KINETIC

Looking down at the little girl lying amongst the rubble, Leo could feel how weak her breathing was.

"Rene." Leo knelt beside the girl and lifted her up, holding her in a princess carry. Rene stood beside Leo and immediately began healing the girl.

"This isn't good. I can heal her injuries, but I can't do anything about her other physical issues. It looks like she hasn't had any food or water in a while, that's probably why she's in such bad shape. How long was she under there to become like this?" Rene seemed agitated but she focused all her attention on the girl.

When looking at her, Leo believed she couldn't be older than 10 years old. She had long blonde hair and she looked to be malnourished.

" So there's nothing you can do to help her?" Clay asked with a disappointed tone.

"Not with my ability, but there are other ways to help her. We need to let her rest in a comfortable place while also giving her food and water regularly. I don't know how long it will take for her to recover, but it's the only chance she has." Rene replied.

" Take her to the carriage and let her lie down on the seats, we'll sort out some food for her." Leo suggested.

" I'll make some porridge for her." Clay said as he and Rene made their way towards the carriage.

Leo continued his search of the village with Nila and Cain. After about an hour had gone by and they were certain there was nothing else to be found, they went back to the carriage to see how the child was doing.

"How is she?" Leo asked while peeking his head through the carriage door. "Not great. She clearly didn't get enough food during her daily life and if you add in the time she spent buried under that building...I don't know how long it will take for her to wake up but all we can do is wait and hope she recovers." Rene explained.

" I see. Well let's hope she's able to recover quickly, she's the only one who knows what happened to the village and it's people." Leo left the carriage and went to go train again since there was nothing else to do but wait.

***

Cain wandered off to a section of the village that was far away from the others. He had been feeling something strange the last few days, ever since his fight with the cultist.

Like all ability users, their power was something constantly felt inside of them. The feeling he had now was something similar, but not with his ability.

His ability was still there, but there was something else as well now. Something that was almost exactly the same, but ever so slightly different.

'What is this feeling... When I was fighting the cultist and this 'other' energy was used, it felt different than my ability. It did the same thing but it felt like it did it in a different way. Like throwing a rock and kicking it, both times the rock moves, but how it moved was different. All I wanted was for the hammer to get heavier, and it did, but it didn't feel the same...'

Cain was deeply puzzled by this 'new energy' he was feeling, but for some reason it didn't worry him. He felt the same type of familiarity with it as he did his ability, like it was a natural part of him.

After some thought, he decided to try using this power again. He attempted the same sort of training he typically used when he first discovered his ability.

It was a simple training that helped him learn to control how much weight the object gained or lost, and it helped him learn to change the output of his ability quicker for more control during fights.

After several hours of trying to do this, Cain walked back to the carriage. He was extremely disappointed with himself, having been unable to use the energy even once.

He had spent the entire time swinging around his hammers like an idiot. Or at least, that's how he viewed it.

***

Leo's training wasn't going very well either. He was still stuck with the same problem as before.

'Tomorrow is the last day before you recieve my hint and it looks like you're really going to need it. You haven't managed to progress at all in this week.' Dreifus said.

'I'm aware.' Leo was extemly annoyed with Dreifus constantly commenting on his progress, or lack thereof. 'I'll figure it out before then, so you can just shut up and watch.'

'...'

Leo continued to try different things but none were successful in any way. Eventually he stopped his training and headed back to the camp site the group had set up near the carriage.

Clay was inside the carriage with Rene and it looked as though they were feeding the child some of the porridge he had made.

Nila and Cain were sitting on opposite sides of the fire, neither one of them speaking. Nila was writing something inside of a book or journal of some kind, and Cain was just sulking while staring at the ground.

Leo felt that neither one was in the mood for conversation right now and that suited him just fine since he wasn't in the mood either. He sat down to side of them and began staring at the fire with a similar expression to Cain on his face.

Cain picked up some stones and acorns and began doing various things with them. He would flick a stone at the fire, he would throw it other times. It looked like he was a bored child trying to find something to do.

He picked up one of the stones and held it at the tips of his thumb and index finger, he then squeezed his two fingers together, essentially pinching the stones edges, and the stone flew out of his hand and into the fire.

Leo's eyes widened and he jumped to his feet. Cain and Nila both looked up at Leo and were surprised to see that he had a massive grin on his face.