The Heroes of the Elemental Academies

Chapter 18: First Official Friend, and a Dark Swordsman

Seth

It wasn't as hard as he thought it was going to be, but it still wasn't easy. Seth spent almost an hour getting the image of the water flowing out of the stream and into the bucket which he had sat on the bank. But once he did, maintaining it became the problem because it required focus to fill the bucket with water at a constant pace. But Seth was literally creating a bridge from the stream to the bucket completely out of water, and as he was going back up the hill he was secretly ecstatic. He could control water! It was a weird feeling but not an unpleasant one and he felt as if the water carried with it its' own energy and life which had made Seth feel rejuvenated and full of strength.

Once Seth had gotten back to camp where everyone was waiting by the fire, clearly expecting him, They all stared at him as he walked into the circle and handed the bucket of water to Isbis who gave him a slight smile but also continued to stare at him. Seth retreated to the edge of the group and sat down with a deep sigh, but they only kept staring at him with an unexplained look on their faces. Finally, Seth got tired of them staring at him.

"What is it!?" He exclaimed, "am I that interesting?" The silence continued for a moment until a laugh escaped from Mike's mouth. He let out his laugh doubling over and holding his mid-drift as he belted out laughter. When he finally realized that he was the only one laughing he abruptly stopped albeit with some difficulty. Strat just stared at Mike calmly while Mike brought himself under control. It was almost impossible to guess what these guys were thinking about at most times so, Seth stopped trying to.

"What? Is it a crime to laugh now?" Mike asked looking offended. Strat didn't respond or even change his expression he just kept on staring at Mike with calm eyes. "Could you please stop staring at me before I throw a bolt at your face Strat?" Mike asked clearly feeling more annoyed than usual. Seth thought it best to not go down the road in which the conversation was heading, so he intervened.

"So, what is it? Why are you staring at me?" He asked a second time. Strat turned back to Seth completely ignoring Mike's outrage.

"That was way too fast," Strat replied simply. "It is not supposed to be possible to master a water technique so quickly. But you clearly got it down, I could feel your aura change the minute you acquired the skill. So, there's no way you faked it." Seth, not knowing what to say just simply sat down between Isbis and Jack who was seemingly thoughtful and clearly unavailable at the moment.

"It's like you just acquired a skill like in a video game, what's more you seem to now be quite adept at summoning, and controlling water," Mike stated to which Rylee who had been quiet responded by forehead palming herself, and shaking her head in shame.

"Really Mike, that's how you choose to describe it," she said clearly disappointed.

"What? It made it easier for Seth to understand it, didn't it Seth?" Seth didn't want to say anything for fear of making either one of them hate him, but they both stared at him expectantly. Seth let the silence stretch until Isbis finally interrupted and saved him.

"Well we're having vegetable soup tonight, but I would like to see if there are any herbs nearby, so that we can give the soup more favor. Seth, would you mind helping me look?" Seth was quick to accept anything that got him out of deciding an argument between two people who could easily crush his windpipe if he said something that they disagreed with.

"Yeah sure, no problem," he replied quickly jumping to his feet so that he could follow her down the hill and into the quiet darkness of the night.

They walked for quite some time neither saying a word. It wasn't that they had nothing to say to each other, that much Seth knew. But if he had to guess at why Isbis didn't say anything, he'd say it was because like him, she didn't know what to say.