"Ouch—!"
Aiden felt a sudden sharp pain near his temple, which pulled him out of daze.
Feeling the area near it with his palm, He felt blood drops frozen and a feather sticking to them.
Zephy's feather.
"Don't let it get to your head, Kid. At the end of the day, Potential is just that ...potential." Zephy barked, his wing pointed towards him.
"If you don't have the guts to face the hardships that it takes to make that potential come to fruition, then it might as well be equal to nothing."
He plucked up the feather from the blood clots and held it between his fingers in front of his eyes.
It seemed like he was staring at the feather, but he wasn't. He was zoning out to the words of Zephy.
Those words reminded him not to get too ahead of myself and to stay grounded.
[Yes, at least learn how to light a spark without burning your hand before even thinking of anything further ahead. Once in a thousand years, prodigalgenius.]
Tsk.
The Sarcasm in Char's statement was palpable and irritating, yet it was true.
He was still very much a weakling. He needs to take one step at a time.
"...I'll keep that in mind."
Tucking the feather near his right ear, He said.
"Good. Now, enough talking. Let's get to practice the absolute basics. Start by feeling the Aether in your surroundings. It's the most crucial part of becoming a Magician," Zephy said.
"But how? I can't see it, nor do I know where it is."
"Just shut your mouth and follow as I say," Zephy commanded, his voice leaving no further chance to argue back.
Alright then.
Aiden thought as Zephy flew up and landed on his shoulder.
His weight felt almost as light as wind, just the same when he encountered him first in Ephy's form, without knowing he was THE Ice Phoenix.
"Close your eyes."
Aiden followed without any words.
"Now, stop your thoughts that are distracting your brain and simply try to perceive the world with your other senses. Word it out loud about what you can make of."
He complied. Without his vision, he focused more on his hearing, his sense of smell, and the sensation of things against his skin.
"The First thing I can make of is your Talons digging into my shoulders." Aiden worded.
"...Look further. Into your surroundings. Just focus on your hearing for now. Tell me what kind of sounds you can pick up." Zephy said, his tone gentle.
Aiden attempted to do so. He strengthened his focus and tuned out any thoughts that still lingered in his mind.
He sat cross-legged in a meditating position and listened.
"I can hear the wind gently caressing the leaves of the trees and bushes."
"What else?"
"I can hear it whistling between rocks. Trying to make itself appear as loud as possible, yet I can also hear the silence that persists in between."
"Hmm, Good for now. Now, try picking up smells too, in addition to sounds. Tell me what more you can make of."
Zephy walked to the top of Aiden's head while saying.
"...The very first thing I can make with smell is how bad I smell."
"Looks like you need a bath after all of this, then. What else?"
"Else... The Stench of the Serpent's Carcass is still not rotten, I assume, thanks to the cold temperature around here. Might feed us for weeks if we managed right."
"Look Deeper. Focus more. Try looking at little things. Intricate things."
Little things...
For a second, Aiden didn't understand the meaning of that phrase, yet he tried without complaints.
In the beginning, he couldn't feel anything out of the norm. But as time passed, he could slowly but surely make more of his surroundings.
"I ...I can smell the freshness of those leaves that the wind caresses and carries with them. It's subtle, but even in these conditions, some of those leaves are still fresh."
Aiden took a deep breath as if trying to inhale the entirety of the Air in the vicinity inside his lungs.
The freshness was subtle, but it was there. And with each breath he took, he became even certain of that.
"...They carry a certain scent with them."
Aiden engulfed himself more in the Frostveil thicket by olfaction.
Every breath carried a faintly different scent. A little unique from the previous one.
"I can tell the difference among the fragrance of the soil, the dust, and the snow. They are slightly distinct from one another."
He whispered, carefully trying not to disturb the stillness and the peace he could feel in the Wind.
The Wind... It felt like it provided him with calmness of the mind. It felt like a part of him.
A serene part that he desperately needed.
Each time it brushed past his earlobe, each time it caressed his cheeks, each time it grazed his hair.
It calmed him down.
It reminded him to be in the present and enjoy its company.
"Enough for today. Open your eyes, the Moon's gonna be up soon. You need to find or build a safe shelter before that."
Zephy's words fell onto Aiden's ear like thunder in a paradise.
His eyebrows split with a moment's delay, accompanied by a fuzzy vision.
"Hoo..." Rubbing his hands together to create even a little warmth, Aiden touched his palms against his eyes to get rid of the fuzzy blur.
He stood up energetically, but his legs didn't support his actions.
Sitting cross-legged for so long had them numb.
Supporting his knees with his palms to not fall over his face, Aiden pushed himself upright.
"That's it for today?" Aiden said, performing some stretches to counter the side effects of sitting too much, while simultaneously warming his body up to prepare for work on a shelter.
Even when he couldn't see the sun through the thick fog, losing the partial sunlight that came down, symbolizing the day in this nightmarish terrain... It was not a pleasant thought, to say the least.
He wanted to have something remote that he could call shelter before that light went away. Luckily, he can faintly tell that the sun was still barely visible through the mist, giving him perhaps an hour or two of light.
"Heh, yeah, enough for today. But don't you dare get cocky thinking it's gonna be this easy from tomorrow, Brat." A sadistic smirk tugged on Zephy's beak, which made it look even more horrifying.
Smirk on a tiny bird's beak.
...Terrifying.
"Focus on getting a roof for tonight, or gonna sleep again on top of this worm? Remind you, I ain't gonna save your sorry ass if something came by its smell for you in the Night. You'd be on your own."
He said this directly into Aiden's ear while standing on his shoulder, as straightforwardly as possible.
No mincing of words.
"I ain't gonna waste my precious time on someone who wants to attract danger to himself by not even using his brain."
The chill that those words carried was 'felt' by Aiden, even though he couldn't feel cold.
But the emotion of Zephy was understandable.
Besides, Aiden already had a plan of shelter in mind.
"Still... It wouldn't hurt you to put those words slightly less bluntly." Aiden said, already making his steps towards the Boulder, or rather, which was a small hill, where the Serpent had smashed him into and then its tail, creating a massive hole, enough to provide him with a roof.
There were other natural caves around the area as well, in which he ran through during his fight, but none of them provided a direct view towards Elsie's grave.
Moreover, there were a lot of Trees fallen, and the ground was almost cleared of snow, near the boulder too.
"Besides, what are you even gonna do with that precious time of yours? Just gonna sleep away, right? Just like you have done for the past millennium..."
There was a hint of sarcastic mockery filled with pain as he muttered those words.
Zephy ignored his words as Aiden made his way towards that boulder at a decent speed, yet carefully.
"I think this should suffice—"
THUD—!
Simultaneously, as the words came out of Aiden's mouth, a couple of loose rocks fell from the top of the 'Roof' of the made-up cave.
The Gate of Hole had sharp edges, which brought more into view when a gust whistled past them.
The Ground was uneven and consisted of stones and other things that would surely not provide sufficient rest.
"Suffice, huh..." Zephy uttered.
Sarcasm as clear as his crown.
"Just... need some work. I still have time to fix something."
Gritting his teeth, Aiden said.
"Be glad, the weather changes according to my will here, Kid. If a snowstorm had it would not have let that little sunlight come through."
"Then can't you get rid of all the fog?"
"Nah. That much is the effect of just me existing. Do you want me to die or something?"
"...No. I apologize."
**********