(The scene opens up with Hibai introducing himself to the duo when Ra'ell interrupts him.)
"Do you really not remember me after all this time, eh, Hibai?" Ra'ell said as he stared down at the boy expecting a response.
The young lad takes a moment to examine Ra'ell before his face lights up in joy as he says, "Ra, it's actually you, it has been so long." He then jumps into Ra'ell's arms and pivots himself onto his back as he fiddles with Ra'ell hair and says, "I almost didn't recognize you because of your hair, by the way where's that your cool ..."
Ra'ell then interrupts him, "Let's stop talking about the past already. How about we go have some fun?"
Upon hearing this, Hibai squeals in excitement, "Yeah, let's go fishing or swimming, we could even skip rocks, but first, who's this bozo?" He said as he pointed to Itally, who was busy observing the entire interaction.
Itally then replies, saying, "For your information, I'm Ra'ell's teammate and ..."
Hibai then scoffs as he says mockingly, "Pfft, Ra works alone, and even if he did have a teammate, it would definitely not be the likes of you."
Itally annoyed and enraged grabs Hibai off of Ra'ell's back and holds him by the collar as he says, "Now listen here, I can take being insulted and called weak by Ra'ell because he is stronger than me but I won't take that from a snot-nosed brat like you who hasn't even seen the world."
As Itally was scolding the now crying Hibai, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his arm as he saw Ra'ell grasping firmly as he said, "Let him go... NOW!" The intensity of Ra'ell's words could be felt by all in the room, Itally could do nothing but comply as he let him go.
Ra'ell then picks up Hibai once more as he says, "Calm down now, okay. Unfortunately, he is my teammate, as I'm a contestant in the Quest of Deeds, and..."
Suddenly, Hibai can be heard squealing in excitement once more as he says, "Oh my gods, I can't believe it, Are you gonna win? When you win, what will you wish for? Money? Power? Fame? What? What? What? You have gotta tell me."
Ra'ell then puts his hands on the kid's soft round cheeks as a means to shut him up as he says, "What I'll wish for if I win is a secret, okay?"
Hibai, after removing Ra'ell's palms from his cheeks, replies, "What do you mean by 'if you win'? You are totally gonna win. You are the strongest."
Ra'ell then replies, "Now that's where you're wrong. There are contestants, some even stronger than me."
Hibai, with a shocked look, says, "Stronger than you, I can't believe it."
Suddenly, a cough can be heard from the mayor, Ra'ell then says, "Hey Hibai, let's get going. I'm sure your old man's tired of us being in his office."
Hibai replies, "OK, then let's go to my house and fish." And with those words, the group leaves the mayor's office as he heaves a sigh of relief.
Ten minutes later.
(A magnificent mansion can be seen glittering with the finest materials. Its beauty and value is even greater than the mayor's office of which was already a sight to behold in such a wretched looking city. The trio can be seen in front of the silver gates.)
As they reach the gate, a tall, lanky lady with an overall bland appearance can be seen stepping out of the house with a bag of trash, a look of shock can be seen on her face as she gazes at the group, "Ra.. Ra'ell, you're back?" She mutters as she disposes of the garbage.
"Long time no see, Riya, did ya miss me? " He waves to her as he steps into the compound.
"It's nice to see you again after all these years." She replies with a quiet voice.
"Mommy, we came to go fishing in the backyard pond." Hibai shouts as he runs to hug her.
"That's his mom, I thought she would be some rich showoff or something." Itally thought to himself.
"Hibai, how about you go inside and get the fishing rods and bait? Mommy would like to talk to our guests for a minute." She says as she pats her son's head and nudges him to go inside.
As Hibai enters the mansion, Riya gestures for the two to follow her, to which they comply. They reach a garden where bees can be seen buzzing around from flower to flower, and the scent of pollen and honey can be smelt across the garden, Riya then says, "What are you doing here with my son, and who are you? Another delinquent?"
Ra'ell responds, "Look, Riya, I'm sure you already know about the death threat, Hibachi hired us to guard your son until someone else comes around in exchange for his vote. We will be out of your hair within a week."
Riya then says, "OK, I understand, I didn't know you became a contestant, but please don't get into any trouble, I'm grateful for what you did five years ago, but you know well enough that trouble follows you wherever you go."
Itally turns to face Ra'ell and says, "So you're into shady stuff, oh my Hecate, I just knew you were in some illegal business or something, I swear if I ever get involved in your problems I'm going to make you regret it."
Ra'ell then waves his hand, disregarding Itally's words in a nonchalant manner as he says, "Alright, alright, no need to get your strings in a twist. I'm going inside now, Hibai is probably waiting. Oh, and don't worry, Riya, I'll keep your son safe."
She then replies, "Thank you, guess I'll be heading inside too."
As she starts to walk out of the garden, Itally grabs her by the hand and says, "Sorry madam, but can we talk about some things?"
(The scene then shifts to a beautiful clean pond full of fish in an enclosed area with luscious green grass, Ra'ell and Hibai can be seen sitting on the grass having a chat.)
"So what do we do first, stone skipping or fishing?" Hibai asks with a smile on his face.
"Let's skip some stones. There's a neat trick I wanna show ya." Ra'ell said as he eyed a bird sitting on the fence.
"Okay then, I'll go get the rocks." Hibai says as he goes around picking rocks. When he is done, the two stand up and go to the edge of the water.
"Step back, okay." Ra'ell says as he takes an unusual stance, looks at the bird , and at the lake, before he then launches the rock at a specific point in the water, and with one skip the rock bounces off of the water surface and strikes the bird straight to the skull.
"Woah, that was super cool. You totally trick shotted that bird." Hibai said with amusement.
"That's not all. Look." Ra'ell said as he pointed to the spot where he bounced the rock off the water, Hibai doesn't notice anything until the body of a fish slowly rises to the surface.
"Wow, you got both bird and fish, a 2-in-1." He said with awe.
"It's called 'The Xebec throw' it was shown to me by a hunter in the next town, Meshtream, about 6 years ago, but I couldn't do it till 3 years back. It produces so much force that the water immediately hardens upon impact and causes the rock to go flying super fast at a desired angle, and because the water solidifies an equal force is experienced by anything remotely close to the impact point gets hit as well." Ra'ell explained.
"Cool, can I do it too?" Hibai asked with enthusiasm in his voice.
"Naw, a lot of strength, power, and precision, which is only possible through pathfinding." Ra'ell stated.
"So I just got to wait till I find my path then, right?" Hibai asked as he looked up at Ra'ell.
"Sigh, Hibai, you're my friend. In fact, you're my only true friend, so I'm going to be real with you. You're probably not going to find your path. Pathfinding is a thing of chance, and if no one in your family is a pathfinder, you probably wouldn't pathfind either." Ra'ell said as he went down on his knees and placed his hand on Hibai's shoulders.
"Isn't there a chance I could pathfind anyway?" The child asked with hope in his eyes for a positive answer.
"From the little I remember, my parents weren't pathfinders too, but I am, so maybe you could. I don't know about my grandparents, but yours weren't pathfinders, and pathfinding can skip a generation, but not two. It is still possible, so don't give up, I'm only telling you this so as to not get your hopes up." He explained to the boy.
"Okay, thanks for being honest with me." Hibai said as he hugged Ra'ell.
"Anytime kid, now let's start fishing already." Ra'ell said as he patted him on the back.
"Yay!" Hibai exclaimed as he went to go get the fishing equipment.