I woke to the sound of birds and fluttering leaves. The light burned and I rose my hand to my eyes. taking a look around I saw one mildly happy Mark and a despondent Mr Cedar. before I could mount any questions Mark spoke, my head hurt like hell but I listened anyway.

“Congratulations you just achieved a feat that took me 32 years to do and mark over 40.”

“What in the fuck are you on?”

“The ground.”

“Just tell me what you mean.”

Rubbing my temples I rose from the stiff find that I hadn’t been moved from where I fell last night, just sheltered.

“To truly understand it you would need to ask someone who is allowed to know, aka not us. Though what we do know is that there are a few chunks of meat lying around in your body. There are three to be precise, one holds mana, the other holds a slight variant of mana and the third I don’t know what’s for. In reaction to an extreme situation there is a chance one of those chunks of meat will get damaged.”

“And this is good because?”

“Let me finish.”

“No.”

“too bad, when the…”

Mr Cedar interrupted Mark before he could continue his explanation.

“Call it by the proper name, or even just a reservoir, anything better than chunk of meat.”

“My explanation, I get to do what I like.”

I agreed with Mr Cedar, but my headache made me want to slap them rather than join the argument.

“Anyway, the chunks of meat are like muscles, you can train them. you can damage them, and they will get repaired better than before… in most cases. The reason why this is so revered is because it is VERY hard to do it without dying.”

Mr Cedar chimed in, possibly just to be evil.

“While we are on the topic explain awakening, I am sure the baron would have done it at some point, but we know how his explanations go.”

“Awakenings… I think I had mine 70 years ago, hurt like a bitch.”

“I said explain not reminisce… actually why on earth did you try and remember that?”

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“Somethings never leave your mind. Anyway, awakenings, awakenings, ah yes. Awakening is the term we use for when the purity of the energy in your flesh chunk reaches a certain level. Almost all the vessels in your body rupture and you feel like you are dying, and that’s because you are. But if you or someone overseeing you collects that energy back into the meat chunk it will condense.”

Mr Cedar decided to summarise for some reason.

“You can think of it as the awakening being the first time that your energy condenses beyond a threshold of purity. It depends on the person when that happens, and it also depends on the persons reservoir.”

There were too things on my mind after that, the first was thirst the second was questions.

I held up three fingers

“One, all my veins felt like they were on fire, what was up with that if it wasn’t an awakening.”

Mark answered me swiftly leaving Mr Cedar with an open mouth.

“it’s just the energy escaping from your meat chunk.”

Mark really could use a different descriptor, and it wasn’t even a good answer, but I put a finger down.

“Two, why is an awakening only the first time?”

This time Mark shot out an answer as fast as he could.

“it’s because your body remembers what happened the first time and the second is easier.”

I put down a finger but raised it back up again.

“Three, how many times can it happen then?”

Mark and Mr Cedar both answered at the same time

“It depends”

For that beautiful answer I didn’t lower a finger.

Mark and Mr cedar gave each other a look but Mark eventually conceded. Mr Cedar had a smug smile, but it quickly washed away when he started speaking.

“The type of energy, possible injuries, lifespan and the strength of the reservoir are factors, all of which can’t really be controlled. It is mostly dependent on the person, though the way you gather said energy can also have an effect and that can be controlled.”

It turned out the answer really was “it depends” that just felt fucking great. I lowered a finger and asked my final question.

“Can I get some water?”

Before I even got an answer I lowered my finger. They would surely have some… right?

The two old men searched their belts before patting down their pockets and eventually searching the entire camp. They didn’t have any water. I gave up on them and stood up, I felt pain. My chest hurt, but it wasn’t that bad, it only felt like I had eaten something sharp.

I headed over to my things, luckily, I still had some water left. I brought the mouth of the leather pouch to my parched lips and felt as a pitiful mouthful followed by a dreadful nothingness.

“fuck”

I looked to the two old men and received a shrug from Mark and nothing from Mr Cedar as he continued his search. The way Mr Cedar was searching was not at all like the look he had on his face before.

It took a few more minutes, but every canteen was accounted for and none had water. We hadn’t filled them in three days, so it was to be expected, but it still felt like shit.

It became quite evident what we needed to do and I began packing up camp. There wasn’t anything like a canteen in the bandits supplies so there had to be a water source nearby. Our main issue was that we didn’t know where other than that.

The two old men came to rescue again however and by logic that left me bewildered found a small stream. Something about the terrain and the location of the trees, all of which I am sure was good knowledge, but the time for questions was over.

I took to the little stream and filled my pouch. As the water rushed in I looked to the sky. It was a fine day, the bright blue hardly hidden by any clouds. I brought the half fun canteen to my mouth, but before I drunk of it I sighed. It was not a long sigh, but with it much more than air was let out.