Arya tried to speak but it felt like hot coal had been shoved down his throat, he could barely lift a finger and his entire body felt as if it had been hit by a truck. The best he could manage was a soft murmur in the hope that Teressa might hear it.
"Arya?" asked Teressa as she wiped snot off her nose, her slender, pale face had turned cherry red from all the crying she had done. She scurried over to Arya's side bringing her face close to Arya's almost too close for comfort. She placed her ear near his mouth and realized his breathing had stabilized and his color was quickly returning.
"You're okay!" exclaimed Teressa in joy as her warm tears fell on Arya's face. "The white figure was right. She is clingy." thought Arya trying to push Teressa away but only managing to inflict more pain upon himself.
"You must be hungry. I was just preparing lunch." said Teressa as she stood up happily and began humming a jovial tune. She picked up the rocks she had been carrying earlier and began striking them with a renewed vigor. "That's right, I'm not alone." thought Teressa as she struck the rocks repeatedly.
Each time she struck the rocks tiny sparks flew bouncing off the mound of dry twigs she had collected. Slowly but surely the smell of smoke began to fill the air and Arya could hear the crackling of fire embers. "I did it! I did it!" shouted Teressa in joy, looking to Arya like an excited child looking towards her mother for approval.
"Oh right, the bird." remembered Teressa as she picked up the bird and threw it into the fire snuffing it instantly. "Idiot!" thought Arya inwardly slapping his forehead at the stupidity of his partner.
"Why did it go out?" asked Teressa innocently visibly saddened by the death of her creation, Arya would've like to explain to her that people didn't cook food by throwing it into a fire but he was too weak to speak so all he could do was pray that she figured it out herself, which in itself was a very depressing thought.
After managing to start the fire again Teressa decided to try a different approach, this time she held the frozen bird above the fire. It worked for sometime as some of the ice began to melt however she couldn't hold on to it for long. Between the chill of the ice and the smoldering heat of the flames she also had to wrestle with the frozen bird as it became slippery due to the water that percolated off it.
After dropping it more times than she could remember the ice had finally melted, now all that was left to do was cook it. Arya's stomach began rumbling as the smell of roasted chicken flesh entered his nose. However his stomach quickly began to question the promise of tender chicken flesh as the delicious smell soon became that off burnt coal.
Teressa had never learned how to cook, she was simply copying what she had seen adults do. Once she was done with the bird it was but a charred carcass, but beggars couldn't be choosers and Arya couldn't even beg. She tore a leg out for Arya and stuffed a small handful of it into his mouth. His taste buds felt violated, but food was food and his stomach was happy to have anything at all.
After what felt like one of the worst meals he had ever had Arya fell asleep, with a full belly and enough rest he would soon regain his strength even without a breathing technique. Sure breathing techniques were used to replenish life force and mana reserves at a faster rate but their main purpose was to nurture the development of one's mana core.
With every use of a breathing technique the mana core would mature, getting closer to a break through each time. However Arya had no need for it now, what he really needed most was rest and as night fell he was already in a deep slumber. Teressa had just finished taking a rest after eating and had regained enough strength to carry Arya.
Although her leg was injured Arya wasn't all that too heavy, after all he was a four year old whose growth had been stunted due to lack of a proper diet so it was quite easy for Teressa to carry him past the river stream and lay him down under a canopy of trees.
"I wonder where we are now." yawned Teressa as fatigue began to whisper sweet things into her ear. "Arya will probably find out once he wakes up tomorrow." thought Teressa as she lay beside Arya and fell into a slumber of her own.
When Arya awoke he found that he was surrounded by dark mysterious silhouettes. Seeing as his body was now brimming with energy he quickly held out his palm to cast an ice spell, however as he chanted the words nothing happened. No mana converged, no beam shot out, no magic happened, terror gripped Arya's heart as he allowed mana to course through his body and tried casting magic the traditional way.
"Child of water heed my call, smite mine enemies." chanted Arya and ice spread across the grassy floor towards one of the silhouettes like a hungry snake stalking its prey. Once the ice spell struck its mark Arya looked closer at what he had hit, "A tree?" asked Arya in confusion. It was early in the morning and the fog that hung over the forest was quite thick distorting Arya's vision. "But I could've sworn I felt something coming from there." said Arya, talking as if there was someone around to hear him.
"Teressa?" said Arya quickly as he realized that Teressa wasn't behind him. "What the hell is going on? Where did Teressa take me?" thought Arya to himself as he began exploring his new surroundings. Although it was day break the sunlight could hardly pass through the trees, the forest was so jam-packed with trees that it became almost opaque.
The trees seemed to tower over Arya as if challenging him to a fight, and that's what gave Arya a weird feeling. It felt as if he was being watched, like each time he turned his back on a tree it would suddenly uproot and stab him in the back. Every turn, every passage, every piece of the sky Arya looked at seemed the same, almost as if he were going in circles.
"Say why can't I use the other method of magic, and where did Teressa take me?" asked Arya trying to contact the two voices that plagued his head, silence. Arya received silence in response, the voices weren't there and that's when it finally hit him.
He was alone.