Lost but not trapped

Clark gasped awake again for the second time in two days the rising sun letting him know that little bit of information as rays of light drifted in between the tarps.

Trying to summon his transformation he found himself struggling to summon even the barest amount of energy a single hand changing for a second before returning to normal.

[Sealed Power!]

[The high-level ghost on the island has sealed a majority of the hosts power only the host can remove the seal through hard work]

"You mean I am now trapped here with these people?" Clark asked the question quietly to himself.

[No, host still has the power of flight and with enough concentration you could still become intangible the island cannot hold you]

"Then what stops me from leaving?"

[Your conscience will keep you here to help these people]

"I can't help anyone I am unable to even help myself."

[Try harder]

The notifications stopped after that leaving him alone with his thoughts as Clark tried to move the energy, he felt coursing through his veins.  It wasn't able to leave his body for long at the moment, but he would find a way.

A couple of wisps drifted free of his hand swirling towards the tarp draped over top pushing it up for a second before disappearing.

He felt weaker afterwards though his head starting to pound with a distant headache on the way.

There was a long way to go before he would even have his passive protection back.  Getting up slowly Clark poked his head out of the makeshift shelter looking around at the people that were on the move.

Along the oceans edge he could see the same man and woman that had probably brought him here talking heatedly to each other.

Slipping out of the shelter Clark took a look around at everyone before he began to walk towards the jungle.  He had no interest in interacting with them directly at the moment but at the very least he could help them with resources as he found them.

Clark was sure now after two days that he no longer required food or water to actually survive even as diminished as he was now there was no thirst or even discomfort from the sun beating down.

Walking towards the jungle he had an easy time blending in with all the other lost and confused people up until he was at the edge of the jungle.  His foot hovered in the air for second as he remembered the savage beating that he had been dealt in there.

Not that there was anything stopping it from happening again on the beach there was no guarantee at all actually.

Taking that first step into the jungle pretty soon Clark was jogging through it his heightened sense of hearing slowly picking up the sound of falling water the further in he travelled.

Within minutes he was standing in front of a cave some wreckage from the plane crash on the beach was in the area as well a decent sized piece was almost covering the entrance.

Approaching slowly Clark strained his hearing listening for anything alive in the cave though after a moment he decided that nothing was in there.

Slipping around the piece of wreckage Clark immediately saw the water cascading down from above gathering in a pool in the ground.

While to the left there were piles of items and even a coffin that had somehow survived the fall from the plane crash.  Though hovering over it he could see an older man in a suit with white shoes on.

"Have to find my son." The ghost was talking to itself before flickering out of view.

"That is not something I expected to see so fast."

Clark circled the coffin for a minute or so before deciding to leave it alone.  There was no reason to disturb the area more than he needed to at the moment.

Walking up to the pool of water Clark looked down at his reflection noticing that his normal brown eyes were showing streaks of orange throughout them with some patches of his hair being white.

His jaw seemed to have become a bit squarer and sharper and if he wasn't seeing things even now his regular clothes which were for the most part tattered by the beating, he had received were recovering.

There was a lot that had changed about him in two days all due to the accident and there was nothing that he could really do about it except try to understand slowly exactly what was going on.

Releasing some of the energy he could feel flowing under his skin Clark was able to clearly see its effects on his body as the skin that it passed over turning pale returning to a healthy shade as the energy disappeared.

He was playing a dangerous game with the limited reserves of whatever the energy was that he had access to at the moment, but it was all about figuring out how much to use to achieve the same affects.

Focusing on his hand the energy surged towards it slowly that familiar aura wrapping around it as the skin turned pale but something else began to happen.

The sheer concentration of energy had advanced the changes his nails turned pitch black growing out into sharp tips little glimpses of the orange energy running along the nails.

Swinging his hand out the nails cut along the rocks underneath the water leaving a trail through it while Clark felt no resistance at all.

Pulling his hand back the healthy coloring had returned to halfway up his hand, but the nails were still different.  Swinging again his hand stopped part of the way through the stone this time as he literally felt the last of the energy in his hand disappear.

[Energy Control Lv.5]

[Sub-Skill created! Energy Concentration!]

Focusing on the scraps of energy floating through his body Clark tried to pinpoint where exactly it was all coming from though, he couldn't seem to locate that point yet even after a few hours.

It was while he was sitting there that he heard someone running towards the cave his first reaction being to slide into the shadows behind the wreckage at the entrance.

Clark used the energy that had come back over the course of the day to try minimizing his presence hovering in a state between visible and invisible.

His control wasn't high yet but using ingenuity was just as good as having high control over the energy if used correctly.

He watched the man from the day before muttering to himself and going through what seemed to be a mental breakdown as he looked at the water falling happening to see the coffin out of the corner of his eye.

Within minutes of the man arriving Clark was alone in the cave again except the coffin was now smashed to pieces and the man had left far more composed than when he showed up.

[Host should be careful of the passage of time]

"What is that supposed to mean?"

[That was not hours but days that passed]

"No way! I can lose track of time just as easily as anyone else if I am interested in a topic but days feeling like hours?!"

[You are half alive and half dead time holds consequence to you and at the same time it does not hold anything over you]

Clark went quiet at that alert he knew that the transformation was off but to have the thing that had been helping him confirming to him that he was half dead really drove the point home finally.

There were many ramifications to that knowledge and the warning that had appeared.  He could age normally in one form but not change for a long time in the other or he could not age at all stuck at one point in time.

Clark sagged back against the wreckage sliding to the ground as he just sat there trying to clear his head without losing track of how much time passed.

It wasn't until a hand settled on his shoulder that he zoned back in finding that he had lost track of time again.

The man was back with the woman and two others.

"This is where you have been all this time."

"Jack is he alright?"

"Yes, though he seems to be slipping in and out of shock."

That caught his attention Clark hadn't considered that his mind was struggling to catch up to all the information that it was experiencing so it would make sense that it kept shutting down to process.

"I would like to help you guys."  Clark got as he spoke.

"You should just rest."  Jack spoke softly while trying to get him to sit down again.

"No! No sorry I need something to do I keep losing track of time."

"Okay. Just take your time trying to help out. We need to fill up these water bottles and take them back to the beach."

Nodding Clark took the water bottles offered to him.  He had a purpose and that was what he needed the most.