It was barely midday, and they were already exhausted. A maiaak, who was plenty strong, ruthlessly attacked the group, forcing Lyzal and Saros‌ to coordinate with each other to overpower the creature. Something that Lyzal would hate to admit. Luna was of no help, leaving Lyzal annoyed.

“We need to start your training. Now.” Lyzal panted.

Luna nodded eagerly. “I have a thought.”

“Don’t tell me you’re changing your mind.” Lyzal groaned openly.

“Of course not! I was just wondering, aren’t the maiaak’s abilities different from the human’s? How are you going to teach me?”

“Ah,” Saros sat up, “I can answer that. Levix might be more raw, potent, and instinctual, but the concept of livine is simple. It’s just control and-”

“Discipline.” Lyzal interrupted. “So we’re going to start simple. I want you to put up a barrier around you.”

“Now?”

Lyzal shot Luna a glare from the ground that she was lying on. Stiffening, Luna nodded in acknowledgment and focused. Successfully, she created a barrier around her entire body. 

“Okay, now what?” Luna awaited her next set of instructions.

“Now hold it. Don’t let it falter.”

“What? But-” The barrier weakened.

“Focus!”

Luna reinforced the barrier.

“You hold that barrier as long as you can, and I don’t want to hear any complaints.” Lyzal sat up, then stood. “Oh, and if I feel it loosen, I’m attacking you.”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit much?” Saros asked, a bit concerned.

“She’s been warned.” Lyzal was now standing up and crossing her arms.

Desperately, Luna focused on her barrier, wondering how long she was going to have to hold it for. She didn’t want to be attacked, especially by Lyzal. 

“Alright, let's go before we get attacked again.” 

“Wait, you want us to move?” Luna asked, scattering.

“You can do that much. Right?” Lyzal glared.

Luna thought about all the times she had used her barrier. Not once was she ever on the move. She was always sitting still. Luna’s face paled at the realization. 

“Better figure it out.” Lyzal spoke, already walking away while waving a hand in a goodbye gesture. 

“Wait for me!” Luna called out, her barrier evaporating almost instantly.

The hair on the back of Luna’s neck stood up as she raised her barrier back up at full strength. A fist only an inch away from her face stopped in place. Lyzal’s head tilted to the side, revealing a raised eyebrow from behind the fist.

“At least you have good reflexes.”

Lyzal retracted her fist, earning a sigh of relief from Luna. Lyzal turned her back, walking off again. Luna’s shoulders slumped as her mind raced trying to think of what to do.

“Calm down, and focus.” Saros’s voice cut through the noise. Luna looked up at Saros. “Lyzal won’t go so far that she can’t sense you. Take a deep breath and focus on the task at hand.”

Luna gave a nod. Taking a deep breath as instructed, she slowly took her first step. Luna’s eyes widened slightly at the success, feeling a little giddy. She took another step, and then another until she was stiffly but slowly walking. Saros stood by Luna’s side, which gave her a sense of security.

The sun was high; Saros seemed to be on high alert. Luna paused, trying to sense anything while keeping her barrier up. After a moment, she could sense other maiaaks nearby. Few, but considering one was enough to be concerned about, the thought of there being others made her uneasy. But after doing another check, she noted the maiaaks weren’t being hostile. Not like the one they encountered first thing in the morning, at least. 

“We should keep moving.” Saros reminded Luna that she had stopped walking.

Luna nodded, now noting that she wasn’t as stiff as earlier. Again, she walked, but now she willed herself to stay aware of their surroundings. But knowing Saros was there doing the same let her relax just a tad bit.

With the sun setting, dusk had come with no other incidents. After a few silent moments, Saros and Luna finally met up with Lyzal, who was casually leaning against a tree. Luna looked around the tiny clearing. Even smaller than the one they were in during the first night where Luna had regained consciousness. 

“We’ll rest here for the night.”

Saros dropped the bag as his way of agreeing. 

“Why weren’t we attacked?” Luna spoke slowly, looking at their surroundings.

“Not worth the risk.” Lyzal replied, blunt as ever.

Luna let out a small chuckle. “Well, the two of you are pretty strong. Even more so when you’re working together like you did this morning.”

Lyzal shrugged. Luna wasn’t sure if that was her way of accepting or brushing off the compliment. Saros simply picked a tree and sat at the base. 

“With how slow we’re going, it’s going to take us another two days to get there. Three if they decide to test their luck.” Lyzal updated them.

The sun glowed on the horizon as the stars shone brightly. Luna could feel her body becoming exhausted. She was so happy that she didn’t have to walk anymore, but she wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep the barrier up. She could swear that it was probably flickering if it wasn’t already.

“You can let the barrier go,” Lyzal spoke.

With her shoulders relaxing, Luna let out a sigh as if she had been holding her breath the entire time. She could now feel how sore her body was from being tense the entire time. She was going to have to work on being able to hold the barrier without acting like she was awaiting an explosion the entire time. But as soon as the barrier faded, Luna tensed all over again, and wanted to put it back up. There were no maiaaks nearby, which was unsettling considering there had been at least one nearby the entire time. On top of that, the darkness that grew seemed to be darker than natural.

“Where is everybody?” Luna whispered, noticing that she could see her breath.

“You can feel it?” Lyzal asked, matching Luna’s volume.

“The darkness? It feels the same as when we first found Serahm except… heavier?”

“Who?” Saros asked.

Rolling her eyes, Luna dug into the pouch on her waist, pulling out the full moon Elysian pendant. “The one who gave me this.” She showed Saros.

Lyzal also eyed the pendant from a distance. 

“Oh.” was the only reply Saros gave.

Luna wasn’t sure if it jogged his memory or if he was just giving an empty reply. 

“Do neither of you really remember? There were these shadow-dog-like creatures attacking us.”

“Are you sure you’re not misremembering who you were with?” Lyzal rolled her eyes while readjusting her position.

Luna paused for a moment, thinking about who all was there. “Yes!” Her voice broke the quiet. 

Shrinking into herself and giving the area a quick scan to make sure nothing jumped out at them, she went back to the low volume. “You even said it yourself that they weren’t any maiaaks that you had ever seen, and the both of you tried to protect us.”

“Tried?” Saros questioned.

“Yes, Lyzal was standing in front of us, and you were between Lyzal and us. But the creature jumped into the ground, then popped out from behind you and in front of us. It vanished when it hit my barrier. Then the other two with it retreated.”

Saros and Lyzal looked at each other in silence. Luna sighed in defeat. At this point she couldn’t tell if they were playing with her or if they had really forgotten. Either way, she couldn’t figure out ‌why. 

As the night crept further, the area continued to get unnaturally dark, heavy, and cold. The unease of it all crept up Luna’s spine. No longer ‌able to ignore the sense of danger, Luna put her barrier up. She wondered if any of them were going to get any rest that night. Letting out a slow, shaky breath, Luna bundled herself up in her cloak, then focused on Lyzal, then on Saros. Neither of which was moving. Both of which were guarded. Neither of which faltered.

Looking up at the stars, they continued to dim until they were no more in the night's depth.