~In a forest in Lumié, on the 14th day of Zes, 1238 S.B
No matter how many forests we pass through, rivers we cross over, or mountains we scale, it never gets any easier. Not because of it being especially tiring or anything like that, at least not physically. It's just... no matter how far away I get from home, I can never stop thinking about it. Well, it can't really be called home anymore if I can never go back there. Ventur was just too isolated from the rest of the world. Being so high up in the sky, literally in the clouds, it was only natural for Ventur to be different from the rest of the world. Reading about other countries always brightened me up before, but now that I'm actually trekking through them? It's one of the worst feelings I've ever experienced. The sky seemed darker, the air was much too warm, the water was dirtier, and worst of all, the insects were unbearable. "Owning a garden seems so lovely until you have to maintain it." I don't know who first coined that phrase, but they certainly possessed genius far surpassing my own. I didn't realize the rest of the world would be so much to manage.
Just as I was beginning to settle on a positive note and relax, a shadow had been cast over me by a figure. The figure belonged to a woman with sharp facial features, brown skin just a shade darker than mine, long white and black hair, fins protruding from her arms and a dorsal fin on her back. The sharp featured woman swiftly put an end to my momentarily distracted mind with a light kick to my ribs.
"Hey weirdo, you're staring off into space again. I swear it's like you get lost in another world every few minutes." The woman berating me shook her head in disappointment.
"Now come on bird boy let's get moving! You were the one that said Fonse or Kao would be the safest place for us." The piercing gaze of her silver eyes stabbed me. From the skin to the muscle, to the bone and even to the nerves, her eyes seemed to peer right through me.
She attacked me with the hardest weapon to counter, that being, my own words. Given our situations, I did tell the her that we should head to one of those two places. It was the most rational decision after all. However, right now I just wish that the me of a few weeks ago was less rational.
"Salha, are you really not bothered by any of this? Isn't it too different from your home?"
She twirled her white and black hair, pondering my question.
"Do you mean like... the wilderness? Because if that's what you mean, I can't really say that Lumié is all too different from Beon. And you told me that Fonse is just like Lumié right?"
I suppose I did tell her that. I really need to keep my mouth shut.
I gripped my face in regret, lamenting my decision to help this woman who was so skilled at using my own words against me. But how could I not help her? She looked nearly as broken as I did when I had just been cast aside. To leave her, dirty hungry, and alone in that Bean field would have proved I'm completely worthless as a person after all.
As I toiled internally, Salha continued.
"What even is it that you wanted to get out of asking me that? You saw what I was like back in Beon. I think it should be pretty obvious that I don't want to go back there, at least not for any peaceful reason. If I ever go back there, it'll be to rip the noble's heads from their shoulders."
The air grew hotter, and electricity crackled around her as her temper grew to a fever pitch. Her gaze grew hollow, no longer recognizing that I was in front of her, and instead just stared past me. Trapped in either her fantasy or her memory, she lost sight of everything around her. The only thing going through her mind was her pain, and her aura was lashing out in response to it. The spark to the air was no exaggeration; the lightning tracing around her body is incredibly real, and it's created by her transmuting her aura into the form of electricity. As for me...
I spread apart my massive black wings and flapped once, and that motion was all it took for a strong gust of wind to blast forth, knocking Salha on her rear. This was my element, wind gaima. Using it in conjunction with my wings was incredible at boosting its potency. Salha shook her head as she stood back up, hopefully signifying the return of her senses.
"Ow! What was that for?!" Salha put her hands up in a fighting stance. "You wanna fight me? Is that it? Then let's go!"
Her ire hadn't disappeared, it had merely gained a real target. She rushed toward me with reckless abandon. There wasn't an ounce of technique behind anything she was doing. Poor running form, poor striking form. She didn't even appear to be using the principles of any of Beon's fighting styles despite the electricity coursing through her every strike.
A big, telegraphed overhand right. It was far too easy to dodge, and it would still be easy to dodge even if I couldn't sense the shifts in the air as she was about to launch her attack. She flailed relentlessly for several seconds, but it was a futile effort. She couldn't make contact with me a single time.
"This is dragging on don't you think? Why don't we just settle down for now?" I wasn't trying to show it, but my face must have spread into quite the mocking grin.
"That look on your face is annoying, but you're right... I should stop." Now that the sounds of crackling electricity and fists cutting through the air had ceased it was easy to hear just how badly Salha had exhausted herself. Her huffing and puffing after accomplishing nothing was disappointing to say the least.
I shut my eyes, palmed my face and shook my head. "You know, I could teach you a better way to fight if you want. I've studied the fighting styles of plenty of countries so it could genuinely do you some goo-" My sentence was cut short because I noticed something wrong with the air right next to me. It was the exact sensation of an arm moving through the air. But even with that early warning, I realized what was happening a little too late to stop it this time.
Salha's fist crashed directly into my face, and with all of her weight behind it, I dropped onto the grass like a rock. Before I had the chance to collect myself, Salha straddled me and continued to pound away at my face. I hardly even had time to put my hands up to protect myself from her pummeling me. What even made her so angry? Knocking her down couldn't have been that much of an issue, right?
"I knew! Something! Was off about you!" She let up for a moment, looking down at my bloodied face and catching her breath at the same time. "You speak so proper. You worry so much about your hair and how well you can stay clean. You know too many things about places you haven't been to, and worst of all, that damn smug look on your face! You're a noble aren't you?! Trying to sell me off somewhere once we get to Fonse, is that it?! Well it ain't happening! Never again!" Her fist slammed down again with all of her might, but rather than pulling it back up and continuing to beat me to mush, instead her hand got stuck. I barely managed to catch her punch and prevented her from moving her arm with a crushing grip. The shock of my strength seemed to stun her for a moment. Long enough for our gazes to meet and for her to notice that my long black hair, meticulously parted to completely cover the right side of my face, was now disheveled, revealing what I'd been trying to hide. The black markings on my face, most would assume it's a tattoo, but on closer inspection, they'd notice that it almost looks seared into my skin. It was a brand over the right side of my face, around my eye. If it's appearance were to be described in any particular way, most would probably call it a spiderweb. Her confusion gave her pause and she only snapped back to reality when she caught a good look at my sky blue eyes.
"Finally calmed down now that you've seen how ugly I am?" The sly grin I was wearing under my battered face probably made it unclear how serious I was being. "I'm sorry if I offended you, but you should know that I'm not a nobleman. At least, not anymore. The mark you were staring at so intently is proof of that fact."
"Wait, are you saying that the nobles of your country scarred you like that? You were one of them and they still did that to you? Just when I thought they couldn't sink any lower..." Salha relaxed her arm and got off of me before standing back up. With a palpable level of embarrassment, she turned her head and away and extended her hand to help me back to my feet. "Sorry for jumping to conclusions about you. You should be clearer about your identity so you don't seem like a suspicious creep anymore."
I accepted her hand and got pulled to my feet. "Hey, so if you thought I was a suspicious creep, why did you come with me all this way?"
"You were suspicious sure, but I was willing to take a risk on you since you helped at first even when you didn't have to. It was only when I was around you for a bit that I thought about how much you seemed like a noble. Then you went and pissed me off! Oh! By the way, you should probably..." Salha mimicked wiping her face to tell me to do the same.
"Yeah, I apologize for angering you. I'm pretty stupid, so forgive me if I say something uncouth. I've never been good at connecting with others either." I wiped the blood from my face as I spoke. Despite my attempt to apologize, her face seemed to sour as she listened.
"You really shouldn't talk about yourself like that y'know. It's not good for you. You're not ugly or stupid, you're just awkward. There's a biiig difference." Her hand smacked against my back and she flashed me a hearty smile. "Have a little more confidence in yourself! Women like that a lot more y'know!"
"Oh, really? I'm not too experienced with that kind of stuff so I didn't really know." I don't really get why, but I couldn't bring myself to maintain eye contact after she said that.
"Oh trust me I can tell. Buuuut It's not like I can mock you too much for it, since I don't really have any experience with romance either." She shrugged her shoulders while wearing an indifferent look on her face.
"On the note of things that we've experienced... I apologize if this is an insensitive thing to ask, but what exactly happened between you and the nobles in your past?"
The mood in the air instantly spoiled once more. "I'd reeeally prefer not to talk about it, okay. Maybe some day if we're still stuck with each other, but not today." Despite the smile never leaving her face, her furrowed and twitching brow clearly revealed her feelings.
I guess this is still too sensitive of a subject for her. I'll try not to bring it up in the future.
"Ah, well, instead of that, how about I teach you how to fight?"
"It feels weird seeing the one with the bloodied face say that to the one without a scratch, but I'm not dumb enough to think I'm actually a better fighter than you. So why not? What do you have in mind o' wise old master?" She was barely containing her snickers as she mocked me, but her question was still mostly genuine... I think.
"I don't think I qualify as especially wise, and I'm definitely not old, I'm only 22! But despite that, I should still be able to teach you what I've read about the most common Bean fighting styles. When it comes to hand to hand, the most common style in Beon is gaejumeo, which is based around quick, focused strikes filled with lightning gaima to shock the target's nerves and stun them." I became completely absorbed in the lesson I was giving, forgetting all of my prior worries, even the still lingering pain from my battered face.
I continued on, and she listened. Neither one of us knew it yet, but our relationship would be the beginning of a storm that would one day overtake the world.