Reman soldiers should have had the area surrounded by now, yet something had kept them from doing so.
"We've been training even harder than you!" Tiva boasted, and one look around was enough proof that her words weren't empty.
Stopping the Remans from getting in formation, a group of Inyankarans pushed in from the surrounding forest like an arrow penetrating its target, reaching Nayavu, but not stopping there. They pushed even deeper into Reman lines, as the soldiers struggled to keep up.
Soon after, under the orders of the mighty Tatanka-Ska, the Inyankarans took the Remans with them, and the only ones left in the center of the glade were Aurelio with an exhausted Giovanni, and Tiva holding an exhausted Nayavu.
"That aside, how are you holding up?" the young lady asked, feeling the body in her arms grow less and less tense, almost to the point of going limp.
Yet even in that state, Nayavu nodded.
"I just needed some time to gather my strength," he said. "Thank you, Tiva. I'll take care of it now."
"Speaking like a true hero, aren't we?" Aurelio intervened. "But I don't see how you would stand a chance against me in such a sorry state."
"You say that, but those drops of sweat on your forehead tell another story," Nayavu said, grinning at the arrogant man as if the boy had an advantage.
"I might have fallen for it, were you to look my way when you spoke."
His bluff had been called, for Nayavu had long lost his ability to see clearly due, and he couldn't even pinpoint where Aurelio was. Whether the general was tired or not was unclear to the boy, but he had learned many times before that acting tough can get you out of danger.
However, this time it didn't seem to work. That's what Tiva's grip tightening on his arm told the boy.
"Stand up! Lieutenant!" he ordered the man who was in an even worse state than the Inyankaran, having been attacked by the electricity-wielding beasts while the short fight between Aurelio and Nayavu took place.
With a straight face, as if no emotion existed in the man's heart, Giovanni did as ordered and got back up on his feet, yet the weak balance he barely kept made it clear that he was in no way capable of another round.
"No matter," said Aurelio. "We'll camp here for the night. You savages may go back to the forest."
The general's words—spoken with a straight face—surprised everyone who'd heard them.
"But, General! You can handle them!"
A soldier who overheard the conversation spoke, yet he was soon after cut down by a nearby Inyankaran who punished his lack of focus.
"Of course I can handle them! But what about the rest of you? Are you suggesting that I take on everyone here by myself while my soldiers get brutally slaughtered?"
It was maybe the first time Aurelio had shown rationale worthy of a general before Inyankarans. Until now, the views held by Nayavu and everyone else were that the man leading the Reman army was just another power-hungry monster who wouldn't shy away from anything that helped him reach his goals. While that fact stood true, a more dangerous side, his rational side, had now surfaced.
By now, the fight had come to a halt, with Remans and Inyankarans standing side by side and waiting for orders on what to do next.
"Those of you still apt for battle will stay on guard tonight. The others will get some rest and prepare for the next battle!"
Orders on the Reman side were loud and clear. Now, it was Tatanka's turn to make a decision.
"We'll head for the forest! We'll tend to the wounded and defend this land with our lives!"
With orders given on both sides, the armies separated. It was only now that Nayavu saw the numbers, and they were surprisingly even. For the Reman side, the numbers made sense, but this was the first time the boy had seen so many Inyankarans in one place.
"Nayavu! Are you okay?" Tiva asked the boy whose legs gave out while he was busy counting.
"Just you see! We'll take care of you soon enough!" the girl shouted towards Aurelio, the general looking at her with disgust in return.
"To think you could have gotten by thanks to your blood, yet you've decided to become a savage."
Rude words were spoken, but Tiva didn't mind them. What angered her was the state she had found her dear younger brother in. She wanted to say something more, but Tatanka intervened in time.
"That's enough, Tiva! Let's go back! Nayavu needs treatment more than anything."
With a nod, the young lady listened to the giant man. In turn, Tatanka made a gesture with his hand and signaled everyone to retreat between the short trees, the two animals who stood next to Nayavu following.
Standing there, forgotten by the rest, was the one soon to become a god. She seemed lost in thought, but she quickly brushed it off, and with a dignified aura emanating confidence and power, she became energy and flew to the skies.
Thus, under Ayanda's gaze, the two armies parted ways, each of them preparing for the battle that was to come in the morning.
*****
To Nayavu's surprise, in the forest of trees no taller than four people at most, there was already an Inyankaran settlement. It was by no means enough to be called a village, but having tents around calmed down the boy who had been sleeping under the open sky for the past months.
With gentle moves, Tiva took the boy into an empty tent and laid him down, making sure that he didn't hurt anywhere.
"What would my little brother do without me?" the young woman asked playfully, a smile in full bloom never leaving her face.
In return, Nayavu closed his eyes for the first time since leaving for battle. He felt at ease, as if the people around protected him, even though he was the one who had been protecting Inyankarans ever since his magic training started.
"Tiva… How is the village?"
Instead of a straight answer, the girl let out a small giggle.
"Is that really the first thing you ask? Aren't you the one who left us behind without a word?"
Cornered by the girl's words, Nayavu had to take a moment to think of an answer, yet by the time one came to him, Tiva corrected herself.
"Well… To be precise, it was us who went ahead, right?" she said, her eyes closing halfway to soften her smile.
"So let me ask you something first. Why did you remain behind?"
Having such a question posed to him, Nayavu now had to think of a lie to cover up his past.
By now, he had been seen using powers he shouldn't have. He had lost himself over a man he shouldn't know about. On top of it, he spoke perfect Reman, like few in his tribe were able to. There were a lot of things he had to explain, and to cover them all, his mind went into overdrive.
"I… I'm sorry."
Or at least it should have, but Nayavu was tired. He had not the strength left, nor the reason to make up a lie. Instead, the boy chose to apologize.
"Actually, I've kept something from you."
Although his head trauma was a good enough explanation for why his memories had been jumbled up, he didn't use that excuse. He knew he would have kept the secret regardless for as long as he could. Yet, he was tired of that too.
Holding back no detail, the boy told Tiva everything about his situation, or at least everything he himself understood. He told her about his curse and about some of his past lives, including the one in Rema. He told the young lady about the representatives, about what he's been up to during these past couple of months, and about Giovanni and his will for revenge, and he listed all of the names important to him.
"Ten, Kotaro…"
He told her about the ones he'd lost and about how powerless he felt while watching them give their everything for him.
"Kotoko, Ken…"
He told Tiva about the ones he failed to put at ease and how he had left them behind, unaware whether they were dead, alive, happy, or sad.
"Mei…"
He spoke about his dear sister, a strong woman who put her goals first and would do anything to achieve them. Nayavu kept his head down as he told the story, remembering how he ended up being nothing more than a roadblock for her, selfishly going down his own path without thinking about what his brave older sister might be doing.
"…Giulia…"
Finally, Nayavu mentioned the name of another one he had failed to protect. Only, this one felt more personal, for the one who had taken her away was now on the other side of the battlefield, with no recollection of his deeds, for those were to take place more than one hundred years from now.
Upon hearing it all, Tiva took a second to ponder. It was only fair, as Nayavu dumped on her a lot of hard-to-swallow information, and while much of it didn't concern the present, there were some aspects that twisted the way the surrounding world works.
"Higher beings capable of producing elements out of seemingly nothing," the lady repeated.
Silence dominated in the tent for a while, but when Tiva finally spoke, Nayavu's eyes opened wide at what she said.
"So, are you still Nayavu?"
"…"
Once again, silence was the only answer that followed, and what came after silence couldn't be called a straight answer either.
"Pfft! Aahahhahah!"
Nayavu laughed. While speaking, he forgot who he was talking to. He was talking to Tiva, and Tiva was a girl simple enough to brush over many of the details and pose the one question most important for her.
"Ack—"
But laughter was soon followed by pain, as the effort of laughing so hard told the boy his abdomen had also been put under serious strain. Tiva quickly put a hand on him, using her new powers to make sure that there was no internal bleeding to put Nayavu's life in danger. Even were she to doubt his identity, Tiva would never let someone struggle while she was around.
"I remember every one of your stories. I remember the day you came to the tribe. I remember your coming-of-age ceremony, and how I was this close to missing it because I was to go out on my own pilgrimage," Nayavu spoke, letting Tiva decide for herself what that meant.
"But do you think the same about those memories, or are they only some random information in the head of someone else?"
"I wonder…" the boy said. While he knew that he was truly Nayavu—living with the mind and the body of an Inyankaran boy, he couldn't blame those around him for thinking of 'him' as hijacking a random mind whenever he awakened.
"If I woke up one day, telling you I've had the craziest dream, and that dream turned out to be a premonition, would I still be Nayavu? If one day you found me crying over a history book, and I told you I loved the characters in it with all my heart, would I still be Nayavu?"
To those questions, Tiva shook her head.
"No, that wouldn't work…"
"Oh…"
"After all, the Nayavu I know would never read enough to get attached to a book!" the girl continued with a wide smile—accepting her brother in her own unique way.
Getting her vote of confidence, Nayavu let out a relaxed sigh. He then mellowed down starting from his shoulders, and closed his eyes again.
"Tiva, do you remember the day we thought we had gotten lost, even though we were right next to the village?"
With this, the two went on reminiscing about their days as kids, and they even had an audience.
Outside the tent, there stood a man who had listened to it all. Tatanka sat on the ground together with Tahu and the thunderbird, all three of them with a a loving, warm calmness, like parents of the two youngsters inside.