagerly joins in as well. We spend the rest of the afternoon training, Nyxie once again takes it just a tad too far. We settle down for the night, tomorrow we should be arriving over at Varsh.
The night is chilly but not something the campfire can’t keep away. Once the first light shows and we all slowly get ourselves in order, the last day of our trip begins. Xerra explains to us a few rules when staying over at Varsh, no interacting with strangers, we’re staying in the Inn and only go out if we absolutely have to, etc, etc.
- “And we’re leaving next morning, yeah?” - I ask.
- “Yep, we have to catch the Sledcart early, otherwise we’re traveling through the night and that’s just not optimal.” - Valerie chimes in and stretches like a cat.