A man may be capable of decieving himself his brother, sister and family but whoever is worthy of being called his best friend would see right through it.
Nymphs are everywhere. As far as there's nature, especially trees, nymphs are present.
There ancestors were sacred guardians of nature and maintained the world and it's systems, cycles and whatnot. Without them all the races would have been extinct by now.
The nymphs weren't considered amongst the races but they weren't not considered at all.
You can't kill a tree without a nymph knowing you can't kill a nymph without the rest retaliating. Usually nymphs didnt mind loosing a few trees as long as they were replaced but in the cases where a nymph was rooted to a single tree then nobody can touch the tree unless the nymph is old enough to die.
Nymphs as of recent are care free beings second only to some shouki.
However in some areas they were completely devoid of nymphs.
Neither nymphs nor scientists understood why but nymphs were slowly becoming extinct.
Cly had thought this island as one of such places but he was clearly wrong once he realised that it was nymphs Naha was chatting with.
Naha noticed cly not long after he noticed her but she didn't mind. She considered him a friend now and thus she could do as she pleased around him.
It was also why she was going to make a point of how funny he is to her.
" Did I tell you he did this like ten times till I came and saved him?"
The elves reduced their laughter into giggles.
They could sense someone on their grass.
The elves turned to face the presence.
Cly just looked at them with contempt as he exaggeratedly stomped towards them.
He wanted to make this quick.
He got close enough and said as politely as possible to Naha.
" Can we talk for a bit"
Naha looked around her
" You can go ahead and talk right now"
Cly didn't want to.
Not just because of the possibilities of jokes at his expense but because since her shedding,
Naha had gotten taller now she was just a bit taller than him. So if he started asking her things here he was sure to become some sort of joke.
" I'd rather not"
Naha slaps his shoulder hard.
" Nonsense, wherever you say it they'll probably be able to hear if they wanted to, this is their turf."
Cly reasoned it and sighed.
" Don't you have any classes soon?"
Naha grins.
" I have one right now"
Cly didn't really want to lead with that, he didn't think she would have a class right now and be laughing with elves right now instead.
" You do? What are you doing here then?!"
" Not going of course what kinda question is that. You sure you didn't fall on your head once?"
'sigh'
" That's not what I meant. Aren't you afraid of being punished"
" Why would I be? When I know what punishment I'll probably get"
Cly raised a brow and Naha sighed.
" Don't tell me you haven't noticed yet. Our chores aren't completely random, they are decided based of the graveness of the offence and whatever the island needs done at that point in time"
Cly thought about it for a bit then realised how dumb it was of him not to have noticed.
He shook his head.
" That's not why I'm here. Do you know how I can urm..."
He hadn't thought this part through.
" Like how did you recognise what you were good at?"
Nahashka thought for a bit then shrugged.
" It just kinda happened. Honestly I thought at first everyone was good at killing things but..."
" Hold up, is killing things your talen"
Naha nodded.
" Yeah I guess. I mean I haven't tried anything else"
Cly was feeling he had wasted his time.
Nahashka thought a bit then added.
" Of course I do know other things but what I think I'm especially good at is killing things"
Cly sighed at least he should get something out of her.
" And how did you learn it?"
" I don't know, I just know it"
He slapped his forehead and was ready to leave.
Nahashka stopped him.
" Why are you asking?"
He didn't see any reason not to tell her
" I'm trying to figure out my own talent so I can learn to be flexible with it"
" If that's all it is then why did you come meet me? I don't think I've done anything exceptional."
" Well. I really don't know the reason but I was hearing so much things about you four so I thought you guys have some kind of secret that I don't"
" It's nothing like that. I've not been around a lot of people but the few I have been around usually say that finding out one's self is important for improving one. Or something like that"
Cly thought about it for a bit but it was just another cryptic message that he felt had a thousand layers he had to figure out.
' just more work. Although...' after putting the two statements together he recognised two things.
The surface meanings of both could be paired together and that doing so would result in a cryptic idea that could help him discover what he needed to do.
Nahashka was about to get back to her nymphs when she turned back and asked him.
" What do you want to know that for?"
" I, meh it's not important"
he couldn't just tell her that he was jealous of them.
Nahashka frowned.
" Being open about the reason for a goal makes the path clearer"
Cly looked at her with a weird emotion in his eye.
' ooh just my luck I'm getting advice from the most simple minded race and it's still cryptic!"
He couldn't crack it, what was he missing.
As he walked along the length of the river he kept thinking about it.
' this is a complete waste of time, it was dumb luck and simple reasoning on their path'
He was hearing murmuring coming from somewhere. He couldn't descern where but he could make out a bit of what it was saying.
" Just... Apply... To yourself... Regardless of foundation... cheese..."
He understood now what he had to do and be.
A shadow is a formless existence and so it exists and doesn't at the same time. It is illuminated darkness formed by the obstruction of the stream of light.
' if I replicate style and fuse them with each other seamlessly I would be able to form a psuedo talent'
The talentless person has infinite paths to choose from.