His own luck

The way she answered his question sent chilles down his back

'To seek forgiveness'

He confusingly thought

People would travel long distances to get to a holy place, so that they could repent for their sins and have a new chance in life. It was similar to being reborn, people would willingly go through such difficult lengths to complete their pilgrimage and be free from the sins they had committed previously. So then why was she so uncomfortable about the whole thing, what kind of horrible sin had she committed to give off such a reaction. Arlo was perplexed, he could never see the woman commit such a major sin but as they said "never judge a book by its cover". Did that mean everyone who was wearing white clothing had committed a heinous crime and had embarked on this journey to 'paradise' for forgiveness, this made Arlo wonder the crimes everyone had committed and mostly importantly what kind of crime had the body he was currently in had committed. He didn't ponder about it too much, as he was in no mood to make any more assumptions or else he would just fry his brain even more.

Arlo didn't ask her anymore questions because he might make her feel even more uncomfortable, so they both sat their in silence. Until a man from the circle stood up with a bag in his right hand and a bright smile on his face, he said

"I'll pass this bag around, so please take a sip from it and gain your strength. We only have one day of walking left until we reach paradise"

Arlo had thought quite a bit of what this 'paradise' would look like exactly, some could say he was quite excited to see it. Their was also the possibility the trial would end when he reached it, so it was basically taking out two birds with one stone. Pleased with what he had heard, Arlo glanced at the woman next to him wondering if she would be excited, but a clear expression of fear was written all over her face, her hands were also slightly shaking.

'That's not good'

He momentarily thought

Right now he was exhausted both physically and mentally, so he didn't think to much about the reaction the woman gave. All his focus was on the brown bag that was being passed around, he patiently waited until the bag made its way around to him. Then with a sigh, he took a big sip.

'Heavenly'

It felt so refreshing, his muscles stopped aching and his mind felt more clearer. With a satisfied expression he passed the bag to the woman next to him. Now that he felt a bit more alive it was finally time to check his stats.

The makutu gave powers to humans that passed its trials. Passing the first trial bestowed them with a power which required some kind of energy to use, however people also had three natural abilities that they were able to see during their trial, these abilities took affect the moment they began the trial. Even though Arlo didn't have a power as of yet, he was still eager to see his natural abilities. He took a deep breath in and closed his eyes and thought to himself

'Makutu bloom'

With that, he slowly opened his eyes and saw text in front of him, it displayed.

Name - Arlo

Title - ?

Soul - ?

Identity - ?

Natural abilities -

Untold fragment - [Forgotten beings created everything, yet they were consumed by everything else. As a gift they left you with something special, which over time became a very small part of a ??? ]

Good luck - [ Your luck is similar to flipping a coin]

Unusual eyes - [ A long time ago, a blind man walked until they rewarded him with a new pair of eyes. His eyes could see things that most couldn't. You also possess those sacred eyes.]

Power - ?

Weakness - ?

Tools - ?

Guards - ?

??? - ?

??? - ?

Arlo looked at the text very thoroughly, he analysed each bit carefully to not miss out on anything important. He continued to look at it for another minute and then just sighed.

'So stupid'

He frustratedly thought

He wished to have some really cool natural abilities like having the blood of a powerful entity, but what he got, left him in a sour mood. He tried to gather up all his thoughts and came to a conclusion for each of his abilities

'Soooo… let me get this straight. Some beings gave me a gift a long time ago which turned into a very small part of something i don't know,...… what a useless ability.'

'I also possess special eyes which can see things that others can't, and my luck is….bipolar?'

The latter two abilities were quite good, especially the one that gave him special eyes because its affect was already occurring. Arlo was born with an eye disorder called Aniridia, which had made his eyes very sensitive to light. As a result of this, it had forced him to only venture out at night. But now he was more than capable enough to see during the day without his eyes hurting. It was indeed a good ability, however this wasn't the full capability of his special eyes. Arlo knew that this was just a small taste of what his eyes could really do. For humans to fully grasp their natural abilities they had to go through more trials and evolve further so that their bodies were capable of handling it.

He was quite pleased with his two abilities, however he did have some questions regarding each of his abilities. His first question was how makutu had named his ability. "Good luck" was a unusual name Arlo thought. Was their really a reason to add "Good", it didn't help him better understand his ability, however What it did do was confuse him even more. At first glance it seemed he had good luck, but after reading its description, it was more like in situations he would either be lucky or unlucky. To Arlo it seemed that the name of the ability was a trick to make him confused.

His second question was aimed at the description of the untold fragment ability, more precisely its first sentance. What thing had consumed those beings. The more he thought of an answer, the more his head hurt, so he decided to entirely scrap the question.

His other question was concerning the blind man, it said that he had walked till he was rewarded a pair of eyes. The confusing part was that it looked like he did so little to receive such a reward, all he did was walk yet that was enough for they to give him a reward. Arlo didn't buy it, their had to be more to this story than just that, maybe he had slain a powerful monster or saved a bunch of people.

As he thought about the blind man and the possible heroic things he might have done, a voice came from infront of him

"Followers, we will continue to rest for another twenty minutes and then continue our journey"

Arlo glanced at the man with curiosity, it seemed as if the man was the leader of this group or someone who really wanted to finish this journey and reach 'paradise', maybe he was both.

Arlo's mind was all over the place, so to calm himself down he glared at the desert for the next twenty so minutes with a empty head. Then he got up and stretched as much as he could. With a heavy sigh, he waited for everyone else to get up and then started walking in the same direction as everyone else.

The journey ahead made him pale a bit, but it wasn't exactly that bad. He was wearing white clothing which was light and he wasn't even carrying anything. The people who actually had it hard were the two protectors. They were wearing heavy metal armor, carrying weapons and also carrying multiple brown sacks which mostly contained food for the group. It was surprising that they had been able to hold their own for this long, it actually made Arlo respect them a bit.

As Arlo walked with the group, he would occasionally look around the desert. It was way too peaceful and quiet for him. Except for the sand and his own group he saw nothing else in the desert, no lizards, snakes or spiders hiding in the sand.

"Strangely peaceful"

He muttered quietly

Whilst walking he pulled up his stats once again and glared at them. Most of his stats were useless as they all had question marks next to them, but with a refreshed mind, he could possibly think of some answers to the mystery's that surround his abilities.

He first pondered about the word 'untold'. Did the makutu purposely not want to disclose the kind of fragment it was or did it simply not know.

Putting his hand on his chin, he thought

'Is it really possible for the makutu to not know the name of the fragment'

He immediately thought of the question as stupid. Arlo had always assumed that makutu knew everything, so the chance that it didn't know something was actually quite creepy.

Then his mind wandered of and started to think about his luck ability.

'Can you really call that a ability?'

He asked himself

It wasn't as if he was the only person who had luck. Babies born in a city could be called lucky or a person with a really high iq could be called lucky. What Arlo was trying to get to was, didn't everyone have this so called ability. People's luck was already random, you would either be lucky or unlucky, so then why had he been given this ability. Would his luck be the same as before or will this ability of his change it.

Whenever Arlo thought to himself, he would always have more questions to answer than before he had started.

The group continued to walk through the lifeless desert, until a person who was ahead of Arlo fell face felt on the sand. Everyone instantly stopped walking, the man next to him bent down and turned him over, he then repeatedly shook him until he became responsive. The man then snatched the brown bag from his waist and poured the unknown substant into his mouth, after a while the fallen man stood up. Then the group started to walk again.

Arlo tried to process what just happened, and thought to himself

'Is that what happened to me?'

Arlo had woken up laying on top of the sand. Whilst his soul was in the boundary, did the person he was currently possessing simply faint from the heat and at that moment Arlo's own soul had been put in the man's body.

It wasn't a bad guess, but unfortunately the makutu was extremely mysterious. Arlo had no clue how the makutu operated, he did know that this trial was created by makutu, but was this trial completely made up from scratch or was it based off something that took place a long time ago somewhere else.

'What a stupid game'

Arlo thought

This whole situation was a mess and the unbearable heat was killing his mood every second. The sun had made the sand really hot, and the only thing separating his feet from it were slippers which looked to be made from thin leather. So every step he took made his feet burn a little. He also didn't have a hood to protect his face and head from the beaming sun. The conditions in the desert were truly horrible, his lips were starting to dry up and he was already covered in sweat.

'Oh my, I wish the sun would just disappear'

He angrily thought to himself

Those words echoed in his mind until he had a drastic realisation, he momentarily froze in place and his mouth widened to a shape of a circle, why hadn't he realised it sooner.