Chapter #6Ethan visits a friend by: Pseudonym   At school the next day, Ethan was downcast. He'd always wanted to earn a black belt, but his grandfather-sensei was in hospital, and he was himself injured in the process. It was really hard to focus on any of his schoolwork, and at breaks he kept to himself, ruminating.
"Hey Ethan, what's the matter?" asked Ethan's friend Fergus after school. Fergus was a tall, athletic boy. His emerald green eyes looked very similar to Ethan's, which made many question if they were perhaps distant cousins, but he had medium-length brown hair instead of Ethan's spikey black hair.
"What do you mean?" asked Ethan.
"You seem really sad today" replied Fergus "Is something wrong?"
"I ... don't really wanna talk about it" said Ethan sadly.
"Well ... wanna hang out?" asked Fergus.
Ethan shrugged. "Sure" he said "I've got nothing better to do." And it was true - without his master there was little practicing he could do in the dojo.
Fergus led Ethan to a small park near the shore. Here there was an overgrown path, and following it, the boys came to a small bay, sheltered away from public view by the bushes and forests of the park. There was, however, easy access to the ocean.
"This is where I like to go swimming" said Fergus "Come on, it'll be fun." And with that he began undressing.
"But I don't know how to swim" replied Ethan.
"It's easy!" said Fergus "I'll teach you."
Shrugging, Ethan removed his top, revealing the massive bruise on his shoulder and torso from where he'd endured the powerful kicks a day earlier.
"Woah, how'd you get so hurt?" asked Fergus.
"Never mind, I can barely feel it" lied Ethan.
The two handsome, muscular young boys undressed and Fergus got into the water first, Ethan tentatively following. "Just follow my lead" said Fergus reassuringly and he took a deep breath and dived under water.
Little by little, Ethan began to get comfortable being around the water. He liked how it flowed around his skin and how its currents moved about. He began to notice that between the playing of the light from the sun on the surface of the ocean, there were large patches of shadow ... and the deeper the water, the more at home Ethan felt with the shadows around him. A few times, Fergus had to help Ethan get back to the surface to breathe, as Ethan loved exploring near the bottom.
As the sun set, Ethan and Fergus got back to Fergus' house. "Thanks" said Ethan "We should hang out again tomorrow."
"Before you go ... would you like to do some extra study with me?" replied Fergus "I always find that helps calm my brain, too."
Ethan was a bit reluctant, but then he remembered how reluctant he'd been before going swimming. "Alright" he sighed. Fergus just smiled.
Ethan found studying with Fergus a very different experience to studying by himself. Just like swimming, Ethan found the math problems they looked at together to be like soft water his mind could flow through. It was like his experiences swimming were somehow making him smarter, as well. Ethan especially found that, like water, he felt most comfortable when the problem was so deep his mind could lurk in the shadows of the problem.
The next day at school, Ethan was slightly less glum. His schoolwork made weirdly more sense than it did before, and his strength was returning to him since his swim. After school he again went swimming with Fergus, and again studied together. And so it went on for about a week.
Then one day, Ethan went to the shore by himself. He disrobed, seeing his injury was now fully healed. And he tried using his Chi Direction skill to create a burst of water.
Previously, Ethan had only managed to create a volume of water similar to that of a spray bottle, at best.
Now, Ethan was thrown back from the recoil of the massive volume of water he ejected from his hands.
Ethan smiled to himself. He knew he had at last mastered the element of water, thanks to his friend Fergus. He dived in, happily swimming down to the shadows of the deep. He'd never even seen his grandfather wield the water element as well as he did. He even came across a shark in the open ocean, and
Ethan began to wonder if he could master the other elements the same way before returning to face those who had invaded his grandfather's dojo.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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