Sitting down cross-legged close to the water edge, I looked expectantly at Sam while waiting for his instructions.
"Alright, all I need you to do for now is to try and feel the water. Clear your mind and focus. Try to feel how the wind brushes slightly against you, how the water splashes up against the edge and how it flows."
"When you've done that, try to connect with it, be one of with its nature and then control it like you're controlling your own arms to move around. It would be great if you could make it rise even a little under the next forty eight hours."
"If you do get it before then you can play around with it."
'Fourth eight hours huh. Here goes nothing.
Taking a deep breath I do as he says and clear my mind, although it was pretty hard to do that.
I tuned out everything around me and listened for the slightest whisper of the air. I'm sure I sat there for hours before I finally got it then I felt the earth around me, felt the flowers close to me moving ever so slightly and finally I felt like I was touching water although I didn't feel the usual wetness that came with it, weird stuff I tell you. I didn't go further and just kept feeling it till I felt I had a good grasp on it.
All of a sudden, I felt a connection snap into place and it felt like I was in the water so I tried controlling it.
It was really hard, but I envisioned it rising and swirling around me and brushing past my clothes without getting them wet and when I heard a gasp I opened my eyes to see Sam staring at me in awe or rather something around me.
When I looked down, there was water in a circle, swirling around my body and twisting itself around in midair and then I lost concentration, resulting in it loosing its strength against gravity and poured down, wetting my combat! I felt exhausted. Turning to Sam, I waited for him to give me a total assessment of how I did. Hopefully I didn't take longer than three days even if he only gave me forty eight hours.
When he didn't speak up and just kept staring at me, I got irritated and threw my shoe at his head.
"Ouch what was that for?" He asked while rubbing his head.
" you could've just called my name instead of throwing those rocks you call boots at me, it hurt"
"Stop your whining and tell me how I did. Hope I didn't take more than three days to do that. Right?"
Although I seemed calm outside, there was this gut-wrenching anxiety eating away at me.
Maybe I had failed to impress him, maybe I failed to meet his expectations. He was the only thing I had left that as close to a family for me and honestly, there's this fear that always lingers at the back of my mind that I would disappoint Sam and it makes me dread every training session.
He went silent for a moment and then looked at me with all seriousness.
'You failed him, just like you failed to protect them' that fear whispered in my mind.
"You took a year to do that" shocked I stared at him horrified at how long I took. 'I...failed him' I thought to myself, tears moistening my eyes.
I saw the little brat snickering and then I threw my other shoe at him.
"You're not being nice you know, I'm a soft man and those boots of yours could rip my skin open"
"Shut up Sam, we both know your skin is stronger than a turtles shell, now stop playin around and tell me how I did, seriously." I sniffled with a glare.
"Alright, alright. You did pretty good to be honest, way better than what I was expecting. It took me a whole month to do just that but I gave you forty eight hours because you're a fast learner but you beat my expectations again, like you always do."
"At first you just sat there like a potato for like five or six hours so I got bored and went hunting for rabbits and when I got back I saw the water rising slightly and falling back in, I was impressed because I only took two hours to hunt. An hour later, it finally rose without falling back in immediately. It took a long time but it started flowing towards your body."
"But what shocked me was how you drew water from the grasses and flowers around you. Even I couldn't do th..."
"Wait.. what? How is that possible?"
"Turn around and look at the ground and the walls that have moss on them"
when I turned around I was shocked. The flowers that were so vibrant and pretty when we first got here were now withered and looked like they got their lives sucked out of them. And the same goes for the moss and grasses on the walls.
"Wow. although I do kinda feel bad for the flowers but that was awesome and you didn't even take up to a whole day to do that. You only took like ten or eleven hours. Man I'm envious of you right now" Sam was smiling so brightly while saying those words.
A few moments later I beamed at him, tears completely drying from my eyes. if I can learn it so quickly it won't take as long as I'd expected to get a fi grip on it.
I didn't comment on what he said because boy was I hungry.
"I'm hungry" I said with a pout.
He looked at me like he was expecting it and then got the rabbits from a corner and then we left the cave to go skin and roast them outside.
I didn't even need to think of a way to get water to clean them without a bowl because Sam did his tricks as usual and I went to look for a few broken branches and sticks we could use to make a fire.
By the time I got back he was all done with cleaning the rabbits and we put them on sticks he had sharpened with his dagger.
After setting up the place where we'd roast them he went to get his fancy lighter from his bag inside the small cave.
A stick fell off and I picked it up to put it back while I thought of how the fire would burn and roast the delicious salted rabbits when I felt a spark and I immediately let go of the stick.
Sam came back and I told him to wait while I touched it again but this time nothing happened.
Puzzled I looked at the sticks gathered together and Sam didn't ask me what I was doing and just watched me.
I stretched my hand forward again and thought of the sticks lighting up in flames. When I touched them again, a bright spark lit up from the tips of my finger that came in contact with the sticks and they abruptly burst into flames.
My vision turned black and it felt like I was falling.
I can't see a thing, not even my fingers in front of me but I keep trying to reach out to grab something, anything that'll stop me from falling deeper into wherever this darkness leads to but to no avail. It felt like I was struggling and falling for hours on end and then I finally gave up struggling and let go of my body.
It felt like I was falling faster and deeper but I didn't panic anymore and just let myself fall.
After a while I think I started to slow down. well, that's what thought until I landed with a loud thud, thankfully, I didn't feel any pain.
All I could still see was darkness but at least I had stopped falling. All of sudden I felt extremely dizzy and when it stopped I looked up and I could see the sky, a castle and a huge forest all around.
I got up and walked around carefully, wandering how I got here by just falling through that dark abyss. I wondered around for a long time and then I finally saw people but they were dressed in a funny way.
Some wore gowns that looked too tight for them with cloaks sewn on them and funny looking designs that looked expensive and the men wore thick heavy looking robes. Their trousers or pants, looked like it was too tight and uncomfortable and you could see something of a weird shape covered by the trousers from some and their shirts had long thick loose puffy sleeves that were tight at the wrists and they all had their hair in low or loose buns, while most of the women had loose braid and some even had flower crowns on their heads with their hair falling freely behind them. Some men wore funny hats.
I contemplated walking over and asking for directions on how I could get out of here, not forgetting the fact that I was still so hungry but I decided against it. They spoke in a funny manner like a philosophers English and some of them were making hand gestures while speaking excitedly. They started walking towards me and I panicked and froze instead of looking for a place to hide but they walked right past me.
I mean, I'm the only one in the whole place wearing combat pants with a crop top and black combat boots, it'd be hard to not notice me. Puzzled, I walked towards a few other people and it seemed like they couldn't see me and when I tried to touch one of them my hand passed right through.
At first I was horrified at the thought that I had died but then again it doesn't look like these were modern times since they rode on horses and chariots so maybe I was just dreaming? Hopefully.
Time slowly ticked by and then it was night time, thinking of a place to sleep I walked around looking for an empty stall when the scene changed again.