"I can't see. I'M BLIND!!!"
"Quiet down—the guards might notice us."
"Gazi." Tanaka growled as his teeth clenched together. "I. AM. BLIND."
Gazi hurried to cover Tanaka's mouth. Tanaka winced as he was struck by Gazi's swinging arrowhead necklace.
"It's an after effect," Gazi said.
Tanaka struggled as Gazi tried hard to keep him in place.
"First-time users lose their vision, but it's only temporary."
After hearing the words, Tanaka stopped wiggling. Gazi slowly removed his hands from the prince.
"Right now you are being connected to the ancestral energy. Once that is done, you will be able to see again, okay?"
Tanaka, still seeing only pitch black around him, relaxed a little. "Okay."
Gazi sat Tanaka on the sand as he himself kept looking into the remaining distance until they reached their destination. Hardly an hour's worth of travel, he thought silently as he sat beside the prince. Tanaka patted his hands around the ground until they reached Gazi's trousers.
"Did you see him too?"
Gazi tilted his head as creases formed on his forehead while he raised an eyebrow. "See who?"
"Harun." Tanaka paused as he tried to remember. "When I finished the chant, I SAW him. He looked right at me. He seemed angry."
Gazi stroked his chin. "That's a first, though I suppose sometimes spirits of the departed could appear wearing the face they had when they died."
"I guess. It's just... he seemed like he was angry at me."
Black marks started drawing themselves slowly onto Tanaka's fingers.
"Try not to overthink it, Your Majesty."
His eyes fluttered open as the orange color faded. They returned to their normal brown as his irises contorted, readjusting themselves to the sun's bright light.
"Okay."
He stood up and extended his arms out, staring at the patterns that had formed on his fingers as they slowly faded away.
"What were those?"
"Chipo marks," Gazi said. "They show where your chipo is most concentrated."
Gazi extended his arm and showed Tanaka. Some marks, like a lion's mane, started emerging from Gazi's palm. First they appeared black, but when he tensed the muscle, they started glowing orange.
"See? My chipo is concentrated here."
Tanaka thought back to the training session they had. So that's what he used. A small smirk formed on his lips. "Hehe, cheater. Well, now I have chipo too."
"Well, don't leave me in curiosity—do it!" Tanaka snapped out from his train of thought as Gazi spoke.
"Do what?" Tanaka asked.
"Show me your ability!"
"Oh, okay. Wait... how?"
"Tense your muscles and concentrate all your blood flow to the areas of your marks, okay?"
Tanaka nodded and reached his arms out once more, visualizing it in his head, feeling his chipo flow like water streams toward the patterns.
Slowly the patterns started to appear and then glow.
"Hmm? Nothing's happening."
Gazi looked puzzled for a moment.
"Wait—see that rock?" Gazi said as he pointed a finger towards the boulder behind Tanaka. It was rough around the edges and just about Tanaka's height.
"Yeah," Tanaka replied excitedly.
"Turn it over with your fingertips."
Tanaka looked at Gazi suspiciously.
"Just do it," Gazi reiterated.
The prince rolled his eyes and walked over to the boulder. He placed the tips of his fingers on its jagged surface.
He looked back at Gazi, still observing him. Come on, Tanaka, he thought to himself.
He tensed his muscles. The patterns appeared almost instantly this time, and he pressed on the boulder. There were no signs of motion until dust started collecting between the crevice of the boulder and the sandy earth. And then it moved. Rolling over. The more he tensed his muscle, the easier it became to move it.
Tanaka reopened his eyes. "It moved," he said with wide eyes and a dumbfounded expression.
"Gazi, it moved!" He jumped and pumped his fist in the air.
"See? A regular finger cannot lift even two kilos on its own," Gazi said.
"Wait." Tanaka froze and thought back to Gazi's strength and scaled it to his own. "Hold on. So you get super strength... and I get fingertips? Unbelievable."
Tanaka threw his hands up and walked towards the green patch ahead. Gazi stayed where he sat. The Royal family was killed by a power stronger than all of them combined. And our only hope for an heir is a 15-year-old with oddly strong fingers, Gazi thought.
He lowered his head, staring at the ground. His lips curved up into a smile.
"Hahaha... haha... haaaa... we are so screwed."
He picked up the bag with dried meat and walked after Tanaka, headed for the gates of the Yera Shiri Village.
---
"Your Majesty, we're here," Gazi announced with a heaving chest. He heard no response, so he turned around to see the barely conscious Tanaka trying his best to drag his feet to the entrance.
"Yay," Tanaka exhaustedly groaned, raising a thumbs up to Gazi as he collapsed onto the sand's surface. Gazi smiled softly, looking at the drained boy. He did not even walk that far a distance, he thought.
A beer-inebriated voice called out, "Who goes there!"
Gazi's head snapped back to the gates as Tanaka dragged himself back up and lazily dusted himself off. Once he managed to get the remaining grains of sand from his eyes, he saw the two men in leather armor at the stone entrance to the village. The men had wrinkled faces designed with stern expressions, clearly meant to intimidate their enemies. Their arms showed feather-like patterns from their elbows reaching their wrists. Chipo marks, Tanaka thought. His eyes wandered to their swords. Dual sword wielders—the blades were thin near the hilt and thick at their sharp ends, curved like talons that had been ceremoniously blackened.
Gazi stepped forward. "I am Gazi Oyene. First son of Raka. Proud son of the Yera Shumba tribe and protector of the last heir."
The two guards turned to each other. "Yera Shumba?" the one on the right said.
"I thought they were conquered," his comrade replied before they gave their attention back to the outsiders.
Gazi extended a hand, presenting Tanaka even though he looked more like a street urchin than a prince at the moment.
"And this is Prince Tanaka Tabhani, son of your liege lord Gris Tabhani. The last heir. And now your... liege lord!"
"If they are telling the truth, she will want to see them," one of the guards whispered to his partner.
"What if they are lying? I mean, just look at them. I know a prince, and they sure as hell don't look like that," the other guard spoke, hands still holding his weapons firmly, staring at Tanaka and Gazi suspiciously.
"Well, if they are lying..." He looked at the two evilly. "Then we shall feed their carcasses to the crows."
"You may enter!" he finally announced.
Tanaka and Gazi walked slowly towards the entrance, trying their best to show they meant no harm.
"No funny business," the burly-looking guard said whilst unnervingly staring right at Tanaka, who could not help but stare at the guard's scarred and probably blind right eye. His gaze lingered for a moment too long, and the guard noticed, growling at Tanaka in response before bellowing:
"Follow me."