training and failing

A few days pass. Carlos trains with both Gerand and Rey. He quickly figures out that he is not good with a sword and focuses on his talent. While trying to figure out how to utilize it, Rey comes up behind him and watches him experiment.

"You giving up?" Carlos looks behind him to see Rey. Shes crouched down and looking at Carlos drawing in the dirt. "No," says Carlos. "I'm trying to figure out how to use my talent." Rey cocks her head to the side and asks. "Oh! You remember your talent." Carlos nods and stands up. Rey stands up as well. "Yes, but I dont know what I’m doing wrong." Rey nods and taps her chin while looking up and asks, "have you tried it on different material? Like wood or stone?" Carlos nods dejectedly.

Rey then makes a fist and hits her palm and asks, "Have you ever even 'felt' ether? Maybe your body needs some ether to restart it!" Carlos raises his eyebrow and rubs his chin. He then nods and asks if she knows a way to achieve this. Rey smiles and motions Carlos to follow her. While walking, she explains. "I’m gonna ask Daddy to use his Talent on you. Maybe then your body will understand how ether works." Carlos shrugs, "Worth a shot, I guess." 

They both reach the house and enter. Both Gerand and Sharin are enjoying a quiet and calm moment by the fire. It is then interrupted by Rey loudly flinging the door open and yelling, "DAAAD, CARLOS NEEDS YOUR HELP!" Both Gerand and Sharin look behind them. Gerand then gets up and walks to Rey and Carlos. "What’s the problem?" 

Rey, pumped up for her idea, tells her father. "Carlos is impotent and needs your help!" Carlos turns to look at Rey with the most shocked expression. Gerand gives Carlos a death stare and says, "Let’s go out back. I just wanna talk, that’s all." He slowly walks to the sword over the fireplace. Carlos then frantically tries to explain. "Wait, wait, wait! She means my talent! My talent!" Gerand turns around and asks Rey, "Is this true, Rey?" Rey then chuckles and says, "Maybe." Carlos points at Rey and looks at her and asks, "You're doing this on purpose, aren’t you?" She just smirks.

Gerand, relieved, walks up to the two and smacks Rey over the head. She loses it and laughs uncontrollably. "Don't do that, sweetheart. I was about to kill em, you know." Carlos scratches the back of his head and feels his stomach drop. "So what do you need me to do?"

Rey calms herself and speaks up. "Carlos can't use his talent. So what I’m thinking is maybe he needs a dose of ether to 'perk him up' pffft." Gerand smacks her over the head again, and she laughs. Gerand first points at Rey. "You, stop talking like that. It’s indecent." He then points at Carlos. "You, me, to the training yard." Carlos wipes the sweat off his brow and nods.

The three of them walk to the training yard. Once there, Carlos speaks up. "So wha-." He’s interrupted by Gerand placing a hand over Carlos. Carlos then feels insanely powerful. Like he is a thousand men in one body ready to take on the world. Rey grabs a bit of flat wood and hands it to Carlos. "There, now try using your talent and see if it works." Carlos nods. He takes out a knife that Gerand gave to Carlos as a gift. He then carves a rune in the wood, and the rune glows!

With Carlos being superhuman at the moment, he looks at a small boulder nearby. He heads to it; both Gerand and Rey follow him. He then lifts the piece of wood and slams it into the boulder. The impact cracks the boulder, sending chips of stone flying; a hole remains, but the wood is undamaged.

Rey enthusiastically claps and congratulates Carlos. Gerand shakes his head and sighs. Carlos asks Gerand what's wrong, and Gerand explains. "So, your talent is that you can draw a rune that makes things more difficult to destroy? I don’t think that will be enough to take on the pests." Gerand shakes his head. "Aww, come on, Daddy, he doesn't need to hear that." Rey looks down. Carlos, confused, asks what he means. Gerand then explains. "Carlos...the runes are not unique. Some runes are better than others, but you only get one, and yours is practically useless for the task ahead. Then on top of that, most who inscribe runes simply touch the area they want to put the rune on and it is inscribed immediately; yours takes time to draw it. I’m sorry, Carlos." Gerand looks down and shakes his head. Carlos then scratches his head in confusion. He then looks for another piece of flat wood.

He finds another piece of wood. Both Gerand and Rey look at each other and just shrug and wait to see what Carlos is up to. Carlos then inscribes a different rune on this piece of wood. The rune makes this piece of wood rubbery, making it bounce and jiggle. Gerand's eyes pop wide open and is intrigued. Carlos then smacks the same boulder. The wood then hits the stone and bounces back and hits Carlos over the head, giving him a minor cut over his forehead. "Incredible!" Gerand then gets excited but quickly calms down. "But it’s still useless for our needs." Carlos then again grabs another bit of flat wood and draws another rune. Carlos then throws the piece of wood in a direction. It splits in two, then four, then eight and finally 16 until it hits the floor and the other duplicated pieces of wood slowly disappear. 

Both Rey and Gerand are astonished. Gerand then gets an idea. He quickly takes a piece of paper out of his notebook and scribbles something on it. He then hands the paper to Carlos and says, "Here! Try this one!" Carlos nods, and as soon as he grabs the paper, the rune drawn on it glows, ready to be used. Gerand is amazed yet again. "Fascinating! You don’t even have to be the one who draws the rune; you simply have to touch it to give it power!" Gerand then remembers what rune he gave Carlos and in a frantic tone of voice he yells at Carlos. "THROW IT NOW, ANYWHERE AWAY FROM US!" Carlos then frantically crumples up the paper and throws it away from the group. It then makes a small, pathetic spark. The paper then burns.

Rey finds the situation funny and laughs. "Pfft hehehe...good job, Carlos. You really saved us from danger, hehe." Carlos joins in on the laughter. Gerand then smacks his face and joins in on the laughter as well. "Hehehe...I completely forgot that, that rune explodes proportionally to how hard it hits something hehehe. I just remember it exploding, my bad hahahaha." Carlos, while laughing, comes up with another idea. 

He immediately goes and finds the piece of wood that he first inscribed. He tries to make another rune, but can't; the wood is too hard. He then throws it away and finds another piece of flat wood. He finds more wood and draws the explosive rune on it; it glows. Then he draws the rune that makes it sturdier; it also glows. They all look at each other once again, amazed, and Gerand speaks up. "They both work! Throw it as far away as possible. let’s see if it truly works!"

Carlos, with his superhuman strength, throws the piece of wood very hard, and very far. It disappears into the woods when suddenly a giant explosion erupts in the middle of the woods! A few trees go everywhere, and some further away from the blast splinter and fall down. Gerand excitedly speaks up. "We may have what it takes to push the pests back! Forget the sword; focus everything on figuring out how to use your talent!" Carlos confidently nods and smirks.