It turned out that he needed the documents sooner than expected. He had spent a minute or so looking at the wall that surround Cykes, wondering if hopping over the thing was worth the trouble it would bring, likely in the form of pursuing guards. Despite the voice that whispered things like, [i]'It’ll be fun,'[/i] or, [i]'They can’t catch you,'[/i] Araki settled for passing through the checkpoint normally. It was a bit annoying when a pair on duty stopped him as others passed on by without trouble, but he fished the papers from his pack without complaint even if he didn’t look all too pleased about it. At the very least, it didn’t take long for the two to look them over, hand them back, and pass him through. There wasn’t much in the way of trees surrounding the city; the forests had been cleared away for a good ways all around. Still, further away in the distance the sea of trees still stood, and that was what Araki made a beeline for. The well-travelled road up to the city’s gates were not for him and he opted for a quick dash over the open fields instead. Like a blur, the miles between the wall and forest disappeared in mere minutes and then he was gone, vanishing into the trees.

Despite how fast he had moved to reach the trees, once he was amongst them Araki took on a slower, more leisurely, pace. Oh sure, he moved forward slowly, but the way he [b]moved[/b] would have left most people in awe. He jumped for a thick branch overhead that could support his weight and grabbed onto it, spinning to build up momentum. A moment later, he let go and threw himself forward, tucking his body in and crashing through the foliage. If anyone wanted to track him later on… well they certainly wouldn’t be lacking in tracks. He wasn’t concerned with that for now though, giving it no attention as he reached out for the next branch. Cykes had let him get used to the larger movements in his strange new body; fighting at the various training grounds along with running atop the many different buildings. Now he had to get down the finer points of control which was much easier said than done, especially comparing the size difference from now to a few months ago. Nevertheless, he continued to spin, twist, and flip through the forest air as he accustomed himself and worked out the kinks. Even if he did fall and crash into the ground a few times, the earth was soft and his magic was plentiful.

Araki wasn’t so familiar yet that he could afford distractions, and the powerful surge of magic that washed over him proved it quite clearly. His head snapped to the right as his hands clenched tight, missing the branch, and dropping him to the ground. It wasn’t an utter failure; he caught himself and came to a halt, feet digging deep into the soil, but he felt disturbed, for other reasons. He had only the vaguest sense of where the source was, but the strength of the pulse that had reached him was enough to make him nervous. Frankly, it reminded him a bit too much of the events at the volcano a few months ago; that was the sort of scale he attributed to it. 

It would have been wise for the hybrid to stay away; last time he had gotten involved with people of such strength, he had died. Araki wasn’t exactly known for his wisdom, nor was he really known for that matter, but he would have taken a detour if not for the other thing that caught his attention. It was sudden; just as abrupt as the pulse of magical energy that had distracted him. He couldn’t describe the sensation if he was asked to, only that he felt it from the direction he had come; something… familiar had appeared. Familiar in what way? Again, he wouldn’t have been able to explain further. Torn between the two interesting options that had presented themselves, Araki came to a full stop as he thought on them. He didn’t really want to head back in the direction of Cykes and wind up wasting the time he had spent to put some distance between him and the town. Yet at the same time, the pause had given him the time to become wary of approaching whatever powers that were nearby. What to do…

In the end, the hybrid settled for a lack of action, but he didn’t want to abandon what could be potentially interesting situations. His main goal, namely getting out of Cykes, was complete and there wasn’t a particular rush for him to return to his dwelling in Talze Utera. It was likely many weeks away on foot, and once he returned he was dubious of anything interesting happening for a while. So with the sunlight fading and the night approaching, Araki figured he could camp out in the forest to see if anything else would happen, if only for a few days. He had noticed plenty of game for him to hunt, mainly when he sent them scattering with his approach, and he was a fair distance from Cykes, enough that it would take any pursuers some time to reach him. There probably wouldn’t be any problems, or at the least any he couldn’t deal with.