Sapling

Now that I had successfully planted a seed, I could finally advance to the next phase: growing the seedling into a sapling and then to a tree. As I continued to try sprouting more seeds, I put some of my time aside to grow Lazarus.

I was getting better and better at shifting the seeds too. The number of baskets where I stored my failed attempts increased at a slower pace until I stopped needing new baskets altogether. By the end of two weeks, I had already successfully planted half a thousand small seedlings. Irnoma adjusted the rain cycle, and they started to grow.

But accelerating the growth of these seedlings was more challenging than I had thought. I managed to grow most of my plants out of their first leaves, but they were still only as large as my hand. How could I make them grow as fast as my master did during his demonstration?

Thankfully, when Irnoma saw me struggling on one of the plants one day, he came over to give me some advice. "As your tree grows, it becomes less about precision and more about strength."

I turned around and looked up at him. "Well, why didn't you tell me that sooner? I've been working on growing these forever."

He folded his arms. "I thought you'd figure it out by yourself. You should know that both temporal precision and strength are critical factors in measuring your chronal aptitude. That's another reason why I'm using trees to teach you all this."

"Okay, then I'll show you what strength I'm made of!" I turned back and rolled up my sleeves, preparing to put all my energy into growing the saplings. Just before I unleashed my push, Irnoma stopped me.

"Just remember," he added, "precision is still important. Do not forget that."

"Fine, I'll be careful."

I held my hand out over the small plant and concentrated as hard as I could, pouring all my strength into it. Quickly, the tree started to grow taller. New branches formed and leaves became larger. I released my push and stood back to admire my work. The sapling was still shorter than me, but it had grown so much faster than the past few days.

I looked up to Irnoma to see if he approved. He sighed, telling me something was wrong. "Well, you could have been a lot more careful. You shifted it to its side a bit, and it looks like you have introduced some parasite."

"Wait, a parasite?" I looked back at the sapling worriedly. How had a parasite gone in there? Was that a possibility from another timeline? The tree looked fine to me. "Maybe it'll be okay for now, right?"

"Just wait until tomorrow, then you will see."

And sure enough, when I came back the next day right after my morning run, the tree had passed. Some sort of vine had crawled its way out of the tree's insides and suffocated it. I dropped to my knees in front of yet another failure. How could I keep this from happening without growing the trees so slowly?

But the answer came soon enough. Less than a month after my first seedling, I already had my own little orchard of saplings. Each day, I grew them little by little. Special care, of course, went to Lazarus. I was thankful that he hadn't been the one I had experimented on that day I made a tree die from a parasite, so I told myself to be even more careful with it.

With the days and days of tree growing, however, came the longing to learn something new again. Just how long was Irnoma going to make me grow these trees? For another month? For a year? He had said he would be leaving once I've learned everything, so is this what I would be doing for all those months that he is away?

Today, I finally worked up my courage to find my answers. When Irnoma appeared out of the cabin to check on my work, I asked him.

"Master, do you think I am doing well in my training?"

Irnoma studied me. "Well, you are improving quite fast. I cannot say that you have reached the level I wish for you to attain yet, though, but I am confident in your ability to train yourself."

"Then does that mean you will be leaving for your trip soon?"

Irnoma nodded. "I guess the time has come, yes."

"But aren't you going to teach me something new? Like, for example, moving myself? Actual time walking?"

He put his hand on my head and scrubbed my hair. "For now, I would like you to focus on your strength instead of your flexibility. The time will come for that. Be patient. I know you have been before."

I took his hand off my head. "I just don't want to keep waiting," I said, looking down.

"Don't worry about it. I'll be leaving in a few days, but I'll be back before you know it."

"Well, I sure do hope that," I replied, going back to growing my trees.

But as I walked back, I couldn't stop thinking. Master did say that I was doing very well in my training, right? What's stopping him from teaching me to time walk, then? I couldn't wait for a few more months before he would teach me, could I?

Then, slowly, an idea formed in my head. How hard would it be to do it myself? If I knew how to move these plants, it shouldn't be that hard to move myself, right?

So with determination, I walked into the forest, far away to where Irnoma could see me from his house. Standing still in the middle of the trees, I calmed myself. But as if in rebellion, my heart started to race. I took a few deep breaths, which still failed to remove my nervousness. It should be the same as pushing those trees, right? Why was I getting so worked up about it?

But what if something went wrong? I could turn into an old man in an instant or even get my body ripped into pieces, right? Maybe… just maybe, I should listen to Irnoma's advice.

I shook my head. Whatever I'm going to do might not even work. And I doubt I have so much strength to do that much damage to myself. Plus, I had done this before, four months ago, right? I should be able to do it again. I bent my knees and got ready. It was all or nothing now.

Closing my eyes, I focused on my temporal muscles. It would only be a small push. Precision over strength. The most minuscule of all pushes. An even tinier push than the ones I gave the seeds.

I opened my eyes. A large cloud of colors had surrounded me. And then, with all my concentration, I gave myself that small push.

Suddenly, the aura flashed and disappeared. I stood there, wondering what had just happened. Did it work? I had felt the push inside me, but it didn't look like much happened. I felt around my body. I didn't feel any pain, so I wasn't hurt. Then I looked down. That was when I finally realized it.

Long, brown hair fell down the front of my head, when Irnoma had just given it a rewind a week ago. My shirt and pants were now tattered and ripped, when they had been just fine a few moments ago.

I looked back up and combed my hair back. I had succeeded! So it wasn't so hard after all, right? I think I could get the hang of this pretty quickly!

I quickly cut my hair with my handy knife and ran back to my saplings. As soon as I reached the edge of the forest, I saw Irnoma sitting on the front porch of his house. I quickly hid behind a tree and looked down at my tattered clothes. I couldn't tell him what I did, or he would become angry. He might even prevent me from learning to time walk by myself, which would completely go against my purpose.

So I quickly came up with an excuse and walked out. When Irnoma saw me, he stood up in surprise and started walking towards me with a worried expression. "What happened to your clothes, Damien? Are you hurt?"

I shook my head. "It's okay… I decided to go for a quick swim, but I left some berries in my pockets, and some wild animals tore my clothes up searching for it."

"Seriously, be careful with your clothes next time. Here, take them off."

I did as he said and handed my shirt to him. He took them and examined them, making me tense. Had he figured it out?

But instead, Irnoma simply sighed and held the shirt out. An aura formed around it, and I watched as the cloth magically repaired itself. When he finished, he handed me a seemingly new shirt.

I was relieved that Irnoma hadn't found out that I was experimenting with myself. Still, I was curious about his repair technique. "What was that you just did to my clothes?" I asked him as I put my shirt back on.

Irnoma thought for a second. "I guess it won't do harm to teach you about it. It's pretty simple. I only reversed your clothes back in time. It's the same concept as what you do with your trees. Why don't you try it with your pants?"

I pulled my still torn pants off, held them in my hands, and concentrated. As Irnoma said, it was the same as pushing the trees, except in the opposite direction. A soft aura surrounded my pants, and slowly, the holes began to close, and the fabric started to weave back together. After a minute, the pair was as good as new. I looked at my work with pride. I was really getting good at this, wasn't I?

"Ahem…" Irnoma cleared his throat. I looked up at him and saw his mildly disgusted face. I quickly realized and put my pants back on.

"Don't get too full of yourself, Damien. This isn't some fun children's camp."