Koldis the Green (DRAGONWALL SERIES 4)

CHAPTER 16: MASTERING ELEMENTS

Esterpine

Claire spent the next three days after her first success using Pelwyn's bow. On the third day, her ability to focus had progressed enough to hit the target every time. She didn't miss, even if she aimed at the tree canopy just as Pelwyn had. Moreover, her bow arm was strengthened. She was no longer sore from pulling the weight of it.

She burst into Pelwyn's cottage that afternoon, a smile on her face. "I've done it," she proclaimed. "I can hit the target every time, Kenya."

"Hmm..." Pelwyn's brows lowered. "We shall see how well you have done. Leave it here and follow me."

She frowned. "But, don't you want to see?"

"I do. Leave it and follow me," he repeated, leading her back to the garden.

She exhaled when she realized what he intended. Blossom in one hand, an open palm face up with the other, he took a seat at his garden bench. She plopped down cross-legged on the ground before him. "Let's test your focus. Create a blossom in my open palm."

She frowned, looking at his open palm. Was it really going to be that easy? Even if she had succeeded with the bow?

"I would explain the mechanics of it to you again," he added, "but something tells me you have learned a bit more about yourself in the process of working with the bow?"

She nodded. He was right. Working with the bow had given her two things to focus on and helped her exercise her mind. Trying to think of only one thing was too difficult for her wandering thoughts. But, by putting the blossom in the back of her mind and the dummy's head at the front, she'd succeeded. Except...how was she supposed to do that now, when she wasn't firing an arrow at a target?

She closed her eyes and pictured the blossom, pictured everything about it. Its white color, the small petals and pistils, the smell, the soft feeling of plucking it from its vine. She thought through each of those things—and only those things. But something told her that wasn't enough.

She opened a single eye just a crack, peaking at Pelwyn's expectant palm. Still nothing. Inhaling deeply, she tried again. This time, she did something differently, she thought of two blossoms. One she kept suspended in the front of her mind, rotating as if floating in mid air. The other more detailed picture went to the back of her mind as she catalogued its characteristics.

A bark of pleasure made her jump. Her eyes flew open and her jaw dropped. "I—I did it?"

Pelwyn snorted. "Well, I certainly didn't do it for you."

She jumped to her feet and rushed over to his two open palms, fingering the blossoms just to be sure what she'd conjured was actually real. "How do I know which one is which now," she asked, awed.

"You don't. Each is as real as the other, a perfect duplicate." He closed his fists around them and when he opened his hands, they were both gone. "Now, two."

"Uhm. What?" She stopped short.

"Create two."

"But—"

"Just do it, Elam. Sit down and remake them."

So she sat and focused on his empty palms, keeping her eyes open, something she hadn't yet done for the distraction it posed. This time, she held the one blossom in the back of her mind, but split the forefront into two blossoms, each revolving above Pelywn's open palm. She blinked several times when her mental picture became the image of what her eyes beheld. But moreover, she blinked because of the white glow that emanated from her to Pelwyn's palms, like streams of energy connecting her to the world around her, and the world around her to the blossoms.