"JARON HELLFIRE, I'M GOING TO MURDER YOU!"
The structure's door got blown away, and two figures crashed onto the sand with it. One was holding the other up by the collar, basically spitting on him while glaring at him with blazing hazel eyes. Interestingly enough, the underdog in the situation seemed almost unfazed. He simply looked up at his aggressor as if he was annoying wasp. He kneed the assailant in the crotch and proceeded to push him off his body.
Jaron, Lucas assumed, got up and brushed off the sand from his camouflage-patterned attire before pushing his light caramel bangs out of his face. "Great, Link. Look at what you've done. I'm not fixing that door for you."
Link was writhing around in the sand in pain. Sand got all over his hair of a similar shade and made his white, sleeveless tunic closer to a cream colour. "Jaron, you meanie-head! Why'd you have to go for... there."
"It was either that or your head! You should be thanking me!"
"I'd rather have Wanumonian soldiers laugh at me as a Jorvik consumed my body from the inside out!" Link spat.
"What happened this time?" Vaessen groaned, finally announcing her presence, as well as Jalen and Lucas'.
"Vaessen, you're back!" Jaron exclaimed.
"Unfortunately."
"Vaessennnnn! Jaron called me stupid again," Link pouted.
"Why did you call him stupid?"
"He wanted to go cliff diving!" Jaron replied. "How are we supposed to go cliff diving in the middle of a desert?"
"Linkin, you know you can't do anything like that," Vaessen sighed.
"Excuse you, I am in peak physical condition!" Linkin proclaimed.
Jaron coughed into his hand. "The same doesn't apply mentally."
Link shot up from the ground. "This is abuse! Vaessen, he's abusing me! I'm suing for emotional damages."
"You can't sue- Oh, my gosh. Let's just go inside." Vaessen picked up the door and started heading into the metal shack. "That applies to you too, Jalen and Lucas."
"Oh. New people. Hi, I'm Link." Linkin extended his hand to Lucas.
"Um, hi. I'm Lucas."
"Jalen." Jalen shook Link's hand when Lucas simply stared at the hand awkwardly.
"I'm Jaron. Sorry about him," the other sighed.
"You're so mean," Link huffed while following Vaessen inside.
The rest went after him. Lucas expected it to be considerably darker, but there was a massive gap in the roof. A layer of sand was basically covering everything inside because of it. Off in the corner was a chabudai table, and there was a hammock hanging in the back. Pathetic pieces of cloth were strewn along the floor, probably meant to function as beds for Jaron and Linkin. A small stove and cupboard stood near the doorway, and Vaessen was already searching for something to cook.
"You guys must be starving. Uh, how does stale bread, pickled vegetables, and dried fish sound for dinner?"
The four young men exchanged looks and shrugged. "Sure..."
Soon enough, the five of them were all kneeling around the table, eating in uncomfortable silence. While the fish was too salty, the pickles were too soggy, and the bread was harder than bone, Lucas ate up as much as he could. Enduring the strange sensations in his mouth was slightly more pleasant than the emptiness in his stomach.
Once he was finished, he looked up to see that Jalen had only eaten his fish and was now reading his book. Vaessen didn't even have food in front of her. Instead, her back was turned towards the chabudai and had a map sprawled out on the floor in front of her. Jaron was poking at his food with a bored expression, while Link was spinning one of his fish around by the tail. He ended up losing control of it, and it slapped Jaron in the face.
"You-!"
"Gah! Abuse! Abuse, abuse, abuse! Vaessen, help!"
While Vaessen tried breaking up the second fight, Lucas was laughing and repeatedly slamming his fist on the ground. It got to the point where he was rolling on the floor with tears welling up in his eyes, Jaron had Link pinned to the stove while trying to work the knobs, and Vaessen was trying to explain that the stove was out of gas.
Eventually, Jalen looked up from his book and asked, "What's happening?"
✦✧✧✧✧✦
Lucas was amazed at how drastic the changes in temperature in the desert could be. A scrap piece of fabric was meant to function as a makeshift mattress, but he wrapped it around his arms to protect him from the cold instead. He crawled over to the "dining room" and under the table to shield himself from the draft coming from the hole in the roof. Fascinatingly enough, the other three were fast asleep. Jalen was using his book as a pillow.
Lucas tossed and turned under the chabudai until he couldn't take it anymore. He threw the blanket aside and crawled out from beneath the table. He banged his head on the top and groaned before getting up. He groggily walked over to the doorway and took in the crisp, cool breeze of the Lyrin Desert's nighttime air. The twilight blue of the sky was cut through by the warm orange hue of a gas lamp's light. Pouring over numerous maps and books on the sand in the lamplight was Vaessen. The moment Lucas stuck his head out the doorway, she looked up from her work.
"Lucas? What are you doing still up?" she asked.
"Couldn't sleep," he shrugged. He walked over and took a look at all the papers in front of Vaessen. "What's this?"
"Just planning on where I'm going next. I think I'll just need one more day and I'll have scouted the entirety of the desert. I think I'll be going around the cities by the Stygian River and Ocean next. Now, should I get there by heading in the direction of the the Lyrin Jungle...?" Vaessen trailed off, and silence filled the space between the two.
After a bit, Lucas cleared his throat and asked something that had been eating away at him for a while.
"Why are you doing all this? Clearly, you aren't Gifted. If you were, the scales on your compass would have glowed three colours, or you would have mentioned that Jalen or I shared the same colour as you. I... just can't wrap my head around why someone normal would ever dream of wanting to help someone like me."
"Back before I started all of this, I lived in Bray'un. Kids just like you were snatched from their homes and thrown out to fend for themselves. I knew many of them because I taught at their school, but a lot of them were also strangers to me.
"It was sickening, but no one did anything to stop it. One day, I decided that enough was enough and spoke to the town council. That same night, I was thrown out, too. I figured that since I was exiled, I might as well do something good with it.
"So I snuck into some towns, stole as many maps, books, and other resources as I could carry. I figured I could help educate some kids like you. Maybe try and show that you aren't some mindless monsters like all those Jorviks out there. Maybe, just maybe, something can be done about how 'normal' people view Gifteds."
"That's..."
Before Lucas could come up with the right words to say, Vaessen got up and dusted herself off. "You were curious about what your Gift was, right?"
"Uh, yeah. It's strength-related, right?"
She hummed in reply. "Throw a punch at me. Let's see the extent of your strength."
"Wait, what? No! What if I hurt you?"
"Just go at me lightly."
"Okay..." Lucas lamely jabbed at Vaessen with his fist. "Hah...?"
"Okay, actually try this time."
"Hah!" Lucas exclaimed with a little more enthusiasm. Still, nothing really interesting happened when his fist met Vaessen's shoulder.
"Okay, maybe try hitting the ground or something."
Lucas obeyed and sent a heartier hit towards the earth, but nothing happened beyond what was expected.
"If I was thrown out of Wanumon because the people feared this, that's really sad," Lucas joked.
Vaessen scratched her chin and hummed thoughtfully. Finally, she asked, "Tell me, Lucas, what is it like when you were thrown out of the Capital?"
"It..." He thought about the question for a bit. "It was scary. I remember there being a bunch of noise. My superiors were scolding me, people all around me were spreading gossip, and... and I think in all that chaos, my voice could be heard, too. No, not only that, my- my voice voice was the loudest. My brain wasn't even instructing my mouth to do that. It was just happening because I was so terrified what would become of me once I was locked out of the gates."
"Was it really scary?"
"Y- yes. Yes, it was. Of course it was."
"Your superiors. Were they particularly cruel?"
"I mean, they could be pretty harsh, but I wouldn't necessarily say cruel-"
"How did they treat you?'
"Well, they were the ones that ordered my banishment, so-"
"Before that. How did they treat you?"
"I... They- They showed me guidance. They shared their wisdom with me, and they encouraged me to do my best. They even said I had talents that very few possessed."
"And the people gossiping about you? Did you know them?"
"Uh, yes. Yes, I knew them all. Some more so than others, but I was at the very least cordial with them. I was even pretty close enough with a handful of them to play chess and card games..."
"When they found out you were Gifted, how did they treat you then?"
"They all suddenly became so hostile. Some people I knew very well refused to even look me in the eye when I begged for them to help me."
"Did you find that scary?"
"Well, not scary..."
"Then what, pray tell, was that feeling?"
"Uh, sadness?"
"Come on, that's boring."
"E- Emptiness? Despair?"
"There are better words out there. What were you feeling at that moment, Lucas?"
The blurred image of all Lucas' mentors, acquaintances, and friends flashed in his mind. However, it wasn't one of the any fond memories he had with them. Instead of a warm feeling of intimacy and comradery being emitted from their expressions, it was one that made Lucas feel hurt. No, there was a better term for that feeling. Lucas couldn't help but to feel...
"Be- Betrayed," Lucas finally answered. "At that moment, I felt as if I had been betrayed. I- I was betrayed."
"And what would you like to do with those feelings of betrayal?"
"I... I want to get back at them<" he said with more conviction. "I want them to know how they made me feel. I want... I just want to-"
Lucas screamed and fell to his knees. He screamed again and again, but it still wasn't enough. He begun to take his out his frustration on the ground with a punch. Then another. Then another, and another, and another. He was so caught up in his rage, he didn't notice the massive crater he dug himself into, and he certainly didn't notice the red flashes of light being emitted with each punch. Lucas continued his brutal assault on the sand until his body couldn't take it anymore.
"Uh, Lucas?"
Lucas looked up from the bottom of the crater to see Vaessen peering down from the outside. He also saw that they sky had gotten lighter. Last time he checked, it was a dark royal blue, but now, it was dainty, greyish shade of lavender with some orange and pink tickling at it on the horizon.
Breathlessly, Lucas called out, "Yeah?"
"I think we figured out what your Gift is."
Beside Vaessen, another face with a bad case of bedhead and a curious expression popped up. "Wow, that's a big hole," Jalen remarked.
And just like that, a smile cracked on Lucas' face, almost as if there wasn't a big hole gaping in his heart and stomach just a while ago. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."
---
A/N
Wow, I really didn't expect to finish up chapter 2 so quickly lol. Once again, this isn't properly edited. I'll probably do one massive edit of this thing once it's all finished, which is gonna come pretty soon if I keep writing at this rate. (Edit: I'm not done yet, but as I'm typing this out, I've done a rough edit of chapter one and two. Also, the reactions of some Jorvikian scales with certain elements have changed, but I haven't fixed that in later chapters just yet. Please bare with me.) Honestly, I'm so productive with this story, it scares me. I'm planning about 27 chapters, and chapter 3 already has a considerable amount written lol. Remember to vote and comment or whatever, idk. Anyways, I'm bad at outros...
Bye.