I smiled as the boat rocked back and forth. The sea breeze felt good against my nostrils. Since we had Tamara and Jude, we only needed to pick up one more person.

"You look like you're enjoying this," Carter said as he leaned against the side. He had been vomiting earlier, but his body was slowly adjusting.

I raised my spyglass over my right eye to look for any surrounding land. A mountain range poked out from Tozan Hoshi. It sure had a lot of them on the western side. "Yeah, I used to dream of being a pirate as a kid," I said, laughing.

"A pirate? You've met a pirate before?"

I lowered my spyglass. "Yeah, a couple. My gramps on my mom's side was one. Grandma found him one day and nursed him back to health. I grew up listening to his tales about looking for gold."

Cart smiled. "Is that what made you want to see the outside world?"

I snickered. "That's a part of it."

"I'm sure that you'll be able to explore the world one day, Au. Don't give up your dream, my child," my grandfather's parting words echoed in my head. He died defending our town from the Shadow People while my dad and the others went to protect other parts of our lands.

I hugged myself as I tried to push aside the images of burning fields and people getting impaled by monstrous claws. Their screams vibrated in my psyche as if teleported back to that time.

"You okay?" Carter asked, shaking me a little. "You're sweating bullets."

I rubbed the back of my head. Carter was right; I was sweating a lot.

"I'm going to go back inside," I said, pointing at the door.

"Hey, it looks like we've made it to our destination," Carter said, pointing south.

I gasped as I saw what appeared to be a small dock surrounded by a pristine forest. It was lusher than the ones from back home.

"So that's Xian," I said, smiling. I brought the spyglass up to my eye and watched as birds flew around the forest. "It's incredible!"

"I think. I could be wrong. Everything west of eastern Tora is new for me."

"The boat is heading there, so I think you're right." I looked through my spyglass again and saw a light-green-haired girl standing on top of a sea cliff overlooking the town. She seemed to be on the lookout for the boat as her eyes dilated as soon as she saw it.

"What do you see?"

"I think we found our last member!" I said, grinning.

"Really, where is he?" he asked, taking the spyglass from me.

"It's a girl."

His cheeks reddened. "She's pretty."

I chuckled. "Leave the talking to me. I don't want you to embarrass yourself."

"H-hey!" He sighed. "Nah, you're right. I can't talk to a pretty girl who isn't my sister."

"You seem to be having an easier time talking to Kanja. Plus, you don't have much of an issue with Mira."

"Mira has her face covered, so it makes things easier. As for Kanja..." His face reddened. "She's easy to talk to, Lidia too. As is Tamara, well, in a one-sided sort of way as she can't talk back, but you get what I mean!"

"Talking about me?" Kanja asked, walking into the dock.

"Yeah," I said. "We were talking about how Carter doesn't stutter as much around you as he used to."

Carter fidgeted and nodded. He looked like Jude doing that.

Kanja put a hand on her hips and laughed. "He still has a long way to go if he wishes to talk normally with me."

"I-I'll improve!" Carter blurted out.

Kanja smiled. Her eyes shifted to the Xianian coastline as we drew closer to it. "Looks like we made it to Xian." Her eyes widened. "Someone's coming over here!"

Carter and I gasped as the girl I saw on the cliff flew toward us.

Kanja backed away as we saw that the girl was losing altitude. She wasn't flying toward us based on her moving angle. Instead, she had jumped at us! 

"Is she crazy?" Kanja snapped.

Carter dashed forward as the girl landed on the rail of the ship. The girl gritted her teeth and fell forward, knocking Carter to the floor.

"Carter! Weird girl!" I yelled, sprinting over to them.

"Damn, why did you have to get in my way?" the girl asked, glaring at Carter as she got up.

"S-sorry," Carter said, turning away.

The girl scrunched up her nose. "Weak man."

I leered at her. "Carter's actually quite strong."

"Yeah, as long as it doesn't involve a pretty girl," Kanja said, crossing her arms over her chest.

The new girl scrunched her nose at Carter. "Ugh, a girl crazy guy. Those are the worst."

Carter grumbled and jumped to his feet. "I-I'm just shy around girls, is all!" he snapped.

The girl leered at him. "That's not much better. A guy who can't talk properly is pathetic," she said, flipping her long green hair.

Carter gritted his teeth and curled his hands into fists, but he didn't say anything.

It was a good thing that Nate wasn't here. Else he probably would've gone ballistic on her as he did with Kanja. He'd shared with me that his missing older brother got bullied as a kid for his timidity. It probably would be a good idea to have Jude avoid her too. He still maintained his distance from the rest of us, but he was gradually warming up, especially with Mira. If he met this girl, that progress would likely evaporate away.

"What are you staring at?" the girl asked, glancing at me.

"Welcome aboard," I said in a cold tone.

She smiled slightly. "You're different from your friend."

"Thanks, I think."

She laughed and turned around. "I'll go tell the captain that I'm here. I rather not waste time."

"What's with her?" Kanja asked as soon as the girl went inside.

"She's so cold," Carter muttered, rubbing his arms. "Is she an ice mage too?"

"Don't mind her. Now we have everyone on board," I said, smiling.

Carter chuckled. "True, we can head straight for Wahkan now!"

Kanja directed her eyes toward the west. "We should make it there by nightfall."

"The test is tomorrow morning if I'm not mistaken," Carter said, reaching into his pocket to pull out a paper. "Ah, yup. It is!"

Kanja sighed. "I should probably train. Think I'm the second or third weakest at the moment."

Who was first? Huo?

"How can you tell?" I asked. None of us had seen Tamara nor the new girl use her magic. As for Mira, we had only seen her teleport.

"The way that girl and Tamara carry themselves. They have a certain vibe to them."

"Makes me want to fight them," Carter said, grinning. He sighed. "Sadly, I probably would freeze up as I did against you."

"How about you two fight each other?" I asked.

Kanja smiled. "Good idea. Mind being my sparring partner?"

Carter closed his eyes. "I would want to, yet I don't want to."

She sighed. "You'll never get over your issue with that attitude."

"If you want, I can fight you," I said, surrounding myself with wind.

"That'll be great!" Carter said as embers covered his fists.

I chuckled. "I meant Kanja, not you."

His cheeks turned pink. "Oh, I-I knew that!"

"Sure you did," Kanja said, giggling.

"F-fine. I'll fight you!" Carter said. "I need to polish my skills."

Kanja smirked. "Great!"

I backed away to give the two enough space to fight. Thankfully, the three of us were the only ones on the deck.

"Defensionem Ventus!" I shouted as I held out my hands. A giant barrier of wind covered the two.

"Thanks a bunch!" Carter yelled, waving at me with the back of his hand.

"You're welcome. Now, do your best, the both of you. I'll try to contain everything you throw at one another."

Carter smirked. "I don't know. I think that would be too much for you."

I rubbed my chin. That guy sure had a lot of self-confidence, but was it warranted? His magic didn't seem very impressive from what I saw on the train.

Kanja chuckled. "Don't get ahead of yourself. Aurelius made easy work of Electros."

Carter waved his hand. "That guy wasn't all that strong."

He was right. If Kanja viewed that Electros guy as strong, she probably wasn't much of a fighter herself. The people they stole from must've been even less impressive.

"Aurelius simply didn't give him the time to shine," Kanja said as metal danced in her fingertips. "Kizoku no Yari!" She thrust her hands at Carter, flinging the metal droplets on her hands at him.

Carter gasped as the droplets turned into spears in midair. He leaped out of the way, ducked a couple, and punched and kicked the ones he couldn't avoid

I stared at the bent spears on the floor. Kanja had a hard time ahead of her.

"This is going to be interesting," Mira said. I jumped as I saw she was standing behind me. When had she managed to sneak up on me? "Who do you think is going to win?"

"I-I'm not sure," Jude said as he poked his head out. He was hanging from her shoulders. Had one of his legs slept again? "Right now, it seems that Carter has the advantage in terms of magic. However, based on personalities alone, I would say Kanja. N-no offense to Carter."

I laughed. "Are you calling Carter dumb?"

His face flushed. "N-no, but he isn't smart either."

"I don't know. Carter's smarter than he looks," Mira said. I had a feeling she was smiling underneath that scary helmet of hers.

"Yeah, Carter looks book dumb but has battle smarts," I said, smirking.

"Hey, I can still hear from within this barrier!" Carter shouted, glancing over at us.

"Sorry!" Mira and I yelled. Jude simply went back into hiding.

"Hey, don't go shifting your attention mid-battle!" Kanja said, putting her hands on her hips. Surprisingly, she didn't attack him while she could.

Carter smiled shyly at her. "S-sorry."

She huffed and held out her hands. "Tekkyū!" A pair of iron balls flew out of the palms of her hands. The one of her left zipped around and smacked Carter in the gut, sending him flying into the air. The other orb flew up and slammed against his back, sending him crashing into the deck.

"Carter!" Mira yelled as a dust plume covered him.

"He'll be fine. I doubt that would do him in," I said.

"L-look!" Jude yelled, pointing at the smoke cloud. A fist stuck out of it, giving us the thumbs up.

I smiled. "See?"

Mira chuckled.

"D-don't celebrate. Carter is not out of the woods yet," Jude whispered. Mira and I gasped as the iron balls smacked Carter around. Each successive hit drew more blood and sent him flying further than the last.

"You underestimated me worse than I thought!" Kanja said, gritting her teeth. "Show me that strength of yours, or my attack will pulverize you!"

"F-fine!" Carter said, grasping the iron spheres with both hands. He crushed them into powder and rushed at Kanja.

Such brute strength! And he isn't even using martial magic!

Kanja's blue eyes widened as Carter vanished right in front of her. "What? Where did he-" She collapsed to the floor. Carter had hit her on the back of the neck.

"S-sorry, but you did ask for me to show you my strength."

I whistled as I lowered my barrier. "You didn't even give Kanja a chance to retaliate."

Carter smiled. "I learned from seeing how you and Nate handled her fellow thieves."

"Damn it," Kanja said, raising her head. Her hands shook as she tried to push herself off of the deck.

"H-here, let me help you," Carter said, extending a hand to her.

Kanja smiled as she accepted his hand.

Carter averted his gaze as he placed her left arm on his shoulders.

"Y-you should work on your defenses," Carter mumbled.

"You think that's what I'm lacking?"

"W-well, it w-would've helped you last a bit longer. Maybe make more of those spheres and surround yourself with them. They'll help you a lot in battle."

Kanja beamed. "Thanks for the advice. I'll consider it."

"Are you always this nice to girls?" Mira asked in a teasing tone.

"Huh? N-no. W-well, I'm not usually rude. Uh-"

The armored girl chuckled. "Don't get too flustered. I was just teasing you."

I snickered. "You sound like Lidia now."

Kanja laughed. "Carter can't handle being teased by girls!"

"I-I can too!" Carter snapped.

Kanja wagged a finger at him. "Nope, you melt."

"I-I do not!"

"See, you're all worked up."

Carter's face turned as bright red as his eyes.

I covered my mouth and snorted. Poor Carter really couldn't win against Kanja in that kind of battle.

My eyes widened as I caught sight of some land. It wasn't Tozan Hoshi, but my home continent. Today there was only a bit of mist covering its shores.

"I-is that your home?" Jude asked as Mira walked over to me.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"It's pretty," Mira said.

I nodded again. "I know, though it used to be prettier in the past."

"D-did a drought hit it?" Jude asked.

I shook my head. "No, something way worse. Thankfully, your continent didn't suffer the same fate."

The two of them gasped softly.

I turned away and glanced toward the west. Wahkan lay only a bit further away. Hopefully, I could pass the test. I wanted to start learning more spells. Especially one that could help me restore my people's land to its former glory. No, not just for my people, but for the various tribes and animals that called Vandavale home.

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter ^^. Thoughts? Theories?**