With significant distance placed between themselves and Crossing they started looking for a place to rest. After heading Clockwise out of Crossing they had eventually found themselves at the edge of a wooded area, the forest seeming to stretch forever away from them.

Tsu dismounted after checking their back trail and gave his horse a rub down.

“We’ve reached the edge of the Freeholdings,” Tsu stated in a matter of fact way.

“And that means nothing to me,” Gosha rebutted, not having ever gone this far from his home town before, “They didn’t really teach us much about the world in the town, we learnt numbers and letters and that was about it.”

“Sorry, Gosha, I didn’t consider that you would not have had proper schooling,” Tsu was clearly sincere in his tone, “Bigger places like Crossing and the country capitals have full schooling for everyone under the age of twelve. But, smaller places like where you grew up, only do the basics. It’s a problem I think needs fixing, but is neither of the here, or the now.

“The Freeholdings, or more specifically the Freeholdings of Silda, is the country neighbouring the Inundail Federation on the clockward edge. Most of the country is taken up by this forest,” Tsu moved forward to lay a hand on the large trees that formed a boundary between the forest and the farmlands of Inundail, “The forest has many names, depending on who you talk with. But the most common name is the Forest of Beasts, as within this place many a formidable creature exists.

“The Tower of Nature resides close to the heart of the forest, and the closer you get to it the more dangerous the forest becomes. But we do not need to venture there. From where we are we’ll head further into the forest, then we’ll skirt around a smaller lake. We’ll find a place to cross the river that comes down from the mountains, and then make our way to the Monastery.”

Gosha just nodded contently, not really understanding where he was or where he was going. But this Monastery had been mentioned a few times now. Tsu had spoken about some Knights who resided there, but he had not elaborated.

“About this Monaste…” he started before being cut off by Tsu.

“Let’s head inside the forest and see if we can’t find a small clearing. I don’t like resting out in the open here with Ralph on our tail. Never know when he might appear again. No doubt we’ll see him again at the Monastery. Just be patient until then.”

Leading the horses the two walked into the forest quietly. The questions nagged at Gosha now, but he followed Tsu calmly, not wanting to get lost out in the middle of nowhere. He had no idea how to get back to his home town, let alone Crossing. And this Ralph person did not seem to like his or Tsu much, and he did not want to run into him again by accident. It was much safer just staying with Tsu for the time being. This Monastery he keeps mentioning might even be a decent place to stay.

It didn’t take long and a clearing was found. Camp was set up quickly and precisely, since they had both spent their fair share of time outdoors. Soon enough they were sitting around a camp fire.

Tsu had given Gosha all the equipment he had bought earlier that clock, but most of it was not needed anymore. They were useful when he was trying to hide Gosha and take his time, but now they were in a rush and stealth didn’t matter as much.

Gosha turned the sword over in his hands a few times as he admired the craftsmanship in the weapon. He was not a blacksmith, but he could tell that the weapon had been crafted by someone of greater skill than whoever crafted most of the tools they used from day to day.

“They are made to not break as easily,” Tsu said as he saw Gosha staring at the sword, “unlike what they give the farmers in the small towns. Cheap blacksmiths make their money by having people come back to them for repairs. Good swordsmiths make their money by having their weapons used and their name grown from that use. More warriors will buy a sword if someone else can show them how good it is, but if the swords keep breaking they’ll stop buying from there.”

“That actually makes complete sense to me. For a change. One of the few things that has since the transport crashed. I wish more things would start making sense,” Gosha turned the sword over again, “But… why? Why did you get me a sword? Surely they are expensive?”

“That one was actually one of the cheaper ones. You need something for protection though. I was going to start teaching you at the Inn, but things didn’t go as planned. Now we’ll learn out here at camp.”

“Why do I need protecting?”

Tsu let out a guffaw.

“Seriously? You were tied to a chair not that long ago and you wonder why you need protection? Are you thick headed or something? I know a lot has happened, but obviously you need to keep yourself quick witted. When I first met you I thought you were smarter than this.”

Tsu stood up from the fire and went over to his where his belongings rested beside a tree. He searched through them for a few moments and then drew a sword from the pile that was similar to the one Gosha was holding.

“Up you get boy,” Tsu motioned with the sword for Gosha to move away from the fire, “With the sword…”

Gosha grabbed the sword and then moved over to where Tsu was now standing. He hefted the smaller sword in his hand and noted the differences between it and the gem sword he had used at the Tower of Earth. This one was much shorter, and straight, while the gem sword had had a slight curve on it. This one also had some weight to it. Not too much, but the gem sword had felt like nothing.

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He swung the sword a couple of time, clumsily.

“Now, Gosha, don’t go hurting yourself. This is your first time holding a real sword?”

“Well, there was the Gem Sword,” Gosha shrugged.

“Let’s not count that. I don’t know what type of sword that was, but I do know that using one is nothing like using a real steel sword. So, the basics of the basics…” Tsu started to gesture at the sword as he spoke, “you hold the non-sharp end, and try and stick the sharp end in your opponent.”

Tsu looked at Gosha and gave a smile, knowing full well that what he was saying was annoying his new student.

“Now, this sword has two edges and a point. There are many different kinds of swords around, and this is just a simple one. It isn’t very long, but that makes the pointed end easier to use if you need to. Now, because you are a Gen’Ral I expect that you’ll end up picking up the basics of blocking and attacking rather quickly. Enough to get you by, so we’ll just start.”

Tsu moved off to the side and limbered his muscles while Gosha took another few swings before coming to stand in front of Tsu. Gosha took what he thought was a decent stance, holding the blade upright in front of him in two hands.

“Tsu, you mentioned something about ‘how I was attuned’ when we left Crossing. I don’t really understand that.”

“Good point. Let me explain something quickly before we start, and then I’ll talk more as we practice. But the simplest way to put it is that everyone is attuned to one of the five elements, the same five that the Towers are named after. While some people might only be slightly attuned and others are more greatly attuned it is still there.

“Some people use strange methods to find out what you are attuned to. Charlatans on the streets of the cities they are. But, in everyday life, what you are attuned to doesn’t really matter. It may affect the way you act slightly, or how you deal with people. But the most distinct way of a person’s element showing is through a fight.

“When you fight, you need to think much more intuitively, and this ends up with you taking on characteristics of the element you are attuned with. Now, some elements are more commonly found than others, earth being one of the most common ones, but they all have their little tells.

“So, what I am going to do is fight with you, using my own style, and see how you react. So you know, mine is Nature. Ralphas is Fire. We didn’t really stack up well against each other, but I’m just a much better swordsman that he had no chance of winning.

“Now, just go with the FLOW!”

Tsu shouted this last word as he launched a sudden barrage of attacks at Gosha.

“Make sure you try and keep your armour thingy in check,” Tsu spat out as he rained blows down on Gosha, making sure as to not put him in any significant danger.

At first it took all he could to just block the blows that came in. But soon Gosha adapted to what was going on and he was deflecting swings, causing Tsu’s blade to glance off his, and dodging some of the wilder swings. Suddenly Tsu pulled back.

“Right, so you’re not attuned with Earth,” Tsu said as he looked at Gosha’s feet, “I thought because of where you lived this might be the most obvious. But you move around too much. Earth fighters are more stoic and will put up a protective wall using their weapon in front of them. They’d rather stay in the one spot than jump around as much as you did. But you did well to not get hit too many times. Now, I’ll need you to try and attack me and we’ll figure out what you are…”

Tsu stepped back and took a deep breath. He nodded to Gosha when he was ready.

Not really knowing what he was doing Gosha launched a range of attacked at Tsu. He sent in high shots and low shots, but nothing seemed to be working.

“Keep going,” Tsu said, “You’re not Fire element. They attack and attack and barely even think about what they are doing.”

Gosha launched an attack again. Slowly, over the time he was using the sword, he was beginning to understand how it worked more. Somewhere along the way he had stopped using two hands and now was just holding the sword in his right, dashing in and striking before moving back.

“Not Wind,” Tsu called out, “You haven’t got the speed.”

Back into it Gosha went. Soon his vision began to get blurry.

Blurry? Gosha stopped for a moment and looked around. No, not blurry. His vision was perfectly fine. He jumped back into the fray again and realised what his vision was doing now.

Colours had started appearing around Tsu. Opaque colours, so he could still see what Tsu was doing, but the colours themselves were obvious. There were two main colours. Red and blue swirled over the top of his image of Tsu and moved as their bodies moved.

He swung at a spot that was obviously red. Tsu caught his blade and then counter attacked, causing a small cut on Gosha’s arm. It was just one of many. He changed tactics and swung at a blue spot. This time Tsu blocked the swing but didn’t make a counter attack.

Gosha kept swinging at the blue locations, and all Tsu did was block the blade. He didn’t move though. The colours kept swirling and less blue spots were appearing. Green had started to become more prevalent, so he took a swing at them.

He could see that Tsu was trying to talk to him, but he was too focused on what he was doing right now and couldn’t hear a word that was being said. He struck the green spot and Tsu blocked it again, but this time he also took a step back.

Gosha swung at the green spots more and watched as Tsu took a few more steps back. It was working. Whatever he was doing was giving him an edge over Tsu. To see if he was right about what was happening he started striking at different spots in different orders, just to make sure he was right.

The red colours caused a counterattack. Every time he struck one the sword was caught and a return blow struck. Blue seemed to just be spots where the sword would be blocked though, and nothing else. Green was more interesting, when he struck these Tsu moved backwards, away from the blow. This made Gosha feel good.

There were also areas devoid of colour. Gosha has swung at these a few times but Tsu had just avoided the blow, and sometimes struck back and sometimes not. Gosha figured these were spots where his attack would be dodged.

He kept attacking Tsu, trying to figure out how to best use these colours to his advantage, when a glint showed amongst the other colours. A very small dot of gold had appeared. It vanished and reappeared somewhere else. It kept jumping around. Suddenly it was right in his eyesight and Gosha thrust the sword at where the spot was.

His aim was off though and he buried the point of his sword into Tsu’s shoulder. Gosha blinked, realising what he had done as suddenly Tsu tacked him to the ground.

Rolling off him he quickly drew the sword from his flesh and threw it off to the side. He smiled at Gosha though.

“Boy, that was amazing. You picked up sword for your first time and just skewered me with it. If you’d only been an…”

“Inch or so left,” Gosha inserted into the conversation, “And I would have struck the gold point.”

“The what?” Tsu was confused, “I was going to say that an inch or so to your left and you would have struck between the bone and likely dislocated my shoulder. I wouldn’t have been able to use my arm them. But… What did you mean by gold point?”

Tsu was intrigued and came to sit down beside Gosha who was now sitting up and breathing heavily.

“While we were sparring, boy, I noticed your eyes seem to glaze over. After that you really improved in leaps and bounds. Now, I know you’re not Fire, you weren’t persistent enough with the attacks to be attuned to it. And you don’t seem quick enough to be Wind… but I’m not sure. Explain away.”

“Well,” Gosha looked over at Tsu and then down at his hands, “during the, um, you called it sparring? During the sparring I started to see some colours. At first it was mostly blue and reds, swirling around you, changing. So I tried hitting them. And when I hit the different colours you reacted differently.

“Then green started to appear and when I started attacking these spots I noticed you stepping back. But eventually this golden point appeared. It moved around fast and was hard to pin down. But eventually it was in the right spot, so I stabbed at it. I was a little off though and ended up stabbing you in the shoulder about an inch from where the colour was.

“Man, I’d think I sounded crazy except for the fact that I had liquid armour appear from out of my back recently.”

“No, boy, no, you don’t sound crazy at all,” Tsu clapped him of the shoulder with his good arm, “I’ve only read about what you described. But that is clearly Water element. Finding the cracks in the defence, the weak point, that one spot where you can bring the whole wall crumbling down. That’s what you were doing. And it worked.

“Water is rare. I personally only know of one Master of it, and he tries to stay secluded. It’ll be hard to get him to teach you. But you’ll still learn a bit at the Monastery, and you should find some books to get you by on the how’s and why’s of what you do.

“Gosha, you are special. Firstly, you can wield a special Gem, one of a kind, which the Princess currently has. Secondly, you are a Gen’Ral, one of the last of a once proud race of people who fought in the Shadow War. Thirdly, you are attuned to the rare Water element, which gives you an advantage when fighting people as they won’t know how to fight back against you. You will be a force to be reckoned with in Le’Tayah, Gosha, and I hope to be around when you make your presence known.

“Now, let’s get some grub and some rest.”