It was morning when Scarlet decided to wake Keera, after her own watch had passed without anything happening. She had taken the time to probe her abilities a little more, getting a better feeling how much it would take out of her to keep Cyca active and Crysna suppressed. Even after a good sleep, she had a feeling that she wouldn’t be able to keep Cyca going as she had before hand, at least not until she got more powerful. But keeping Cyca active was pushing boundaries and something else was doing so even more.

During her watch, in the middle of the night, she had tried to find the strange, hyper-aware state again, the one that she had found the day before. It had been fascinating and she wanted to learn and understand more. Sitting cross-legged, she remembered how she had let her mind open up, not focusing on anything but letting the impression of her surrounding flow into her.

It turned out that searching for that state was harder than finding it but after a while, she simply gave up trying to reach it and relaxed. It was in that open and relaxed state that she felt her surroundings, the whispers of the world. Not focusing on anything, she let her mind float, trying to take in as much as possible.

Her reverie couldn’t have lasted more than a few second but the amount of information that was flowing around her was immense and so was the strain on her mind. The headache she had felt the evening before came back with a vengeance, forcing her to close her mind back up, only keeping her senses open to perceive threats.

The headache subsided after an hour or so but she decided not to push herself until morning, to preserve her strength.

Once the sun was peeking over the horizon, Scarlet started to prepare breakfast, the smell causing Keera to wake up before long. As always, Scarlet handed Keera the food, before taking some for herself. She had considered plans for the day, mostly when the best time to return would be, and decided that they should explore the area until noon and head back downstream then. It should bring them back to town with time to spare on the fifth day and they might have a chance to find another crystal monster, so they would both have a crystal to trade with on their return.

Scarlet had made a mental list of things she wanted to trade for, mostly items of convenience, like a set of metallic survival cookware and those would take the equivalent of money. And, if she managed to assist Keera in taking down a crystal monster on her own, it should add some positive reinforcement to her training. If Keera broke down, it would add complications, nothing that couldn’t be dealt with, but complications nonetheless.

“Let’s scout out the area. I hope we find a few more crystal monsters around here, so we can trade the inert crystals for equipment.” Scarlet suggested after breakfast and while Keera seemed even less confident than the day before when they had started their track up-river, she nodded and soon they were on their way.

Scarlet suggested to head east, at least that was what she called the direction the sun was in when her scanner said it was nine-o’clock. The town was south of them and they had been moving north, with the river on their right, western side, using classical cardinal directions.

“Can you lead the way today?” Keera asked, looking timid.

“I can do that. But you will be responsible for our safety, so get your crystal monster out. You need to learn and train.” Scarlet ordered after accepting.

Keera let her crystal drop, the golden badger-monster landing on its paws and moving alongside Keera. Scarlet led, but kept quite a bit of attention on the monster, realising that it was moving a lot better than the day before.

The further they got away from the river, the lighter the forest got and more and more shrubs impeded their way, making it difficult to move. Every now and then, Scarlet looked at her scanner, checking that they were not in a more dangerous area than a light yellow. She was not sure how dangerous a higher level would be, but after seeing the flying monster the day before, she would be more cautious.

After about an hour of walking, she noticed a slight presence, similar to the very first monster she had defeated and started angling towards it, not telling Keera about it. It would serve as a good test for the other, so she suppressed her anxiety and didn’t change her posture, not even putting her hand to her belt-pouch. It was risky but previously, all crystal monsters had shown more aggression towards the other crystal monsters instead of the human psions, until the psions used their powers against them.

A minute or so later, Keera quietly spoke up, “There’s something out there. Don’t you feel it?”

“Do you want to take point to take care of it?” whispered back, while keeping her vigilance up.

Keera must have realised that it was, indeed, a test and took the lead-position, allowing Scarlet to place a hand on Cyca’s crystal, standing ready to help, just in case. The crystal monster, very similar to the rat she had killed before, burst from a brush, instantly trying to take a bite out of Keera’s monster and Scarlet heard a soft hiss of “Dodge to the right!” from Keera and her monster did just that, evading the attack.

“Now, Scratch!” Scarlet heard Keera mutter, now a little louder.

The crystal monster badger jumped forward, just as the rat’s mouth snapped shut and tried to bury its claws in its opponent. The rat managed to twist part of its body out of the way but the strike hit true, causing some of the strange interference when the bodies of two crystal monsters met.

When the rat landed, it landed badly and out of balance, allowing Keera and her monster to take over the momentum of the fight.

“Again!” was muttered and by now, Scarlet understood what was happening. Keera seemed to unconsciously mutter what she was commanding her monster to do. When Scarlet focused to the mental realm, she noticed that the mental waves from Keera swelled with those mutterings, as if she was using her voice to convince herself that she was commanding her crystal beast.

The rat managed to dodge the first attack but at the cost of what was left of its balance, allowing Keera’s monster to land a good hit, even as the rat tried to bite into the striking paw. Both monsters flickered, Keera’s monster just a little, the rat quite a bit.

They both had their distance, the strike against the badger, costing some of the momentum, when Scarlet heard Keera muttered the command to Earth Spike.

Curious, Scarlet looked closely and noticed the badger hitting the ground with both paws and a thin pillar of earth rose below the rat’s belly, punching into it and launching the rat into the air. Not high up but it was clearly something Keera’s crystal monster had expected and Keera as well.

Keera muttered to finish it and her badger leapt forward, using both claws at the same time, almost as if it was clapping. Both paws and all eight wicked claws ripped into the rat, causing it to rapidly flicker out and it’s projected form vanished. Keera’s crystal monster caught the crystal in its paws and for the second time, Scarlet was able to witness the feeding, small particles of light being absorbed into a crystal monster. It was no less fascinating than the first time, only that now, the badger was growing stronger.

But that was fine with Scarlet, making Keera stronger was indirectly making herself stronger, once she had Keera completely under her control. She was well on the way to that and barring any complications, it should work out just fine.

“Very well done. Can you gauge the strength your monster has left? Do you think I should take over our protection?” Scarlet asked, making sure that her voice was friendly and praising.

After Keera picked up the new crystal, she turned around and Scarlet gave her a friendly smile. Keera closed her eyes for a moment, as if looking inward before speaking.

“Better take over. Badgy performed great but he’s taken some damage.” Keera answered and it was the first time she heard Keera refer to her monster with a name and even a sex.

“That’s fine. Say, where did you get the idea that your Badgy could shift the earth like that?”

“When the snake attacked yesterday, with the water, and your cat with the lightning. You told me about the similar monster in town, that could shift earth, so during my night-watch, I experimented. And it worked. So, I wanted to try it.” Keera explained, smiling proudly.

Scarlet complimented her, praising her dedication to training and her accomplishment, before the two of them moved on, looking for another enemy and maybe some more food, now with Keera leading and Scarlet with Cyca following behind.