Olmahitkho
Second Week of January
----------------------------------------
Every day I went to the same creek to train my body to be used to the cold, winter waters.
For the second day, I started with a minute timer and could not bear the cold for more than a few seconds. The old man said I must reach a minute by the end of the day, and preferably before the sun started setting because of what the night could bring. So I continued going in and out of the unbearable water, confused about how I survived several minutes of yesterday's first attempt.
It is easy to place my legs in the stinging water; but if I stayed long enough, wriggling my numbed toes felt as if they didn't exist. After long experimentation, I came to accept that numbness below my waist was simple to handle without needing to come out; until I submerged my belly.
I noticed my chest was stopping me. Why? The old man on his blanket watched me experiment with submerging my torso, but every time I did, I was urged to breathe. It felt like I was going to die by having my chest crushed. I knew I was safe with the old, mad man since he was training me to be an Explorer, so I knew he was waiting for me to do something crazy.
The challenge was to submerge my whole body – including my torso – in this knee-deep water, and only then would I receive my answer. If my submerged chest wanted to crush me and make it difficult to breathe in this freezing temperature, then I decided not to breathe. Gathering all my energy, intensity, and focus into the next act, I held my breath and plunged my whole torso into the transparent waters of the freezing creek. I sat down on its bed as the disturbance of the surface calmed.
I am making it through. I will make it through!
Every time the cold bit my skin again, I told myself I would stay. I am strong in body, and I will be strong in mind.
I squeezed my eyes to distract myself and clenched my face to not go back to straying thoughts.
I continued to hold onto my breath for as long as I could—my whole body submerged except my head. The wind wanted to make it more challenging for my prickling face, but it was a pale effort compared to the freezing water pressing my body and commanding me to give in and shiver.
Then, I felt the urge to breathe and I gasped wide. I couldn’t inhale properly, and standing straight quickly fixed that—allowing me to continue sustaining my life with the abundance of winter air.
I looked at the old man crouching by the edge with a watch. He gave me a thumbs up!
“YEEAAAH!”
In my triumph I slammed my hands into the water, disturbing its peace with ripples and turbulence. White water splashed all around me as I celebrated. I could feel all the lost energy in the beginning coming back to me, invigorating my arms and legs. I could do anything!
“Okay Olma, we’re done; same time tomorrow,” the old man said. I happily nodded and couldn’t wait for the next day!
When I arrived home, Kai was already there eating. “Kai! Guess what! I stayed under for one minute!” I told him. With a spoon in his mouth and hair dangling beside his glasses, he nodded with approval. I walked up and kneeled behind him to shake his shoulders and laugh. I felt so good.
“Let me eat!” he said, now holding the spoon. He pointed to the plate that held my portion and I sat across the glass table from him.
“Who did you see training today?” I asked.
“Since Kemia wasn’t here, I saw Lyviria. They said Kemia was going across the globe to train, so it was not possible for me to follow,” he answered. “For Lyviria, she was doing something similar to you, except it was meditation.“
“What’s meditation?”
“I don’t know what it meant, but looking at her, she was sitting completely still while in front of Doctor Amy—like, she didn’t move at all! Her eyes were closed, and you could only see her move because of her breathing.”
“That’s it? Sounds like she’s not doing anything,” I said.
“Doctor Amy said it would help with her training in the future, which involves medicine and healing. She didn’t tell me any more than that because Lyviria was there and she didn’t want to distract her student with extra information.”
“I bet I could sit and do nothing, too.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised either, but it was very difficult for me. There were a lot of sounds and rustling and I couldn’t remain still because something always itched,” Kai said.
“Ha! This is what the old man meant by being simple. You are too complex!” I told him.
“I don’t think being in freezing, cold water is simple, man.”
“What do you mean?" I asked. "You just stay in it and don’t breathe.”
----------------------------------------
“Today you will be staying under for three minutes,” the old man told me.
Walking into the water again, this time it felt like a close friend. The creek was teaching me lessons I didn’t know I could learn, and I thanked my teacher for introducing me to this way of looking at nature.
Once in the water, I prepared to hold my breath, then submerged everything below my chin. After what felt like a minute, then maybe two minutes, I gasped for air.
“1 minute 37 seconds,” the old man said.
“What? It felt longer.”
I tried again and again, but the longest time I stayed under came to be 2 minutes 21 seconds—a whole forty seconds under the goal. I had to be doing something incorrectly.
Maybe… I don’t hold my breath?
Yesterday, it took unwavering courage since breathing with my stomach in the water was challenging. The feeling of my chest being crushed and not being able to breathe felt like death, even when only my stomach was in the water and upper chest was above water. Since I know I am safe with the old man, he must be teaching me this for a reason.
So why not try breathing while my belly is underwater? I could easily pull it out at any time if I felt death.
I slowly inched my waist downward, inserting my stomach in the water while holding my breath, leaving the upper half of my body exposed. With courage to find a breakthrough in my training, I prepared myself for the worst—I started breathing.
Immediately, I heard a loud gasp escaping my mouth and I felt my stomach caving in, like it was being compressed by some unknown force. I couldn’t inhale or exhale. My chest was tight and stiff to the point that its tension turned into self-created pain.
I knew it was my mental resistance to the cold that I couldn’t inhale properly. When I was able to let my body stay underwater for a minute yesterday, I knew I could handle the freezing temperatures. Right now, I was worried that my body would feel too cold and lead to an injury or even death, so my body tensed up to my chest to distract me. But I didn’t want to be distracted.
I know I am okay, and I know I will be safe. There is a reason for this, and my teacher will not let me do something stupid!
As my abdomen remained submerged, I slowly relaxed into the icy cold water that encompassed it, letting my belly puff out as an indicator that I was breathing. It was very difficult to breathe. Very difficult. It was so slow. My breathing was very slow. I could feel the cold seeping into my skin. I felt a cold burn in my bones. It felt like I was placed in a glass of cold water with pieces of ice on the surface. But it was not just my finger stinging—it was my whole body! My stomach stung immensely, especially where it broke the surface of the creek. The cool breeze that passed every so often worked in tandem with the wetness of the skin, biting and pricking instead of soothing as it normally would.
I was with the water. I was with its freezing temperature. I was with the cold, winter air that surrounded my exposed body. I breathed.
My breathing was really slow—so slow that I thought something was wrong. But thinking that made it more painful, so I stopped thinking.
There was no pain—only peace. I am as cold as the water and air surrounding my body. My stomach was cold, but it was alright because the water is my friend; the water is my family. Because of the water I drink, I am alive. I love the water, and the water always loves me.
There was no pain—only breathing with my upper chest above the water. I looked down and I smiled as I watched my chest inhale and exhale—gradually inflating and deflating. Each of these actions took several long seconds, but I was alive. I was alive, and I did it!
As I tried to shout out to the old man, the cold returned to me and I felt pain in my legs. I broke the natural breathing rhythm. I was so numb that the lower half of my body felt detached from me! But looking through the clear water, I could see legs moving and toes wriggling, although they were very stiff. They also moved without wasted movement—they wanted to get out as efficiently as possible, and I agreed.
I walked out of the creek back to the old man and told him about what I discovered. I learned about my fears and about how nature could teach me to overcome them. For trusting my body on the third day of training, I was rewarded with total submergence of three minutes.
…
For each successive day, the old man made the threshold longer and longer until the sixth day, which topped at ten minutes. I continued to let my body do its thing—by having it automatically breathe naturally. After every session, I walked out of the creek embraced with warmth. When I thought it would be much colder since the wind could blow on me, it was the opposite—I enjoyed its gentle touch.
At the end of it all, I was overjoyed. I could walk into the creek without any thoughts about the cold. The cold sensation? It was the same sensation as anyone pressing their little finger on me. It was only a sensation. I had developed a mad mind!
----------------------------------------
“Last class, we talked about higher-dimensional beings and how to see them,” the old man started. “Now, for the real lesson of your primary classes, we will be preparing you all to go to extraterrestrial worlds. This is in addition to your personalized training in raising your perception, and it will be a preparation of the mind rather than the body.”
“Do you know where we will be going?” Laizen asked.
“No, but the lessons I have prepared for your three months of training would take into account all types of worlds. Since your body cannot survive in certain areas such as inside a volcano, there is no need to prepare for that. The best course would then be to get you accustomed to surprises and anomalies no matter the circumstance. As the Integrator said before he dismissed you all to your new homes—there will only be surprises.”
Can I stay in a volcano? Maybe I just sit in the fire and let it burn me. I can become one with the fire. Become heat. Become hot! And since we have fire at our homes—I could sit on the stove!
“The first surprise for you – although you have seen it in our previous class – are holograms.”
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The old man touched a metal bar on the wall by his waist, and slowly, transparent blue dots of light gathered together to form a rectangle that floated in air. I wanted to walk up and touch it because it was nothing like I have seen before. I focused on the hologram's edges to see where it separated from the air, but the glow and shimmer made a blur so that I couldn't see the transition. It closely reminded me of mist and fog on a cloudy or rainy day, but flickering with aliveness.
“Are you going to use it this time? Last time you just turned it on and we left,” Notemi said.
“Hey! Don’t make fun of the old man’s bad memories,” the old man turned to us and made triangular bird wings on his side. I laughed and everyone followed.
I wasn’t laughing because I was making fun of him, but because I made the same comment on my first day training with him. Even when he forgot about what he was supposed to do, he will always make up with his madness. He made things enjoyable to do, and I learned a lot about myself and nature that I otherwise wouldn't have learned in my village.
“Anyways—with holograms, they remain a primitive technology, which explains why there are a few places that use them. Like everything in our world, it draws power from siphoning crystals and creates this transparent turquoise screen you see here,” the old man continued. “You can also wirelessly connect any computer screen to it, so long as their crystals are resonating at the same frequency.”
“What is frequency?” I asked.
“I have the same question!” Kemia shouted.
“It’s how many times the crystal can wiggle in one second. Let’s say the crystal is put at the center of the table. If it moves all the way to the left, then all the way to the right, and returns to the center, that is considered one wiggle,” the old man said.
“Wiggle!” Kemia screeched, then Kai joined with his high-pitched voice. Both of them also started wiggling their bodies together.
Wiggle? How does a crystal wiggle? It’s too hard to be able to move like a human arm.
“I think I have a better explanation,” Laizen said. “Does anyone have a piece of string?”
“I have one,” Lyviria said, raising her hand. “It’s from an old pendant, will it work?”
Laizen nodded and Lyviria pulled out a silver string from her long-sleeved dress that looked like a shiny chain. “You can hold one end of the string and I’ll hold the other.”
We all gathered around Laizen and Lyviria, including the old man, to see his demonstration. “Olma and Kemia, instead of a wiggle, think of this straight line as a connection between the two crystals. I am one crystal and Lyviria is the other. If I whip my end once, then you can see a wave or bump travel to Lyviria’s side and disappear. If I whip twice, you can see two bumps travel and disappear. Depending on the frequency, it has more bumps in one second.
“You can think of the bumps as information coming from one crystal to the other. More bumps doesn’t always mean more information, but a different kind of information. For example, maybe Lyviria can only feel two bumps and not one bump—that means only the information coming from the frequency of two bumps will reach her. She would be blind or deaf to the frequency of one bump.”
Oh! So it is like communication. Some people are blind, so they need information from their hearing or touch. Other people might be deaf, so they use their eyes and other senses. For crystals, that means one crystal must wiggle in a certain way for the other crystal to receive the information.
“Yeah, I probably didn’t explain it well,” the old man said and returned to the hologram behind the desk. “Forgot we had an engineering student as an Explorer. I’m not into much of the sciences, so I’ve only got the basics. I prefer it that way anyway—there’s no rigor to supernatural things.”
We turned and looked at Laizen, who returned Lyviria’s string and kept a serious face. I walked up to him and slapped him on the back. “You must be very smart!”
“Oh? What kind of engineering?” Notemi asked.
“Energy.”
“Enough! We’re continuing with holograms because this is important information during your stay,” the old man interrupted. “Holograms at this primitive stage are a more advanced projector made from nanomaterials. Don’t ask me what the materials are because I’m not the one who made it nor did I have any production oversight.”
“Was it the Integrator who started this project?” Laizen asked.
“Yes, and you’ll have to ask him or the engineers he worked with if you want any more details,” the old man replied.
“Now, for a normal light projector, it connects to a computer so that its information can be sent into the projection machine. Once the information is sent, the projection machine converts the information to light, allowing it to project onto a wall or solid surface. The hologram works with the same principles, but with a different projection mechanism, if you want to call it a mechanism at all,” the old man rubbed his messy head. “The metal bar that initiates this hologram has no internal storage or connection to information. This is like turning on a light projector without having it connect to a computer—you’re not going to display anything. So the same principle applies—without any connection, the hologram will display a transparent turquoise screen.”
“Now if I connect my computer…” The old man poked at his computer tablet and after a few moments, I saw the hologram change shape.
The contents inside the rectangular screen became more defined with clear lines of separation. Some areas of the turquoise light became darker and others lighter. With its lighting, I could see the illusion of depth created on the floating rectangle, making it look almost 3D. When the screen stopped adjusting itself, there were many shapes and letters—all in different shades of turquoise.
“How is this different from a light projector or screen? Isn’t this a bit fancy and extra?” Notemi asked.
The old man smiled. “Very good question, Notemi.”
In silence, the old man put one hand through the screen – thumping the wall behind it – and looked like he was grabbing something with clawed fingers. He pulled, and the shapes he grabbed extended towards us! Some of the circles stretched and became spheres, and pulling out rectangles left a trail of smaller rectangles behind it.
“This is the one and only difference to traditional light projectors,” the old man said, walking through the extended, floating shapes. “With certain calculations, the hologram can interpolate what the 2D screen would look like in 3D.”
“Wait, I’ve never seen this before,” Laizen said. “How is the hologram sensitive to your touch?”
The old man shrugged. “Beats me. I’m just showing you what it can do and how you can use it.”
“Wait! So we will be using holograms?” Kemia asked.
“Oho, sharp once again, Kemia. Yes, I guess it’s time to let you in on a secret.”
We all leaned forward for his next words.
“We will be ending class with this, so prepare!” The old man started. “In all your homes, underneath the couch next to the coffee table, there is a hidden metal bar for a hologram more gigantic than this.”
“And here,” the old man grunted as he lifted up a bag. “Are three computer tablets—one for each home. You may use it however you like during your long stay, so enjoy!”
He handed each pair a tablet and I sat with Kai to take a look at the screen in my hands. It was very thin and lightweight with a white, diamond-shaped crystal centered and lodged in its back.
“Are there more hidden things we should be aware of?” Lyviria asked.
“Don’t worry—you won’t find anything else hiding in your homes,” the old man answered.
In the remaining time, the old man taught us how to use the tablet and how to connect it with a hologram. He said it was a different metal bar in our homes, but the method of activation was the same. Kemia and I had trouble following the lesson by ourselves in working with the tablet until we exchanged our understanding and was able to show the class.
When all of us were comfortable connecting the tablet to the hologram, we all stood together to play with its 3D features while the old man watched on the desk with a smile and crossed arms. Kai pulled out a map of Earth, which went from a rectangle to a small, rotating planet, which we could zoom in to a certain point.
Notemi pulled out a circle, which also became a ball and was spinning it. Lyviria giggled at Kemia who tried to use her feet to drag out nothing in particular. I laughed when she made it work—pulling out triangles to pyramids and 3D diamonds. Laizen only pulled out a rectangle, and he stepped through it to look at the trail and all its separated parts.
“What are you looking at, Laizen?” I asked.
“I’m analyzing how this rectangle is being separated, information-wise.”
“O-okay I don’t understand, so I’ll let you do your thing,” I told him.
“Oh no!” Kemia whined. We all turned to her.
“Something happened?” Lyviria asked.
“I forgot that I don’t stay in our homes since I travel all the time for training,” Kemia said. “I won’t be using the hologram anytime soon.”
“We can use it together after class,” Lyviria looked out the window for a moment and returned to her partner. “It’s a little past noon, so we have half a day, which is more than enough time to enjoy the hologram.”
“Ah, you’re right!” Kemia said.
“What do you do in your training anyways?” Kai asked. “You weren’t home for the whole week, even when I checked during Lyviria’s training.”
“I travel to different areas on the planet to work on various projects. Doctor Amy and Julie said there were challenges they faced, so I helped them with those challenges,” Kemia said.
The old man loudly clapped his hands from his corner. “Before I forget, I will be gone next week, so don't look for me until I'm back for next class. With that being said, everyone is dismissed! Kailus and Olma, you will stay.”
My partner and I waved the others out and I watched them exit the building's front door from the hall. Back in the classroom, I heard Kai and the old man talking. “Yes, that’s the reason why—because we will be seeing supernatural entities,” the old man said.
“Let’s GOOO!” Kai jumped and hopped with straight arms and fists in the air.
“And Olma, here is your next phase of training,” the old man passed me a piece of paper showing a schedule. “As you can see, you will be doing a lot of physical workouts on top of bathing or showering in cold water every day. Your next phase is to utilize your body to the best of your ability. Since I won’t be here for the next week, you will do simple exercises like running until your legs give up and swimming in a pool.”
“Where’s the pool?!” I asked.
“Underneath the gymnasium. You will notice a door on the side with a set of stairs. I will drop off your swimming gear back at your home,” the old man said. “Let’s take a walk back home, shall we?”
Kai and I followed the old man out of the classroom building, and we talked about the hologram and joked how Kai wouldn’t be able to play with it during the week since he will be gone like Kemia. When we reached our home, Kai had a conversation with the old man about his training.
“Sooo where are we going?” Kai asked.
“To see supernatural entities,” the old man replied.
“Come on, you know what I’m saying!”
“I do, and we’re going to a place concentrated with them,” the old man said. “We’re going to prison.”
----------------------------------------
Third Week of January
“That ends our lesson about drawing what you think ETs may look like. Let’s gather ‘round and check out everyone’s interpretations,” the old man said. We all placed our portraits on the table.
Mine was a drawing of a bird man because they could fly and be strong on the ground at the same time. His head had feathers instead of hair, a human face, feathers attached to his arms for wings, and bird feet that are used like hands to grab anything. I wanted to give this ET the ability to swim, but I couldn’t think of what allowed them to be in the land, air, and water in the short drawing time.
Kai seemed to also have the same idea as me, but did it better. His ET had many animal parts—with as many limbs as a spider—including wings, flippers, and arms. The body looked like it had insect armor, with the two legs ready to jump high; but the face was the strangest—it had four eyes, an elephant trunk, large snake fangs, and no hair!
We laughed at his drawing during the introduction because it pictured a madness that represented the old man really well.
I turned to look at Lyviria’s picture—a quick and detailed sketch which showed a deer with trees and water in the background. There were other smaller animals following the deer—a bird, snake, rabbit, tiger, and dog. “I think there are already ETs on our planets but they are in animal form,” she said.
Next was Kemia. I dropped my mouth. It was a beautiful drawing of what looked like two children spinning and dancing and having fun. “ETs are our family, and I want to have fun with them!”
“You know how to draw, Kemia?” Kai asked.
“Yep.”
“That’s really unexpected,” Laizen agreed.
“Notemi’s doesn’t look like something we have seen, but it feels strangely familiar,” Lyviria said.
I turned to look at her picture, which showed a large head with slanted large eyes, small nose, and small mouth. Then I looked at Laizen’s, who drew a full body of a human and colored it black.
“This is supposed to mean we don’t know what they would look like,” Laizen said. “They follow us all the time, but we only know their existence when we see them, otherwise we ignore them. That’s why I drew a human shadow.”
“Ah! Before I forget, Julie won’t be here today so there will be no homemade lunch. She had to take care of matters as a result of Kemia’s diligence,” the old man interrupted, and we all turned to the smiling Kemia. “Instead, you can go to a few restaurants around this island—and don’t worry, you won’t have to pay or provide any service. Class dismissed!”
I walked to Laizen and asked him to join me to eat. “Yo Laizen! Let’s hang around and eat lunch. We don’t spend much time talking with each other, despite being fellow Explorers.”
“Let me join you guys!” Kemia came into the picture and sat next to Laizen. “We don’t see each other often, and I’m not here all the time, so this would be a good chance to eat together.”
Kemia convinced everyone to join lunch, and Laizen told us he saw a settlement nearby when we first arrived on the island. We followed his lead on the dirt path that we first walked on, and after a few minutes, Laizen stopped and pointed to our left where a building stood behind layers and layers of leafless branches.
We walked past the undergrowth and snapped twigs, and passed through several trees before we saw a paved area with other logged buildings nearby. I stopped by a building that displayed a picture of a broccoli, carrot, and potato, then yelled the rest of the team to come over. I pointed my thumb to the door and entered first.
The inside was naturally lit from its windows and smelled of wet wood. I saw several rectangular tables in the nearly empty log building except for two people at the front desk, who greeted us and led us to a table with a long bench on opposite sides. The three girls sat on one row of benches, while the rest of us guys sat on the other.
“We don’t spend much time like this together, huh?” Lyviria said, fixing her dress before sitting down.
“We’re all busy with our personalized training, so it’s not surprising,” Notemi answered. “I don’t even get to properly know you or Kemia. As for the boys, meh.”
Kai stood up. “Hey! We’re listening, ya know?” Lyviria and Kemia giggled at his response.
“Kemia, what did you do that made Julie go away?” Lyviria asked.
“Heh…” Kemia sighed. “I don’t know, really. Doctor Amy said I was doing my training too well that they needed to find someone to replace me once I’m gone.”
“Being too diligent to the point we don’t get food; that’s something I haven’t heard before,” Laizen said.
“Oh, but Kai,” Notemi interjected. “You went to see some supernatural entities, right?”
“So everyone calls me Kai except Laizen?” Kai turned to look at Laizen, who smiled next to him.
“I’m just lazy,” Notemi said. “So answer my question—I’m interested in your training, you know?”
Kai sat back down with his fancy blue coat and arms crossed. He turned his head up and gave a smirk while remaining silent. Seconds past, and probably minutes, but Kai sat like a statue in the same upright posture.
“So what did you see?” I asked him again.
Kai slightly opened his eyes and turned to look up at me, locking his gaze to mine. “You won’t believe it.”