Alyssa's Uncle Gerald lived close to a town called Clemence. Adam calculated that the journey would take them around four months or so to complete. Adam worried about the time of year, though. When they started their journey from Neretown to come down to Harrington Village, it was already mid spring. The heat of summer was quickly approaching now and would make their travels harder. Not only would the heat just make them uncomfortable, Adam needed to make sure that Alyssa would not overheat during the trip. Adam could control a breeze to blow its way through and cool them down, but he could do nothing for the overbearing sun that would be beating down on their necks.

In the first town they stopped at on their way to Clemence, Adam purchased two straw hats to cover both him and Alyssa. They were cheap and it would help them keep just a little cooler on the journey.

With how long this trip was going to take, Adam often made stops in towns so they could relax and Alyssa could have some fun with a little sightseeing and eat food they did not have access to on the roads. She was still a little girl, so she needed time to have fun and just play instead of endlessly walking every day.

A little over two months had passed since they left Harrington Village. They had already passed through Neretown and were finally making progress towards getting Alyssa to her uncle. On one of these days, Alyssa had become unusually silent and downcast. She had asked what day of the month it was before falling into this mood. Adam was unsure as to what the problem was, but knew today had some significance to her.

“What's going on, Alyssa?” Adam asked.

Alyssa was a little surprised by the sudden question. “Ah? Oh... well, summer always reminds me that it should be my birthday soon! When I asked you what day it was... I didn't think that today was my birthday! Mama and Papa always did something fun on my birthday... I was just remembering that.”

It was Adam's turn to be a little surprised. “Today is your birthday, huh? What did you do with your Mama and Papa?”

Alyssa scrunched her face a bit. “Summer is always too hot. Back home... there was nothing we could really use to cool ourselves down. We could drink cool water from the well, but that's it. Do you remember the town that was around a day's walk from the village? Somehow, they're able to keep ice during the summer! Mama and Papa would take me there and we would eat some delicious ice pops there! They tasted good and were very cold!”

Seeing Alyssa's fondness of these memories, Adam suddenly decided something. “Let's rest for a bit Alyssa.”

Alyssa cast Adam a curious look. It was early for them to be taking a break, but she didn't protest. There was a small clearing beside the road where Adam and Alyssa sat down. Adam began his strange humming and continued it for a full hour. Adam didn't seem to be really resting or pulling anything out to eat or drink. He was just sitting there and humming. Alyssa felt it was somehow strange of Adam, but he seemed to be concentrating on his humming and she didn't want to disturb him. The clearing had some shade so it was cooler than being on the open road. Alyssa didn't mind staying the cool shade for a while. Alyssa closed her eyes and took a quick nap while Adam was acting odd.

Alyssa suddenly felt a gentle nudge as Adam said: “Alyssa, wake up and take a look!”

Alyssa started rubbing her eyes awake and felt a sudden chill! It was much colder than it was before she took a nap! As she finally looked around, she was utterly shocked! “It's... it's snowing!”

It really was gently snowing! There was already a small layer of white spread across the ground of the clearing. It took Adam awhile to gather enough water essence and make it form snow, but he succeeded! This was his birthday gift to Alyssa! Adam and Alyssa played in the snow for a few hours before it stopped snowing and had started to melt. They had snowball fights and even made a snowman! Both of them were able to enjoy a simple and happy fun that they had not had in a long long time. Through her giggles, Alyssa completely forgot all her worries.

When everything started to melt, Adam moved them on to a separate clearing so they wouldn't get too wet and started up a fire to prepare a warm meal. After dinner, Alyssa snuggled up to Adam as they were going to bed. She said: “Thank you Uncle Adam.”

Adam gave her a sheepish grin: “For what?”

Alyssa gave a shy look, unsure of if she should say it. “I don't know how you did it, but you were the one who made it snow weren't you?”

Adam chuckled: “Guess I'm not as sneaky as I thought. Happy birthday, Alyssa!”

Alyssa quickly fell into a peaceful slumber. As Adam watched her, he felt a sense of regret in his heart: “Is this what it is like to have a daughter?”

Adam had not been there for his own daughter while she grew up and he totally missed out on all of it! When he had finally met his daughter, she was even older than Adam had believed his own age to be at the time! He had lost too much time to the plane of death and didn't even know it. He had totally lost out on moments he could have had like these. Regret filled his heart, but there was nothing to do about it. Adam tried to clear his head. As much as he wanted to go back and change some things, it could not be done. He could only continue moving forward.

The rest of the journey to Clemence was rather uneventful. Adam and Alyssa stayed for a day in Clemence in order to find out where exactly her uncle lived. The farm lands around Clemence were plentiful and any one of them could have been Gerald's. It was rather surprising at how much fertile farm land was around the town. After getting Gerald's location, Adam and Alyssa headed out the next day. Alyssa was thoroughly nervous and full of anticipation. They were about to meet the uncle they had traveled so long to get to. The uncle who was the brother to her father.

A few hours out of Clemence, they finally came upon the plot of land that was said to belong to Gerald. The plot size of his land was a gigantic thirty acres! Much of it was not planted, but you could still see rows and rows of tall wheat that was almost ready to harvest. There were a handful of people walking through the rows, tending to the wheat.

Adam and Alyssa stood before the plot of land. Adam was in the middle of deciding who he should go up to and ask for Gerald's whereabouts when Alyssa suddenly took off running! She had seen a familiar looking man. He resembled her father, but was much tanner and had a different posture. She immediately understood that he had to be her Uncle Gerald! Seeing Gerald, she felt and unspeakable familial connection to him. Seeing him, all her reservations about her unknown uncle melted away. With tears in her eyes, she quickly ran off to him.

Gerald wasn't too far off from the edge of his plot of land. His back was turned to the road, so he didn't see Alyssa coming. He suddenly heard the patter of foot steps running across the ground and turned around to only have Alyssa's little figure dive into his legs with a hug while crying with a runny nose: “Wah, U-uncle Gerald!”

Gerald was extremely surprised about this girl who he suddenly found crying into his legs. But, she had called him Uncle Gerald! He suddenly remembered the letter his brother had sent him, talking about his life in Harrington which included his daughter Alyssa. Gerald suddenly looked up but only saw Adam by the road. He could not see his brother anywhere in sight. Confused he bent down and comforted Alyssa. “Alyssa, where are your father and mother?”

Alyssa only continued to cry as Adam walked up. “I'm sorry, Gerald. Jim and Cecelia are dead...”

Gerald couldn't believe what he was hearing! But, seeing Alyssa's condition, it had to be correct. Adam then said: “Why don't we talk in the house? I think Alyssa might be more comfortable there.”

There was a large house off the side of the field close by. Gerald quickly nodded and took them into his house. Gerald's own wife, Karen, helped to calm Alyssa down while Adam told him everything that had happened. At first, Gerald wasn't sure if he should believe Adam. Adam was a total stranger and Gerald truthfully had no idea of if the Alyssa in front of him was actually his real niece or not. However, why would someone try to stage any of this? There was nothing to gain from it. And Alyssa's crying was as real as real could be and she truthfully reacted to her called name. As much as Gerald was reluctant to believe his brother was dead, he came to trust Adam's words in what had happened. What ate at Gerald more was that his brother had died while traveling to him! He had asked his brother to come live with him since his farm was doing so well. Gerald felt at least partially responsible for what happened. Gerald tried to not let these negative emotions infect him or others. It was sad enough that his brother was dead, there was no need to start playing a blame game.

Gerald turned to Adam and said: “Thank you Adam. You didn't need to, but you brought Alyssa all this way.”

Adam replied: “Your welcome. It was no problem as I am journeying with no set destination. I had also promised her parents to deliver Alyssa to a good home.”

“You will be moving on then?”

“If you don't mind, I will stay until Alyssa becomes comfortable saying here. Then, I will be moving on.”

Alyssa didn't like the idea of Adam leaving, but he had always said he would. No matter how much she wished it, Adam would not be able to stay with her forever. Adam still stayed for a month while Alyssa got used to the farm. The large house housed not only Gerald and his wife, but his workers and their families as well. In total, there were around fifteen people who lived in the house. There were even children Alyssa's age, so she was no longer so lonely. She finally had someone to play with again.

During his stay, Adam ended up talking a lot with Gerald. Gerald had revealed that he had managed to grab this plot of land for a good deal. At first he could only farm a small portion of it, but every year turned in a tidy profit. Every year he could hire more workers and work more land and make even more money! He was currently thinking about building more housing for more workers. He was still in debt from purchasing the land, but even with paying off his workers he made enough to constantly reduce his debt over the years. His future looked incredibly stable.

On one of the days they were talking, Adam asked: “Why are there so many farms around here? Is the land that fertile?”

Gerald nodded: “Yes. I don't understand everything I heard, but apparently there was massive flooding here many eras ago. There used to be giant amounts of frozen ice somewhere and when it started to melt, the sudden floods moved tons of rock and soil everywhere. You can't tell it since it is so wide, but we are actually in a giant shallow coulee formed from all the flooding! Uh, the word coulee refers to a type of valley. Weird, I know. Anyway, the soil in this coulee came from so many different places that it is full of everything the crops need to grow.”

“How interesting.” Adam murmured.

Adam didn't know much about farming so this was something new to him. However, this was clearly an interaction of the world he did not previously know about. This was all caused by the nature of spirit essence and Adam was supremely interested in knowing everything he could about it.

Adam cast his elemental sight deep into the ground. It couldn't go very far, like it could above land, but it still penetrated over fifty meters into the ground! Truthfully, this was the first time Adam had intentionally sent his elemental sight into the ground like this. He never really had a need to examine what was in the ground before, but he was curious now. As Adam looked and listened to the spirit essence in the ground, he became shocked! There was a gentle thrumming through the ground, as though it was the heartbeat of the very land itself! Even though this was the first time using his elemental sight to examine the ground like this, Adam knew that thrumming was not normal. Long ago Adam had entered the cave of a dragon. His elemental sight penetrated the rocky sides of the caves then and even if his sight wasn't as strong then as it was now, he should have detected this thrumming. After all, the cave did go deep into the ground. Adam asked: “Tell me, Gerald, does this coulee run towards the north?”

Gerald nodded. “To the north east, actually, but yes. Eventually, the land rises and the coulee cut by flooding goes deeper and deeper forming a large canyon! Hardly anyone goes through the canyon though as its rocky sides are full of loose rocks that can fall at any time!”

Adam felt a small flutter of excitement as all of this became pieced together. Adam was certain that this was likely to lead to a place full of spirit essence! Such places exist where people are unlikely to go to or have not visited in a very long time. Adam started making plans for the next part of his journey.

After having stayed for over a month, Alyssa had mostly adapted to living with Gerald. It was a totally new place and even though Gerald reminded her of her father, he was different enough to make his own impression on her. She was happy to live with someone who was truly part of her family. Still, she had lived with Adam for over six months. To a six year old girl, that was an extremely long time!

Adam was wearing a pack with provisions and simple equipment for toughing it out in the wild. Today was the day he was going to leave. Alyssa had a very sad look to her. Just as she didn't want Adam to leave, Adam felt reluctant to leave her behind. After living with her for six months, he had become used to her presence. Adam bent down and gave her a hug. “Don't be sad Alyssa. I think I found a place I need to visit as part of my journey. When I am done with it, I will return to visit you again!”

Alyssa sniffed: “How long will you be away.”

Adam paused. He hated to say it, but he didn't want to giver her false hope that he would be back before he actually could. “Fifteen years at most.”

Alyssa was flabbergasted. That was like three whole lives for her! “That's too long!”

“I know it sounds like it, but it will pass before you know it! Don't worry, I will return.”

Finishing up their goodbyes, Adam left Alyssa, Gerald, and the others behind. He started down the road, following the coulee up to the north east. A whole day later, Adam was well past the last of the farms that were around Clemence and he was certain there was no one else around. Adam stepped off the road a ways before sitting down. Ever since he had first taken Alyssa from the road, he had placed a protective film of spirit essence around his bones. It was finally time to remove it! As Adam examined the film, he couldn't see any discernible traces of death essence. He had also constantly checked during his travels with Alyssa and he had never noticed any death essence leaking from his bones at that time either. It made him wonder if there really had been the need for Adam to place this film there.

Adam gently released the spirit essence forming the film back out of his body. As the spirit essence left in thin streams, Adam's expression suddenly turned ugly! As the spirit essence left, the plants immediately surrounding him started to wither! Apparently there was some death essence caught by the film that he was not able to discern. Over the course of six months, there was enough death essence escaping his body to kill all the plants within twenty centimeters! That doesn't really sound like a lot, but Alyssa had slept by Adam's side at times. If this film wasn't there, how much death essence might have entered her body! Adam shuddered at the thought.

Adam got up and followed the coulee as it wound its way north east. The road was starting to veer off away from the coulee so Adam went off the road. Every now and then, Adam would probe the ground with his elemental sight and listen to the thrumming of the earth. Just as he suspected, it was slowly becoming stronger as he followed the coulee north. As Adam traveled on, the coulee began to narrow down and its sides became deeper and deeper. After a few weeks of travel, Adam found himself deep inside a canyon. From where he stood, he could barely use his elemental sight to see the canyon branch out in a few directions, as though it were some sort of meeting point. It was in this place that Adam could feel a vast amount of earth spirit essence existed! He had found the next place to help purify the death essence from his bones!

[AN: Thank you for voting in the poll, I will go with size 4! I will slowly try to work and make all my chapters same font. Also thank you one and all for reading!]