As she looked down to see the depth, her eyes came in contact with the woman who had jumped down. Seeing the woman wasn't what fascinated her but that the woman was standing comfortably on water. Now this water wasn't just a simple, small pond but a very wide, flowing river and just by looking at it, anyone could tell that it was very deep.
How was this lady able to stand on this deep water without sinking? And that too standing very comfortably.
Titan drew back. She was scared even if she doesn't die from the jump, she would definitely sink and drown. Moreover, she doesn't know how swim. 'That was definitely water and not some illusion right? I could clearly see the waves on the water.' She thought.
"You know you'll have to come down in order to go to the master right? If you can't do this, then you might as well just go back to wherever you came from." the woman persuaded.
A few students were having classes at the water side. They began to chatter amongst themselves when they heard madam Zian, the escort persuading someone to jump down.
"Who's that scaredy cat? Did any of you get to see who it was?"
"I bet it's just a lost girl who thinks she can fit in. She's obviously no one to worry about."
"Ha! I can't wait to see this entertaining scene. She's definitely going to make a fool of herself."
"That's if she'll even take the leap."
"Such a coward."
They began to chuckle and now, the teacher turned to look at them. She shoot them a hard glare. Ma'am Felicity is a very easygoing teacher outside class but once class is going on, she turns into a disciplinarian.
"Seems you all have forgotten about discipline. On my count of three..."
All the students were alerted. They knew what that meant and before she could even start counting, they ran to the water to practice their standing. What a shame! Even they did not know how to stand on water.
At the top, Titan was pacing back and forth and biting her nails anxiously. She was scared to jump but was sure she couldn't go back home. She stopped pacing and sighed then she tied her hair in a rough bun and drew a few steps backwards before finally, she closed her eyes, ran towards the dead end and jumped.
She felt the wind passing through her body and her hair loosening. She felt her cloths flapping like wings and her skin vibrating like a gong. 'Is this how it feels when flying?
"Fine. If you won't jump then....."
The woman was walking out of the water and was about to tell Titan to go back to the gates when she heard the sound of someone falling. She turned to look up and saw the tiny creature who had already gone half way from to top.
"What the....why did he have to jump now that I'm already out of the water."
This was unexpected. She walked quickly toward the space where Titan would land but before she could get there, the tiny boy had landed on the water. Yes on water. Titan had both hands on the surface of the water, one knee bent, the other kneeling and her head facing the ground but her eyes were still closed.
Zian widened her eyes in shock and clenched her chest in both fear and surprise. Titan was standing on water. How's that even possible?
When she fell from the top, she had her eyes closed and when she landed, she still had both eyes shot. 'Am I dead or have I drowned, wait! This doesn't feel right. If I drowned, my body should be wet and my breath seized right?
Slowly, she opened one of her eyelid to peep before opening the second and the first face she saw was a reflection of herself then the shocked face of her escort, Zian. She didn't even realize that there were some students and a teacher in the water as well who were staring at her with the same expression as that of Zian.
'I knew it was only an illusion.' She almost jumped in excitement. 'I'm glad I didn't turn back for the gates but why is she staring at me like that? I just did exactly as she told me to.'
"What! Impossible." One of the student shouted and it was only then that Titan saw the other students in the water. Some of them were sinking while others were struggling to keep up. Some of them had only their heads out while others where swimming out and that was when she realized that it wasn't an illusion but in fact real.
Fear engulfed her and suddenly, she fell into the water. It was as though the support she was standing on vanished and all the force she used in jumping and in addition to her weight, pulled her down into the deep river.
That was when the escort came back to her senses. She then allowed herself to sink and dived into the water to save the little drowning boy.
When she pulled Titan out of the water, thankful, Titan had not lost consciousness. She couldn't cough because if she did, it would be catastrophic. The only thing she could do was hit her chest heavily as she crawled to the side.
Now, everyone had dashed out of the water to see the mysterious little boy.
"Such a beautiful face. If it wasn't for his outfit, I'd mistake him for a girl."
"Such courage and bravery is hard to find."
"I thought it was going to be a girl; turns out it's a boy hum! Not even a competition
"Yeah too bad he's a boy; he would have been a competition to Angela Wick. Wait! That's true what's he even doing here?"
Titan paid no attention to their gossips in fact, she did not hear what they were saying all that she was concerned with was catching her breath as she laid on the ground. She had never been underneath water for this long before. This was even the first time she had seen so much water. Back at the Lynx clan, the king never let her out for war because she was still a minor and the apple of his eyes. She only practiced swordsmanship and some basic skills with Ting xiao. Since he was the best at tutoring, her father assigned him to her.
When she was feeling better again, she stood lethargically and signaled for the escort to continue leading the way. As they were going, the escort could not help but stare at her in awe and so did the other students even ma'am Felicity. They all didn't divert their gaze until both Zian and the mysterious boy's silhouette.
"Umm! Back to the water." reminded ma'am Felicity
They students groaned but eventually went to the river.
Zian could not help but ask, "Standing on that water took me years You know? How is it even possible that you were able to do it? Even though you sank after a while, its still a surprising thing. First, you walked through the gates easily and now, you stood on water. Tell me, have you trained somewhere else before?"
Titan stared at her. 'What is she talking about? How does one even train to float on water? Is this even real or is someone playing some funny jokes with me? I am still unbelievably surprised to see that it wasn't an illusion and what did she mean by walking pass the gates? Don't they walk pass gates here. Oh! That must be it. I'm used to the palace gates but its probably strange to them.' She just frustratingly shook her head to indicate that she hasn't had any training because thinking or talking too many details could break her down mentally.
The escort was surprised and murmured. "Wow! Then I'm honored to see this today." although she didn't speak loudly, Titan heard her.