Chapter 5: The Teacher and the Student
When the sun was almost resting on the horizon, Baro and Crystal finally stopped for the night and broke out camp. That after noon they only covered a short distance and both wordlessly knew their exhaustion from the early morning startle. Crystal pitched the tent and threw the bedding under it before collapsing in the soft mess of fabric. She groaned and rubbed her sore legs from the long afternoon of riding.
Baro simply smiled and got a small cooking fire going and prepared a light stew of meat, carrots, and potatoes. Shadow caught up to them half an hour later and sat down next to Baro. He made cute eyes up at him and rolled on his back pawing up towards the smell of slow cooking meat. After a sigh Shadow finally won and was thrown the few scraps of meat that weren't used. He gobbled them up and returned to Crystal under the tent and plopped down.
Soon the stew was ready so Baro took out two bowels and filled them, leaving one for Crystal next to the fire. Eventually the smell coaxed her out of bed and she took a seat by the tree Baro leaned on.
"Hungry?" Baro smiled and handled her the bowel and spoon.
"Mmm, Thanks. I love potatoes!" Crystal said, and then she shoveled in the stew with much enthusiasm. As they ate Baro passed out some bread and talked to her between bites.
"Tell me, how did you meet shadow?" Baro asked. Crystal slurped up a long piece of shredded meat and giggled before answering.
"Only apprentices are given spirit guides. I am the first girl to become one in three generations."
"Apprentice? What kind of apprentice?" Baro looked at her confused.
"Where I'm from, men may become warriors or learn a craftsmanship while women become wives and run the house. But a select few of us are taught to walk with nature and one day will be the spiritual leaders of the village."
Baro paused a moment and then asked, "So the wolf guides you?" Shadow then jumped between them and rested her head on Crystal's lap.
"Yes." She said and stoked his long black coat. "We go everywhere together and explore the worlds mysteries." Crystal laid down on her back and looked up to the stars. She and Baro talked more while gazing up at the night sky. They chatted and laughed about Baro's childhood, sharing stories and jokes between them. Shadow eventually fell asleep and rolled on his back as well, dreaming of sunny plains and chasing deer on the hunt.
Later as the night grew later, Crystal looked over into Baro's curious staring eyes. She smiled and said "Looking for something?"
He whispered back "I'm sorry but I've never seen a mage before, and today I met three."
Crystal frowned. "Three?"
"Well yes, you used magic to blow back one of the guards right?" Baro asked. Crystal immediately got up and ran for her hunt quickly say "I don't know what you are talking about."
Baro knew enough not to follow and stayed outside of its entrance. That is he did stay out of the tent and was about to turn away until he heard Crystal crying tears that melted his heart. Baro threw open the tent flap and knelt down beside her. She was hunched up in a ball with her hair covering her head so he couldn't see her face. When he tried to pat her back she trembled and showed him her deep brown eyes now wet and tear covered face. Baro felt her shake as she clinged to his shoulder and sobered 'I'm sorry' in unintelligible moans. He held her arms and let her cry until she fell asleep, leaving Baro wide-awake to contemplate his new friends outburst. He tucked her in, wiped the tears from her eyes gently, and left her in privacy and as he slept outside by the hot coals of smoldering fire.
After night had passed morning peaked over the hills and brought to light the valley and their exposed campsite. Baro had chosen a small tree to shield their tent but he felt uncomfortable waking up on such a large plain. He stretched and observed the horizon. No one seemed to be following them, and Marpin was safely behind them. Even the guards seemed a bit small for how long they've been riding. Then again, he had never been this far away from home.
Baro then looked over to the tent and brushed himself off before entering. Crystal lay sprawled on the floor with blankets going every which way. Evidently she was not a light sleeper. Baro smiled and left her to sleep and began to back up the smaller bits of camp onto Whirl whip. Crystal eventually came out of the tent and shied her way to the horse and avoided Baro's eyes. She mumbled good morning and avoided talking while they packed up the tent, when she did speak it was in very short words.
The next hour went by much like this. Crystal refused to ride today so Baro simply had Whirl whip trot beside her and headed north at her own pace. Baro was starting to wonder how much longer this would go on
'I wonder what happened that made her so touchy about magic.' Baro thought and glanced over to Crystal. 'Still, Its nice to have company. I hope she's all right.'
It was now noon and the sun hung over head. No trees could bear the sweltering sun out in the plains; they only prospered in the shadows of the mountain. Dizzy from the heat, Baro's vision started to sway until something finally woke him up: Crystal spoke.
"I'm sorry for before, I got carried away." She blurted out quietly. Baro stopped the horse and looked down at her.
"No I'm sorry, if you don't want to talk about it I'll keep shut." Baro replied apologetically.
"No I want to talk about it!" Crystal cried hurriedly, "Its just… well delicate." Crystal sat down against Whirl whip and Baro jumped down beside her.
"I told you before that I was a druid." Crystal started shyly. Baro nodded. "Most druids have a very strong connection with nature. Some of us can even learn to use nature's powers to heal or even summon things to us. Legends even tell us of elder druids transforming themselves into animals or trees."
"It sounds as if you have a wonderful gift compared to what I've seen other magic users wield. Why are you so sad about it?"
"I told you I was an apprentice, learning the ways of the druid. Doesn't it seem odd that I am fifteen and travel without a master to where ever I please?"
"I wasn't going to say anything…" Baro admitted.
"I know you wouldn't have." Crystal quickly smiled and then became more serious. "I… left after an accident happened in my village. After that I ran away from my family and started to wander by myself. I just feel so lost sometimes." Crystal looked down toward her feet with closed eyes.
"Everything's all right. You're out helping people now, what better way to use your powers then that?" Baro stood up and helped Crystal up. "You don't even know me and your protecting me from a dangerous enemy. Just from these last few days I've seen you do more good then whatever happened to possibly overshadow."
"Awh, thanks." Crystal perked up a bit and mounted Whirl whip. "Well what are you waiting for? We have along ride ahead of us."
Baro joined her and saddled the horse behind her. "You lead on for awhile, this heat is driving me crazy."
"That's another thing, we might need to get another horse the next time we're in town." Crystal said embarrassed when Baro brushed up against her.
"Fine by me, hit it!" Baro yelled and Whirl whip shot off as he'd been wanting too al day. Crystal was fine for the rest of the ride that day, and they even talked more about Crystal's training. Apparently her mentor Baubweh had taught her how to resist another mages thoughts, a very important tool in fighting a magic user who wishes you harm.
"See, it's all about someone's internal defenses. If you leave your mind unshielded, its like you're an open book. Anybody can walk right in and read everything, even burn it as easily as a dry piece of paper." She then took out a blank piece of paper from the saddlebag and set it ablaze in her hand to make the point, all of which left Baro dumbstruck. Crystal smiled at him and said, "We start from children learning how to resist someone trying to forcibly enter our minds."
"I see. Is this something you can teach me to do?" Baro asked with almost fright at the thought of being destroyed from the inside out.
"Its no power of magic that you must learn, its simple conditioning of the mind. Of course without magic you won't be able to easily tell when someone's entering your mind until it is too late."
"Please, teach me. I have to learn this if I'm going to survive another assault." After he said this Crystal squirmed in front of him a little bit but after a deep breath she said
"If you want to learn, we will start as soon as we finish eating tonight. Until then, you can practice this." She dug into the saddlebag once more and produced a small metal cube. It was made up of eight smaller cubes, four on the top and four on the bottom and had runes carved on each side.
"What is it?" Asked Baro taking the puzzling cube from her hands.
"That is the Rithmac. A child's puzzle that has the elements spelt on all of the sides. As you turn it you uncover knew words, see, all of the sides spin and rotate and no matter what combination you have it in there's always six elements shown. We use it to study the words and later to practice logical skills. Quite clever, try and record as many combinations as you can during our ride."
Baro twisted the cube few times and studied the marking. He recognized they were of the common tongue, but he couldn't make out more then that. Not wanting to disappoint Crystal however, tried to memorize the shapes and the different combinations they made. For the rest of the trip Baro played with the cube on and off, often getting frustrated with the cursed metal contraption. No matter how hard he looked at it he didn't have any idea what the symbols meant.
Finally sunset once again behind the hills and they broke camp. Crystal watched how energetic Baro was in pitching the tent and setting up the fire. 'Wow, he really takes me seriously. Makes me feel kind of like a teacher…" Crystal smiled as she entertained the thought of having a classroom of students, and then walked over to help with the tent. 'Boys' she smirked and redid the blankets that were messily piled inside.
Baro served and ate dinner rather quickly and eagerly but quietly waited for Crystal to finish. When she finally took the last bite she leaned back and sighed. She couldn't put this off any longer. She felt kind of uncomfortable with him staring at her, listening to every word, but on the bright side he was kind of cute.
"Ok, lets begin. Have a seat in front of me." Crystal took a deep breath and waited for him to sit down, which he did immediately. "Now close your eyes and listen to my voice."
"Alright." Baro breathed out slowly and shut his eyes gently.
"Breath, clear your mind of distractions. Just think of us on this dirt patch, pretend like the rest of the world does not exist." Crystal spoke in a soft, patient tone.
Baro was able to concentrate for a few minutes; he felt a little silly trying to 'feel' the earth but did as he was told. After awhile his thoughts drifted to Crystal's legs, then her skirt, and then…
'DON"T THINK OF ME!' roared a voice inside his head. Crystal never spoke, at least not out loud, but Baro could feel the wave of energy as Crystal. Something about its warmth made him know without a doubt it was she, and he blushed red.
'Concentrate on the wind, its cold flowing nature across your cheeks and its path al around you.' Crystal thought to Baro as she had done before. This time there was no anger in her message, and Baro was grateful she didn't say anything more of his 'distraction'. This time Baro stretched out with his feelings and listened with all of his senses. He felt the wind across his hair, but more then that he could sense wind patterns far above his head briefly before it vanished from his consciousness.
'Wait! There Baro, you almost had something. Stretch out, follow the current deeper…. Deeper to its birth.' Crystals voice wrapped around him and guided him back to where he was before. He became more sensitive and could now detect particles in the wind, small oscillations of energy as heat transferred between weather fronts, and then all at once something happened. His mind exploded with sensory information, every molecule in the immediate area gave off energy and clung to his sanity. It coiled around his head and squeezed him, forcing him to lock his head between his knees and cry out loud enough to wake anything in the valley. Frantically Baro tried to cut himself off, tried to deafen himself to the maelstrom of life around him until he heard himself cry out through his mind 'Crystal… help!' and finally fell to the ground.
Crystal jumped up and held his head in her hands. She gathered part of her own energy and fed it into Baro's mind. Cracks in his soul were seeable by her special senses and she tried to hold his mind together as best she could, using energy like cement on a failing brick wall. Green surges flooded both of their visions until Baro let out one finally moan and collapsed on the ground and was silent.
Slowly his breath began to return to him and small little tugs of energy-separated themselves from Baro's head. The suffocating force pulled itself loose and Baro began to sort the individual sources of energy out for himself. He opened his eyes and sat up to look around after several minutes of waiting on the cold dirt.
Heat and light emanated from Crystal, it overshadowed all other energy and heat on the plains. His own energy matched hers somewhat closely, though he could tell Shadow shared a similar yet weaker presence to hers. It was absolutely breath taking to see life as in really was, feeling her mind was like bathing in a warm bath. It was familiar and welcoming unlike Shadow's mind, which was strangely blocked to him. Baro edged closer to Crystal's consciousness as it became more intense.
Sadly Baro's new senses faded softer and softer until he felt as if he was looking at Crystal from across a great rift…. Then she was gone.