The Crystal Odyssey

Chapter Thirty-Eight: A New Discovery!

Chapter Thirty-Eight: A New Discovery!

The next morning came and we prepared our belongings and set out into the forest to train. As usual Maya was up to his old antics, out of the blue he just started sprinting away. Niamh quickly reacted; her instincts instantly took over as she shot off in Maya’s bearing. I watched hopelessly as the two dashed off and into the forest without me. Fortunately I still had a trump card up my sleeve, having taught myself how to store energy in different parts of my body I could easily catch up and show Maya that I was physically capable too. I knelt down and put my left foot back, stabilising myself like an athlete using a starting block. I tensed my legs, gathering up kinetic energy in my muscles. I took a deep breath and let go. The sudden release sent me hurling through the woods. I had prepared myself for the whiplash so I managed to stay stable. Within minutes I could see two small objects moving in the distance. I gathered more force in my legs making sure that my body could handle the level of speed that I was travelling at but I was nowhere near my limit. Before I knew it I was right behind Maya and Niamh but they hadn’t noticed yet. I ran in-between them and steadied my pace to theirs until they noticed that I had caught up. Niamh’s head began to turn in my direction.” How!” she screeched. I felt incredible, but I longed to go faster. I built up more energy as much kinetic force as I could and released all of it in one go. In the split second I felt a shift in the atmosphere surrounding me. The wind blowing in my afro-hair had stopped. I couldn’t even hear the sound of the trees or the birds. The forces that bound me to the earth were lifted in the short moment.

I turned my head to my left and then to my right but even they had slowed down, the world was in slow motion effect but I was still moving normally. Regardless of this change, I was determined to show my true capability. I took a step forward and the world began to speed up again. My sharp leg movement created an explosion of sound and air, sending out a loud sonic boom. I instantly halted and turned around but what I saw came as I shock! I had only taken one step but I was at least a fifty meters away from Maya and Niamh. Niamh was on all four with her blade jutted out. Her stance was bold and ready to fight. Maya too stood squatted with his arms out ready to battle. We all stood still for five long seconds as a strong breeze howled in the trees.

I jogged back up to the two of them and asked them what was wrong. “Why were you standing like that?” They both walked back to me slowly still shaking and peering around. “What did you do just now?” Maya asked my in a serious tone. Niamh didn’t say a word she simply looked at me as if she was going to ask the same question. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about you mean that loud sound?” Maya finally relaxed,” No! Well yes and no! I mean... yes what was that but no what did you do to cause that!” I examined both their faces afraid of saying the wrong thing. “I...don’t...know...” I said sluggishly watching their expressions carefully, which seemed to be getting worse. “Well, I mean I do...I was just, I was just running fast...” The long pauses between my words was getting awkward, they knew I wasn’t sure what I was talking about. Maya clenched his fist and punched me on the head. Niamh didn’t even stop him, she probably would have done the same thing, “You really scared us.” I rubbed my head and apologised to both of them,”...sorry? I guess.”
“I guess?” Niamh repeated angrily,” Why didn’t you tell us you could teleport?” My eyes instant widened, “I teleported?” Maya instantly questioned the remark with a “No!” he then moved me out of the way and curiously walked to the exact spot that the noise had originated, the spot where I took the step.

“In a way Arc is right! He did run fast, very fast.” Maya rubbed his hand on the floor and trailed it to the spot where I had stopped and tested the rest of the ground. ‘I’m right’ I wondered to myself. “The question isn’t how fast he moved but how he moved!” A cold shudder surged through my body. Maya’s expression was cold. Had I done something that was forbidden? He stood up and turned to face us. Within a second his expression changed, a wide grin suddenly spread across his face, “Arc I think we just discovered something incredible!” I still felt uneasy, “Something like what?” Maya strolled back to us looking down and shaking his head, “We discovered you! You are truly like no other.” He paused for a moment his head still facing the ground, “Do you know what you just did Arc?” I didn’t respond. Not even a twitch or a slither of movement. Niamh walked next to me and placed her hand around my shoulder. “Don’t worry you didn’t do anything wrong,” she reassured me. “Let’s carry on walking. I will explain on the way,” Maya instructed.

We walked for a bit before Maya began to talk again. “I want you to tell me what happened back then so I can come to a conclusion on what exactly you did?” After Niamh’s reassurance I felt a little better, “Yes of cause! Back in the forest, when I was training by myself, I learnt how to amplify my movement by charging up energy in my body and releasing it as kinetic energy. I didn’t think it was anything special since I’ve seen all of you do it before.” Maya smiled, “Your right it isn’t anything special, anyone can do that. Even an animal, what you described it similar to a normal human tensing a muscle when they run. But that’s not what you did back there, could you please be more specific.”
“Sure!” I responded, a little curious to find out what Maya was trying to figure out, “Well that’s how I caught up to you two but when I finally caught up I wanted to push myself further. I felt like I wasn’t going as fast as I should be so I gathered more energy around me and just let it all go. That’s when it happened,” I paused trying to think of the right words to describe what happened. Niamh moved her hand gesturing me to carry on. “It was like everything had slowed down, literally. I couldn’t even feel the breeze hitting me back or hear the sound of air rushing past me, it was as if... as if all the forces that bound me as a being had let go.” Maya immediately jumped, “That’s it!” Niamh decided to butt in too with a “That’s what?”

I could feel Maya’s excitement exhausting from his body, “You just told me what you did! You somehow removed the forces around you... wait not! You manipulated the forces around you!” I jerked my head towards Maya, “I did!?” Niamh almost simultaneously comment, “He did?” Both our jaws dropped. “How are you so sure?” Niamh added. “I’m sure because he just told me, plus when I checked the ground where he ran I noticed how the grass stood straight up and little pieces of dust floated in the air. It was as if he hadn’t even stepped there.” Niamh still couldn’t believe what she was hearing and decided to further challenge Maya, “How are you sure he didn’t just run really fast?” Maya didn’t seem fazed by Niamh’s interrogations, “When we run we use our own forces to move against all the other forces acting upon us such as gravity, friction and even air resistance eventually we hit our limit and reach terminal velocity when the opposite forces become equal to our top speed but that’s not what Arc did. Instead of forcing himself he somehow lowered or even removed the opposing forces around him thus causing him to effortlessly move about almost invisible to the average sight making him look like he teleported. There are you happy now?” Maya taunted Niamh. “Either way we have arrived at our destination.”