Chapter 4
Aaron's POV
I have never seen a shack more out of maintenance than this one. The roof looks like it's collapsed in on itself. If it hasn't then it could at any minute.
"Lord Otto?" Zayne asks, glancing at him with an incredulous look on his face, "Please tell me you don't live in that."
He looks back at us, "Ah, I know, I haven't been keeping up with it like I should. I've just gotten a bit too old to fix a leaky roof."
"Do you have an axe?" Kaine asks, glancing around the clearing, "And nails. We need those."
"Uh... no. I do not."
"Oh boy," the lone girl mutters, her hand on her brow in exasperation.
"Let's just go back to town tomorrow to get some. And then build a new house," I suggest, frowning at the mess in front of us.
Lord Otto looks disappointed, "Do we have to build a new one? I've rather grown fond of this house."
"Well..." Kaine walks to the small house, knocking on the walls to see if they're sturdy, "I think the main problem would be the roof. And then clearing out the vines and stuff growing up it. We can do that today no problem."
"Unless the air is too thin for us to do a whole lot."
"Ah, yeah, I didn't think about that," Kaine mutters. I'm surprised he didn't snap at Zayne.
The state of our new home has knocked the meanness out of him, I scoff quietly at that.
Yeah right.
"Well, if you're going to weed, you should use your rings. You need practice. This will be easy enough. Or, should be," our old teacher instructs.
"Are you going to give us any instructions?" Kaine asks, a bit of annoyance in his voice.
There he is.
"No," is all Lord Otto says. And then he walks off.
"Helpful," Primora mutters. She walks to the house and sits in front of the dead plants. Zayne and I follow, but we don't sit, just stand beside her. She's just staring. Then she stands, closes her eyes, and holds a hand out to the ground. When she closes her hand, an area of dirt compresses.
"Huh. So that's how it works? Hocus pocus, compress the dirtus," I say, waving my hand around. Needless to say, nothing happens.
Zayne gives me a look that says, "Really?" but I just laugh.
"No. Not quite," Primora grins, "I guess that's what it would look like from an outside perspective though. You have to close your eyes and try to block out the noise around you. Focus on the area you want to move. Once you've got the area visualized, close your eyes and picture it in your mind. Then you'll just tell it what to do."
I nod then look at one of the plants. I close my eyes and picture what it would look like in my mind, the root system and soil around it completely incased in my mental grasp. Then I close my hand into a fist while I picture the dirt around the roots compressing into a ball. When I look up, there's a hole where the root system used to be. I want to be happy but a wave of dizziness hits and I groan, closing my eyes and covering my face with my hands.
"Oh no. Is this that cliche thing where you have to get used to using your power and doing barely anything at first is like overdoing it? What are we, in a book?" Kaine seems mad again, of course.
"I guess it's like a muscle," Zayne chimes in, I glance up to see him shrugging.
Lord Otto clears his throat from behind me and I jump, "Shi-oot. You almost gave me a heart attack!"
Our teacher quirks a brow, looking at me, "If you're going to cuss, say the full word."
Oh. Did not expect that.
"Well... did you need something?"
"Yes. Don't overdo yourself. It takes longer to regenerate your strength the more you do."
"So... do we dig them up with our hands or with our rings?" Primora asks, glancing at the plants completely surrounding the house, "Wouldn't it be easier just to pull them up with our hands?"
"It would be," Lord Otto agrees, nodding, "But that wouldn't be strengthening your power with your ring, now would it?"
I groan. This'll be fun.
...
I'm sweating more than I should be after weeding that sized area by the time we finish but we got it done. I keep hoping he won't make us knock down trees with our rings. Zayne apparently was thinking the same thing and asked him but Lord Otto just laughed. Great answer.
"So... are you going to make us do that?"
He laughs again, "You think you could? It would kill you, Aaron. Don't ever try to do too much with your rings. They'll tell you what your limit is."
"Primora is having an easier go of it than us," Kaine mutters, complaining for what must be the eightieth time since we've started weeding.
"Primora is a keeper. I told you that she'd be stronger."
"I honestly didn't think it would be immediately," Primora says, joining in, "I just expected to progress quicker than they will."
"You will. You also start off stronger."
"Lucky," Zayne quips, laughing a bit as he wipes sweat off his brow.
Primora laughs in response, but it's only halfhearted. She hasn't really seemed excited or upset or much of anything since we've met her. I mean, it's been there, but it seems more diluted than what I've gotten from Kaine. Not Zayne though. That doesn't surprise me. We've lived together for a long time, I know him. So many of the other girls in the village were always giggly and flirtatious, Primora seems... well. She seems weird. I don't know how else to say it. She just seems weird.
"You four need to get to sleep. It shouldn't rain tonight so if you don't want to sleep inside (the roof won't fall on you) then you can sleep outside," our elder instructs, then walks inside and closes the door.
"What about food," Primora asks.
I glance to see her head tilted and a frown on her face. It's an amusing expression.
"I haven't eaten since breakfast this morning," Zayne grumbles.
"I haven't eaten since..." Primora pauses, "Uh... it's been a while."
"Why?" Zayne asks, furrowing his brow.
"Because it has."
"Not a good answer," Kaine says, raising an eyebrow, "Are you one of those people that starves themselves because you want attention?"
I flinch, "That's not usually why people do that, Kaine," I growl.
"And you'd know that because?"
"My sister was like that... before the war killed her."
"Wait, your sister was killed in the war? How old was she?" The other blonde gapes, eyes wide.
"She was older than me by seven years. I was ten when she died. I technically wasn't born in our town. My aunt and uncle sent me there after our village was raided and so many people died," I shrug, "I don't remember it very well. But we changed the subject. Primora, why haven't you eaten in so long?"
"Pushy much?" Primora mumbles, glaring at the ground, "Look, no offense, but I've never met you or Kaine before today. I'm not entirely comfortable with any of you."
"Fair," I agree, nodding, "But I spilled my guts defending you so it is also fair."
"Using the guilt trip is quite the shady path," Zayne scoffs, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.
"Ah, right, sorry," I look down, embarrassed.
"It's fine," Primora nods. She shrugs.
"Uh... why don't we annoy Kaine about his life?" I suggest.
Kaine looks up, a disgusted look on his face, "I was born, my parents were killed in the war, I went to the orphanage, I worked in the field. I'm a side character. I don't need a good background."
"You're not a side character," I argue, "A side character would be like what the orphanage worker would've been to Lord Otto."
"Umm... we're not in a book," Primora points out.
"Well, obviously," I nod, "But that's what a side character is. If we were in a book Kaine and Zayne would be foils."
"What's that?"
"A character... wait. I know this..." I pause to think, "it's used to make some trait of a character more noticeable. I think."
"If we're in a book does that mean we're breaking the fourth wall right now," Kaine asks.
"I can't say I expected you to participate in this conversation. Not seriously at least," Zayne mutters.
"Well you've broke my mind now."
"What am I doing with my life? Talking to a bunch of weirdos about whether or not we're book characters and if we are if we're breaking the fourth wall..." Primora sighs, sitting down at the base of a tree with her back against it.
"Good question," I nod, and try to figure out if I really want to sleep on the ground.
"So... we're going to sleep now?" Zayne asks, glancing at the ground with a disgusted look.
"Yup," Lone Girl responds, closing her eyes.
I sigh and lay down, using the bundle of clothes I brought with me as a pillow, "Night, weird people," I mutter, realizing for the first time how exhausted I am.
They all mutter their goodnights back and the next thing I know, I'm being woken up to the sun in my eyes.
AN
Yeah... I just needed something to get to 1500 words. Hope I didn't weird out anyone who reads this too much.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top