scene 5

Neklous bought Lax up here for a particular reason which he didn't diverge immediately yet he was no fan of wasting time so he got to the point as soon as he could.

"Lax this is where I came to develop my first attribute in magic; time magic"

"I bought you here so you could understand my dao.. my purpose and the reasoning behind the way I see things."

"To achieve something you much deprive yourself of it. Look there.. the skies are always gloomy and grey, not allowing the sun to peek through thus giving this place a lack in sense of time."

"Time.. ever so distant and untouched. Ever so far and in-between. Just like this place.. Serene, calm and lacking in any real feelings of emotions."

"Long story short.. after I developed time magic on my own. I went back home and spent a couple months tending to the Endore family's gardens. My little sister Rhea likes flowers so I wanted to surprise her."

"You know what I saw? I saw something that I only believed I would see here. The aura of distance, the feeling loneliness and of being untouched. I saw it all in a single flower I had stumped upon when tending to the gardens"

"This flower had beauty that would cause intoxication yet all the other plants grew away from it. They grew everywhere but near that flower."

"That flower was none other than the Thorned Rose"

"At first glance I knew this flower was a reflection of me. Distant, untouched and thus unloved. "

"This Thorned Rose reflected me in a way I first couldn't understand. Like me it didn't fit in. No matter where I went.. I just didn't fit in.. whether it was the church, the watch or even the thunderbirds. My family says they love me but.. I can not strive in the city like they can. I belong in the forest.. in nature where my wild nature can roam free. I am tired of being the lone thorned rose. Perhaps I can find other misfits and outcast like me to join"

"I've been reading books.. many many books.. Long story short.. I plan to return to my Ookami roots within the forest just as they did in the 700s. I do not fit in within the city. The city walls themselves feel like nothing more than cages. Meh.. Perhaps if I am lucky I will find ruminants of the children of the woodland and thus form a tribe after I join them and protect the land. "
(Neklous Endore)
---
There was a lot to the man's story, much more than Lax was willing to listen.

He shows devotion, but he lacks any crumble of notions of what Nature stands for, and what the World demands in exchange for the power, which is completely understandable for one not interested in such Arts, but not for Neklous.

"I do not agree with your ways." - it shortly said, as he reached for his staff, to hold his palm around it.

"While I do not deny them, I simply do not agree with them." His words, they boom through the area, resonating from each leave of every tree around the place.

"Adapting to your Acenstors' ways is one thing to do, but you must first seek the true self of yours. Your actions are rushed, you do not put thought and ration behind your decisions - if you do not understand what awaits for you, you will weep for today's past.

You should have known that already."

Lax called out, perhaps referring to the fact that the man is versed in Temporal Arts.

Our actions today influence our Future, most logical, but even the Future will influence the way we look at our Past.

It seemed that the man was thinking far more than a stranger could think of him. "Are you willing to sacrifice yourself and perhaps, your family, to the service of the World? Is it what you most desire?"

The youth asked inquisitively, keeping his palm rested around his stave, seemingly not yet willing to fight whatsoever.

"Becoming an Aspect of the Wild requires much more than thought. It calls out for dedication, coldly logical actions and sacrifice. Attunement to the World and its cruelty is no easy thing to do."

And so, he'd stop, glancing the Ookami's way, perhaps awaiting for him to give an answer.
(Lax)
----
Neklous stood there for a moment actually taking the time to think about the words presented to him before responding. Lax was right, he didn't understand nature at all. He simply wanted to practice in it for his own selfish reasons.

Returning to the wild only due to his Ookami blood? So what. What made him worthy of making such a grand place his home.

He stood there aimlessly as if Lax had stripped every reasoning he had formed, only leaving him vulnerable.

Wild nature? Returning to ones roots? Of course it wasn't enough. A beast living in the wild didn't mean it could control or even grasps the means to controlling it.

Neklous sighed, deciding not to say anything at all. Sometimes the answer to a question was not an immediate response. Sometimes the answer didn't even require a response as actions always spoke louder than words.

How could Neklous have been so naïve. He was like a child voicing his goals yethad not put in any actions to do so. Of course his family didn't agree with him. He rushed it. Wanted quick gains for bullshit effort.

Thoughts ran rapid inside Neklous's mind as his self critic scolded him to no degree. And the fact was.. it showed no interest in letting up anytime soon.

What even is nature magic? How can I wish to accept its power and achieve it just by believing myself to be a notion of a life born within it.

Simply sitting down on the snow bed beneath him Neklous looked disheartened. If only a few words from Lax could shake him this much.. Was his resolve for nature magic even worth mentioning?

"No..."

"I am a selfish man. The world? I would burn it 10x over just for the ones I care for."

Neklous had long gone ditched the thought of trying to answer correctly. He simply answered with his true thoughts.

"I have no feelings towards Nature magic. I see flowers bloom again and again. I see them grow towards the light.."

"My family... my little Rhea is my light.. without them.. no without her.. I won't grow at all"

"Regardless though. I wish to worship the land as I am most comfortable with it "

Neklous's doll blue distant eyes began fluctuating as a new resolve began to burn bright within them.

"If nature will not bestow its power upon me then I will find other ways to do so. I have a goal in protecting the land yes but.. my little Rhea is my first priority. "

"After her.. nature can do with my life whatever it wishes. "

"If is gone though.. I will become a monster who uses nature magic to reap the lands of the ones who took her."

"If my goals are not strong enough.."

"THEN I WILL MAKE THEM BE!"

Confidence arised in Neklous's heart as his words now had barrings.

"No man can measure my worthiness. I will am worthy.. I am enough!"

(Neklous Endore)
------
And so much was predictable of a man who'd never think of the World as it is, being willing to protect the entirety of it, giving up even himself to such extents.

With the answers he was offered, Lax had already made up his mind, yet another chance its being offered to the man before him. Readying his stave, the Aspect would raise it to sky, gesturing to the North, South, to East and finally, to the West.

With his gesture, the man's frame would be covered in a glimmer of green Energy, belonging to the Wild - even on such barren lands, his Magic glows strong, potent.

And as soon as the shimmer of light is gone, one could notice changes in the teen's physical appearance - an ephemeral Crown would be floating above his head, a crown of white roses and thorns, specific to the man's mastery of such Arts.

A cloak of white leaves would be attached to his back, the flora falling off it and being replaced with newly forming Life. It was beautiful yet harsh to watch, the process of Birth and Decay. It was painful, yet beautiful.

"Then prove it."

And so, the boy dashed forth, engaging.

The battle commences.
(Lax)
-----
And so, the battle had commenced.

The battlefield, having already been studied by the more advanced Magus, would serve as a playground more than anything to him.

The Ookami was at disadvantage, and that showed.

The Garden of Eden, it had already been seeped deep into the land, Yggdrassil growing tall and proud at Lax's feet, serving as an area safe and protective to him.

Whilst the wolf would ponder whether or not to venture into the death-trap, he would already found himself attacked by the flora living in the depths of the forest - the vines, they snapped at him. With each snap, he would find himself bruised and sent to the ground.

Every time he rose from the ground, acid spores would be sprayed in his face, causing him to go blind and to itch, only to find himself beaten to the ground yet again by the very same vines.

In addition to all the suffering, he would find himself stuck to the ground in lands of mud, being assaulted with barrages of rocks, only aiding to the morale that had been already dropped.

"You are not enough."

That much he could hear, the Aspect's voice resonating through the entirety of the garden he's seeped.

And so, battered, the Ookami can find no escaping route, the World having turned against him. Despair is what he might only feel, being at the whim of a mere mortal.

The vines entangled themselves around his limbs, lifting him to the air and smashing him against each and every tree existent in the area, perhaps beating him into submission? One could not tell.

One thing is for sure, however - the opponent remained unscratched, deep inside the very forest he's created at his own Will, and with the aid of the World. Such were the ways of Nature, cruel and kind, all at once.

However, not willing to seriously harm the man, but his pride, Lax would unweave his creation, leaving only the two of them - the purple haired man, reigning victorious over the Ookami, and the wolf, all muddy, battered, laying in the snow, half-unconscious.

"Reach for me when you've found your Will." - that much he could hear, whilst blurrily visualizing the youth turn around, and leave.

Perhaps he's done this to inspire the other individual? Or to teach him a lesson?

Neklous could only wonder...
(Lax)