The Tale of Xenosa

New Lessons

Xenosa's POV:

The next morning, I woke up feeling accomplished and somehow disoriented. I had trouble falling asleep last night. My conscience wouldn't let me, knowing that people could have been hurt. But I doubt I had enough skills to fight any creature that was there last night. If we helped and joined the fight, if there was ever a fight that happened. I think we'd only be casualties and would just add more problems there for the soldiers. Since not only do they need to guard and protect the castle, but they'd also have to watch over us. I think we did them a favor. Because, in all honesty, I didn't think we were ready to fight them. Then memories of my small accomplishment crept into my head. This somehow gave me a comforting feeling. I got up from my bed and went to take a shower. After I showered, I got dressed and brushed my teeth. After that, I got ready for a bit. I didn't know why, but I wanted to look pretty today. I even braided my hair into two French braids. I then headed out to the dining hall. My eyes immediately looked for Cresia and the others. I wasn't looking for anyone in particular but you know I'd like to see Gavin there too. What? C'mon guys, I'm just concerned that he is going to go back to being alone. He doesn't need to do that now, he has friends. Once, I spotted where they were at, I immediately approached them. A smile formed on my lips when I saw Gavin there as well. He was talking with Cresia, I'm glad they were getting along. "Hi guys, good morning!" I said cheerfully. They all turned their heads at me and smiled, "Someone's had a good start. I guess you woke up at the right side of the bed this morning, huh?" Justin was the first to greet me. I just rolled my eyes at him and shrugged him off. I sat beside Cresia and gently nudged her on her elbow, "So how's everyone been doing?" "Good. Hahaha had a great long sleep last night," she answered. I looked over at Gavin and he smiled at me. I smiled back at him. Just in time, Emma came with my food, "Thanks Emma," I said. "No worries Xen," she said. "You look extra pretty today Xen, hmm?" Cresia said teasingly. Gosh, when was she going to stop this? "Well, I wanted to look good while training. You know I don't want to look as ugly and tired as I feel when I train ," I said as I shrugged it off while eating my food. "Whatever you say princess," Cresia said with a laugh. I looked over at Gavin and saw that he too had a smile on his face,"It's fine. You look good Xen," he said. "Uh thanks," I replied. I could feel my cheeks heat up and I didn't really know why. Gosh Cheska, this is not the first time someone called you pretty. Get a grip on yourself. I smiled at Jazz and lightly waved at her. After that, I just ate in silence. We were on our way to the training area when a commotion was heard from the outside. I immediately looked at where the sound came from. "Did you guys hear the sound?" I asked. They nodded their heads and a look of concern was etched on everyone's faces. We were about to run and go in the direction of the sound but we were stopped by Cresia's trainer. "Where do you think you guys are going? The training area is that way" he said while pointing to the opposite direction of the hallway. "U-uhm we were ju-" Cresia tried to explain but she got cut off. "Your obligations for the day is to train, not to fight. Let the guards handle the commotion outside. They are trained for this kind of stuff while you, on the other hand, are not," he said strictly. "I'm not going to let you guys fight anyway, this isn't your fight. Well, atleast not yet," he explained. Although dismayed and disoriented, we followed his lead and went into training. I don't have a clue how I'm going to concentrate when my head has millions of thoughts going through it each second. A bunch of what if's and what could be's. I looked and saw Dagat had arrived. She was in full gear already. Has she been fighting all this time since last night? I don't even think she was able to get any rest, I think she went straight here judging by her appearance. "Okay, so for today's training session, I'll teach you the healing properties of water. But since you weren't able to do the puppet technique yesterday, this morning you'll practice that. While the entire afternoon training will be allotted for the healing lessons. Understand?" she said. Okay she was full on teacher mode today. I nodded my head and said, "I understand. Lady Eas, about last night. What happened? And the commotion we just heard what was that?" I couldn't help myself to ask. "It's nothing you should worry about. You should focus on training Xenosa. That is more important. It's just a bunch of mobs trying to get into the castle, they're protesting," she explained. Though I felt like she wasn't telling me the whole truth, I still nodded my head at her. "Okay, so let's start," she spoke with finality. As a precautionary measure, she had brought in a rat for me to practice with. "For the puppet technique, you'll have to incorporate what you learned with the energy ball. Now that you've mastered the energy ball technique you can do this with ease, naturally this would be much easier at night when the moon is at it's fullest from but water users from before had found a way around that and began to practice energy bending. Water users are equipped with a lot of talents and energy bending is one of those. Remember that anything that flows is within our domain of specialties as water users," she started to say. I was just nodding my head at her, forcing myself to focus and give the entirety of my attention to the subject at hand. I shouldn't let myself be distracted by the sounds of blades clashing with each other and angry battle cries from the commotion that's taking place outside. "The first and most important thing you should know about puppet bending is that it's very similar to the energy ball technique, but instead of energy in water form this time you allow energy to flow with no water. It's take a bit of time to master but I think you'll be able to do it today. The natural energy that you've gathered will be the strings you'll attach to the creatures core. You must know that inside of every creature there is a core, allow the energy that's from you go and find that core. Once you've located the said core, you must will it to obey your will. Here's the tricky part, the taking control of the core act usually varies from creature to creature. The more intelligent and knowing a creature is, the harder it is to control. And ofcourse as what I've said before this technique has the tendency to use life force energy rather than natural energy, so you must be able to differentiate those two. While doing the technique always put in mind that you can only do this for a limited amount of time, depending on the amount of natural energyyou have absorbed," she continued to say. Okay that sounds complicated, in fact I think I didn't get half of that. I was about to open my mouth and ask some questions but she me to it, "The key here is that you know how to bend energy, and since you've mastered the energy ball, this will come naturally to you," she said. "So uh what happens if I fail to disconnect the core connection? What's going to happen to me then?"I asked. "Well, for the user this technique can diminish your body energy levels really bad, so it's expected that you'll need to stack up on food after. If one fails to lose the connection to the creature's core then energy will continue to flow back on forth between the two creatures. Fot the puppet it usually results to extreme body pain, in worst case scenarios they get into comas and some even face death. But you don't need to worry about that, you'll do fine," She said. I think she only added the last part to make it less scary and boost my confidence to a certain level. "When I first tried this technique I wasn't very successful but through the years of patience and practice I was able to finally do it in a way that works for me. You won't a few years since I gave you the tips," she then smiled reassuringly. Shortly after her explanation I began my training. This time I had a knack on what I should do. I closed my eyes and allowed to feel the natural energy from around me. I tried to do yin yang motions with my hands. I think it worked since I felt like I was able to get some. Time came when I felt like I had enough, I envisioned the natural energy to be green in color while my natural energy is blue. This way I won't have trouble in differentiating the two. I tried to control the natural energy but it was hard, so I tried to think about the motion of its movement. Instead of going against the directions of its flow, I went along with it. I heard Dagat say "Once you feel it already, hold it tight. Don't fight it just go with it, think like water. And be as flexible and durable as you can be," she advised. So I did what I was told. To my surprise it was working! I was able to control it now, I pictured it out to be streams of water. The blue one stays on my left hand while the green stream goes to my right. I opened my eyes and I just know my eyes had turned gold already. Dagat was right! The whole thing was easier to me now that I was able to do energy bending. I used the moves I learned from doing the energy ball technique. Instead of water and just letting the energy flow all over my body I just controlled to one side of it. The other half holds the natural energy I was able to get. I could now see these things because whenever I'm using the demigod eyes, I'm able to see various kinds of energy. I looked over at my hand and realized I was right in imagining it to be greenish in color. For it really did feel like it was alive! This was the kind of energy that never stood still. So that's why this was tricker than I expected. With the enhanced vision I had right now, I could see the nature energy literally snaking its way on my arms, it seemed like it liked me already. I willed it to flow to where the rat was at. Poor thing, I'm sorry I'll make this as painless as possible. I said in my head, hoping my apology would get to to the rat. Once I've located it's core I immediately took control of it. But then as I was about to connect with it I felt a painful throb in my head. It was so painful that I let out a hissing sound from my mouth. I looked over at my left arm and saw how my own energy was also attracted to the core I connected with. I could see it literally dripping from my hands, it wanted to go out of my control and connect with it as well. Oh no that's not a good sign. Instead of panicking I closed my eyes gain and focused on the left side of my body. Remember Xen it's energy it likes to flow, so I let it. I had to the technique as fast as I could or this wouldn't be a success. I carefully took control with the rat's core with the willpower I had left from controlling my left side as well. I opened my eyes and glanced at the rat as well, I felt my self getting dizzy. Right this was what she meant with the coma thingy. I flicked my wrist and the rat immediately froze. Huh, I did it. And then everything went black.