CHPT 305: Hunger Inside, Oak in the Night.....

Late Sunday Night, December 9th, 2240.

A lot can happen in five days. In a world full of Monsters and foul Magics-- the whole world can change in a mere five days. Hell, it could end.

That wasn't the case this time. Not for Claude. The week had come and gone like the peek-a-boo showers of snowfall that graced his skin every morning, matching his own ritualistic manner. The week was simple-- flashing by with the regimented manner of his routine.

Sleep, wake up slightly traumatized, hunt, eat, train....and then train two more times in varying aspects of combat and power growth. Results were imminent. He'd unlocked the Element-Based Skill, (Natural Sight), and with it, he'd learned that as a Nature user.....you could never go blind. Not really. Sure, Rollan's eyes didn't work....but in reality, he could see probably better than Claude. The natural world was his eyes. And now, it was Claude's as well.

But, with all that aside. The main focus of his days had slowly become the moments when he moved to bring food to his sleeping friend. She looked like a shell of her old self...no, that didn't fit. The sight was similar to a butterfly emerging from it's chrysalis. He couldn't bring any other words to it. The change was too fast-- too much. It seared his insides everytime she growled or thrashed around in the hamper. Because he knew. He knew this was only the beginning. Seeing her at peace in such a way was only going to end sooner and sooner by the day....and he was the cause of it.

Any day now, it would begin. The thought made him want to vomit and curl into a ball to let the snow bury him in it's icy spread.

That was a lie. The thought was much more enraging than it was depressing. In fact that's all it was. Rage....anger....disdain...embarrassment...anxiety...overwhelming soul consuming guilt. All he could do to expel it's maddening hold was direct it at the one's trying to reach Rollan's home. In fact, he was ready to venture out of the forest and bring the violence to them in the snowed sands of the wild. Violence seemed to be the only thing that kept his mind off of it. Even that didn't feel like it was enough.

In a weird way. it all mixed and diluted behind a simple feeling. A feeling that when satiated would remove it all. All the negative, all the worry, all the anger. But that's the thing. It would never leave. A never ending....hunger.

The week was hard. But that was life in the wild-- life as a Lupine.

***

The forest was cold. So cold that steam radiated from his flesh like smokey flames, and the snowfall melted into liquid pellets the second it landed on his capped shoulders. The steady drop and melt did nothing to split his focus-- a visual focus orchestrated from behind the Triskellion embroidered blindfold that allowed him to see the world through his Element instead of his eyes.

It had changed since it's initial stages.

The sight that was once muddled and made inaccurate by his own mind had become what it was meant to be. A perfect reflection of the real world....a perfect expression of Nature in it's purest form.

As he fluidly dove into a network of lunging and slicing Spear-Combos, the world around him glowed and flickered with life. The grass, like a never-ending sheet of green, interrupted by the placement of luminous bushes that brimmed with more power before being overshadowed by the even brighter trees. Their roots sunk into the earth and snaked out endlessly like veins of the planet.

Above, the Moon interrupted the spread of dark and expanded the range of his vision, like a torch-light in the streets of SkyHaven, casting it's wide fiery orange glow to the ground below in a cone of somber brightness.

With every spin and wild wind cutting slice of his spear, he could feel it's warmth-- like it was focusing on him despite it's vast coverage. Even if his relationship with the Moon was less than friendly-- he couldn't help but to stop and admire it's haunting beauty after executing a final jumping lunge.

"Did any Lupines ever like the Moon..." He asked in between heaving breaths as he eyed the sky from behind his blindfold.

"[Oh heavens yes! When you unlock your Transformation Skill, it becomes a beacon of power that isn't uncontrollably maddening. It becomes your advantage. But I hear you....I was horrified by the sight of the Moon for quite a while after I was first changed.]"

".....Ursula will be afraid of the Moon." Claude mumbled.

"[Maybe.]" Arne replied with a shrug. "[Maybe she will be...maybe she'll be traumatized by it. Or, maybe she'll be more like you. All I know is she'll be better off, if you are. Keep your head on straight, Claude. Your responsibilities are only growing larger.]"

"Yea...." Claude said with a huff.

"SQUAWK!"

The not-raven announced its presence as if to remind him of his newest responsibility. He let his gaze lower from the Moon to fall on the avian creature of unknown origin. It sat on the branch of one of the many trees surrounding him. The strong green glow of energy that emanated from the woodlands all around him outlined the creature, making it visible despite his visual blindness. When he focused, he could see tiny green fractures running through it's frame-- that was the way it was with all living beings when he used his Natural Vision. He still didn't know what that meant....

Even in the blackness, he could see it's light absorbing violet ringed eyes trained on him unflinchingly.

"What, you want food?" He asked.

The bird replied a squawking yes, causing him to throw a piece of food across the forest.

FWOOSH!!

In a flash, the creature was moving, leaping and bounding across the canopy-- lightly flapping it's wings whenever it hovered in the air for too long. Before the piece of meat could hit any physical object, it was snapped out of existence. The bird did little more than swallow the morsel of flesh before looking at him from its new spot in the branches.

"Come on then."

The birds talons flexed and made a clicking sound against the branches it stood on, as if it was preparing for something. The clicks and scratches continued for a matter of seconds, like a steady pulse. And then, it was off.

In a flutter of wings and violet eyes, the bird left the trees and sailed through the darkness in absolute silence.

In the blink of an eye, the bird landed soundlessly on his arm. As light as a feather. With it's wing now healed, the sky was it's home once again. But, it stayed. Maybe that would change sometime, but not today.

"Cool...." He thought before giving the bird the rest of the meat to consume. As it swallowed and forced down the food, he couldn't help but notice how much it'd grown. It had to be almost four feet.

After a few seconds passed, and no more food came, the not-Raven left his arm and flew over to the pack where it abruptly hovered before landing on Ashe's back as she laid in the grass silently. The Phantom Wolf seemed completely unbothered while the bird settled in and blended into the black smoke billowing off her wolven body.

With that, the day was done. Another day of training. Now, all he had to do was one more task before sleep would find him again.

A growl effortlessly flowed from his throat at the thought of sleeping as he headed back to Rollan's home with the pack in tow.

The walk was short. So short that before he knew it, he was out of the forest and heading towards Rollan's home...well not his home-- but what was beside it.

In the shadows of Rollan's home at it's right, a pot hovered off the ground, held up by the many dark roots that ripped through it and plunged into the ground to support the continuously growing trunk of the tree that had only been born a week ago.

It was his tree. His Ancient Oak. No more than six and a half feet in height with bark as black as the shadows of the night and leaves as green as Gil's Natural Flames.

When he reached the tree, he could feel the otherworldly edge that radiated from it's magical wooden surface. Not just a tree, but a gateway to a power and a symbol of his Crest.

The BlackOak Crest. A Crest awakened by those who've faced enough violence and bloodshed that it's red spillage of carnage could dye the bark of a natural tree to a diluted shade of murky darkness.

He didn't know much else other than it was a Crest awakened usually by Druidic Warriors and the power it was tied to from the Ancient Oak was one made solely for combat.

Until then, he had to tend to the tree. As some sort of lesson of patience, he could only pour a drop of his power into the tree every night when the Moon was out, and then the process was done.

The urge to simply pour his energy into the dark tree and grow it fully was strong in his mind as he placed his glowing hand on the bark of the tree and felt its roots thicken and twist deeper into the ground like a dozen burrowing black snakes.

And just like that, it was done.

"You haven't removed your blindfold, Monsieur...heheh..." Rollan said, ending his notion with a drunken laugh.

Claude didn't even jump anymore. "Yea, I forgot."

"It's become second nature, no?"

Claude shrugged, "Maybe."

Rollan took a swig from his brown glass bottle, "You've completed the initial steps down the road of Druidry. You've birthed your Ancient Oak.....you've completed the Ritual....you can see with your Element. You can see it. That means your ready for the next step."

"Which is?"

"Something the Warriors tend to excel at."

Claude turned to face him, now interested in what the darkskinned man towering over him had to say.

"Tomorrow, we will begin teaching you in how a Druid fights. Get some sleep, hm? I would say try to have a nice sleep, but that doesn't seem possible for you, Monsieur. So, get enough sleep and be ready. The Druidic Arts can be as difficult as it is effective for some...and as easy as it is deadly for others."