Rumi lifted the dirt and closed the hole that he dug out.
A Terra girl named Intone was bitten by an akshama that night, the group finding her corpse in the morning.
"This is distasteful work" Rumi said, Alia ignored him and walked away after making sure the body was buried.
Not giving the children a moment to mourn their loss she begins to quicken her pace.
"You know you could have saved that Ambrose kid" he said coming up next to her.
"We could also fly and carry them with us, what's your point"?
"This is your trial not mine, but it won't look good if they all end up dead, so take it easy".
"He's gone forget about it" She said quickening her pace.
Rumi chuckled and kept up "I don't know about that" he said wistfully.
"If he's not dead he's not happy that's for sure" Alia muttered.
***
Waking under the shade of a palm tree I stretch leisurely, 'damn good sleep' I thought with a smile.
Due to Ava's sending out her energy while exploring not a single beast or insect bothered me while I slept.
I still slept with one eye open, but that was every night.
I drink my fill and jump right into the water cleaning the grim and filth off of my body and cloak.
I could use mana to clean my body but it's just not the same.
My cloak was so filthy it that no amount of scrubbing would be able to truly clean it further.
After sunbathing to dry up for a while I head back into the lush greenery.
The palm trees are the same on earth except they had red coconuts, and all along with waters edge red mana grass was growing.
Taking a handful along with a mana stone I kept from the caverns I put them together and started a spark.
All that happened was that the mana stone shrunk a bit and the mana grass burnt to a crisp.
This happened repeatedly until I only had a few mana stones left.
I decide to leave, there was nothing for me here anyway and the sliver blob of whatever it was finished exploring.
It turned into a pebble which I kept on the back of my hand feeding it the scenes of the desert below and the sky above.
I begin floating west with my hands behind my back, replaying Alias actions over and over.
She grabbed the mana grass then the mana stone, she used campfire not some special method… I did nothing different.
I think about those lessons about how the gods used this energy creating life for the purpose of preserving this energy, finding no hints in the lore.
I focused on their movements and breathing…. That's it.
I stopped abruptly in the sky taking out the little mana grass I had and a mana stone.
I cut my finger once seeing the red energy clot my blood quickly.
I condense an energy blade in my hand and swipe across the other, a rush of red energy involuntarily rushes over along with a strand of mana from my core.
Taking flint out of my satchel I lit it and after a few minutes of burning in a flame, liquid that looked much purer than Alias emerged.
I felt the shift as energy was being drawn to it, it was enough to fill a vial, I wonder how many mana stones they invest on bringing new blood in.
I tried again with the last of the grass and a much smaller stone getting a lower quality batch but still better than what we got from Alia.
I think of her… that little wretch was keeping the mana stones using minimal ingredients.
She could have been looking out for us not letting us gain too much energy at one time.
But that stuff was pitiably weak so much so that the children still ached after using it and they didn't even guide us with breathing techniques which is a big part of it.
None of this made sense, if condensing a core was so rare why did they treat us like disposable diapers?
Why invest mana liquid at all?
Why not tell the children about breathing techniques or at the least give them medical attention before leaving?
Why tell us the distance and location only when it's too late to turn back?
Why not fly us out, Rumi had enough energy to pull us all out of the sand whirlpool effortlessly we could avoid the danger all together.
I start to put the pieces together.
''We are more than likely supposed to learn to use mana by the time we get to the association'.
If not we would end up like Jud.
I could only imagine the disappointment he felt when getting to what was akin to a holy land after all that work, just to be denied entry.
This was just speculation, but all my thoughts paint a picture of secrecy and servitude.
It's a good thing I asked Isla to go ahead of me, if she is around when I get there all will be well if not then I can find another source of knowledge.
I think of Mislin the Sylph and her offer but quickly dismiss it, those fish-men have a lot of hate for humans.
As I float in the air I felt a hair stand on edge and I released my energy falling straight down, the breeze felt good as the hot sun was closer when flying.
A vulture with the wingspan of a grown man missed me by a wide margin, I turned looking up when I heard it's wings flap.
It wasn't alone three others where gliding high in the sky.
The vulture like bird had a craned neck and a short beak making it look like an ugly human face.
It's beady eyes could see far into the distance and when the flying predators looked at the falling human they saw a smile spread across his childlike face.
Dinner that night was man-faced vulture at least that's what I called them.
I learned a lot about aerial combat from those big birds.
They used a mix of mana platforms along with their wings but the mana platforms made under their feet where no larger than a fist allowing them to turn on a dime.
Mana platforms are much more demanding than using bursts of energy.
Mana platforms would require me to release an abundance of energy and focus it in one area turning energy into mass.
Add flying to that and it would require a lot of attention.
It seemed unfeasible for me but the way those things flew was amazing.
No matter how hard I tried I couldn't catch them, so I played dead.
When they came down to my body I cracked one of the necks with mana surprisingly easy since they had very light bones.
The rest flew off and circled me from above for a while before moving on.
As soon as I put it in my mouth the connection with me and the little stone was cut off by force.
I reached back out to it slowly.
It sensed my confusion and it sent me back the sensation it felt, it was horrible.
Like I was eating squirming grain that tasted like spoilt milk but in my original sensation it tasted gamey but but not like that.
I asked it to send me back all the images I sent, since it shared only feelings and thoughts.
I was so astounded I dropped the breast I roasted perfectly.
The memories had traces of purple energy floating around which I recognized as mana.
I thought of my old friend Leeland who was a brother to me in my first life.
The man was a genius, and not just a figurative one he was a literal genius.
His IQ was the second highest in history but he was born and raised in the bottom of society near the Mississippi river with two hippy mothers.
His different experiences in life shaped a smart, caring and accepting man.
He always had this one catch phrase 'Perspective is a muthafucka huh baby boy'.
"Perspective…." I whispered to myself.