Chapter 28 - Helianthus

"Jayson! Say something, come on!" Avery cried.

No matter how far you think you can run, there are things in this life in which you could never elude. Sorrow, inadequacy, emptiness, guilt, fear.

"Jay... please get up... you're scaring me." Sayu tearfully said.

"Everywhere your people go problems follow!" A lady in distraught shouted towards Avery and the others. "Conflict follows behind you people like a shadow! Can't you see?! This is your fault!"

Conflict? Yes, I guess if I had to pick one thing that I've never been able to escape, it would be conflict. A baby born to represent peace between nations, is what Jayson Hillinger was supposed to be. However, right now I'm just a problem for both sides.

.....

Several Hours Before.

"See these metal plates on the back hand side of your gloves?" Jayson said as he gave a demonstration to all of the kids. "You strike the back of your hands together like this to create sparks."

Jayson balled his fist and quickly striked the back of his left fist over the right, sending sparks flying out before him.

"All it takes is a spark to create a flame, so I'll be teaching you all on how to utilize this. First I'll split you guys up. Nakayla, Shaedon and Tanner, you guys will be with me. Camie, Mano and Sayu, you'll be practicing flame control with Avery."

"This way kiddies." Avery said as she and the younger ones walked off.

"I know you said you'll train us, but I didn't expect it this quick." Nakayla said as she adjusted her gloves.

"I wanted to teach you the bare minimum now because we'll actually be approaching our first settlement early tomorrow."

"For real?"

"Yeah, a settlement by the name of 'Himawari' Avery says. She was telling me it's one of the larger settlements outside of Aestus."

"We're finally gonna see water continent people." Tanner said enthusiastically.

"I wonder how they'll react to seeing fire continent people." Jayson thought.

"We won't do any training in or around their town, so we should get the basics down now. You three are a bit further along than the others so this is what we'll do."

Jayson repeated the action he did before to produce the sparks, but this time he went a step further. Once the sparks were airborne, Jayson pushed forward with his palm, igniting the sparks into a wave of fire.

"The sparks don't stick around long, so once you see them you have to insert your fire essence as quick as possible."

"You make it sound a lot easier than it is." Nakayla exclaimed.

"C'mon, give it a shot." Jayson said.

The three of them lined up side by side and proceeded to make an attempt with Jayson's guidance. Tanner and Nakayla failed to produce anything resembling a flame, but Shaedon on the other hand created a flame wave that was very similar to Jayson's.

"Whoa..." Tanner said.

"That was really good Shaedon." Nakayla complimented. "How'd you do that."

"Um... well I..."

"Not bad." Jayson said with a grin while squating down to Shaedon's level. "You think you can do it again."

"...Mhm."

Jayson stood beside Shaedon while Tanner and Nakayla watched from the side.

"This time once you push that flame out, I want you to clinch your fist and hold it together." Jayson told him.

"Okay."

Both of them entered into a fighting stance, waiting for the mark.

"Now!" Jayson exclaimed.

Jayson and Shaedon went through the motion in almost perfect synchronization, matching each other's movements with astonishing accuracy. Once again they both produced a flame wave, which they then held together by clinching their fist.

"Nice Shaedon!" Jayson said. "Keep it together, let's see how far you could go. Bring that left hand back out, we're gonna use it to infuse more fire essence. Feed that flame!"

Red mist trailed behind their left palms as they raised it towards each of their flames. The fire then began to grow exponentially, with Shaedon's tripling in size and Jayson's growing to five times larger than what it was.

"Those boys are really going for it." Avery said as she watched on.

"Waaahhh, so bright!" Sayu said in excitement.

"Alright Shaedon, I want you to pull that fist back and strike forward as if you were throwing a straight jab." Jayson said as he demonstrated the action.

Once Jayson punched forward, a small portion of the fire in front of him shot forward like a blazing arrow.

"Don't fire off the whole thing, just a piece of it." Jayson said.

Shaedon pulled his fist back which was beginning to shake, and quickly punched forwarded as hard as he could have. The entire fire ball was sent hurdling across the field ahead of him. Jayson dropped his hands and his fire then dissipated into the air.

"That was good Shaedon."

"That was crazy!" Tanner exclaimed. "We're you always this good with your essence?"

"Well, I practiced by myself whenever I was bored..."

"You taught yourself?!"

Tanner and the other kids rushed over to the timid Shaedon and bombarded him with questions.

"Seems like you have a little prodigy with that one." Avery said walking over.

"Maybe I can craft him into a mini me." Jayson replied.

"If he can get anywhere near the things you were doing at his age then he really is a prodigy."

"What does that make me then?"

"An anomaly." Avery replied with a grin.

The group spent another hour resting from walking and training their use of essence skills before they headed out once again. Shortly afterwards, they came across a rather unique forest. The vast grassland which presented nothing but valleys and hills covered in green, was now displaying twenty feet tall helianthuses.

"Whoa." Mano said as everyone else gazed at the site.

"Their beautiful, I've never seen a plant like this." Avery stated.

The stem of each plant were at least twenty to twenty five feet tall, with some stretching even taller. The flowers themselves were about four feet in diameter with each carrying bright yellow petals that fluttered gracefully in the wind.

"What does your dad's novel say about this Avery?" Jayson asked.

"'Wait two hours after sunrise then proceed in the opposite direction of where the flowers are facing.'" Avery quoted from her dad's novel.

"Sun's been up for three hours now..."

"Doesn't that mean we have to wait until tomorrow morning before heading in?" Nakayla questioned.

Jayson carefully inspected the flowers and their relation to the sun.

"They're all looking at the sun." Sayu stated.

"...What if these flowers follow the sun across the sky." Jayson concluded. "If the sun was about there an hour ago then the flowers would've been facing this way. So we move in the opposite direction." Jayson said as he pointed into the flower forest.

"You sure about this bluejay?" Avery asked.

"Yeah, we're not gonna get any closer waiting here. Let's go guys, remember to not use your essence unless I give permission."

The crew then entered the sunflower forest with hopes of finding the settlement of Himawari. After ten minutes of searching they found themselves questioning if there actually was a settlement anywhere near here.

"If the flowers weren't all facing the same direction, I think I would've gotten lost by now." Avery said. "There should've at least been a pathway through this."

"...The sun's always moving in the sky so doesn't that mean the flowers are moving too?" Shaedon questioned. "What if we're going the wrong way?"

"Yanno, I didn't think of that." Avery replied.

"Are we lost?" Camie asked.

"No,  not yet I think." Nakayla responded.

"We should still be on path, more or less." Jayson stated.

While the others conversed about how they may or may not be lost right now, Shaedon became aware of a shadow moving around behind them. Almost from the very moment they entered the forest, they've been actively stalked by an unknown being. Shaedon recognized the additional presence of whatever was watching them, but decided to stay quiet about it. Or at least until he saw an opening.

"Hmm? Are they arguing?" The stranger questioned. "They must not be close friends."

"You'd think that because we were arguing?" Shaedon said as he sneaked up behind the stalker.

"Wah!" The stalker shouted as she grabbed onto the stem of a sunflower.

"Huh? You look the same age as me." Shaedon said.

A little girl who was the same age as Shaedon stood before him, wearing a short blue dress and had the number nine in Roman numerals painted on her right cheek. Once she regained her composure, she immediately turned and tried to run away. Unfortunately for her Shaedon was not the only one who sensed her watching them. The girl ran straight into Jayson's chest and fell back onto the ground.

"I planned on waiting a bit longer to see if I could've figured out why you were watching us, but it seems Shaedon had other ideas."

"S-Sorry, I thought I was the only one." Shaedon nervously explained.

The girl sprung up to her feet and attempted to run away once again. She dashed back and forth between the flowers in an attempt to lose Jayson and the others but was soon halted by a wall of water.

"Huh, from who?" She questioned looking around.

"We're friendly, I promise." Jayson said as he knelt with his hands on the ground.

"We might be a bit lost, do you think you can help us?" Avery asked. "We're looking for Himawari."

"Hima... I can't take you there." She replied.

"Why not?"

"That's... my home."

The girl appeared to become more and more timid the more Avery and the others pressed her. Stepping backwards with every step forward Jayson took.

"Why are you out here alone?" Shaedon asked.

She suddenly stopped moving backwards and went silent in response to Shaedon's question.

"S-Sorry about scaring you like that earlier. What's, your name?"

"...Eliah."

"Aww I like that name, mine's Sayu!"

"Eliah is a really nice name, my name's Avery."

"Sayu... Avery..." She repeated softly.

"I'm Shaedon, again sorry for scaring you."

"Why were you watching us Eliah?" Jayson asked.

"...I just happened to see you out here, I didn't mean to spy." Eliah replied.

Shaedon then walked forward and once again took control over the conversation.

"We're not troubled by you watching us, and I promise you we're friendly, but we could really use your help Eliah." Shaedon stated. "We're travelers trying to get to Aestus, but we need to stop at Himawari first to take a break and hopefully resupply for the journey. Can you help us?"

"..."

"This is the most I've ever heard him talk." Nakayla whispered to Tanner as he nodded in agreement.

Eliah thought deeply about it for a few seconds before looking back up into Shaedon's tired eyes.

"O-Okay, I'll take you." Eliah replied.

Shaedon exhaled a breath of relief then said. "Thank you Eliah." With a smile.

"You're welcome... this way." She directed.

"It really does take one to know one." Avery said.

"What so you mean by that?" Jayson asked.

"She's introverted, just like he is."

"You think so?"

"Yanno you could be very dense at times."

The crew walked through the sunflowers for another ten minutes before finally making it onto a dirt path.

"Finally, we're getting out." Mano exclaimed. "I'm wayyy beyond tired of seeing flowers."

"Meow."

"Ou a cat!" Camie said out of excitement. "I've never seen one before."

"Is there not cats where you come from?" Eliah quietly asked Shaedon.

"Uh no, it's mostly foxes I guess." He replied.

"Foxes... where are you traveling from?"

"Well-"

"Shaedon." Jayson called out to silence him.

"Umm..."

"There's more of them!" Camie said as more cats appeared around them.

"There's an opening ahead." Avery said as they finally made it out of the sunflower forest.

The crew found themselves atop a hill which overlooked the beautiful settlement of Himawari. The entire side of the hill was made into an incredibly large terrace farm which was producing crops such as rice, wheat, and barley just to name a few. The town itself was settled at the base of the hill inside of a valley which extended about two miles across. Bordering the settlement was the sunflower forest which completely surrounded the area.

"I'll take you guys to my dad, he should be able to help you." Eliah said.

"This view is insane." Tanner commented.

"I wasn't expecting it to look like this, this place is beautiful." Avery said.

"Ou ou, hey Eliah I read that 'Himawari' means 'sunflower' in the old language. Is that true?" Sayu questioned.

"Well technically it means 'helianthus' but I guess you're not wrong." Eliah replied.

They began descending the hill into the town below. It wasn't long before the crew encountered other people and they all immediately greeted them with cold gazes.

"This already doesn't feel good." Jayson said quietly to himself.

By the time they actually made it into the town, there was a crowd of disgruntled townspeople waiting for them. Jayson stood ahead of the others as they slowly made their approach.

"Eliah!" A man called out from the crowd.

The people opened up a path to allow the man easy access to the front. A tall, well built, dark-skinned man emerged from the crowd and confronted Jayson and the others.

"Eliah come over here now!" He commanded.

"But daddy-"

"What did I say?"

"It's alright Eliah, go and join your father." Avery said to her.

She looked over to Shaedon who was standing beside her before joining her father and the crowd of townspeople.

"Who are you people?" The dad asked.

"We're just travelers trying to get to Aestus." Jayson explained.

"What business do you have in our capital? You're from the fire continent aren't you?"

"...We are. But-"

"Answer me this... Are you from Ignus?"

"Bluejay..." Avery said softly prompting him to lie.

"...You're correct sir, we're from Ignus." Jayson confidently replied.

The others in the crowd gasped and began to chatter amongst themselves. Some stepped away while some men stepped forward.

"I'm only going to say this once since there are children with you... Leave this place, before you get yourselves killed."