Chapter 30. You did what?

“You did what?” Orchid was a little lost as to what Boss’ was saying, she couldn’t fathom that her elder sister was left unconscious by a little Exotic of only 10 years old.

“Oh nothing” Boss quickly changed his mind in telling her. His comment made Orchid suspicious, yet she didn’t say anything else. “How did you make the bright balls?” Boss quickly changed the subject.

“Oh, these things?” A bright ball appeared in her hand. Her ability to teleport stuff to her hand made Boss look at her in amazement “Wow! you can teleport stuff to your hand?” Boss asked, he didn’t know the limits of what teleport really meant in this world.

“That’s right kiddo, I’m able to teleport small objects to my hand as long as it’s in the same location that I left it, it’s my specialty.”

“Your specialty?” Boss asked.

“Yes, that’s right. Every person of the Orthodox powers aims to try to make their skills unique to themselves. Besides being able to teleport around like any other teleporter, I’ve learned how to teleport small objects from where they were placed.” Her comment made Boss understood more about the world around him.

“What about teleporting other people?” Orchid nodded her head “I can teleport other people, however I have to grab onto them, I can’t just extend my hand out and use some weird force to teleport them.”

This world was a lot more flexible in terms of their energy manipulation than he once thought. Boss thought to himself he ought to smack Samuel for not mentioning this. However, as an Exotic, Samuel wouldn’t know everything about the Orthodox powers.

“Can every teleporter do this?” Boss asked.

Orchid quickly replied “No, most will just know how to teleport, most of them will either just try to increase the distance or speed of their teleporting ability. There are quite a few that can teleport others like me, but none are able to summon small objects like me.”

Boss nodded his head in understanding. Like any person in the world most will conform to what they believe is the limit of their abilities and only few would try to figure out a different pathway in what they can do.

“Oh, I see! Thank you, auntie Orchid!” Boss thanked the woman a short distance away. Orchid walked over and rustled the kid’s brown wig causing it to become off center again. “You shouldn’t tell other people about this, okay? I don’t want copycats.”

Boss immediately zipped his mouth with his hand indicating he wouldn’t tell another person.

Orchid nodded her head in content. “You wanted to know how I made these?” Boss really didn’t care about the bright balls he just wanted to change the subject. However, he wouldn’t tell her that, so he nodded his head.

“It’s fairly easy, you know the luminescent moss that grows alongside the mountain walls on the way to the Inn. I figured out the compound to make them brighter, and longer lasting. After that I just put them in a clear ball, I’ve made myself and voila a bright ball.”

Orchid’s explanation was straight to the point. She didn’t need to go to the scientific aspect of it considering she was talking to a child. Only she truly knows how much trial and error it took for a bright ball to form.

“Auntie your bright balls are too bright sometimes, is there no other way to make it dimmer besides throwing a cloth on it?” Boss asked, as a person who enjoyed eating and sleeping, he prefers sleeping in a pitch-dark room.

“Of course, I just never got to it.” Orchid remembered when an annoying guy kept pestering her about the bright balls and the lack of functionality of it besides staying bright. Her response of just tossing a cloth over it, made the guy become a laughingstock of the whole village and everyone decided on using a black cloth to poke fun at him.

It became such a norm that even she forgot to about to fix the issue. “Maybe I’ll think of something to do about it.” Many different ideas started forming on her mind causing her to become lost in thought.

Boss waved his hands in front of her face trying to get her attention, however moments later Orchid teleported away.

“What a weirdo, she left just like that.” Boss remarked. He then looked at the doctor who was asleep on the floor and Roselyn peacefully asleep on the bed. Her inner energy was stabilizing and recovering. However, the activity within her belly is becoming more expressive.

“Looks like she’ll need to wake up soon.” Boss thought to himself as he walked out of the room.

The lighting around the home became dimmer back to its natural state. It seemed Orchid had collected most of the bright balls she had brought into the house. Boss walked over to the rippling pool that was maintaining its rigorous pace.

He dipped his finger in the pool again and walked away. There was no change in the ripples as he left the place, only he knows that in a few days she’ll be awake.

An hour passed by before the door to the meditation room opened again. Pebble and Cobble at this time found all the servants placed around the home, some were placed in well-hidden spots. The only way they found them all was the bright balls Orchid had left near each person serving as a beacon.

Gran walked out the room with the same stick in his hand closing the door behind him. He walked over to the sofa where Boss Pebble and Cobble were sitting. “How were they?” Boss asked Gran.

Gran replied with a straight face “Girls were good, the boys though… terrible.” The door to the meditation room opened again as Shelly carrying Silver and Julie walked out before silently closing the door behind them.

Some slight red marks on their arms were visible from the meditation training. However, the expression on their face was calm and serene as if they were hardly punished by the stick.

“How was it?” Boss asked the two girls.

“Next time, I won’t get hit.” Shelly replied. Julie nodded her head “It was only because Arthur and Michael made us lose our concentration.”

“Was it difficult?” Boss asked. Shelly shook her head “I thought it would be harder.” Her answer surprised Boss as he looked at the marks on her arms. There were less on her arms than Julie’s.

He looked at Julie and asked, “What about you Julie?” Julie’s calm face finally broke into a smile. She couldn’t hold back her laughter any longer. She couldn’t answer Boss’ question right away. Her laughter also caused Shelly to reveal a faint smile as she silently laughed to herself.

Feeling left out Boss asked, “What’s so funny?”

Boss didn’t need to find out for much longer as the door to the room opened up again. A little tail could be seen first as it slowly backed out of the door. Barkie’s face came into view tugging the collar of the little boy that laid on the floor. There wasn’t a spot on his body that didn’t show signs of being marked by the stick.

“Ahaha!” Boss laughter was immediate as he saw the little silver haired boy getting dragged out by his puppy. Arthur had a dazed look to his face as he laid on the ground staring upwards towards the ceiling.

Michael slowly peeked his head out the door, his face was full of red lines causing Boss to double up on laughter. Michael could only sigh and walk over and sat beside Julie, the marks on him was as much as Arthur.

Pebble and Cobble maintained their expression better when the two boys came out, only a slight smile could be seen on their face. Julie showed a concern expression when Michael got closer, however everyone else knows she was the first to laugh at them.

Barkie got annoyed with dragging Arthur out, once the door closed and Arthur’s full body came into view Barkie walked over to Michael and pointed at his head. It immediately got placed on Michael’s head as it laid there, an annoyed look showed on its face as it stared at the kitten in Shelly’s arm.

The kitten only glanced at the puppy and meowed in response before closing its eyes and purring, the corner of the kitten mouth raised to a slight smirk. A sense of defeat overcame the puppy as it compared masters. Why did it get Arthur instead of Shelly?

Cough

“With 54 out of 60 in the hour Shelly managed to maintain her concentration for 54 minutes. Julie 46 for a total of 46 minutes of concentration. Arthur and Michael could not focus even once.” Gran finally stated the result of the meditation.

At the start of every minute a person would get hit softly by a stick. The stick would release a red line every time it landed on a person’s body to keep count. Those who can manage to use their energy to stop the stick from attacking their body with their eyes closed were cleared for the minute.

Gran completely controlled himself when he tapped them with the stick, if there was even a slight repulsion from those meditating the stick would stop. Only Michael and Arthur showed no signs of being able to control their inner energy as the stick tapped them.

Arthur kept shouting “Aw man!” whenever he was tapped causing Michael to tell him to be quiet. Julie lost her concentration during these times when the two began arguing with their eyes closed. Shelly only lost her concentration during the beginning especially when Arthur and Michael began to bicker at each other.

Arthur slumped over and plopped himself on the sofa. “Michael ruined my concentration.” Michael shook his head and didn’t bother retorting, the first 10 minutes in there was them blaming each other, the result showed for itself he didn’t have the energy to argue back.

“It was everyone’s first time with meditation, don’t worry about your results.” Gran stated calmly. He continued “Today was just practice, I’ll be increasing the difficulty after you kids train with me. By the end I won’t just be tapping, you’ll have to be fully focused to defend yourself, otherwise it’ll hurt.” Michael and Arthur’s faces went pale, the harmless marks on their body began to sting foreshadowing their miserable life of meditation.

“Tomorrow it’ll be Pebble’s turn to train with you guys.” Gran glanced at his son.

Pebble nodded his head “Tomorrow it’ll be you four together versus me. I won’t explain it so just keep in mind my powers and guess.” Everyone spent another hour chatting away until Gran excused himself to check on Roselyn. The group of five decided it was time to head back to the Inn.

“Boss, can’t you help us I don’t want to get smacked during meditation.” Arthur grumbled once the whole group made it back to the boys ‘room. “Sure, I’ll give you an advice.” The four listened intently waiting for Boss to continue. “Meditate more, spend all your time meditating.”

“But it’s so boring, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.” Arthur replied. Boss sighed and responded. “Every single one of you have an innate inner energy that you were born with. It is the first thing every person who goes to school will try to find within themselves in order to manifest the coloration of their hair and eyes.”

Boss continued “Meditation is how you’ll find this energy within you. The girls were able to find it easier because they have already awakened their powers, so it was natural for them to handle the meditation part of the training well.” He then turned to Arthur “It’s only difficult for you right now because you haven’t hit puberty.”

“Why does puberty matter?” Arthur continued to grumble; he was annoyed he hadn’t hit puberty yet.

“Because, once you hit puberty your inner energy hidden within you will become more apparent and reveal your natural abilities.”

“Can’t I just wait until I hit puberty then?” Arthur didn’t feel like he should meditate so early.

“You shouldn’t.” Shelly answered for Boss.

“Why?”

“Young master Arthur, your parents should have already told you why. Don’t you remember?” Shelly’s comment made Arthur try to remember what his parents told him about meditation.

“Arthur, you should practice meditation, it’s good for you.”

“But it’s too boring mommy.”

“Yes, it is sweetie.”

“I don’t wanna.”

“Okay.”

“Arthur listen to your mother, it’s good for you.”

“But I don’t wanna.”

“Okay.”

Scratching his silver hair, Arthur’s emerald green eyes blanked out as he turned to look at Shelly.

“Nope, I don’t know why.”