20, Rival

I went back to my room and sat on my bed. I had been unconscious for a day and then in the mindscape for another day and a half. I had missed the first two days of training for a total of 3 days where I was out of it.

Seeing as it was time for everyone to go to sleep I decided to enter the Mindscape again to work on the new shape. My plan for tonight was to bring the Octahedron to the fifth stage. I wanted to punch another 648 holes between the 8 faces to make the first stage 5 shapes.

I needed to break up the hedron eventually but I wanted to do it at the last minute as it could impact the Mindscape.

I pulled what I'm referring to as my consciousness into the Mindscape and focused on the octahedron. I knew from my previous escapade that It is really easy to lose track of time so I needed to do this quickly.

I knew that the structure was stable but it is better not to push it too far. I picked a face to work on and decided to make a hole in 1 of the 81 triangles to start.

I made two holes in a row quickly and there was no risk of collapsing or becoming unstable so I decided to try doubling it and make 2 holes at a time. I did the same this time, punching 4 holes total in quick succession.

Things were still stable so I thought about doubling it again and doing 4 at once, but decided to be safer and do 3 to be safe. This proved to be a wise decision because when I punched the 6 holes quickly the entire octahedron destabilized and trembled for a few seconds before settling.

I wanted to try doing more at once so I tried increasing the initial number without having a follow up one. I punched 4 triangles at once and nothing happened so it seemed that the second quick impact was causing the destabilization.

I let the shape rest for a few seconds to be safe then I increased to 5 and attempted it again. The image didn't destabilize but I was hesitant to push it any further in case of an instability. Five at once was enough for me to feel like I was making good progress without endangering the structure.

I decided to give the shape a second rest after each time to make sure no problems would occur. I repeated this pattern of 5 holes then one second rest a total of 125 times on all of the faces until there were only two stage 4 triangles left.

I finished the last two holes and successfully brought the octahedron to stage 5. There wasn't a noticeable change at all but I did get a sense of accomplishment that tempted me to continue with the progression but I made myself stop and do it another night.

I have to start training tomorrow and it won't be easy, it will be worse if I am sleep deprived. Tomorrow is day 3 for the others, I hope that I won't be too far behind them.

I pulled my consciousness back into my body and quickly curled up under the covers. Sleep soon pulled me into her embrace.

…

I was woken up by cold water on my face that yanked me from my dreams. Sitting up I was face to face with my mother who had an evil grin on her face and a bucket in her hands. "You should have woken up when I called you the first 4 times. You have no excuse to miss training today, if you're late they make it harder for you."

I scowled at her. "You enjoyed that, didn't you." "Maybe." she gave me a coy grin and threw the remaining water at me. "Get up. If you wake up by yourself, maybe I won't use cold water tomorrow."

I got out of bed and asked her if I had time to bathe. "Nope, you just had your bath. You have time to get dressed, eat breakfast quickly and run to the training grounds.You really don't want to be late, trust me."

I quickly threw on the same robe that I always wore, tied my belt and ran to the kitchen where I saw a plate of food waiting for me. There was an egg, fruit and some thinly cut vegetables that have an addicting crunch.

I finished my plate quickly and then ran out the door. The training area was located in the life section denoted by the tower belonging to the Life Clan. It also held one of the two reservoirs of water that my clan was in charge of maintaining.

If I were to walk it would take me around 10 minutes but I ran as fast as I could and was able to make it in 4. I arrived at the same time as another girl, she was the girl from the mana ceremony.

She was standing in front of the life elder, the boy who had his eyes closed was also there. It looked like it was just the three of us for training.

I was breathing slightly hard from my sudden run and my hair was still wet from the water. Both of the others were still a little sleepy looking but their hair was dry and they looked more prepared than I felt.

Neither of them took the initiative to speak so I did. "What happens now? Are we just waiting for a person to come or is it just the three of us?"

The boy ignored my questions and the girl answered. "The trainer John will be here in a little bit, he wants us to arrive early because if you aren't early then you're late."

"Thanks." The boy finally spoke in a grumpy tone. "I don't know why you bother talking to him, Minili. He didn't even bother to show up for the first two days."

"Just ignore him Etanali, he is just sour that you got to miss two days."

"That's fine, I didn't mean to. I was in my Mindscape for almost two days and apparently lost track of time. I only came out last night in time for dinner, by coincidence."

The boys face twitched at my words but resumed his scowling, Minili looked at me in surprise. "You lasted two days in the mindscape?! That's so impressive! My concentration broke after the first day."

"It's not anything that amazing, no need to praise him or anything."

"Oh shut it Dotam." Minili smacked his arm. "You only lasted a few hours longer than me. You shouldn't knock his accomplishments because you're jealous."

"I'm not jealous! You're jealous." Dotam stomped with his foot and pointed a finger at me. "Don't think you're some kind of hot stuff just because you got adopted into old man Octatus's family! You're no Omcatus. Don't think you belong with us, you broken compass!"

"DOTAM! That is completely out of line! Just because you have complete eyes doesn't mean that you're better than him." Minili took a step forward to hit him but I reached out to stop her.

"Calm down Minili. He doesn't have to like me, he just needs to know that no matter what he does I will do more. No matter how good he gets, I will be better. No matter how much magic he wields, I will wield more. He will always live in my shadow for I will be the next ruler of our people. Not just on this cliff. I will restore ALL of the Golden Eye Clans, and unite them"

Dotam went red in the face and it was clear he had many words to say to me but before he could do so an adult walked up to our group. "Are you alright Dotam? You are all red?"

He winked at me and I knew that he heard our entire exchange and that he had my back. "No John, I was just trying to hold my breath to see if I could break my record." He came up with a quick lie to cover for himself.

John simply smiled. "Well I am sorry for interrupting that, you should continue. I am sure that you can do it." Dotam opened and closed his mouth a few times as he realized that he trapped himself in his lie.

If he refused to hold his breath he would open himself up for more questioning so he just took a big breath and held it in while glaring at me.

"Welcome to pre training Etanali. I went over this before on the first day but seeing as you are just joining us I will go over it again." Dotam let out his breath so he could complain but before he could Joseph cut him off.

"Did you beat your record?" "No.. But-" "Well you can't give up just yet nor should you." Dotam begrudgingly went back to holding his breath causing Minili to giggle at his reddening face.

"This training is to have you guys be prepared for a small tournament amongst the youth of your generation. As the children of the clan leaders you are expected to do well, so we decided to train you a week in advance. The tournament is a great time to settle any grudges between the youth as well."

He not so subtly gave me and Dotam a look as he said that last sentence. It was clear he wanted us to save our fighting until that day.

I smiled at him and nodded my head and then turned to Dotam. I raised my eyebrow towards him and hoped he understood my meaning.

He met my gaze and gave me a smile and nodded his head, a gesture which I returned. "Ugh Boys." Minili shook her head at our antics.

John clapped his hands together to get our attention. "Now with the purpose of training out of the way I will Introduce myself and then it will be your turn. We will go around saying our names and our goals. My name is John and my goal is to train the perfect warrior that is able to thrive in all situations. Minili, you can go next."

"Ok! My name is Minili and my goal is to become a battle healer feared by all!" "Very good Minili. Etanali, your turn."

"My name is Etanali and my goal is to live life to the fullest and to restore the golden eyed people to their former glory." "Very noble of you. Dotam it's your turn now, I hope you won't need to keep holding your breath after this."

Dotam was much calmer now, holding his breath had the desired impact. "My name is Dotam and my goal is to be the strongest." He stared directly at me as he was saying his goal.

It was at this point that I realized everything I said to him earlier was an affront to his goal. I just declared that no matter what, I would be better than he was. No wonder he was so mad!

I decided to see if I could turn this from a toxic grudge into a productive rivalry. Last thing I wanted was a brooding dark haired character obsessed with his older brother.

I took a step forward and offered my hand. "It's good to have some competition, let's see who can reach the peak of the world first." I gave him a wild smile allowing him to see the determination in my eyes.

He stepped forward and grabbed my hand and gave me a similar smile with a slight hint of madness in his eyes. "I look forward to leaving you in my dust. You can't even get here on time, how do you expect to surpass me?"

I let go of his hand and put it over my chest. "Ah! You've wounded my fragile heart."

This earned a giggle out of Minili and a glare from Dotam.

In my mind I thought to myself 'damn this kid is dead serious. Guess I shouldn't play around.'