Jerric, who had grabbed the food we were taking with us before we left the burning message at our backs, was eating an apple. It was quite a nicely colored one, as apples go. Deep red tones gleamed in the noonday sunlight as Jerric brought it to his mouth and took another bite before swallowing and talking even more. He never seemed to run out of words.
"You know, I enjoyed our dance quite a lot." He said it with no shame, and I had no idea what he expected me to respond with. It wasn't good.
"You are truly disgusting. There is no reason for you to be romantically interested in me, nor should you enjoy touching me."
"I'm not romantically interested in you. I just want to offer myself as a friend, because you apparently don't have any of those and don't know how to make them."
The fact that he was entirely correct bothered me more than it should have. Not because I wanted friends, but simply because I disliked Jerric being right. With a sigh, I forced myself to give a response instead of leaving him hanging there wordlessly.
"Friends are unnecessary. We have a job to do."
"Keep telling that to yourself, but it won't make it true. And it won't stop me from trying."
Not one to continue pointless arguments, I said nothing more. The travelling continued uninterrupted from there.
It took several days to reach the edge of the Pine. Jerric kept trying to befriend me the entire time, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't start to feel comfortable with his presence. He didn't try to hurt me any further, nor did he burn anything else to the ground. Overall, that was relatively successful.
The Pine was a forest. Vast and full of looming trees, it stretched over nearly a third of the continent, and it was very easy to lose oneself within it. We stopped at the edge, staring into the recesses of the overgrowth. I had grown up here, and a few unfortunate childhood memories pushed themselves to the front of my mind. Leaving them untouched, I nodded at Jerric and advanced down a faintly visible path.
Trees can scream in the Pine. We'd decided that having Jerric openly burn his own body here would be too risky, so instead he'd gone to collect firewood. Maybe I should have warned him about the trees, but I didn't think he would be stupid enough to try and get the branches straight from the trunks. The screaming was all that alerted me. Dropping down from a low tree limb that I'd been relaxing on, I strode towards the source of the sound and found Jerric, sword in hand, staring at another one of the gigantic trees in shock. Sound was vibrating out from where Jerric had cut into the trunk, imitating a scream perfectly.
"Never cut the trees here!" I had to shout to be heard over the ruckus of the plant, but my message got across and Jerric moved away. Walking towards the tree, I set one hand on its newly broken part and focused on my Gift, which did effect plants as well as stone and dirt. Slowly climbing sideways, the bark healed and covered up the wound in the tree's flesh. It took a short while, but the screaming lowered in intensity and then cut off completely.
"You're familiar with this. Grow up here?" Jerric asked me.
"I did. The trees are more alive than you know. Do not assault them again." I said, as if I was legitimately bothered. In truth, it didn't matter all that much, but I was willing to let Jerric think otherwise. Screaming trees also signified our location to anyone else who wished to know. Back at the small clearing where we were setting up a controlled flame, I stared as Jerric arranged some small twigs and branches and set them alight. He noticed, unfortunately.
"I've been thinking...I could help you with your Gift, if you don't want to ask Yviss. He doesn't have to know." That was a bold statement from the guy. Going against what the Emperor seemed to want was terrifying and incredibly high risk. And yet...I wanted so badly to reach a higher level of power with the abilities I had. Possibilities whirled through my mind...could I kill Yviss? If I could get the secret to countering Crystalglass from Jerric, I'd be able to do near anything. Having an incredibly powerful Gift was useless until I knew how to use it effectively, though.
"If you are so willing, that would be...much appreciated." Requiring something from Jerric didn't feel great, and I knew he would likely bring it up in the future. No matter.
A grin broke out on Jerric's face, although it wasn't all that noteworthy. He was always grinning, smiling, or smirking, it seemed. Was that a good thing? I could no longer tell. Sometimes it looked fake, like those of Yviss.
"Gladly. What better time to start than now?" He dragged his gaze up above us, to the canopy of leaves shielding this small clearing from the view of the stars. Darkness seeped through the small crevices between the foliage, an indicator of night. It was unlikely anyone would be travelling at this time, or that they would stumble across us. The Pine was simply too large and confusing for an accidental meeting to occur.
"From what I know, the Gifts of the Crystalborn are based on emotion," Jerric was saying, sounding like a textbook. "The emotional extremes on one side such as joy, gladness, and amusement will boost your strength, while the other side will detract from it. You don't seem to have any emotions at all, so I don't know how this will go."
I took that as a compliment, because that's what it was from my point of view. Blocking emotions was a good thing, wasn't it? Although that would make it difficult to use my Gift, if what Jerric said was true. Searching my mind, I tried to bring up anything positive. Life was not my friend, apparently, as I couldn't find anything in my pool of memories that felt good to think about. Victories in the Arena? No; someone always died. My adoptive parents prior to the Arena didn't like me much, simply because of the fact that I was Crystalborn. Concentrating on nothing except my Gift, I pulled quite a bit of earth up into the air, but it was just as difficult as usual, and I couldn't keep it there long. Once it collapsed, I was left drained and breathing heavily.
"No success?" Jerric asked calmly, not sounding judgmental at all.
"Evidently."
"Keep trying for a while. Maybe it just takes time." Jerric's optimism was almost painful to hear, but I did as he said with a quiet sigh of annoyance. Even though I was tired, I forced myself to keep pushing around the earth and roots, spinning anything my Gift could access in a ring around myself. It didn't take much longer before I rendered myself incapable of doing any more. From my heavy breathing, it was easy enough for Jerric to realize I'd overexerted myself and was failing quite badly.
"Okay...so that doesn't work. Maybe try it the other way. Focus on the dark emotions."
While that seemed idiotic, I didn't have any better ideas. Depressing and painful feelings and memories were easy enough to bring forth. Mainly, those centered around the Emperor and his deeds. Yviss touching me and blinding me. Yviss expertly and condescendingly defeating me in countless duels, giving only shame. Yviss speaking as if I somehow owed him more than I could ever repay. Without me even noticing, my Gift had reactivated, and the patch of ground I was sitting on had risen, along with several other parts of the area. Not to mention the trees. Surrounding me, several of them were uprooting themselves to join me in the air, shrieking as they did so. I had power, I simply needed to learn to control it. It became much easier after that, and I could throw the chunks of rock and dust across the sky without difficulty. Jerric watched as I messed around with the ability for several minutes before I began to feel drained again. Everything fell back to the floor at my command...including what I was sitting on. The impact with the ground rattled me, but it wasn't anything serious. Being who he was, Jerric was rushing over to check on me in seconds, staring down from his standing position.
"Are you alright? That was incredible, but you need to be careful," he said with concern, "I don't know how anyone can be that strong, though. Especially for a beginner."
I was about to respond skeptically, but something else stopped me first. A large hand grabbing the back of my neck and lifting me into the air. I couldn't see it, as it came from behind, and it was all I could do to grasp at the fingers and try to pry them away from my throat while gasping for breath. Jerric's arms burst into flame, but he couldn't roast my attacker without burning me simultaneously. Whoever it was, he was huge. With one arm, he could hold me off the ground, which meant he'd have to be significantly taller than I was. Going for my sword, one of my arms went down to my hip and groped at the handle. The angles just didn't work, however, and I couldn't get it out of the sheath. Breath running out, I started to realize I may die here. It wasn't overly concerning, as I had nothing much to live for, but I felt that Jerric would be punished if I died by anything aside from him and he didn't complete the mission. My main concern rapidly changed as I felt myself being pulled back, then thrown. Thrown very, very hard.
Flying was something I never planned to do. The arm strength of my attacker was ridiculous, however, and sent me quite literally flying upwards, clearing the top of the trees and soaring over the leafy expanses below. Was I panicking? Slightly. As I flipped around in the air, it crossed my mind that I wouldn't live if I hit the ground. Solutions didn't exist here, at least, not ones I could use on my own. Closing my eyes, I braced for a bone-shattering impact that never came. I still landed roughly enough to lose consciousness, but I didn't die.