chapter 7 return

It was the next day when Ryan woke up. he slowly stood up and stretched out his muscles. after taking a minute to wake up he looks around and becomes alert. he slowly examines the walls around him to make sure nothing has changed. once he was sure, he went through his morning routine.

"morning cat," he said when he was done.

'you too kid' noir responded.

After treating the gloomy cat inside his head, Ryan fell into thought.

[I guess I should go home now... but I don't think I'm quite ready to face mom yet] Ryan shivered in fright, his mother was an expert at scolding you and making you feel guilty at the same time.

[well noir did say my body would be stronger now, I think that a good enough excuse to postpone that.] Ryan nodded to himself like he was a sage advising the peasants. deep in his soul space, there was a small undetectable snort of derision from a certain cat.

thus Ryan started to go through the exercise his parents taught him. as he went through it he was shocked at the results, his body was at least twice as strong as before. that's on top of the fact that he was already strong for his age before, now he was a monster. Riding the high of his discovery Ryan decides to do something rather stupid. he reared his arm back and punched the rock wall with all his strength. this is quite foolish. simply because even though he is quite strong and sturdy for a six-year-old, he is still a six-year-old! in a contest he will quickly realize that the rock is harder than his arm. thus as punched the wall with all his strength there are two loud noises. one coming from the wall as it formed a nice-sized crack from the strength of his punch. the other coming from the sound of his knuckles breaking.

"Aghh!" Ryan screamed in pain. He scrunched up his and sat down heavily on the ground. as he cradled hi injury he could hear the mocking voice of noir in his head.

'well, that was stupid. What did you think would happen?' he sneered.

"shut up!" Ryan screamed.

'no!' he sounded angry now. 'listen up, cause I need you to reach the peak of the world and you will never reach it like this' he rebuked harshly. 'you lost your self in the feeling of newfound power, and don't try to deny it' Ryan closed his mouth the retort dying on his tongue. 'you felt the rush of power in your veins and you felt like you were invincible. Well, you're not, and even if you were I guarantee there someone else out there who could still kill you.' noir spoke with venom and anger in his tone, but as he approached the end of his triad he cooled off and a hint of pain was heard in his voice. 'you get this new power and you feel invincible like you are a god. then when you fuck up there's no one to help because you already sent them off. So you die... alone... a fool' the pain now took precedence in his voice and it doesn't even seem like he is talking to Ryan anymore.

Silence descended as noir seemed lost and thought and Ryan felt it better to not talk to him. after a while noir spoke up.

'sorry' he said quietly.

"no I'm sorry, I did something stupid" Ryan responded. silence once again, but Ryan did not let it hang for so long this time. "Do you wanna talk?" he asked, trying to not be pushy.

'no' noir said. not coldly but not gently either. thus the awkward silence descended again but Ryan just chose to focus on his hand. he quickly ripped a piece of cloth on his shirt and bound up his hand. not without a couple swears mixed in there. once his hand was bound and he rested a bit he approached the wall.

[what would be the best way to climb this with one hand?] he pondered. Finally, after five minutes he started his journey... very slowly.

...

it took Ryan about an hour to climb back up the hole. it wasn't that far of a climb but the wall was lacking in a large number of handholes. causing him to spend a long time to find a path up. as he reached the entrench of the hole he didn't go out imminently. first, he looks around to see if the leopard was still there. Thankfully it seemed that the leopard was quite satisfied with only one foot as he was long gone. he quickly climbs out and starts to follow the trail of his chase from the leopard.

the trip back was largely uneventful. no hungry cats trying to take a bite. to uneventfully Ryan thought, but he was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. little did he know that all the weak ferocious beast could feel his bloodline so they stayed clear. as Ryan neared the edge of the forest he started to plan on how to escape his mothers wrath. [ fist off I should act confident. If I look hurt she will worry more, while that would delay her wrath it would come back stronger when I get better. then I should immediately apologize. Pride? what's that? is it tasty?]

the game plan in place Ryan approached the village with confidence. instantly everyone who saw him looked shocked, and a little relieved. while Ryan didn't have a strong connection with the villagers no one wanted to see a child die. thus they were quite happy to see him back. still, no one approached him, because subconsciously they felt that he was to be avoided. this was once again his bloodline at work.

as he approached his house his parents and grandma irene were waiting for him. when he was close enough to his house he instantly bowed. He was ready to enact his plan. "I'm sorry-" before he could truly start to apologize he felt himself be pulled into a warm embrace.

"RYAN!!" his mother cried as she hugged him. he stiffens both from shock and pain, she was squeezing his arm, but soon loosens up and returned the hug. "hi mum" he said with a cheeky smile. "I'm back"