Chapter 9

We went to a room that I hadn't been in yet following Arquis around where we needed to go before we set on our journey to Lava Rose Rift, the first place we visited was the storage facility where they kept all the food and medical supplies necessary for everyday use or long trips like we were going on and then the armory for weapons and armor. It was here that we met Renfro and Pirouette together waiting for us, (Arquis still looked scared and angry at her when we met with them unexpectedly.) Renfro said, "There's something special we did for you when you were in your depressed state, we knew you'd get that fighting spirit back inside you once you had time to mourn and cope with such a devastating loss." They moved aside and behind them was my armor from the battlegrounds shiny and new with my armor plated pants and boots and the red shimmer like on my swords on the breast plate and a pair of combat glasses they threw in. Seeing it this way made me happy and sad from the memories but knowing I'll change the future for the better makes it worth wearing proudly. I also noticed there were some more changes besides the wardrobe there was a pair of red blood patterned pistols with the dark blood stains pattern against a lighter color red with a rough etching pattern. I saw them and walked to them amazed, Pirouette and Renfro stepped out of the way letting me look at them and feel them in my hands, they felt evenly weighted and light to carry perfect for traveling. I aimed down the sights away from everyone and asked if there was anything I could practice shooting and Renfro got a bottle to shoot at and I aimed and fired and it hit exactly where I was aiming. I grinned viciously and holstered them as I put on my newly fashioned clothes and combat glasses. "Time to get bloody!" Renfro and Pirouette joined in on my excitement cheering me on as I gained some spirit back and I said I was ready to go on my first journey to test my abilities. Arquis looked on begrudgingly waiting for me to finish celebrating. Before we parted ways Renfro gave me one last piece of advice, "I know you're well prepared for the journey ahead, but it's best to remember that you have power within you because you never know what you may be up against; it's always best to expect the unexpected." I listened to Renfro and nodded taking every word seriously. Since finding out about my innate abilities it was possible that some others found out about their abilities and would try to use them to take us out. I didn't know how to use any of my abilities that well yet so for now I'd have to just do my best to survive any way I could. I followed Arquis out of the room and asked how far we had to travel before we reached Lava Rose Rift and he told me we would be passing through at least 5 or 6 other cities before we arrived and said we would resupply ourselves when we needed it along the way. I was excited and somewhat nervous to be going so far away with someone I didn't really know, but Arquis didn't seem like a bad person just a bit rude and unsociable. We headed off away from the End Game Battlegrounds and towards the first city, unfortunately my ride that I rented had already been taken back so we had to walk to the first city which was about 30 miles away which was a long walk on foot. I tried to break the uncomfortable silence between Arquis and I by asking him questions about himself but he just ignored me so I stopped asking and just followed beside him quietly. Our footsteps were barely audible in the sand but the silence made it ten times more noticable and I decided quickly as soon as we got to the first city if I found a pair of headphones for my phone I'd pay whatever price I needed for a new set( I got them pain free for being a winner of the battlegrounds I'm just exaggerating), the old pair was starting to wear out and I could still hear our footsteps faintly as we kept traveling. We reached a city and I immediately headed towards the electronics stand to get some headphones to alleviate the awkward silence and sighed audibly. I was so relieved to hear something other than the sand beneath my feet and Arquis' random grunts of annoyance. Arquis saw and heard me and rolled his eyes and we got more supplies necessary for the journey and some ATVs and we headed out. Arquis looked at me and motioned for me to take off my headphones. "We have a long road ahead of us and it'll be a while before we see another city so be careful I don't want to have to babysit more than I have to." I mimicked him mockingly and told him "I'm old enough that you don't have to babysit." Arquis didn't seem convinced as he kept talking. "Once we get across that ridge we're gonna set up camp." We got across and made camp and then I looked at a tree and tried to focus my spirit on it practicing like Renfro was most likely referring to when he said to expect the unexpected. A few times I got some of my spirit to work slightly but it didn't completely form and came back to me instantly. Arquis saw and chuckled, "You're not getting anywhere like that." I looked at him and growled slightly, "You do it then if you're soooo good at it." I said angrily and then Arquis looked at the tree and raised his hand and a purple serpent appeared and slithered its long body across the tree and crushed it in half away from us and came back to him and looked at me menacingly before disappearing. I looked at the tree amazed and asked, "How did you do that?" He looked at me and said, "You're putting too much effort into it, it's not that hard you just do it naturally." I tried it multiple times again and didn't get it to work. Arquis sighed annoyed and said, "You're still concentrating too hard, it's not that difficult!" After him catching an attitude I caught one back and yelled, "Then what am I supposed to do!!" Red bursted forth from within me in the form of fire and went to burn Arquis and he covered himself with a purple blanket around him slightly scared as I looked at what I had done shocked. I looked again this time at Arquis and apologized. "I wasn't trying to do that it just happened." Arquis shrugged and said "I told you it was easy." I replied, "Is it attached to your emotions?" He explained, "Well yes and no. It's just whatever you feel naturally sometimes you feel nothing you can be completely emotionless and still use your spirit." I understood more now and curious asked another question, "If that's true why don't people accidentally use their spirit everyday on accident?" Arquis smiled at me slightly. "Now that is a good question, and the reason why we can do this and no one else can is because of the power that we gained when we accessed the final archive; part of our spirit goes in there but in return we can use the rest of it for whatever we want." I was starting to understand more and asked something else a little more personal, "What is the strongest presence in your spirit?" He lashed out at me as soon as I asked, "Don't you dare ask me that question again! You don't get to know that you don't know me and you won't know anything about me!" I backed off and tried to calm him down and apologized because I didn't know that some were more personal than others. He backed down and went back to his normal self and we settled down by the campfire uneasily. Arquis broke the silence before we slept, "I don't like you and I'm sure you don't like me that much either but we have to deal with each other for a while, so let's just let what happened go for the time being okay?" I nodded and we went to sleep a little while after.