The Journey to the West [Gilbert]

I had rushed home from my class to grab my emergency prep bag for a situation like this. One I had pre-packed just in case work needed me to rush off on a long trip. I was pretty basic, some extra clothes, my sleeping mat, and a few packages of dried food. After grabbing my back, I made sure to grab Shingru and tied him to my back. No way I was going to learn about my clan without the main part of it. I stepped out of my door and locked it, then placed the fuuinjutsu seal I always use to keep everyone out over the handle. I rushed to the dig site, handed Juro the instructions on what to do in the event of a major breakthrough while I was out. I didn't think it would happen, it was pretty rare that we actually found something, but when we did, it led to things like this, where I need to research in the field for a few days to uncover some hidden message. After a few minute discussion, I shook Juro's hand and made my way to the west gate to meet with Gil.

As I had figured, finding a care taker was the most time consuming part of my list. I eventually managed to convince our neighbor to at least make sure that she ate and didn't leave the apartment. The book was exactly where I had left it last time I gave it a look over, seems the story wasn't very popular these days so lucky us. I made my way to the meeting point and saw Ishi already there with sword on his back, it was finally time to leave the village and go further than ever before.

I stood by the gate waiting for Gil, double checking my bag to make sure I had enough rations and research supplies. Not surprising, I had everything. I looked up to see Gil approaching and a smirked. "Got everything taken care of? We probably won't be back for a few days. If you want to back out, now's the time to do it." I glanced over to the large gate, thinking about the vast outside and what was still left unexplored. "How long do you think it's gonna take us to get to the mountains?"

I nodded if he asked if I was ready to hit the road, all my supplies were more or less packed away in my backpack which appeared rather full and bulky. The length of the trip was something I had looked into at the library, something I hadn't had quite enough time to fully calculate so I shrugged and put my bag down to pull out a map and some cartography tools. My map was laid out on the ground showing a rough idea of the island's layout, though most of the border had been explored a lot of the interior was fairly blank which made things like this hard to plan. "Assuming we take the most direct route it would be maybe a week there, but" I would trail off for a moment as I moved my hand to the north of the marked route to the mountains, "if we cut through this forest we should be able to slice that down to about five days tops." I held my hand there and looked up to Ishi to see what he thought we should do.

I watched as Gilbert did his thing, cartographing the fastest path to the mountain range we were headed to. It surprised me how much of the Ark had been left unexplored. It was truly amazing that we were a functioning society, but just a small portion was what we inhabited, the rest was hidden, left blank. There could be plenty of others that we didn't even know about, thinking that they're the only ones here. "I think that's as good of plan as any. So through to woods to the mountains is the way to go. Lead the way Gil! Want anything to drink?" I reached my hand around to my bag and grabbed a can of "Watt," my favorite energy drink on the market right now. I cracked it open and took a gulp, then with my open hand, reached back and grabbed another, extending my offer to Gil.

The route was set and a drink was offered to me, not something I had ever tried before so I accepted it and looked the can over for a moment. "Thanks." The ingredients seemed like they should in theory make my heart explode from overload but Ishi seemed fine and it would be far to rude to give it back now so I cracked it open and chugged the entire thing in one go. All at once the mistake of my actions hit me, on the outside I was standing perfectly silent and still, a blank expression on my face with the can loose in my hand while my eyes looked forward slightly vibrating. On the inside however colors were flying past my vision range as music I couldnt comprehend started playing, this would go on for nearly an entire minute before the can fell out of my hand and snapped me back to normal. "Right, lets get on the road then." I didn't think I could ever handle another one of those drinks but I was very much full of energy so one can't fault them for delivering on that promise.

I smiled as Gilbert accepted the drink. I watched as he chugged the drink, a rookie mistake. All that caffeine and the other various stimulants would have him wired for a short period of time, but there was the inevitable crash. I guess the perks of being dependent upon the substance was that I never crashed, but I never really got any energy from it as well. I took noticed to Gil freeze up for a moment and I knew then it had kicked in. "Pretty potent stuff, right?" I laughed for a minute, then took a sip of mine. It was gonna be a long walk. I figured I'd start the conversation off so it wasn't days of awkward silence. "So what do you do when you aren't taking kenjutsu classes?"

I laughed when he commented on how strong the drink was and then was asked what sorts of things I liked doing. With a motion I pulled a book out of my bag and showed it to him, "I mostly just read a lot." Books and coffee, those were the two main things that defined who I was. In fact I had even brought along some of my special beans for the mornings on our trip.

I chuckled at the fact that he pulled his book from his bag. That was pretty pragmatic, get some reading done on the road. I had a book of my own, but it was more of a research project. I reached to my bag and pulled out a large book. It was about a thousand pages. A book of various myths and legends about the Ark, hoping it would help unlock the secrets of my clan. "This is my reading material for the time being. It's a book of myths, similar to that one folk tale book you showed me, except it contains all of the folk tales in recorded. I've mainly been researching about the Chakra Beasts of Old. I'm curious as to if their existence was truth or actually myth. Do you have any opinions on them? I'm sure you've probably read a thing or two in your day?"

I thought about it, the old chakra beasts of legend were said to be terrible tyrants who could crush entire human cities in minutes which made me want to believe they were just a myth. Still, the little kid in me wondered if they were real because anything is possible and despite their destructive powers the existence of such monsters would be quite interesting. Without realizing it I had put my arms up and behind my head while I looked up lost in thought, "They were a bedtime story for me long ago, I'm not sure if they are real or not but I know it'd be best not to meet them face to face anytime soon." I sounded like an old man with these words, expressing my curiosity while having a slight hint of fear behind them.