Kiba hesitated as the questions were asked. He seemed to be getting stressed out by just thinking about it. "I--uh..." His eyes dimmed slightly. "It's a very long story... I was hoping everyone would be here when I told it..." He paused for a moment, turning his gaze to Ki, who simply closed his eyes, head down. Kiba turned back to Shadoan and Irek. "What felt like a day to you was a year to us, or even longer... It was... Awful. Things fell apart so quickly... I was slowly driven to madness, insanity, though somehow I've made it back to sane thought..." He shook his head slowly. "But I still wonder if I've truly come back, or if this is some cruel hallucination. I may still be slightly mad, but I can't tell."
Ki nodded, slowly taking a seat beside Kiba, a hand on his shoulder. "He lost his vision in a violent attack very early on. I had no other choice than to teach him everything that I could, so that he can see without his vision... Among other things."
Kiba nodded in quiet agreement. "Truth is, we've always been doing that training, but it was slow and done rarely. With the situation we were in, there was more than enough time for me to learn what I've been training for. Though, it wasn't like we had a choice... There was no escape... No exits... Trapped... Forever..."
Ki patted Kiba's shoulder, as if to settle him down, and to stop what had turned to demented rambling. He opened one eye as he spoke to them. "It's thanks to Z that we were able to escape the nightmarish hell we were trapped in for so long. We lost Flare to the darkness... Spirit, we never found. She didn't end up with the three of us, and we never found her..."
"Look closer..." Kiba spoke somewhat quietly as he leaned closer to Shadoan and Irek. He pointed his finger toward the area around his eyes. There was very faint scarring, a slightly different shade of his skin, that seemed mostly covering around his eyes and the bridge of his nose, in an ovular shape. "No I need glasses to see... Or I can take them off." He slowly removed his glasses, wiping the lenses off on his shirt. When he looked back up at the group, his eyes were glowing brightly, though seemed as if they weren't staring at anything in particular. "I can see you... And feel you... At the same time."
Ki nodded, and opened his eyes, glowing brightly as well. He seemingly did this intentionally, as if to further explain what exactly Kiba meant without saying any more. He assumed they could figure it out. "When we got out of that awful place, we headed to my homeland. To help in his training, I persuaded the current Aura Guardian to give him the Gloves of the Guardian." He dug into Kiba's bag, pulling out two navy-blue gloves, each with golden trim and a single gem on each backside of the palms. When handed to Kiba, he put them on over his hands; a perfect fit, it seemed.
Kiba held his hands outward, cupping upward. He closed his glowing eyes, and a mass of pure energy began to form in his hands, swirling as it was formed into a ball. He stood, turning to Ki with a smile. "/Think fast/!!" He swung his hands forward in a smooth movement, and flung the aura sphere directly at Ki, who quickly formed his own and fired back. The two blasts collided with a bright light of explosion, though Ki's sphere broke through and continued toward Kiba. Kiba responded quickly by holding both hands forward in a defensive stance, catching and stopping the sphere in his gloved hands, seeming to put a lot of strength into his block. After a few moments of struggling with it, he threw his hands up, flinging the aura sphere up into the sky, until it dissipated in a bright blue shine in the sky.
After the demonstration (or was it a fight?) They both returned to their seats. Ki put Kiba's gloves back into the bag for him. "You're getting better, but you need to focus more on the center of the sphere itself, and channel your aura faster. You were quick to create it, but it needed more strength. As for your block... You did satisfactory. you'll do better with time. Remember to surround the energy with your own, and you'll have more control over it."
Kiba nodded, putting his glasses back on, and the glow of his eyes faded to normal. "I need the gloves to do it, though... I keep trying without but it never works."
"With time," Ki replied to him.
Z had returned her gaze to the fire for most of this, though decided to chime in after all of it. "Should we not rest soon? You explained that dark skies with a moon and stars means night, and night means you sleep, correct?"
Ki nodded. "Yes. Though some people sleep at different times, and for different reasons." He turned to Shadoan and Kiba. "If you two would like to rest for the night, I am willing to guard the camp."
Amber seemed somewhat unenthused by their names, and her attention slowly turned to the drunken sleeping bug. "Ooh, trampoline!" She giddily bounded over to Jev's unconscious body, and immediately began jumping up and down on his torso, laughing and cheering with amusement.
Mello nodded, deciding that she too needed a bath. When she came out, she dried herself off by covering herself in a skintight psychic shield. What? How did she learn that? It wasn't a move! As all of the water dripped down and onto the ground, she closed her eyes and began to move herself and the shell-like armor she had created, though after a few moments the armor shattered and vanished. Was she training by herself right there? She seemed rather bummed that she couldn't do whatever it was that she was doing, and just shook it off, returning to Julia's shoulder somewhat gracefully.