"Then let's begin." Aquila said while stepping away from William.
WHOOSH
The fiery world dissolved into normal. William was now standing at the mountain top, his feet could feel the cold, hard rock, and the cold wind breezed and caressed his face in contrast to the intense heat he just experienced.
William made a face of longing, with his eyes drooping low and his mouth twitching once in a while in sorrow. 'I want to stay there for a while.'
The world he saw was wild, eccentric, and nothing like he had ever seen. But most importantly, it was how his mother viewed the world.
'I want to stay there and experience the world like mother does.'
Aquila, who noticed William's emotions, frowned. His cheerful expression was now downtrodden, and his eyes lacked energy.
"I want to stay there longer," he mumbled.
Aquila, listening to her son, flicked his forehead. TKK, "OWW!" William crouched down, rubbed his forehead, and looked at his mother. Tears gathered at the ends of his eyes, threatening to fall out.
"Idiot son, the reason that I showed you how I view the world isn't to copy it, but to take it as a guide and do it on your own." She said this while frowning.
She then lowered herself, kissed his forehead, and explained, "The world that I showed is my perspective, developed by the experiences I have had during my entire life using heat as a medium." Her voice was barely a whisper, but it held the weight of the love she had for him.
"Use what I have shown you as a guide and create your own vision of the world with your own experiences and your power. The mother of all attributes 'Nature.'" She continued. "Imagine just how beautiful the world would be when you look at the world with your power."
William's mood improved as he listened to his mother. He wiped off the tears at the corners of his eyes with his sleeves and nodded his head.
Aquila smiled proudly, looking at her son's determination. 'That's right, William; you don't need to limit yourself to just 'heat''
"Then shall we begin?" Aquila asked him again.
William nodded in determination, his heart thumping like a drum. With his fists clenched, he muttered, "Yes!"
Aquila's smile widened as she looked at William. "Then I want you to sit down and meditate until you are able to see the little fiery red lights around you." She instructed.
William nodded at her, sat down on the rock, and closed his eyes.
William had his brows furrowed and his jaws clenched due to excitement. "Relax yourself, son." Aquila said, observing her son's tense face.
William relaxed his brows and jaw as per Aquila's instructions and continued meditating.
"Now, feel the heat around you. The heat spreading through the air, the heat spreading through mana."
William's mind slowly switched off all his senses except his hearing. His mind gradually transported him to the pitch-black darkness from before.
William concentrated further, expecting to see the fiery red lights again, but even after a few minutes had passed, he couldn't see any lights around him.
"M-Mother?" He called out, hoping that Aquila would come like she did before. But, much to his disappointment, there was no response from Aquila.
'This is how far I can guide you, son. If I spoon-feed you everything, then you will become a paper tiger.'
But Aquila couldn't resist her maternal instincts: 'I will give one last hint.' She thought as she whispered.
"Remember what I have told you, little William. Feel the heat." Words barely made it out of her mouth, but the intended one received the message as she was communicating with him telepathically.
William's brows loosened as he relaxed. 'That's right, mother told me to feel the heat from the body and my surroundings'
He concentrated on the feeling of heat in his body as he recalled what he had felt when he was in the fiery world. A strange hymnal sound vibrated through his soul. It was not destructive but soothing, making William fall into a trance-like state.
The pitch darkness slowly faded out as the fiery red lights materialized in his field of vision. The particles of light were calmer than before and were just floating around, in contrast to when they swirled and danced like before.
"Mother, I see them!" William explained it with happiness.
Aquila smiled proudly at her son's accomplishment. 'It took me a week to sense the fire mana in the atmosphere when I was a child. But he did it in a few minutes.' Aquila exclaimed inwardly in astonishment.
She was told that she had the best talent in heat after her brother, but 'Even brother took 5 days to sense them.' Aquila mumbled inwardly.
"I am sure William is more talented than the phoenixes when it comes to heat." She muttered. Her chest swelled up in pride as she looked at William. Pride was oozing out of her eyes.
William, who was observing the fire mana around him, frowned in confusion as they were not interacting with him. But he didn't want to ask his mother for guidance.
'Mother said, I need to explore on my own.'
William stretched out his hand to touch one of them, but the fire mana avoided him like plague. William then walked towards another one, but it too avoided him.
His eyebrows creased as he looked at the fire mana, confused as to why they avoided him. A brief thought of asking his mother for advice appeared in his mind, but he shook his head in denial.
'I can't falter here.' He resolved.
William sat in the pitch darkness and began brooding over ways to make the light particles around him react. That's when an idea struck him.
'That should work. Brother said that I should do this whenever I want someone to react.' He concluded as he recalled his brother's words.
With a serious face and his fists clenched, William stood up and punched his fists up in the pitch darkness. He then began jumping around in the air like a monkey and spinning his head around.
'What is this? Brother said if I danced around like this, everyone would praise me. Why are these light balls not reacting?' He questioned himself, perplexed by the fire mana's disinterest.
Suddenly a revelation hit him: 'Ah! I forgot about that,' William remarked as he nodded his head.
He then danced around more vigorously and began…singing.
~Ohhhh~ you are my heart; you are my sun. I shall worship you forever. ~ You're the light; you're the hero of my life. ~ 'O' big brother
William closed his eyes as he sang and danced, totally immersed in the act. But unbeknownst to him, he was not just dancing in the pitch-blackness that surrounded him.
"Eh?" Aquila exclaimed, confused by William's actions. She watched as her son stood up, and started dancing around like a crazed monkey, and began singing praises for Orion.
Aquila's mouth twitched heavily as she observed William's actions. 'This must be that brat's doing.' She concluded.
"Just wait until I have finished training, William; I will show you a world of pain." Aquila muttered, and red fumes exited her mouth with every word she spoke.
....
ACHOO
"Looks like someone is thinking about me, SNIFF. I hope it's a good-looking woman." Orion said while he scratched his nose. He looked to his side at his two maids and muttered, "Let's go."
...….
Aquila couldn't bear to watch her son's weird monkey dance anymore and woke William up. "William, wake up!." She said, while shaking his shoulders.
"Huh!?" William looked around, confused. "What happened, mother?" he asked, looking at Aquila.
"What were you doing?" Aquia asked, her eyes glaring at him with intensity.
William gulped in fear as he looked at her mother's red eyes, which were burning with intensity. "I was trying to get the fiery red particles to react to me, but they avoided me." He muttered with his face down, a little saddened that he couldn't get them to react.
"Then why were you dancing around like a madman?"
William's eyes widened in surprise. 'How did Mother know?' "H-How do you know, mother?"
"You were dancing around like a monkey and singing about Orion." She said it flatly.
William's cheeks reddened in shame as he imagined what it must have looked like.
"Answer me."
"Brother told me to do that if I wanted to get praised." William answered.
"That Brat!" Aquila cursed under her breath while grinding her teeth, annoyed by the eldest's actions.
Aquila cursed Orion for quite a while before sighing and taking a deep breath. She calmed herself down before promising to make Orion experience a world of pain.
She then turned towards William, whose entire face had turned red in shame. A smile bloomed on her face as she recalled her youngest dancing.
'Now that I think about it, it is a little funny.' She was amused.
"Little William, What happened when you tried to interact with the red particles of light?"
"They avoided me." William answered, downtrodden.
Aquila frowned at her son's answer. She thought over this for a while before asking, "William, did you use your attribute?"
"Huh?" William exclaimed before shaking his head. "I only thought about the feeling I felt before."
"Silly boy, your powers do not originate from heat. You have the power of nature. Heat is just a part of it."
William tilted his head, even more confused about what his mother was saying. "Should I look at it with the power of nature?" he asked.
Aquila nodded her head and replied, "That's right. You have to look at heat just like how nature looks at it."
"How?"
Aquila shrugged at William's question and muttered, "I don't know. Think about it."
William slumped at her answer. But he gathered himself and started thinking about it.
'How does nature look at heat?'
How does nature view 'heat'?. Does it view heat as a subordinate, or something like that of a minion? Maybe like a friend?
William thought. He thought and thought until something hit him.
'That's right. Aunt Gaia said that everything is a part of nature. Then 'heat' must be a part of nature too.'
William then looked at his hands and asked himself, 'How do I view my hand?'
How does one view their hand? Like a separate entity? Or something like that which is a part of them.
BOOM