Night crept on. Moons were slowly creeping across the night starry sky. There was enough light to move just right under such conditions, but Allan did not need it.
There was no light he could see, after all.
He steadily kept his pace. Occasionally resting for a few minutes, to feel his legs giving up on him before breaking past the limits that were continuously stopping him.
Sarey kept the record of how many laps he did. He was not too far from the goal. Although she talked to him about not being too hard on himself, Allan kept going for the 20 kilometers' worth of laps.
Hours passed before he, at last, finally finished with the last lap. He fell to the ground with heavy breathing until he pushed himself up and sit with his back facing the tree.
“And that is the last one. Impressive Allan. I can’t imagine how it must feel to run within darkness.” Sarey said while she walked to him.
“You can try if you want. Close your eyes and try to run across this forest. I doubt it would end well.”
“I tried it already. It is not as if I want to do it by myself. It’s just better to know what it’s like, you know?”
“Sure, Sure. Can I go back?”
“Not yet.”
Allan’s ears suddenly picked something else. He moved his head to the side.
Swoosh!
Something moved past his head at a fast speed and hit the tree.
“S-sarey?” Allan muttered in surprise, as he took a defensive stance on his knees.
“How do you know it’s me?” Sarey said with a smile on her face. She was tossing a small pebble in her hand.
“Who else it could be?”
“I don’t know.” She lied and tossed another one at him.
Swoosh!
Allan fell speechless and tried his best to feel the surrounding. The fast sound came so suddenly now that he could not dodge it in time.
“Ouch, Sarey! You never told me about this?”
“What? Is it normal to be unprepared in the wild world? I thought about it for some time. I incorporated something into this as well. You will need this. Since you are blind. Having this exercise is not that bad.”
“What? So, are you just gonna attack a blind person?”
“Yes.” She answered honestly.
It wasn’t that she found it funny or good for him. It made sense to start now than tomorrow. She became more interested in Allan’s power after he went through this order relatively smoothly. He never complained about his blindness. Truthfully, she did not want to reveal too much about the pages she read about. She could even make some things up since he had no way to know.
“Hmph! Do you think this can stop me? What do you see from this?”
“Try to reach me. After you do, it is time to go home.”
“Right... Fine then.” Allan kept his hands straight before his body. He moved his feet slowly forward.
“This won’t hurt you, so hurry up.” Sarey said with some hint of enjoyment.
“You are so vile.” Allan said with a smile.
Swoosh.
Another one passed by his head. It was close to his hand, but he wasn’t able to catch it.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
In a matter of moments, more pebbles flew in his direction.
“Hmph!” Allan swung his arm as he caught two of the rocks and moved from another. One pebble hit him in the ribs.
“Wow. How did you do it? Can you hear them flying at you?” Sarey said with curiosity.
“Yes. Don’t you dare to run from me now?”
“Only if you catch me.”
Bang! Bang!
Allan moved forward to her voice. He tried to talk to her, so he became aware of her position. He was getting closer and closer. His body ached badly, but some pebbles wouldn’t hurt him. He was all too familiar with the true power of rock from the scarred man. He would never allow himself to feel that moment again. Unfortunately, this situation once again occurred at the hands of Sarey, who had no way to know of knowing the past, of course.
It made Allan think of that situation. Unpleasant memory surfaced in his mind. He did not become angry upon meeting this fate again. He no longer felt that helpless, but it may just all be because Sarey was much weaker than that scarred man.
He moved steadily in her direction. Just before he knew it, he reached for her face.
Sarey was just helplessly standing there with a smile on her face.
“Good. I just wanted to try this. I thought about doing occasional practice more lively. This could sharpen your senses.”
Allan sighed upon hearing her saying that.
“You are a real piece of work, Sarey. I thought mister 36 was joking about that.”
“Well, excuse me. I am doing it for you.”
“Why? Am I someone important to you? Just because you found me in this forest? Am I supposed to be glad or thankful?”
“This... It is complicated. My father is rather a stern man. He never gave me much freedom before. Since my mom left us all those years ago, I became lonely. I like to spend my time with you, Allan. Is it that bad of a thing?”
“No... I just wanted to know, too. I had never had a mother before. Not like you are her replacement. I had my father as well and no siblings too. It is unusual,” Allan tried his best to find the words to describe his feelings.
“We are, after all, not so different, Allan. Are you mad at me for doing this?”
“No. Keep going. I hope to improve myself. I never understood my father’s words before. Man needs to have resolved. A will to go along with himself. I will become someone he could be proud of after I find him.”
“That is not a bad way to put it. Can I accompany you?”
“Of course...” Allan muttered with hesitation and helplessness.
Like this, their random decision became their small promises. They would linger in their hearts, but they could eventually matter into the far future. Sarey let him by his hand back home. Allan fell asleep so fast, before she knew it, he was gone.
“Uh. I guess I was too harsh on him today.”
“Oh, father.” Sarey found her father in the kitchen, who was casually enjoying a cup of tea.
“I will make some space for him. There is a small storage room by a side of your room. He could be there for the time being. Not like I acknowledge his presence here, but you will still need to take care of him. It doesn’t seem like he will die anytime soon.”
“Really? Thank you. I will tell him about it after he wakes up.” Sarey muttered. She was quite sleepy as well.
“What are you planning? I hope you will find my words to be meaningful.”
“What do you mean, father?”
“Nothing much. Good night.” He wanted to continue with it, but he rather moved to his room before giving his daughter another glance.
“Hmmm. Does he have a hunch about our stuff? I wonder.” Sarey thought to herself.
“It’s not like it matters. I won’t stop just because he wants to.” She left to her room as well.
Silence soon spread throughout the entire home.
The next day, Sarey ended up sleeping longer than she wanted. In the kitchen, she found sleepwalking Allan, who was trying to make breakfast for himself.
“What are you trying to do?” She glanced at him with worry and a sleepy voice.
“Uh? I am just finding my way through this room. I am quite accustomed to making my food. I just need to find it.”
“You have a bag of dried wood in your hands. I doubt you want to eat it.”
“Oh... I guess so.” Allan said rather dejected.
“Here. This is fresh bread from yesterday. I bought them as I got your clothes. I will get you something along with it from the freezer.”
“Freezer?”
“Yea. Place where we store our goods for both ourselves and father’s restaurant. Don’t you know it?”
“Eh... no. Where I come from. There is nothing like that. Maybe in the cold north? I don’t know.”
“North? We are very far away from it from our region. I wonder where are you from?” Sarey wondered out loud.
“I hope not too far away.” Allan helplessly added.
“Stop worrying about it for now. Wait for a moment.”
In a bit, Allan had a small plate of breakfast. There was meat, some ham, and 1 sausage. It was a rather rich-looking meal to his standards. But not like he would complain. He had no mood to worry about being sorry for not giving them anything in return. He decided to accept Sarey’s hospitality after their small conversation last night.
“Phew. That was good.” Allan said with satisfaction, after dealing with the meal in a matter of minutes.
“You don’t enjoy your meal at all.” Sarey complained.
“SO what? It is still delicious, even within my stomach.”
“Let me hear you say that once I will get you to my father’s restaurant. Hmph! Anyway, what is the next thing you want to do?”
“Next? There is no next. I will keep doing the practice you said to me yesterday. It helped me greatly, I think. My body is still a little sore, but I think I will manage it.”
“Ohh, I completely forgot about it. Just training alone is not enough. Where did I let these pages?” Sarey frantically left to find them.
Allan was left seated alone, with no choice.
“Is there something she left out again? I have no real way to know if she did or not. Huh... how sad.“
In a few minutes, Sarey appeared with the pages in her hand.
“There you go. I forgot about it. There is some medical stuff left out beneath this section. I had no methods to make use of them since 36 have no way to provide us with anything and we are poor of these resources.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh. Sorry, I forget sometimes that you are blind.”
“Heh.” Allan finds it rather funny.
“There are some herbal baths, medicinal capsules, and some other ways to help with the burden of this stage of practice. I do not know about some, but most of them are rather complicated. Apart from the acupoint one of course. Do you want to try it? It helped you earlier and I am not new to it.”
“Acupoint? Do you mean that medical term for the human system?”
“Yea, do you know it?”
“A little, regular or more famous doctors use it. It can help with the body flow and make some significant improvements after being treated by a good doctor. If you met some bad one, you could end up in a lot of pain and other problems.”
“So you know it rather well. I am no doctor, but I stabbed you quite a bit some time ago.“
“S-s-stabbed?”
“Just some needless. I think it can help your body.” Sarey said honestly.
“I know. Are you sure you know it? It is not that easy to learn.”
“Don’t worry. Or, I could summon 36 to help out.”
“No thanks. I will rather keep my blood. Go try it out then.” Allan laid out in the living room, but this time, it was of his free will.
