Amidst a thick forest, early in the morning, Ardi and Keith were still up, the man wanted to teach Keith his way of fighting since he agreed on following him. He was experiencing the best part of his death as he could discuss with someone new, ride an animal, and even though he did not like him, he also made acquaintances with Mister Show.
The problem they noticed during the first week together is that Ardi's memory through his death hadn't been shared. Keith had as much informations on Evander as Ardi had disclosed, just a family name.
As for the martial art, there was nothing of it, not even a glimpse.
The weather above their head wasn't good. Big thunderous clouds towered on the region and the sun's light had difficulties passing through.
Standing in front of the kid in what seemed to be a defensive position, Ardi spoke. "It would be much better if you were heavier, and taller, because we're using both the bodyweight and balance to give ourselves strength."
He pushed hard on his back leg and rotated his upper body to fight against the air.
Keith was mesmerized by the man, the first raindrops of the day made the man's shirt move in synchronisation with their impact. The motion he repeated three times was perfect. Keith copied the man's initial position and coordinated his movements to match Ardi's. It took him several attempts to get it right.
He could feel his tendons warming up in his forearms, he had to stop exercising after a few minutes.
"Man, I can't believe I forgot to do the warming up, I haven't done that in centuries, my apologies kid!" Going from top to bottom, the kid managed to warm-up all of his body, he continued with the move he had to learn, relentlessly doing it again and again.
With the ocean, hitting the shore a hundred meters farther, the wind rose and made the trees bend.
The second basic move involved was a kick, another weird move coming from Ardi's hips had to be worked on.
"I used my comrades to train this one, but you should use a tree, trust me. Even if it is an harder material, you need the bounce to get back on your feet as soon as possible after the impact."
Three simple moves were done and done again this morning. Push, kick, and finally one dodge.
There was no better trainer than Ardi to have the kid fighting against a shadow. The ghost wouldn't get hit anytime, and the coach couldn't hut his student. Ardi spoke.
"Those are basics... I guess. We've called it the Raging sea, achieving perfection with it is as unreachable as our wet, long lost sea as we can't touch water anymore."
In the evening after the daytime nap, Keith's sour muscles made the night travel a little harder.
Now he had to follow a new pace as the host of two supernatural entities. The salty air all around him irritated the bull's nose to the point it needed more pauses.
Days passed quickly. Once in the middle of the night, they encountered predators.
Amidst a yellow plain, where thatching grass was almost a meter high, they could barely hear them feasting.
Four felines, bigger than dogs, very muscular and, seemingly mad. They had an ochre fur and round ears, a wide snout and impressive teeth when they licked their lips. Fangs the size of a finger if not more.
Three of them were on the carriage they had just attacked, six bandits that had fought for their lives were being eaten, the two draft horses were dead as well.
By the time Keith noticed the predators, they had already been spotted. Cowtch wanted to accelerate, its legs were shaky with each step it took forward. Ardi spoke. "Fuck! Lions! Let's just hope they have enough food for tonight! We must get as far as possible from here, most of the pack lays in the shrubs."
One of the lionesses that awaited to eat her part chose to scout the animal it saw from afar. The bull was pretty big, but more meat wouldn't hurt one bit.
The predator crawled from the animal's blind spot, chasing Keith in its best silence. Show saw the animal approaching when it was fifty meters away, the lack of colors in Show's vision didn't help differentiate it from the dry grass.
'Kid, hold the bridles tight, I'll make the bull accelerate.' He said, giving him a strange bundle with haste before fully materialising.
The shape that the lioness had been chasing until now suddenly became as big as a tree, and it moved toward them!
The predator needed but a second to head back to its pack, full speed. As for Cowtch, feeling the weight shifting on its back, the animal saw, from the corner of its eye, the thing that made the yellow bushes rustle under its weight. Cowtch ran away in a straight line as Keith and Ardi held tight on its back.
A moment later, once the bull was out of breath, exhausted, Keith did his best to tie it to a tree, waiting for the monster to come back.
Looking at the object he was given before they separated, Keith carefully unwrapped the package to discover a rotten arm, probably coming from the corpse they kept in Show's 'mouth'. He went back on his own track, following the silver line that traced itself during his flight.
Ardi waited for the monster's return before saying. "I don't understand, this kind of animal lives deeper in the countryside, not next to the shore. There must've been something to push this whole pack next to a cliff." Considering a pack had to raise cubs, choosing a territory with no such decline next to the sea was best.
Thankfully it was night, and Show could act accordingly to the threat.
While Ardi looked at the rotten arm deeply concerned, Keith blatantly bit in it. The strong pinch near the sectioned elbow still had the nerves connected, making the fingers fold accordingly.
"You weren't supposed to eat it, kid." Said Show, observing too. The kid wasn't close to the bull nor any other living being, he willingly ate without being hungry. The treat was crunchy under his teeth that had yet to take damage from cutting through hard materials.
Ardi spoke to ease his own discomfort. "I've seen many parts of my life juggling with cannibalism, and lots of people practice it to survive in Chittagong, but I must say that's the worst nail biting I've ever seen."
Keith pulled the meat apart, the hand flat, he bit everything at once, making two finger fall on the ground, his blackened eyes kept trace of it and a minute later he engulfed both, crushing fine sand under his jaw, making Ardi wince.
The man could now observe the kid's delight. The summit of pleasure no kid had ever reached.
His breath was loud and even though the temperature wasn't cold, the steam he generated with each exhalation covered his face, soon enough his eyes returned to normal. "I'm back." He said to reassure the ghost.
"Say, don't you worry about having a foul breath? You can't approach people until you wash your mouth now!"
"I can't smell anything. Only a sliver of things I used to, and more things." Said Keith as he approached Cowtch. He added, sniffing next to its fur. "It's faint, but I'm sure I can smell sweat, lots of it, it's stronger than men's. I'm associating this odour with fear as I don't always smell this after a long run."
Another night in which they'll silently continue to travel, at least silent externally. Show still gave Keith chinese lessons, more vocabulary, always vocabulary.
The fact the kid's time was divided into two different schedules made him reflect on himself. Ever since he had his bad feeding habit, he never felt full. He never felt like a whole self either. There was in one hand the shadow's slave, and in the other, something he could hardly control, taking over thanks to the pain it generated starting from his stomach up to his head.
The thing haunting his blind spots, he was merely able to see it, once, twice a day. A shape, forming as fast as it vanished. He thought about it, revealing the fact he was aware of it to his party, but he remained silent, making his partner concerned. The thing he saw was nothing like the ones following them.
He meditated on the subject during Ardi's class. Left foot, right foot, kick up in the air! Feel the balance, feel the waves backing up... And come back with the same intensity. Inhale, exhale. Repeat.
One of Keith's daily routine was to unsaddle the bull. The hard part was matching its height to pull up the bags. It gave him force, one that slowly grew.
A banana tree was no fierce opponent, yet its soft surface made the kid able to hit without worrying for backlash injuries. They stayed awake until noon when they found a wild banana plantation, one that had been long abandoned, with wildlife taking back its due territory.
One step back, two forwards, dodge Ardi's ethereal kick, slam the tree with all your might with two palms.
Crack!
The tree fell down, dragging down Keith's next few meals, a ton of fruits that he'd have to pull up on the bull and fix behind him.
It wouldn't impede on Ardi's seat anyway.
The sixth week after their departure from Chittagong, they were pursued anew. Two men with orange robes down to their ankles. White stripes all the way down... No doubt, they were after him. The bad news being sunrise approached. It turned out they had settled their camp a couple of hundred meters away the past night and departed with the crack of dawn's lights.