"Wait here. Training starts when I come back!" Eye shouted while he ran like he hadn't been tired in the slightest.
"Start training? Wasn't that long run a part of it??" Emma shouted in her mind, while her heart wept a bit.
After a few minutes, Emma had just been standing there, there was no sign of Eye returning at all.
Emma was worried for Eye, in this dense forest, many Lost could be resting within it.
What is a Lost you might ask?
They're monstrous beasts who were once a Spirit, who hunt and eats any type of Spirit. They appear most during Nightfall.
So how does a Spirit turn into a Lost?
Emma doesn't know.
Not once had it even been mentioned during Kushtaka's memories, even though Kushtaka had turned into one herself.
And because of this, Emma was afraid that she too could become a Lost, that Eye was facing off a Lost, or becoming one himself. Fortunately, though, Lost are weaker than normal spirits, in terms of Gifts at least. They're usually physically stronger. So even if Eye had been forced to fight a Lost, he would most probably win, in this world Gifts are usually more useful than physical strength.
So, unless it was a Lost who was a former Wanderer or higher he would be fine. Maybe.
Holding a bouquet of yellow flowers, Eye appeared with a relaxed smile on his face while he ran out of the forest.
"Catch!" Eye threw the bouquet very precisefully towards Emma, Emma instinctually catched it, looking confused on why she had to hold this thing.
"Why can I not eat it?" A voice in Emma's head said in a sorrowful tone. Emma had remembered that it was her agony, she had used 1 out of the 3 chances for today.
"Because it's flowers! I'm not a cow, so I don't eat flowers!" Emma said in her head, she didn't want to deal with the outcome for not answering.
The trees had rumbled in front of Emma. A beast that was about 3 meters tall, or 9 ft tall emerged. It was a featherless bird, you could clearly see its tendons and flesh, the only spot where it hadn't been featherless was its dark blue wings. The skinless flying bird headed straight towards them.
"Run!" Emma immediately turned as she screamed in her head.
"Fight!" Eye shouted at the same time as Emma, as she was already leaving. "Don't you want to become stronger! Besides this is just a Lesser, so hurry and beat it to a pulp!"
Emma stopped. That's right she had to become stronger, she had to stay and fight, or else how could she get her wish?
Emma turned to face Eye, but was immediately met by the giant skinless Lost, it had slammed into her. sending Emma flying towards the opposite direction.
Bang!
Emma landed in the soft yellow grass with a spooked expression; she had barely survived from that sudden attack. Only a few of her bones had broken.
How could she fight that beast, Emma immediately thought of leaving once more.
But she couldn't, she had to get her wish Emma couldn't allow herself to give up.
In the second Emma had transformed, physically.
She had been a 2-meter tall, or 6.5 feet tall Otter like man, with fierce claws.
This was Emma's Gift. She could shapeshift to what she knew best. And at the moment the most useful thing she could think of turning to was Kushtaka, at least in her Lost form.
The Lost had come charging to Emma's feet, heading straight towards the bouquet.
"The bouquet!" Emma thought to herself with a happy expression on her face, but when she was in her Kushtaka form, she looked more creepy than happy.
Emma picked up the bouquet of flowers and the bird charged at her once more with what looked like a fierce expression on its face.
Swoosh!
The bird had swung downwards towards Emma as fast it could, but before it could even hit anything it eyes were blocked.
Crack!
Emma grabbed the bird's neck, breaking it from its body.
She did it! She killed a Lost! Emma immediately transformed back into herself. And laid there on the soft yellow grass.
But, Emma felt really bad about it too. This Lost, was essentially a Spirit too, it was conscious once. And she just killed it. Maybe there was a way for it to turn back.
"Congrats! Now want to fight a stronger version? That thing right there was just a Lesser Lost, which was why it was so easy to beat. And honestly, I almost couldn't stop myself from laughing when you ran." Eye shouted towards Emma.
"What?" Emma shouted in disbelief.
That monster that had almost killed her, was just a Lesser?
Emma needed to improve, how else was she supposed to get stronger! She was far too weak right now! Her wish demands her to be stronger, so she shall be even stronger!
"I'm afraid that we can only do one more Lost, you and I have other things to do today. So hurry up and choose!" Eye shouted as he came running towards Emma.
On the way to her, Eye had picked up the bouquet of flowers from the ground with a mischievous smile.
"Let's do something harder then. But if I fail, will you help out? I don't really want to die." Emma responded with a determined tone, but at the same time she sighed when Eye had picked up the bouquet.
Roar!
A Lost had let out a deep sound from the forest, while both Emma and Eye were still chatting. Emma was the first to react, she had a scared expression written all over her face.
While Eye on the other hand had licked his lips in excitement.
"Look at our luck! One had decided to revel itself without any probing at all. You got this Emma!" Eye smacked Emma's back to push her forwards towards the beast's cries in the purple forest.
"There's nothing to worry about, all I have to do is kill another one. I did it once already!" Emma took up her Kushtaka transformation, and took the initiative to charge towards the forest. Eye had followed behind her from a distance.
By now the two were in the midst of the forest, searching for the Lost who had roared.
Emma ran on the ground pretty quickly, she hadn't even noticed the small flower field she had stepped on.
Roar!
Emma turned to see a tiny little beast, it had ragged blue skin, no eyes, no nose, and it had a dazzling pair of white sharp teeth.
"Such a small thing made that noise? So cute..." Emma thought to herself in surprise, this world was weird! Excitingly so.