Learning is the father of all skill

A few days had passed after the party. Haley was walking in the cold winter ground to the tribal building. Inside there she went into the hall where Tenzin was working.

"You busy?" asked Haley.

"Depends. If something is more important, I am not busy," Tenzin stated.

"I want you to teach me mediation," Haley said while avoiding eye contact.

"You want to learn what exactly?"

"You heard me. Will you teach me or not?"

Tenzin smiled. He folded his legs and closed his eyes.

"Please. Sit down."

Haley sat down.

"Close your eyes and separate yourself from everything. You hear nothing. See nothing. Feel nothing. Eventually, the only thing you will feel is your divine power" Tenzin explained.

Haley felt stupid. She still did as Tenzin advised her. She didn't feel anything special. She sat for minutes and still didn't feel any difference.

"This is stupid. I've been sitting here for five minutes now, and I don't feel like anyway closer to unlocking my powers," said Haley in frustration.

"If it happened fast everyone would be able to conjure their divine powers. Many people might have divine power, but they have no idea. You must have patience. Be happy, you at least know that you have divine power. Most people live their whole life without ever realizing their gift and potential," Tenzin explained.

Haley gave it a new try. For at least half an hour nothing happened. She then was able to shut all the noises. Her senses slowly started to fade away and she didn't even feel the cold ground underneath her.

She started to feel something. In Haley's mind, it looked like a crystal floating in the air. She was trying to grab it. It was constantly getting away floating in the air. It was floating away from Haley and evermore getting more and more further away from her reach.

Haley started to concentrate harder. She then with all her might was able to grab hold of it. After Haley had grabbed it she felt a huge surge of power coming from the weird crystal. She then was woken up when she heard a large noise like furniture being broken.

She opened her eyes. She looked around the entire room was filled with blue crystals. Large crystal spikes had formed from nothing.

Tenzin looked frightened. Tenzin had to turn his body yet again into stone to protect himself. Haley then felt herself losing control of the feeling and the crystals faded away into nothingness. Haley was still astonished that she finally was able to manifest her power. Tenzin then lowered his guard.

"It seems both you and your brother have a terrifying power," said Tenzin at Haley with a small tone of fear in his voice.

~ ~

Winter came to the mountains. Snow packed up in front of doors making getting out of houses harder. The black goats were taken inside the stables so they could survive better through the winter. Food was rationed and only the hunters went out to find some extra food that could be put on the table. Hunting in winter did not bring much meat to the table, but it was better than nothing. All in all winter to the grey skins was even more of a game of survival than it ever was to the humans of the Jacob kingdom.

Rufus kept practicing with Pema. Pema had already learned how to speak the human language in just a few months. Rufus also had learned well Pema's martial arts. He was still no match to Pema, but his martial prowess had increased considerably.

~~

It was mid-winter. A white rabbit was digging up through the snow to find food. Soon a stone arrow hit it killing it instantly. Amala then got up being buried deep in the snow to hide from her prey. She wore a heavy fur coat to keep herself warm. She went to pick up the rabbit and tied it to her belt where two other rabbits were hanging.

"You are lu...luc...luck," said Rufus with a hesitant grey skin language

Rufus came with a wild boar on his back with another being carried by Pema. Rufus had started hunting with Pema. None of them knew how to use a bow, so they used their divine powers to hunt. Thanks to the hunting Rufus had built strong muscles and his hair also had grown long.

Rufus had also picked up a little bit of the grey skin language. He was not a fast learner as Pema, but was able to use some phrases here and there.

"Just stick with human language and you know nobody likes a showoff," said Amala in human language realizing her catch was smaller than theirs.

"You know nobody likes to go hungry," Pema said back in human language.