“You are not fit to lead. You are powerful, I will give you that, but you are young,” River made his case to the people around the breakfast campfire. He had been slowly swaying them over the last few days with comforting words.

  Several of the miners had approached Luke about it, but he did not care. Sure he could suppress River, the man was a twig and the only fighter worth anything was Jenna. She was neutral at best. Luke simply did not care what these people chose to do.

  “So?” Luke responded at the appropriate time.

  “I think that it is time we relied on experience to guide us instead of youthful energy,” River said.

  Inwardly Luke scoffed. How pathetic could this man be? Luke had gotten them supplies, found a road, and killed a pack of mythical beasts. Now that there was a certain path to civilization, River wanted to take over. At least his granddaughter had the decency to look embarrassed.

  The pause got awkward, “Were you asking a question?”

  River blinked, “Uh, no I was giving you time to defend your position.”

  “Old man,” Luke sighed standing up, “You are under a misconception. We are not competing for leadership, if I had to defend my position, you would be dead. I am here because my friend’s last request was to keep you safe. Those who do what I say fall under that umbrella. I refuse the responsibility to help those who won’t take it. So do what you want, just don’t expect me to pick up the slack or help you up when you stumble.”

  People shifted uncomfortably. Well, those not from the mine did, those men were made of sterner stuff. It was not uncommon for an elemental to break containment and go hunting for miners. It gave a man a different outlook on life when it could end at any time. They were also used to Luke, they knew he meant what he said and did not take offense.

  Luke turned and walked away. He did not plan to go far, but stupid people got on his nerves. The patter of tiny feet through the snow followed him. Speaking of stupid people, Luke had picked up a tail in recent days. Though at least this one had a good excuse, she was not fully developed.

  “Why are you following me?” Luke asked.

  “You said we were buddies,” Tris chirped back.

  Looking over his shoulder at the child, “Buddy system. It's not the same thing. Most people don’t want a bear to eat them while they’re pooping.”

  “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know you were pooping, I’ll get Oaf!” Tris started to run off.

  Luke panicked, Oaf was so dumb he almost circled back around too profound. He didn’t want to deal with him after listening to River yap for so long.

  “No, no, that was an example, please don’t get Oaf,” Luke asked.

  Tris nodded and ran back to Luke. Her eyes glinted a coppery red. It was a toss up whether she had a metal or flame kern, but with no Temple, the Silver Devil monicker held little weight. They walked for a few hundred feet, saying nothing.

  Luke had been terrified when the god had ravaged the Caldera. He was not sure what tier he needed to reach to kill him, but Tristan had said a normal, mortal man had killed Ripple, Furnace, and Vent at the same time. If a mortal could grow enough to kill gods, then so could he. He clenched his fists, one day all the gods would die.

  “Mr. Luke, are you mad?” Tris asked.

  He shook his head, clearing it, “Yes, I am very mad. I will hurt the one who made me mad.”

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  Luke had been attempting to water down his thoughts so a child could understand. He never had a childhood in the traditional sense, so he had no idea if this was how real children spoke. Something dark filled Tris’s eyes.

  “I want to hurt them too,” She huffed, then looked up at Luke, “Show me how.”

  Luke raised an eyebrow. This reminded him of a time down in a tunnel where a similar looking boy had asked him for instruction. Luke would normally reject that request instantly. However, Tris had copied her brother’s approach. She reached not truly knowing the abilities at Luke’s disposal, manipulation was entirely absent.

  “Once we start, you don’t have the option to quit. It will hurt, and you won’t like it,” Luke said, “Do you still want to proceed?”

  Of course, the six-year-old nodded immediately. Luke would hold her to it, “Alright then follow me.”

  He broke out into a jog, it was a full-on run for Tris. She kept up until her face turned red and she was gasping for breath. There was still a massive well of untapped energy that all children had. Luke intended to drain it.

  Reaching off the side of the road, Luke tore a branch off a tree. He was not sure of the species, it was barren of leaves, which he hoped was a sign of less sap. Jogging was a mindless activity, leaving his hands free to carve. Hestia’s Sickle cut easily into the branch. Luke was not an expert artist, but whittling a branch into the shape of an oversized arming sword was simple.

  The blade was one of his hands wide and thirty some inches from tip to pommel. A light coating of fire from Hestia’s Sickle hardened the surface. It was not a balanced training weapon at eight pounds, with most of that weight in the blade. Really it was more of a machete than a sword.

  “Here,” Luke handed Tris the weapon, “If it ever leaves your hands or touches the ground, you will hold it above your head for the rest of the day.”

  A huge smile crawled across Tris’s face. Then the weight caused her to stagger, but she managed to keep up. Half an hour later, they turned around and headed back. Luke had expected her to stop, give up, maybe complain about how hard it was. She was struggling to keep ahold of the wooden carving, but her determination kept her going.

  When they got back to the camp, which was still in deep conversation on the merits of leadership, Luke pointed to the fire, “Go get food, the more meat the better.”

  Tris was sucking in heavy lungfuls of air, but she staggered to the fire. Helen was there and she could help Tris get some food. Luke wondered if heavy training could impact kern growth. He had grown from tier zero to tier four before his father died, then halfway to tier five before he went to the mine. That seemed slow, as Tristan had accomplished a similar feat in five years.

  “Are you planning on leaving?” Luke turned to find Harp. Oaf stood beside her like a bodyguard with the pig beside his ankles. He had made some weird assumption that Harp was a Silver Demoness and that it was somehow a good thing.

  “No, I will stay with the group for now. Did they choose to go with River?” Luke asked.

  “Tentatively,” Harp said, “You still have the biggest stick, and protection is a big motivator,” She looked back at Tris who was stuffing her face with wroughtwiler, “What are you doing with her?”

  “She wants to learn how to fight, so I’m showing her how,” Luke shrugged.

  Oaf perked up, “Can you show me?” His pig oinked, “Oh, can you show Bacon too?”

  “You can go jump off a cliff,” Luke said.

  “Then you’ll do it,” He grinned.

  “If it’s high enough, yes,” Luke said, then realized Oaf’s next question, “Fifty feet at the minimum.”

  Oaf nodded and straightened up. Thankfully he said no more. The camp was broken down, tents were rolled up and stuffed into small bags, the fire was stomped down, and the few pots and pans were scoured with snow before getting stowed away. They started down the road, making much better time than they had in the wilderness.

  Luke held his position in the back of the column, running Tris through some exercises to build upper body strength. Harp and most of the children were also at the rear which also included Jenna and her son. It was a weird reversal that the majority of the group's heavy hitters were in the rear of the column.

  Two days passed like this until the trees fell away, leaving nothing but open flat land. Luke had heard about the endless plains outside the Caldera, but his only frame of reference was the thirty square mile patch of grass that they called plains. This was much larger, even with a kern that reduced the visual obstruction of the air, Luke could not make out the opposite side. Mountains made a vague border in the distance, but living in a basin his whole life made that kind of distance seem immeasurable.

  They came to a canyon with a river running through it. The path ran straight over it, with no arch or bracing structure, it stayed level. That would be good for carts but seemed unstable. One other thing caught his attention. Nearly two hundred figures milled about in the distance. At first, they looked like people, but as they approached Luke was surprised to see they were a plant variant of mythical beast.