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This is hopeless. My knees shook as I pulled myself up another rocky ledge. From far away, Du Mountain hadn't looked like such a threat to my journey, but from up close, its sheer height had made my eyes grow large. I cursed my tutor for forcing on me on such an impossibly difficult trip. With nothing but a pat on the shoulder and a map of the route I was to take, my tutor bid me farewell and sent me off to, in his words, "discover my true potential", and to "lose some of that belly" while I'm at it. I cringed at the thought of the punishment I would receive if I were to return empty-handed. Wiping sweat from my brow, I gritted my teeth and hauled myself up another ledge, swinging my legs over the top and plopping myself down on the pebbled ground. After catching my breath, I let myself relax and, shading my eyes with one hand, looked out onto the horizon where a bundle of wispy clouds had gathered. The view was truly breath-taking, dawn's rosy blush glimmering with the caresses of the day's first rays of golden sunlight. A light breeze kissed my cheek on its way to the trees, and I breathed in deeply as it passed. I willed myself to turn my head to look at the rest of the mountain still looming dauntingly above me, and found tears of frustrating forming in my eyes. I quickly wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, thinking back to my tutor's lessons. I shuffled backwards a bit so that I had enough space to lie down. Staring up at the unmarred sky, I slowly found myself surrendering to the fatigue that plagued both my mind and body. Slowly, I drifted into a sleep, memories of my tutor swirling in my head. In my dreams, I found myself in my eight-year-old body staring at the ground, a foot placed firmly on the small of my back. I struggled to get up, and the foot was removed as I finally sat upright. I looked up to see my tutor staring at me with a small smile on his face. I looked down again and muttered quietly, "I didn't even land a single blow." My tutor shrugged and offered me a hand, lifting me up when I accepted it. "Next time," he said, "there's always next time." I frowned, and with a determined look on my face, faced him again and lifted my sword. I charged...and then my world shifted. This time I was a little older, fourteen or fifteen, and I was again flat out on the ground, soil up-close and personal on my cheek. I lifted my head, wincing as my shoulder's fresh wound complained, and was shocked to be face to face with a sword-bearing man with a mask. He motioned for me to get up, and so I struggled to my feet. Fixing my grasp on my blunt wooden training sword, I bent my knees and rushed at him. He side-stepped me swiftly. I scowled and cursed myself for not predicting his movements. The man, my tutor, slipped his mask off his face which was wreathed in a smile. "I failed again!" I shouted at him, declaring my own verdict instead of having to hear it from him. "Yes, you failed again," he said, still smiling, "but look how far you have come." I peered at his shoulder, and stumbled backwards in surprise when I saw that the fabric there was cut. I awoke from my dreams with a start, my body jolting awake. I shook my head, berating myself for my laziness, and prepared to continue on my journey once more. I slowly turned to face the path I was to take up the mountain, and groaned when I saw the distance I had yet to travel. As feelings of hopelessness began to well up inside of me, my tutor's words suddenly flitted through my mind, and my mouth began to creep upwards in a smile. I turned to look backwards, down the mountain, past the forest, all the way to the horizon on which stood the town where I had started out, and was amazed to see how far I had travelled. Compared to that, the tip of the mountain was hardly a hair's-breadth away. I shouldered my pack with a new sort of confidence and began to walk. "Yes," I thought to myself, "look how far I have come." Aeluin | |