Conscious, Conscientious

Deon and Skrili stepped up to Skip’s door in their Nightwood Village robes, the surrounding trees protecting them from the afternoon sun. They both sighed.

“Well, time to let down our Trainer on the first day,” Deon uttered.

Skrili opened the door.

“Oh, good! You’re back! Come on in—I’m in the dining room!” Skip called from the next door past the living room. “Hope you’re hungry!”

The cinnamon scent from the candles returned to Deon’s nostrils as he and Skrili entered the cozy cabin house. When they neared the next room, the smell blended with a variety of other savory, roasted aromas.

Skip sat atop a thin cushion on the floor at a low, glossy wooden table. Smiling and humming, he wore a goofy chef’s hat and spotted red apron over his usual suit jacket—a sight that prompted Deon to double take. Bowls of rice, veggie mixes, sauces, and chicken filled the center of the table, steam rising from them. Three empty plates were ready, with pairs of some sort of stick utensils beside them.

“Hey, they picked out great robes for you two! You look fabulous,” Skip noticed. “Well, sit down already! The best thing about having company is the excuse to cook all this food!”

Deon was grateful Skip had messaged them before they bought a meal in the village. Eating out at Gloat Center was incredible, but he couldn’t wait to dig into home-cooked food again.

But…do I really deserve this treatment when we totally missed the first training activity? he wondered.

Two matching cushions were close beside each other on the opposite end of the table to Skip, so Deon and Skrili took their place there. Skip insisted they fill their plates first, before he loaded a pile onto his own with stars in his eyes.

But once they were all ready, Skip abruptly leaned forward and peered at his pupils closely.

“Alright, let’s start,” he announced, the subject of his excitement instantly shifting to them. “I’m curious to hear: how did it go?”

Deon and Skrili glanced at each other for a split second nervously.

“Oh…it was uh…fine,” Deon said. “Actually yeah, it was…great. Went well.”

“Oh, awesome! So you two got the point of the lesson and everything, then!” Skip noted. “Wonderful! Good work.”

“Yeah…” said Deon with a forced smile. “The point of the lesson. What a great lesson we learned, thanks for that—”

“Just stop,” Skrili intervened, unable to touch her food.

“Hm?” uttered Skip.

Skrili looked at him seriously. “I’m sorry, Teacher. We weren’t even able to find your training for us in the village,” she admitted. “By the time you messaged us to return, we hadn’t done anything.”

Skip sighed dramatically. He picked up his sticks and twirled them, looking off to the distance. “You didn’t do anything?”

“I’m sorry,” Skrili repeated.

“Nothing at all?” continued Skip. “What, you just stood there staring off into space for a couple hours and then walked back?”

Deon chimed in. “We couldn’t find what you wanted us to…so we just ended up taking a raft ride and talking.”

Skip’s eyebrows lifted. “About what?”

Deon shrugged. “Uh…life, I guess,” he said.

“Do you feel like you know a little more about each other now?” asked Skip. “Do you have a better—even slightly better—understanding of your teammate?”

Again, Deon and Skrili exchanged glances. As that strange Fiction Country phenomenon returned to Deon’s mind again, he thought of everything Skrili had shared with him.

“Yeah…I learned a few things, actually,” Deon said, and Skrili nodded.

Skip leaned back with a smile. “Alright, sounds like the training went great, then!” he decided. “You didn’t miss the point at all.”

“Huh?!”

“You mean…there was no hidden trial?” asked Skrili.

“Nope.”

“We weren’t supposed to fight someone?” Deon questioned.

“Nope.”

“You…just wanted us to…talk?”

Skip laughed again, shaking his head. “I was being totally literal: your training today was just to go on a date,” he explained. “I could tell right away: you two have never spent time together just for the sake of it. As a team, your relationship needs to be strong. You need to be a part of each other. So I wanted to see what would happen in a situation where all you had to do was be together: without any fighting, without working towards any sort of achievement. The teams that can do that—that want to do that—are the teams that last.”

Deon and Skrili stared at him silently, realizing they’d scurried across the entire village in search of nothing. They’d settled on the raft ride together after giving up…but all along, that was exactly the kind of activity Skip wanted them to do.

“You guys came to me in a pretty pathetic state,” Skip admitted. “But after hearing that you got it right and just hung out, I have a lot of hope. Even just looking at you two sitting together right now, I can see a slight difference. There’s the potential for a connection there. Our main priority this month will be to cultivate and tap into that.”

The way Skip spoke reminded Deon of the connection he watched rekindle between Skrili and Pang during the Conscious Competition. By the end of their fight against Alex and Ving, they’d become a single unit. It became noticeable not only in their fighting, but in how they interacted in general. They’d recreated a bond.

That’s what Skrili and I need to have, Deon realized. Will she be up for it?

“Since you got through the morning’s training just fine, I have plenty more in store for you today,” Skip said. “Almost as important as your invisible bond, is your physical ability.”

Deon liked the sound of that. It meant fighting practice was on the way.

“But first: EAT UP!” Skip exclaimed. Not waiting for them, he brought his plate to his face and dug into his meal. “Delicious!” he muffed.

Deon and Skrili tried to ignore his ongoing praise of his own cooking as they joined in.

~

After eating, Skip allowed the duo a couple hours to let their stomachs rest before initiating whatever awaited them next. Then, he instructed them to change out of their nice robes and into something more fitting for exercise.

When Deon and Skrili met him back in his yard with water bottles in hand, they found Skip had changed into athletic wear, as well—or, mostly: aside from light gym shorts, sneakers, and a t-shirt, he still wore his suit jacket and bowtie. Deon wondered if he knew how ridiculous he looked.

Skip crossed his arms. “Alright, then: day one continues,” he declared. “You’re lucky: I always start out easy, compared to what’s coming later this month. But you’ll probably still find what we’re about to do pretty daunting.”

Deon clutched his fists and smiled. He was ready.

Just show me our opponent. I’ll give it my all, he promised.

Skrili retained her emotionless demeanor.

“We’re going to…” started Skip dramatically. He spun, and then pointed at them. “Go for a jog!”

“W—WHAT?!!? THAT’S IT?!?!” Deon bellowed. “What’s ‘daunting’ about that?!”

But Skip ignored him. “Follow me, alright? Try to keep pace!”

With a sprightly hop, he broke into a light jog past his students. Deon and Skrili simply watched him for a moment.

When Deon looked to Skrili for her reaction, she simply shrugged.

“He has this position for a reason,” she said. Then she tossed aside her water bottle and moved to follow Skip.

Deon sighed to himself before finally hurrying after them.

Skip led the team into the odd woods, following a winding dirt path. While he’d warned them to ‘keep pace,’ he didn’t seem to be in much of a rush, jogging steadily and easily. Even an amateur—or a non-athlete, for that matter—could keep up.

After about half an hour of uneventful running, however, Deon found himself the first to start feeling winded. He was at the back of the pack, but he grit his teeth and refused to slow, sweat trickling from his forehead. While Skrili’s fighting style called for constant movement, his imagining capabilities incentivized him to be stationary more often.

Maybe this will be good for me after all, Deon realized. Being in better physical shape will round out my skillset.

He laughed to himself, realizing Lammy had been telling him that very thing every day back in Tailpiece.

“I don’t know what’s so funny, but you probably won’t feel like laughing soon,” Skip said back to him.

“Huh?”

“Nothing—Oh look, we’re almost at the cliff!”

Up ahead, on one side of the path, the trees came to an abrupt end. They all ran up a slight incline before reaching the point Skip referred to.

An incredibly immense, seemingly bottomless cliff followed the end of the tree line on their right. It spanned roughly the length of Gloat Stadium before reaching an identical cliff on the opposite side. The dirt path they followed continued on, trapped between a steep wall of trees on one side and a deadly drop just a step away on the other.

The yellow sunlight blared down on them. But strangely, this area felt cold.

Much colder than where they had just come from.

Despite the peril and weather oddity, Skip continued on jogging, waving for them to keep following.

Deon kept a close eye on his footing.

Seems like he could’ve picked a better route, he observed warily.

Then, the chilly nature of the air protruded Deon’s face as he breathed in. He could suddenly feel the moisture increase.

Next, came the fog.

He somehow hadn’t noticed it descending upon them all. Or maybe, it had somehow appeared all at once.

A misty fog engulfed Deon and everything around him. At first he could barely still see the narrow path. But within seconds, he couldn’t even see below his knees.

Looking ahead, Skrili and Skip had become mere shadows.

Then, they were gone.

Deon heard whispers.

Slow, long whispers were echoing towards him, coming from over the cliff.

Almost too spooked to turn his head, Deon convinced himself to check.

Immediately, Deon knew he must have been asleep all along.

He was in a nightmare.

Floating in the foggy space between the two cliffs were four ghostly, colorless figures. Their eyes were entirely black, and they had no mouths. But Deon recognized these individuals right away: it was his parents, Aunt Ergi, and Uncle Adon.

A fifth figure sunk into view behind them, at a hauntingly slow rate. This one was Savannah, wearing the dress his mother had hand-sewn for her. While everything and everyone else were shades of gray and black like fog and clouds, her dress was still its normal faded yellow.

Everyone’s dark eyes were staring into his except Savannah’s. She was looking off into the distance with her arms crossed impatiently.

“Uh…everyone?” Deon called cautiously. “This…this can’t be real…”

“You really wanted to do something special, but you were special enough to us,” came his father’s mouthless voice.

“Was home not enough for you?” asked his mother.

“What?” Deon uttered.

“Deon, sweetie,” started Aunt Ergi. “You belonged here.”

“It’s true, kiddo,” agreed Uncle Adon’s gruffly voice.

They all breathed in simultaneously, until all their voices spoke:

“Why do you think we didn’t want you to leave Tailpiece?”

Oddly, after this, everyone turned their heads to Savannah. She looked back, only to shrug apathetically and turn away once more, crossing her arms even tighter.

“You don’t belong out there,” they all said. “You don’t have what it takes. But now, you don’t belong home either.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Deon retorted. “Why are you saying all this?!”

But all of the apparitions began vanishing into the fog. The only words left came in just a whisper, from a voice he’d never heard.

“You’ll see…” she promised.

Deon blinked a few times, shook his head, and then slapped his face. But the dreary environment remained.

“Alright…this is messed up…” he told himself.

His reprieve from the haunting figures was brief. Only seconds later, he noticed two more shadowy individuals appear where his family and Savannah had left.

He quickly realized he’d take the last set of apparitions over this one.

Now Skrili floated before him on her knees, cradling a still, lifeless body in her lap. After a moment, Deon realized it was the little boy from her picture: her little brother, Akri.

Just as the presences from before, their eyes were black and void.

But when Skrili looked up from her brother to Deon, a mouth appeared and shaped into a smile.

“Do you want to be just like me?” she asked. “Back in the championship, did I inspire you to be just like me?”

“Uh…yeah,” Deon replied timidly. “The way you used your strength to protect and save everyone around you…if I ever need to…I want to do that.”

“You want to be just like me,” Skrili confirmed softly. “But…you’re not ready.”

“What do you mean? I’ll get stronger…”

“That’s not the issue,” Skrili denied. “It’s like your mother said: a loving person fights even if they can’t save someone. Sometimes, you won’t be able to save someone. And you won’t be ready for it.”

Skrili’s smile unnaturally vanished, as did her mouth entirely. A tear fell from her black eye. She returned her attention to the dead boy she cradled in her lap.

But it wasn’t Akri anymore.

It was Lammy.

Deon screamed.

Skrili brushed Lammy’s hair with her fingers gently as her tears fell on his pale face. “You’ll never be ready….” she whimpered.

“LAMMY!!” Deon shouted.

“You’ll see,” whispered Skrili. “Soon enough…”

Then after Deon blinked, Skrili and Lammy were gone.

Deon needed to get out of here—wherever “here” was. He leaned forward to hurry his pace.

That was when he realized: he’d never stopped jogging this whole time. Somehow, as if his body had taken over on its own, he’d kept running.

Just as he noticed this, the fog began to dissipate. It cleared up within moments, and suddenly everything he’d seen and heard before came back to life. The now late afternoon sun shone down on the cliff. He could see and feel his feet against the thin dirt path, and there were no more creepy images hovering nearby.

He let out a deep sigh.

Skip and Skrili were still running ahead of him as before, and Skrili was looking around at the abrupt return in setting just like him.

Hey—wait a second, Deon thought.

Everything wasn’t entirely back to normal. Now, the tree line and cliff had switched sides. Everything was backwards.

It took Deon until they were about to exit the cliff to realize: at some point, somehow, all three of them had turned around and headed back in the way they came. Considering how thin the cliff was, it should have been impossible for them to change directions while remaining in the same formation—Deon should have been in the front now.

But mysteriously, Deon and Skrili still followed Skip.

Deon felt waves of relief and warmer air as they descended back into the deeper, shadier woods. He just needed this nightmare jog to be over.

Thankfully for him, the way back felt much shorter. Eventually he could see Skip’s cabin and yard behind a wall of trees.

Once they gaspingly arrived and Skip came to a sprightly stop, Deon and Skrili collapsed into the grass, reaching for their bottles. They sat catching their breath for a minute, while Skip did a few quick stretches.

“That path always feels a lot longer than I think it will,” Skip said. “What do you guys think?”

“Oh, it was relaxing...” Deon muttered.

“Really? You think so?”

“NO!! What the heck just happened?!” he snapped.

Skip brought a finger to his chin. “What do you mean? Oh—I guess there are a few tripping hazards, if you’re not paying a—” he cut himself off. “Oh…you mean the whole creepy fog thing…”

Deon and Skrili both nodded slowly.

“Right…yeah, that happens every time on that route,” explained Skip casually. “Something about that cliff…it demonstrates your deepest fears and insecurities. Oh, and it also interprets your future. Weird, right?”

His students glared at him in stupefied silence.

“Alright, next I need you two to get hydrated, get some post-workout stretches in, and meet me back in the cabin in an hour or so,” Skip instructed, already heading for the door. “I’m gonna start whipping up dinner! Then we’ll be done for the day.”

Just after opening the door, however, he paused. “Oh—and why don’t you two share with each other what you saw at the cliff?” he added. “See you in a bit!”

Once Skip closed the door behind him, Deon glanced at Skrili. Her eyes were fixed on the ground.

“You think he’s actually that weird, or is it some kind of bit?” Deon wondered.

Skrili shrugged.

They sat silently for a short while as the shadows around grew longer.

“What…did you see?” Skrili asked quietly.

Deon had been hoping he could avoid discussing it altogether. He shook his head, still unsettled.

“My family. They were insisting I should have never left Tailpiece…and that I’ll never be cut out for this place,” he said. “But they also told me I didn’t belong back home anymore, either. I’ve never heard them talk like that before. It just…made me feel lost. But…honestly…part of me can see it really panning out that way.”

Skrili looked back at him, listening closely. “Was there anything else?” she asked.

“There was—” Deon caught himself. The way Skrili was sitting flashed his mind back to seeing her pale ghost cry over Akri and Lammy in the fog. It stopped his heart for a moment. “There was nothing else after that…the fog went away,” he decided. “Um…what did you see?”

Skrili took a deep breath, her eyes again returning to the ground. “Myself,” she finally uttered.

“Just yourself?”

“For a moment, yes,” she replied. “I was lying down, hurt. Then Pang and Phillip were lying there, and you, too. We all helped each other stand up, and then we laughed. But all the sudden, you all disappeared and I was alone. I fell back to my knees.”

“Man…why did Skip have to take us somewhere so depressing?” Deon questioned.

“Then there was something else,” Skrili continued.

“There…was?”

Skrili nodded. She attempted to speak several times before finally managing it. “Because…I watched my brother showed up in my lap. And…I knew he was gone,” she said emptily.

Again, Deon’s heart almost stopped. Wait. No….no, no…

“I couldn’t take it, so I looked away,” said Skrili. “Then I heard a strange whisper, so I ended up looking back. But when I did…”

“…What?” Deon prompted.

“I…I don’t really know what to make of this part,” she admitted. “It’s…not easy to tell you…”

“What is it?”

Skrili finally returned her eyes to him. “When I looked back, the dead body wasn’t Akri anymore. It was a boy who looked a lot like you, but younger,” she shared. “I…I think it was your cousin.”