He was running at full speed through the very uneven ground of the grove, the essence within him pushing him slightly in the direction he should run to avoid being touched. Adrenaline flooded through his body, as he imagined that the tiny pink leaves were enemy swords, falling on all sides of him. The essence within him rose to match his adrenaline, and he was moving faster, and faster still. Finally, he stopped outside the grove, breathing lightly.

"Very good, but...there's one on your head."

He brushed it off, and smirked. "Okay, so now what?"

He heard a pause, and from a flash of insight at the Essence within him, knew she was deciding something. "When I was still alive, I had quite a few hideouts, as I'm sure you can guess. I'd lay a wager that none of them have passed the test of time. None of them...except one. It was my own small personal palace, I suppose. It wasn't very big, but it was beautiful there. Jade tiled floors, marble walls...it was cold in there sometimes, but always very pretty. I kept some of my most fun stuff in there. I had it guarded by things that don't live in this world. If they're still there, then so might some of my old stuff."

Kale had a feeling he knew where she was going with this, but prodded her to finish anyway. "And...?"

He heard her chuckle. "If you're willing, I think it would be a good idea to try traveling there and seeing if it's still there. And, I can help train you on the way there, just in case you get bored."

He could have sworn he saw a picture of her winking. He nodded, though. It did sound like a good idea, if only to travel. "Alright. Where to?"

She pointed him in the right direction: south, and a little east. As he walked, she was teaching him how to try certain things. "You know, at some point or another, you're going to have to know how to see what normally cannot be seen."

He would have given her a quizzical look, if she still existed outside of him. "Like what, for instance?"

"Like ghosts."

He was taken aback. "Wait, why would I need to see a ghost?"

"You'd be surprised how much mischief a ghost can cause."

"Well, alright. How do I see a ghost, then?"

"Learning how is actually just a small part of the art I learned. The whole point of the art is to be completely centered, in balance, and in harmony with everything around you. Once you've learned how to do that, you can learn to hone that into being more ghostly yourself. Learning how to think and move as a ghost helps you to see them as well. Interested?"

"Well, sure! What kind of art is it?" He paused. "It doesn't have anything to do with...demons, or anything, does it?"

He heard her chuckle again. "No, nothing at all to do with demons. Nothing except for learning how to shape and use the essence within you more effectively."

He shrugged. "Alright, what should I do first?"

"Wait until we stop for the night, and I'll give you an exercise to do then. I'll give you one to do after you wake up as well. Okay?"

"Alright. What about between now and then?"

Kale could almost feel her considering again. The cute and bubbly demeanor she had was simply a mask for a truly devious mind, he had learned. "Okay. See that clearing in the trees, over there to your left?"

He nodded. "Okay. See that smaller rock to the left, and the larger one to the left of that? I want you to flip sideways, jumping from the smaller rock over the larger one."

Kale narrowed his eyes. "You want me to what?"

He could just feel her grin. He sighed, and ran at the smaller rock, reasoning that velocity would help him clear the larger one. Well, it couldn't hurt anyway.

He hoped.

Kale jumped at the smaller one, and landed briefly in a crouch on the rock, before launching himself sideways, toward and over the larger one. He forced himself to slowly spin sideways as he jumped. He couldn't help but feel a savage joy as he saw the larger rock about a foot below his face, in mid-flip. He was briefly pleased with himself to no end to know that he was now able to jump that far, when he noticed that the ground was now very very close, and he hadn't rotated enough to land on his feet. He tried to force himself to spin a bit more, just a little more, but it wasn't enough.

He landed with a sickening thud on his chest, the wind knocked out of him on impact. He gasped like a strangled fish for a few moments, when his breathing slowly became regular again.

"It looks like you need practice. Shall we again?"

"It's all this crap I'm carrying. Wait a minute, let me take it off."

"No, you'll need to know how to do some acrobatics like this when your life is in danger, and you most certainly won't have time to take off all your gear before you do so. Come on, get up and try again."

He sighed, and walked about ten paces away from the smaller rock. "Slavedriver." He thought quietly.

He felt a bright grin from her. "Oh, I'm only your slavedriver, cabbage-head. Come on, go!"

Kale ran at the smaller rock, landed in a crouch on it, and launched himself once again over the larger rock. They were both sandstone, he thought. Funny how he didn't notice that before, what with falling on his face, and all.

He was in midair, and he saw the larger rock directly below his face as he was now upside-down in midair. This time, he didn't get distracted, and smoothly followed through with the flip, and landed on his feet, slightly unsteadily. The weight of the sword and his bow and other gear was lighter to him now, but they were just enough to pull him backwards, landing on his back.

He ended up performing the same leap three times more before Melia was satisfied. "Good! Now, I want you to run toward where we were traveling before, but I want you to roll your weight on your feet like you were walking sneaky-like. I want to see if you can be silent when you run, too."

"Melia, it's not possible to run and still be silent. The impact of each step is much stronger because of the speed, and you just can't be as quiet."

He could feel her grin. "Of course it's possible, you have me with you. Now run!"

He shook his head, but ran, rolling his weight like he normally would if he were walking stealthily at a walking pace. At first, he winced every time a dry leaf crackled under his running feet, or a dry twig snapped. As he kept running however, he noticed that it was happening less and less. He kept going, running as fast as he could, and noticed that he could barely hear his own footsteps anymore. He marvelled at this, and kept going for a full half hour before he first started feeling tired, and drained.

"Okay, first off, good job. However, you've used pretty much all of your own essence to accomplish that. Congratulations on picking it up so quickly by the way, but stop for now."

"Why? I can draw from the essence of everything around me, right?"

"...Well, yes, but to make sure you don't start glowing like a bright lantern, you'd need to burn twice as much just to suppress it. We'll put it off for now."

He was feeling a little stubborn. He hadn't had the experience of drawing essence from outside of him, and wanted to. He kept going, and he consciously imagined pulling a little bit of energy from the trees, the grass, and everything else around him to keep going. He was immediately rewarded with feeling the same light, airy, ghostly feeling as he ran as before, but now he noticed that though it was getting dark, everything around him was still light.

"Good, you've learned how to draw. Now ground the energy and stop what you're doing, or cloak it. And hurry, someone might notice you."

He frowned, but imagined someone throwing a cloak over the glow to dampen it, and was rewarded with the glow immediately fading. He gloated. This was fun!

"Anatheeeeemaaaaaa!" He heard a loud, angry, and fearful voice shouting the word from off in the distance.

"Nice going. You see why I told you to wait?"

"Yeah, yeah..." He grumbled, as he looked wildly for a good place to hide.