In The Way Of Awakening Your Power.

We were continuing on our journey the next morning. And I kept wondering how my uncle was doing. Concerning whether or not he was still alive. Pelena and her daughter, on the other hand, remained silent. Their minds appeared to be preoccupied with something else. Or perhaps they were simply grieving in silence. It made me nervous that no questions were being answered, but I had to remain cool.

The carriage came to a halt as I was pondering my options,

"Here we are, Ryuu. You will stay here for now." Pelena said while looking at me.

The area where we arrived was a high mountainous location. It seemed like any other flat plain, but there was a wooden house in the midst of the area where we were. It wasn't particularly large, but it appeared to be adequate for a single person to live in.

I didn't understand why we came to such a place. And I also didn't know why someone lived alone in such an area. However, Pelena was very confident that we were in the right place. It was like she had been here many times before.

"What is this place?" I asked her still trying to figure out the situation.

"This is Ronk's house. He is a friend of mine that I knew for a long time. Just like your Uncle."

Just as I was about to ask who he was and learn some details about him, a very violent sound came from the forest behind us. It was a sound that was very loud, it made the birds fly away from the forest. It was a deep, tough, and merciless sound. Just like a lion's roar.

And just as I turned in the direction of the incoming sound, I began to hear strong footsteps. Someone was slowly coming towards us. With deep and strong steps, the sound got stronger every minute. It felt like a huge animal was coming in our direction. But to my surprise, it was something completely different.

It was a man.

But not someone who looks ordinary. He was bald, bearded, very well body-built, and an extremely tall man. He was someone who had cruel looks in his eyes but still walked calmly. It was scary, but he wasn't doing anything bad either. He was approaching us while carrying a deer-like giant creature on his shoulder.

I thought he was going to talk to us. But not breaking his calm state, he just walked past us without saying a word. He entered the house, leaving the creature he had hunted on the ground.

*I guess he doesn't like strangers.* I thought to myself.

As I was looking toward the house, Pelena got out of the carriage and talked to me,

"He doesn't usually talk to anyone. He's a little sulky, but if you get to know him better, you will love him."

I figured it was the "Ronk" that she was talking about. And I knew they were friends, but his movements and gesture seemed like it was telling us to go away. As if he didn't want any intruders or old friends.

But Pelena didn't stop anyway. She was sure that he would talk to him in some way and walked towards the house.

Just then she approached enough and knocked on the door,

"Ronk! It's me! Pelena!" She said loudly.

But Ronk didn't open the door. It was just pure silence for seconds and there wasn't even any movement. It was like he never heard or seen us.

Pelena then knocked on the door one more time,

"Ronk! I have to talk to you! It is urgent!"

To my surprise, that was enough to make him angry. So he finally opened the door,

"What do you want?" He said in a tough voice tone.

Then Pelena started talking,

"I need a place to hide someone."

"Who?"

She then showed me and waited for his response.

He didn't seem like he wanted to be hospitable. And examined me from toe to head. It felt like an eternity with his deep scary eyes, but just then, he made his decision.

"I have no place to hide a little boy here. Go find some other place Pelena."

But just as Ronk was about to close the door, Pelena held it and tried to convince him one last time.

"This is the boy I've been telling you about for a long time. He's a wolf descendant, a relative of Kaika. And he needs help right now."

We weren't able to see his face at that moment. But him being silent once more, gave it away. He just then opened the door and looked at us. He was now looking at us surprised.

He then said,

"Come on in."

Then we finally entered his house.

When we entered, it was so dark. Only the light that entered through the door made it visible inside. And just then Ronk lit the fireplace and heated the House. Now it was both warm and I could see the inside of the house more comfortably. But I wasn't that happy to see it. It felt like his house was very old. Pretty empty to be exact. Because except for a bed, a table, and a few chairs, there was nearly nothing in the house.

*I wonder if he lives alone or not.* I said to myself.

And then, when everyone sat down at the table, Pelena started talking.

She turned against me and said,

"I know you wanted to know these sooner, but it was the best for all of us to say it now."

She then added,

"Do you know why your Uncle acted like that back there?"

Why did my uncle do something like that? Why he didn't say anything? Why did he decide this quickly? Any of these questions were unanswered by me. I wanted to trust his actions, but I wanted to know so bad too.

"He didn't tell me anything till this day. It was like he wanted to keep some secrets from me. But I'm not sure. Maybe I was just overthinking."

"You weren't overthinking, Kid. He had things he needed to keep away from you." Ronk said while calmly sitting in his chair.

I wasn't waiting for a reply from him, but he looked like he had things to say too.

Then Pelena contiuned to talk,

"Your uncle wanted to hide who you were to protect you. Not for any bad reasons. He just wanted to hide your bloodline, because he knew danger would come after you if he didn't. We didn't say anything because of him, but now it doesn't matter. Because now, Miron knows you're a wolf descendant. He knows that you have a power inside you."

"Miron? Power? Are you talking about the man who attacked us that day?"

"Miron. He is also known as The Wolf Hunter. He hunts everyone in the Wolf bloodline one by one with his ghosts and the powers he gets from them. He is just a cold blood killer with a psychopathic personality." Ronk once again replied while looking at me.

A hunter who hunts all people of the wolf lineage. Miron. The very first day I saw him, his personality wasn't some big of a deal. He seemed even like a normal person. But the day he fought with my uncle, I almost felt a huge field shake. Him chasing us, fighting us trying to kill us, and every time he laughed when he found us, was enough evidence for me to truly understand him. He was a person that went all the way long to kill so many wolf descendants.

"Why is he doing this?" I asked Ronk with a slightly nervous expression on my face.

"Simply, he's an evil person. Scaring people amuses him."

Ronk then turned to Pelena and said,

"I didn't know Kaika had a child."

"The truth is, it's not his child. It's Jiro's son."

"Jiro's son? Jiro died eighteen years ago. And he wasn't somebody to left his child behind."

"And this kid is exactly eighteen years old. He was born the day his father died. That is why he never saw him."

Jiro. It was my father's name and that was the first-ever moment I heard it. I didn't know what he looked like, sounded like, or acted like. And I didn't know how Pelena met him. But it sounded like he died protecting me in some type of way.

And after her words, Ronk took a long look at me. He was now examing me closer and more in detail. He was looking at me as some type of mysterious person. But I was still trying to figure out what was going on.

"Did you know my father?" I said nervously.

"Your father was Alpha Prime himself. The most powerful man of all lineages."

Alpha Prime? What did he have to do with a popular name? I mean it was very important for me to hear this because my uncle always told me about Alpha Prime when I was little. I didn't know that I was so close to him.

"It seems that the child's power has not yet awakened."

Ronk said another word that I completely didn't understand.

"That's why I brought him here. Only you can awaken the child's power. There isn't anybody else that I can trust."

"Are you sure that I'm the one who should be training the boy? Kaika didn't have a single friend and he was a powerful man. I'm aware that he could have done something in the past."

"You are indeed correct. That is why Kaika knew you were going to say that. So he told me to give you this letter."

She slowly reached out to her pocket and gave Ronk some type of letter.

The letter had a red seal on it and seemed to have been closed for a long time. It was a little outdated. It was as if Pelena had waited a very long time to give it to him. But why did my uncle prepare a letter for Ronk? How did he know I had to be trained by someone? And what was his intention anyway?

After reading the letter. Ronk burned the letter by throwing it into the fireplace. It was unexpected for me to see him throw something that value into the fireplace. But he didn't even look back. He then took a deep sigh, looked at me, and started talking.

"Child, you will stay here until your power awakens. And I will train you in every possible way I can. You will always, and I mean it. Will always do what I say. And when the time comes and your power awakens, it's up to you what you want to do."

"But what power? Nobody told me anything about it?"

"You will learn when the time comes." He replied.

Ronk seemed more domineering and more disciplined than my uncle. He didn't even flinch, smile, or laughed. He was cold as ice and as steady as ice. He was staring at me not even blinking once, as if all the joy in him had been ripped away. That made me a little bit scared. I had no choice but to give a definite answer.

And just then Pelena stood up and said,

"I'm glad we agreed, it's up to you from now on."

She then looked at me one last time and added in a quiet voice tone,

"I'm sorry that I have to leave you now, Ryuu. But he is the only person that we can trust right now. You just have to go along with what he says. Then time passes by, you can then do what you think is right."

It was a hard moment for both of us since I didn't want to train and she didn't want to go like this. But even though someone like Ronk was teaching me, I had no other choice than to stay and make another plan later on.

So I nodded.

After her words, Pelena quickly got into a horse-drawn carriage with her daughter and told me to be careful before leaving. She was sure that he could help me. So she trusted her and got out of there without looking back.

But the situation wasn't the same for me.

I couldn't say a word to Ronk until morning arrived. His cold personality and scary presence were something that made me stay away from him. I felt like he was going to shout at me the first moment I talked to him. So I quietly slept and waited for the morning.

And when it arrived, In the early hours of the morning, Ronk woke me up.

"We're starting your training, Kid. Wake up."

I didn't know what happened and was very sleepy. But I didn't want to get scolded by Ronk, so I did as he said nervously. We went out without eating or even waking up properly. And it was extremely cold outside since he lived in a place so high like a mountain. It was almost freezing.

"Take off your shoes and clothes." He said in a thick voice tone, while still looking forward.

Right here? How was I even going to survive in a cold like this?

I replied since I thought it was a crazy idea,

"In deadly cold weather like this?"

But he had no mercy.

He shouted,

"Do as I say, now!"

Why was that happening to me? I just wanted to sleep a little more and the look on his face is really scary.

"*sigh* I think I have to do it." was the thing that I said to myself.

I quickly took off my shoes and clothes. I was now half-naked and shaking uncontrollably. And Ronk started running slightly, asking me to follow him.

"Come on, don't stay behind."

Now I was shaking while I was running. The air was also getting colder every second. Ten minutes later, I started sneezing and I felt like I was now getting a cold. But I kept running. Maybe I had no explanation, but I at least had the chance to find out. So I ran faster to catch up to him.

As I ran, I started to get wounds under my feet from the pointed stones on the ground. I didn't have my shoes on. And we ran for almost two hours. For the entire time, Ronk never opened his mouth, nor reacted to something. He continued without getting tired.

*Breath* *Breath* "How long are we going to go on?" I said almost falling to the ground from exhaustion.

He didn't want to chat, he just said,

"Don't talk, just follow me."

And when we got home, I almost blacked out. I was so tired that I couldn't stand up and my body was having a hard time finding its balance. Ronk lit a fire, heated the flesh of the creature he killed yesterday, and gave me a large piece of meat. That was the only moment that I felt he was interacting with me. But I was also so hungry at that moment. So I didn't try to talk and I tried to warm myself by staying by the fire. And just enjoyed my food.

Just then, when Ronk finished his meal, he put out the fire.

"Stand up and follow me. We are moving on to the next training."

And before I can finish it up, we were once again outside. But just after a short walk, we stopped. We were in some part of the mountain and they were a lot of rocks around. I thought some kind of training was about those rocks.

Just then Ronk looked at me, and said,

"You are going to push that big rock, down the mountain."

Just as I thought, it was part of the training. I thought I can handle it. But as I was about to push it, he stopped me and said something.

"Not that one. The other one."

The rock that he just pointed me out, was three times bigger than the current one that I was pushing. I felt bewildered. Just at the beginning of the training, we ran for hours, stayed in cold weather, and now I was pushing a rock that was out of my size. And it looked like it weighed the same as a carriage.

"How am I going to push that? And it's not even just big, It's huge!"

"Everything seems impossible until it's over. But in fact, it is not."

*Seems impossible? It was impossible!*

"Wouldn't it be better if I did this training later? I don't think I can do this now." I replied while still looking at the big rock.

"You'll do whatever I say, Just like I said before. Now push the rock."

It was worthless. How much I looked and talked to him, he was going to wait there until I pushed it. So I got behind the rock, took my position, and gave all of my power both on my legs and arms.

"Here I come!"

I started pushing the rock with both of my arms. While I was trying to stay still on the ground. But how much I tried to push it, it was nearly impossible to move it. And Ronk went into a corner and just watched me pushing it. For half an hour I was unable to move the rock. And I was able to feel his gaze.

It was now almost evening. I was so hungry and so cold. I was trembling with sweat. The rock wasn't moving. It was like a tree that was stuck on the ground. It made no sense for somebody like me to push something that big, but Ronk had watched me try to push the rock for hours without breaking his stack. He was waiting for me to really push it and go back to him.

Looking at him hopelessly, I tried to talk to him.

"This isn't working."

"You are not trying enough."

"It is impossible for a normal person to move this stone. How am I going to do it, while it is something so hard?"

I thought I was right. But Ronk just got up, went behind the rock, grabbed the rock with one hand, and lifted it. The huge rock that I tried to push that almost felt like an eternity, was now in his hands like a feather. He was holding it in the air and was looking at me. Then dropping the rock to the ground, he started walking.

He said,

"Tomorrow you'll try again and again and again until you move that stone. There will be no excuses."

He just lifted that giant rock. With no actual effort. But I had tried that much. For minutes and hours. Maybe I was just at the beginning of my training, but how was it possible for a human being to lift something like that anyway?

That got me pretty angry, but I still accepted that he was right. I couldn't be like that when I was only at the beginning of training.

Eventually, I caught up to him and asked something that I wondered.

"Ronk, I have a question."

"Hmph?"

"How many trainings do I have to go through before my strength wakes up?"

"We'll see it. Trainings are things that are hard to comprehend. They do not give results until they mature and reach a certain level. So before we go into serious training, you have to rest for now. We'll continue tomorrow."

*Serious training, huh? I guess Ronk had so many things that were going to surprise me.*

After we got home and I ate and warmed up, I immediately went to sleep. Then the other morning, Ronk woke me up again at the same time as yesterday. He told me to take off my shoes and top again and we ran the long way we ran yesterday. After jogging and eating, we went to a different area this time for training.

At that time the place we came from was a long way from home. In these parts of the forest, there were many wild animals and monsters. They were very creepy and the creature sounds in the environment could make any person very nervous. Also, as usual, Ronk was moving forward without talking.

Then as he did usually he stopped out of nowhere, and said,

"Here we are. Weeping forest. Somewhere that you shouldn't be that often."

"Then why are we here? What am I supposed to do here?"

"Stay alive and come home."

"One second! What do you mean stay alive!?"

When Ronk got behind me, he just disappeared. I was once again left unanswered and now, what Ronk said made sense. I was alone in a vast forest of dangerous animals and creatures. And the only thing I could do was to reach back home alive. Given the situation I was in, I started running quickly towards where the house was. Without even looking back.

When I was getting through many parts of it running, I faced a lot of difficulties. I saw weird bugs, plants, and caves. And I was tripping, climbing, falling and I was hiding from some monsters. There were tons of places in that mysterious forest.

But my only goal was to get home as fast as possible without infecting any creatures or wild animals. So I ran, I ran for hours. But for some reason, I couldn't find my way home, and when it got dark, the sounds of the creatures multiplied, and I heard more scary sounds. Many more of what I had heard before. And at that moment, a creature appeared in front of me.

It was a bear with two heads, twice the size of a normal bear, and had more pointed teeth. People called this creature "Bearos." My uncle told me a lot about creatures like this when I was a kid. And the survival rate is very low when a Normal human encounters a creature like Bearos. But I also had no idea to defend myself against it.

I didn't act to avoid attracting the creature's attention. And I was hiding myself being quiet. But It was coming at me slowly. I didn't know what I would do in a situation like this. They were a species that knew the smell of humans, so I was sure it was going to attack if it smelled me. But if I tried to escape, It was going to catch me pretty easily too.

So when it approached me enough, a strong animal sound came out from the forest and distracted Bearos. And when it went towards the sound, I ran out of there as fast as I could.

"Why does this have to happen to me!"

I felt frustrated while going back home. And after a while, when I stopped running. I hid in a place that looked like a cave and waited for it to be morning. I was once again very tired like I had gone through one of Ronk's training. So I found myself sleeping there.

In the morning, I set off and managed to get home half-dead at noon. Ronk was waiting for me at the door. He probably waited for me to talk nonstop like before. But I broke into the house without telling Ronk anything. I put on my clothes, and after I warmed up a little, I fell asleep once more.

When I got up, I smelled the good smell of meat. Ronk was cooking a big piece of meat again.

"You must be hungry, come, eat some."

Surprisingly he looked more kind than before. He didn't seem like he was going to instantly drag me into something crazy. And I was starving too, so I started eating without waiting.

"At least you could have told me you'd leave me alone in the forest."

I said while taking big bites of the food.

"We don't know what will happen tomorrow or any other day. When you were living with your uncle two days ago, you were in a different lifestyle. You didn't know what pain was. Getting tired was. Nor effort was. And without living them, you only lied to yourself. With this kind of power being inside you, you can't just sit and relax. There will be dangers that come after you. And they will haunt you at the most unexpected moment. So to be ready, you have to work harder than every single person that you can come across."

Then he added,

"In addition, these pieces of training may tire you, but you could be training with someone even worse, or even be dead. You could have been somewhere that had no hope for the future. Which is the worst thing you can come across. Therefore, that's why it is also a virtue to respect and be grateful for every blessing we have."

This moment brought to my mind a moment when I was sitting and chatting with the mu uncle. It was a cold winter day when I sprained my ankle. He was angry and was scolding me no matter what I was trying to say. But there was another feeling that he carried in his eyes that day. Worry and the need to think about the well-being of another person. It was indeed scary, but him being nervous, shook my heart. I felt really sorry that day. That went on and on, repeating itself throughout my child out. But I did realize that I was maturing. And I didn't want to do the same things to Ronk. I wanted to more or less empathize. Stopping me from my mistakes and regrets, for my sake, maybe that's what Ronk wanted. That is why I was also glad I wasn't in an even worse place. I was grateful.

So not to make any fuss, I just asked one question.

"Did you save me in the woods by making that sound?"

He just sighed. Not saying a single word. I knew it was him.

Ronk then stood up and said

"We will try to awaken your power as quickly as possible. So get enough rest, because your other training won't be easy."