Chapter Five: Filler Part One

Watching the other novices and Damon go to train I feel pissed, I should be over there training too, sure I could train on my own but that gots boring quick. I want to actually fight, not do shadow boxing for hours on end, but that's all I could do at the moment. But don’t think that didn’t mean I didn’t do It. Over the course of the week I had been suspended from training I had devised my own training method, which consisted running ten laps around the town, a thousand push ups, sit ups, squats, and then practicing my forms, swordplay and hand to hand, but I was already done with that by the time they had got up to train. So I sigh and go to my tent.

I was in my tent feeling frustrated and contemplating what to do today. Sure self training is fun at first though It gets boring after awhile and pretty monotonous plus I barely got winded after my own training anymore... I probably need to buy some weights and up the training. Also I hadn’t sparred in a week and I missed that feeling of my blood boiling and my mind threatening to cloud over with rage only to be barely contained, and the only thing that seemed to exists is you and your opponent, and deep vicious desire for victory over your opponent surely you know what I mean right? I have no outlet, no one would spar with me in the lot and most people who didn’t attend class found a job in town and wouldn’t talk to me and those who went to class weren’t here and they didn’t spar with me anyway… and they suck anyway.

So I’m in my tent sitting down trying to find something to do, then the Idea came to me I’d go see George I hadn’t seen him in over a month surely he could keep me entertained till the dual… But I didn’t know where the other lots are, and trust me I’ve looked over the week and still couldn’t find them, It’s like they didn’t want me to find them or something. I then sighed and went back to thinking. Then another thought hit me, Damon he would know where they were located he always went to go see Julian after class, maybe he could show me there and maybe, I could see Julian too, maybe he’d be worth sparring against.

Feeling excited course through me, and rushed out of my tent to look at the position of the sun. Then felt miserably it had been barely an hour since the sun came up and maybe thirty minutes since the others left for training, I had also already eaten my breakfast so no go back to cafeteria...yet.

I had also ran out of jerky and that just bums me out.

I looked around my part of the lot, and It’s pretty big maybe a hundred feet to my right and left, and twenty feet to the wall from the back and fifty in front of me, I had made sure to keep the competition away and the guild encouraged it...maybe. Anyway my little camp had gotten a little messy over the last couple weeks, so I should probably clean it before it gets worse.

Over the course of an hour and a halfish, I made my camp sparkle. I had plucked all the weeds, and made sure to replant the wild flowers around my hole behind my tree and put some weeds next to it. I collected all the sticks and logs in the grass, and some from outside my lot and put them in a nice dry pile, and found a bunch of rocks, ranging from a small pebbles, to some the size of my fist, and a couple boulders, I put them into piles as well, oh and I found some greyish cloudy rocks, but I just threw them into the pile and they shattered must not have been all that sturdy.

I looked at the sky and saw I still had maybe three hours till Damon was done with class, so I started to rack my brain and, no It didn’t hurt thank you very much I just got a minor nosebleed that is completely unrelated, but couldn’t think of anything to do but train or nap, man I need a hobby. So I took the third option I just sat down and stared at the wall. After a while, I looked down at the ground to see if I had missed anything and saw a couple of rocks. I scooped them up in my mitts, and tossed them one by one into the pile, and then a realization hit.

I jumped up and ran over to the wood pile and pick up a good sized log and stabbed it into the ground right in front of the wall and went to the stone pile and pick up and couple of good sized stones and sat them aside. I then looked for some red wild flower and use them to make a target on the log.

I’m a good fifty feet away from the log and I reached to pick up one of the stones. I tossed it a couple times in my palm and tossed it at my log. It screeched through the air and...hit the wall in a shower of powder. Huh might of used too much power with that one, plus the wall a has good sized dent in it now I didn’t want to get build with wall repair so I’d have to lower the output and actually hit my target.

So I reached down and found a fist sized rock, maybe this would slow it down better. This time I took aim and threw the rock with much less force at the log… and it didn’t even make it twenty feet before it crashed into my tent leaving a fist sized hole in the cloth. Ok maybe not use one so heavy and maybe not use so little power. Feeling frustrated in a good way, I kept picking up rocks and throwing them at my target.

I had a nice smoothed rock in my hand, I had found over throwing rock that the smaller and smoother the rock the easier it soars. I put my feet into a position I found comfortable and took aim, twisted my hip and let the pebble fly. There was no noise this time it soared fast through the air and my hopes were up...and it hit the log! It the side of it not really hitting the target but the edge of it really, but that is still an improvement right?! Then I heard a loud boom a couple of seconds later from the where I threw the pebble, and noticed the pebble had splittered the log where I had threw it. So less power than? Well it least the pebble is still intact.

I kept throwing rocks at the log, and by the time I choose to take a break it was in tatters but still standing proud and I still hadn’t hit the freaking target yet! I looked down at my broad, long arms and felt that painfully delicious exertion I’ve been craving since I was suspended. I then looked at the sky and sigh. I still have an hour or two before they’re done with class, I take a look at my arms and feel the pain in my arms then turn to the target, and decide to take a break.

I go into my tent, and sit down cross legged. I take a couple deep breaths, letting my lungs completely expand before emptying out, letting the air circulate through me and I draw myself into my mind's eye.

In my mind's eye I can see all my memories that I remember and some I don’t. I look back over my last couple fights recently, and look over myself as I fight. I watch for my mistakes and errors, and as I’m doing that I find myself drawn to something.

Something that’s been around me my whole life yet I’ve never paid any attention to. That overwhelming power that the strong simply have flow off them. The power that Mars has that lets him crush the spirits of those too weak to oppose him, the same power that Rashid unleashes as well and what makes his chain stakes, and my father who surpases them both and whose power eclipse everything but the stars. My father had a word for that power, hmm what was it, and is it the key to being strong?

I rack my brain trying to remember the word, and it’s on the tip of my tongue. But what’s the point of knowing the word for something I can’t use yet? Frustration builds from my heart, and it burns with a angry fire. I let that fire burn and I feed it my annoyance to make it a growing rage. I can feel it growing with power and it’s about to burst and explode and-, “Kuaaha!” I cough rapidly and painfully as I’m forced to release the breath I forgot I had holding in me. Huh, maybe that was the burning feeling? I leave my tent, and see it’s almost time for class to get out. I sprint out and as I’m leaving I can’t help but notice this honey, brown sheen on my skin, which quickly fades away, I smile and the words back on the tip of my tongue.