Raptors converged on the boy. Their gleaming teeth and putrid breath overwhelmed his senses. The four of them neared him, grinning and squinting their beady eyes at him. Occasionally, one of them would give a chitter and then all four of them would start blinking at him all over again, sharp claws outstretched and ready to tear out his insides. He crept backwards, tucking his head into his haunches and shrinking in fear. The boy felt around for firmer footing but…his paws stepped onto slippery rock and then his world shifted out from under him as he flipped onto his back and into the water…

“Eeya! Help!” The cub called out desperately as he sank below. Silence greeted him though. Pale green eyes stared into a blurry wet mess of dirty, swampy water infested with black bits. “Help,” he thought weakly as he thrashed harder. He was sinking deeper, and deeper into the black abyss…when suddenly, a long snout with razor sharp teeth tore into the water from above the water’s surface and crunched down hard onto his left hindleg. The lion roared in pain and let go of his breath and inhaled a large lungful of water. He felt his lungs grow pain and his senses dulled when suddenly…

"Argh!” The boy shrieked as he suddenly jerked awake, alone in Polaris. He blinked at his surroundings, wildly disoriented at first. Glimmers of light greeted him, as well as the echo of his own voice. He looked at his paws and saw that nothing had happened. Why were his memories haunting him? With a groan, Usui got onto his paws and padded to get a drink by Polaris River. His world still spun and he felt extremely dizzy from his thoughts. It had felt so real! The lion cub was unable to curb his own nerves. While lapping at the water, the cub caught his own reflection. A small sandy head greeted him, with large black nose and oversized paws. "Who…am I?” he whispered to no one in particular and in his trauma, his magic flared up. The ground around him shook, surely awakening any creature nearby.

Surprisingly, nothing stirred. Nonetheless, Usui himself was reeling from the exertion and memories – memories with the connotation that he was not good enough, and so far away from who and where he was supposed to be. The fluttering in his stomach did not go away and neither did the pounding in his heart. For once, the young cub was at the verge of an emotional breakdown. Thinking about it, the lion realized that he had been born into the world and even though he had questioned it, he had simply grown acclimatised and strived to be the best. The best of what? Himself? And even so, for what purpose? He was far from perfect, and his earth magic was ancient and powerful but not exactly superior or advantageous in battle – he was more like a crafter, so in that sense, how could he even think of being the best?

The lion’s heart continued to pound against his barrel chest and he panted a little. The whites of his eyes started to show as he grew even more upset with himself – so great was the pressure and expectation he placed upon his young shoulders that his magic flared up again, wildly beyond his control. "Argh,” he yelped as he sensed his gem react to his feelings – that of internal self destruction, chaos and pain.

Alas, the cub’s feelings weren’t entirely negative. They did not fully revolve around failure. He had firm resilience hidden somewhere in him at this moment, and in the brief flaring of his power, this resilient quality in him quelled the flames of his confusion. The burst of magic was gone the very next moment. The warrior in him had prevailed and did not allow the young one to dishonour himself by lacking constraint. Usui let forth a sigh as the thudding feeling faded away, and slumped onto the ground, stocky body plopping onto the ground sloppily.

Magic. Yes, he had to attempt to control it. This time, he would try a non-destructive spell. With a deep breath, the cub attempted to draw forth all the metallic earth and ores to him, as though to use them to bury his own vulnerability in this moment. He was successful. The earth obeyed the lion who commanded it and came soaring to him the moment he’d activated the dormant magnet power in him. First, a large chunk came and covered his back and rump. Next, steel-like reinforcements clamped themselves onto his paws and hind legs. A helmet of sorts also came. But something was new this time. A huge clutter of small metal clung onto the entire length of his fur like a metal tail reinforcement. Usui felt that he would look rather silly and everything was pretty heavy so he released his power. Immediately, the bits of metal came clattering down.

Once the metal bits were released onto the ground, Usui swivelled his head left and right just to sniff at the pile he had collected. Previously, he had found nice stuff using this power, but today, tainted by his own hurt emotions, the pieces were unusable. Most of the armour hadn’t formed out of good, solid metal but bits of residue. It was quite the ugly sight actually. Emotionlessly, the lion swept the pile to one side with a paw, then got up and shook himself all over. The solace he could take from this successful yet not particularly rewarding skill today though, was that his power had returned to him once he calmed himself down. At least, there would still be hope.

Usui was not done yet with his practice though, to him, control was not simply defined with one successful magic cast. Closing his eyes, the boy balanced out his body and felt his connection to the earth with his paws. Then, he attempted to concentrate with the intention of breaking the rocks in his path, even those lying under the armour. He wanted to see if he was still able to summon that power on rocks which he could not see.

The rocks quivered for but the briefest moment and then shattered with light clattering onto the ground. It wasn’t a spectacular power but one which Usui knew could come in handy. He had used it against Aquarian and it brought him pride to know that his dislodge skill was not too shabby even now and then.

Usui stretched a paw towards the area with the metal junk and lifted them up to see the condition of the rocks below. They were certainly broken, but he had a feeling that they barely made it – after all, the shattering didn’t break up the rocks into many bits, only 2-3 bits which can be hardly called shattering.
Good try though, the cub thought to himself and gave himself a pat on the back. He was also starting to feel better about everything and himself now that he was channelling this energy into training, and he wore the hat of a warrior. He would not stop there, he’d continue to practice, and so the lion attempted the same magic, this time with the intention of breaking up the rocks behind him. Once again, he was barely successful. Usui sighed, and went off to sleep, intending to practice the next day.

The warrior woke up the next day feeling terribly sore around the neck. He had had a good nights sleep but something plagued at him. The cub needed to practice more, he had to become bigger and stronger, even as he should grow more benevolent and gracious to Gembounds as their ever patient teacher. With a long yawn and a twitch of his head, the boy was back on his feet in an instant, padding around Polaris but this time heading towards the crystal river. Perhaps he would feel more refreshed once he had taken a little dip. Usui reached the edge, crouched down and swiped water onto himself rapidly. It was an odd thing for he didn’t fancy water, yet it was precisely because of this and the cool feeling of aqua that he knew it would be effective in jolting him alert.

It did work. Within a couple of moments, the lion was fresh and ready to have a new start to a day of practising magic. He pondered for a bit, wondering what he should do, and looked down at his paws. An idea struck him them. What if he could break off the earth beneath his very paws in this moment? Such a manoeuvre would definitely come in handy if he had to face off with an opponent near a cliff. He closed his eyes, calm, and attempted to project his dislodge magic which was aimed at the ground beneath his paws this time, rather tha n aimed at the rocks.

He did it! The bit of earth shattered beneath his paws, and just at the moment that it cleaved off into the river, Usui reared backwards on his stubby hind legs and emerged from his experiment unscathed. He heard the gentle plop and saw the rock sink to the bottom, forever lost to the murky depths of 4 meters. The boy felt much better already now that his magic was working for him. The doubts of yesterday were dissipating, stored at the back of his mind in a more humane manner. He would be able to rationalise it another time. For now, Usui realized, he should forget the trauma of the past and instead focused on what mattered now. He vowed to himself that he would never let himself lose control of his magic like that again unless it was absolutely necessary.

The cub decided that he shouldn’t hang around Polaris anymore. It was getting a bit dreary being stuck here alone unless there were others? The boy cast his gem sense and knew it to be successful as he could sense his own gem but apart from that, no one else’s. Indeed, no one was here. It was time for him to be off travelling then. With a chuff, Usui walked away from Polaris, feeling stronger than before.

-Exit Usui-