As I arrive back at the building I see Astonax standing outside, he looks at me with an expression I can't quite place. "Hey Astonax, aren't you asleep yet?" I casually wave at him.
"I'm relieved you're back Gosamu, for a moment I thought you ran away." he shakes his head while slightly looking down. "I'd have needed to call for backup, and believe me when I say that they would have hunted you down." He turns around and goes back inside, I follow him.
"You know, if Victor hadn't said your hair changed colour during the night in his letter I'd have freaked out! But I actually think it's cool, it makes you look a bit darker though." he sits down on the couch in the living room, I sit down in the big chair facing it. I think it's the softest thing I've ever sat in! Right when I sit Vothe appears on my lap, almost automatically I pet his head. If I couldn't follow his movements through our bound it'd be very annoying that he just appears and disappears into the void.
"Did Victor say more about me in that letter?" I look at Astonax questioningly while patting Vothe's soft fur.
"Not much really, just about your hare, that you're a creator who's powers are unknown and that you might have opened a dantian. You'll probably understand that they wouldn't put me alone in this house with a stranger, I needed an idea about whom I had to deal with." I understand his point, I still don't like it that thay just tell other people what I can do. Maybe a path in the shadows isn't laid out for me, but it's too early to say now.
"I understand." I won't say more about it. "But did you call me here just to tell me this?"
"No, I didn't. Seeing you with your hare like that makes me a bit jealous, so I'll show you something of my powers." He fliks his hand and a small, transparent, fog like ball comes out of his chest. When this ball floats about a meter from him it condenses. The condensed ball flashes brightly and from the flash emerges a small fully white fairy with pink crystal wings about as tall as two hands. "This little one is Alph." Alph sits down on Astonax's head with his legs crossed.
"Alph is the fairy I told you about, the one in my created world. But I'm a little stuck, for the last three years he's stayed the same. I know he can grow, he can grow through battle experience. But Alph's only skill is healing! He can't fight. I even tried forging tiny weapons for him, but he doesn't even want to touch them. And now I was thinking, as I'm gonna tell you about Alph anyway, maybe you have an idea?" This last question is asked with both reluctance and hope, he doesn't want help for his own power, but he walked into a dead end, in a way I'm his only hope in a way. Until he sets his mind into asking someone else.
"When you say it like that I feel like Alph isn't the one who should be fighting, have you tried training, or fighting beasts?" Astonax frowns as he thinks about it.
"No, I haven't really. I've been studying mostly, and I've practiced my crafting skills. I've never thought about picking up a weapon, not after I saw my father in that battle." He looks at his hands that are on his knees, Alph falls from his head, landing softly on his lap after some fluttering of his wings.
Astonax and Alph look at each other. "It's worth a shot. Gosamu, will you help me train? You subdued that hare, I've heard that fighting beasts that travel through the void is extremely difficult, you must be good!" The reluctance and hope are joined by a fire, a fire to fight and continue onwards. To become more today then one was yesterday.
"On one condition!" I point my index finger to the sky. "I want you to craft me a weapon."
Astonax grins at me. "Deal!" We shake hands and for quite a while I discus what I want with Astonax, I've never seen so much paper as he draws out all his ideas.
~~~~~~~~~
After Astonax went to sleep and I meditated the night away, thinking about the direction I want to go with both my own power and the Haven. The sun rose quietly from the east, as it always does.
I walked downstairs, after a night of answering inner questions and only ending up with more questions. "Good morning sunshine! You do give a whole new meaning to that phrase though, with your sunshine golden hair and all." he says while laughing about his own joke.
"Good morning to you to, have you slept well for those last few hours?" He really didn't sleep long, even though I can't really say something about anymore, I don't feel the need to sleep at all, sleeping didn't bring nice dreams anyways.
"It was good, I'm used to living on less sleep, so I'll be okay." While we're talking he keeps stirring in his pan, it smells about the same as yesterday's vegetables. "Yeah, it are the same vegetables as we ate yesterday, but I have some nice bread with it. It's not stale yet, so that's something we can be glad about. I just wish eggs weren't that expensive!"
"Hey Astonax, what if Vothe and I could find some birds in the forest, we could keep them for their eggs? You can probably make a nice place for them, and there's enough to feed it with, with your vegetables.." Astonax points his wooden spoon at me with an angry expression "No jokes about my vegetables!" then he starts laughing "only I'm allowed to joke about them."
As he happily continues stirring he continues talking. "I guess I could make it a place, especially if it doesn't need to fly. Something like a chicken maybe? They're rare around here though, so don't worry if you can't find any. I've got some things I need to try for your scythe today anyway, you could go into the woods, you'll need a nice piece of wood for the staff anyway." We continued talking about the scythe and about different nothings, which was really nice, I can't remember I talked like this to anyone.
After breakfast Vothe, an axe and I went into the forest, this time on a mission! Or three missions. Check on Goba and the rest, find some chickens or dodos, I might end up summoning the dodo I have in the list though. And finding a tree I want to use for the staff of the scythe.
"Let's go see Fi first Vothe, are you ready?" Vothe just nods and we're off.
Even though Vothe and I can talk telepathically from a distance now we still don't talk so much, Vothe isn't much of a talker unless it's necessary, or if he really wants something.
When running in the forest with Vothe I'm not so concerned about collecting, it's a great time to train my speed and agility. Running past trees and bushes with the least amount of movements possible. Although I needed to go with a pretty wide circle around each tree in the beginning due to the high speed and tricky ground I do notice slight improvements already. I touch every tree I needed to go around so I'm sure I keep at most an arms distance from those trees, but I do feel like even after 30 minutes I need to stretch my arm less and less to touch the trees. At one point it'll look like I'm going straight through those trees if I keep improving!
After about 45 minutes I arrive before Fi, An and Bo. They're still working diligently on the shrine. Bo is moving rocks to the side of the clearing, making a circle of rocks with a nice flat ground within it. An is flying around, mostly telling Bo where to put the rocks.
In the middle of this rock circle I see Fi, she's performing the greatest thing of magic I've ever seen. She's growing a tree, or actually two trees. The two trees are circling around each other, but at about every 30 centimeters there's a rock stuck between the twirling trees. This makes it look like there's an vertical stone eye at every 30cm in this tree. There are 10 eyes, making the tree a little over 3 meter tall.
Above the highest eye the trees twist around each other tighter and tighter, making the two trees seem as one. That's about as far as Fi got so far, it's more impressive than I expected!
"It's amazing guys! I'm amazed by what you've done so quickly! Don't forget to rest probably too, the shrine is important for the Haven, but not as important as those that live in it."
"Thanks master!" An is the first to fly before me. "But I haven't done so much, my skills weren't well suited for this kind of work." she said in a sad tone.
I look around, and most of the work that needs to be done is finishing the tree and the circle. Oh! "There is something you can do An, can't you use your little legs to make the most beautiful and intricate carvings into those stones in the tree?"
An hops around, while flying, it is looks rather funny. "Yes! That's a great idea. Fi really wanted them there, although we weren't really sure what we'd do with them. But I will carve some of your legends in it!"
Before I have the chance to ask what questions Bo is in front of me. "Master, while moving these rocks and flattening the ground my control over the ground has improved! I'm sure you knew that giving us this task will help us grow like this! I'm always amazed by you master!" and like that he hops away, back to work before I have time to say anything. I didn't know, but I'm glad it worked out.
Fi is still working on the tree, many small branches start popping out of the highest part of the tree. But it doesn't grow any further.
"Master!" Fi turns around and runs towards me, throwing her arms around my hips as she cries her heart out. "I-I had such a great idea master, but I lost it! I don't know how to continue anymore! What do I do!" I bend down and pick Fi up, she's still so little. She has her arms around my neck as I softly comfort her.
"You did such a great job already Fi, maybe if you just step back and take a look at what you did you will see where you were going." I walk a few steps towards the tree and sit right underneath it on the dirt floor. I put Fi down next to me. "Rest Fi, lean against this tree you made. Tell me, what do you miss?"
"I'd like to sit on something, maybe on grass, or on some tree trunks even. And if it rains I'd like to be..." she goes quiet half way through her sentence. "Thanks, I know what I need to do!" she jumps up with a cheer. She stretches her hand and a strand of grass from her dress grows towards it, it forms seeds and the seeds float up into the air. They spread around the entire clearing. "I'll come back to those later, I'll be busy Gosamu!" and like that she turns towards the tree again.
It's time to go look at Goba.