Lost Valley Series: The Quest

Chapter 4: Flashback

             "Trees." A familiar voice groaned. "There's nothing but trees here! What does Uncle Jason even want us to do anyways?" The voice was of a boy, who looked very much like Lark, but several years younger. 

"I don't know. I never even knew that we had such a large forest on this island." A young Ninja looked at his brother. "If I had to guess why you're complaining so much, I'd say it's because you miss that Zen girl." Ninja leaped on a tree's branch. 

       "What are you talking about? She's just a friend." Lark hid his embarrassment as he looked around, unaware of what he was searching for. The forest the two boys had entered was apparently a training ground for beginning Elementists. Lark and Ninja had just learned of their powers, and as soon as they were somewhat able to control them, their uncle decided to throw them into a training session for a week. They had to survive without any outside help. "How is this Elementist training? We're supposed to survive in a forest for a week.. Isn't that more like survival training for military people or something?" Lark always questioned his uncle's methods, but now it felt like even he was unsure of what he was doing. 

Ninja climbed to the top of the massive tree. It was fairly high, and he would be able to get a better look of his surroundings from the top of it. "Hehehe.. Just a friend, huh? Is that why she gave you a necklace that she made with her name on it? And, I thought you knew this already. Uncle never has a clear plan on what we are supposed to do, and if he does he isn't going to share it anytime soon. Anyways, we need to hurry up and find some shelter and food. If we're expected to survive here for a week we'll need somewhere to stay and something to eat!" Ninja exclaimed as he jumped down from the tree. "I think I've found a good spot." He pointed forward. "Just a couple yards ahead, actually." 

       Lark and Ninja followed the path Ninja had mentally created, and arrived at a river bank. "Ooo!! There's a lot of fish here!" Lark ran over to the water and stared at the swimming creatures. "I wonder how many I should catch?" He started drooling, and rolled up his sleeves to start catching fish. He dived in the water, making the action of him rolling his sleeves seem pointless. 

"Only catch as much as we need. We don't want them running out. This river bank is small, and if we catch too much at once, they'll begin to rot over the time we spend here." Ninja watched Lark throw his arms and hands carelessly into the water as the fish swam away. 

       "Hmm. This is kind of hard." Lark sighed, as he failed to catch fish after fish. "Maybe this is a part of training for our.. Um.. What's that word again? It's like.. Uh.." Lark was looking for the right words. A variety of fish passed him by, as if his presence were just an obstacle and non-threatening at all. 

Ninja looked at Lark and smiled. "I think the word you're looking for is 'reflex', and it's how good your body reacts to a situation before it. Basically, it's when your body works before your brain. I guess.. I don't really know myself." Even Ninja had a difficult time explaining it. "Anyways, try to catch the fish where they're going to, not where they already are. I think uncle wants us to learn how to predict the enemy's movements." Ninja watched as Lark calmed himself and attempted to catch a certain fish, that was swimming away from the school. 

       With a fast strike his arm flung into the water, and once he pulled it out, a struggling fish was held in his hand. "I did it!" Lark grinned wildly. "Now, it's your turn to get yours." Lark jumped out of the water onto the land, holding his fish with a proud look on his face. 

"What?!?! I don't want to get my clothes wet though.." Ninja complained. "I'll just hunt something in the forest." Ninja walked away from the river and to the forest. There was lots of bushes and green all around him. After walking for around 15 minutes, he found nothing remotely edible. "Hmm..." He thought to himself. "I wonder why there's nothing here." He continued searching for animals. After searching for awhile, it started to get dark, so Ninja ran back to the river. Lark was sitting, propped up on a tree.