Uneventful. That was the best Zain could describe his medium session.

  The only consolation for him was the fact that Brayden had similar results: His primary attribute was water and his spirit formed that of a fish as well. Misery loves company, as they say. As much as he wanted to pat him on the back to reassure him, Zain really couldn’t suppress his smirk.

  “What. Oh well. Don’t feel bad, it’s not terrible.” Faux lilts didn’t mask the smugness at all.

  Brayden, likewise, didn’t hide his sarcastic smarminess, “Oh, ThAnKs. YoU’rE sO nIcE. What was your result again?”

  The two boys side eyed one another, pettily jutting out their chins in feigned derision. It took Devante clearing his throat for them to stop their sassing.

  “Well, that’s that. We have the information we need. Thank you Naia.” He gave a normal prayer bow, with Naia giving one in return.

  “Call for me again if you require the readings of the stars.” Then, as she turned her palms towards them, her image faded into the background again, dissipating into nothing.

  Devante turned towards the exit, shepherding the group whilst he began to delegate. “Alright! Now that we know where to start, we can get you to start circulating your mana. Yo, Harry! You get all that info?!”

  From the corner, the silent man flashed a thumbs up before withdrawing his hand once again.

  “Good! Cherry, I’m gonna need you to call up the old man. He’ll be a great help with Zain’s training.”

  Wordlessly, Cherry walked away, assumingly to do the task that was requested of her.

  They walked out of the cave dwelling, with the door shutting behind them.

  Devante turned towards Harry, pulling out one of his earbuds for him as he spoke to him directly. “Take them to the spring. Show them how to use the shoes. It’s gonna take a little longer for Zain to learn since his attribute is fire. The old man is gonna come, so he can give some pointers since he’s a good teacher.”

  The man grabbed the earbud from Devante’s hand, then nodded to his command. “Yessir.”

  After this affirmation, Devante turned his attention to the two boys. “I gotta go now. Gotta do some stuff for my wife. I’m gonna leave y’all with Harry, though. He can water walk pretty well. But since Zain has a fire attribute, I asked for a better teacher to come. You won’t be able to water walk without learning your main attribute first. Also…” His eyes lingered on Zain’s side, scrutinizing it for a few seconds. “Where’s the sword I got you?”

  The question was rather random, Zain couldn’t quite understand the relevance to the situation. “Um…at home?”

  “You should carry it around with you as much as you can. The old guy can explain why, I’m not really good with explanations and crap.”

  Devante’s phone began to sound off; he gave a glance at the caller ID, before addressing them with more urgency. “Look, I gotta go now. Just follow Harry and you’ll be fine…I think.”

  With that final instruction, Devante hurriedly dashed off in order to answer his phone.

  This left Brayden and Zain to awkwardly stand with Harry. At first he did not acknowledge their presence, continuing to listen to his music.

  “Umm…” Zain’s reluctant prodding elicited Harry to shush him, drawing his index right in Zain’s face.

  Rudely, he continued to keep them waiting. It wasn’t until a full minute had passed that he moved his finger away. But he took his sweet ass time putting away his earbuds.

  Finally, the indifferent man looked the two of them in the eyes.

  Then he proceeded to not say anything.

  Zain and Brayden exchanged confused glances before Brayden decided to speak.

  “So…Where–”

  “Shush, fool.” The man held his hand in the air, letting out a forceful belting as he muted the two boys in front of him. “We ain’t cool. Once I’ve done my business, we through.”

  “Okay, that’s fine. We–” Zain tried again to speak only to be interrupted again.

  “You deaf and can’t see. Not worth shit next to me. Look, the world agrees.” He started walking away, extremely fast for some reason. Zain and Brayden followed, hardly able to keep pace as the strange man continued to rhythmetically patronize them. “Fuckers can’t keep tempo. Don’t want em close, they fuckin’ up my flow…”

  Harry continued on his weird rapping rant, picking up speed as he continued.

  Ughhh…I hate this guy already!

  Dude wasn’t even waiting for them. Being able to sing and keep up this speed was a noteworthy feat, but the fact that he felt it necessary to trash them as he did irked the hell out of Zain.

  Seriously considering throwing something at him, Zain was looking around for something that would do the trick. However, before he could carry that out, Harry stopped dead in his tracks. He had stopped speaking too, which was odd.

  Following his gaze, Zain surmised that Harry was looking at a woman who was walking home from work. Perhaps he recognized her because he began to casually saunter over to her.

  Or perhaps not, as she gave a quizzical look to him as he knelt down next to her. With a small flourish of the hand, Harry presented a rose constructed from ice.

  “Girl, you fine~ Any way I could make you mi–” Before he could finish his cheesy rhyme, she had gathered a wall of sludge and mud; With her left hand, she slapped him with the construct, pummeling him to the wall of a nearby building. With her right hand, she grasped at the air, drawing away the moisture from her creation, solidifying it and Harry.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  With a flip of her hair, she walked off, departing without verbally imparting.

  They were finally able to catch up to the now immobilized Harry; However, instead of fury or anger being left on his face, there was a look of ecstasy.

  “Oooo, I love me a feisty woman.”

  A chill went up Zain’s spine; Brayden likewise had his face contort into one of utter disgust. They exchanged glances, with Brayden’s face screaming that he was regretting coming along.

  “Maybe we should ditch him…” Zain whispered.

  “I can hear you.” Harry spoke normally this time. One of his hands wasn’t imprisoned, so he used it to summon some water. Slowly, he worked the water through the cracks of the hardened dirt. Little by little, the structure fell off of his body, allowing him to escape.

  Now he had been dirtied by the sludge which littered the street, and admittedly smelled like a wet dog (somewhat fitting). This didn’t appear to bother him, as he simply created more water which he used to rinse himself off with. Once this was done to a passable degree, he threw his hands away from him, drawing the water droplets from his body, holding them stationary in the air like frozen rain drops. Then, with a snap of his finger, they all popped, leaving no trace of their precipitation.

  It was pretty impressive, but Zain would rather die than compliment this guy.

  Harry wiggled his body some, readying himself again; without wasting another moment, he began to run again. “Y’all can rest when you good. Without grit, you’ll stay there, in the hood.”

  The sidelined boys rolled their eyes, then began to run toward their demented teacher.

  Out of breath, they finally arrived at their destination: A park with bubbling green springs at the center. The small ripples were highlighted by bioluminescent creatures, lapping the water's edge with a shimmering glow. The playground nearby had fallen into disrepair, rusted beyond repair and too hazardous for any kid to enjoy anymore. Not that there were any children within the area, as it looked as if the area was largely abandoned.

  The unwearied Harry went to the pond, brushing some dirt away from something near its edge. After fiddling a little with it, a pop sounded, causing a small cabinet to rise from the earth. Using a key at his side, he opened the doors, revealing some shoes that were stored there.

  He turned towards the boys, holding two pairs in front of them. “Here. Size 10 and 8, right?”

  “Yeah…How did you–”

  “Cherry.”

  “Figures.”

  That woman seriously scared Zain with the amount of information she knew. It would be best to never cross her.

  Changing the subject in order to not linger on the distressing detail, Zain started to question Harry, hoping he would actually answer this time. “Why aren’t you singing anymore? What was the point of it earlier?”

  Harry turned towards him, raising his eyebrow as he gave Zain the up-down. He spoke in a low tone, with all seriousness. “Nephew, are you stupid?”

  This elicited a grimace from Zain. Yeah, he definitely hated this guy.

  Instead of answering, Harry simply carried on with what he had been doing.

  Walking to the spring, he placed one foot upon the water; The water around his foot stilled, with the bioluminescent creatures outlining the area affected. He shifted his weight onto the water, doing the same with his other foot.

  Taking a few more steps into the water, he turned towards the boys. “Put on the shoes and wade towards me.”

  The shoes in question were some sneakers that had a weird sole; The pads were protruding out, with hair-like substance comprising most of the bottom. In all honesty, they looked a little goofy, but beggars can’t be choosers.

  With an additional suggestion to put their belongings to the side, they put on the shoes, and Zain felt the soles squish into the dirt as they approached the water.

  With one foot, Zain tested the shoes; bubbles gathered at the bottoms, making the surface bend a touch as the surface tension remained unbroken. The shining microscopic creatures outlined his foot tightly, making the bubbles underneath appear frothy. As he shifted his weight to his foot, he could feel the buoyancy of the shoes keep his foot above the surface.

  Marveling at the effectiveness, he confidently tried to step his other foot into the water. Before it even touched the water, his first foot slipped from under him, causing him to faceplant into the shallows.

  “Bwhaahaha!!” Harry cackled, amused by Zain’s failure.

  Suppressing the urge to cuss him out, Zain lifted his head and tried to get up again. The shoes made his feet remain above the water, so he had to somewhat shimmy back to the edge again.

  “Zain, look! Like this!” Brayden tried to give a demonstration, but his positioning was all but ideal. His butt was sticking out with his hands waving in front as a sort of counterbalance. It looked like he was about to drop a hot one, which made Harry snicker some more.

  “Thanks man…I’ll try…” Zain rose again, carefully placing his feet on the water again. He bent his knees and made sure to push his second foot from the edge instead of stepping. Imagining skating, he parted his feet a little so he was balanced. The water offered no friction or grip, so any movement threatened to throw him off balance.

  It took a good minute or two for Zain to remain standing, or more crouching, over the water. Of course, both of the boys were still in the shallows.

  This didn’t last for long as Harry jumped up, causing a small ripple to disturb the water. It wasn’t anything too notable, but even this small ripple was enough to disrupt their stances. Brayden landed on his ass and Zain belly flopped into the water again.

  Harry cackled, holding his side as the boys once again tried to rise. Wiping some tears away, he began to speak again. “One of you can use water attributes, right? Channel this into the soles of your feet.”

  Zain looked at Brayden, who gave a suspicious glare to Harry. Regardless, he did as requested.

  His eyes closed, and he appeared to be focusing on his mana. Again, he tried to stand on the water.

  This time, however, he was able to stabilize himself faster, without having to assume an embarrassing stance as well. The outline of luminescent creatures extended a little further, though the water was not as still as Harry had made his. Even though Brayden was still a bit wobbly, the difference was impressive.

  “You need to be able to channel your mana in order to properly use the shoes. Without it, you can’t get any traction to move.”

  What he was saying made sense, as they couldn’t feasibly take any steps forward with the shoes alone. But, that also meant that he knew this, and still made them try just to laugh at them.

  Clicking his tongue in irritation, Zain looked at his feet. Unless he learned to use his mana, he wouldn’t be able to water walk.

  All of his attempts to try to manifest his mana had failed, so the concept of being able to use it made his head dully hurt. There was so much he had to do, yet so little time.

  Brayden was attempting to step forward when his phone buzzed; a notification drew his attention away. Without his focus, he landed on his butt again, groaning in irritation and annoyance.

  Shaking off excess water from him, he returned to where he had left his phone. A few moments passed as he read the message, with his face showing concern as he registered the message.

  “Shit! I have to turn in some stuff today for my scholarship program! I thought I had more time! Shitshitshit!” He gave some regretful glances to Zain, apologizing profusely for his sudden departure. “I’ll try to get my stuff out of the way quickly. Sorry! I was hoping to stay for longer!”

  Zain shook his head, making sure to reassure him. “It’s okay dude. Get your stuff done. If I figure out how to water walk, I can teach you later when you have more time.”

  Brayden gave a nod, then gathered his stuff and departed quickly.

  That left Zain and Harry to continue practicing, but Zain had obviously hit a plateau.

  It was frustrating, and Zain couldn’t help but blame himself.

  Damn! Why am I so bad at this?! Why can’t I grasp this easy shit like everyone else!

  Just as he was getting up to try for the umpteenth time, someone somewhat familiar to him spoke.

  “I done FUCKIN told you to stay away from ‘adventures’, boy. Now you’ve dragged that good kid into this….I ain’t gonna let you rest now.”

  Zain turned as the echoes of a cane approached him; the old shop keeper, Mr. Carter, looked down on him, giving him a contemptuous laugh as he eyed him with manic abhorration.

  “You’re gonna hurt now. I gotta beat these lessons inta ya!”