It was a little awkward for Arthur to stick his arm outside the roomy tent he’d been operating inside, but he was eventually able to flag Vincent down.

“Vincent, I keep trying to transform but nothing is happening when I put the feather into contact with my blood.”

“Hmm. Do you mind if I tap your shoulder?” Vincent asked.

Athur nodded and Vincent reached up to tap him on the shoulder.

“I see. Looks like you’re all out of energy. It’s something you’ll get to later on in your courses, but I can get a pretty good sense of your energy levels when your guard is down as long as I have skin contact.”

“Right now I’m not sensing anything, which could be related to why you were falling out of the sky when I met you and Tom.”

“Most students hit their limit during class at least once and sometimes more, so don’t feel embarrassed about running out of energy.”

Vincent continued saying, “I was going to have you and Tom stay behind after class to talk about what happened yesterday with the bear.”

“Normally when students run out of energy, I just tell them to head to their next period but do you feel comfortable sticking around until the end of class for a quick word?”

“Sure that works for me,” Arthur responded.

“Great! Focus on sensing your energy for now. It should be rebuilding slowly even now, and meditation can help speed that process up. Crouch down in the tent and give it a try.”

Arthur nodded and Vincent began walking off announcing, “There’s around twenty minutes left in class!” to the rest of the students.

Arthur ducked down into the tent and got in a seated position with his legs folded.

Folding his legs into one of the meditation positions Dr. Black had discussed, Arthur sat still and breathed deeply.

In through his nose.

Out through his mouth.

Back and forth.

Arthur rolled his shoulders and felt himself slipping into a sense of calm.

Once he was fully relaxed, Arthur shifted his attention to deeper, searching for what was left of his energy.

A small sarcastic part of him wondered what he would have thought two months ago if someone had told him he’d soon be sitting inside a tent searching for his energy, but he ignored that part and kept focusing.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Arthur thought back to sitting inside the metal ring during Dr. Black’s class while trying to sense the stone.

This was almost the opposite. He didn’t want to feel anything from the outside world.

Arthur had to sense his own energy and his gut was telling him that it would only work if he ignored everything else.

So he tried to tune out the surrounding world and his focus slowly shifted to the center of his chest.

He traced the area with his fingertips, feeling it right where his ribs ended.

While he couldn’t see anything or physically feel the energy, something there was catching his attention.

Arthur couldn’t exactly put his finger on it, but the sensation reminded him of being in front of a warm flame.

Except the flame was inside him.

And very weak.

He’s initially thought that he was doing something wrong, but he was becoming more convinced by the second that he was in the right area, and that Vincent was right.

Arthur was almost out of energy.

Now that he knew where to look, Arthur felt confident he could make it back to this sensation again.

He lingered, feeling the slow gentle waves of his own energy resonating back and forth like the waves on a shore or echoing voices in an amphitheater.

There wasn’t much to the feeling, but he felt himself slip into an even deeper state of mental relaxation.

“TIME'S UP EVERYONE. Go ahead and get dressed. Please close the tents and lay them on the ground when you’re done.”

Arthur jolted from Vincent’s voice, completely losing the feeling of his energy.

He looked around with wide eyes, confused by the white cone of cloth he was sitting inside, but quickly remembered the class and his meditation.

Picking his clothes up off the ground, Arthur shuffled through his belongings and dressed quickly.

He exited the tent and copied the other students he saw grabbing the top of the pole, which seemed to collapse the structure.

Tom wandered over after putting his tent on the ground sporting even more feathers on his hands than before.

He waggled his fingers in front of Arthur’s face.

“You think it would hurt less if I slapped you with half transformed hands compared to normal ones?”

Arthur smiled, “I think I’ll wait until you can transform one hand and keep the other normal. I’ll need to same time comparison on each cheek to know for sure.”

“I suppose that’s true. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.”

Much of the class had left already for their next classes, with less than five still changing or disassembling their tents.

Vincent was approaching them with his hands full of tents, which he promptly dumped onto Tom who was just turning to face Vincent.

While Tom struggled to catch the tents, Vincent motioned to Arthur to help him pick up the rest.

Arthur joined Vincent in picking everything up, while Tom trailed behind, face concealed behind the pile of tents.

“How are you both feeling after your encounter yesterday?”

Arthur hesitated while reaching for a tent, “Honestly, I haven’t been thinking about it too much with classes picking up. It seems like we’re getting homework from every class today, so the bear feels like a much smaller problem compared to algebra.”

“What about you, Tom?” Vincent asked.

“I’m doing okay too. It was a bit scary seeing Arthur so close to a bear, but it’s all behind us now.”

“Great!” Vincent exclaimed, “Let me know if either of you want to discuss it further in the future. I’ll be reaching out to check in on Shona again as well.”

Vincent continued, “I did have a chance to meet with the headmaster along with some of the other professors about the situation, and we’ve decided to release an announcement for the student body.”