Adimia seemed to have a good night's sleep as he was sprawled all over Paley, holding him tightly in his sleep. Paley slowly detached himself and walked out into the daylight. The forest was much different in the daytime. Flowers seemed to blossom out of nowhere; deep red roses and wide-leafed purple flowers called Amoreviola.
He picked a few in case Bacha wanted them and got straight to working out, flying up to the tree branches to do pull-ups on them. On the ground, he struggled to even reach five push-ups. He'd already run out of energy and yet he continued.
If he ever got into a fight and ran out of magic, he'd only have his body to fight. So, training it to withstand lethal blows and deal them out was essential.
Teerom had advised him to start small to avoid injuring himself, so he refrained from using his magic to increase the intensity of the workouts. Healing magic didn't work on him, so that ruled out healing himself if he did injure himself.
He was tired. Exhausted. But he kept pushing on until his muscles barely responded.
In about an hour he'd completed a hundred pull-ups, push-ups, squats, and crunches.
"Crap, this is too hard," He panted on the ground, "Come on," He urged himself to get on and stumbled to the lake. Now came the hard part. He wanted to sprint for at least ten minutes while his body was sore to increase his tolerance of physical strain.
Paley was already extremely numb to pain like getting stabbed or burnt, as well as emotional pain. On the other hand, his body wasn't. He would still jerk back when cutting or burning himself.
He took a deep breath in and ran as fast as he could around the lake. His feet slapped against the partially wet ground as he pushed on, but he only managed to run for fifteen seconds before collapsing face down.
"Man, this sucks." He groaned in a mumble. He had only traveled about thirty meters during his brief run.
"My stamina's horrible. My strength is non-existent. And to top it off, I'm painfully slow." With air magic, he flew his body back to the tent and lay down next to it to rest.
He took this time to reflect and think about the future. 'What am I gonna do when I grow up?' He thought and sighed, closing his eyes to listen in on the nature around him. 'Should I become a mage?
I could climb the ranks and help so many people that way. I could stop knights from taking advantage of the poor. I could learn new spells and create some for the benefit of everyone. I could do so much.
I'm gonna ask mom about it when we go back.' He concluded as someone came out of the tent. It was Teerom.
"Ah, my back," He stretched his aching back. As comfortable as the grass was, the ground itself was uneven and made him sleep in a bad position. Additionally, Amasha liked to hug something while sleeping and chose him as his hug pillow.
"Morning," Paley waved as he lay on the grass.
"Good morning," Teerom replied and walked over to him, "What're you doing?"
"I'm becoming one with nature," Paley answered sarcastically.
"You're sweating like crazy. Were you working out?" Teerom sat down next to him.
"A bit,"
"You sure it was just a bit?"
"Disappointingly yes." Paley mustered the strength to sit up and use a bit of healing magic on himself.
"Hey, can't you just use healing magic on yourself whenever you're tired?"
"Healing magic doesn't work on me for some reason. My guess is that I'm not advanced enough in healing magic to be able to cast it on myself yet." Paley explained.
"Sounds about right," Teerom commented - he didn't know anything about magic - and laid down. They relaxed together for a moment, taking in the ambience of the forest.
"Hey, what do I do now?" Paley asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Like, what's in store for me in the future? What's my purpose?"
"Oh, that's what you mean. All I know is that most people just go to school and then head into the work world. A lot of them decide to be mages and go to an academy, but most of them drop out of the academy too." Teerom explained.
"What do you think I should do?"
"I think going to an academy would be great for you, because you're a Quimnia and all. But there is one problem. We're peasants, Paley. Not only that, but we're orphans, meaning that we have no blood to represent us in the world. People like us are cast out, so the chances of us getting an education are slim."
"I see," Paley's expression saddened, "Oh, well, that's fine. I'll just keep learning magic by myself as I have been. I should become a mage at some point, right?"
"I bet you'd be one hell of a mage," Teerom tried to cheer him up, and it worked slightly, but there was still a hint of disappointment in Paley's eyes as he got up and walked back to the tent to wake the other boys up.
'That's it. I'm not letting your potential go to waste.' Teerom thought to himself and clenched his fist resolutely.
Once everyone was awake, they all went to the lake to wash their faces and relax for a bit.
"I'm starving, when are we gonna have breakfast?" Reben asked.
"We hunt our breakfast today," Adimia answered excitedly.
"Like actually going into the forest and hunting animals?"
"Yep, but since there are five of us, let's go in two groups: Paley and Adimia. And Reben, Amasha, and me." Teerom had agreed with Madella that since he was the oldest, he would be responsible for all of them. Especially Amasha and Reben.
"Let's see who can get the most game. Hunting starts now!" Adimia ran off into the forest.
"Well, see you guys later," Paley followed him by air.
"Wait, Paley! No magic allowed!" Teerom said and Paley switched to running after Adimia.
"So, where do we even begin?" Reben asked and followed Teerom to the lake with Amasha.
"We start small. By fishing." He took off his clothes and got into the water.
"By hand?" Reben asked as Amasha jumped into the water.
"Yep,"
"We should hide some fish under the girls' pillows!" Amasha suggested mischievously.
"Let's not do that," Teerom said, getting a bummed-out reaction from Amasha.
"Eh, screw it, I'm not letting Adimia beat me." Reben took off his clothes and swam with them to the middle of the lake.
Meanwhile, Paley had just caught up to Adimia, who was watching a small white rabbit make its way through the thick undergrowth carefully.
"How- do you- run- for so long?" He tried to catch his breath.
"Shh, we don't wanna lose it now, do we?" Adimia whispered and carefully stepped on leafless parts of the ground to follow the rabbit. The sounds of birds cawing and chattering surrounded them, as well as the soft spring breeze caressing the leaves.
"Hunting tactic number one: follow your prey. Hunting tactic number two: find its lair, where other members of its family might be hiding. Hunting tactic number three: improvise." Adimia mumbled and held himself against a tree.
"Can't we just jump it?" Paley asked quietly.
"Do you want it to run away?"
"No," Paley tried to follow Adimia's silent footsteps, but at every step, multiple leaves crunched under his ragged boots.
The rabbit suddenly took off, hopping swiftly into the distance. For a moment, its fur turned a deep grey, but only Paley seemed to take notice.
"Sorry, I must've scared it-" Paley apologized. But the real reason why the rabbit suddenly ran off was that it began to rain. Neither Paley nor Adimia noticed it, but the clouds had gathered, blocking out most sunlight and showered the forest with water.
"Come on, we're gonna lose it!" Adimia sprinted after it. Paley hesitated and groaned for a second before following him in a tired run.
"Wait up!" He started to regret working out so early in the morning. Adimia came to a halt, making Paley crash into him. They fell forward into a clearing where hundreds of rabbits were gathered around the corpse of a wolf. The rabbits were taking it apart with their buck teeth easily and in a strangely creepy way.
Paley and Adimia tried to slowly get up and walk away, but they were greeted by another rabbit. It stared them in the eye, and its drenched fur started to shift colors. First, it looked at Adimia, its fur responding by changing color to his skin tone. Then, it looked into Paley's eyes, almost barking as it turned a deep blood red.
"I don't think it likes you," Adimia commented and felt multiple sudden glares from behind him. They turned slowly to see all the other rabbits now staring at them apart from one, who was still indulging itself in the wolf.
"Am I allowed to use magic?" Paley asked and prepared his hands to cast Firebolt.
"No, no, we'll be disqualified otherwise. Let's just escape. On three, ready?" Adimia began to count down. Paley changed from a magic casting stance to a running one, "Three, two, one!" They both ran towards the right of the pack of rabbits just to bump into a giant ball of black fur.
The ball of fur switched colors to a deep blood red. The two boys slowly looked up to see a giant mother rabbit preparing to kill them.
"Am I allowed to use magic now?" Paley asked.
"Yes!" Adimia responded in a panic, but when Paley tried to cast Firebolt, only a spark was created.
He had been fearing that something like this happens since the beginning of their trip. When he was carrying the two bags of food, the boys spent so long walking around and exploring, that he ran out of magic.
Sleeping barely replenished his magic. He could probably cast flight magic, but nothing as powerful as Firebolt.
"We go back to running!" Paley shouted and took Adimia's hand, sprinting heroically, but his knees soon gave out and he fell flat on his face.
Now he understood why he was so tired back when he stole from the library. He thought it was the overuse of magic, and though it was partly due to that, it was because they got lost and walked around a bunch.
Running out of magic has a more mental effect than physical. But the mind and body are linked, which is why his body was paralyzed. The mind that controlled it was weakened, resulting in its inability to move.
Right now, however, he was more just completely exhausted.
"Paley!" Adimia caught him and lugged him onto his shoulder as they escaped.
"I'm out of strength," Paley realized he was far too weak. He was unnaturally fragile, like an old senile soldier. Without magic, he was nothing.
Adimia carried him on his shoulder for about a minute before even he started to wear. The giant rabbit was still a deep shade of red as it chased them. Paley noticed and winced his eyes until the red iris was no longer visible to the rabbit. In accordance, the rabbit's skin turned into a pale white. Just like his skin tone.
"I think it wants me," Paley deduced, "Leave me. I've got an idea." He shouted.
"I'm not leaving you!" Adimia hopped over a large root of a tree. An idea popped into his head as he did so, making him quickly turn right and sprint towards a tree. "Paley, you can't concentrate right?"
"The rabbit's roars are too high-pitched. They hurt my ears." Paley hadn't realized yet that Adimia was running as fast as he could right into a tree.
"Have you tried closing your ears with your hands?"
Paley fell silent for a moment, feeling stupid. "I haven't," He said awkwardly, bouncing on Adimia's shoulder.
"Do it and use air magic to make me fly. Trust me." Adimia was now ten meters from crashing into the tree.
"Alright," Paley closed his ears and eyes, focusing on blasting them upwards. The spell's strength was slightly abated by the constant hammering of Adimia's shoulder on his abdomen, but it worked as Adimia wanted.
His feet detached from the ground and he used the tree to propel himself upward. He ran up the tree. Once they reached the top, he grabbed onto a branch with his free arm.
"Haha! Am I a genius or what?" Adimia laughed as the rabbit stared at them.
Paley took his hands off his ears and almost sneered at the rabbit. The other smaller rabbits arrived and gathered around their mother. The mother seemed to tell them something, and they all moved away from her.
"What is it doing?" Adimia pulled himself onto a thicker branch which he could sit on. The giant rabbit seemed to squash itself into the ground like a spring.
"It's coming up, run," Paley warned. But to their horror, the rabbit sprung up to their level in an instant. Paley closed his ears as it roared and blasted himself and Adimia up into the air, barely dodging the rabbit's nails.
Adimia screamed as the rabbit jumped off the branch, snapping it. In a moment that seemed to drag on forever, it nearly reached them, but it lost to gravity and started to fall.
"Ha!" Adimia's victoriousness was short-lived as the rabbit squashed itself like a spring again mid-air.
Then, it jumped.