We have sat in this clearing for about an hour.
A few birds have gone by and we haven't had many encounters with wildlife, but the Soul Energy training is a lot more difficult than I had imagined, making the process a whole lot more of a hassle.
Apatite sits in front of me and covers her hand with Soul Energy.
I have lifted my eye patch to better understand what she is doing.
"Do you see how I'm doing it?"
Her aura, beats once from her chest, like a heartbeat, then it moves, down to the tips of her fingers that are above her knees as we both sit in front of each other in a crisscrossed way. Just as I was before.
Her finger, grow a dark orange, like a layered, orange on top of her light orange that darkens the sking beneath her aura, blocking it in a slightly less transparent way.
But, I can feel the radiating warth coming off of her open palmed hand.
"I see it, but I'm not sure how you are dong it."
I've been trying this process for the entire duration we have been here and I have took so long that in the end she ended up getting tired, making both of us, sit on the really soft grass.
She hangs her head in front of herself, like she has grown tired.
"Like I said, it's like putting on a glove."
I nod.
"Apatite... We have been here for an hour..."
I look at her, with eyes full of annoyance and sarcastic attention:
"... you have been nonstop telling me: "Like putting on a glove." , Wanna guess what I've been imagining?"
I pause for her to answer.
"Putting on a glove."
She says.
"PUTTING ON A GLOVE."
I say just to reiterate what she said, so that she understands.
She sighs.
"By the God of Light, Luminous..."
I follow her sigh.
"Yes, pray to the gods."
I say in annoyance.
She gives me the meanest side eye.
"Well, I'm sorry that I'm not the best Soul teacher, but last I checked oyu made me do this."
I looks at her with defiance.
"Well, you were the one that wanted to accept the role of the teacher."
"Thats because, I thought you were..."
She doesn't finish her sentence.
Instead, she shakes her head.
"I just thought I should owe you after you saved me twice."
I shake my head to correct her.
"It was once."
She shakes her head to counter mine.
"The first time was when we were both at the weird tent."
She says then pauses.
"The next was when you almost broke yourself, when you killed the Soul Bear."
She pauses.
"We have been struggling to find food, mainly because of that Soul Bear."
She chuckles to herself.
"One night when both me and my father were on a hunt, we set a trap to catch a Soul Bunny that were very common in these parts, until the Soul Bear. That's why, when you saw that one stray Soul Bunny, the time, when it was you and your father alone for a second, we saw, and wanted to take the Soul Bunny from under your noses, but the other guy came along and took it."
She sighs:
"So yeah, we were struggling with our food situation, and because we can't go into the villages, nor the outer edges without being given the weirdest looks, both me and my father are stuck with finding food for us, water is easy, since Soul Magic is easily accessible for us three because of my mother."
She looks me in the eye.
Giving me the chance to see, her looks at me, like a sense of approval... or something along those lines.
When I tilt my head, like im trying to look deeper into her eyes, she twists her head away.
"I just thought of this as the best way to say thank you!"
She looks away, red faced and embarrassed.
I see her look, like she doesn't even like looking at me.
'I freaking hate this girl... even if I look her eye to eye all she does is look like it's even a struggle to look at me.'
I shake my head, as a bead of sweat travels down to the bridge of my nose, and tickle it.
I scrunch my nose, left, then right, then wipe it away, with the back of my arm, wiping it from my wrist to my elbow.
I hold behind me as a makeshift hold, to keep me up.
Apatite looks at the sweat from my face.
Then she looks at my elbow and then the sweat, that is dripping off of my arms.
"God it's hot, is it nearing summer?"
Apatite continue to stare at the sweat dropping off of my arm.
"The God of the sun Dorash does get more praise, during these times."
She doesn't look away from the sweat, that glistens off my arm.
I finally notice her looks at my arms.
I open my mouth to speak.
"Wha..."
"I have it!"
She says with a burst of energy and optimism. At the same time as interrupting me from speaking.
"Yeah, okay, I'm sorry for staring, but I didn't have any other better thing, my mind was putting things together like a puzzle piece."
She pauses as she smiles with pure glee:
"And I finally put them together!"
She points to my arms.
"My arms? That was the puzzle?"
She shakes her head, then stop then shrugs her shoulders.
"Okay, yes and no. First of all, your arm is just the start of the puzzle."
"How?"
"When you wiped your sweat, it came from your forehead, meaning it came from your body."
I squint:
"And that means what?'
She circles her hand in front of herself, as to explain things step by step.
"If sweat comes from your forehead, that means it comes from your body, whcih means it can come from your arms. Understand what I'm getting to?"
"Stop with the workarounds just tell me."
I say nearly loosing my mind.
"Meaning that it's the same as Soul Energy."
Opening her arms as if to reveal a grand opening of great ideas.
I look at her with curious eyes.
"Great, so are you saying for me to become better using Soul Energy, or to even attempt to use Soul Manipulation, I have to... run?"
She shakes her head.
"No... but if this idea doesn't work, then I guess we'll be going for a hike in the forest for you to learn it."
'Oh God no!'
I roll my eyes as I think those thoughts
She smirks, like an demon, that's just taken candy from a baby.
"You should be able to move your eye patch over your eye now."
I nod, and put the eye patch back over my eye, making her orange aura return to her regular colored, ashy skin.
"Okay. So what do I do from here?"
"Well, really my best idea, was to follow the exact same cncept as before, but differently for you."
I nod along.
"So the way I thought of wrapping Soul Energy over my arms was by thinking that my heart would pull out gloves and put them over my hands... the same way my mother would when it grew cold."
She smiles at the words that she had said.
'I never had a chance to feel, the love from my mother before, it was always to work and nothing more than to work.'
It hit me in my stomach, the feelings of her being in joy because of her mother, and the way she might lose her... which is different from me, because I couldn't wait for myself to be free from her never ending judgmental gaze.
I sigh and take a calm breath.
"What do I have to do in order to be able to able to manipulate my Soul Energy?"
She smiles at me now.
"Thank you for asking."
She places her hands on her lap as she straightens her back.
I follow her example.
"Now, this probably wont work for me, but it should for you."
She takes a deep breathe.
"Close your eyes and imagine the Soul Energy as Sweat as it slowly beads out of your arms and over your arms."
I follow her instructions and feel myself fade into the mind of myself.
My sweat being mostly felt from my forehead dripping down the sides of my face to my chin, to drop off and fall onto the grass or my lap below me.
But, as the sun beams down on me I feel it, a small spray of my Soul.
At first I think it's sweat, but the feeling is to warm, no... too cold for it to be a bead of sweat.
My Soul begins to bead up, then as if disconnecting from me just a little, it feels like a small shield is made on my arms, then another, then another, then another.
As if ten of hundreds of small beads of sweat turned into small shields around my body that wrapped around my arms.
I open my right eye and see my hand.
It feels, cooler and then I turn to look at Apatite, with a smile.
SHe gives me her smiel to.
"I think I did it Marcilene!"
My voice full of joy and happiness as I feel the many small shields on my arm.