5 Essence

Ovandarrak's favourite part of the day was school. Thankfully, the academy was only about a five minutes walk away from their house. In the beginning, Fani would take the two to school every morning. However, after a week, Savyrran suggested that they could go on their own.

After a lot of thinking, and convincing himself that it was safe for a couple of three year olds to go to school on their own, Fani later agreed. And so, hand in hand, the two went to the school by themselves everyday without a problem. Anyway, it was not a strange thing anyway since most of the children went to school either by themselves or accompanied by their older siblings.

In Coast Town Academy, children between the ages of three to eighteen were enrolled there. At age three and four, children were taught reading, writing and arithmetic. To Savyrran, none of these things mattered. All she wanted to do was play. And with her playful and friendly nature, she made many friends in less than a week of being in school. Out of all the friends she made, two of them became her closest friends.

Markka Tarwel and Lokirrak Roggo were cousins who were both in the same class as Savyrran and Ovandarrak. Whenever it was break time, the four had their own special place where they would pass the time until it was time to go back to class.

"Why is he always reading?" Lokirrak asked. They were at their usual spot behind one of the classes. As always, Ovandarrak was buried in a book.

"My brother loves to read. There's nothing wrong with that. Also he's very smart. Ma and Pa say I am older. But Ovan is far smarter than me."

"Well," Lokirrak began, "I guess reading is not that bad."

"Of course it's not, silly." Markka giggled. "My father is always reading. He says it testifies the soul."

"Testifies the soul? What does that mean?" Lokirrak asked. He was the tallest among the group. Even though he was three like everyone else, he could easily be mistaken for a five year old. His bountiful afro gave him a boyish charm.

"I don't know what it means. But father says it."

"Edifies." Ovandarrak said casually without lifting his head from his book. Three pairs of small eyes looked in his direction.

"What?" Markka and Lokirrak said at the same time.

"Edifies. It edifies the soul. That's what your father said. Not testifies." Ovandarrak finally looked at the puzzled cousins.

Savyrran only smiled. She was used to his brother's mysterious nature. He never talked much. But occasionally, when someone's ignorance was bothering him, he would just burst open like dam.

"Oh… I still don't know what that means." Lokirrak said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Ovandarrak went back to his book, not saying anything anymore. It was like he had already said everything he wanted to say.

"Your brother is annoying."Lokirrak complained to Savyrran.

Savyrran chuckled, "Loki, you'll get used to it."

"I can't wait until I am five years old." Lokirrak said. His eyes twinkled in excitement and anticipation. It seemed he had suddenly forgotten about how annoying Ovandarrak was.

"Why? What's going to happen when you're five years?" Savyrran asked. She was genuinely puzzled and had no idea why Loki was so excited. Or perhaps, was Lokirrak going to find Ovandarrak less annoying when he was five years old?

"Don't you know? They say our essence is going to manifest when we turn five. I can't wait."

"Essence? What is that?"

Markka and Lokirrak looked up at Savyrran like she had suddenly grown a second head. They could not believe that Savyrran did not know what the essence was. Who in Dream Kingdom did not know about the soul essence? Unless Savyrran was living under a rock, there was no way she did not know about the soul essence.

"It's like the colour of your soul. And it makes you stronger and faster. Haven't you seen your parents' essence? My father has red essence and my mother has orange essence. She is very strong. Even stronger than my father." Lokirrak explained.

"Oh… Is it the red light in the eyes and around body?" Savyrran asked, recalling the moment her mother had suddenly appeared on the tree to bring her down. She had seen the pupils of her mother's eyes turn red, while streaks of red light surrounded her body. But everything had happened so naturally that she did not even think of it as strange. Unfortunately, that was the less time she saw her mother do that trick. She wondered if her father could do it too.

"Yes. That's it. I knew you know what I meant."

"So that thing is called an essence? I had no idea. Ovan, did you know about that?"

Ovandarrak looked up at her sister and then shook his head in the affirmative. "Pa mentioned it once. I don't think you were paying attention."

"I don't think I was." Savyrran said with a laugh. "So the essence comes when we turn five? If it is going to make me stronger, then I can't wait too. I wonder if I'm going to be red too."

"I want to be a yellow." Lokirrak said. "My mother said that yellows are very very strong. I'll be the most powerful person in Coast Town."

….….

The issue about essence had got Savyrran thinking so much that when they both got home, the first thing she did was ask her father about it.

Fani was not working then, and so, he thought it was a good idea to turn this into a teaching moment. After all, the twins had only two years left until their essence manifested.

"Every natural thing in the Second Dimension has something called soul energy within them. In humans, soul energy is called the essence and this essence will only manifest when one is five years old. It…" Fani was suddenly interrupted by that familiar tiny voice.

"The Second Dimension? Does it mean there is a First Dimension?" Ovandarrak asked, his eyes burning with curious fervour.

"Yes, Ovan. There is a First Dimension. People in the first Dimension don't have soul essence. They only have souls."

"Have you ever being to the First Dimension?��

"Well, no."

"What of a Third Dimension or a Fourth? Do these also exist?"

Fani smiled widely at how passionate Ovandarrak was when it came to learning. Ovan did not speak much, however, when it came to asking questions, he became a completely different person. "Little Ovan, I think we are getting off topic here. Today, we are talking about the soul essence."

Ovandarrak's eyes lowered in disappointment. Fani, who did not want to discourage his son's enthusiasm in learning tried to compromise. "How about this, I will get you books on the dimensions so you can learn as much as you can."

"Really?" The light in his eyes was back again.

"Yes, son. Really. Now on to the essence. In the Second Dimension, there is an innate ability within our souls that gives us special powers. To the people in the First Dimension, this is magic. But to us, this is not magic. It is our normal. Here in our Dimension, there are five colours associated with the soul essence. The lowest and least powerful is the red, followed by the orange and the yellow. The other two colours are green and blue and they are the most powerful all the five.

"Everyone manifests one of these colours but no one has ever been born with a green or blue in Coast Town. In fact, only two people have the yellow essence in this town."

"Really? Who are they?" Savyrran asked. She remembered what Lokirrak had said about the yellow essence. According to him, people with yellow were "very very strong." Savyrran wanted to be very very strong.

"Mayor Danjo and Master Bufan. Mayor Danjo is the leader of Coast Town and Master Bufan is the principal at your school."

"Father, do you think I'll be an orange like you?" Ovandarrak asked. He had once seen his father use his essence while lifting something up.

"Soul essence is not hereditary. It is a matter of one's luck in life. Thankfully, there is no one who born without one. But to be honest, green and blue are very rare so it's more likely that you will either be a red or an orange."

"Or a yellow." Savyrran added raising her small hand.

"Or a yellow." Fani laughed.

"Is it not possible to raise one's essence to a higher one?" Ovandarrak asked. He kept hearing that one was born with their essence. However, it seemed no one was saying anything about being able to advance it.

Fani's countenance dimmed. He had never expected his son to ask him that. When he was a teenager, he had once asked Master Bufan the same thing. As someone born with the orange essence, Fani had always wanted to advance his essence. After all, a stronger essence meant a stronger soul armos. What Master Bufan had told him was that even though it was possible for someone, say a red, to train until they reached the orange level, it was incredibly difficult. Only the most dedicated and strong-willed individuals could attain such a goal. Also, while it was relatively easy to raise the essence in the same class, for example from orange to yellow or from green to blue, it was almost impossible to raise from one class to the other, say from yellow to green.

For many years, Fani had tried to raise his orange essence to the yellow essence, however, he had never succeeded. Eventually, he gave up. As Master Bufan had advised him to do, he began to channel his energy into learning how to control his soul armos and use it to the best of his ability. Today, because of the advice he had received from his master, Fani's soul armos was the most powerful among the oranges in the whole town.With the exception of Master Bufan and Mayor Danjo, no one could best him in a fight.

A small part of Fani believed that advancing one's essence was not impossible as long as they had a great teacher and trained hard for it. Hence, without filling his son's head with false hope, nor completely destroying his hope, Fani said, "son, it is not impossible to advance one's essence. However, you will have to train a thousand times harder than everyone else. If you're ready to do that, then you can do anything."

Training a thousand times harder than everyone else to advance from one essence level to the other was not an exaggeration. In fact, it was an understatement. Legend has it that raising one's essence was so difficult that only a handful of people had been able to do so in several centuries.

"I will train ten thousand times harder than everyone then." Savyrran said with zeal. "I want to be strong so I can protect all my friends and family."

Fani smiled sweetly at his daughter. Her empathy never ceased to amaze him.