15 Tasting the Elements

Icarus was snapped out of his training trance by the knock on the door. He looked up to find his mom walking in. 'Quite hard at work there.' She smiled and took a seat across from him. 'So, your dad taught you about force field skills, correct?' He nodded. 'Good. I will teach something completely different but with similar training method. Now, I want to ask you, what colours do you see?'

He tilted his head at this question before realising that she was referring to his vision when he was trying to control the elements. At the same, he stroked his chin, trying to figure out exactly how many colours he could see. It was hard question partly because he had just recently gained the power and hadn't thought about it. It was also partly because he didn't exactly see a particular colour.

'Take your time. Think about it.' Sana frowned at this as she didn't know exactly why it was taking so long for Icarus to answer such an easy question. Icarus naturally saw the expression on her face and shared his dilemma. 'I don't actually see colours.' Sana's eyebrows jumped at this response. He instantly knew she had misunderstood, shaking his head he cleared it up. 'You are not getting it mom. Perhaps I should put it this way; I don't see a particular colour.'

Sana instantly understood and nodded nonchalantly although on the inside she was gasping and squealing in awe and excitement at her son's talent. To see a whole rainbow of colours meant that her son was sensitive to all elements, regardless of their strength or concentration in the environment. This was an extremely tier of Elemental Affinity, even for Elemental Kings.

'Okay,' she stroked her chin, 'can you distinguish them any other way.'

Icarus closed his eyes for only a second before opening them again. 'Yes,' he pointed to his mouth, 'through taste.'

Sana tilted her head at this. That was also when Icarus realised his mistake. He was still only a nine month baby, how would he know different tastes? He could chalk his speech up to his increased speech but how would he explain being able to name the names of flavours he hadn't even tasted or knew existed. All he had ever tasted in his life was milk and porridge. Even his fruit juice intake was only limited to cherry, orange and grape. Icarus realised that now he had officially stepped on thin ice and was going to have to be careful when describing the flavours in order to avoid suspicion. 'Okay. Can you describe one just as an example.' She stroked her chin before looking up, 'what about the wind element you used last night? What did that taste like?'

His mind started racing as he tried to think of a way to describe mint. His mother assured him to take his time and that was about the only consolation.

'Um…it was like a tiny wind was blowing a leaf around in my mouth.' It took him a bit of time describe it.

She nodded and smiled gently, 'I think I understand. That flavour is called mint. I will let you taste it sometime later.' He nodded excitedly, truly looking forward to tasting mint in his mother's cooking. 'Well, let me tell you, that element was the wind element.' She then stood up and went to the shelf before going to the shelf and grabbing a candle and a candle stand. Lighting it on fire, she stood it up. 'Try to taste the elements in the fire.' He nodded and closed his eyes.

Darkness covered his vision briefly before he was able to feel a heat coming from coming a certain orange source that was at the approximate position of the flame of the candle. Concentrating on the heat, he immediately felt a fiery and salty sensation on his tongue.

'Hot!' He struck his tongue and fanned it. It only lasted for a small amount of time during which Sana chuckled and shook her head.

'Thats called spice. You haven't tasted that either.' Then she winked at him, 'if you are too naughty, I might just put some into your porridge.'

Icarus went pale, pretending to be scared. He knew though that with the right set of condiments, any amount of spice could be overcome. Actually he was looking forward to that as spicy things were his favourite in his previous life. 'Now, try to sense the ground beneath your feet.'

He nodded and closed his eyes. Following the same steps, this time however, he tasted a really bitter-sweet and yet at the same time, dulled taste. Although this was what he told his mom, he knew exactly the name of the taste of the element; it was dark chocolate. This was also a test in order to see if there was actually dark chocolate in this world. Indeed he wasn't disappointed as his mother nodded. 'That is a really rare commodity known as dark chocolate. Normal people aren't able to afford it as it would cost them an arm and a leg.' As he listened to the description, Icarus naturally had the question that if it cost as much as his mother made it out to be, then how did an ordinary farmer's wife obtain it? Even have it enough times to know it just by description. This wasn't the time or place so he just shoved it to the back of his head.

'Now, finally,' she went to one of the tables and picked up the vase on it. Bringing it to him, she removed the flowers and pointed at it. 'Try to sense the water inside.'

He nodded and did as he was told. As he closed his eyes, a glowing blue light immediately became apparent in front of him. As he tried to concentrate on it, no new flavour entered his mouth. He continued until he finally realised that his mouth was actually full of saliva.

Gulp!

He looked up at his mother. 'I can't taste anything.' Raising his index finger, he stopped her from interrupting him, 'instead, the saliva inside my mouth starts to multiply.'

She nodded. 'Good, now that you know how to distinguish them the four basic elements, I will tell you how to control them.'