Elements
1051 Words
After a few days when Zohaifa started to get comfortable, he started to try crazy things.
He tried taking shortcuts and almost fell off a cliff, he tried using a tree as a slingshot to go faster and fell off breaking its trunk, etc. Lapis saved him each time while Marium cutely giggled. At night they all enjoyed talking about Zohaifa’s funny failures and have a laugh while Zohaifa laughed with them trying to hide his embarrassment.
In about a month, they could finish the task by afternoon. Zohaifa also developed friendly connections with Marium. She used to be a shy little girl when they first met, but now she treated Zohaifa like his big brother.
Zohaifa enjoyed his time traveling and training. At nights he stared at the star-filled sky.
"I wonder which star was the sun. There are so many. The earth is orbiting one of them. I wonder what my family is doing without me. Did Zabir tell my parents yet what happened? I guess he did. Am I ever going to get back? What is mom cooking for dinner? I wonder if Zabir is taking my share or Zaziba," he thought to himself.
He has similar thoughts every night. Sometimes one of his cheeks gets moisturized with a drop of tear as he calmly thinks about his precious memories only to make a mess out of it with a lot of tears and snots after a few minutes.
The days comprised hard training, which snatched away Zohaifa's time to miss anyone. He never pushed himself so hard before. Training under an instructor definitely gets more out of a person.
"Damn I can't eat properly with my hands shaking so much," Zohaifa thought to himself, "You guys are so strong. You seem to be unscathed by this training regimen."
"What do you mean? We are not unscathed" Marium replied.
"Huh?" Zohiafa said with his eyebrow raised in confusion.
"Marium is right,” said Lapis, “The two of you have the same training regimen and I have a different one for myself. But when it comes to difficulty, it’s the same. My training regimen is as hard to me as your one is to you."
"But then how are you guys moving so casually as if there is no soreness?" asked Zohaifa.
"Part of the reason is that we got used to pushing ourselves that far, so the body's recovery sped up. Alongside that, we are used to being sore. Doing works while being sore is also a part of the training," said Lapis.
“You guys are amazing!” said Zohaifa as fire sparked his heart. He wants to get to their level too and the thought pushed him to eat faster. Lapis and Marium stared at him in confusion.
In the deepest part of that night, Zohaifa’s eyes suddenly opened wide. He tried to sit and covered his left temple with his palm.
“Damn! That dream again. What does it even mean?” he thought to himself.
Then he noticed that Lapis was staring at him. In the middle of the night?
He went near Lapis to ask him what’s the matter. That is when he realized a drop of tear glittering on his cheek. Lapis’ expression was blank as if he was daydreaming.
He then shook off his head and came back to reality to ask Zohaifa, “What’s up? Why are you awake late at night?”
“Nothing,” said Zohaifa in a low tone and slowly went back to sleep concealing his curiosity.
Next day, Lapis assembled Zohaifa and Marium.
“You two can have a break for a few days. I need to go somewhere. Don’t move the tent from this place unless it's an emergency. Otherwise, I won’t be able to find you,” said Lapis.
“When will you be back, Lapis?” asked Zohaifa.
“Might take three or four days. You two can take a break and do things you enjoy,” he replied.
“Okay,” replied Zohaifa.
Marium had the knowledge about floras and faunas of Cant World made it easy for them to survive without Lapis.
Later that day, Marium asked Zohaifa, "Want to race? He said we can do things we enjoy."
"Oh! Do you love racing?" said Zohaifa.
"Yes! Yes! I do!" she said in excitement.
"Let's do it then," said Zohaifa.
"Up to that tree and back, okay?" she pointed at a tall tree far away.
"That far?! Okay," replied Zohaifa.
They both took a racing stance. "3…2…1,” Marium counted, “Start!"
She got to that tree and back before Zohiafa could even go half.
Zohaifa stopped and started huffing.
"Huff, huff, I gave it my all. Yet...huff...I...huff...Couldn't….huff...You are so fast!" said Zohaifa while huffing.
"I can do faster though!" she said before closing her eyes to focus on something. She started to glow yellow.
'Light Velocity!'
In a flash, she covered the same distance again. It looked as if her entire body was trapped in a huge beam of light.
"Did you say light velocity? You can move with the velocity of light?" asked Zohaifa as his eyes opened to full wideness in amazement.
She laughed a bit putting her palm on her lips and said, "Of course not. My element is light and I use the light to increase my velocity. Thus, light velocity."
“Oh! As expected, you use elements too. What about Lapis? Does he use any elements?” asked Zohaifa.
“Yes. His element is also light,” answered Marium, “Everyone in Cant World is born with one of the 16 core elements.”
“Wow! What are they?” he asked.
“Let's see
Air
Water
Fire
Soil
Plant
Ice
Metal
Lava
Lightning
Vibration
Light
Darkness
Star particles
Plasma
Magic
Miscellaneous”
“Whoa! That’s amazing. I have a few questions though,” said Zohaifa.
“How many?” asked Marium.
“I think I have about three to four,” answered Zohaifa.
Marium smiled and said, “Let’s keep that as our discussion material for dinner! We can collect foods now.”
“Yes!” replied Zohaifa with excitement, “Let’s do some hunting this time. I am bored of eating herbs all day.”
- Writer
