I kept my mouth shut, the spit from sleep sealing it tightly like a lock box. Sage peered out from around the corner and saw no one had entered the inside of the boat.

“Good,” he muttered.

We made our way over to the door leading out to the deck, pace by pace, inch by inch, taking our time and maneuvering around creaky floorboards more gracefully than I could imagine. Sage pressed his ear up to the door and listened closely. I’m not sure what he heard, but it didn’t take him long to decide he was bored. Placing a hand on my shoulder, he gave me that signature smile, telling me well before he spoke that he was about to do something brazen and borderline stupid.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Ready for—” I never got to finish. He kicked the door down and called back over his shoulder.

“Pay close attention, this will be a good lesson.”

Before I could object, he was out there in no shirt, ripped up, nappy pants, and his hair was spiked over to the right side where he’d been sleeping. He looked about as unthreatening as a startled bird, and I wasn’t sure I liked his odds when I saw the amount of people on board outside. There had to be at least twenty, maybe twenty-five people on the deck, and when they saw Sage they slowly and methodically surrounded him.

“Ah,” a larger man said upon seeing Sage. “Fer a moment, thought mebbe this weren’t the right boat.” He and the rest of his crew were nothing like the guys who had chased me to Sage’s home back in Avocado. For one, none of them appeared to be cut from the royal class. Case in point, this guy speaking to us like a bumpkin. No member of the royal army would do that, Cashew or Avocado. For two, their armor was cheap and loose fitting, almost as if they had stolen it. They looked more like pirates than soldiers.

Sage, despite being an oddball, was perceptive. He noticed immediately and his shoulders slackened. “Oh come on,” he groaned. “You guys aren’t from Cashew, you’re a bunch of useless pirates.”

Cocking an eyebrow, the man that spoke before drew his sword and walked over to Sage with a hefty stomp that shook the boat. When he got to Sage, my eyes widened. He was the tallest man I had ever seen in my life. He had to be at least two or three inches taller than Sage, and Sage was already huge for a man from my country. Did they all grow this tall outside of Avocado?

The man spat on the deck and stomped on the remains. “So what if we’re pirates, eh?” He thrust his blade up to Sage’s neck, and they stood like statues for a moment before he asked, “What’chew gonna do about us?”

Not missing a beat, Sage just shrugged. “Well I’ll fight you, if you aren’t willing to go without a battle.”

That man, presumably their captain, along with their whole crew burst into laughter that embarrassed me, and I wasn’t even the target. Sage heard me, and in response he turned his head slightly and gave me a big goofy grin, and a nod that said, “Just watch.”

Reluctantly, I did.

Immediately, I noticed Sage’s face changed. It was calm, yet stern, and I soon forgot my embarrassment.

“Ah,” the captain said, coming down from his laugh. “Funny boy, ain’t he? Well awright, go getcher crew, we’ll fight ‘em, won’t we boys?” There was a roar of approval.

“No,” Sage said in a tone so quiet it commanded the attention of everyone. “You will fight only me. That should be more than enough for you buffoons.”

There were a few laughs in the crowd, but with a boast so great everyone seemed a bit more on edge, either due to being actually scared of this overconfident bastard in front of them or because they felt their pride was at stake. I’m inclined to think it was the latter, considering Sage’s attire and overall appearance.

One of the many lessons I learned from Sage was that looks can be deceiving, a simple adage but a true one all the same.

The captain let his sword drop down away from Sage’s neck, and he shook his head, strutting in a circle around Sage like a shark. “Now, I’m going to go ahead and guess ya ain’t never been in the presence of a bonafide pirate before,” he scoffed, his sinister smile widening upon hearing his crew laugh in agreement. “So I’ll be generous. We don’t run no charity, but here’s a handout. Say that one again for me? Who’s fixin’ ta be fightin who?”

Sage then did something I had never seen before.

He glowed green. Not in some kind of aura or something, nothing like that. It was as if his skin just had sucked up unseen the green in the air, and reflected it outward like a wild sunburn. His hair was even greener, his eyes were bright, and his muscles grew taut.

Then he took a breath, and in that breath I saw what power my mentor had.

I couldn’t keep up with his speed, but he proceeded to hit every single crew member of that pirate captain in their grimy face, knocking some overboard, sprawling many over the side of the deck, all within the span of a breath. When my mentor exhaled, he stood behind the pirate captain, absolutely glowing, surrounded by the fallen crew.

The captain’s sword clattered onto our deck, and he backed away almost into me before Sage flashed forward and grabbed him by the collar.

“Ah shet!” the captain swore, shaking and chattering like a cold dog. “Let me go please! Ye’ve made yer point!”

Sage shook his head. “I have shown you my strength,” he said icily. “Now answer my question and maybe you’ll live.”

The captain nodded vigorously.

“Where did you get the gear you’re wearing? It’s obviously of Cashew make, yet you are not in the Cashew army. So did you steal all of this from them?”

He shook his head. “No, no.”

Sage tilted his head at him quizzically. “Oh?”

And then the man told us a chilling tale. “We was out to sea, putting in work ‘round the Pomegranate region, when a bunch a ships appeared outta nowhere. We thought nothing of it, decided ta move toward the Orange islands to be safe though. Next day one a those ships pulls up and asks fer parley. It’s a naval ship, not something like what we was used to. T’was big, has cannons, a crew of two hundred maybe. And they wanted to parley? I says to my crew, ‘This guys nuts.’ And he was, he was from Cashew. Said to me that he’d let us go if we took some gear and went over to the Avocado coastline and did our work there. Ya ask me, Cashew probably asked a lot a folks to head that way, bust some skulls n’ steal some shit.”

Sage narrowed his eyes, tilting them downward. When he didn’t speak, the captain put a hand on Sage’s wrist, then reached behind his back and pulled out a dagger. Before I could say anything, he went to slice Sage’s throat.

In one motion, Sage tossed him overboard and walked over to one of the bodies on the deck floor. Kneeling down, he ran his hand over the material and breathed deeply. Then, in possibly the weirdest display I had seen from him, he launched the remaining bodies onto the boat they had come from, a good half ile away.

After all that, I just stood there stunned for a second, unsure if I was awake.

“So,” I finally asked him, “Was that the Vastmire you used?”

He was sitting with his hands steepled on his chin, staring off into space. A beard was appearing on his face, and he looked older, more worn than usual. “Yeah,” he said. “I used a little of it to make me move faster. Didn’t use any for the strength really, outside of a little to make sure they landed on their boat.”

I sat down next to him, ogling him with fascination. “And I’ll be able to use it, you think?”

He nodded, still staring. His eyes moved mildly, flicking in a sporadic circle. At the time I was unaware, but that was how Sage was when he was planning. Quiet, unblinking, his mind moving faster than I could imagine.

“I think for right now, my training for you will slow up,” he finally said, standing and stretching.

“What do you mean?”

Putting his hands on his hips, he looked out at the horizon and nodded, then moved over to the opposite end of the deck and nodded again.

“I’m going to get us to Mango island today,” he said. “With guys like this terrorizing the sea and presumably the coastline around here, we need to hurry up and get ready.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant. We had no oars, so I knew he couldn’t make the boat go faster with his strength. Unless he had a magic sail or was about to get into the water and push the boat himself, we were going to continue moving at the pace we were going at.

Sage walked over to the wheel and meticulously moved the boat, so subtle that it was down the degree, until he was satisfied with the direction we were pointing. Then, he hopped up on the railing in front of the wheel, facing the sail. The thought clicked in my head, and I couldn’t believe what he was about to do. I couldn’t believe it when he had done it, and part of me looks back on this feat as a deific act. Something heroes do in songs.

“Hold on tight, kid. Don’t want you falling out.” I grabbed a railing and held on for dear life, knowing he wasn’t kidding.

Locking his arm as if ready to punch, he glowed bright green once more. Then he let a punch fly so powerful, so forceful, that a gust of wind went with it that sent our boat hurtling across the sea. My body flailed and smacked the boat while we flew across the sea, over the water in a way that made his showing on our way to see Arsene look like nothing.

Exhaling, Sage stopped after launching a second wave. Meanwhile, I was sitting on the deck floor, rubbing my hands to alleviate the pain from holding on so tightly. My palms were red where the railing was, and my arms and shoulders were throbbing with enough intensity to make my neck hurt. First he sat, then he stood, then he sat again, then he yelled, paced around, sat down, got up, then he just sighed. I asked what was up and he shook his head, probably more at himself than me.

“I never checked their boat,” he cursed. When I asked why that mattered he took a breath and looked like he wanted to cut the boat in half. I’m glad he stopped himself; I knew he could do it if he let loose. “They might have left something there that could have clued us in on where Cashew was going, what they were doing. There may have even been someone from Cashew on board. We missed the opportunity because I was so focused on getting to Mango so fast.”

I didn’t really get it, so I just said, “Well, odds are we will get more done just getting to our destination now. Not much reason to worry, I’m sure it will all work out.”

He blinked at that. “Hmph, what a bottle of sunshine you are! Normally you’re more of a morose kid than that. What’s with the change?”

I just looked down at my reddened hands and said, “Deliberating on the situation is only going to give them all more time. We need to get ready, and I want to get stronger. If you can take out that many people, then I need to take out double that.”

Sage walked over to me and grabbed my chin so that we were looking at each other in the eyes. After a moment, I looked away and he slapped me across the face. Even without any mire, it hurt like hell.

“Why’d you do that?”

He grabbed me by my shoulder roughly and breathed deeply through his nose, whispering at me. “Don’t lie to me, boy. Don’t lie to yourself.”

“What do you mean? I really do want to get stronger!”

Sage tossed me to the ground and went back over to his spot so he could send us to Mango. But before he sent us across the sea at high speed, he told me, “You need to get stronger, we both know that. But if power is something you want, I’m going to stop this training altogether.”

I didn’t get what he meant, so when the boat splashed back into the water again I said, “Look, I know that on this trip I’m not exactly in charge, and I know that I’m the youngest by far—”

“In more ways than one,” he interrupted, a smile creeping onto his face. It was different from his normal one, more smug.

Glaring at him, I continued, “I know all that, I get it. The thing is, you shouldn’t go around hitting people like because they disagree.”

“That’s not why I hit you,” he said, winding up his fist and getting ready to launch.

“Wait!”

Rolling his eyes, he stopped and folded his arms, tapping his foot annoyingly. “Right, get on with it so we can get out of here.”

When he was looking at me then, the pain on my face grew more intense and I could feel my eyes get hotter, my nose tingle with the premonition of sobbing on my horizon. I took a deep breath and tried to clear my head, but I had no real experience saying things like this. Even less experience doing it to someone who had made it clear, as much as I despised admitting it, that he was far superior to me in all sorts of ways.

“Maybe I’m not sure what I want.”

“Good, you get it then,” he said, and he moved again but I continued.

“No, I don’t get it. I don’t get what I’m supposed to want, or what I really need, or anything like that. My level of experience with the world is minor, the amount of people in my life are miniscule. I don’t know many people, and I don’t know who I am, who I’m supposed to be. I never really thought about it.” At that point, the tears were rolling and I felt as if the meaning was becoming lost, like I wasn’t even sure what I was saying. Because I wasn’t.

Sage, despite being unprepared for this, softened his face and came over to me with an aura of gentleness that seemed impossible to belong to the man who had hit me. Kneeling down, he got eye level with me and said, “I know you think none of that is normal, but trust me, it’s okay. I was the same way when I was your age.”

“Really?” I asked. I didn’t believe him.

“Of course, what makes you think you should understand yourself when you don’t really understand the world yet?” He hummed a moment, and his eyes rolled upward, then he focused back on me. “Let me ask you this: have you ever done anything for the citizens of Persea? Interacted with them? Become their friend at all?”

I shook my head.

“So then you don’t even understand why you have to protect your country, then, do you?”

“I do,” I said.

“Oh? Then tell me.”

“I need to protect my country for the sake of my mother.”

He frowned at me, then sat down. “You need to understand, your mother isn’t what the kingdom is all about.”

“I know that,” I said. I didn’t.

“Look, you don’t. That answer shows that you equate Avocado to your mother, and that’s a dangerous way of thinking. Finish this sentence for me. A kingdom is nothing without its…?”

After thinking for a moment and sniffling a lot, I answered, “King?”

His frown grew deeper, hitting his forehead with more lines than ever. “No. And not the queen, or the prince, or any royal member of the family. Your line of thinking is true for some people, sure. In fact it’s probably true to many royals. But you need to understand before you become a king yourself, that the most important member of the kingdom, the person who makes up the kingdom, the person you need to protect, isn’t a person at all: it’s the people, the citizens, and especially the next generation. If the queen, your mother, dies, Avocado can still prosper. If the people die, however, or they are enslaved or taken captive or they escape from their own country because of how messed up things become, then we have lost the kingdom. And truthfully, it goes deeper than just the people. You have to protect the ideals of the people, and instill good ideas in them in the first place. The citizens are your flock, and you are the humble shepherd, do you get me?”

Nodding, I rubbed my eyes and said, “I think so.” I still didn’t get it.

Patting my head, he smiled warmly at me. “Good. Now let me go back to getting us to Mango, alright?” I said okay and grabbed tightly to the railing again. He said I should go inside, that it was safer, but I wanted to experience the speed he was able to make, the power. In our training he only showed me his own physical prowess, never his ability to use the Vastmire. Even at a basic level, it was just mesmerizing to see it in action.

Before he started, he said, “I’m sorry for hitting you, boy. I know it was uncalled for.”

“That’s okay, Sage. I forgive you.”

“Don’t forgive me,” he said. “When things are going poorly, and your ideals are questioned, and you don’t seem to have answers, remember the pain on your face. Remember the way you cried. Remember how you felt today, remember the passion. Those feelings were genuine, perhaps the most you’ve ever felt.”

I sometimes wonder if he hadn’t said that would I recall the moment as much as I have, as I still do to this day. It was, after all, a painful smack. If I had to answer, these days at least, I’m of the mind to say that I would have recalled that moment but for different reasons had he said nothing. His words resonated with me that day. He was right. I had never felt anything so genuine as that moment, outside of the feeling of loss over leaving my mother. Whenever the going has gotten tough in my life, whenever things have looked bleak, I tend to go to this memory. Even writing this, my cheek stings, and I’m sure it looks red to whomever sees me. More importantly, my chest burns with intensity, the intensity of a man with ideals.

That fire didn’t start until Sage spoke that day, and it’s only grown since then.