Aether

nac

Things were eerily quiet to those who were awake, which in all honesty not many were. There were probably one or two that were awake as it was really early in the morning. Approximately about 5am. Why is this important you may ask? Well, why would anyone want to be awake at this time of the day?

Well, what if you can't sleep and your body refuses to allow you to sleep in? What if your body wakes you up at the crack of dawn and you're so adjusted to it that you can't argue with it and have to go with it? That's typically how it went for the ninjas if they were lucky, but most of them were capable of falling back asleep peacefully. Except one of them.

A young boy was running through countless trees that he couldn't even begin to count as there were too many. Thousands that he was certain would continue on forever. It was a large forest after all. His shoes kicked up dirt as he pushed himself to continue on with his steps as quickly as he could while doing his best to even out his breathing. He wanted to push himself, but he didn't want his lungs to give out on him. His dark colored eyes darted around as he ran, quietly observing his surroundings as he ran, making sure he wouldn't trip and fall or even run into a tree. It he wasn't careful he could very likely do one or both of those things.

His lungs stung with the cold air that pushed throughout his lungs, stinging the back of his throat and leaving it dry, his saliva doing nothing to help his situation as the cold air was much more for his body to keep up with. Quiet puffs of air would leave him as he panted while running, his thighs and calves throbbing with how much he had already been running by this point. How long had he been running for? Who knows. The sun wasn't even up when he had started running and it still wasn't by this point, maybe just barely peaking out to be noticed growing at the very distant horizon. He ignored it however as he weaved through the trees and wildlife alike. Most of them running to get out of his way as they were startled by a human being running near much less at them it seemed like, but once they realized that he was running past them and not bothered to do anything to them, they paused to watch it appeared. Why was he running? Was he running from something or was he just crazy enough to run this early in the morning that animals were barely even awake at this time?

With a grunt, he adjusted his stance mid-run and pushed himself to jump at the nearest— and lowest— tree branch that was large enough to hold up his weight. Once his feet left the ground, he threw his arms up and his callused hands gripped at the branch and easily swung himself, looking as though he was performing acrobatics with how he swung himself backwards before launching himself higher up with as much energy he could muster. As he was launched up into the air again, he twisted his body so he was angled to where his knees would catch the next branch with them bent and in position. He was aiming to get up higher into the trees it seemed.

He didn't seem to want to stop until he was up 50 feet up in the air. These trees were rather large and had branches sprouting all over the place so it would be rather easy for him to jump from tree to tree as long as he pushed enough force into his legs and would be prepared to catch himself if it was brought to it.

But again, why was he running? Why was he running this early in the morning? What was he running from? What was his goal? Was he crazy? Yes.

To which question? It didn't even matter to him as he began to jump from tree to tree, carefully placing his feet on each branch long enough to gather himself shortly, then once again jump to the next tree.