Lessons of the World
Lesson #4- Balance
Part Three
Deep in the heart of the mysterious, wooded, and highly misunderstood landmass known as Mississippi, tucked between the alligator bayous of Louisiana and the hillbilly foothills of Alabama, a young man was steadily hopping and jumping his way across the tops of a massive forest.
Joseph’s wooden geta sandals made quiet tapping sounds as he hopped from post to post in the Forest of Balance. He was breathing easy and barely sweating at all. In fact, he was feeling pretty cool after his revelation earlier. All this was to test not only his body but his mind. Joseph grinned to himself, thinking Mind over body, right?
Joseph glanced up at the sun. He guestimmated it to be a little past three o’clock in the afternoon. That means… he’d been traversing the forest tops for about two hours. Joseph continued jumping about. His blue were still dead set on the dark shape in the distance. By now, he had gained enough ground to distinguish that the shape belonged to a person.
Joseph increased his pace.
Suddenly, there was a tweet by his left ear, and a small weight landed on his shoulder in a flutter of red wings and feathers. Joseph smiled when he saw it was his cardinal companion, Little Friend. He petted the bird on its head.
“Hey, LF,” he greeted. “Long time, no see.”
The bird nodded, turning its brown-yellow eyes onto him. She nuzzled his hand with her beak. Cheep.
Joseph laughed, steadying himself on a thin post. “Sorry, LF. I don’t have any seeds on me. You’ll have to wait ‘til we find Sensei Wen.”
Little Friend gave Joseph an incredulous look and sighed the best a bird could. Cheep.
“Oh you can wait for a lil while, LF,” Joseph said with a grin. “Besides, you look like you’re getting pretty tubby for a lady bird your size anyway.”
Little Friend pecked him hard on the ear lobe, causing him to yelp. Rubbing his smarting ear, Joseph leaped to the next post. He had begun to notice a trend forming amongst the posts as he worked his way deeper and deeper into the Forest of Balance. The posts were gradually becoming narrower and narrower. The post he was on now was no thicker than a tennis ball and was proving quite interesting to balance on thanks to his sandals.
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Joseph’s jaw hung slack like a slinky. His blue eyes were wide with terror at the sight before him. It was a sun-bleached skeleton, wrapped in the tattered gray robes of an apprentice like himself. A very thin pole had impaled itself through the apprentice’s foot, leaving him or her to die a slow, painful death of either blood loss or blood rush to the brain.
Joseph gulped, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. He tore his eyes away from the grisly scene. “Man. Talk about looking before your leaping.”
He said a quick prayer for the dead apprentice and continued on his trek. Little Friend was chirping quietly on his shoulder.
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The duo continued hopping along for a few more minutes when a light bulb went off in his head. He placed Little Friend on his finger and stared her dead in the eyes; Little Friend stared back, capturing and maintaining Joseph’s intense focus.
“LF, do you know where Sensei Wen is?” Joseph asked quietly, afraid Wen was going to hear him and reprimand him for breaking the system.
The little cardinal nodded a few times. Cheep.
Joseph grinned and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small packet of sunflower seeds. Little Friend’s yellow eyes widened greedily. She licked her beak. “Oh, you want some?” Joseph asked.
Little Friend nodded vigorously, making a lunge for the seeds.
With a crafty grin, Joseph tucked the seeds back into his pocket. He tapped the cardinal on the nose. “Okay, LF. Let’s make a deal. How about, you lead me to Sensei Wen, and I’ll give all of the sunflower seeds in this bag. Does that sound like a fait deal to you?”
Cheep! Cheep! Cheepity-cheep! Little Friend was practically bursting with excitement at the thought of the delicious seeds. She flapped around Joseph’s head a few times, urging him to follow her. With a groin, the apprentice adjusted his pack and tailed closely after the happy bird.
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“Afternoon, sensei!”
Ancient Wen spluttered awake from his doze, nearly falling off of his perch. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he squinted up into the beaming face of his apprentice. The old man wiped a string of drool from his chin and regained his composure as best he could.
“Ah. Yes. Young Joseph,” he greeted with a yawn. “How nice of you to finally join me, and, ah yes, I see you have brought Little Friend with you. Or rather, Little Friend brought you here.” The cardinal landed on his pan hat.
Joseph sat down on a post beside Wen, feeling happy. “I made it, sensei.”
“I can see that,” Ancient Wen replied. He slipped a hand into his pack and pulled out the two plastic tea cups from earlier. He handed one to his student. “Just in time for afternoon tea, as well. Would you like some?” he asked.
Joseph nodded, running his hand through his curly brown locks. “Yes please, sensei.”
Ancient Wen tossed the collapsible tea kettle at him; Joseph caught it in the stomach. “Then you better well make some for us. I’m thirsty!”
A/N: Ugh. Sorry if this chapter was a little lack luster. I had been on this lesson for about two and a half weeks, and I was getting kinda bored with it. I know, I know, bad mentality for a writer, but, whatevs. Thanks for reading anyway! I'm thinking the next chapter will either be an intermission or the start of the Nature Elements. 490Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKdisp5QFoY
