The tree line finally stretched out in front of me, tall birch trees towering above me with thick leaves creating a blanket of shadows that covered the thicket. Sun rays barely shone through, which made the ground moist. Looking down, a bed of mushrooms sprawled out beneath me, some of them already trampled on by a certain blind man who must have missed them. Or, the mushrooms were of no importance. 

Not all were. 

In Everett Valley, there were only two kind of mushrooms. The Kevses, the ones with mind-altering components and the Konsis, those that grew on the forest bed like weed and were eaten by smaller forest animals. 

Stepping into the footsteps that Feiran already created, I followed his path through countless bushes, branches, hanging vines and logs that came into view. The forest floor here was dense, barely any room to breathe properly. I wondered why Feiran had come here. 

Was he able to clear his head in a place that didn't exactly mirror a calm opening with enough space for thoughts to fill it?

As I went deeper and deeper into the forest, I figured that I would probably never understand the man, no matter how hard I tried to.

It wasn't until someone threw a rock at me from the side, which I registered in time and caught in my bare hand, that I knew I was in the right place. 

"How the fuck did you do that?"

I couldn't believe that a crazy blind man had attempted to throw a rock right at my face. When I dropped it, I felt small cuts in my palm begin to bleed. The sting made me angry, for I couldn't understand why he would do something like that in the first place. The fact that he could, despite not being able to see, only infuriated me more.

He can't even see me yet tries to murder me any chance he gets!

The most frustrating part about it was because I couldn't understand why. All it felt like was torture without any purpose. And his refusal of answering questions in a normal matter... Well, it was safe to say that I continued to dislike Feiran for making me bleed on purpose.

"Do you ever not mock me?" I thundered, furious that he refused to help me or explain anything of value. Was this all just to show how weak I was? How he was the one who was in control? That he was better than me?

"Try again," his voice travelled towards me, though I couldn't find the person it belonged to. Scanning the general direction it originated from, I saw nothing but more trees and branches.

"Try what again?" I asked, trying to let go of my frustration. Unfortunately, I wasn't very successful at it.

His insult only licked at the flames that my anger began to spark to life.

"You're most certainly not the smartest tool in the shed, are you, little girl?"

Scoffing, I was at a loss of words. He'd insinuated that he thought of me as dimwitted, dumb even, but he'd never outright insulted me like that. And topping it off with 'little girl'?

The man had a death wish.

Feeling a wave of fury that set the flames ablaze that anger created, I grew madder with each moment that passed. I wanted to hurt him, the same way he relentlessly hurt me. I would have thrown the rock straight into his face, but I couldn't figure out where the coward was hiding. Spinning around, I tried to rely on my sense of smell.

As another stone hurled towards me, I quickly realised that this must have been a part of his teaching method. It came from an entirely different direction than his voice did, just moments ago. I thought back to the first lesson and remembered him saying something about relying on one's gut feeling rather than their senses. I had disagreed.

Though the rock came at me from behind in a stealthy silence, I felt in my gut where it would come from. It made no sound, and unlike the first, I couldn't catch a glimpse of it from my peripheral vision. A scratch in the back of my mind made my body move and with one swift movement, I turned around and managed to catch it. It was only centimeters away from my face. The impact made my hand sting more with fresh cuts that lined my palm.

A pleased gruffy sound echoed through the forest.

"I said try again, little girl," he mocked, not praising me for my success. What did he want me to try again?

As it finally dawned on me that he might have meant me looking into his emotional signature, I contemplated whether I would continue standing there, concentrating on changing spheres while he could proceed to attack me with all the rocks he could find, or if I should find a place I could allow myself to be vulnerable in without losing his proximity.

Standing at a crossroads, I realised it required trust in him that I didn't have. So, I opted for the latter and hastened through the forest, circling where I thought Feiran could be judging by where his voice had originally come from and dropped to the ground. Crawling on all fours for a few meters, I found a small refuge in an uneven patch on the ground that bent downwards, forming an oval shaped hole. 

Maybe it was some forest animal's nest. Regardless, I closed my eyes and changed spheres with ease and searched for a white glow. Surprisingly enough, the blanket of white was not difficult to find. The difficult part, it seemed, was finding what it hid. Feiran was the first person ever to be capable of hiding his emotions from me, and I had not the faintest idea how he managed it. Next to Shyla and Tyler, but their concealment felt different.

I barely even started digging into it and already my muscles began to spasm with the strength it required. Straining myself, I managed to make out a symbol which I'd seen before briefly. Two praying hands hovered below the glow, thorns snaked around the fingers and down the lower part of the wrists. There were no colours, however, and it was the only thing I saw before my mind instinctively changed spheres because my body couldn't handle it.

Panting, I was even more confused than before. Never had there been issues with looking into someone's emotional signature. Why now? Why with him?

Feeling something warm trickle down my mouth, I tasted its coppery note and used the back of my hand to wipe away the blood running down my nose.

When a gust of wind hurled towards me and a figure stood directly in front of me, I shot back out of instinct and dug my back into the bark of a tree closest behind me.

Feiran was an enigma of his own.

"Are you even blind?" I muttered, not expecting an answer, since I truly gave up on questioning anything and everything about the man. I'd only drive myself more insane if I tried.

"You tried but you react strong physically to just a little bit of strength your ability requires. Why is that?" he wondered, asking an actual question for the first time since we had the unfortunate displeasure of meeting each other.

"Because I'm weak?" I answered, letting go of my anger towards him because it clearly didn't get me anywhere. Since he was already certain that I was a weak, stupid little girl, saying anything else wouldn't change that. Catching the rocks had barely made the man twitch. He was demotivating.

A real shitty trainer.

"I don't think that's the reason," he thought aloud and I watched as his face contorted and made it clear that he was now more speaking to himself than he was to me. "You control emotions. Strength comes from intensity. You were angry when you tried again. But it hurt you more than it helped you succeed..." he said, trailing off as he continued to contemplate.

Frowning, I tried to follow where his thoughts were going and at the same time, we both realised something trivial. He voiced his and I sunk beneath mine, dread forming in the pit of my stomach.

"You work with your emotions. So naturally, one emotion rules them all. And once you seize that emotion, there is nothing that can stop you." Feiran's face turned back to mine, his eyes trained on me though they weren't capable of letting him see me. "You must find out which emotion feeds you. And once you do, we can continue our training. You are dismissed."

And without another word, Feiran disappeared, leaving behind a strong gust of wind and me to figure out what the hell just happened. 

----

So, which emotion do we think is the one?

What do you guys think about Feiran's training methods and how Catherine reacts to them?