I was dragging the claymore containing the spirit of the Ursus I saved brother. It was heavy and gave me no option but to drag it, Ursus were really strong. It made me wonder what kind of monster could wipe out an Animalia as strong and proudful as an Ursus.

“You’re almost there, master,” cheered Larana.

“You could help you know,” I moaned.

“I would but you’ve used up too much of your power, healing the Ursus, which means I can’t.” I glared at her, she seemed pleased with her response.

“What took you so long?” I heard Tigra as I came into view of the camp.

“Heavy claymore,” I croaked about to give up on carrying this all together.

“Oh.” Tigra quickly ran over to help me, picking up the other end, being careful not to cut herself on the blade. “Wow.” She was just as surprised with the weight.

“I know heavy.” We brought it into the tent, laying it out next to the Ursus.

“Not that.” She kneeled down for a closer look. “This claymore is the keepsake of the Ursus tribes, only passed down to their greatest warriors. Rumour has it, it houses the power of an earth spirit.”

“An earth spirit.” I thought of Diluc.

“Yep,” nodded Tigra. “Don’t you remember any of your classes.”

“Well considering I was put into the basic class, having Instructor Willis repeat things more than once, of which I slept through a percentage of it, then trained by Master Lance who specialises in combat, so I would say no.”

“Just a no would have been fine,” snapped Tigra. “You can always identify a talisman by a coloured gem on it, the colour usually represents the element it is imbued with.”

“Obviously,” I shrugged.

“Oh, shut up and start the fire before it gets too cold!” shouted Tigra. Had I made her angry?

“Alright.” I held my hands up and headed out of the tent to light a fire.

After setting up the fire I began to cook dinner from some of the supplies mum had given me, now I just needed to be patient until the Ursus woke up, only then would I discover the mental trauma caused by the events he had seen.

I looked up to the sky thinking of the horrors he must have seen, his whole family wiped out before his very eyes.

I sat comfortably by the fire, looking at my hand as I began to practise with Mila’s power. I quickly understood that she wasn’t just a healer but could also be used in combat. I created a bubble out of water by just thinking about it, I could change its shape, into a circle, square, bird, fish, Tigra.

“Testing to see what you can do already,” commented Tigra.

“Well, I have to get a feel for her power,” I responded. “I wonder what others will say when they find out that I can control two talismans.”

“I would say surprise, but you follow your father’s footsteps in that regard,” replied Tigra. “Perhaps they’d even show you a little more respect.”

“You think.” I liked the thought of that, not being treated like a runt or them looking at me with such disgust. “They could think that I’m some kind of freak.”

“Don’t be stupid,” snapped Tigra.

We both shut up as we heard the Ursus stirring, we immediately poked our faces into the tent as the Ursus slowly sat up, he held an expression of confusion and sadness, as he glimpsed the claymore next to him.

“Hello.” I headed inside the tent, walking in low and speaking calmly, I didn’t want to scare him, but as soon as he saw me, he rushed to the back of the tent, his sadness and confusion quickly changing into fear. “It’s okay.” I held my hands out. “We’re not going to hurt you, you are safe.” His eyes shot to my right as Tigra came in next. “My name is Fang, but my friends call me Alex.” I kept my voice low.

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“My name is Tigra.” She introduced herself. “You are safe now; we were sent by Cathopia.”

Hearing Cathopia he seemed to relax a little, looking down at his hand, he slowly opened it. I caught a glimpse of what he was holding, it looked like a scale, red going into the colour of black.

“May I have a look?” I asked moving a little closer, he clenched his fist again. “I’ll give it back, I promise.” I held out my hand, watching the bewildered expression on his face, I needed to take this nice and slow. I saw a glint of curiosity as his nose twitched.

The Ursus slowly opened his hand again, he moved his hand towards me, then pulled it back. I gave him a reassuring nod and he slowly handed it over.

“What is it?” asked Tigra.

“A scale from a reptile of some kind, it’s covered in dark energy.” I examined it closely, it was the same stuff I had seen coming off the carriages. “I suspect this is from whatever caused the destruction we’ve seen so far.”

“You sure?” questioned Tigra.

“Yep.” I nodded. I had hoped by holding it I might get another glimpse at what had caused this, perhaps better than just the red eyes I had seen before but nothing, perhaps the dark energy wasn’t strong enough for me to get a reaction. I slowly handed it back. “See, I told you I’d give it back.” He still gave no reply, just sat at the back of the tent.

“I doubt we’ll be able to move him, but we need to return to Cathopia,” sighed Tigra.

“We’ll just have to stay with him,” I responded. I refused to leave someone in his state out here.

We both continued to try to talk to him with gentle words, but nothing got through to him. I couldn’t help but wonder about the horrors he must have seen the night his caravan was attacked by the monster of the scale he held so close.

The next three days were the same. I was worried as we were off of schedule now, but the welfare of the Ursus came first. He stayed in the tent during the first day, not eating any of the food I put in front of him, which didn’t surprise me.

The second day he ventured to the front of the tent, I kept catching a glimpse of him poking his nose through the tent. This continued on for the next two days too, his nose twitched at the smell of breakfast and dinner.

As I practiced with my new talisman his eyes never left me, always watching and to be honest it was getting pretty creepy by the fourth day.

I practiced with both Larana and Mila, there attributes were not very compatible, but that might have been due to my skill level, after all I had only unlocked her power a short time ago. I did however manage to make a little water tornado, it was awesome.

“What else can you do Mila?” I asked.

“Loads of things for you master,” she appeared as a cute little mermaid. “I can heal and…” Her appearance suddenly changed to a more adult one. “I can attack.”

“Wow!” I let out a cry as I could sense her aura completely change, this form was far more aggressive.

“What would you like me to do first master?” She licked her lips. “How about you try that tornado again.”

I gulped she was kind of scary, her whole deminer had changed. “Sure.” I created the little tornado again. I thought it would be a little water enhanced tornado, but this form of Mila was more powerful. and the water tornado was much bigger, blazing through the trees.

“Careful master.” Larana appeared on my shoulder. “While Mila is in this form, she wants nothing more than to rip someone into pieces.”

“Seriously.”

“Don’t you like my power master?” questioned Mila getting into my face.

“Yes…” I gulped. I heard Tigra laugh. “What?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head.

“Mila I need your healing half please,” I said.

“Fine, what a bore,” she snorted and changed back. “Sorry, if I scared you master.”

I sighed with relief. “Don’t worry.” I called practising a day after that, waiting until I returned home, so I could talk to dad about this.

No matter how much we tried to say or do for the Ursus, he didn’t speak or come out of the tent. I had hoped perhaps Diluc would say something but the Ursus was not ready to hear again the voice of his dead brother.

Tigra had been getting quite nervous, especially on the fourth day. “We can’t stay for much longer; they’ll soon send a search party.”

“To rescue you.” I laughed at the thought.

“No joke Alex!” Tigra raised her voice. “We are already two days off schedule, and it’ll take at least three to get back.”

“I know,” I responded.

“Plus, Athena will be waiting to hear from us,” added Tigra.

“Athena.” We heard a voice, and both looked over to the tent to see the Ursus standing outside.

“Brendan,” I said the name Athena had told us and he slowly nodded. I felt a sudden relief come over me, it was Athena’s friend, we’d found him.

“Thank goodness.” Tigra let out a sigh of relief.

“Brendan, Athena is waiting for you in Cathopia,” I informed.

“Really.” He held an expression of disbelief.

“White Avis with blue wings.” I described her, hoping it would reassure him.

“That’s her.” His voice was quiet as he looked around.

“I think he wants to go now,” smirked Tigra. Well, looked like she got her wish for heading back to Cathopia, maybe she was just sick of camping out.

“Alright.” It was time we finally got to go back home.