Finally, I took to scooting away from the crashing water until I was free from its embrace. From that lesson learned regarding my continued fallibility, I began only immersing parts of my body from a more stable squatting and semi kneeling position, focusing on that which I desired to clean.
My fingers became wrinkled and chilled with the constant exposure of exfoliating my body of stone dust and shards under the high-pressure cold water. The entire cleaning took several minutes as multiple times I had to reposition myself in order to tread the fine line between efficient cleaning and near drowning.
At last! I was done!
Wasting no time, I took a slightly more careful trip back to my base camp where my staff and backpack lay.
Shivering from both the cold and excitement, I immediately went back to the stone wall of my current project. Pressing both of my hands against the stone I closed my eyes and willed myself to just Feel.
As my newly pruned hands felt the tactile nicks and cold hard surface, I pushed for something more with my senses. The feedback wasn’t immediate, but as I pressed, waited, and mentally reached out; I began to sense something more and beyond that of my physic touch. Non-visual images of a sort began to form in my mind.
Small cracks or fissures, invisible to the naked eye opened up before me. Nothing physically changed, but my ability to ‘see’ the stone had evolved. Moving my hands over different portions of the rock face, I sought to better understand my new ability and its limitations. As far as I could discern, I couldn’t ‘see’ more than a few inches deep into the dense pitted stone surface.
Recalling my venture across the precarious and rock-strewn field to the crashing falls, I was unsure of how or why I was able to determine the stability of far larger rocks when my sensory was limited greatly in depth as I pressed against the wall. Maybe it was the intent for which I was utilizing it?
Altering my intent, I sought to determine just how stable this stone wall was. Imagining as if I was planning on crawling up it. Again, pressing my hands firmly against the wall and closing my eyes to tune out the visible distractions, I focused. Immediately, I was given a sense of immeasurably high stability. Like a towering wall built to withstand the harshest of weather, only giving way to the inevitability of time and erosion. Despite my little experience with indoor rock climbing, I got a sense that if I desired it, I could scale this cliff all the way to the top where the falls drew off from the mighty river above.
Stepping back, I took in the view as a whole. “Hahaha!” I couldn’t help but laugh at how large the difference now was. Seeing the crevasse I had made from many days of back breaking and blistering work, I felt somewhat disdainful of the little progress I considered it as now. My fingers on both bands curled and clasped into a fist in anticipation of the future work I would do as if excited to mold the rock wall which had appeared to daunting before. A wave of competence washed over me as I began to see things in a new light. This seemingly tedious project had transformed into a new adventure of its own. My body thrummed with energy as I maintained flush contact with the earth and gazed at the wall.
Wasting no further time, I wielded the pickax and struck away at the wall, tearing out the largest chunk of stone I’d manage to make till now. The solid crack it made as it fell to the ground at my feet gave me a deep sense of satisfaction. The combination of sensory awareness and increased stability of my body was a potent combination. A smile lit up on my face and I returned to work with a frenzy.
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Since my assimilation of the potion, I worked for an additional two hours and saw I had made more progress in this little time, than I had on all the days previously. This, I felt, was a solid day’s work. Filled with a strong sense of accomplishment at the sight, I continued on as I was growing to love the sensation of earth and stone crumbling before me.
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I had intended to continue until late evening fell. However, I was starting to feel growing pains in my abdomen. I will admit to briefly considering going to the shallow edges of the deep pool beneath the falls to do my business with nature as I had no desire to stop my incredible progress. Additionally, I was a bit concerned that my intent to do my ‘business’ of answering natures call out here might be witnessed by those on the viewing platform observing the falls. It seems that I couldn’t take that route.
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Instead, the pains of abdominal discomfort began to grow with increasing intensity, convincing me to end my work for the day. With great regret I gathered my belongings, rushed to the platform and cracked the carriage summoning token. As I waited and experienced the increasingly painful contractions within my own body, I began to sense that this might be something different than the average call of nature.
Had my master decided that I was free game again for her little ‘tests’ on the days I worked at the wall? I silently cursed her in my mind as that was a very real possibility. Simultaneously, I internally begged for the carriage to get there sooner rather than later.
I was unsure of how long I waited as each minute felt like a creeping hour of agony as something heavy felt like it was touring my intestines at a slow agonizing pace. Eventually, a carriage driver arrived with his vehicle and stopped in front of me. By that point, I had been sitting in a crouched position on one of the many dispersed stone seats trying to alleviate some of the pain. The close proximity to stone and the awkward position brought a minimal sense of comfort to my beleaguered intestines which felt like they were twisting themselves into knots.
Seeing my pained face and shaking countenance, the driver did not seek to engage me as I simply requested quick transport to Victoria’s Apothecary. They wasted no time in bringing their carriage about and taking off at a rapid pace.
The shuddering and rocking of the carriage across the cobblestone pathway did not help me in my dire straits. But the rapid pace at which the coachman drove was greatly appreciated.
I had no way to truly measure time, and with my current thoughts distorted by pain, I had no reliable method to determine how long the trip took back. We had been stopped briefly at the entryway of the gate simply due to how fast we were traveling. However, once the guards saw my condition and heard I was on the way to the apothecary, they allowed us to continue on to our destination with no further delay.
Finally reaching the doors to the shop, I near toppled out of the carriage and quicker than I could imagine possible, Victoria was by my side. Slinging my pack over her own shoulder, grabbing my staff and carrying me once again in her arms, I was brought into the store.
“Andrew!” She called out, her voice filled with startled concern. “What in the heavens happened to you?!”
*Groan* My mouth felt dry and numb, but I mumbled something that sounded like. “I ate three earth stones.”
Her eyes widened at this revelation. Unceremoneously, she near dropped me onto the floor of the shop as I was laid to rest in agony on the cold hard stone. Then she began hastening about with various tinctures and supplemental ingredients to process what she was calling a “Super laxative.”
I honestly couldn’t care less about what it was, as long as it fixed and ended the agony that I was feeling at this current moment. My eyes glazed over in pain as I vaguely observed her hurried movements.
After rapidly cooling the resulting concoction through use of her ice magic, she practically force fed me the resulting drink that tasted of sawdust and was terribly slimy. I almost upchucked the whole solution, except that she apparently expected that and did something to briefly stall my gag reflex until the solution was able to settle more firmly in my stomach.
Then without any concern for my personal sense of shame or embarrassment, she carried me up the stairs through my room and into the bathroom. In my agonal moments, I felt traces of horror betwixt the pain as with clinical detachment Victoria stripped me of my clothing, set me on the toilet and with a last look of bemused condolences, she left me to my fate in that bathroom.
The following couple of hours were a true nightmare of epic proportions. The agony of passing a near petrified stool through your intestines and colon is not something I would wish upon anyone but the most heinous of criminals.
Some say that death is the worst consequence that can happen to an individual, but I would beg to differ after experiencing this trauma. After several evacuations of my bowels, screams of pain, and inhumane suffering, I finally ended curled up in the fetal position at the bottom of the shower with chilled water spraying over my nether regions and rear in a desperate bid to numb the pain.
If I had not experienced the fruits of my assimilation of the potion ahead of this last trial, I could say with full confidence that I would not have allowed myself to remain here to suffer this disastrous ending. However, I stayed as I was too terrified of losing that which I had gained and would not allow the thought or contemplation of failure to enter my mind. If I had considered such, I dreaded the possibility of failing the elemental trial and suffering all the prior experiences for nothing. Shivering in fear and trepidation I contemplated what the other elemental trials might have for me.
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As the pain began to fade, yet with the agony still fresh within my mind regarding this heinous trial, I made a determined effort to reach out for and felt the trace amounts of new earthen power which flowed through my veins and mind. The memory of the torture clashed with my new found strength. Steeling my resolve, I made a promise to myself to take on whatever challenge may come my way in order to overcome my weaknesses.
With my resolve strengthening, so too did the trickle of power at my core grow within me, now flavored with a new earthen essence.
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Unfortunately, despite my lacking desire to move in any way that might further agitate my recovering vitals, I knew that I could not stay in the shower to wallow. I was due for work later that day at the nursing home and I hoped that this night’s sleep with the three times speed differential would be enough to get by on in terms of mental as well as physical recovery.
I was honestly feeling more and more like the virtual reality was realer than my own reality. If only I could bring the entirety of my gift over there to improve the degree in which I could feel it here. Having made my way to my bed, sleep soon took over my worn-out body and the rest of the night disappeared into a dreamless daze.
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Bzzzzzzz Bzzzzzz
Returning to reality at 1 pm to the preset alarm in the capsule, I set about getting ready and leaving for work.
As I performed my routine duties in the wandering dementia unit that evening shift, I took small moments of time to exercise my ability in stimulating the sensations I was very familiar with. I was unfortunately disappointed in the lack of earthen tone which had colored those feelings in the Virtual Reality. It was strange, but something inside of me hinted that I should be able to feel that here. It was interesting as this was the first time that I truly felt something more there than I did here and it troubled me more than a little.
Eventually my shift was over, and I was able to return to the capsule, refreshed and ready to face my newest discoveries.
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