If one could say one thing about the group of five that had taken over the cave near the lake, it was that they all were incredibly stubborn. Finding out that some strange creature made up of tentacle-like vines was living in the lake had only been the first step. The next was, obviously, to deal with the massive monster, regardless of the excellent protection it enjoyed thanks to many, many cubic metres of water to hide beneath and its innate power and vitality. They didn’t care that they couldn’t even tell what it was and even Wu Chenhua, the normally realistic and collected leader of their group was carried along by the enthusiasm, especially that of Kevin, their Water Mage.

To him, the creature was almost a personal insult, a monster that was using HIS element to hide within, befouling the waters and exploiting their life-giving nature to set up ambushes. He would not stand for this and he would see the creature brought low, even if he had to get creative with his methods.

And so, his daily battles with the vines began, only interrupted when the elderly Mrs Wu, or one of the others, managed to find enemies that could serve as a challenge for their group and they fought together.

Sadly, no matter how stubborn he was, no matter what he tried and how many individual tentacles he ripped from the water and shredded into mulch, he wasn’t making progress. It was almost as if there would always be another tentacle unless he somehow managed to rip out the entire thing or destroy whatever core the creature or plant might have. A core that was nearly hidden deep within the lake or maybe even below, dug into the ground like roots.

For the first time, he realised that he couldn’t overcome this foe with Water Magic, as much as that admittance hurt him. Sadly, he wasn’t sure if there was another way to destroy it, certainly not an easy way. To make matters worse, he had stopped gaining points in his Water Magic skill a few days before, forcing him to accept that he wasn’t making progress, merely slamming his head against a wall, hoping to break through the wall.

Sitting on the small hill the cave they had been using as a base was dug into, he began to relax, letting his mind drift into the Astral River, as the Pale Lady had taught him. If Water wasn’t the answer, what could be the answer? What else had he learned, what else had he seen?

His mind drifted back to those first lessons, to watching how the Pale Lady had demonstrated different elements to help guide Sandy and himself. To him, Water Magic had clicked easily and fairly quickly, especially with the help of his Teacher. Just being able to ask questions and watch the Pale Lady work Her magic had inspired him and allowed him to warp reality to his will, a feat only possible in works of fiction before. Sure, it was thanks to the Change that it worked at all, and it galled him to admit that the complete and utter destruction of his entire life had come with something good, but it was a fact and he couldn’t be wilfully ignorant. He didn’t even want to imagine what the Pale Lady would do to a student of Hers that was that stupid.

Opening his eyes, he looked over to the lake and began to wonder. What other element might allow him to do as he needed to? Feeling the Astral River flow around him, he focused his mind towards the water, not delving into the stream of power all around him, but simply following along, carefully listening for the strange, ethereal noises he perceived magic as. He wasn’t able to sense as much as some of the others he had trained with, certainly not as much as his Teacher, but he could feel something. Especially if it was connected to water.

Any water and the more he immersed himself in the sensation of sensing both, the physical water and the flowing power of the Astral River, the more he realised that they were connected. Not quite one and the same, but it was similar, there was a distortion, almost like a mirror but not really. Maybe like one of those funhouse mirrors, twisting and warping what it reflected, not only in two dimensions but in more. Many, many more.

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Feeling the water in the drenched Earth around him, he began to realise that it wasn’t just water he could feel but that there was a lot more to it. There was a resonance, all throughout the Astral River with far more elements involved than he had noticed before. For a moment, he was trying to understand, to grasp what he was sensing but before he could make any sense of what he was feeling, a sharp spike of pain shot through his head, causing him to lose his focus and almost black out as tears were driven into his eyes and a scream ripped from his lungs.

Lying on the ground, he could barely move, trying his best to keep from being sick and some time later, how long he couldn’t tell, he heard steps approaching him.

“Kevin, you alright?” the painfully loud voice of Wendy asked, as she stepped up to the prone form. She had been nearby, keeping an eye on the younger Mage and making sure that no hungry critter decided to make a meal of him while his mind was focused elsewhere. The rest of their group had ventured out, scouting and looking for interesting things while the two of them had remained behind. The pained scream of her companion had caught her off guard, she had been confident that there were no enemies nearby but something had obviously hurt the teen, as his shivering form showed.

Uncertain what she could do to help and not wanting to make things worse, she only checked his pulse and breathing, not that either was difficult and kept watch over him, waiting for him to recover. For a brief moment, she cursed that this, whatever this was, had happened on her shift, if it had been Oliver, he might have been able to do more, after all, he was a trained medic, something he had continued since the change hit. But no, the decision was to keep one of their fighters with the vulnerable spellcaster. And now, she was standing here, with the heavy staff she used in battle in her hands and nothing she could do but watch and wait.

Luckily for everyone involved, especially Kevin, his pain didn’t last too long and he managed to get his laboured breathing under control to the point that he noticed the taste of blood in his mouth. Pushing himself up, he spat the blood out, realising that he had bitten his tongue and had a nosebleed.

“That wasn’t fun,” he whispered, grateful for the support Wendy gave him.

“What happened?” the older woman asked, her voice still too loud in his ears but no longer as painful.

“Pushed too far, I think,” he confessed, thinking back to that moment of epiphany, that moment of clarity in which he had seen so much. Too much. Even the memory was taxing his mind, bringing back the headache and he immediately shook his head, pushing the images from his mind.

“The Lady warned me, sometimes you take things too far, too soon. I’ll have to consider what happened and take things slower,” he continued.

“Huh, looks like you managed to do something,” Wendy chuckled, her staff gesturing to the ground around him and the grass that had somehow grown to almost twice its height right around him, with a circle of taller grass stretching about a metre.

“Um, maybe? Not quite what I tried to do but I might have,” Kevin admitted, quickly checking his Astral Power and Health reserves, noticing that both had taken a significant dip.

“This is a thing,” he muttered, reaching out to touch the grass and feeling his own power infused into it, seeping into the living organism and vitalising it. When he closed his eyes, trying to delve back into the Astral, he got a soft slap to the back of his head and his eyes flew back open.

“Don’t, give yourself time, silly,” Wendy admonished him, “You pushed too far already, relax, recover and maybe try to figure out what went wrong and what went right tomorrow,” she added, privately hoping that tomorrow, it wouldn’t be her problem if the teen did something stupid. It likely would be, their group of five was too small for anything else to happen, but it was a nice thought. And a valid one, even with her slightly ulterior motives.

“You’re right, my mind is feeling woozy already. You know, I might just take a nap right here, right now,” Kevin accepted his fate, stretching back out in the freshly grown gras and closing his eyes once more. Not trying to do anything, but simply floating there, on the edge of sleep, drifting between reality and the Astral River.