The Tale of Xenosa

Still the first day

Cheska's POV:

Well I guess it made sense, of course the one who'd teach me would be a literal legend and not to mention a half sister of mine. Yeah, I'm totally not freaking out over here because not only did I thought she was dead or something but I also had the thought back in my mind believing that someone as skilled as her were one of those legends that weren't actually real. You know when you were a kid and you used to read fairytales where one particular character is just too good to be true? Yeah that's how I felt about her when I saw her in the nymphs stories. And if you thought that she was going to go easy on me because I was her sister you are gravely mistaken. Not only was I super tired from the training she's giving me but I'm also heart broken due to the fact that she says that I'll be under her for a full week. I don't know if that thought should console me somehow or to scare me some more. I mean it's comforting to know she'll only be teaching me for a week but it's only the first day and I'm scared how far this training of ours will get by the end of the week. This was indeed a new and spectacular way sister should bond. One giving out orders as loud as she possibly can and one who is struggling to even keep up with her. There was one weird thing about her though, I couldn't see the demigod mark on her. In the nymph's vision that we saw I know that she had the mark on her face. I'm sure of it. But right now that I was looking at her directly I couldn't see even a trace of it. The mark had fully manifested on her, that meant it was permanently tattooed on her skin, but it was nowhere in sight. I was still learning the ball of water energy lesson but no matter what I did it's just not working. I told her that if there were any other styles in using my powers then maybe I could learn those instead but she insisted that I learned this one first. She says this is the most basic lesson a demigod could have. Well in my defense I only found that I was in fact a demigod only about a month ago so uh this is not entirely my fault. I even memorized the steps already. The first step is to take deep breaths, second close the eyes and concentrate, third allow energy to flow from you, fourth visualize water, fifth join palms together , sixth follow the flow of water and lastly let it go. Now I could do the first step easily but the second to the 7th step is kind of confusing and difficult. You can't blame me on this, it's very hard to concentrate when you have someone on your left ear consistently nagging you every time you try. Sweat has been dripping from my forehead non stop for hours now. We started the exercise 4 hours ago and since then I haven't had one single break yet. I was on the verge of collapsing when Eas, my sister, finally told me to take some time to rest. Now that was a miracle. I was now chilling under the mango tree, drinking some water. A few minutes later and she signaled me to start training again, I was just about to fully do the steps again when I was stopped by Emma. My personal helper? I guess I could call her that in private. I hate having to give people titles. May it be the small or big ones. I mean why is there even a need for titles and labels? They say it's too freely establish one's role in the community and how that one person or creature should act. I mean for me that sounds a bit unfair. I think that rule deserves to have a few more tweaks and adjustments. "Hey there Emma" I said to her a lot less cheerful than this morning. She then turned to face the person behind her "It's time for the young master's lunch Lady Dagat" she says while still facing my sister. "Very well" My sister as she waved her hands to dismiss us. "Don't be late Xenosa!" she yelled after me. I could barely even hear her considering how I was running to get out of there and finally get some food. Once I arrived in the dining hall I saw that the others were already there. I was about to line up when Emma stopped me. "I already have your food in your table together with your friends," she says. "Thanks Emma, that's really thoughtful of you" I said to her. I then headed to the table were Cresia and the others were at. Once I got there I could tell by the look they had on their faces that we were all going through the exact same thing. "So I take it training has been hard for you guys too?" I asked as I sat down beside them. "No kidding," Jaz was the first to answer. I looked over at Cresia and saw she had scratches on her arms and shoulders. "Cres what happened to you?" I said to her. She looks at me and realizes what I was talking about. "Well you know how we have our teachers and stuff, and our first lesson is well our powers. My instructor decided to demonstrate her attacks at me while also making me dodge them. It was a lot of work. And well I couldn't escape all of them," she explained like it was a normal thing to her. I nodded at her, though I didn't experience that yet. I looked over at Justin and saw how he wan't even eating his food. I nudged Jaz and asked her in low voice, "What happened with Justin? He looks like he's having the worst hangover in his entire life," "That's cause I think he's going through the same thing minus na alcohol. He was forced by his instructor to increase the magnitude of each earthquake he produced. One higher than the other. I on the other hand, was forced to bring life into plants, whatever that meant. I just know I lost I a lot of energy by doing so," she says. Looks like everyone had a tough day. We were all silent for the rest of the meal. About ten minutes before actual training would start we all decided to head back to the training area. We really didn't want to risk it again. I looked around the place and I saw the boy form the hearing, he already started to train on his own. Were we even allowed to do that? I couldn't remember his name nor his powers but I'm sure it had something to do with thunder or something. Ironically he had white hair and had a lightning birthmark on the back of his lower neck. He looked to be about my age. He wasn't terrible to look at as well. His pale skin complimented the gray on his eyes, if I hadn't known any better I'd think he's some sort of foreigner. His nose was pointed and had think brown eyebrows which perfectly framed his chiseled face. He was tall but not slender. He had the right amount of muscle on him as well. I might've been staring at him for too long that he felt my gaze on him. I immediately looked away the moment I saw his head twist my way. Being caught like that would be bit embarrassing. The minutes seemed to have fluttered away as I noticed that Eas was now here. She beckoned for me to approach her so I did. "As I've said earlier I will only be able to train you for a week. That's a very short time Xen, you'll have to master the sea first before you can do the others," she exaplained. My eyes widenend at that, "What do you mean by that? Are you saying what I think you're saying?" She nodded her head at me. "Yes you have other powers as well and you'll need them all if you plan on facing the Dark Lord" she says to me. "If you don't mind me asking who exactly is that guy? And why did he convert to darkness?" I asked. I think she was dumbfounded with what I said. I think she was expecting for me to know about him already. "They didn't tell you yet? That's unheard of. But by now you should have an idea about him," I nodded at her and said, "Well I have a few. But they don't really make up for the whole history behind it". "Very well then, I'll tell you about him. But you should train as I tell the story" she said. I had the urge to roll my eyes at her but I figured that wouldn't really be a very good idea so I just proceeded to do it. I try to remember the steps, STEP ONE: TAKE DEEP BREATHS, "The dark Lord has a lot of names, in our world he's known as Sitan. The Christians call him Satan," Eas started to say. STEP TWO: CLOSE THE EYES AND CONCENTRATE, I concentrated with everything I got. Dagat's words seemed so far now, like I was in some sort of rabbit hole as her voice echoed in my head, and yet I knew she was physically close."He is one of the most ancient gods of this world and yet still not known by many. He opposes Bathala, the supreme ruler of all the gods and creatures," she continued. STEP THREE: ALLOW ENERGY TO FLOW, I let the energy I felt in my core to go and flow to all parts of my body. Imagine the human body's circulatory system but instead of blood and liquids that flows the thing that circulates in your veins is not anything but pure energy. "He is deemed to be a force of pure evil, malicious and destructive to anything that stood in his way of wanting to take over man kind,"she added. STEP FOUR VISUALIZE WATER, I imagined the rivers and streams of the Earth, I imagined myself to be a part of it. To be a part of the flowing water in water falls, to be a part of the ever large and calming ocean, to be a drop of the budding water in streams and lakes. To be a part of anything that flows, that has the essence of water. I start to feel something form on my palms and yet I'm too scared to open my eyes and let my guard down. "He has his minions, Manggagaway, Manisilat, Mangkukulam, and Hukluban, they are believed to be the first ever demigods to turn their backs on the light. And as a reward he game them immense powers" Dagat explained. Sitan had four agents, my prophecy says that only four could get to the hurt. What would that mean? Could that be some sort of warning for death or even worse, betrayal? I shaked my head forcing myself to stop thinking about things like those. Cresia is right, the prophecy could be interpreted in a million ways, there is literally thousands of possibilities out there. It had to mean something else. Something entirely different. I felt my hands shake as I try to recover from my thoughts. I had to train, I then remembered the fifth step, STEP FIVE JOIN THE PALMS TOGETHER, well that's a lot harder than expected. I forced myself to concentrate again and yet I don't know but something was blocking my palms, it's not allowing it to join together. I felt something form around me my hair has even broken from my tie it was going in all sorts of directions now. I didn't feel the ground beneath my feet anymore, was I floating? I then heard Dagat's voice, "You're almost there Xen, just a bit more. Fight the force. That's the infinity between you and you flow of energy! Break through it!", she yelled. I know she was already yelling at me but I couldn't help it. I couldn't do it anymore. I can't continue with the next step, I couldn't follow the flow. With that thought in mind, I plummeted to the ground and every thing went black.