The next day after we completed our chores, I wasted no time and went straight to practice my curved throws. I tried to envision what I had done the time Terran interrupted my concentration. I closed my eyes and tried to recreate the motions in my head. I need to lift my leg and put my weight on my pivot foot. Then I need to lean forward while swinging my arm and right before releasing it, I have to use both my index and my middle finger to forcibly slide the edge of the sphere. Yes, I think I understand it.
I open my eyes, take my stance, and attempt to recreate what I remembered. This time just like yesterday with Terran, my body betrayed me. It didn’t do everything in the order I intended it to, and the sphere was thrown between three and two o’clock. I attempted this a few more times and the results were the same. I stared at the sphere in my hand confused and eager for it to tell me the answers. When I suddenly heard “Oh if only the prideful could learn.” I turn towards the voice while chuckling “It must be true that you like me if you are back for more Terra- .” Thea was with him this time. “Th-Thea I didn-.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1158840812105367562/1158841709506068500/tt.png?ex=65414f71&is=652eda71&hm=e8903439d8e69b26b70bd5d5bd54e1340f1b18089e9fcbd4035b419aa6915837&]
“Oh god your puberty is showing,” said Thea with a slight disgusted expression.
“Let me have a go at this” said Terran while raising his arm signaling me to toss him the sphere.
“This is not easy you know.” I said while looking at Terran take a stance. He turns to me and gives me a cocky grin. He then proceeds to throw the ball and to my surprise the ball actually curved and hit the tree in the back.
“I think a few more tries and I’ll be able to hit the target,” he said making it seem simpler than it is.
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“Give it here, I can’t let myself lose to you,” I say as I proceed to fail time and time again. I don’t know why but I can’t help but feel that I don’t want to lose to him. It’s not hate or spite I just feel like its fun to compete with him. After failing to curve the sphere three more times I stare at it hoping the sphere itself can show me what I can’t yet see.
“Why don’t you get your head out of your ass and ask,” I hear Thea say. I reflexively turned and jolt realizing she was right next to me, extending her hand to grab the sphere from me. She then takes a stance and curves the sphere hitting the target that Terran let alone I could not even get close to hitting. Shocked, I turned and looked at her.
“C-ca-can you show me how to curve the sphere,” I asked Thea with a very low voice.
“Not me, him. I’m not good at teaching, the best I can do is just do it again to show you till you get it. Terran is better with explanations,” said Thea as she tossed me the sphere. “I’m better at doing.”
“I take it you both learned how to curve a sphere some time ago?” I asked Terran while looking at the ground.
“Yeah, we did, and I didn’t say anything because well, you didn’t ask.” Replied Terran with a smirk. “By the way why do you want to learn to curve it anyways?”
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“It’s just my first task in order to develop some dexterity.”
“I see then if its dexterity you need why don’t you start with smaller steps, like we did.” Says Terran as he takes the sphere from me. “First start by understanding that in order for something to curve you need to spin it with a lot of force. Causing it to break due to the spin and travel in a curve direction depending on the speed and strength.” After his explanation of how it works in theory, Terran had me get my fingers use to spinning the sphere gradually faster and faster every time. He said I shouldn’t throw until I managed to make this a voluntary movement that I can do at will. I hate to admit it but he is actually a really good teacher. I was improving faster with this method. He taught me everything in steps and in less than three days I was able to curve the sphere and hit the target.
That same day Terran started to train me, I also asked Thea to teach me her method of doing chores. More specifically to show me since she really wasn’t good at explaining. I was embarrassed of how I was always in the way but more importantly “Thea’s get your head out of your ass” advice actually made me realize why Léam said I was prideful. It’s obvious I’m ignorant of many things but it doesn’t mean I need to stay that way. It’s odd but I didn’t realize I had that kind of restriction on myself. Why was it so hard to ask for advice? I felt as if it somehow admits that I’m inferior. Perhaps I was lucky that Terran didn’t mock me, and Thea wasn’t annoyed when I asked her for ways to improve my tasks.
On the fifth day the three of us were competing to see who can hit the target the most out of ten attempts. I was able to curve it every time now, but my accuracy was only six out of ten. Thea on the other hand got nine out of ten, clearly the most impressive of us three. Terran so far has six out of eight. Meanwhile I’m eagerly hoping he misses his other two attempts. As he winds up, he stops mid motion, turns to look at me, gives me a smile and winks. He then proceeds to throw the sphere but as soon as Terran was about to release the sphere we felt a terrible trembling and a barrier on the Orphanage that I didn’t even know it had, started to flicker.
Once the shaking stopped, I noticed that Thea was looking towards the direction where the trembling came from. Almost instantly after she starts sprinting in the direction of the source.
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I chased her with everything I had. Not realizing how much quicker I was, I quickly passed her, turned the corner of the orphanage and arrived at the source a second or two earlier than Thea and Terran. When I arrived, I thought I saw someone running from the scene on the opposite corner of the orphanage.
“Dang You’re fast… Heli,” said Terran catching his breath.
“Look,” said Thea pointing at a crack that was being automatically mended on the barrier.
“This barrier is awesome, it self-repairs,” I said giving the winded Terran a pat on the back.
“Yeah, but the question is what caused the crack?” asked Terran standing straight and regaining his composure.
Thea and Terran started to look for clues outside the barrier suspecting a wild or a dark beast might have been responsible. Soon after Madam Doris and two assistants arrived and asked if we knew what had occurred. Terran told them about the crack we saw and that he noticed fresh dirt that was swept around suggesting it was an intelligent beast or a person covering its tracks. I didn’t tell them I saw someone because I wasn’t sure if I did or not.
“How strong is this barrier? I asked the assistants, hoping they wouldn’t just brush me off.
“Only a powerful mage or beast matching or surpassing my strength can affect it, by cracking it or destroying it” answered Madam Doris to my surprise. “But only I can deactivate it.”
After that Madam Doris asked us to return to our rooms and keep quiet about this ordeal, in order to not panic the other children. As we were heading back, I asked Terran and Thea if any of the teens knew magic? To my surprise Terran admitted to knowing a bit as well as Thea but wanted to keep it a secret. Other than that, no one in the orphanage knew.
“How strong is Madam Dorris?” I asked
“Very strong she is a Mid-level A mage,” replied Thea with a smile.
“That’s good to hear,” I said feigning relief.
If that is the case and it takes someone as strong as Madam Doris to affect the barrier. Why is it that the person I thought I saw running from the scene, Olivia?