Hear the Thunder and Turn to See the Lightning Strike

And so my days went, and before I knew it, a year had gone by. I was now seven and had grown several inches. Spring had just sprung and I was enjoying the warmer weather. Moonlight Guardian’s duties never stopped, so we were both out there on even the coldest days, though we did get to wear some pretty swank heavy cloaks. Still, I was happy to feel my toes again while out on patrol.

I had also grown in other ways as well. They say if you put a frog in a pot and slowly increase the temperature the frog won't realize it's being boiled alive—this isn't true by the way—but we will stick with the analogy. It is also true that if an insecure "not child" slowly gains proficiency, he won't recognize he has become competent. It wasn't until I realized a year had gone by and reflected on where I had been back then that it all became clear.

That first day of training with the route, which would lead into the first... some uncertain number of days with the route, had been the worst days of my life this go around. Now, that same route was not even worth mentioning. If she had given me that task now, even with the weights, I wouldn't have batted an eye. To the contrary, I could now match Moonlight Guardian stride for stride, though I suspected she could still leave me in the dust if she wanted to.

While traversing the forest, I now moved across the trees as if on flat ground. While my footfall disturbed the branches more than Moonlight Guardian’s, I had made serious gains in this as well, instead of an Olympic long jumper, it was more like an Olympic sprinter. Still not exactly quite, but at least now I wasn't scaring the local wildlife. To think that this activity had landed me in the Healer's office on several occasions.

However, what most marked how far I'd come was the day I first saw it. I had accepted it could be a while before I could see what Moonlight Guardian was doing to inexplicably bop me on the head. On that day, I once again stepped up as I had after deciding to stop being a whiny bitch and planned out my course of action. She always bopped me on the head, regardless of what I did, so I had tried defending my head to the detriment of all other openings, but she still managed to hit me atop my head somehow. But that day was different, that day I saw it.

She was fast, and the movement was subtle, with no wasted effort. I put my wooden sword up overhead, as that was where she would aim her attack. But this time I saw her almost undetectable shift in position, slipping to my side, and more importantly, I saw the sword come down. All those drills we had worked long before came back to me, and to my astonishment, I dodged it. I felt like I had just won at life. Time to go into retirement. Unfortunately, since my frontal cortex hadn't expected to dodge this attack, it wasn't prepared to counter my limbic systems instinct to celebrate and I failed to see the second attack. Bop.

But I didn't even care. I had seen the attack! "Moonlight Guardian! I saw it!" I was beaming with all the pride you would expect of a seven-year-old who had just accomplished the seemingly mundane.

"That you did, Indigo." Moonlight Guardian was never one to show much emotion, but I detected a hint of pride, nonetheless. "You have come far, but there is still a long way to go."

From then on, I regularly dodge the first strike and occasionally the follow-up strike, even after she started targeting different areas. Don't get me wrong, she was still wearing kid gloves, but I felt like an absolute superhero!