Control it

I wake up on the sand near a fire on the little beach.

"How you feelin?" Lincoln asks handing me a cup of water.

"My head's pounding and my arms are sore other than that fine." I say sitting up.

"Control it." Lincoln says staring me in the eyes.

"What?" I ask not knowing what he means.

"Control the fruit it was controlling you yesterday you have to learn how to control it." He says. "If you can't control it you just lost the ability to swim for no reason because if it controls you you're its subject not the way it should be which is the fruit being the subject listening and doing what you say."

"How do I control it though? I feel in control the whole time."

"Exactly you shouldn't feel like you're in control you should feel a constant battle inside of you a fight that you need to win, there's no fight inside which is why you feel in control."

"So I have to fight the fruit for control?"

"You're a fast learner." Lincoln says. "We're starting training now if you can."

"Yeah I think I'll be fine." I say surprised Lincoln said we needed to train right after yesterday.

"We're not going to go log big but we're going to start with a decent sized rock." He says helping me up and we walk along the beach to the area Lincoln wants me to train I'm guessing. "Pick that rock up." Lincoln says pointing to a rock about half my size.

I concentrate on getting control of the fruit and feel a small pressure in my head. "I feel a little pressure in my head it isn't my headache though." I say looking at Lincoln.

"Good you're slowly fighting for control focus up and win." I nod and close my eyes trying to concentrate of the pressure. It gets worse and it goes to a pounding like someone's hitting a hammer on my head over and over again in the same spot.

"Don't let up James you're doing good. If you look anything like what you feel you're getting complete control and the fruits fighting back at it's hardest just keep going you got it." Lincoln says the pounding gets worse when a screech like the one darkness made when I destroyed it exploded in my head and the pounding went away.

"It's gone! The poundings gone!" I say excited.

"Great job James!" Lincoln smiles and tells me to open my eyes. The rock is 10 feet in the air and it feels like a grain of sand. "Control the shadow and break the rock clean in half. Actually use the shadows around you and make a weapon then use that to cut the rock."

I nod and think about making a katana out of the shadows and a small blade appears in my hand. I get it to grow and it becomes the size of the training katanas I've used at home. I swing it around a little to get a feel for the blade and bring the rock to me slicing straight down and my sword dissipates the shadows stream down to the ground and go to the nearest shadow.

"Good James that was good. This time make the sword stronger." Lincoln says with his arms crossed. I nod and make the katana again this time the katana is darker and seems to absorb all the light around it. "Good." Lincoln says with a tone I haven't heard before it's like a teacher finally getting to his pupil and the pupil doing great things.

"I can do it this time." I say to myself swinging the blade down as hard as I can on the rock this time the rock breaks apart and a clean but also a little rugged cut is drove in the rock and its two pieces fall to the ground with a thump.

Lincoln smiles and pats me on the shoulder. "Amazing job you really are a fast learner I'll teach you one of my favorite attacks." He says he then throws up 5 smaller rocks and throws his hands at them and little spears of yellow light hits each rock exploding each of them. "What you're going to want to do is make the shadow as hard as you can then throw it and as soon as it hits your target expand it that's how you get the explosion or." Lincoln says throwing up 2 more rocks and throwing the same yellow beams of light the light pierces through the rock and there's a cork size hole in both rocks. "You can do a piercing attack. If you want to try I'll throw the rocks for you this takes a lot of patience and you're going to fail." He says.

"Can I try and make the little spears first?" I ask.

"Yeah I was gonna make you do that anyway. It's the same concept as the katana you made only you throw it." I nod and think about what Lincoln made and tried to imitate it but all that came out was a clunky crooked sharp piece of shadow. "Keep trying." Lincoln says I do and every time I try it gets worse I made one that broke the second I opened my hand. "How's your head?"

"It hurts." I say trying again this time I got a nice straight little spear except it had a bend at the top of it.

"How bad."

"Nothing I can't handle." I say, the headaches gotten really bad and every time I make a little spear it hurts worse.

"James how bad." Lincoln says.

"Ok ok really bad." I say.

"That explains it we're done for today." He says walking back to the ship. "You made progress and you will tomorrow also."