Chapter 6

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New life

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Swimming closer Teng sees a few crustaceans underwater. Holding a short spear, he takes a breath and heads down. Swimming is hard. He only has one arm, and that’s used for his spear. However, his body has recovered a lot over these few days.

His thigh has healed, and his left arm is just a dull throb now occasionally. Not wasting anytime, he strikes the prey he has picked. It’s a crab. Generally, they don’t move too much making them far easier targets than others. His spear launches forward like a piston mechanism. The crab clearly unaware of the speed of the spear has no time to react and is pierced. The other crabs quickly notice something is wrong and escape. Happy at his hunt Teng returns to the surface.

He’s not too concerned about any sharks at this hunting ground. This area is enclosed by a few tall rocks, only small things like crustaceans can get through.

Over the past few days his training has really increased his physical capabilities. Even when moving in water he feels like he is at home. Like he always belonged here. He is not sure if it has something to do with his law, but he is still happy.

As Teng has had been recovering, he started his training regime. Meditation in the morning near the pond, seeking to understand his new energy and its application. After he heads to the river for breakfast. Then he explores the island. So far, he has mapped out a few landmarks.

To the east is his cave, the river, and his pond, plus a few hills and caverns. North is filled with a valley, while south has a few volcanoes, although they don’t look active. Filled with same the smaller islands were filled with, lush grass and purples flowers. And finally, further west, houses a few mountains as far as he can see. He hasn’t ventured much into either territory just seen where things are.

MAP - ISLAND

North - Valley

Mountains - West East - Teng’s base (caves)

South – Volcanoes

Rift – South of Island

Teng even carved the landmarks into a hard piece of bark.

Something else to note is Teng has grown a lot in this last week. He used to be slim, but not overly muscle. Now he looks like a vegan gym fanatic.

Anyhow these days he has become like a fish in water. Even looking similar to those toned swimmer athletes.

At the moment Teng heads back to camp. It’s currently midday, by the sun’s standpoint. He decided to give up exploring too far. He already has a good supply ground for food and water.

It seems more animals, and other wildlife are showing up these days. Teng is learning to be more cautious. So far, the most dangerous thing he encountered was a snake. Luckily it was asleep, so he quickly killed it as it sunbathed in the sun.

He’s not sure if new lifeforms will come so he wants to quickly increase his strength.

Sitting down at his camp by the river, he begins training. First Teng stabs a few fish as practice to hone his coordination. It’s getting much better. Two out of five hit their mark.

Moving on he does some push ups by the river. It seems the more energised and pumped up his body is, the more energy he can absorb when meditating. After fifty one-armed push ups. He does fifty crunches. Breathing heavily Teng moves to sit in the shallow river.

Legs crossed, Teng sits in the river, waist deep as another stream of energy flows around him. Gentle tugs, and invitations are the best way to absorb this energy. Being too forceful will break the harmony. Slowly but surely energy pools into Teng.

He has become accustomed to this after a week. It should only get easier. Actually, Teng doesn’t really need to do this. His body is already absorbing this energy little by bit, and so are all the animals. But every time he focuses himself in this manner, he feels he grasps a little more into whatever law he has awakened. It’s a strange feeling, like drinking a refreshing lemonade, with a piece of candy at the bottom. Except his cells are the ones drinking. If he does not meditate, he will miss the candy.

In every training session there may be a piece of candy, as if hidden in the can of lemonade. If he went the normal way, not meditating it would be like injecting lemonade by a syringe, with not being able to digest the candy.

Even Teng isn’t sure what this candy as he calls it ‘is’, but he feels it is important. He feels sometimes at moments, because of some hidden understanding his body has an easier time swimming, or healing. The energy at the moment just strengthens his body.

Furthermore, that’s not the only reason he chooses to meditate. With more and more beasts evolving he wants to be ahead of them. He gathers more energy this way too. Hopefully he is just overthinking things. Being on an island far from land, with no one around, has Teng starting to really enjoy living here.