After eating Nezani walked out to the large courtyard with her grandparents. In the middle of the courtyard was a small patch of grass surrounded by dirt.

“Come Nezani, take off those shoes and stand here” her grandfather asked. Placing Nezani in the center of the square her continued to explain that the grass was imbued with stable mana but everything surrounding was destabilized.

“For today just practice stepping one foot off the grass, unlocking the mana gate in your ankle to match the frequency in your foot to that of the ground. When you can plant one foot on the ground without sinking you can go home.

Nezani stood on the grass dumbfounded trying to figure out how to keep herself from sinking. Testing the waters, she touched her toe to the dirt right outside the patch of grass she was standing on. The dirt rippled out where her toe had made contact with the dirt.

I really don’t know what to do. She thought to herself slightly defeated.

Looking around she noticed that everyone had retreated to their own spaces. Her youngest cousins Justice and Amir were running around playing tag.

For a moment a wave of jealousy went through her body.

If only I had grown up here.

Shaking her head, she let the thought leave her body.

Maybe I can learn something.

She narrowed her eyes watching her cousins run and play. Staring closely, she noticed that she could feel the taps of her cousins running around her. Looking closely at where their feet were touching the grass, she observed the mana shoot through their legs and bounce off the ground where their feet touched the ground.

She turned her gaze to where her uncle was training hitting his fist to a thick wooden post. As his fist struck the post the smallest gust of air pressure was released.

These were all great revelations, but they didn’t really mean anything to her as she hadn’t the slightest clue as to how she was supposed to control her mana to do that.

I don’t know how to open my mana gates, but I do know how to slow down and quicken the mana in my entire body!

Remembering the first time she connected to the source in her family’s arboretum she sat legs crossed and closed her eyes and began to heighten her senses to the environment around her. The rhythm she felt was faint but decided to try to match her mana flow to the rhythm. It took her a moment of intense concentration and breathing. Finally synching her body to the rhythm of the surrounding environment she slowly stood up.

Let’s give this a try.

With one eye shut she slowly hovered her toe above the dirt before tapping it to the ground beneath. When her toe didn’t sink, she opened both eyes excitedly and looked around to see everyone watching her.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Deciding to take a chance she tested putting her entire foot down. While a bit unstable and shaky her foot stayed on top of the ground. Her cousin West was now at her side encouraging her to continue going. He had saved her once before, so she trusted that if this went wrong, he could save her again.

Holding her cousins arm she confidently stepped off the grass with both feet. It felt as if she was learning to walk for the first time. Her ankles and knees didn’t seem to have the strength to keep her steadily up, but she was able to stand while holding onto West.

“Well, I guess that’s one way to do it” West said sarcastically.

“How did she do that?” her young cousin asked her grandmother.

“Well child, everyone has their own unique relationship with mana and manawaves. While no one here has ever tried to manipulate all the mana in their body at once before. Your cousin Nezani is a Guardian and is uniquely qualified to do so.” Her grandma said proudly.

She walked over to Nezani and cupped her hands around Nezani’s cheeks.

“You come back whenever you’d like, to visit or to train. We are so happy to have met you! Welcome to the family Nezani!” Her grandmother turned her gaze to West and kindly ask that he walk Nezani to the edge of the forest so she can return home.

“You might want to put those back on for the walk, it’s a bit far and you’re not stable enough to walk on your own yet” he said pointing to the shoes she had been given when she arrived.

After putting on her shoes and saying goodbye to everyone they set out on the trek out of the forest. Before reaching the front gate West turned to her and put his finger up to his mouth.

“Remember, this forest is filled with lots of things to keep people out and away from our house. You must not talk. And try not to make any big sounds or movements with your body.”

She had many questions about the “things” in the forest but decided to save her questions for another time and nodded her head at the command of her cousin.

West grabbed her hand, and they stepped out of the gate. She had forgotten how dense and dark the forest was. The walk was long and scary, Nezani could hear things moving around them and decided once again to put her trust in her cousin.

They reached the edge of the forest, and the light began to shine through the tree branches. The stepped out of the forest and onto the street.

“Woo! Okay we can talk now! It was so dope meeting you, I’m happy to finally have someone around my age to hang with in our family.” West had gone from stern and focused in the forest to a teethy smiling giddiness.

“Yea, it was great to meet someone my age that’s family too. I can’t wait to come back to see you all.” She spoke.

“So, when do you think you’ll come?” he asked.

Nezani thought for a second and before she could answer her cousin spoke.

“It’s okay if you don’t know, we’re here. Let me know when you want to come back, and I’ll meet you here at the edge of the forest, so we don’t have a repeat of what happened earlier today” He smiled and pulled the tiniest clay pot out of his satchel.

In the tiny pot was a singular fern leaf.

“Granny pulled it off our family fern, just speak to it and we’ll be able to hear you and speak back.” He said placing it in Nezani’s hands.

“Okay! Well, I’m going to head back, let us know when you get home!” He said pointing at her hands.

Waving Nezani watched as her cousins’ expressions shifted back to stern and focused. When he disappeared into the darkness of the forest, she turned on her heels and began making her way back home.

No sooner she turned on her heels Spirit popped up in front of her looking worried. With all the events happening she forgot that she hadn’t seen or been able to speak with Spirit since she entered her family’s forest.

“Where have you been?! I almost died walking into that forest” Nezani said informing spirit of what had taken place.

I was here, but whatever they did to keep people out of the forest prevented me from being able to communicate with you or materialize.

“Interesting” Nezani said. “I’m glad you’re here now, want to join me on the walk home?” She said smiling at Spirit. Without answering spirit materialized next to Nezani and grabbed her hand.

Would love to!

The pair walked taking in the surrounding scenery. They made it back to the hotel and were approaching her room when Nezani noticed someone standing at her door. Getting closer she recognized Ambrose standing there.

“Slim! How did it go?” he said clearly happy to see her.

“It went well I guess” she stated.

“I guess I’ll get the details on that later. I’m just stopping by to let you know we are all meeting back at Madams next sunrise. Your Uncle Winston says he found some interesting things while he was doing research on the chaos. Make sure you’re there!” He said and evaporated into the air as he does.

Too tired to be annoyed at the constant summons she opened her door and walked slowly to her bed, removed all her clothes and sank into the mattress.

“Oh!” she forgot she was supposed to let her family know she was home. She rolled toward her nightstand where she had placed the tiny pot and whispered.

“I’m home.” The little fern leaf lit up a beautiful golden yellow.

“Good, sleep well” her grandma returned and Nezani rolled back into the bed.

“Wake me when the sun comes up will ya?” Nezani directed to Spirit.

And with an agreeing nod from Spirit Nezani let herself slip into a deep sleep.