CHAPTER 17

Champ and Simon walked towards the lake shore where Minara waited for them. The lake was much more beautiful up close, it was the largest lake that Champ had ever seen and his eyes struggled to take in all of its natural beauty.

Minara was dressed in simple clothing, black pants, and a white long-sleeve blouse. Her hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail held together with a red hair tie. Her outfit today was nothing like the sundress she was wearing yesterday, she looked much more tactical. Along her waist, Champ also noticed, more ampules fastened to a belt. To Champ, she looked like she was ready for anything that could come her way.

“Good morning Minara!” Champ shouted as he approached

“Same to you Champ, did you sleep well?” Minara asked

“It was perfect. Better than I could have ever imagined,” Champ said

“I'm glad to hear it, You'll need that good rest for today's training, should we get started?” Minara asked, her eyes and demeanor intensified when she asked, it made Champ both excited and nervous.

“Yes, I'm very excited to train! What exactly are we training by the way? Champ said. He looked back and forth between Simon and Minara curiously.

Simon was facing the lake. He skipped stones along the surface and turned toward Champ,

“Well Champ for now I think Minara and I will be teaching you different curriculums, if you will. Minara will teach you the basics of brand manipulation. How to form it, call upon it, and use it to aid your endeavors. As for what I can offer you, I'll teach you to be self-sufficient, without the use of your brand. We will find a weapon best suited for you and you will become proficient with it before our time is done here. I promise you that, young sir.” Simon said.

Simon's words emboldened Champ, and his breath quickened with enthusiasm. Champ felt like all he had ever hoped and wished for had been answered. Growing up the only thing he wanted was to be able to live the life of the seekers, those brave wanderers of the outer lands that he met so often in his family trade store, and maybe one day eventually be like the famous branded mages he read about in school. Today finally he felt heard, he felt renewed.

Then the thoughts of how he got here consumed his mind, and his momentary excitement wasted away. He thought of how he procured these powers and the trauma the Brand caused. He painfully recalled the first thing he did with his newly acquired powers, how he hurt the ones he loved most.

His expression changed from excitement to a strained somberness. In his heart Champ knew he wasn't a fighter, he never cared for violence, he was very non-confrontational, but he knew to protect the ones he loved and himself, he had to learn to fight. He would have to learn to be strong.

“I’m ready, thank you both for doing this, I hope I can repay you both one day,” Champ said firmly

“You will one day Champ,” Minara said. Champ blushed nervously when she said this.

“As for now, let's get to training! Your first lesson will be with me! We’re going to learn to channel the brand energy around you, and funnel it to your mark,” Minara said.

“Alright, I think I've been able to do that a bit with some of Simons's instruction, but in most of my instances I think it's been more out of instinct, fight or flight, rather than control,” Champ replied

“Good! You are correct in both regards, from the few times that Simon has mentioned your use of brand energy it has sounded very wild and unrefined. Our main goal is to funnel it properly to the right place. If you don't, or maybe in some cases later down the road, if you were to use too much of the brand energy you can suffer from something called Brand sickness, just like our dear friend Simon over here,” Minara said.

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Simon waved his hand lazily toward them. He was seated on a well-made folding chair next to them, he read a book and sipped on some tea Minara presumably brought out for him earlier. Champ turned back to Minara.

“Is it painful Minara, the sickness?” Champ asked quietly, he tried to not have Simon hear.

“It…depends, think of it like a muscle or any other injury, you could suffer from on your physical body. If you over-exert yourself, you could sprain a muscle or if the injury is bad enough you could break a bone, tear something, and the list goes on. In some extreme cases, it can even lead to permanent damage. But our friend Simon over there will be just fine. So let's worry about what's ahead of us right now.” Minara said.

“That's good to hear at least, thanks, Minara,” Champ said he smiled, relieved at this reassurance.

“So your first task Champ, I want you to become extremely aware of yourself, and how your body feels in the present moment I want you to take every one of those sensations and imagine them all flowing straight to your mark,”

she pointed to her forehead, the rose was displayed proudly with her new hairstyle, it ebbed and moved gracefully and she beamed excitedly toward Champ

“It's a strange sensation to feel the brand energy flow into it, at least the first time you do it intentionally. We power these abilities with the world around us. All living things obey the Brand since it's the Brand itself that gives everything life, as I'm sure and hope the schools have taught you.” Minara continued

“Yeah I feel like I heard something about that in my class,” Champ said as he tried his best to not seem obvious he was lying.

“For your first few attempts I recommend you sit down and close your eyes, I don't want you to pass out while standing, with this practice we will be using our energy, our auras, to fuel our marks. Stronger Branded do the same but will often also use the nature around them, so they don't tire themselves out. Anyways that's enough rambling let's get started now. Hurry up and sit down and feel something!” Minara said as she promptly sat down and closed her eyes.

Champ startled, immediately followed and fell to the floor cross-legged. He closed his eyes and took in each breath intentionally. He sat for what felt like quite some time, he did his best to let his racing thoughts go and tried to be present with the darkness he saw and the sensations he felt in his body. He exhaled slower and slower until his breathing became rhythmic and subconscious once more.

“Feeling, feeling, feeling,” Champ repeated calmly in his mind.

He noticed the weight of his body against the floor below him, the slow rise of his chest, the breeze blowing across his skin. He felt the sun get blocked periodically by the rolling clouds that gave way to refreshing shade. Then suddenly he felt that swelling pressure build in his sternum and slowly it flowed up through his throat til it landed on his tongue. His eyes shot open

“I think I got some! What do I do? This is so weird I-” Champ said, he stopped speaking as he saw Simon and Minara's amazed expressions.

Around him he saw it, the Brand energy, it whipped and lashed wildly and enveloped his body entirely.

“I- I'm kinda light-headed guys, this is normal right?” Champ fell backward and immediately lost concentration releasing the built-up energy and panted hard as he desperately tried to catch his breath.

Siimon and Minara noticed a few minutes into the practice, that Champ channeled immense energy into his body, an energy that didn't only originate from himself, but from the nature around him. The grass withered in a 5ft radius around him, and the lush greens decayed into shriveled browns and tans, as if this one area was struck by drought. Some of the water from the lakeshore evaporated and poured into his wildly forming aura. Small lake stones were dissolved into sand and dirt and also flowed toward him. Various other leaves and foliage outside of his range were kicked up from the pressure.

To both Minara and Simon Champ's aura looked green, a calming forest green fitting for the location, and the shape it seemed to take was that of a constantly shifting birdcage that surrounded him before he fell backward.

“Are you kidding me?” Minara's head whipped toward Simon who was smiling seated on his chair watching Champ, “This is the first time he's done this and he's drawing from other sources? What did you teach him Simon” Minara said

“I definitely didn't teach him that,” Simon replied his smile was large and toothy with amazement.

“Does this mean I did well?” Champ said in between labored breaths, a large smile also plastered on his face.