A Second Wind: Book One, A Legacy Found

Chapter 3: Two Steps Forward

The weather was still warm, but the trees had unexpectedly decided to dawn their autumn cloaks. The bright green forest seemed to shift into shades of blazing scarlet, and honey gold almost overnight.

Zephyr had been at the mansion for about two weeks. His speed had improved for the most part and his hand-to-hand combat skills had gotten better. He could now stop without face planting, and survive over 20 seconds when sparring with Angie. However, he still hadn't learned any of the speedster abilities, such as phasing and his father signature move, the spin-dash.

One partially sunny afternoon, Zephyr had just finished combat training with Aunt Maria, and had decided to take a walk through the fields. He noted all of the variety of fruits, veggies, and herbs they were growing. There were carrots, potatoes, strawberries and even peanuts growing their little shrubs close to the ground. On the arches that lined the pathways grew green beans, grapes of every color and strange blue/indigo flowers with gold details on their edges. They looked a little like morning glories, but unlike morning glories they opened but never seemed to close. At the end of the rows was the herb garden, there was mint, basil, and a bunch of other plants that Zephyr didn't recognize.

"HEY! ZEPHYR!"

Zephyr turned around and saw Damian, and Angie walking towards him. "Hey, Damian, Angie what are you doing?"

"Were going down to the sea shore to collect shells, shallow berries, corpse kelp or whatever we can find." Angie said.

"And maybe if we're lucky we might get to watch a starfish eat." Damian said with great enthusiasm.

"Well, now that sound exciting," Said Zephyr.

"Yeah, starfish pin their prey down with their legs, then throw up their stomachs to surround their food, and then they suck their stomachs back inside of themselves, with the food inside of it." Damian said with bright eyes and a big smile.

"Cool," Zephyr said not entirely sure what to do with this information, "How do you know that?"

"I read a book," Damian answered, nodding his head, incredibly proud of himself, before he continued towards the shore.

"And just when I thought I have heard everything." Zephyr said.

Angie giggled and snorted, "Yeah, Dami always got some random fact from something he's read. You'll get used to it."

"Guess I'll have to."

"So, are going to join us?"

"To the shore?" Zephyr's body suddenly became tense, and his face became uneasy.

"Yeah," she noticed his face, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"You can't swim. Can you?"

"What? oh, no I can swim, not very well, but I can."

"So, what's the problem?"

"Water makes my skin crawl, I'm just not comfortable being wet. Ma said it might be because I had a drowning incident. When I was a baby, I fell into the water and when I came back up, I wasn't breathing."

"Oh, I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked."

"It's alright, you didn't know."

"So, is that no? Because we're staying really close to shore, the deepest we're going is the tide pools. I don't trust Dami any further out."