Little Joe had barely finished his small breakfast and was already ready to go to school.
"Good morning, Little Joe!" his father greeted him with a cheerful salutation. "Good morning, Daddy!" the boy replied, already getting ready to jump into his arms. "Don't you think it's too early for you to go to school, son?" "I don't think so, Daddy. I want to have time to practice the moves you taught me last night." "Son, I don't want to disappoint you with the truth I'm going to tell you now, but don't get too excited about these new moves. They are of the earth element, while you are at the beginning of the air element. Unfortunately, you can't be good at all of them." "That's okay, Daddy. If I practice more to increase the speed of my moves in my element, in the end, I can switch to an earth element move, and even if it doesn't have the same effect as the original attack and my opponent doesn't fall right away, I'll dodge their moves and keep hitting until they fall." "Little Joe, never forget: in a fight, if your opponent falls, it doesn't mean they are defeated." "I'll remember that, Daddy, but before I go to school, I have a question." "Ask whatever you want, my son. If I know, I'll answer you. After all, there are few things that escape my knowledge in martial arts." "How do I absorb the essence of the combat stone of another element?"
His father thought for a few moments and then replied: "As I just told you, son, there are few things that escape my knowledge, but unfortunately this is one of those things." "You mean you don't know?" Little Joe asked, visibly disappointed, as he always believed in his father's wisdom, thinking he knew everything in this world. But he argued with himself that perhaps the fact that his father didn't know this was something out of the ordinary. "And if I just concentrate and act as if it were the stone of my element?" "Better not try, my little Joe. That could affect your wind attribute and hinder the growth of your martial art. Listen to me at least this time, obey me, and don't do it. How can you want to mix skill arts when you are still at the beginning of your learning?"
Dondinel was amazed at his son. So small, so young... and so stubborn. "So you mean if I heat a can of water and put kifer powder in it, and before it boils, I add a dozen broquitos, it will turn into something tasty?"
Just thinking about how delicious broquitos were, and a dozen of them... "Yes, Daddy! Anything with broquitos is good."
His father rolled his eyes in disgust at the thought that a strong tea like kifer could be ruined if mixed with broquitos. "So think of it this way, my little Joe: you are on your way to school with a pack of delicious broquitos, and then you drop them on the ground. Would they still taste good?" "Yes, Daddy. Broquitos never taste bad. I would wipe them on my clothes and then eat them quickly so they wouldn't risk falling again."
That wasn't what Dondinel wanted to hear, but surely his son wasn't entirely wrong. "But, if instead of falling on the ground, they fell in a mud puddle, would they still be good to eat?"
Little Joe thought about it, and to his father's eyes, perhaps that was a thought he wouldn't process. "Yes, Daddy! They would still be good to eat."
Dondinel opened his eyes wide in surprise at such audacity. "As much as your father works, and you come and tell me you'd eat something that fell in the mud? That makes me sad, my little Joe." "No, Daddy. They would be good to eat, but not for me, for the chickens you have."
Dondinel breathed a sigh of relief; after all, despite being gluttonous, he had raised a son, not a piglet. "My little Joe, I understand your desire to save your broquitos from ruin, but now we are talking about powers and skills. You can't think that, after practicing and being able to use the wind power, you can take the earth power as you wish and get a satisfactory result. Do you think this would be like mixing caule flour into the tabi curá your mother makes?"
In his deepest thoughts, the boy wandered. "Why does my daddy keep talking about food? It makes me so hungry." "Daddy, do you have any skill stones?" "Yes, son, but they are worn out so that the power to be absorbed through them will be less than 5%." "That's okay, Daddy. I don't know how much that is, but it seems little enough not to cause problems. Can you lend them to me? If I break them, I'll get others for you later."
Dondinel followed inside the house smiling. Those worn-out ability stones were his last resort in case he needed to buy good medicine for his wife. And how could his foolish son think he could get one so easily?
"Follow me to our training ground, Suro Mastá!"
In fact, the correct pronunciation would be "Soromasutā," which can mean "Master Solo," referring to someone who is a master at doing something alone or independently. But hearing his son pronounce it incorrectly made it more interesting.
Even though it wasn't night, behaving that way was the playful and silly boy's way of showing that, at times, he could be very serious.
Dondinel wanted to laugh, but he acted as they had agreed and immediately changed his behavior. His little Joe would now be called "Ugoro Zan," a word he had created himself to define him as a glutton.
"I learned from the best, Suro Mastá, that an action is worth a thousand words. Opportunities come to everyone, but few recognize them. I am little Joe, weak, chubby, and, to some, a fool. But I will be known as Ugoro Zan, a brave, strong, and determined warrior. And even if I don't win all my fights, I won't run from any. Thus, before Suro Mastá, I swear."
Dondinel was stunned as his little Joe picked up the two ability stones and made them float, one in each hand, spinning them faster and faster and wearing them down as their essence was absorbed by his chubby little hands.
And when they disintegrated completely, a mixed energy took over little Joe's body. Charged with power in his hands, he shouted as he unleashed his power:
"I am Ugoro Zan..."
When suddenly, his mother appeared beside him with a plate of broquitos, the best in the world.
"And no one will stop me or prevent me..."
It was getting harder for him to focus on his ability and the broquitos that were right there within his reach.
"From eating my broquitos..."
A thin beam shot from his hands, pierced the rocks, and with a great explosion, created a small cave next to the existing one.
His father, with his mouth open, and his mother, not understanding anything, only had time to catch their little Joe, who fainted from exhaustion and still, as an unconscious last wish, wanted to fall towards the plate of broquitos.