As I crawled down the hole to access the waterfall, I could feel the bottles rattling on my back and the walls scratching the side of my arms, I could feel the smell of the water entering my nostrils and burning them as the sent got prominent. I finished my descent and approached the water; I was once again amazed at the reflections on the water that seemed to be dancing with the current. I filled each bottle, but each time I looked down at the bottom of the lake I had the impulse to get in the water and go touch one of the stones that remained at the bottom of the lake. I knew very well that I shouldn't do it, since I didn't know my resistance to Gems, but at the same time I could feel a pull as if the Gems were singing for me to come to them, the water seemed to amplify that need I had, because I had already been in presence of Gems and as much as they were tempting to touch, the pull had never been this intense.

I dived one of my hands in the water and as I felt it move around my skin, I only had one desire, pull up on of the Gems to the surface to see if it would shine just as brightly on the earth than under the surface. They whispered to me, telling me to join them under the surface, as much as I wanted to I could feel something pulling me back and making my body stands still as my brain was begging for me to dive in. I heard a crash behind me which broke my trance, I turned and saw Eisma who had fallen a little after the tunnel, she smiled awkwardly as she realized, I had seen her. I knew that feeling well, to help her get out of that awkward moment I smiled back at her and took the bottles to go join her. Apparently, she hadn't come to bring me back to eat or something like that, she told me that she was sorry for her reaction yesterday and that she hadn't wanted to hurt my feelings, but that she had been surprised by my reaction the other day. I smiled relieved and told her not to worry and that it wasn't going to happen again. If I needed to get to the point where I needed to eat a Skisla flower to uphold that promise, I would do it.

As I started advancing towards her, I could still see her first reflect which was to take a step back, I felt a throbbing sensation of pain riveting through my body, I saw a yellow aura circling around my feet as the feeling of fear and confusing I felt meaning from her got worst. I could tell she was trying to calm down and that she wasn't doing it on purpose, but it still hurt. I advanced through the pain to get to her and to try to help her calm down, I knew that if I wanted to I could just brush her aura off as if it was a small insect, but my subconscious probably felt like I deserved it since I didn't do anything except endure. I decided that the sooner I helped her calm down the better it would be for us both, I arrived next to her and tried to guide her respiration. She didn't seem to be able to control her aura, as it was still climbing up my legs and trying to inflict as much pain as possible, its natural and I could totally understand. I then remembered a trick my mother had used on me and my sister when we were impossible to calm, she would place her hands on our back and insert some of her aura as to neutralize ours. Most of the time it worked, and we would calm down, sometimes we would even fall asleep if the dose was too intense. I tried to replicate what my mother had done and placed my hands on Eisma's back, it was my first time trying to guide my aura throughout somebody else's body and I didn't know how much aura would simply calm her down and how much would make her fall asleep. I sat down next to her and patted the space next to me as to tell her to do the same thing. She looked at me with confusion painting her eyes, she still sat down next to me and positioned herself as to be facing the same wall as me. I told her "Close your eyes until I tell you to open them get it?", "yes" she whispered as her aura gained in power due to her stress. I places my hands on her back and started breathing in and out, I could feel my own aura rising in my hands, they were covered with a dark blue like aura that changed from burgundy to a dark blue. I could also see some spots of blood red spreading as it did every time, I got angry, it started as a pretty color but as I lost control it became blood red like my eyes. This time however, I managed to keep my emotions under control, and it stayed a mixture of dark blue, red and burgundy. I could see it envelop my arms before reaching my hands and finally Eisma's back. I could feel her relaxing and the fear going away, I suspected her reaction to be due to past trauma, after all no one could develop in a day a reaction that intense after only seeing me twist somebody else's arm. She turned towards me and murmured "thanks, I owe you one", I couldn't help but smile while I answered, "you're welcome, that's what friends do right?". I couldn't really tell if she considered me as a friend, but I still took a chance to assess the situation. I looked at her and saw that the smile that appeared both in her face and in her eyes didn't falter as she answered "right!". I let go of a nervous chuckle and she started laughing, whether it was at me or the situation I could tell, but her laughter was so honest that I couldn't stop myself from following her lead and started laughing. She tried to maintain a serious face for a second but failed and started laughing again, we didn't have a particular reason to laugh like that, but it felt good to be able to finally relax. We stayed like this for about twenty minutes before heading back to the cavern, at that point, my face was red from all the tears of laughter my eyes had let out.

We stumbled upon Rya and Vreia who were sitting next to each other on the dried leaves, we looked at each other with a knowing smile and silently slipped to the entrance of the cave as to give them more privacy. We could still see the smiles painted on their faces as they talked passionately about a type of animal, they each had next to their home, I couldn't understand all of what they were saying, but Vreia seemed determined to convince Rya of the cuteness of a lizard like animal that resembled more an Duakn than an actual lizard. They went on for a few minutes, but Geros and Helaena entered the cavern and disrupted the conversation by telling us that the guards were coming to collect the Skisla flowers. We all exited the cavern and took the Skisla plant with us, we marched until we arrived to a clearing and stayed there for the next few minutes. We couldn't have heard them coming from the cave, but from here we could hear the echoes of everything including our breathing.

We heard them before we saw them, the high generals and their guards were standing before us in the blink of an eye. One of the guards move upfront and extended his hand, he didn't need to speak for us to understand, Helaena was the one that had picked up the plant and so she advanced towards the guard and dropped the plant in his hands. He looked at it for a few seconds and we could feel a tension in the air as he visually scanned the plant, I couldn't understand whether he wanted to take it or just see if it was real. After all, it was extremely rare to gain access to one of these and anyone who had a child or a sibling who failed to control themselves would kill to obtain one. It was wildly known that most of the high generals' guards did their job for the money in order to obtain a better life, or in certain cases prevent their family from the death sentence that came with not being able to control your aura. To this day, I still didn't know why they didn't kill me that day, I thought I was because I might become useful for the army one day, but I guess I would never know. The guard's gaze stayed upon the plant for a few more seconds and his face became like a mask, he turned around and walked until he arrived before one of the high generals. One of them extended his right hand and took the Skisla flowers, he rapidly counted them and looked up, it was impossible to see his face as the high generals all wore iron masks to hide their identity. He turned his head towards the other high generals which were standing behind him and nodded once. I could literally feel a weigh being pulled off my shoulder as he turned back to face us and started speaking.

"You all did good work, most of the other teams didn't reach the requirement, and so just like every year there will be some changes in the hierarchy. As your identity remains a secret, we do not have the right to directly congratulate some of you, but for those who know congratulations on joining us. Three weeks remain to this survival challenge, the king decided to allow an extension of two weeks before the results of the next harvest shall be brought to us. We shall wish you good luck and may Ioas protect your aura."

On that, they all changed forms and left the clearing, I could see Helaena's hands shaking as she stepped back to come back into our ranks. I approached her and told her "We'll be fine, we won't lose, ever." She looked at me with a weak smile on her lips, we all knew they were going to use a trick of some kind to make us fail, people that came from aristocracy would never let people from the commoner's class rise that easily. They would do anything to destroy us, or rather them, I couldn't really claim to be one of them even though my hearth was still with them.

We couldn't guess what tricks they would use to make us fail, the only thing we could know was that they would do anything for a show, because that's all they wanted an entertaining show to distract them of the uprising happening in the commoner's class. I didn't know who between us was a commoner, but I knew that they probably had family that either disappeared or they knew someone who did. It was like an epidemic riveting across the kingdom, and it showed no signs of it wanting to stop anytime soon.

Khail and Geros looked imperturbable as they watched the guards and the high generals leave the clearing, they then looked at each other and Geros said "They gave us to more time, lets use that and find that so called mythical cavern, we should go fill up our bottles and take some herbs with us just in case something happens during the road. Masov and Nila will go pick up some herbs, plants and flowers, Rya and Vreia will go to fill the water bottles. The rest of us will go try to find some berries and some meat to eat during the next few days. Everyone's okay with that?" We responded in union to tease him "Yes general!" His nose wrinkled and his lips lifted slightly as we spoke, he then winked at Helaena who blushed as she looked at him. I looked at her with a smile on my face as I nudged her arm, she just looked at me with accusatory eyes, but with a small smile emerging on her face.

We all returned to the cave to get our things, we gave our bottles to Masov and Nila, I went south to try to find some berries, as I was going to take a blue berry of its branch, I heard some leaves rustling and behind them was a magnificent animal, it had a feline look, but was bigger than the ones we could normally see in the forest in my old village, it was brown yet as the sun reflected on its fur, resembled the gold that the blacksmith in my village melted and combined with iron to create swords that made the envy of everyone, even the aristocrats that came to show off their pretty jewels and dresses wanted one of them, even if it was just as decoration. For them swords were things that were supposed to be exposed to show just how wealthy they were, for the commoners it was a way of defending themselves and the ones they loved, it was a way to fight during war to be able to keep your life and to take another's, if necessary, it was for survival.

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