Ruki’s training begins

Ruki was unsure if she had dreaded this day or if she had been looking forward to it. She was fully rested now. At least, her body was. Her mind was still filled with a grief that she could not place and which she could not share with anyone. Takato had decided it was time, though, to start her training to become a real and valuable member of the Asano Bond, and there was not much she could bring in against that. Takato was boss around here, she had understood that all too clearly in the past few weeks. He had changed so much… What had he done to the nice guy she had met in the snow?

She was waiting for him, now, outside the wooden house. There was no one outside yet. It was still dark, the sun was still at least an hour away, but she was wide awake. Takato had told her to pack a bag with supplies for at least a week. Where would they go? What would she have to do? Takato had not told her anything yet, and she had not asked. They would spend a week together… Alone. Ruki did not know what to think of it. In one way, she was looking forward to it, but on the other hand, maybe it would only be painful. Lately, being around him was painful enough, even when there were others around.

She heard the door of the wooden house open, and Takato stepped outside. He was wearing a brown cloak and he was holding a bag, just as her. She noticed it was the same one he had used when she had first met him.
“Are you all done?” He asked her.
“Yes… I have everything, I think.” She answered.
“Good. Here, this is for you.” He handed her a brown cloak, almost identical as the one he was wearing. “You will need it once we are up in the mountains.”

“Mountains?” Ruki asked, somewhat surprised.
“Yes. Don’t worry, it is not far. It’s not even a day’s walk from here. Yet there is where we must go, to begin your training.”
“What do we need mountains for?” Ruki asked.
“To get us away from the earth.” Takato answered shortly.
Ruki did not understand what he was talking about, but she followed him. He would explain later, she hoped.

Ruki followed Takato through the woods. They were not taking one of the paths, which made Ruki lose her way all too quickly. When she saw the sun rise through the trees, she had no idea in which direction the house was anymore. As the morning progressed, Ruki realized the ground was changing. Instead of soft soil and trees, there were now rocks and small bushes. The earth was moving into the skies, and Ruki realized they were actually climbing a mountain. It rose rather slowly, though, so it took her a while to realize it.

“I see we are entering some mountains.” Ruki said to Takato.
“Yes… The Silverrock Mountains. They are not high and rise slowly, so they do not stand out in the area. They have a rich history though. In the past, ponies came here to find silver, of which there was plenty. Silverspring and The Gate are two villages who still carry names of that period. Now, however, not much silver is to be found and the mountains are almost deserted, except for a few villages here and there. It is a perfect place for us to start your training. It is quiet, and because there are very little trees and other plants, there is not much prana in our way.”

So that was the reason, Ruki thought. There was not much prana that could disturb her training, even though Ruki did not really grasp how it could do that. She followed Takato further up the mountains. The grey rocks took over from the brown soil, and soon they had left the trees behind them. Ruki now begun to realize they were indeed getting higher, as she was able to overlook the forest, of which she did not recognize anything from up high, even though she had lived in it for quite a while.

“Nice view.” She commented, but Takato did not reply.
She shrugged and followed him. At noon, they paused briefly to eat something, but they did not exchange words. Ruki wondered why Takato was so silent, but she did not feel like talking herself, either. She enjoyed the view. She had never seen the west in this way before. Endless forests, covered with a slight pink glow, like a pink sea full with life.

After the short break they continued upwards. They followed what seemed like a road now, marked by wooden lanterns on either side after several hundred meters. Most were broken though, and the others were in very bad shape. They had not been lit for ages, it seemed. This was an old road, probably from the silver mining days, and it wasn’t used very often anymore. This was a remote place, and they would not be disturbed. Ruki grew anxious, wondering what training lay ahead of her now.

After a few hours, Takato left the road. They climbed through the grey rocks, ever upward. Ruki saw a rather high rock appear in front of them, and she wondered how they were ever going to get up. Yet when she got closer, she saw that there was in fact a cave inside the rock. Takato entered it, and Ruki followed. They went in quite deeply, and when Takato finally stopped Ruki could hardly see anything, and the exit was a small ray of light behind her.

Takato dropped his bag and said, “We will stay here the next week. You will train in the mountains, and we will eat and sleep here.”
Ruki nodded, and dropped her bag, too.
“As your first training, I want you to go out and find all the wood you can find. There are a few plants scattered here and there, and I’m sure there is some useable wood. Make sure it’s dry, or we will not be able to use it for the fire.”
“Finding wood is training?” Ruki asked, confused. What kind of training was that?

“Oh yes, Ruki. It’s only small training, though. Tomorrow, the real work will begin. Ruki, you are strong, but your body is not as trained as it should be. In order to have a sharp mind, you need a body that can endure hard trials. That is why we are here. As your body is unable to use prana, I brought you here, to train you, so that as the next step, you can train your body when there is a lot of prana flowing around.” Ruki only half understood, but she was disappointed. She had not expected anything, but she wasn’t really looking forward to endurance training.

Still, she did as Takato instructed her. She left her things behind and went out, to look for wood. As expected, there was hardly any wood in the area. Only a few dried out plants which were hardly useable. The only useable plant she found was on a steep and high rock, and she spend over thirty minutes trying to reach it before she finally succeeded. When she felt she had enough wood to last them at least two nights, she went back to the cave.

“I hope this is enough.” She said when she saw Takato sit in front of the cave.
“It is more than enough. You did well. Now, let us go inside and make a fire, so we can cook some dinner.” He said.
Ruki followed him inside. They arranged the wood properly and stored what was left a little further into the cave. Takato managed to make the fire burn, and Ruki put the vegetables in some water which they had brought. They held the kettle above the fire, and after a short time, their soup was done. Neither Takato nor Ruki spoke a word while they were eating. Takato seemed lost in his thoughts, and Ruki once more did not feel like talking. She was reminded of their previous journey together, when Takato had not yet been a future high king and she had not yet been a descendant of an eastern royal bloodline. They had just been two simple ponies, both on an errand. They had sat like this so many times, but now it felt as if that had been a completely different pony.

When dinner was done and they had cleaned their bowls and the kettle, Takato asked Ruki to come with him outside. It was already dark out, and it had become rather cold. She was grateful for the cloak she had gotten from Takato now, for it at least kept her rather warm. She followed Takato back to the path, and she was surprised to find that some of the lanterns were actually working now, and were glowing with a pink light, like strong prana.
“Did someone light them?” She asked. Takato laughed.
“No, Ruki, nobody did. One of my ancestors, most likely, enchanted them to burn as soon as the sun disappears each night. Most of them are broken now… But some still work, as you can see.”

Ruki did not get a lot of time to enjoy the lanterns, though, for Takato soon left the road again. He let her to the top of a rock which stood out from the rest. It was high and not surrounded by any others. Once she reached the top, Ruki gasped. She could see very far, and lit by the full moon that shone above it, she could see the entire forest spread out before her. The faint prana glowed in the light of the moon like a pink blanket covering the forest to shelter it from the cold of the night.

“Wow…” She whispered.
“This is not training, but…” Takato sat down, “I just wanted to show you this.”
Ruki sat down next to Takato. “It’s beautiful…”
“It is, isn’t it?” He smiled. “This forest… It’s so beautiful. It’s one of the few forests still glowing with prana like this. Maybe it is because not many ponies live here… Or maybe because the high king is very far away. Prana is used so much these days… sometimes I fear there will be nothing left if we are not careful. And now it is spreading to the eastern world as well…” Takato sighed.

Even though she shared Takato’s sorrow, Ruki felt her heart jump. Something in the way Takato acted had changed, was different from before. A spark of the Takato she had met in the east was showing up. “Takato… can I ask you something?” Ruki whispered.
“Yes… of course you can. What is it?” Takato smiled. “Why are you… well, when we were in the house, with all the others… you sometimes acted so distant to me, so different from before, when we traveled together. And now, up here, all of a sudden I see you changing back. Why can you not always be like that?”

Takato stared in the distance before he answered.
“I don’t really know why. Around you, Ruki… I feel like I do not have to pretend. In front of all the others… Maybe even in front of Flora, too, I have to be… the future High King. That’s why everyone is there, working together like they are, to put me in my father’s place. I am, to them, already the one and only rightful High King. I have to act like one. I have to lead them, I have to make sure everything we do goes smoothly. If I, even fore one moment, do not act like a High King, then what will happen? I do not know. I do not want to find out. I am what they want me to be. I will be High King one day, and I will remove my father from the throne which he is using for whatever reason. But I am also me, Takato, and when we were together before… Maybe that is why I did not tell you directly. I felt in you, that maybe, somewhere, you share a little of the fate I carry. That’s why I did not want you to know, I did not want you to see me as the future High King, but just as Takato…”

“Takato…” Ruki whispered. She moved closer to him, touching his skin.
“To me… you will always be you, Takato…” Their eyes met, and to Ruki his eyes were no different from the stars that were shining behind him.
“Ruki…” He closed his eyes, and so did she. When their lips met, Ruki thought she would drown in the flood of emotions that busted out of her heart.