"Whoa," Finn says as we approach the island. "That is beautiful."

Even in his amazement, he speaks quietly. I guess he really is just a quiet person and isn't just intentionally lowering his voice. He pulled off his cloak once I told him we were far enough he wouldn't be seen, and his ears are sticking out/up, his tail swishing gently as he observes our surroundings.

The island I brought him to is one of the ones with an everfall cascading out of a mountain, the trees and other vegetation growing in dense. Despite how much it thrives, there's not much danger here. At least, nothing that bothers me if I don't go into its territory or if I have a fire going at night.

"I know, right?" I ask. "It's amazing! There aren't really monsters on this island, just food, so I sometimes camp out on it for a few days. Can't do that today, since you're with me and tomorrow's your birthday, but I can still show you some of my training stuff."

"You train without fighting monsters?" He asks.

"Yeah," I hop out of the boat and begin pushing it to the shore. "I mean, I do that all the time when I train at home. Ain't no monsters there!"

"I guess."

Finn leaves the boat, then we pull it onto the shore, moving it behind some rocks. With that taken care of, I lead Finn through the dense growth of the island, navigating by memory and the very faint trails that I've left behind.

As we walk, I gather a few items, enlisting Finn's help in carrying them. Mostly, they're just fruits that we walk past, the smallest of them being about twice the size of my fist, the largest being a melon half the size of my chest.

An hour of walking and gathering takes us to the clearing by where the everfalls cascades down into a small lake, nothing but grass in the hundred yards between the trees and the water. Well, and some boulders, logs, sticks, my fire ring, and other things.

"Something scattered my wood piles," I mutter in annoyance.

Easy fix, though!

I have Finn put the stuff he's carrying on a boulder that I set my large melon on, then we gather up more of it. Curiosity is clear on his face, especially because I know he can see the remnants of fruit scattered about the clearing.

Gathering enough fruit for my satisfaction takes about an hour and a half. It would be so much easier and faster if I were alone, but I'm not, so Finn and I have to keep going back and forth.

"So you're probably wondering," I say once we've gathered a lot of fruits. "Why I had us gather all of this."

"Um… yeah."

"That's easy!" I grin. "For training! Help me stand these up."

I begin righting some of the logs in this section, some of which are as tall as I am, others are as short as my knees. Their ends are smooth on both sides from me cutting them to size, and some of them – especially the ones taller than three feet – have cuts and gashes on them.

"You attack the logs?" Finn asks.

"Sort of," I answer. "Put fruit on them. One on each."

"What?"

Explaining by showing, I begin picking up fruit and placing them on the logs, one fruit per log. Confused but curious, Finn helps me do this, and once I finish, I shoo him out of the training zone.

"Three," I mutter, gripping my sword. "Two," I draw my sword. "Go!"

I charge forward and slash with my sword, cutting through a fruit on a log. My blade has barely passed through it before I'm changing directions, charging towards another and slaying that one. Every time I slash through one, I change directions and charge to another, never going for two in a line. This results in me having to run farther and farther every time as the fruit nearby the ones I've slaughtered find themselves cut down as well. The taller logs have no fruit on them, and I simply slice at them as I pass by or as a target on their own.

Once I finish butchering the fruit, I approach Finn, grinning.

"How was that?" I ask.

"Impressive," he admits. "I kind of want to see you in a fight that you can handle with ease now. Your movements were… fluid. You've done that a lot."

"My dad taught me to train like this," I tell him. "He brought me here for the first time when I was seven. It's also where he taught me cliff-jumping."

"…doing what?"

"Cliff-jumping," I say. "Or cliff-diving. You get up onto a cliff, then dive off of it into water below. You can see some ledges on the mountain there," I point at the mountain. "We would jump off of them and into the lake. It's deep enough on that side that it's safe. After we eat, want to give it a try? It's pretty fun."

"Uh…" Finn's tail moves between his legs.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," I tell him. "But I'm going to."

Finn mutters something under his breath, then I gather up some of the fruit that hasn't fallen to the ground and share it with him. I like most of the fruit that grows on this island, but know not everyone will. Finn seems to dislike a couple of them, subtly putting them on the ground when he thinks I'm not looking.

After we eat, I walk over to where my camp is, then strip off my clothes before running over to the mountain and scaling the cliff, moving to the side until I'm over the lake. The ledge I usually jump from is twenty feet up, and I reach it in seconds. The edge of the waterfall is only ten feet away, and it crashes down onto he ledge I'm on in its descent, sending up a light spray.

"Hi, Finn!" I wave to him as he watches me from beside the fire ring, then I jump off the edge.

At the peak of my jump, I inhale deeply, then pinch my nose shut and hold the breath, crashing into the lake a moment later. The current from the waterfall causes me to tumble a bit, and I right myself before surfacing.

"You sure you don't want to join me?" I call out to Finn, grinning. "It's fun!"

"N-no," he shakes his head.

"Okay!"

I climb out of the lake, then ascend the cliff back to the ledge. Normally, I just jump straight down, letting my toes enter the water first, but since Finn is here, I decide to show off and do some dives and flips as well.

After about ten jumps, I start just swimming around in the lake, then float for a bit. As I'm debating getting out of the water, Finn decides to join me, stripping down before wading in. He swims over to me, then starts treading water.

"The water's cold," he shivers.

"You'll get used to it," I tell him as I stop floating and start treading. "You didn't have to join me if you didn't want to."

"No, no," he says. "I wanted to join you. You were looking bored and I was bored. I just didn't feel comfortable with the idea of jumping off a cliff. What if I slipped and cracked my head? What if I didn't jump far enough away? What if-"

"Understandable," I tell him. "Want to goof off?"

"How?" He asks. "We're just swimming. Like… races?"

"Like this!" I shove my hands forward, splashing him with water.

Finn splutters, spitting water out and shaking his head, then splashes water back at me. We begin screwing around, splashing and chasing and dunking each other. He doesn't seem as into it as I am, but when I ask if he wants to stop or take a break, he declines.

Eventually, though, he wears out, breathing heavily and struggling to stay afloat. I call it quits and tell him that we should dry off.

"After we dry off," I say once we're lying on the shore, letting the spring sun dry us. "I'm going to show you me fighting some stuff."

"Okay."

"Did you tell Sara that you told me what you're looking for?"

"No."

"How come?"

"She might get upset with me."

"If anyone on this skybeast," I tell him. "Could find a hidden airship, it would be me. My dad and I explored it pretty well, and I know everywhere."

"Yeah," he's quiet for a few moments. "Do you have any thoughts on where it might be hidden? Master told me that when there's a particularly special relic from the Ancient hidden somewhere, there are usually one of three signs. First, the hiding spot is surrounded by a 'dull' zone – that is, everything is weaker there. The monsters and magical things that live there aren't as frequent, and they're usually weaker things, too. Second, there are other, usually low-quality, relics hidden about. Third, there's a zone with an absurd difficulty compared to the norm for the region. One of those doesn't necessarily mean a relic of the Ancients is hidden there, but Master said the relics always have one of those three signs."

The first and third options would probably be an intentional choice of location on the Ancients' part in most cases. In the case of a lower difficulty, either they cleared things out before hiding it, or they picked a location that already had the lower or greater difficulty. Otherwise, the presence of the relic either drove away or drew in monsters, and therefore, increased the magic in that area, which would increase even the quality of plants and other materials that formed in the area.

As for the second option, it would be a deterrence effect by the Ancients. Hide lesser things so that no one suspects there's something truly great there. Make it seems as if a bunch of small things got lost, rather than someone's treasure.

I tilt my head a little, looking in the direction of the head of the skybeast. There's a mountain taller than anyone other upon its back up there, and even lying down in this clearing, I can see part of it. As long as we can see that, we can always tell where we are on this beast.

That mountain is where I found my ring, but it's not something that would count as a 'small treasure'. It was also only one of three treasures I ever found there, the third being what makes this ring truly special.

"There's not an area like any of those," I tell him. "Even when looking at a map of where the artifacts in the museum were found, they were scattered across the skybeast's back. As for the monsters, it's mostly divided by the islands. Some islands are tougher than others, some are weaker. Every now and then, you have to deal with the monsters migrating to a different island or getting wiped out by something new. This skybeast was probably too isolated for the Ancients to pay much attention to."

Finn lets out a quiet grunt.

"Master says," he tells me. "That part of the reason the rumor said an airship here is because it's so isolated. An airship would be necessary to travel to and from it frequently."

"Well," I say. "I haven't seen any of those signs you mentioned. I do, however, know the perfect spot for you to gain your first few Levels, after you get your first Crystal."

"Really?" He sits up, looking at me with hope in those beautiful blue eyes, which are wide in excitement as his tail wags a little.

"Yeah," I sit up. "Let's get dressed, then I'll take you there."

I only pull on my shorts, bracers, belt, and sword, and he pulls on his pants, then we carry the rest of our clothes to the boat and dump them in before taking the boat to the water. Finn climbs in, then I push it away from the shore before jumping in and beginning to row.

Even though I know Finn was talking that much because he was doing the 'subtle probing' Sara told him to do, I enjoyed talking with him and am kind of sad he's quiet now. He seems all talked-out, though, so I just point out a few more places with stories or notable events to them during the journey rather than make another attempt at engaging him in conversation.

The trip to the target island takes about an hour and a half, and by that point, even our hair (and his tail) have finished drying off. Finn pulls his tunic back on after we're on the island and the boat's been pulled in.

The island I brought him to is almost perfectly round, about three miles in diameter, and has a mile-wide lake in the very center, also almost perfectly round. This half of the island is mostly grassy with some boulders and trees scattered about, while the other half of the island is forested.

A glance at Finn's face, and I know what he's thinking: it looks peaceful.

I grin at him, then take a few steps forward, drawing my sword as I approach a boulder. I'm ten feet from it when the first monster appears, a snake with greenish scales that rises from the grass, it's eyes yellow.

Charging forward, I step to the side as the snake lunges at me, and I slash my sword, cutting through it. Twisting, I cut through a giant bee that attempted to fly up at me from behind, then stab down, killing another snake.

Jumping onto the boulder, I jump forward, slashing down and killing another snake as it rises up. Another twist, and I cut through a bee that's flying toward me, then I quickly return to Finn, who's backing up to avoid a snake that's slithering toward him. I cut the snake in half, then grin at him.

"This place spawns a lot of monsters once it starts," I tell him as I slash through another bee. "Making it perfect for early Experience. At least, for someone who doesn't have much in fighting skill. I heard that the better you are, the more of a challenge it takes. The sandy shore there is safe – monsters won't come for you there."

Moving my right arm down, I let a snake bite my forearm, where my bracer protects, before I cut through it, then I pivot and slash through another snake before cutting up, slicing a bee in half.

"Or you can stay close to me," I tell him. "I'll protect you while you watch my awesome moves and be filled with awe and amazement."

"You're full of yourself," he mutters.

"I'm full of awesomeness, that's what I'm full of," I cut down another bee. "So what's it going to be?"

"I'll stick with you."

"GREAT!" I exclaim, then jump up and cut through a bee that was buzzing down toward us. "I can show you even cooler things! Make sure to keep up!"

Taking a few steps forward, I cut down another bee, then slay another snake. Slowly, so that Finn can stay with me more easily, I advance forward, butchering the monsters like they're nothing. Because they're spawned monsters rather than normal ones, I don't have to worry about cleaning up the mess, either – they'll disappear on their own after awhile if the one who killed them doesn't claim them.

When we finally reach the sandy shore of the beach, the sand begins to rise up in a few areas, and fish with sharp teeth emerge, flying through the air. The smallest of them is about as tall as my head, while the largest is about as tall as my torso. They stretch anywhere from three feet to twelve feet in length, too.

"Whoa," Finn mutters.

"It's awesome, isn't it?" I ask as I cut down the nearest one, its body dropping to the ground.

"Sure."

I cut down another one, then cut through a bee before slicing a snake in half. Twisting, spinning, jumping, and leaping, striking and slashing and stabbing and slicing, I continue to fight against the monsters, eventually beginning to lead Finn back to the boat once I start tiring out.

"That was fun!" I tell Finn once we're on the shore to the sea, no longer under attack due to the safe zone we're now in.

Even though I'm tired and soaked in sweat, I can't help but be happy. Finn looks a little impressed, and that's what matters.

"That was pretty cool," he admits. "Not as graceful as when Master fights, but still neat in its own way."

"I don't think I could ever compare to the grace of an elf," I tell him as we move the boat back to the sea. "So what do you think? Perfect to train on?"

"Um," he hesitates. "I don't think so. I'd be just working on my aim, and I wouldn't have much Mana, either, so I wouldn't be able to cast very many."

"Oh, right," I say, then think about things as we climb back into the boat and I begin rowing. "Ooh! I know another island that could work. Monsters don't spawn as heavily, so it might be good for gaining a few Levels early on to boost your Mana and work on your aim. Let me show it to you."

"What about the weaker beasts in the area outside of town?" He asks. "From what I could tell, the bunnies and stuff there would be weak enough for me."

"Bunnies, psh!" I dismiss that immediately. "Those are no monster to hunt! I've got the perfect island! I don't normally hunt on it because the majority monster is better dealt with through magic than might, and I don't have any spells. Their spawn rate isn't as intense, though, so it would be a lot easier for you to handle. I'll show you! It'll be fun!"

Finn looks uncertain, but nods. I begin rowing in the direction of the island, which is a bit further away from the town than we are now, and in a different direction. We are sooo getting back late tonight. That doesn't matter, though, because I'm having fun, and judging by how much Finn's tail has been moving, so is he.

The trip to the target island takes about three hours from the last island we stopped on, and by the time we arrive, my stomach is rumbling. Fortunately, I packed some food just in case. I pull out the basket and check the bread, cheese, and jerky, then split it between the two of us.

We'll have a proper dinner when we return home, though that's a five-hour trip, meaning it will be after dark.

"Here we are," I announce when we reach the island. "Let me show you why magic is better than might here."

I hop out of the boat, then push it to the shore. Finn exits and helps me pull it out of the water as he looks around. It's like the island with the bunnies and good fishing spot I showed him yesterday – mostly grassy, with some boulders and trees scattered about.

Finn hesitantly follows behind me as I walk forward. When I notice the first monster, I draw my sword and prepare for what will pass for a battle.

A blob of a blue substance with a faint green tone to it pops out of the ground. It's about twice the size of my head, and it bounces on the ground a couple of times. Though there are no visible eyes, I know the slime is facing us. They're always facing us.

It bounces higher, this time aimed at me, and I slash upwards with my sword, cutting clean through the slime. The force of my slash splits the slime in two, and the two halves soar past me, landing on the ground.

"Watch," I tell Finn as I turn to face it, flicking my sword a little to get some of the slime off. "And see."

The two halves of the slime shoot back together, and the slime bounces up into the air again, landing, then it launches itself at me at a higher speed, impacting my chest with enough force to make me stumble back. The slime's touch against my bare torso tingles a little, though I know that continued contact will cause an acid-like burn.

Continued contact for about fifteen minutes – it barely even tingles right now! And the burn takes so long to actually leave lasting damage that only an idiot or someone freaking out could possibly actually suffer real damage from these things. At least, just from their touch – they do pack quite the force with their jumps.

After shaking and slapping the slime off, I attack it with my sword again, stabbing and slashing and striking and slicing. No mater what I do, though, the slime persists in its existence. In fact, a second one shows up to join in on the fun!

"Once I finish shaking these off!" I tell Finn. "We're leaving this island!"

He just laughs in response, and despite how under attack I am, I can't help but like it. Finn has a really nice laugh.

Alright! Time to smack these slimes into submission so that we can flee! It's manly to flee when a battle is hopeless and I've already shown Finn what I brought him here to show him!

"Argh!" I exclaim as bits of slime hits my eyes after a slash. "Note to self: dodge when they aim at the face, not attack!"

Finn laughs again, and I can't help but laugh with him, even as I try to handle shaking off the slimes. This is kind of fun. The only way to actually deal with this is to use magic, though, so we really do need to get going.