I woke up to the jarring sound of my alarm and twisted my head left to gaze out at the vast, sunny terrain, and past it to the contrastingly dim and fierce mountain I've grown to respect.

"Okay, Charlie," I sighed. "Here we go." I got out of my bed and turned on the lamp, staring at the green light it let off that I'd grown to be comforted by. Pivoting to the side of my room my door was on, I grabbed my school bag and started to place my supplies inside. It was just another school day, or at least so I thought, and I wasn't planning on being late. So, after getting everything ready, I dashed downstairs to greet my dad.

"Somebody's ready to go, eh?" he remarked in his usual kind tone. "Got your homework done?" Suddenly, I realized I'd forgotten to finish a couple problems for my math worksheet.

"Yes," I lied.

He exclaimed, "Good as usual! Hey, I got you an energy bar if you want it on the way. Walking again?"

"Mhm, thanks."

"Something wrong?" I thought for a moment. Should I say something? Nah, he'd just start worrying and it's not like it matters that much.

"Nope, thanks for asking though," I answered, although when I looked into his green eyes, he did not look very convinced. However, he simply nodded and handed me the grub. I grabbed it and started towards the door when-

"OW!" I yelled, louder than I would've liked. A splinter had lodged itself into my foot before I got a chance to put shoes on.

"You good, bud?" my dad asked.
Fighting pain from being stabbed, I responded, "Y- yup. I-I'm fine..."

"Hold on," he said in a remarkably calm and not exasperated tone. As he walked towards me, I cursed at myself in my mind. Come on, man. You've made him worry for you for nothing. He knelt down so he could be level with my foot, plucked out the splinter, and held his hand on the wound. Immediately, a green light similar to his eyes and my lamp was shining from his hand, going into the wound, and healing it. After mere moments, my foot was completely fixed and feeling better than usual.

I let out a simple, "Thanks," and threw on my shoes, walking out the door.

Oh, if you could see the town. Blanketed in light from the sky no matter what, the buildings were bright and colorful, like the traits of the people of this world. See, here in Nexus Prime, most people have things called traits that are similar to narrative character traits. Each one is usually represented by one or more colors. In our town, whoever owns the building generally paints it their trait's color. Most people have these traits, meaning almost every building is colored. However, those without a trait keep their building colors of gray to represent their lack of a trait. That's me. See, I knew genetically I had a trait, but I hadn't actually unlocked it. In order to use your trait's magic (like my dad did earlier), you have to show heavy signs of it in your life. I hadn't, and therefore I was a "gray."

As I strolled down mainstreet to my school, I glanced left at the local plant shop, colored a bright yellow. The shopkeeper was inside helping people, keeping a calm and zen attitude even when a rude teen was yelling at her. She had the trait Serenity, which is generally shown through a connection to nature and exceptional focus. Clearly, she had everything under control. I, on the other hand, did not. I was reminded of a time a couple of years ago when I had done the same thing that teen had done. I yelled at a shopkeeper meaninglessly after having been verbally abused by the school bully, Mason. For the rest of the year, I had to live knowing that I'd been stupid enough to waste a perfectly good acquaintance with someone just because I was having a bad day. I was a horrible person, and I knew it. So, seeing that, I quickly power-walked to the school, not stopping to stare at the beauty of the town, focused on how bad I was. Eventually, I made it to the school.

It was now final period, and I was reflecting on the day. I had gotten scolded mildly in math for not finishing my work, but as I kept pretty decent grades (B's at worst, which is pretty bad), I wasn't terribly reprimanded. However, that put me in even worse of a mood than before. Other than that, though, I guess the day wasn't horrible.
I was now looking at the board while a guest teacher with purple hair (signifying Perseverance) gave a presentation. Today was the day we got the talk about the Concentrations, the nearest one being the mountain I woke up to gaze at.

"Concentrations," the teacher explained, "are magically charged hotspots where nobody can really say what happens. There is much discussion on them, but it is universally agreed that only those who are willing to take the risk of death should go, as it can be fatal. Studies have shown that those who climb the mountain with others may never return. However..." My eyes closed and the world faded out of view. Moments later, I was staring at the mountain again, although this time I saw something. It wasn't completely obvious at first, but I saw a humanoid figure somewhat close to me. I tried to call, Hello? But, I couldn't speak. The figure started to turn around, and when I caught a glimpse of its face, I was shocked. Is that me? Well, the figure looked like it, only more gray and dark.
"Hey," someone said, "wake up you little nerd." I raised my head off my desk and saw that the classroom was empty except for me and-

"Mason!" So, Mason was here again to torture me, wasn't he?

"What, scared? Gonna go cry in a corner about how mistreated you are?" See, the thing about Mason is that he always was able to get to your head. He could figure out exactly what made you tick, and then use it against you. "Feeling bad for yourself? Or, rather, about yourself? Must suck not to have a trait, eh? Remember that time you yelled at your friend and strutted away like nothing happened? Well, you may think you're good at hurting people, BUT I'M BETTER!" He raised his arm up to punch me, something he'd never done before, when my friend Kendel walked into the room.

"Stop!" she demanded. Mason, clearly not wanting to deal with another person, simply gave me a glare and walked out of the room, staring me down all the way. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"No, not really," I muttered, which was kind of true. Though, I was hurt, just emotionally. He was right, wasn't he? I was really good at hurting people, wasn't I? I do it all the time, don't I?

"Look, Charlie, you're obviously not okay. Do you need to talk about anything?" Kendel asked politely?
"I'm going to Mount Concentration," I decided quickly.

"What? Where did that come from?"

"I need to prove myself, right? I've got no trait and... and... I-"

"Charlie, just think for a minute! I know you want to prove yourself and junk, but come on! You're going to get yourself killed, and you know it. Maybe get more comfortable with yourself and go when you're better mentally. I can tell you're not doing so hot."

"I'm fine! I think it's more than that. I want to be something-"
"But if that something is dead, then that's not good? It's suicide!" I didn't think about that. Was I just doing this for suicidal reasons? No, no I couldn't've been.

"Either way, I'm still going. I've always wanted to be a mountain climber, anyways," I lied.

"I- ugh, fine. Just, maybe let Keith talk to you first." Keith was Kendel's little brother, and although we were similar ages, he was much more brash and childish. So, with that, I went home quickly to drop my school stuff off and grab gear to climb, and walked out the door again when my dad came in.

"Where are you going?" he asked in an inquisitorial tone. He was very protective I guess, but it was usually a good thing. It'd keep me out of trouble. However, I couldn't let him know. He didn't have to deal with that kind of stress.

"I'm gonna take a walk for a while to kind of decompress. I got a lot of school work today," I responded carefully. It was a half-truth, I guess, as I did get a decent bit of school work that day and it was not really helping my emotions.

"Very well. Just stay safe, okay? And, above all else, trust and believe in yourself." He winked. Knowing what I know now, I think he had caught on to where I was going. However, at the time, I thought nothing of that comment and shut the door to find Keith.

Keith and I had been on the move for well over ten minutes without talking to each other at all. His orange eyes (the color of Bravery) glimmered the color of the sunset in the distance as we drifted along, moving but silent. Finally, Keith broke the silence.

"I can't take this anymore! Take me with you to the mountain! It's awesome! What a cool adventure..." Keith continued to ramble as I thought about how happy I was to know him. He was always a positive influence on me and never really failed to make me smile... even after all I'd done to him. "...and I'm sure I would be a huge help!" I started to realize what he was saying. He was about to climb the mountain with me. Normally, I enjoy taking him on my admittedly rare excursions, but this time was different.

"No," I stated.

"But-" he started to argue.

"Remember what the teacher said? If we both go through the mountain, there's a higher chance of both of us dying! We shouldn't go together."

"Sure, but I've- sorry, we've beaten impossible odds before! Who says we can't now?"

"I do."

"Please, just let me-"

"You already have a trait, so why come? There's no need anymore, you've done what you need to! You're perfect already so just... let me be that way. Let me be something good for once." I was surprised to have said this, considering I usually bottle up my opinions and feelings, especially around Keith. However, clearly, Keith understood this, and maybe too much.

"Charlie," he started, "I- I'm sorry. I just wanted to come and help and have fun but... if you don't want me to... then I'll leave you to it." Before I could even apologize, Keith was turning back and clearly had no intention of coming back. Dang it, I thought. Come on, man, now look at what you've done. You've hurt someone for no reason again just because you were fed up with yourself.

I kept moving towards the mountain, eventually making it to a sign about a hundred yards that read,

DO NOT ENTER

Mount Concentration is extremely dangerous to anyone under the age of 21, or anyone with health problems. If you wish to live your life, it is not recommended you climb this mountain.

Well, despite that obvious warning, I still continued on. I would find my purpose. I would become worthwhile. I would finally do something that wasn't just a horrible excuse for a mistake.

As I got to the base of the cliffs, I noticed that everything was much darker. It wasn't just because of the stormy weather and now dark sky, something really felt darker. Why? I couldn't say. However, I could say that I had made it into the Concentration without much trouble. The first few minutes of the climb were easy, as it was mostly just paths that were straight and shallow. After that point, on the other hand, the mountain seemed to be against me. Wind started, making me colder, much colder. Luckily, I'd worn a cyan jacket that day, but it was still much colder than it usually is anywhere else. Afterall, the weather is almost always clear and sunny or clear and starry, whereas here there was lightning and clouds.

You'd think that would be the worst part, right? Well, Concentrations are magically charged hotspot things or something similar, meaning they have magic inside them. The thing is, that magic isn't trait magic. Even more interesting is that it has not been explained by science like trait magic is. It just cannot be studied safely or sufficiently. But, the takeaway here is that this mountain has magical properties, as I'd soon find out.

After maybe thirty minutes of striding up the now dark mountain, staring at the peak as it acted like a lightning rod for the clouds' electric bolts, I came upon a cave. Originally, I wanted to go past it some way. However, considering I do not know how to rock climb and the only way up was using a very dangerous climbing path, I was forced to take the cave. I didn't have a flashlight, but that problem was solved shortly after I entered the cave.

As I walked in, dim multi-colored lights started to seemingly appear, though as they grew in brightness I understood what they really were: crystals. This place was full of beautiful crystals I'd never seen before, all shining their own color that looked remarkably similar to trait colors. One particularly caught my eye. It was cyan, like my jacket, and it was shaped like a heart. What a peculiar shape!

Clearly, this mountain had things I'd never seen before, but what came next was even more unimaginable. In the distance, I caught a glimpse of dark red, dim orbs. Or, as I'd find out soon, eyes. They were bat eyes. Millions of bats started to fly out of a dark corner of the room and I immediately jumped and started booking it into a passage in the cave. Where do I go? I thought for a split second about this, but it didn't matter.

I turned back to check how close the bats were to find that they were frozen, and not in the ice way. They were literally stuck in the air, unmoving. Something was either wrong or just plain weird, because this kind of magic should be impossible. Interestingly, the bats looked much more horrifying than usual. They had fangs slightly above average size, but their wings were huge and they themselves were huge. But, of course, I didn't have much time to think about that. When I turned back to where I was going, I saw the figure from my weird dream-vision thing. The thing is, it wasn't a vision now. It spoke.

"Greetings, Charlie," the figure stated.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"I'm you."

"What does that mean?"
"I'm you but... different." That comment checked out. It literally looked exactly like me but in tones of gray, and it had a similar voice to me, only twisted a bit. "And I've got something to say. You should turn around now, Charlie. We both know you're not a mountain climber and doing this is just another example of you being incapable of anything worthwhile."

"Shut up."

"Well, am I wrong?"

"SHUT UP!"

"Okay, okay, I'm leaving. I'd run if I were you." With that, this mysterious being disappeared, seemingly creating ripples in the air. However, when it left, I was left to the bats again and, of course, time had begun again. If you thought I booked it out of the cave as fast as I could, you'd be right. Immediately, I started to sprint towards the opening I'd noticed mere moments ago, and clearly it was the right choice.

More bats were zooming at me every second I charged through the tunnel, eventually leading me to a crack in the ground that seemed to go on to the planet's core. I started to move faster, anticipating the jump I'd have to make; the crack was a few yards wide. Every second I got closer, I breathed harder and the bats got closer. Right before the point where I was going to jump, I tripped and my surroundings seemed to completely change. I was back in elementary school.

I saw myself, only younger, tripping with me. After that, though, he turned around while I just stared at him. How was all of this happening? I know those with the Control trait are sometimes able to manipulate minds and junk, but they can't ever make it to this level of skill. Anyways, the younger me was staring at a younger Keith, who was my friend since first grade.

Young Charlie started to scream, "Why would you do that? What's wrong with you?" Young Keith, obviously very upset by this, started bawling his eyes out and ran away to his next class. I saw a look on my face I still have today: the face of guilt and anger. I heard my own thoughts, but not the ones from now. I heard the ones from the past.

Charlie, come on! You hurt everyone around you. Is this why Mom died? Oh, yeah, I probably should've mentioned that my mother died when I was like five years old. I've always felt like I had something to do with it even though she died climbing a Concentration. Being much more mature now, I think that's the real reason I came to the mountain; I wanted to see my mom again, one way or another. I guess I really was suicidal, huh?

The world started spinning and the distant memory became just that again. I started to really comprehend what I'd just remembered. I've just been a terrible person since birth, haven't I? I really was just worthless and a nuisance.

The bats were back now, just as bloodthirsty as before, and I had to make a quick decision. Do I try to make the jump or face the bats? Me, being a coward, decided to try to make the jump. I didn't think I could make it, but I thought I'd give it a shot. As my foot left the ground and I was drifting through the air, I realized I could not do this. I didn't deserve to do this. I deserve to die here, I thought. However, the bats apparently had another plan.

Right when it seemed like I was about to reach the core of the world, I felt a sharp pain in my upper body. Though, that wasn't the biggest thing happening. Tons of bats were now surrounding me, probably bringing me to death. This was it. At least, I thought that. As I was enveloped more, I thought about how little good I'd done in the world before this point. I'm going to die alone with nothing to show for it.

Then, something unexpected happened. I felt my feet brush against the ground and the bats started to flee. When there were only dozens left, I could see that I was in a completely new location outside of the cave. The exit was clearly behind me, and the entrance was down pretty far like I saw earlier, so it wasn't just at the bottom of the world. I had made it through the cave and the bats clearly weren't trying to kill me. But were they beforehand? I didn't have a clue.

After fully realizing what had happened, I said, "I'm actually alive. Huh." I was kinda stunned to be honest. Now that I had time to process everything that happened, which mind you happened in a span of a few hours, I started to reflect on what I've done before I took this climb. To be honest, I've always seen myself as not exactly the best person, but there are certain things I go back to thinking about that prove myself right. That's scary. Of course, right now the scenario I was replaying in my head (not literally reliving like before) was the time when I yelled at Keith. I'd done similar things more recently, so it was pretty hard to think about it. However, of course, I couldn't do it for long with no interruption. The weird reverse me was back.

"Miss me?" the thing asked.

"What are you trying to keep me from getting to?" I wondered aloud completely out of the blue.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just trying to protect you. You can't do this, and you know it. Course, you'd be more worthwhile dead, don't'cha think?" Dang. But, at the time, I thought it was right.

"What's your name?" I demanded.

"If you must know, I am Liech. Though, you don't really need to know, considering what's about to happen."

"Is that a threat?"

"Yes, I believe so." With that, Liech seemingly zapped up to a path much higher on the mountain and started laughing in a tone very similar to mine. Actually, it's whole demeanor and voice was very similar to mine. And, to my horror, so was its hostility. I don't know how it did it, but Liech started to cause rocks to slide down the side of the mountain. I was on the run again. This time, though, there was a cliff off to my right and a giant cliff-face to my left. The path was gravelly and narrow, so this was going to be a dangerous climb from here, especially with the rocks.

As a boulder tumbled down the mountainside, I charged up the path at a breakneck pace. Every second a boulder tumble down right behind or in front of me, causing me to have to quickly dash out of the way. However, that was easier said than done, considering the drop to my right. I was making progress, though. At least, until Liech started to speak.

"Wow, it's almost like you're dodging these rocks like you dodge your problems and flaws and friends. Oh, wait, it's not like that, because it's EXACTLY THE SAME!" Another boulder, this time much bigger, slammed down in front of me, knocking a part of the path away. I'd have to jump again. This time, on the other hand, I was focused and using only adrenaline. I basically pranced over the gap and kept going.

Liech continued, "Sure, you're jumping along fine now, but what happens when there's a gap too hard to cross? Are you gonna just back down like you do half the time, or are you going to call for help and ruin someone else's day for your own selfish gain?" A slab of rock slammed in front of me and started to fall in my direction. However, there was a large drop behind me from all the falling debris, and I couldn't go back.

Liech shouted, "JUST DIE ALREADY!" With only a moment to move, I jumped down off of the cliff side in order to survive, if only slightly longer. I heard Liech say, "Wait, no!" And then, a rock slammed into my head and I was unconscious.

I woke up on top of something almost as light as a cloud to a slightly less cloudy sky. Looking to the left, I caught a glimpse of my town, quickly realizing I was not there and still alive.

I exclaimed, "How am I miraculously surviving these things?" However, that excitement and confusion was short lived, as I looked down to see I was on a gigantic, menacing owl. Though, considering it saved my life, I decided not to scream in terror and instead to rejoice silently. It eventually let me down on a plateau around two thirds of the way up the mountain where I saw a campfire and Liech.

"Look who showed up," it murmured looking down as the owl flew away.

"Here to kill me again?" I questioned. Although, I was starting to believe that wasn't the case, considering the last thing Liech said to me before I almost died. Or, had I died? I didn't know.

"No," Liech replied. "I've taken time to think. I'm not going to kill you. That'd be scary. And I'd probably die too."

"Great," I answered. "Let's have a talk."

"About what?"

"I have many questions. 1: Who are you really? 2: What are you? And 3: Are you real?"

"Okay, okay, I guess I have to answer this. So, I am you. Or, at least, what the mountain brought out of you. I'm not quite sure myself, I just know that I am part of you and your thoughts. What I am is not entirely clear. I'm obviously some reverse version of you, but with special abilities that no human could ever possess. Finally, I believe I am real. I don't know if I can go beyond the mountain, but if I am truly part of you, I am with you always."

"Are you my negative and suicidal thoughts?" I blurted out.

"I mean, I wouldn't be surprised. I'm just trying to protect us. I'm scared what will happen if you keep going. If you die, I do, too."

"That explains a lot." Liech smiled weakly. "But... just because this is dangerous doesn't mean we can't do it, right?"

"Charlie, that's what I've been trying to say. We can't. We- I mean you aren't a mountain climber, and clearly any abilities you do have go away in an instant when you think about what you've done. You don't even have a trait."

"Honey," a familiar voice called out, "you don't need a trait to climb this mountain."

"Mom?!?" me and Liech screamed in surprise. My mom, who was dead for years at this point, appeared right in front of us in a strange blue aura with gray hair and eyes.

"Hello, son...s? This is so strange, isn't it?"

"You're alive?" I asked.

"Well," Mom started, "I wouldn't say 'alive.' I'm more like... reanimated. If this is a classic mountain ghost situation, I only have a few moments. Charlie and- Liech, was it?" Liech nodded. "I know you're down on yourselves all the time. So was I. We came to the mountain for the same reason. Of course, you didn't know that because you were five when I left, but I did end up doing it. However, I died here in a landslide not so far off from what Liech created. It wasn't created by me, but it knocked me off the face of the world."

"Why are you telling us this?" Liech asked. "To scare us?"

"No, silly. I'm trying to explain something here. When I was not happy with who I was, I died. You need to learn to like yourself. Find your strengths and ignore the flaws. You'll always be perfect to me. I love you." With that, Mom faded away, leaving us with more questions than answers.

"Let's keep going." Liech said plainly.

"I agree. Although, maybe we should take into consideration what Mom just said, even if it wasn't really her. We might die if we don't like ourselves, so let's try to compliment each other now."

"This is so stupid," Liech said.

"I know, but at least we know that. We're funny that way, right?"

"Yeah, and we're self-aware enough to notice our issues."

"Mom just said to ignore them, though."

"Right... Well, we're smart academically." It was true. I got exceptionally good grades and, now, what I thought to be an exceptionally good mindset.

"Let's go! We can pull this off!" I exclaimed ecstatically.

"Yeah!" Liech yelled. A gust of wind came in and made the campfire go out, and that seemed like a good cue to leave.

The path was getting much rougher. However, now working together, Liech was able to help clear any super dangerous blockages in my way, and together we trudged up the winding path. That's when the wind started. It wasn't really pushing us towards the edge, but rather down. Liech wasn't very affected by it, but I was almost crouching because it was that difficult to stand. That wouldn't stop us, though, as we had places to be.

Eventually, we made it close to the clouds and lightning started to strike near us, throwing me off balance every now and then. I'd always had terrible balance, but I wasn't supposed to recognize that right now. I was supposed to continue only thinking about my good parts. At a certain point, though, that was becoming harder. Liech was the one to admit it, however.

It groaned, "We're never gonna make it with this lightning. You're being thrown off balance and I am starting to disappear with every strike that gets closer to me." Shocked, I looked at Liech to see it was indeed becoming translucent.

"No! We can't think about that!" I objected.

"Charlie, wait a second. I have a question."

"Now?"

"Yes, now. You know how whenever you think about your flaws you instantly lose the ability to do anything?"

"How is this supposed to help?" I asked as I narrowly dodged a lightning bolt.

"Maybe we need to accept our flaws and just try to improve them instead of being down on ourselves for them. They always say 'no one's perfect,' so let's embrace that and focus on both our strengths and weaknesses. Let's be content with ourselves. We can do this if we believe we can, as long as we know ourselves. Let's be content for once in our lives." Liech started to shift from tones of gray to cyan, just like my jacket and that crystal, and I realized something. Liech and I ran into each other and hugged, fusing back together. In a puddle below me, I saw my hair was starting to be cyan. My trait was Contentment.

The main thing that comes with Contentment is a boost in your abilities that increase with how much you accept yourself and others. Considering I wasn't yet fully content, my hair was simply a dim cyan and the boost was minor, but it was enough to get me going through the clouds up to the area above. Up there, no one could see me. It was me against the world... and a dragon. Yeah, there was a dragon up there, which I assumed was the Boss of the Concentration. Each Concentration has a Boss at the end which is a final challenge before you "beat" it. This one happened to have a dragon. The difficult thing about fighting the dragon, besides actually fighting a dragon, is that I was still on a cliff. One wrong move and I would fall off.

"I'm scared," I admitted to myself.

Then, from inside my head, I heard, "That's okay. That just means you're gonna be careful!" I have no clue if that was Liech or the mountain or my own thoughts, but whatever it was was right. I've always been pretty scared by things, but it usually protects me. It's gonna have to protect me now, I realized. Suddenly, a helmet of an almost crystal-esc material appeared on my head. I guess that's another surprise I had in myself, huh?

I spotted a plateau along a break on the path, and considering I didn't have amazing balance, I thought that would be the safest place to go. It would, however, make the dragon able to easily spot and attack me, so I'd have to use my agility to my advantage. I started towards it, but the dragon landed right in front of me. It had seen me.

Here we go, I thought. It reared back, and I knew it was about to spit fire or something, so I started to dive over to the side. Well, the dragon did indeed spit something where I was, but it wasn't fire; it was acid, and by the looks of it, it could kill me if it even grazed my arm. So, this was a pretty sticky situation, wasn't it? Apparently, the dragon had some high level of intelligence, because after showing an expression of surprise, it started to whip its tail at the mountain side, causing a landslide just like the one before. This time, though, I had my full self.

After taking a second to examine the path, I determined that the rocks were sliding down slowly enough that I could probably jump over them with normal wind. However, since the wind was still pushing me to the ground, that wasn't the best idea. I had to think quickly, because I was about to be knocked off the mountain to my death.

That's when another revelation came to me. I'm smart, but I also have really good reasoning, and it really shows in situations like this where my life is on the line. Recognizing this, I felt a rush of energy and something protective enveloping my body. I couldn't see what exactly the thing was, but there was a cyan aura, so I assumed I was somewhat protected.

A slab was about to sweep me off my feet at this point, so I'd have to jump at the right time. One... two... jump! I pressed hard off the ground and felt an almost soaring sensation. It only lasted a few moments, but that was okay. I was in the air long enough for the slab to slide off the cliff. However, when I landed, my feet were kicked up by another slab I hadn't seen, and I was thrown in the direction of the cliff.

I was sliding quickly along the ground, so I knew I'd have to grab onto something in order to slow myself down. I dug my hands and feet into the ground and started to slow down. I scraped the ground and something flashed in my head. I felt like I was back to a month ago, when Mason threw me to the ground and dragged me through the gravel, scratching my whole body. I was in pain at the time. I was weak. I am weak, I thought. No... I was weak, but I can be strong now if I believe in myself! Sure, it was a cliché thought, but it was what I needed.

I instinctively shoved my hand behind my back and grabbed an almost glass-like shield. Though, it felt much stronger than glass. I sent it into the ground and it stuck. Luckily, too, as I was feet away from the end. However, the dragon seemed to think I wasn't done.

Fwoosh! It shot acid out of its mouth while literally throwing rocks at me with its tail. However, this time, I had a shield. And, apparently, nature itself. The wind started to push up instead of down, and some of the boulders started to stay on the wall a little more. The acid was coming straight for me. I pulled my shield out of the ground and blocked it, perfectly protecting myself. The ground behind and in front of me was burnt to ash and dust, but I was perfectly fine.

A boulder that was actually coming for me almost swiped me off my feet, but I jumped up just in time. Though, with the extra wind from nature and boosted power from my trait, I jumped much higher than expected. I caught a glimpse of the peak. It was beautiful. This was it.

I landed back on my feet, now knowing exactly what I needed to do. I took a deep breath and started to sprint towards the dragon, head on. Sure, it seemed stupid, but if I could jump over it, I could probably make it to the peak. Afterall, it was supposed to be guarding it. As I ran, the dragon kept spitting acid and the rocks kept sliding down towards me, but I kept running, dodging, and blocking. Within only seconds, I was yards away from the dragon.

Do or die, Charlie, I told myself. As the dragon lunged in for a bite, I shoved my feet into the ground and pushed off, feeling myself almost flying up. I made sure to jump forward slightly so I'd land on the peak. There was a flagpole at the top of the pinnacle that was only visible this close. It had gray cloth and a wooden pole, but it seemed to give off an energy.

After a few moments of what felt like floating in the air, I started to fall towards the flag so I could grab onto it. However, the dragon was back. Worse, even if I did make it, I'd probably perish from the fall unless I slowed down dramatically. The dragon started flying in my direction quickly, and it seemed clear that I was done for. Though, considering I'd escaped death so many times before, I should've expected what happened next.

The dragon flew right under me, allowed me to land on its back, and cushioned my fall significantly. It was here to help. That seemed to be a theme on this mountain. Things I thought were hurting me were either something I could fix or something that actually helped me.

"Thank you," I told the dragon. It clearly had intelligence, so I assumed it'd understand. EIther way, it was helping me, and that's all I needed to care about. It dropped me off close to the peak, and I walked the rest of the way to make it to the flag. I reached out and touched it, and it turned cyan and light came out from it in all directions, clearing the clouds and making the whole place sunny.

I could see the whole town from this point. It was a magnificent view, to be honest. The sun was starting to rise, painting the sky fantastical shades of pink and orange. I sighed. I made it to the peak and earned my trait. I did what I came here to do. But, for some reason, I didn't want to leave. The breeze was perfect so that I wasn't cold or hot, and it made me feel almost joyous for the first time in years. The wind stopped and my bangs fell in front of my eyes again, allowing me to see the world in a brilliant blue.

I set my shield against the flag and closed my eyes. I guess I passed out, because I opened my eyes to see Liech. However, he was now a pleasant cyan instead of his original gray, and he seemed much happier.

"We did it," it remarked.

"Yeah... I guess so," I replied.

"You, uh, did pretty good with the observations."

"We did a pretty good job. Thank you for being with me. I'll never forget you."

"Not like you can. We're part of each other."

"Yup. Y'know, I think I like myself... you? I don't know how to say this to be honest."

"Well, I do too. Alright, time to wake up. I'll be here if you come back here."

I opened my eyes and the sun was now completely unsubmerged from the horizon, shining in my face. It was whole, just like me. It was brilliant, just like I could be. Maybe I wasn't brilliant now or the best person in general, but I now knew that was okay. For once in my life, I was content.