On the road again...[Travel]

Well, Kumogakure had been pleasant to say the least. He had met a few new people and seen a few new sights. Was he glad to be leaving? This question burned in Lucian's head like a hot coal just popped from the fire. And, honestly, he kept coming to the same conclusion that he was indeed glad to be going. Kumogakure, as a whole, seemed fake. People were too happy or too scared, Lucian could not tell which. It was not natural. However, Youka, the Raikage, seemed to mean well the way he went about it was very odd to say the least.

Thus, it was earlier that morning that Lucian had said his farewells to the village hidden in the clouds and ringed by bodies. Naturally he had left Taios a note explaining where he was off to, which, by the way, was Hoshigakure. Taios, as a whole, was a bit of a recluse throughout the stay in Kumogakure. Lucian idly hoped his travel companion would catch up to him. However, for now it would be enjoyable to travel solo.

Traveling solo was where Lucian now found himself walking the roads above snow country. The air carried with it a cold edge like a blade. Such a blade cut through Lucian's flimsy clothes with ease and sent a chill straight to his bone. Oddly, Lucian found the cold quite refreshing as it was, believe it or not, the first time he had felt such cold. The warmer clime of Funkgakure never got much colder than seventy degrees fahrenheit. Thus, it was very exciting for the young man when the sky opened up and brought down a light flurry of white onto his head, the first snow of the year and of Lucian's life. 

At first the snow was a novelty, a curiosity and even a joy, but after a few hours of walking through the ever piling snow it began to get old, very very very old. Not to mention it was getting colder and colder. The light steps Lucian found himself originally taking on his trip became slower and slower until at last he felt the last bit of his body heat wicked away by the steadily increasing wind. As he got deeper and deeper into snow country his progress became less and less. Finally he felt he could no further, his energy had left him and he felt numb even his mind felt numb, was this death?

Standing under a tree Lucian found himself struggling to remove matches from his pack, if only Taios had been with him. Why did he leave without that portable Volcano anyway? Cursing his own stupidity Lucian struggled once more and found his efforts met with failure as the matches spilled all over the ground. He was done, perhaps he would be warmer if he sat down? Yes, that made tons of sense to his hypothermic brain. Lean against the tree, yeah, thats it.

Drawing himself into a small ball Lucian could feel his eyes drooping, he was so tired. Sleep, sleep sounded so good at this point. He slowly closed his eyes, but then something, or someone grabbed him and shook him. It all felt very far away. He could make out one or two words:

"......ok?.....Alive....."

Then nothing, blackness, only this and nothing more.

Light, there was light, it was all Lucian could see. Had he been dreaming? Was he still in Kumogakure. Wait, wait, no, he was not dreaming, he was moving, but not walking. Squinting ever so slightly he opened his eyes and saw a canvas over his head. It took a moment, but he could still feel the cold air of the snow country going in and out of his lungs. He was most definitely alive. Where he was though and who he was with were two totally different questions.

For a straight minute or so Lucian sat staring at the ceiling wondering where he was until at last a gruff voice broke the silence, 

"Well, look who it is our very own shinobi-popsicle all defrosted. How are you feeling?" 

"Wait, who are you, what happened?" Lucian asked as he struggled to sit up only to find he could not.

"Calm down, and stay still." The gruff voice said again in a slow even way that seemed to iminate warmth, "You have frostbite on your feet and hands. On top of that you have not eaten anything in a while. My name is Shinji, you can call me Shin or you can call me your savior either one will do. As for your questions I suppose you deserve an answer or two. As you have no doubt surmised you were out in the cold for a bit too long, you dumb bugger. You'd be dead I had not happened upon you."

"So, where are we going?"

"Simple enough, I am on a pilgrimage to Hoshigakure and I suppose you are as well now. As to where you are exactly now? Well, I suppose we are somewhere near the borders of wind and snow country. Not too sure myself actually. All I know for certain is that we follow the road we are on and eventually we will reach the desert and then, lastly, the Haven. It should not be long now. However, that is enough for now. Please, rest we have a long road in front of us and some sleep will do you good." At this point Shinji turned back to guiding the horsedrawn wagon onwards though the wastes of Yukigakure.

At this point Lucian found himself unable to respond or move, so he listened to Shinji's suggestion and closed his eyes. Once again sleep crept into him like a drug and put him into a dream filled wonderland. His dreams danced from topic to topic. At first he found himself back in his home having dinner, the next moment he was falling through the ground and into a large volcano, which instead of burning him felt like cool water. However, all those dreams would have been fine had the sequence not moved to one last stage, a stage of total darkness. It was in this last part of his dream that the young man found himself floating around in a black sea of nothingness, he felt nothing, he saw nothing, and he heard nothing-it was odd. It was all too odd. Though, like all dreams they soon passed and Lucian found himself awake again.

Over the course of the next three days he drifted in and out of consciousness like a ship lost at sea. Whenever he did awaken he was surprised to find Shinji awake at all times. Did the man ever sleep? He conversed with Shinji, but the two never bothered to talk about themselves or why they were here, together. Rather they talked of trivial things such as the weather and where they wanted to travel to. Lucian was able to glean that Shinji himself was rather well traveled. He could tell by the way he seemed to know all about each place Lucian wanted to go. How odd, naturally Lucian dared not question it as Shinji had saved him.

Slowly the landscape changed from tundra to sand, it was an odd transition as if the wintery grip of Yukigakure did not want to let go of the land. However, it finally did yielding to a new wasteland of sand. How odd that Lucian was fortunate to find a man going exactly where he was, because he doubted he could have made the journey without using a wagon the likes of which presented itself just in the nick of time.  Such was life, it had its odd quirks here and there.

When all was said and done the trip to Haven took a week and three days. Looking back on the journey besides almost dying it had been rather uneventful. Shinji, sadly, was not much of a chef, which coupled with Lucian's similar ineptitude made the culinary spread they enjoyed on the trip fairly bland. The two became friends who parted ways upon entering Haven. Shinji had business deeper into the country while Lucian had business in the main village. They agreed to meet up at some point, when and where? Neither could be sure exactly however, the world worked in mysterious ways. They would surely meet again at another time and place, but not now. For now they had to each go their separate ways.

Lucian went onwards to the village, his frostbitten extremities no longer ached and his stomach was full. He had no complaints save for wishing Taios was here. Surely the man would catch up at some point. Luckily there was plenty to keep the man's mind busy. Such as the endless stream of people going back and forth into Haven. It was an odd sight to be sure. People of different races, statures and genders all walked the road without a care in the world. What struck the man as odd was that they all seemed happy. Yes, truly happy. 

Their happiness to his excitement. He was excited for what lay ahead. Kumogakure had been a lot like Funkgakure. There was not a dead body in sight nor were they any shady characters sitting around waiting for a weakling to fall. Yes, he was in a friendly country now. Perhaps was the real start of his journey. His first step into the new world. This village would be different, this village would have anwsers-not just questions. He had not even gained admittance to the village, but it felt familiar and welcoming.

[Word count: 1605 for insta travel between Kumogakure and Haven.]