If I can start over: A new world

IX. You have to catch up. Part 2

I returned on the fourteenth of February, and I was where I left off last time. Inside the cleaning room. I pulled out my phone and sighed when I realized it was still ten in the morning. I was on my way to work and still nothing, supposedly, had happened yet. I left the warehouse and my eyes narrowed suddenly, with the sunlight streaming through both windows at the poles. It was sunny, but I would bet anything that the cold outside made your life impossible.

"The second memory?" I asked Vuk, who came out behind me, keeping pace with me.

"Did you get another one?" He answered with another question.

"Other than...?"

"If you've got another failed memory out of nowhere," he said, like someone who doesn't care much about the thing. "That is if you perceive another crack."

"No, just those two remainings," I replied.

"Then there's no rush. Let's see who this i***t is who planned to blow up your hut."

We went out, and the cold I didn't feel it. Apparently, neither did Vuk, who was extremely comfortable with the weather.

"This is good weather," he commented. "Not like those Baltic beaches or the Danube, where you gorge yourself on heat and don't know how to fix it. This is cool... it's heaven."

We left the residence and walked for a long time with the gallows and fumes of pleasure coming from the Vucari. Almost halfway there, when the track turns into a highway, and the only thing around you are trees at least four or six meters high, I decided to ask Vuk if he could show me more as we headed to the entertainment center.

"Yes, of course, son. But if you want to practice something specific, we should go into the forest. You won't hurt anything there but squirrels and rabbits... and maybe a couple of deers.

"Well..." I hesitated. "I suppose that through the forest the path must be the same. Besides, it is facing, without turning."

"Then we can go up that slope," and he pointed behind the small fence that prevents cars from leaving the track, or at least that is his purpose.

I accepted, still with doubts, but in order to learn something else. There was so much to learn, it seemed like I was running out of time to do it.

We entered the slope full of trees and vegetation smeared with white, by the snow that had not yet set.

"I had forgotten for a moment that this body is astral, that it's not the original. That I'm now working, comfortable and warm, similar to what I feel here, since the cold doesn't harm me at all."

"Are you feeling strange, boy?" Asked Vuk.

"I feel strong. Stronger than I usually feel. As if now I did sleep the eight continuous hours that correspond to me."

"The Spartans slept two hours a day when they were at war. They only had the luxury of doing it for a couple more hours each time they won a battle, just to give their opponent a bit of an advantage," Francesca mentioned.

"It's good that I'm not a Spartan, am I?" I replied sarcastically.

"Well, you should train more," he reprimanded me. "With your physical condition, any opponent would immediately beat you in a melee duel."

"It has never been my strong fighting..."

"But you'll have to, boy," Vuk interrupted. "She's right."

"There must be other options," I told them.

"There are," Vuk replied. "But it wouldn't hurt a few fencing or marksmanship classes with a firearm."

"It seems to me that we didn't go to this slope to practice that."

"No, no, of course not," laughed Vuk. "On this journey, you will learn to launch air domes."

"Air domes? Like bubbles?"

"Domes I said, cub," he scolded me. "And don't hesitate." He smiled and laughed. "All right, pay attention. It's the same joke you made jumping, but now you need to focus on catching the air around you."

"What if there's no air around?"

"You find it. That's your element, and it's the strongest. Cause as you'll realize, only in space and under the sea, there's no air, but even so, if you open a c***k in the subsoil of the ocean, it'll release gases that you can use to your advantage."

"But what about the earth element? Aren't we surround for it?"

"No, if you make it fly first," he smirked, somewhat dazed. "Well, let's get started. Make your hand like this." He showed me the fingers of his hand contracted towards the center, in the shape of a claw. "Very well. Now, shake the air around you, create a small whirlpool." I thought in a current that went around and around in my palm, although walking distracted me, I knew that in combat I would be much less predisposed to as much concentration as I have now, like this I was not thrilled by the idea of getting it so fast. "Excellent." Vuk smiled satisfied. A small tornado danced in the palm of my left hand as I tried to keep my gaze on it. "Now, throw it against that tree." He pointed to one very far from where we were, across a meadow, an open field at least twenty meters long.

I listened to him and threw it with all the strength I had. The little whirlpool shrunk into a ball of sorts, although Vuk was right, it looked more like a dome. The shot was quick and deadly. It broke the tree in half and split the one behind, leaving the top hanging off one side.

"You learn fast," Vuk said, looking at me suspiciously. "You've never received prior training, haven't you?"

"No, never," I replied. "I didn't know of its existence, I was much calmer in my room when everything happened."

"It must be the Garpur Geist in you..." He scratched the great red beard on his face.

"Or maybe, I really have a good teacher," I joked, but he took it to heart, and smiled at me with pleasure.

"Let's try something more... difficult," Vuk said.

"Vuk..." Francesca bit back. "Don't push him."

"I'm trying to make it grow and you're not letting it..." he complained.

"Okay, I can do it."

"Do you see it, dame?" Said Vuk, looking up at the sky but nothing in particular. "Let him explore his limits."

"If he passes out, you carry him loaded, so I suppose there's no problem at all," Francesca replied.

"Excellent. I love it when you can reach an agreement by talking." Vuk smiled. "Now pay attention, boy. You do the same trick with the hand and the little tornado, but this time, try to get the tiny energy inside it to move quickly, to warm up the environment."

"How do I focus on tiny energy?"Do you mean the particles?"

"Feel it," Francesca replied surprisingly.

"Right, boy. Feel it... whatever you call it."

I swirled the air around my palm and began to feel the rush of wind around me. But it didn't feel any smaller. It was hard to see it, but there was only snow that mixed over and over again on top of my hand.

"I can't do it," I said frustrated.

"Maybe you're not as good as I thought..." Vuk snapped.

"Right? He may not be so mentally strong after all… "Francesca snapped.

"Maybe you should keep quiet," I became confused.

I closed my eyes and began to smell the petrichor on my hand. There were dirt particles on top. I felt a current that jumped from one side to the other, a touch of particles that ignited an I don't know what inside the little eddy. Suddenly, a tickle in the center of my hand showed me electrons with very little movement inside. I raised the other hand, the right one, still with my eyes closed, and used it as a spoon.

I put it on top of the whirlpool, and I took the electrons in my mind, made them dance, and spin and bounce until I created the current that Vuk was talking about. I mixed it with the earth, snow, and wind on top of my palm, and I felt the temperature rise, and my hand burned, up my wrist to my forearm. The temperature rose so much that my whole body went feverish in seconds, and when I first felt the dizziness, I threw it away.