From atop the tree, Luke could see the entire lakefront below. He’d done his best to scale the wooden ridges quietly to not give away his position, but only time would tell if he was successful in that endeavor. He perched himself on a large branch that jutted out from the tree’s trunk and surveyed the area around him.
Despite the advantage of height, it was still difficult to clearly make out anything among the foliage, but he didn’t have time to come up with any other ideas. With as quickly as time was running out, this was his best chance at winning the match.
Come on…
His eyes scanned back and forth from the lake to the forest around it.
Where was she?
The lake was the center of the area they agreed to stay within, so Luke’s first instinct was to search along the perimeter, which is where he found Norim hiding, but it’d been almost the whole hour and Eda was still nowhere to be seen. It was a bit of a long shot, but he had a feeling he was going to find her somewhere back where they started. He hesitated to waste time looking at the water, but Eda was a good swimmer. It was possible that she was hiding somewhere along the shore, in which case this round might’ve already been over for him.
Time running short and his mind racing, Luke prepared to descend the tree, but then his eyes narrowed on something.
Barely sticking out from a rock nestled along the side of the tall side of the lake, what Luke made out as a small piece of golden fabric lightly fluttered against the wind.
It was no guarantee, but he had to go for it. Immediately, Luke dropped down from the branch, pausing as he absorbed the force of the ground that surged into his legs, and then he sprinted forward towards the lake’s edge. He wasn’t sure how much time he had left, but he knew caution wouldn’t get him this victory.
Slamming through bushes and blowing through branches, he stormed his way along the coast.
“Ah–!” he bit through the pain as numerous scratches accumulated along his body. It wasn’t anything he wasn’t used to, after all. They went all in when it came to their contests, and if he ever wanted to become a strong adventurer like his parents, small pain like this was something he’d had to get used to. He just wished his magic would develop sooner so he could use something like Tempering to avoid it in the first place.
Breaching past the thicket, he slammed his foot into the ground, forcing his momentum to a halt as he sharply turned to the open view he now had of his target.
Found you.
Luke smirked, staring at Eda who had barely looked to react to the sound of stamping that he had been carelessly pounding into the earth, flattening grass and snapping twigs beneath each step.
“No way!” she yelled, anticipation overtaking her face as they locked eyes in this brief moment of deadlock.
He commended her for her dedication to the game. Sat in the edge of the water, the relatively small rock barely concealed her, though evidently not well enough even with the tight ball she was crouched in. Atop her head, securing her rich, black hair in a tight bun, the golden sash that gave her away was tied into a perfect bow, waving at him as if beckoning him over. The bounder’s slight concavity did well to cover her from view from above, and the reeds that grew surrounding the shore nearby obstructed her well from a quick glance, but he now had her clear in his sights.
Air moved heavily in and out of his body, and just as he thought to take a step forward, he started to feel exhaustion starting to kick in. But he wasn’t going to give in just yet.
Luke broke out in a sprint straight towards Eda, dashing towards her like a fox towards its prey. Plants crunched into dirt underneath his hastened feet, and as he reached the land’s edge, he placed all of his energy into one great hurdle, launching himself into the water towards the girl in the blue shirt.
Sailing through the air, he closed in on his target and reached out his hand to tag her, but then–
“TIME!” a voice behind him boomed, cutting his concentration.
“Wha–” he began to say as a splash of water hit him from beneath, and he looked down to see Eda swimming away like a startled fish. It was then that he realized how severely he had overshot his leap and just how deep the part of the lake that he was headed towards actually was.
Plunk!
His entire body sunk like the heavy stone that he miserably failed to aim for. Flooding with water, Luke jerked his head back as his nostrils filled to the brim. Some of the breath he had instinctively taken escaped his mouth, and he reoriented himself to escape the sudden sodden consequence of his defeat.
As his head peaked above the surface of the water and he made his way to shore, his ears opened to the sound of dual laughter.
“Not funny,” Luke muttered as he pushed himself up onto land, a sullen tinge lacing his voice.
“It is!” Norim exclaimed, unwilling to hold himself back from the deluge of mirth that filled his body. “You went so far!”
“Really far!” Eda agreed with a big grin spread across her face, each laugh interrupting her words like a joyful stutter. “I don’t think I even had to move.”
“I got all wet…” Luke sulked as he struggled to take off his drenched shirt to begin squeezing it dry.
“So did I,” she pointed out her equally dripping clothes.
“But at least you won,” he countered.
“You won the last one,” Norim reminded him.
“I guess…” he acquiesced.
Getting a little wet wasn’t something normally Luke took issue with, especially if it was for the sake of the game, but he was woefully unprepared to handle it today. It was Eda’s turn to choose the new contest area, and she had clearly intentionally neglected to inform them about the fact that there was a lake to gain an advantage. At the very least, he was glad he wasn’t the only one to get soaked.
“Luke~” Eda got his attention. “You looked so cool!”
“Really?” he asked.
“Yeah!” Norim backed up her statement. “You were so fast! I couldn’t keep up with you at all.”
“Mhm!” Eda nodded. “And then when you jumped, it was like you were flying!”
Norim aided her claim with a visual demonstration, spreading his arms out far and running and jumping around while he made ‘whooshing’ sounds.
“And then…” she paused for a moment, only to return with forceful vigor as she spoke, “SPLASH!”
On her cue, Norim jumped into the lake, sending a large torrent of water up into the air.
As he resurfaced, Luke couldn’t help but burst with laughter.
“See?” Eda smiled, a convincing tone underlying her words.
“Alright, you win,” he confessed.
“I know,” she said with a confident smile.
“Come on, let’s find somewhere to dry off,” Norim suggested as he rejoined them on land, shaking off the water from his curly brown hair. “It’s my turn to seek next.”
◊◊◊◊◊
Luke moved slowly throughout the brush, careful to subdue the sounds of his movements as best as possible.
Crunch
Crunch
Crunch
He clicked his tongue, unsatisfied with himself. The leaves were just starting to fall off of the trees, drying to a crispness as delicate as the silence he hoped to achieve. There weren’t many of them around, but even the few that there were added a significant extra challenge to maintaining any level of stealth.
Breath by breath. Haste kills even the gods.
The mantra echoed within his mind, and he took a slow, steady breath before making his next move. His father lived by that motto, and he took it upon himself to try to embody it as best he could. After all, if there was anyone who would excel at this, it was his dad. Someday, Luke knew that he would walk through the same sands that his father journeyed across. He might’ve only been ten years old, but when he got older, he was definitely going to make his father proud. However, there was no chance at doing that if he couldn’t even make it around to the other side of the lake.
He took another breath and moved onward. Norim was a good seeker, but recently Luke had noticed a persistent weakness in his strategy. Despite covering ground broadly and quickly, Norim rarely double checked areas he’d already been to before, and if he did then he typically only did so late into the game when he was running out of ideas for places to look. Since this was their first time playing in this new area, none of them were very familiar with its nuances just yet, giving Luke the perfect opportunity to exploit this weakness to gain an edge.
Even with the benefits of this opportune situation, however, Luke wished that they had a little more elevation to play around with. Besides crawling around on the ground or climbing a tree, it didn’t seem like there was a lot he could do, and he didn’t find either of those options particularly fun. It had only been ten minutes into the match, and already for almost the entire time he’d been on his hands and knees. Nevertheless, if it gave him a shot at winning, he was willing to do it.
Gradually, Luke inched his way towards a secluded spot he’d discovered in the area when he’d been seeking last round. It was guarded by bushes and trees, veiled even on the water’s edge, but inside was a decent clearing where he could relax for a little bit. As far as he knew, Norim hadn’t discovered this spot yet, but Luke did see him pass by the area a few minutes ago, meaning he should have been safe there for a while.
Reaching the border of the glade, he looked behind him to ensure he hadn’t been followed and then pushed himself past the branches and entered it.
Boink~
“Ow.” Luke rubbed his head, turning it back around to see what he had run into. “What was–”
Huh?
Luke’s eyes stared at what was placed in front of them, but his mind failed to understand what exactly they were looking at.
White.
That was all that he saw.
A big blob of white, about half as tall as he was and much wider, just sat on the ground. It was like an impossibly large egg or an out-of-season lump of snow.
Weird.
Standing up and brushing himself off slightly, Luke began to circle the strange object, inspecting it. Although he should have been safely out of sight, he stayed crouched down as he moved around, the game’s victory remaining his utmost priority despite the sudden surprise.
The object was round, but not perfectly spherical. Bumps and ridges appeared in various places across its body, lining it throughout like a piece of randomly carved stone. That’s what his first impression was at least, just some large rock.
“Hmm,” he rested his chin on his fist. He didn’t remember this being here.
Squatted down in front of it, Luke suddenly got the urge to touch it. Cautiously, he extended a finger and laid it along the base of the object. Gently running it along one of the ridges, he was surprised by its soft texture that glided like silk across his finger.
Then, he thought to prod it, and he narrowed his eyes as he focused in on trying to uncover the mystery of this random rock.
It was squishy.
Weird.
He continued to poke it in numerous places to confirm he wasn’t just imagining things, and sure enough, all across the object was soft and springy. Some places held more resistance than others, and texture had a range of variability, but his overall impression was that he had no idea what to think.
Then, Luke noticed something that he hadn’t seen before, although he wasn’t sure how he’d missed it. Near the top, a muted green pearl stood blatantly distinct from the rest of the structure. It seemed to almost be staring at him, watching him as all his attention fixed on it, locked in a staring contest. He drew closer to it, leaning in to get a closer view of the curious coloration.
Weird.
How had he missed it?
Following his earlier pattern of tests, Luke slowly raised his hand towards the emerald jewel. But just before reaching it, he stopped. His hand wavered delicately in the air as he paused.
Should he even touch it? What was a jewel like that doing in a place like this anyways?
But the more he thought about it, the more he didn’t know why he was hesitating. Could it have been dangerous? Maybe, but that never stopped him before.
Though, for some reason, he didn’t feel like moving his hand any farther, nor did he feel like moving it back at all. It felt… rightfully in place hovered where it was, natural. And he thought to stay that way until it didn’t feel natural anymore.
It was somewhat relaxing in a way.
Peaceful, almost.
His mind that burned with thoughts of the game cooled as his gaze fixed unfocused onto the gem ahead of him.
Luke wasn’t sure how long he stayed like that for, but eventually his impulse returned to him, and he felt rejuvenated like he had just woken up from a long nap.
What just happened?
He felt good, but why? Perhaps he was just tired. It’d been a long day, after all, but if that was the case, then how was his exhaustion already gone?
He looked again at the strange green jewel in front of him and considered that it might’ve had something to do with his sudden composure, but if that was the case, what was it? Perhaps he’d found some magical stone or… gourd or… something…
Truthfully, Luke had no idea what it was, but he was pretty sure it was something magical, and the thought of returning home with it left him with a large grin. He had a feeling that this was his first step to becoming an adventurer just like his father.
But he couldn’t stop quite yet. He still didn’t know what it was nor how it worked, and without that information he might as well have found nothing. So, he decided to complete the action he had begun earlier. Moving his hand closer to the viridescent circle, inches away from reaching it, he–
Quack– QUACK!
“AH!” Luke fell back, the sound piercing his mind and the sudden revelation shocking him.
The white boulder unfurled its wings to accompany the noise, violently flapping them out in self-defense like an egg exploding open to reveal a full-grown bird. With Luke down on the ground, the being towered over him, drowning out the sun’s space in Luke’s sky with its massive wings fanned out like a shield.
Fear initially consumed his mind, but it quickly subsided.
The bird calmed down and settled itself once more, resheathing its snaggy, feathery appendages. Waddling around a bit and patting the ground with its large, webbed feet, it eventually situated itself back in its spot and sat down.
As Luke reconciled this new information and reassessed the situation, the reaction became very understandable. He was looking at a mighty duck, he was sure of it, but he only barely recognized it as such. Nearly a few feet tall, even while sitting down, it was massive, much larger than any bird he’d ever seen before.
The feathery giant, while impressive in stature, existed in this reality with an immanent eeriness to it. White was the predominant descriptor, but it was a shade indescribable with the words he had available to him. Each feature of its body, from its plumage to its beak and even its feet, exhibited uniformity in this uncanny lack of pigment, blending together as if never existing to begin with.
What was this thing?
Other than the obvious answer of ‘duck’, of course, Luke was completely at an aweful loss for an explanation for how to describe it.
He thought back to earlier in the day. There had been a few other ducks swimming on the lake, but definitely none that looked anything like this.
Hmm.
He needed to investigate further.
Finding once again the one part of the creature that stood out from its otherwise entirely snowy appearance, those jade eyes, he noticed that now they were brighter than they were before, and they gave his mind the only justification that it could accept that this creature was more than just some blank void that the world forgot to fill in.
The two sat in silence for several moments, neither moving yet neither paralyzed against it, purely observing one another in what Luke assumed was mutual curiosity. Overall, the creature seemed unbothered by his appearance here, despite its brief outburst, which he couldn’t blame it for; after all, if something came close to poking his eye out like that, he’d probably react the same way.
Accepting the silence as they observed one another, Luke found himself easing into that same sense of serenity that enveloped him before. But what made him feel that way? Maybe his intuition?
He thought about it for a while, and he landed on an answer that just seemed to make sense.
It wanted to be friends.
Why else would it have stayed here with him?
Beaming at the idea, he found himself excited. He’d never had a pet before, and who else could say they knew a duck this big? Each time they came to play here, he could bring food for it and play with it too, which was good considering this would be their new area for a while.
Come to think of it, what did ducks like to eat anyway?
He brushed aside the thought for now. Before he could do any of that, he first needed to befriend it. And there was only one way to do that: pet it.
Slowly, trying to not startle the duck, Luke got onto his feet and began walking over to it. It moved its head to follow his movements but didn’t object to his advance, so he continued until he was up close to it once again. The duck remained in place, unbothered by his regained distance. Maintaining his measured pace, he once more brought his hand up to the duck’s head, this time steering clearly away from its grassy eyes. Lighting bringing it down on top of its head, he began to pet it.
The bird started making a deep trilling noise in response, and Luke couldn’t help but smile as he continued to pet the creature.
“Got you!” a voice behind him excitedly exclaimed, and he felt a palm grip onto his shoulder.
Broken from what had consumed him, Luke spun around to meet Norim’s eager grin.
“Ah!” Luke pressed his hands to his temples and arched his body towards the sky as he realized the situation.
Luke had won the first match of the day, but Eda had won one as well, and it seemed that he had just lost their last one. Normally, they played more than three rounds to determine the overall victor, but since they’d spent so long determining the rules for the new area and waiting to dry off, this was likely the final game until they had to return home. Now his only chance at being champion was if Norim won this one and they had to go to a tiebreaker. Since they were low on time, however, it would have to be something quick, probably a game of chance, and he hated the idea of winning because of a lucky pick.
“Damn it!” he exclaimed. “I completely–”
“Hey, what is that?” Norim pushed past him and set his eyes on the behemoth duck that had cost Luke the game today.
“Careful,” Luke’s mouth instantly uttered the word that effortlessly rose to his mind, grabbing Norim’s arm to slow his approach.
Stopped by him, Norim looked back and furrowed his brow at Luke’s reaction.
“What’s the problem?” he asked, switching his gaze from Luke back to the duck who merely observed the situation with an unreactive nonchalance. “Weren’t you just petting it?”
“Yeah…” he paused, looking to the animal. Admittedly, Luke wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but a feeling of caution suddenly echoed throughout himself, resonating within his fingertips as he let go of his friend’s arm. “It’s fine, just don’t do anything to scare it.”
Unconcerned yet unabrasive, Norim got close to the duck and started petting the duck, and a wave of calmness quelled the apprehension that Luke had been feeling.
After several seconds of enjoying the moment, Norim spoke up, continuing to pet the creature. “You didn’t answer me.”
“Huh?”
“What is it?” he gestured towards the animal under his hand.
“It’s a duck,” he plainly answered.
“Well, obviously,” Norim jerked his head back to roll his eyes. “Why does it look like this?”
“How would I know?” he shrugged, still trying to figure that out himself. “Have you ever seen one that looked like this?”
Norim shook his head. “Never. You think Eda has?”
“Maybe,” Luke commented as he pondered the possibility, but in truth, he doubted the likelihood that was the case. “Where is she?”
“I dunno.” Norim stopped petting the duck and stretched his arms out. “I haven’t found her yet.”
“Oh, right.”
In the midst of the events, Luke had forgotten about how he’d ended up in this situation to begin with. It was a little strange to him how he could so easily put aside in his mind something like the match, but there was a lot going on, and Luke found himself readily engrossed by it. He’d already accepted his certain loss in today’s contest anyway; there wasn’t much reason to dwell on it any longer.
“For you, you made that big noise, so you were really easy to find,” he smirked, and Luke could hear behind his voice in his next words that he was on the brink of laughing. “Did you fall in the lake again, or what?”
“No,” he reserved his answer, fidgeting with his shirt behind his back, ashamed to reveal the true reason behind the scream. “It was just an accident.”
Norim frowned, clearly unsatisfied with the answer, but Luke knew that he would forget about it by tomorrow anyways. His memory when it came to small stuff like that was worse than it was with names, which was saying a lot considering it took Norim two whole months to get his name right. In fact, Norim had probably already forgotten what he ate for breakfast. What made it ironic was that Norim was usually their navigator; when it came to direction, he was by far the best at remembering how to get to places and finding the best ways there.
“Anyways,” Norim continued on, “Eda would want to see this.”
“Mhm,” he nodded.
Eda always had an interest in all kinds of animals, especially the weird ones, so she was sure to get a kick out of it. There was this one time when they were playing in the meadow and a bloodfang snake managed to sneak up on them in the tall grass. His parents warned him to be careful around them, but somehow Eda was able to pick it up without it biting her. He still didn’t know how she did it. Luke had a feeling it ran in her family. There was always some new creature they were taking care of whenever he came to visit her at her house.
“So, hurry up, then,” Luke insisted.
“Huh?” Norim cluelessly angled his face.
“Go find her,” Luke elaborated.
Puffing up his cheeks in thought, he paused for a bit. “Why don’t you do it?”
“What–?” Luke reacted, the ridiculousness of the question jerking his head back. “You’re the seeker!”
“That’s why I shouldn’t be the one to go,” he reasoned, opening his arms out wide. “She’s expecting me to come find her, but she’s not gonna think you are.”
“I’m not going to help you win,” he firmly stated. “That’s cheating.”
“I don’t care about the game.” Norim spun back around to the duck and squatted down to face it. “This is way cooler.”
Luke walked over to Norim and joined him next to the animal.
Although Luke held value in the integrity of the contest, Norim was much more lax when it came to it, and it seemed today he was willing to throw it away entirely. Despite disagreeing with his mentality, this was one of the reasons why Luke liked Norim; he didn’t take things too seriously if he felt they didn’t matter, and that often made him a really good friend. He just always tried to have fun, however that manifested. Still, something didn’t sit right with Luke about the situation. He looked to the otherworldly duck sitting calmly in front of them, and he contemplated his course of action.
“I think I should stay here with the duck,” Luke remarked, bringing his hand underneath the bird’s chin and starting to lightly scratch it, the words and the motion coming to him easily.
“Why, what do you wanna do with it?” he asked.
“I just wanna make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”
“Well, I can do that too.” Norim crossed his arms. “Besides, it doesn’t really look like he wants to go anywhere. This is probably his home.”
“But if I leave, then I’ll miss it if he ends up doing something really cool,” he complained.
Norim took a prolonged look at the duck, observing it for any noteworthy action. “He’s just sitting here,” he finally said. “Did he do anything cool before?”
“Uhh… No, not really,” he searched his memories of their brief acquaintance. “But I’m sure he will! He’s gonna be my adventure duck.”
Pausing to take in his words, Norim soon let out a burst of laughter.
“What?” Luke whined, frowning at his friend’s apparent lack of confidence in the idea. “I’ve seen adventurers with bird pets before.”
“Yeah, but not ducks,” he teased.
“Then I’ll be the first one,” Luke declared, eagerly already stepped into the role in his mind.
He wasn’t sure yet how exactly the duck would help him as an adventurer, but he was positive that he would figure it out at some point. Roughly measuring it up, he speculated that the duck was big enough for him to ride on it across the water. Maybe even it could fly him places. That would be pretty useful.
“Alright, how about this,” Norim started. “I’ll keep an extra close eye on it. That way, if it does anything cool, I can let you know when you get back.”
“I guess…” he hesitated. Unfortunately for Luke, Norim’s argument followed a fairly sound line of logic. Yet still, it didn’t seem quite fair. “But I found him…”
“Hmm,” Norim vocalized at length, pressing his thumb to his lips and looking at the ground. Finally, an idea spread into a smile across his face before he spoke again. “Ok. We’ll let the duck choose who stays.”
“Huh?”
“It’s simple!” He stood up. “We’ll both call to it, and whoever it ends up going to is the person who stays behind.”
Luke considered the proposed solution for a while, and despite the initial doubt he had that there would be any successful outcome, he actually liked the idea. He still thought Norim should have been the one to go look for Eda, especially considering it was his responsibility as seeker, but if he was abandoning the game altogether, then this actually seemed to Luke like a fair way to determine who ended up going. It didn’t feel like something that was entirely up to chance either; in fact, Luke felt that he had a good chance at winning.
“Alright, let’s do it,” he agreed, getting up as well.
“Great!” Norim whimsically grinned. “So, what’s its name?”
“Name?”
“Well, yeah. We gotta call it something.”
“Right, uhh…”
Of course it needed a name.
Why hadn’t he thought of that before? Luke probed every corner of his mind for something to call it, the silence growing embarrassingly revealing, but at every thought he was drawing a blank. What names did ducks tend to have anyways?
Think, Luke!
“Uhh… His name is…” his eyes darted towards the bird, and he had a stroke of inspiration. Quickly, he spat out the name that came to mind. “Bill!”
Another hush followed his confident claim, and the look on Norim’s face was telling of his thoughts long before he spoke to say them. Regardless, Luke was determined to stick with it.
“Seriously?” Norim dryly questioned.
“Mhm.”
“… You just looked at its bill and that was the only thing you could think of, wasn’t it?” he knowingly sighed.
“It’s a wild duck. It didn’t have a name before,” Luke argued. “Now it does.”
“But that name sucks!”
“No it doesn’t. Bill’s a great name! Isn’t it, Bill?” he asked the duck who had been indifferently observing their conversation.
Equally curious, they both watched its next movements to gauge its response to the question. It remained silent, soon turning its head to the side and staring one of its piercing green irises towards the two boys as if to mutually get a better look at them as they viewed it. Then, after several seconds, it let out a raspy quack that broke the tension.
“See? He likes it,” Luke stated, convinced of the truth.
“No, he doesn’t.”
“Then you come up with something better,” he suggested, slightly annoyed by the disagreement.
“Uhh…” Norim struggled to come up with a name, clearly suffering from the sudden pressure of being put on the spot.
Seizing his floundering moment, Luke reaffirmed his own name before Norim could come up with another to counter it. “Not so easy, is it? Looks like it’s Bill after all.”
“Fine, whatever,” he gave up the position and began walking to the other side of the duck they were now calling ‘Bill’. “Let’s just get this over with already.”
Victorious, Luke turned around and started walking away from Bill, going in the opposite direction from where Norim was headed. After about 10 feet, he turned around to see where Norim had ended up.
“How far are you?” he shouted.
“I dunno,” Norim yelled back.
Leaning in to get an insignificantly closer view of the distance between Bill and Norim, he squinted, holding his position for a second before returning an answer. “Move back another foot!”
“Are you sure?”
“Just do it!”
Norim sighed and stepped back a bit, looking back to Luke for confirmation. “Good now?”
“Yep!” he threw a thumbs up. Then, after a brief pause, he called out. “Bill!”
“Bill!” Norim enthusiastically repeated. “Come here, Bill!”
“Come on, Bill! Over here!”
“Bill! This way!”
“Come to Luke!”
For at least the next minute, the two stood there calling out the duck’s newly appointed name in a variety of manners and accompanied by a variety of gestures. Throughout the ordeal, Bill the duck sat unwaveringly still in the same spot, occasionally moving its head around but never getting up or making a noise. It clearly either had no understanding of what was going on or simply didn’t care to partake. Whatever the case, they were getting nowhere with this silly contest, and Norim was the first one to give up the verbal onslaught and start listlessly walking over to Luke. Soon reciprocating his concession, Luke met him halfway back near where Bill sat.
“I told you that name sucked.”
“No, it doesn’t, Bill just didn’t feel like getting up,” he defended his position still, though truthfully he didn’t believe in the name wholeheartedly either.
“Just go find Eda already,” Norim urged, sitting down on the ground next to Bill.
“Fine,” he acquiesced, similarly bored with the ineffectual competition. “But Bill better be here when we get back.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he assured Luke, waving him away as he stretched his body out onto the grass. “Don’t worry about it.”
◊◊◊◊◊
Weaving languidly throughout the unfamiliar treescape, Luke started to wonder how he’d ended up in this position to begin with. It’d been at least fifteen minutes since he started searching for Eda, and so far he’d come up with nothing of significance. The only clue he had to work off of was the fact that Eda had gone in the opposite direction from where he did at the start of the match, but it’d been half an hour by now, if not longer. At this point, there was no telling where she was. For all he knew, she could’ve been on the opposite side of the area by now, though he doubted it. If anybody put more effort into their contests than Luke did, it was Eda, even when it came to tasks that she wasn’t very good at.
That’s why he knew that he couldn’t rush this. If Eda thought that he was looking for her, then he might as well just not look for her at all and just wait out the hour for her to win the round. After all, if the previous round was any suitable parallel to where he currently found himself, history would surely repeat itself if he gave it the opportunity to.
Still, as his eyes shifted around the changing horizon ahead of him, he sighed for having listened. Norim was supposed to be the one seeking, and yet somehow Luke had ended up doing his job for him while he got to sit around and do nothing with Bill. Admittedly, Norim was probably right — this would go faster with him searching for Eda — but he still found it unfair that was the case. At the end of the day, he was the one who’d found Bill. He should have been the one who got to stay with him.
Whatever.
Complaining wouldn’t make this go by any faster. In fact, it would just distract him from focusing on what he needed to.
Eda was pretty adaptable when it came to her environments, and it was because of that reason that he knew she didn’t like trying the same strategy too soon after the last time that she used it, even if it worked out for her before. She liked throwing them off as much as possible, but that just meant that Luke knew where not to look: the lake. Unfortunately, as it was their first time playing here, that was all he had to go off of. Even worse, since Eda was the one who’d found this place, she probably scouted it out for some good spots before she introduced them to it.
Maybe she already knows about Bill.
It was possible, he figured.
Luke was unsure exactly how thoroughly or how long Eda had spent here before she brought them, but there was a good chance she’d already seen Bill. After all, who could miss a duck like that?
With how large the shadow that it cast on the ground was as it flew around in the sky when Luke first spotted it, he would’ve needed to be blind not to see it. He never fathomed that a bird so large could be capable of flight in the first place, but he couldn’t deny what he’d seen with his own eyes.
Wait–
Instantly bringing himself to a halt, Luke suddenly struggled to remember.
How did he meet Bill again?
It was by the lake.
Yes.
He and Norim were trying to find Eda, and then Bill came up to them and…
Huh.
Something about that didn’t make sense, but Luke couldn’t figure out what.
With how long it’d been though, he couldn’t expect to remember everything about the event. It’s not like he remembered everything about how he and Norim met, or he and Eda. Time slipped by pretty quickly, after all, especially during matches like these, and he–
Wait–
When did–
But Luke was brought back to his senses by the sound of a voice in the distance. That’s right, he’d been searching for Eda, and it seemed like she had just given herself away.
Turning towards the direction of the sound, he remained still, stabilizing his eyes forward and waiting to see if it would happen again.
Several long seconds passed in anticipation, and his ears opened up to the various sounds of the environment around him. Birds chirped and fluttered in and out of trees. Water softly flowed into the distant lake from afar, trickling on stones. In the bushes to his left, something moved hesitantly.
Was it Eda?
No.
He dismissed the thought. The sound hadn’t come from that direction, and it was farther away, he was sure of it.
Then he heard it again, a voice. Luke couldn’t make out what it was saying, nor could he fathom why Eda would be speaking in the first place, but somebody was saying something, that much was guaranteed. Either it was Eda and he’d be able to end his search soon, or it wasn’t Eda and his curiosity was simply getting the better of him. Regardless, he knew that he was going to follow it.
Quickly but quietly, Luke moved in the direction of the noise. It wasn’t too far away, but it led him to a part of the area where the vegetation was significantly less sparse. This rockier zone, arguably on the edge of the permissible arena, was home to a moderate cliff-face that overlooked the shallow clearing beneath it. His position, enshrouded by a thicket of leaves and branches, gave him a good view of the space, which initially made him question why Eda would’ve chosen such a place to hide, but if he knew Eda, she had some sort of trick up her sleeve.
There she was.
In the middle of the clearing, he estimated well over fifty feet from where he was pressed to the ground, he was sure was Eda. However, it appeared that she wasn’t alone.
“I told you already, it’s just a game,” Eda insisted, a moderately familiar tone of annoyance present in her voice as she spoke to the two people in front of her.
“Then where are these friends of yours?” a grown-up lady dressed in sleek maroon clothing addressed her, a lit cigarette held loosely between her fingers.
“It’s hide and seek. Haven’t you ever played? The whole point is to not know!” she exclaimed, somehow managing to maintain her violent tone while keeping her voice at a regular volume.
The woman turned to the other person standing beside her and pointed the cigarette at him.
“This kid’s starting to get on my nerves,” she stated, pausing to take a drag of the light blue stick in her hand. “What do you think, Ro?”
Almost instantly, the similarly tall man slapped her hand away, throwing the cigarette several feet away from them onto the rocky soil in Luke’s direction. Eda was taken aback by the sudden act, but she only winced, becoming visibly more cautious of her situation. The woman, however, didn’t flinch even a bit; only her eyes moved, following the path of the cigarette as it bounced and rolled along the ground.
“Are you crazy?” he hissed at her, alert lacing his words.
She ignored his remark, however, refusing to return his gaze as she stared at the cigarette burning away on the earth. Narrowly agape, Luke could notice a faint twitch in her lips, their movement that of a string pulled taut and waiting to snap.
“What are you doing saying our real names?” the man continued, failing to get her attention.
Still watching the smoky barrel’s life extinguish into ash second by second, she finally addressed him in a controlled, slightly irritated voice. “Those are expensive, you know. Don’t do that again.”
“Well, don’t go around–”
“She’s just a kid, Ro,” she placed a distinct emphasis on the name. “She doesn’t care.”
“But still–” Ro started.
“Pick it up,” she turned to face him, at last.
A brief silence mixed with the light smoke in the air as the man contemplated his partner’s words and read the expression on her face. Like her words, her countenance was suppressed, but those eyes were not ones that Luke would want to be on the receiving end of right now.
“Are you serious?” he asked, his once frantic anger having now completely burned out.
“Yes, I’m serious,” she evenly stated.
The man angled his head as if another point of view would help him comprehend her words better.
“You’re still going to smoke it?” he questioned, squinting his eyes as he looked into hers.
“I can only afford to enjoy one of those a week. Either you buy me a new one, or you’re going to pick that one back up so I can finish it.”
After holding his gaze for a moment longer, the man shrugged and chuckled. “Fine,” he said and started to walk in Luke’s direction towards the cigarette.
Every muscle in Luke’s body froze, primed and ready to act on a moment’s whim. His mind raced, and each footstep that the man took towards him felt like a marathon.
Would the man see him? Did he need to run?
If Luke could see them, then there was a chance the opposite was true, but he was well-concealed. Leaves shrouded his entire body, and the shadows they cast on his face further helped to mask his presence. As long as he didn’t draw attention to himself, he was probably in the clear. But was ‘probably’ good enough? And if he ran, then what about Eda?
Despite the internal strife playing out in front of her, it appeared that Eda hadn’t seized the opportunity to escape from the situation, which Luke thought was probably for the best. Eda was fast, but he didn’t see her outrunning these two. She possibly could have outmaneuvered them if she was familiar enough with the environment, but the fact that she hadn’t done that already told him that wasn’t the case.
Luke was determined to stay still and continue to observe the situation. Ultimately, the man would still be dozens of feet away. Without any reason to suspect someone was watching them, the odds of him noticing Luke at even half the distance were slim at best.
Right, he assured himself. Just don’t move.
Unless…
Magic?
They were adults, after all, and certainly didn’t dress like common folk. They probably did know magic. Even basic magic could enhance a person’s perception, that much Luke was aware of, but what he didn’t know was by how much. Would it be enough?
He battled each thought several times, but a satisfactory answer failed to surface before his time to act on it fizzled out. As the man neared the cigarette and crouched down to pick it up, Luke held his breath.
Watching the man’s lightly mustached face plainly move down and then back up, seemingly untroubled, Luke relaxed.
“With what we get paid, I don’t know how you can afford to buy these anyways,” the man held the cigarette up in front of his face, inspecting it as he walked it back to the woman.
“I manage my money better than you do,” she smugly stated, reaching her hand out to receive the item.
Instead of giving it to her, however, Ro brought the stick to his own lips and took a puff, exhaling the smoke out in a thin trail towards the sky a few seconds later with a strong, controlled breath.
“Evidently not,” he commented with a smile.
Tsk.
The woman clicked her tongue and swiped the cigarette out of her partner’s hand. “You’re reimbursing me for that,” she affirmed.
“What? Are you–”
“Sorry about that, kid. Now, where were we?” she continued, returning to the distinctly more professional tone that she had at the beginning of their encounter as she turned to speak to Eda. Her partner, interrupted, simply sighed and followed her lead.
“You were leaving me alone,” Eda sharply answered, crossing her arms.
“Ah, introductions, that’s right,” the woman pressed on, disregarding the tempered response. “I’m Res, and you already know who he is,” she pointed the cigarette back at her partner, Ro.
“I don’t care,” she firmly replied.
“See? What did I tell you?” Res shot a smug look at her associate, to which he let out a brief puff of disapproval.
“Anyways,” Ro took over, setting aside his objections. “Just answer a few more of our questions and you can get back to your game.”
“If I haven’t already lost by then,” she grumbled but listened tolerantly for his inquiry.
“How long have you been here for?” he asked.
“All day.”
“Okay, and have you seen anything weird or out of the ordinary since you got here?” Ro continued.
“You mean other than you?” she smirked.
Openly laughing at the remark, Res matched her sardonic grin and looked to her partner. “This kid’s starting to grow on me.”
Ro, on the other hand, held his breath and stifled a grimace as he took the moment of pause. “Yes, other than us,” he confirmed.
“Nope,” she innocently answered. “Nothing.”
“How about any strange or confusing experiences while–”
“We’re looking for something,” Res cut in, having tapped her foot entirely through her thin threshold for patience already. “Big. White, like really white. It’s got–”
“Are you crazy?” Ro snapped at her in a slightly more hushed volume.
As if by instinct, the woman tensed up and moved away the arm holding the cigarette, prepared to defend it at all cost. Upon realizing that it was still in her hand, though, she loosened herself and responded. “You already asked me that once today,” she joked.
“And you never answered,” he retorted.
“What, you believe the rumors about it?” A mocking rhythm outlined her words.
“We’re looking for it for a reason,” he pressed.
“Yeah, because it’ll sell for a lot of money in Kanoem,” she knowingly asserted. “That doesn’t mean everything they say about it is true. They make up half of that stuff just to drive up the price, which is good for us, because that means our reward will be bigger too.”
Ro breathed audibly through his teeth, a gnawing anxiety overtaking his cadence. “I dunno… Some of those stories have been around for a lot longer than it’s been a target for.”
“They’re just stories, Ro,” she chided. “Don’t believe everything you hear. It’s just a duck, after all.”
Duck?
A nagging suspicion had been eating at Luke this entire time, a feeling that something was wrong, and now it was confirmed.
They were after Bill.
His mind fired a million signals that all pointed towards one course of action. It was clear what he needed to do.
Protect Bill.
As quickly as possible without making noise, he backed himself out of the brush and began backtracking. Once he was sure he was out of earshot, he tore into a sprint through the forest to back where he came from.
Hurry.
His senses felt heightened, like every obstacle in his path was miles ahead and he could see twice as far past them. He dodged around bushes, curving his torrential movements along a calculated channel as if carved out for him. Branches overhead rattled as he grabbed onto and swung using them to gain momentum. Leaping over roots and soaring across pits with narrow precision, he moved with perfect cognizance of his body’s every extremity.
Faster.
The area was still vastly unfamiliar to him, but somehow he knew where to go. He followed an illusory beacon that pulled on an internal compass, pointing him precisely in the direction he needed to go.
Minutes flew by. Luke wasn’t sure how many, but neither did he care. Time became secondary to the acuity he became host to as he sped his way back to where Bill and Norim were. Everything until that moment was merely part of the blur that got him there.
Arriving at the clearing, he burst through the thick line of bushes that veiled its existence.
His eyes darted around but failed to find their target. The area was empty.
Where–
But where his eyes let him down, something in his mind led him farther.
The lake.
He hurried towards the nearby water, and as he made it beyond the wall of tall grass to the shore, he spotted them. Norim turned to meet the noise he made as he approached them.
“Hey!” he waved him over. “I guess that took a while.”
Moving with purpose in his steps, Luke walked over to them. As he neared, his eyes narrowed onto Norim’s hands close to Bill’s beak. Something was in them.
Tilting his head slightly as Luke got closer, Norim looked at him with scrutiny, scanning him up and down. “It looks like you’re–”
Luke grabbed Norim’s hand and brought it closer for him to see.
“Hey, what–”
“What is this?” Luke observed the round, red objects in his palm.
“Just some berries,” he yanked his hand away and rubbed it. “Are you okay? You’re bleeding.”
“Huh?” His focus flickered, blinking together with his eyes.
Raising a couple fingers to the right side of Luke’s neck, Norim tapped it lightly.
Ouch.
Luke winced at the acute pain, and he observed the dim luster of the red fluid that coated Norim’s fingers as he showed them to him. Growing in severity, Luke was suddenly beginning to feel the fatigue of his body build on him. His heart thumped faster than his brain, and he felt conscious of each beat as they echoed throughout every muscle in his body. A warm sensation in his head deluged him, and each flutter of his eyelids seemed to color the world in a slightly different hue.
“It doesn’t look bad. It’s just a scratch.” Norim assured him. “You didn’t notice it?”
Bringing his hand to where he now felt the dull pain throbbing with each breath, he pressed on it to confirm its existence. Part of his palm got coated in the viscous substance that emerged from the cut, and he stared at it with a silent ponderance.
“No,” he finally replied. “I…” he scrunched his eyes hard and shook his head, trying to ward off a fogginess that was starting to disrupt his thoughts.
What’s happening?
His gaze wandered around as he tried to regain his focus, lazily lingering on the bright clear sky for a moment. The sun shone brightly alone in it, and for a second Luke imagined a singular cloud floating across it. Looking to the sparkling water, his concentration moved like ripples to the edge of its purview and eventually landed back on the snow-white bird.
“Where’s Eda?” Norim asked, stepping to the side of him to scan the area behind. “You didn’t find her?”
“I did,” he confirmed, the pain starting to subside and his thoughts becoming more clear. That’s right, there was a reason why he had returned. “We need to–”
“Did she think it was a trick?” he mused, lightly walking back to the lakeside.
“She didn’t know,” he shook his head. “There were a couple grown-ups with her.”
“Grown-ups?” Norim repeated, a tinge of concern in the word. “Not her parents?”
“No, that’s why I came back,” he continued, confident in his purpose. “They’re after–”
“And you didn’t help her,” Norim muttered, tipping his head to the side. The statement was almost a question, and he stared at Luke with a perplexed expression.
“She’s fine,” Luke assured, trying to re-steer the conversation to his main point. “Like I was saying, they’re after Bill!”
“How do you know she’s okay?” he asked, an urgency growing in his tone. “Did you see them leave?”
“No,” he denied, “you’re not listening to me. We–”
“You’re not listening to me!” Norim screamed, stunning Luke into a mental relapse, that throbbing sensation returning to him in waves. “I don’t care about Bill! Do you know if Eda’s okay?”
Luke struggled to process the question, each thought he conjured feeling trapped in a maze that he needed to solve individually in order to use. Wavering, he placed a hand to his forehead and stared down at the ground.
“Luke,” Norim pressed, giving him something to momentarily anchor his focus on.
“I…” He swallowed. “No, I don’t.”
“We need to find her again.” He grabbed Luke’s hand and hurriedly began walking away from the lake, but Luke resisted.
“Come on,” he urged, pulling Luke forward, but his body pulled back, determined to stay where it was. “What are you doing?”
The words escaping from Norim’s mouth buzzed inside of Luke’s ears like an insect flying uncomfortably close to him. His mind was burning, and eventually the noise subsided into the background as he strained to focus on his own thoughts. They were a mess, several thoughts seemingly incompatible and confusing, but as he toiled through them and moved towards one side of the conflict, he could feel the discomfort subsiding. That was the way he needed to go.
Eda was fine.
Somehow, he was sure of it, but those words were only audible in his own mind. Even if they had reached the outside world, it was clear that Norim had his own agenda. He struggled to understand why they were leaving; the information simply didn’t register with him. Those people said they were going to leave Eda alone. She didn’t need their help, but someone else did.
Bill.
Why wasn’t Norim listening to him? He was the one who’d made Luke look for Eda in the first place when it was supposed to be his turn. Clearly, he didn’t care about her enough to look for her himself. There must have been some other reason.
Bill.
He didn’t care about Bill. He’d said it himself. If he came across those adults, he’d probably lead them straight to Bill. Maybe… maybe that was his plan all along.
“Luke!” Norim shook him to his senses, both hands firmly planted on his shoulders. “Are you coming or not?”
Silence suffused the stagnant air once more, tackily compounding the already heavy feeling that surrounded them, and that gave Norim all he needed for his answer.
“Fine,” he released Luke from his grasp. “I’ll go by myself.”
As Norim turned to walk away, one thought rang clear in Luke’s psyche.
Stop him.
It commanded his body, giving it impetus, and he lunged forward, tackling Norim to the ground before he could take another step away.
“Ah–!” he vocalized as his face slammed into the dirt.
Flailing his body back, he struck a blow on Luke’s cheek, causing him to recoil as he held it with his hands.
“Ow–!” Luke exclaimed, reacting to the hit. Despite expecting pain, however, it surprisingly didn’t hurt. He knew that it should have, he knew that he was hurt, but he felt fine.
In his moment of reflection, Norim pushed him away and rolled onto his back.
“Damn,” he seethed at the pain. “What–”
But before he could finish his sentence, Luke was already back on top of him and sent a fist straight for his face, silencing him in an instant. Continuing the onslaught, Luke continued to drive punches at his treasonous friend, keeping him pinned to the ground with the weight of his body.
“Dude, what’s wrong with you?” Norim brought his arms up in defense, shielding himself from the flurry of attacks, but Luke was determined to keep him there.
Despite growing up together, the two had never gotten into a serious fight with each other before. They’d spar occasionally as part of their training, a result of both of their fathers being traditionally trained adventurers from Gatam, the Second Kingdom, but Norim never shared the same fervor for combat that he did, and this was no sparring match.
He couldn’t hold anything back, and it seemed Norim wasn’t going to either.
Catching Luke by surprise, Norim managed to exploit an opening and uppercut him squarely on the jaw, sending a powerful jolt throughout his skull. Following up the attack, he scratched at Luke’s neck, tearing into his still drying gash. Blood dripped down onto Norim’s face, mixing with that of his own that pulsed out from his nose from Luke’s relentless assault.
Unflinching, Luke immediately returned to the offensive, but as he took another swing, Norim grabbed hold of his arm and locked it together with his other one. Grappling them tightly, he twisted Luke down to the ground and forced him off of him.
“Stop it!” Norim enjoined, his voice breaking slightly. “What happened to you?”
But he was unable to respond.
Finally, the pain was starting to kick in, and Luke writhed on the grass as it panged throughout his body. He did his best to fight through it, but the more he thought about it, the more it started to hurt. Holding his dripping neck, he cursed at the sensation, pushing it away to the recesses of his mind as he resolved to focus solely on the battle. This was their contest now, and he would win once and for all.
Norim, breathing rapidly as he stood over top of him, looked at Luke with a dispirited anger, and Luke returned it with a loathing leer.
Traitor.
The word seethed throughout his mind.
“Traitor,” Luke said, repeating the word in each thought.
“What?”
Traitor.
Trapped in their awkward staring contest for seconds that mimicked an eternity, Norim finally broke the pause. As he bent down, Luke quickly coiled both of his legs in and then released their energy with a swift, stamping kick up at full-force, sending Norim flying towards the edge of the lake.
Luke gasped heavily as he pushed himself up onto his feet. His sight waned slightly, blood rushing simultaneously out of his head and out of his body, and he stumbled momentarily. Allowing his vision to return to him before making another move, he held his hands on his knees, catching his breath.
He looked at Norim on the ground struggling to move, the blood on the part of his face that touched the water coloring it a vibrant crimson, and he knew what he had to do.
Staggering over to his enemy, each step felt like a blow from the ground itself, running all the way up to his head and then back down to his feet, but he didn’t falter.
“Luke…” the boy lying his head on pillowy waters uttered between breaths. A grim smile spread across his face, the multifaceted pain accompanying it as clear as the red water that exuded from him. Tears rolled into his mouth as he labored to lift his head up, washing the color off of his bloodstained teeth. “We’re… we’re still friends… right?”
But the words were irrelevant. Luke barely even registered them, his sole focus on the task that he’d started. Nearing Norim, he walked slowly onto the soft dirt as he locked in on the head as his target.
“AHHHHH!!!” Norim let out a tearing scream, and a moment later Luke found himself completely submerged into the shallow water below him, his nose softly bumping the sediment at the bottom as he blankly stared down at it.
In the water, it took him several seconds to realize what had happened. He’d been knocked off his feet by a strong sweep, likely one that took all of Norim’s remaining energy to pull off.
The wound on his neck stung as water filled every crease and crevice of the exposed flesh, eventually finding that soothing numbness throughout the process.
Pressing his hands against the mushy debris floor, he raised his body out from the water, coughing heavily as his face found air once more. Water had flooded his sinuses, invaded his eyes, and glutted his throat, and his body was forcefully ejecting as much of it as it could as he reoriented himself. Despite his temporary debility, one look towards the shore reminded him of his goal, and he staunchly resumed his objective.
Weakly crawling away from the water’s brink, each movement appeared a pain for Norim. He would slide his arms along wet ground, coating them in sleeves of silt and pebbles, only to move mere inches before expending their strength and leaving his legs to follow the motion. Deep breaths shakily inflated his body, and he seemed to be whispering something to himself, though Luke couldn’t tell what, nor did he care.
This was the end.
Easily catching up with Norim, Luke grabbed him by his arms and began dragging him in the opposite direction, back towards the softly erubescent lake. He couldn’t tell if Norim tried to resist or not, but it wasn’t long before they reached their destination. In the shallows, just deep enough for the water to reach his knees, Norim barely stayed afloat, his mouth turned slightly enough to breathe in air instead of water.
Luke met the hollow gaze in Norim’s one visible eye one last time, stretched to the edge of its vision to look up at him. Letting go of his arms, Luke grabbed Norim’s head, and in a moment’s passing, he shoved it down into the water.
The body jerked and thrashed as best it could, like a fish flopping on land, but Luke’s strength was still plentiful. He held onto the head tight, gripping his fingers around Norim’s curls and resisting every twitch that emerged. Lifting his leg out of the water, Luke stepped down onto Norim’s back, helping push him down farther, and a bubble of air rose up as he made contact.
It felt as if it lasted ages, but simultaneously it was over before Luke knew it. This one action encompassed the entirety of his being, no thought other than achieving it polluting his mind to distract him. It was wholly in concentration until it no longer needed to be.
Gradually, Norim’s already faint struggles faded away as what was left of his energy faded from his muscles. It didn’t take long until Luke noticed the remaining air leave his lungs and reunite with the world above, water swiftly filling to take their place in them. After that, Luke continued to hold him there until he was sure it was over. How long that was, seconds, minutes, he didn’t know, but finally they’d reached the end.
Luke let go of the body and gave it one final push into the lake, and he watched for a bit as it gently bobbed away from him before his mind found its focus again.
He turned around and his eyes softened as they landed on his friend, Bill, simply sitting on the soft grass beyond the shoreline. Slowly wading over to him, his body was weaker than he felt, but he would recover.
As he approached, the duck stood up, and he caressed its head a bit as a smile graced his lips.
“Come on, Bill,” he said. “Let’s get going.”