Morning came and Aloe gathered all his courage to talk to his son, again. Last night he had realized what he had done was wrong. He thought he was protecting Arin, but Arin's words only told him he did nothing but hurt him.
Aloe knocked on Arin's door and waited. No response. He knocked again and waited. No response.
"Arin, are you awake?" Aloe asked. He moved his hand to the door and opened it. The childish room Aloe remembered was devoid of his child. It was plain with a large chest in the corner. He pushed the door fully open and noticed the bed was empty and the window was open. Clothes were hastily thrown about and the pack that usually sat next to the chest was gone.
Aloe hurriedly left the home and noticed the Shadow Panther was no longer sitting in front of the home like it always did. 'Did they leave?' Questions rapidly popped in Aloe's head. 'I should've apologized. I should've been better. I should have owned up to my mistakes rather than making my son feel so miserable.' He had forgotten Arin was only a kid. He was his kid and yet there was nothing about that but a title now.
He made his way to the gates where some hunters stood at attention.
"Did my son come through here?" Aloe asked.
"No, sir. We didn't even know Arin came home. Is everything alright?" A hunter replied. Aloe turned and ran the opposite direction towards the Eldertree. Despite Aloe repeatedly telling Aloe he couldn't be in a sacred space, the boy always ended up there.
He rushed towards the Eldertree and noticed two figures in the distance, walking past the tree.
"Arin!" Aloe shouted, rushing past the strings and jumping over them towards the figure. "Arin, please stop for a moment! Arin!" The figures continued to walk. The closer Aloe got, the more he was certain it was his son with his Beast.
"Should you stop and talk to him?" Nocturnis asked as they walked.
"I don't want to right now." Arin shook his head. He wore a new dark-colored out fit with a belt strapped on his left thigh, waist and one that went from his right shoulder diagonally downwards.
"Well, this might be a good time to try it."
"Try what?"
"I sensed you've grown stronger and I think you might be able to use Shadow Step." Nocturnis moved over towards the shadows. They pulled upwards and he turned to Arin. "Come on, try it."
Arin nodded and stepped into the shadows, watching them climbed upwards and wrapped around him. The two vanished as Aloe arrived.
"Arin!" Arin gasped, coming to a stop. He collapsed onto the ground lifting his hand towards the shadows. "Arin…"
"Are you sure you want to leave your home forever?" Nocturnis asked his Master as they reappeared out side of the village.
"Yes, can you stop asking me about that?" Arin replied. He trudged forward in a random direction. He needed to find these 'remnants of Ash' and clearly didn't know where that was, but distance from Thornwood would clearly be the first step.
"But I sense that you—"
"Just ignore that. It's nothing." Arin interrupted Nocturnis. "Let's just try to find these remnants of Ash. Where did you sense them?"
"We must venture back to the mountains. I felt a lingering presence there. It's only been a day, so hopefully it's still there."
Arin stopped. "Going there means we might see those two. Do we have to go there?"
"Do all humans avoid confrontation when their feelings are involved?" Nocturnis asked, curiously. "If you want to follow the trail, we must start there. Who knows if we'll see them. Let's go there first and while we're at it, let's practice Shadow Step along the way."
"You're going to drain me of my stamina and mana before we find this Ash?" Arin raised an eyebrow.
"You clearly keep your feelings to yourself and waste resolution so let's practice Shadow Step." The cat stepped into the shadows and reappeared fifty feet ahead in the shade of a tree.
Arin sighed and followed after, appearing in the next shade of a tree. He growled and pushed forward.
By the time they arrived back in the abandoned mining town, Arin was tired. He collapsed onto the ground, reaching out for Nocturnis who continued to move forward.
"Wait, a minute… too much." Arin groaned. Ncoturnis turned and nuzzled Arin's face with his.
"Your stamina has clearly gotten better but it needs to grow more. I could traverse the entire forest in minutes." Nocturnis said.
"Minutes…?!?" Arin gasped, pushing himself up and collapsing. "We went for hours and I feel like I'm going to die."
"You have a long way to go, Master. We can rest here for a while. Replenish yourself with the fruits we gathered when we last stopped to rest at the Sanctuary earlier." Nocturnis turned and looked at the mountain. "I will take a look around for remnants of Ash. Wait for my return."
"Mmm." Arin defaulted to his clearly-I'm-listening-but-I'm-really-not response. He dug through his pack and pulled some fruits out that were sitting at the top and munched on them. He hummed happy that he could finally sit and do nothing.
'I guess I should look at my skills. I didn't even know I had unlocked Shadow Step. What else did I get?'
The System screen flew open and he directed himself to his skills page. He clicked on Nocturnis's name and watched the skills pop up. The current skills he had were: Cloak of Shadows, Moonlit Eyes, Phantom Strike, and Shadow Step.
"Hm, only one skill? I thought I would of had more." Arin spoke as if disappointed (he was). He shrugged it off and dismissed the screen and focused on eating the fruit. "I guess that's better than the three I originally got. I should work on getting the hang of the skills I have now - even though one of them is a passive skill."
Time passed and Nocturnis was nowhere to be seen. "Well, I guess it's time to figure out where this cat went." Arin stood up and packed his things and grabbing his spear before heading into the town.
Only a day had passed, but he found himself back in the abandoned mining town. Arin tried to picture the people living here. The homes, the places they went, the children running around and the people who protected the town. He wondered if this place would've prospered and grew outwards. He wondered how much ore would've came from this town if it weren't for the monsters.
A flicker of burning ash caught Arin's attention. It fluttered into the sky from the ground and a moment later, he found another one a little bit farther. 'Is this what he was talking about?'
He followed the ash, turning left and following it down three blocks of houses before it disappeared into the forest. Arin narrowed his eyes and noticed another fluttering ash print three trees into the forest.
Arin followed the prints, weaving Shadow Step into it with farther ash prints. He weaved through the trees, silently focused on tracking. Soon, the sun had advanced to its highest point and the smell of ash caught his attention.
The trees suddenly turned to ash and the green grass was nothing but gray.
"What happened… here?" Arin's eyes widened. The smell of fire danced between the ash as the heat rose. Blackened husks of burnt trees crumbled as he advanced forward.
"Master…!" Nocturnis weakly called out to Arin.
"Noct!" Arin rushed forward. The Shadow Panther was collapsed in the middle of the huge ashen field. "Who did this to you?"
"I found… it."
"It? Who?" Arin scanned his surroundings. There was no one in sight and he could barely detect any mana in the ashen field.
Nocturnis tried to lift himself up, only to collapse onto the ground. He was burned in different areas and there were cauterized wounds all over him.
"We need to get you to a healer, quickly!" Arin told Noct. He tried to lift the Beast up but Noct roared in pain. "What do I do? It took some time to get here but…"
"It's gone… for now. If you Shadow Step, you might reach Miss Tessa." Nocturnis gasped. "She's the closest."
Arin folded his lips together. He didn't like Nocturnis' suggestion but what else would he do?
"I'll be back as soon as possible!" Arin stood up and turned around and moved the way he had come. The shadows coalesced around him as he jumped forward, reappearing in the shadows of the shade. He blinked forward, never stopping.
Arin weaved himself through the shadows of the abandoned town, rushing towards the mine. He entered the mines, quickly, and noticed the campfire going.
"Who's there?" Rolan shouted, appearing and pointing a drawn arrow at Arin.
"Is Tessa here?!?" Arin shouted. He almost moved forward, but stopped himself. "Noct was trying to track something and got hurt! I need a healer!"
Rolan narrowed his eyes and held his position with his drawn bow.
"What's going on?" Tessa came into view. She noticed the bewildered Arin as she poked from behind Rolan.
"Noct's going to die! I need your help, Miss Tessa!" Arin lowered his head.
"You would lower your head after you left like that!?!" Rolan redirected his aim towards Arin's head. "I was willing to give you a chance to redeem yourself but you just fled! What were you even thinking?!?"
"Rolan!" Tessa stepped forward and between Arin and Rolan. "The matter of yesterday is a separate matter than this! He came all the way here to call for me!"
"But he tried to hurt you! He hurt me in the process! Did you see the fire that came out of him?!?"
"Fire?" Arin lifted his head up, slightly. "Fire came out of me? How's that possible?"
"I don't know!" Rolan shouted. "Get away from him, Tessa. Let me just end this Thornwood kid's life here! I shouldn't have even gave him a chance!"
"Please, heal Noct! He's the only thing I can call a friend!" Arin dropped to his knees and put his hands together. He lowered his head.
Rolan bubbled with fury. He had done his best to hold himself back but this? This was the last straw.
"Fine." Tessa lowered Rolan's bow. "Let me grab my satchel."