I fell to my hands and knees wincing as I heard a loud thump. I turned around and saw another frostcat this one impaled to a tree, blood still dripping from the paw and obscuring its icy claws.

“What the hell tadpole!” I heard as I got to my feet still grimacing in pain.

“You were so eager to die you decided on a jaunt through a beast forest.” Edjudan’s furrowed brow made him look like a grizzled general.

“Ah no I was coming to train and ughh I I was attacked.”

“You came this way yesterday?” I nodded.

“You were attacked yesterday?” again I nodded realizing where this was going.

“So you came back to the territory of a recently killed pack animal and were surprisingly attacked.” I was too distracted from my wound to mount a valid excuse.

Edjudan grabbed me and popped off the top of a cylinder hung at his waist he poured the contents onto my back and down my throat. I instantly felt warm relief which morphed into a hot and uncomfortable sensation throughout my body which begun to throb and ache. That old spawn of Dreluk[1], snickered.

“Oh by the way this will hurt pretty bad hahha” his laugh was boisterous and probably heard for miles.

“Well since you are alive why don’t we get started ehh.” He added.

“ AGHHH what the hell was that” I yelled. The pain subsided and I realized the answer, my wound was no longer cold, I reached back and felt it was also no longer bleeding.

The claw mark itself faded away beneath my hands till I could no longer tell that I had been attacked at all. Edjudan turned his back and sauntered back to the campsite, I sat there frozen for a second before running after him.

“Now we can start,” his half smirk gave me an unnerving feeling.

“ Tadpole do you know a stance called the foundation or horse stance.”

“ Yea---yes master,” I stammered still awestruck by my miracle healing.

“Ok, perform it.” He said.

I brought my fists to my hips and bent by legs at the knees holding the stance. “ How long should I hold it?” I asked already feeling boredom set in.

“Hmm days are what 20 hours here….5 days I suppose.”

“Huh?”, I stood up straight again, “are you kidding?”

The old man stared at me and I felt a smack to the back of my head without even seeing him move.

“ Bah what unfilial tadpole, fine just do it as long as you can.”

My frustration mounted but I resumed the pose as I kept thinking- its worth it to be strong, its worth it to be strong- albeit not totally convinced.

“Alright now while you train your body, we are going to train your mind.” Edjudan turned his back to me so I could not see his face.

“ Why do you trust me?” he asked.

I thought about it, he knew of my father, had taken an interest in helping me and saved my life. I wasn’t sure what answer he was looking for. “ Because you saved my life… I guess?”

He kept his back to me but I saw his shoulders slacken. “ Foolish, you can’t judge a persons motivations based on what they choose to show you.”

“ Huh?” I asked.

“ Think about it, I can tell you whatever I want about my relationship with your father and saving you is simple. It is possible there is something I want from you in the future or that I have a reason to harm you slowly….. Never so easily trust it is a sure way to be tricked.”

At this point I started to follow along with what he said but the unnerving feeling mounting in my gut was only matched by my level of confusion.

“In reality my relationship with your father wasn’t simple, we were friends, enemies, rivals and at one point we tried to kill each other.”

This revelation caused me to lose my focus and drop out of the horse stance, my legs grateful for the brief respite. Edjuan continued.

“ I am not telling you this to scare you. In truth I came to ask your father for help, I sensed someone break into this plane and rushed over, it still took time to get here though.”

I nodded at that, as it seemed reasonable.

“There are people worth trusting Jeru, I am not telling you to walk your paths alone but you must use your mind, logic, and other tools to determine who is your friend and who is your enemy. Don’t be blinded by a days worth of kindness or fill with hatred from an unkind act.”

I stood in the horse stance for what seemed like an hour. Thinking through everything he told me. I believed he was worth trusting, not just because he told me these things, but because he told me before I relied on him. As I sat on the ground rubbing my sore legs I came to a conclusion on his question of trust.

“ Teacher, I trust you because I have no choice.” At this he turned around for the first time since I started.

“ I will trust you because I need strength and you have demonstrated the ability and knowledge to impart it”. He was smirking again.

“ And I will not trust you blindly” I said as I once again tried to start doing a horse stance though not succeeding with proper form.

“ Good, in that case I believe you will not get so easily killed and I can impart some skill. Heheheh” Edjudan replied.

“ First know that this method is far from ideal” his face lost its annoying smirk and his tone took on a resounding seriousness. “ What I am about to teach you is a stolen technique from the Church of the Divine Will[2], “ So don’t let them catch you with it. The technique is best used when someone has two opposite elements, life and death or chaos and order.” I nodded my eyes wide trying to burn each word into my brain.

“ Usually someone will train their element and create their own internal technique, but if you were to train a chaos technique right now you would most certainly explode.” The color drained from my face.

“ Now get into a meditative stance.”

“I won’t explode right!” I blurted out.

“ Hhahaha no at most it would cripple you if done poorly.”

I sat down and folded my legs preparing to meditate even though my heart was pounding like a drum.

“Calm your mind and you will be fine. Now I will inject some energy into you, feel it move and try to push it towards your tired muscles.”

I closed my eyes and felt Edjudan place his hands on my back, just like the healing medicine I felt a warmth rush into my body.

The energy never got more uncomfortable though; it stayed centered in my back and washed over me. I sat there reveling in the comfortable feeling.

“Brat did I not tell you to move the energy” the old man’s words were harsh but his tone remained placid, I heard his words but didn’t exit my mentally focused state.

I could feel the energy but had trouble grasping it. Each attempt was like grabbing at a cloud, the power rushing through my fingers. After some time passed I felt my skin tingle, goose bumps raised, I began to feel the flow of my blood and could sense the slowing of my heart. The cloud of energy soon felt like a small stone and I pushed the feeling down to my worn out legs the warm feeling dissipated and my legs stopped feeling sore and became like a stretched bow. They were light yet powerful ready to snap and fire, this urge took over and I quickly stood up.

“ Very good, not bad for step one.” In one fell swoop my adulation plummeted.

"Step one, step one , how hard is this going to get?” I asked.

“ Oh not much harder, at this rate it may only take you 10 years.”

My eyes went wide and I stood frozen.

“ Hahahah, not bad for your first day, here take these books, read them and come back in 3 days time, your body needs to release the energy and you need to rest before we continue.”

“ We are done for the Day?” I asked.

“ Unless you plan on camping out you better rush home before it gets dark.”

At that moment I Looked at the sky, Murste, the day was gone I had sat there for hours. I bowed to the old man and turned to rush back to the village.

“ TADPOLE BRAT! Don’t run through the beast forest without being on alert for beasts this time.” I heard the old man yell.

Taking heed I slowed down a bit and checked my surroundings till I reached the gorge.

[1] Cursed Child of a Tribal Chieftain. Legend says he was responsible for the fall of his tribe and their extermination in the 1st Era.

[2] Church of the Divine Will- Multiplane religious institution that wield great authority and a great deal of control over many universes