Laying Foundation

Chapter 2

    Mark went home silently that night, trying to think how the village elder did that. He pondered endlessly but could not think of any reasonable explanation of how the village elder could have that strength aside from magic. He eventually gave up and decided to ask his mother.

"How did the village elder do that? 

"Oh, the village elder mentioned one time calling it cultivation, He only said it in passing." His Mother answered. 

"Let me get something." His mother said after quickly moving to their old dresser, their main storage space in their small broken down house.

"Ah ha, here it is!" His mother spoke with delight.

"The village elder also said to teach this to all the children, I simply forgot because you were too young at the time" She said as she pulled out a box, in which lay a small book, more paper than Mark had seen in his lifetime.

Mark took the book and quickly glanced at it. Luckily most of the book was pictures, if not, he may not have the confidence in reading it. 

He just barely managed to make out the title of the book…

"Foundation Breathing"

He then sat there, looking at the pictures which seemed to depict a person breathing in, and circulating the breath throughout his body and then expelling it. He then decided to try it out. 

He sat down and tried to picture the image. *Whoooo* He breathed in, *Ahhhhh* He breathed out. His mother sat in silence looking at him for a couple of minutes before Mark finally gave up in frustration.

"This isn't working, why can't I do this?" Mark questioned. 

His mother comforted, "It's okay, the elder mentioned there's a pretty good chance that this won't work for most people."

Mark wouldn't forget though, he thought of the village elders power, "No, I will get this to work, I have to."

His mother simply relented, "You can keep it up but don't get so attached to learning it, you still have other things to do."

Mark then continued to practice Foundation Breathing every night since then, with little accomplishment, much to his disappointment. 

Life continued on as normal for the next couple of weeks, they just moved along, Mark doing normal chores and helping about, such as grabbing firewood and his mother working slowly at her dead end job as a seamstress, making clothes slowly but surely. 

Mark was exploring out in the forest one day, much to the anger of his mother, when he suddenly heard loud crashing noises.

*BOOM* 

Mark had not heard such noise in his life, even when he encountered a crowd of rushing horses that went through his village. He then had a serious problem for his mind.

"Should I continue, it sounds dangerous?" He thought.

He pondered this question for a minute and then the loud booming noises suddenly seemed to be gradually floating away. His curiosity got the better of him and he quickly scurried through the dense vegetation and although scraping his knee on a branch, got closer and closer to the loud noises. He gradually creeped up and found the source of all that noise. To his surprise it was not a beast, but the village elder causing noise. He watched the village elder, seemingly bounding with strength despite his old age, cracking open trees with his fists like it was natural as breathing. Mark watched in aw until the village elder quickly stopped.

"You!" He pointed directly towards Mark, causing Mark a huge surge of fear. "Get out of those bushes."

Mark froze up in fear, unable to move, fearing great trouble coming to him.

"Fine, if you wont move, I'll make you move!" The Village Elder spoke.

Mark saw the village elder wave his hand and suddenly felt something force himself out of the bushes.

Mark, although still full of fear, naturally questioned the unknown, "How did you do that village elder?"

The Village Elder didn't reply and carefully stared at Mark, "You aren't supposed to be all the way out here, I almost thought you might be a bandit."

Mark, looking down and trying to disperse the blame, a lesson learned from many scoldings, replied without hesitation, "Who pushed me."

The Village Elder, moving his gaze off mark, took off his gloves and started to put away his things he had back into a bag lying inconspicuously on the ground next to a tree, "I of course did, there's no one else out here except you and me."

"How, you were all the way over there." Mark questioned.

The Village Elder mumbled, "oh how ignorant the mortal world can be sometimes" then quickly continued without pause, "Cultivation, you must have heard of it, I mean did you not question my power previously, you must have been to the festivals."

Mark replied, "I tried to but mother was very vague and only mentioned some magic."

"What foolishness" The Village Elder replied then quickly remembered, "She must have given you the book right, that was an order from me personally!"

"Yes, mother did not dare defy village elder, I received the book but made no progress with it" Mark replied very respectfully.

The village elder thought for a moment, "I guess not everyone has talent."

Mark got suddenly infuriated, "What does that mean!"

The Village Elder replied, still putting and taking things out from his bag, suddenly paused, "Even a common beast could at least achieve minor success with Foundation Breathing when practiced properly, if you haven't grasped it by now then there is no hope for you." 

Mark replied, "That's not right, I use Foundation Breathing 30 minutes every day.."

When the Village Elder heard this he suddenly turned his head over towards Mark, "Did you not read the manual!"

Facing his head down Mark replied, "Some of it…" 

"IMPUDENT" The Village Elder shouted, "Cultivation is incomparably profound, for you a mere mortal trying to establish a foundation without spending immense effort is foolish, you need to spend hours at a time, not mere minutes."

The Village Elder then continued with taking out a few more tiny flags from his bag, "If you've never cultivated properly then you might have talent."

Hearing this, Mark's face lit up with happiness.

Looking at the pile of flags and the missing gear from the ground Mark suddenly realized that something wasn't right,

"Wait, where did the gear go?" Mark questioned.

"My Space Bag, it holds more than normal" The Village Elder replied then suddenly realized.

"Wait, why am I talking to you, head out of here, the forest is dangerous for mortal folk." The village elder yelled.

Mark froze there for a second before the Village Elder continued, "Don't make me drag you back yourself!"

Mark then ran as fast as his legs could take him out of the forest until he himself couldn't feel them anymore, ignoring the tiny scrapes from the branches he got in sheer motivation from the immense amount of fear.