As soon as the sun rises I feel a slight shake on my shoulders.
"Lazuli…"
A voice very faintly familiar calls to me.
"Lazuli… Kid? Hey…"
The voice gets progressively louder in my mind.
"Dude!"
The voice shakes me hard.
I feel myself roll over, getting annoyed I smack at the air.
It hits emptiness, but I feel my muscles in my body, get tighter.
"Good your up."
Opening my eyes I wipe my right eye as my left eye still feels heavy. Picking up my eye patch I wipe at my left eye.
"Yeah."
"Morning Kid."
John says to me with a smile on his face.
Turning to my side I see that Celestrus has already woken up, surprisingly.
"When did she wake up?"
John yawns, then he stretches out his arms from inside the tent.
"Don't know… But we gotta get ready, gotta hit the road… and your teacher, your mother… whatever the hell she is, she's here and waiting."
"Teacher."
I say as I yawn and pull myself to sit up, my back abdomen muscles tighten just as my arms did.
"What?"
John asks not hearing me good.
"Teacher. She's my teacher."
My back pops as my body feels its peak to my stretch.
"Okay. Yeah."
John says before moving out of the way and heading toward the exit of the tent.
"Just hurry. We got some daylight. We stay still we're going to be wasting daylight."
John says.
"Yeah."
I tell him before he leaves out the tent.
Getting up I grab my sleeping bag and move outside.
Outside everyone, but Timi is ready to go, Timi on the other hand is still in her tent from the fact that I can't see her.
The sun isn't fully up but it's enough to give us the same orange hue in the sky for light.
Rosa waves to John and John reciprocate toward her.
Her armor on once more as she stands at the entrance of Timi's tent.
She calls him over to her and he rushes over to her.
Angel fixing up her tent as she gets ready to go.
Sply stands at the tree we set up at once more, looking at the spot where the sun meets the ground.
"Lazuli…"
Celestrus says as she comes up to me holding both my bag and my bow.
"Hey. Celestr…"
I stop myself from finishing that, remembering the nickname from last night.
"Morning Celes."
I say as I grab my bags and smile at her.
"Morning."
She says:
"Sorry, I didn't wake you, I just thought you should sleep more since… you know, you did a lot of fighting."
I chuckle a bit.
"That is true."
I squeeze my hands then relax it, I feel a tightness in my forearm, not from wanting to Soul Displace but from the muscle underneath.
'I'm sore…'
The thought slowly drags in my head as I actually feel the aching in every soft movement in my body.
Timi exits the tent looking a bit more pale than before. Her face almost looking ghostly, her staff being held in her hand.
John and Rosa next to her sides hand in hand.
Angel turn toward her tent with concern.
"What happened?"
Angel asked as she rushed to their side.
"She's running a heavy fever."
"She said she's been like this for a while now."
Timi turns around and faces her tent.
She begins to speak in a quiet voice in the same language that I still don't understand.
Her tent then disappears into nothingness.
She cough, a nasty wheezing cough.
"We should be able… able to finish this one and head over to Derilium."
She says in a voice that sounds very weak.
She slowly comes closer to the tent that Celestrus and I slept in, John and Rosa and either side of her ready to catch her if she needs to be caught.
Timi's eyes are baggy below, as if she hadn't gotten any sleep.
"Ex.. excuse me."
She says to me, making me move out of the way.
John and Rosa also pass me helping with Timi.
"What happened?"
I ask Angel.
"She's running a bad fever."
Timi starts doing it again, speaking in that unknown language while coughing in between each of the syllables.
Then a sneeze, as she finishes.
The tent disappearing as soon as she's done.
Then she goes over to Angels and repeats the process.
I sling my bag and bow over my shoulders. And all three of us, Angel, Celestrus and I all begin to walk toward the pathway.
John, Rosa and Timi in front of us since they began to walk towards it as soon as Timi finished.
John making lighthearted jokes as we begin to move.
Sply appears out of nowhere in front of the group.
Everyone slowly gets there. As the group stands at in the formation of Sply in the front, John and his group in the middle and the group I'm with at the back.
We quietly walk toward the pathway, the only noise coming from John making jokes for Timi to laugh. Like he's trying not to make Timi notice the pain of her sickness and it works. But in between every laugh, a cough, that slows down John's jokes to make him check up on her.
Rosa right by her side laughing along with her, and checking her just the same as John.
We get to the pathway, and the signs are both there, ready to be telling us what direction we should all go.
Splay leads us forward, and unlike the pathway we were supposed to go in yesterday, toward Derilium, she turns right, heading toward Kakko.
We all pause collectively at the sign. Even Timi looks confused for a second before she coughs.
"Where are we going?"
Rosa asks as she stares at the sign.
"Derilium is this way."
She points in the direction of the sign and the way Derilium is going.
Sply stops and turns to us.
"Derilium has no doctors.
She says.
"And?"
Rosa asks.
"Your friend, doesn't have just a fever. That's Soul overexertion."
"What?"
John asks, genuinely concerned for her.
"There's an upside to that at the very least."
She says as she begins to walk forward again.
"Your Soul Energy will grow triple fold."
She continues.
"Wait… Are you sure it's Soul overexertion?"
John asks as he steps in the direction of where she is walking, guiding Timi in the same direction.
Rosa follows behind, then we follow behind them, Angel getting past us to go to both Rosa and Timi.
'Guess we're going to Kakko.'
"Celes, Is Soul overexertion bad?"
I ask Celestrus.
"Very..."
She says:
"Not many people have been pushed to that point, and luckily it's that way. But when you do get pushed to that point, your body is breaking itself… I think. Well your Soul is breaking down, your body slowly follows. Leading to a fever that is masking the real danger of your life. If she doesn't get checked by a good doctor.."
"She'll die."
Celestrus gives one good nod.
"Which is why not only is a doctor needed. But a very good doctor… but I don't know if there is a doctor that well anywhere."
We continue to walk calmly as both Celestrus and I look at the group in front of us.
"There's a way for us to help her right?"
Celestrus nods.
"There is, but I don't know what… never had more than a few little looks at some books that was provided to se…"
She stops:
"That was provided to us slaves."
She reiterates.
My heart pauses for a second, as she says that, I then look at her, her body does look weaker.
"Hey. Hello? How do you know it's overexertion?"
Sply turns to see John asking her the question.
"You. Timi…"
Sply calls to her.
".. when did you first experience this sickness?"
Timi walks, then after a cough she answers.
"After… After… I guess after the fight with the Spider Queen."
She coughs again, this time. She gets phlegm as she does, the sound is heard as the cough comes to a bit of a stop halfway through.
She turns her head in the direction of the grass and spits it out.
"That's your body trying and rejecting your Soul…"
Sply says.
"What?"
All three of them asks.
"Don't ask me anymore than that. I'm unsure about how the system truly works, but all I know is that it can be like that."
"But won't us going to Kakko be a big detour in your journey towards Virvanum?"
Angel asks.
"Yes, but…"
She stops, unable to finish her sentence that she had already almost finished.
"Think of it as my way of repaying you for helping Lazuli."
No one else says anything, but the feel around us is all felt at the same time, even the ever sick Timi gets that feeling.
'So, she's not a heartless human.'
The journey toward Kakko, isn't really quiet if it's only about John.
He's like the form of entertainment for everyone, as he can't necessarily keep quiet, as he tries to make jokes and stop the thinking from all of us about Timi's health and wether or not she'll do well today or the next, or the next.
The group continues regardless though, pushing forward.
The path is long and there's even a short moment of silence.
Many critters are seen on the journey, Angel suggests at a small moment to stop and take a break, to catch one of the critters and eat it.
The one she's she's talking about is a pig, not much a critter as it could be but it was as small as a honey badger, so it's a critter.
Sply denies the idea, well, she gives an ultimatum.
We continue and get Timi some form of health check up, or we make her wait as we enjoy some brunch.
We all collectively just follow along with Sply.
But the journey is much longer than expected and as we seem to get closer and closer to what seems to not be getting any closer trees begin to be more dense around the parts.
The sun rose high, then the sun dropped low, the journey was a bit longer than expected, we stop.
"We're going to take a break. Rest up, then continue on tomorrow morning. Before daybreak."
Everyone heads to a tree nearby.
Timi doesn't, instead she raises up her hand and begins to speak in the unknown language.
"No."
Sply calls to her before the words can finish.
"You aren't going to use anymore Soul Energy."
"What?"
Timi says in a voice that is scared.
"You could end up having more rejection of your own Soul Energy, I'm not very sure, but you could speed up the process."
Sply says that and looks at me.
"I'll be back in the morning."
Then she disappears.
"Where does she even go?"
John asks looking at me.
I shrug my shoulders.
Angel slumps down next to a tree.
"Doesn't matter. For now, I'm hungry."
A rushing sound is heard coming from a far corner away from us. A good distance away, from the faintness of the sound.
"What's that sound?"
Rosa asks, as she hears it, then I hear it…
Memories begin to enter my head…
I take the first steps toward the sound, Celestrus right behind me as she follows right behind me.
Slowly the sound begins to get louder and louder, and a feeling… a feeling bad begins to swirl in my chest as I get closer to the sound…
Shrubs, branches. Anything in my way gets pushed out of the way.
A slight reflection of moonlight comes from behind the grass in front of me, the shrubs blocking full view, a fish jumps up.
Angel cheers can be faintly heard, from behind my ears, its loud, but it's like the sound is fully distorted, with nothing obstructing my ears.
I don't notice the difference though.
My footfalls feel extremely heavy, each one, step after step. Screaming in…
I get close the grass, slowly pushing away the green colors of leaves.
My heart shrinks in my chest, exploding with a feeling that can't be expressed in none other than pure and unadulterated FEAR.
My hands fly to my chest and my knees buckle, Turing into cooked noodles as it just flattens to make myself fall to my knees.
And I don't even notice my mouth open, my neck rumbling with vibrations so heavy it's like… like… I'm screaming…
"AHHHHHHHHH!"