A few days later they are close to reaching the Hand clan's district. Julian and Komodo are walking towards a giant mountain and at the peak of the mountain is the clan. The clan has carved into the mountain so the mountain looks like a plateau from afar but in reality its a carved mountain. Surrounding the mountain is an open field with a few hills, they stretch for tens of miles. And past the field to the south there is a giant forest.
Julian and Komodo have just walked through the forest. Julian walks with the sword that shoots out fire, it's connected to his pants.
"Hey, Julian is tucking in your sleeve into your gloves and tucking in your pants to your boots a fashion thing." Komodo asked.
"Uhhhh," Julian said surprised, "I guess, I only do it because they clothes I wear are big and very baggy. I just need a way to move better."
Komodo replied, "To be honest I don't really know anything about fashion since I only wear pants."
"Uh, can you tell me why you only wear pants?" Julian said.
"It's because of my body, my body is already as tough as steel so there would be no need for me to wear clothes." Komodo replied.
A few minutes later Komodo stares at the mountain and says, "We're getting close, we should reach there in about a day."
"Umm" Julian said, "When are we gonna eat? We've only eaten once this entire trip and I don't think I can handle it."
Komodo quickly responded, "In about 2 hours there are cattle and other animals. We'll eat when we reach them."
Julian walked each footstep was crushing on him. He had very little stamina compared to Komodo plus he had no training too. Julian could feel his mind and body loosing focus while walking. Every second he felt like he just needed to lay down and sleep.
In the distance Julian could see cows with his blurry eyes. This gave him hope, hope that can make him want to push forward. But in reality the cows were miles away and would take them an hour to reach.
An hour later they had finally reached the animals. Komodo gripped his halberd and slashed one of the cows heads. The head was perfectly cut off as it and the body fell to the ground.
"Yo, Julian unsheathe your sword you're gonna need it." Komodo said while staring at Julian.
Julian unsheathed his sword and swung it at the cow but nothing happened.
Komodo quickly said, "Hey if you want the food cooked you're gonna have to heat it with your sword cuz I only eat raw meat."
Julian stuck his sword into the cow trying to get the fire to appear but nothing happened.
"Julian if you wanna eat you're gonna have to lock in." Komodo said, "If you gonna get the magic out of that sword to work you're gonna need to put your life force into it. The only reason why the fire worked when you were trying to fight me was because you were determined."
Julian gripped the sword again trying to put his life force into it but still nothing happened.
"Hope does not activate your life force." Komodo said while trying to teach Julian, "Hope can strengthen your life force but it will never activate it. To activate it you will need focus, reason, and most importantly a will to live."
At that moment Julian thought of Poppy's letter and the sword caught fire. The fire quickly grew large and hot. Julian took a few steps back to admire the it. The fire still burned without Julian's touch and after a few minutes it went out. Most of the was fully cooked and well done. He pulled out a rib and started to munch on it.
While that was happening Komodo already to some parts of the cow before hand and ate them. But when the cow was cooking he started to open up the cow's head. And by the time the cow finished cooking he ate the brain of the cow.
After a few minutes Julian had ate 5 cow ribs.
"Ahh, that's a lot better" Julian said "Lets get going."
After a few hours of walking it reached dusk and a hour later it reached night. Komodo laid down and began to fall asleep. Then Julian laid down but he did not fall asleep.
Julian began to think to himself. He thought about what would to happen once he reaches the clan. He was afraid of how the people would treat him. He tried to comfort himself for a while but he knew what he said to himself wouldn't help either.
Slowly he came to the realization that he had no control of what will happen and once he accepts that he wouldn't be scared.
When Julian was thinking he was also looking up at the stars. The stars were brighter tonight, a few of them were brighter than the rest. Julian noticed that the brightest ones were slowly moving into on point. Once all of them had reached it the other stars started to form a symbol. After half an hour the stars had formed a circle with a giant dot in the middle with eight lines pointing away.
Julian's eyes widened.
"How?" Julian asked, "I am I dreaming or can everyone see this?"
At that moment the stars suddenly dispersed going back to their original position.
Julian began to get sleepy. His eyes closed as he fell asleep.