Chapter Six - Growing

Mia Mia's squeals got the attention of the rest of her brother's and the quickly gathered around her to find out why. She told them and they all jumped up and down (not literally) with excitement. The rest of the soldiers had also arrived just that morning and had set up a barrier to keep themselves from being destroyed in the wood.

Mia Mia wanted desperately to celebrate her coming of age but was told that she couldn't at that time and that she could once they reach the country of Zhi. Shighing she told Aloradyth then settled down in her tent next to the cave entrance. She began to think over her life and about the biggest secret she had kept. Shaking her head she gently slapped her cheeks stood up and began to stretch before sitting down to a large loom and began weaving cloth for a new dress for her beautiful daughter.

In side of the cave Aloradyth had finally made it back to her small bed roll and curled up she than began to draw her mind inwards tracing her lines of power to the center of her body. In the center of her body lay a small pond of shiny light blue liquid. The pond was slowly beginning to fill one drip at a time. The drops were coming from her lines of power.

She felt that there had to be a reason for the color of the liquid, she didn't know what the name of this liquid was called, but as she looked farther she saw more ponds in an array of different colors one was red and flowed at a slower pace. Another was green and another gold as well as another in silver. She watched these ones and realized they were flowing more rapidly than the others. She continued to look further and further and found there were eight different colors in total.

Red.

Purple.

Light Blue.

Dark Blue.

Green.

Gold.

Silver.

Black.

She know that each color was a different power but she had no idea, other then red and green, what they ment. Sighing she pulled herself back a little only to realize that all the small ponds made up a large pond. Confused she didn't know what to think as she pulled all the way back out of her body. She lay there staring up at the tall cave ceiling her mind spinning.

After she rested for and hour she got up and started flipping through the different medical books that she had stacked against the wall beside her bed roll. After sitting against the cold stone wall reading until just before dawn her body that was in pain before was hurting her so badly she groaned as she slowly stood once more. She stretched and began to warm up her muscles. After she warmed up she made herself as comfortable as possible on her bed roll and fell to sleep.

She once again found herself in that small cottage like home sitting beside the large furnace. Blinking she stretched wincing a little at the pain and stood up. "I didn't expect you tonight." Fain Chang Kai's voice came from above her. She looked up and saw his leaning on the railing of the balcony looking at her. She shrugged. "I didn't really fall to sleep until just know because I was studying the medical books." She explained as she looked about.

"Are you hungry?" Fain Chang Kai asked as he walked down the stairs in light blue and silver robes. She silver white hair was pulled up and tied with a light blue cloth. Aloradyth blinked as she quickly looked away. "I dont know if eating in a dream will do any good for me." She said as she picked up an herb in front of her. Fain Chang Kai didn't respond as he made his way to the other side of the furnace. Curious Aloradyth started to follow. When she rounded the furnace she ran straight into Fain Chang Kai who was on his way back with a plate of food.

Fain Chang Kai froze as he felt Aloradyth come into full contact with his body. He couldn't even breathe as she caught herself using his robes and straitened herself before quickly stepping back and apologizing more than once. Fain Chang Kai didn't know how to act after something like that so after handing her the plate he started going through the herbs and making three different lists.

One list was herbs he needed to restalk the next was herbs he wanted Aloradyth to find in his home and the last was a recipe for medicine that would help her cultivation he also decided it was time to teach her how to properly cultivate every one of her Base Elements. Every one had a Base Element in which they cultivated. Base Elements were exactly as they sounded. Everyone had the ability to control an element the element a cultivator could control was called their Base Element.

In the history of the Ten Kingdoms only the kingdom of the Clouds also known as the kingdom of the Immortals had only had three people ever had more than 4 element bases. Only one had ever had all 8 Base Elements. The Cloud kingdom was also the most powerful of all the kingdoms. It was said that the only way you could get into Cloud Kingdom was to be taken in by an Immortal. There was of course ways to become an actual immortal but most never made it.

Aloradyth sat down and picked up the pastry looking food and bit in to it. Unexpectedly it had meat and rice stuffed inside with a crisp and flaky outer shell and it was seasoned to perfection. She smiled and finished her plate. Standing up she turned and looked for a place to wash her dish. Fain Chang Kai observed her from the corner of his eye as she made her way into his small kitchen. His heart felt as if it was about to jump out of his chest.

Clearing his mind he turned back to what he was doing. There was no need for him to be messing up the recipe again. He finally finished set the last two lists down and bolted for the door. Aloradyth came around the furnace just in time to see the front door close. Looking around she saw that Fain Chang Kai wasn't around. A smirk crossed her face as she crossed the floor quickly and ran up to the second story.

She once again started to try different doors and found that this time there was two doors open. The first was Fain Chang Kai's room, but she didn't dare open that can of worms. The other door was the next door over. Aloradyth excitement couldn't be contained as she opened the door. She froze in place. What she saw made a lump appeared in her throat. It was a large library with selves that reached to the ceiling, but what held her attention was the huge glass ball, so large Aloradyth wouldn't be able to rap her arms around it, in the center of the room. As she looked at it she could see a man and a small girl running around playing and laughing. She took a step forward only to feel herself being grabbed and pulled back. The door slammed shut in her face before she was forcefully turned around. Standing in front of her was a man she had never seen before.

"Who are you?!" He demanded crossing his arms. He had to be almost 7 feet in height and made Aloradyth feel like and infant standing so close to him. "How did you get here?!" His voice was deep and it boomed around her making her ears hurt. Aloradyth shrank back against the door feeling all her training suddenly leave her. Her only thought was to get out of there. She ran for the stairs.

Just reaching them she felt the wind as the man behind her tried to grab her ducking she ran down the stairs and out the front door. She was running as fast as she could. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain go through her scalp and she was grabbed by her long hair. Crying out she felt herself being yanked backwards. Landing on her back she tried to quickly get back up again only to have a large boot, almost as large as her chest and stomach combined, land on her chest.

"Answer my questions mite or I'll have to crush you to death." He growled leaning over to look at her face. As he looked at her she looked at him. He had black hair with red tips that was tied up on his head. He had golden green eyes and sharp features almost to sharp to be handsome. Although he was tall he wasn't overly muscular. 'Though he is wearing armor so that could add to his build.' Aloradyth thought. Her thoughts were cut off as he pressed down on her chest.

Gasping she tried to speak but couldn't draw enough breathe to speak. Seeing she wasn't speaking the man pressed down harder. Finally he let the pressure off just enough for her to draw in enough air. When she finally got air she filled her lungs and as loudly as she could screamed. "Fain Chang Kai!!"

The man hearing her scream pushed his foot down harder making her gasp and shrash trying to get free. soon she felt her consciousness beginning to slip do to lack of air just be fore she blacked out her heard a shout and felt the pressure suddenly released. The sudden air in her lungs caused her head to spin and the last thing she saw was an angry looking Fain Chang Kai heading in her direction.

Fain Chang Kai heard Aloradyths scream, were he was picking fresh herbs by the small river close to his house, and dropped the basket in his arms. He was running back towards the house even before he realized he had even moved. Reaching the meadow he saw his personal guard stepping on Aloradyth. His vision dimmed. Using his power he threw his guard off of her while shouting at him to get out.

The guard being as dense as always, when it came to his master, just sat on the ground dumbfounded. Fain Chang Kai advanced as he pulled his sword from his storage ring. Seeing this the guards face went pale as he scrambled to his feet and took off running as fast as he could, which was aprominently 60 mile an hour. Seeing him run Fain Chang Kai didn't bother with him as he rushed to check on Aloradyth. He stabbed his sword into the ground next to a tree and picked Aloradyth up. He carried her to his room and set her down on his bed.

He reached out and tried to touch her forgetting to use his power to do so. His hand passed through her. Sighing he left after tucking he in, he knew she wasn't going to be there when he got back. He reached the edge of the meadow and sat down beside a large tree. Reaching up he pulled the mask off his face and set it on the ground beside him. He looked up at the sky as he thought. 'Some day.' The wind blowing his hair around his stunning face. 'Some day I'll be able to take my mask off for you Aloradyth.'