Hendrix woke up in a cold sweat. He didn't know how to make sense of the dream.
He looked out of his bedroom window to see that it was still dark.
Hendrix stared at his wall as he tried to think of anyone that could fit the description of the man in his dream.
He shook his head as he tried to forget about it, but the man's words echoed in his head.
Hendrix swung his feet out of his bed and scratched his head.
"Maybe I'll start training early," Hendrix thought. He freshened up and changed into his day clothes as he walked downstairs towards the courtyard.
Hendrix rubbed at his eyes and slapped his own face to try to wake himself out of his half sleep state.
As he turned the corner to open the door to the courtyard, he saw a glimpse of someone through the glass. Hendrix quickly turned around.
"I'll just come back after they're done." Hendrix mumbled to himself. He didn't feel like talking to anyone this early in the morning.
As he turned around, he saw the end of a dreadlock that had a blade of grass stuck in it.
"Vida?" Hendrix turned back towards the window as he laid his eyes on Vida, who was knelt down to an empty patch of grass. Hendrix curiously watched from the window, trying not to catch her attention.
"C'mon." Vida mumbled to herself. She put her palms back towards the grass as she channeled her Spirit into her hands. Vida closed her eyes, trying to imagine the mushrooms she saw so often in the Frewin's backyard growing up.
"Just grow. That's all I need from you right now, little buddy." Vida mumbled under her breath. Hendrix smiled, for even though he couldn't hear the words she spoke, he knew she was speaking to the plant like a friend.
A cycle began to grow. Vida would enter a state of extreme focus, channel her Spirit into her hands, and exit focus as she took a break, failing from exhaustion, only to reenter focus a minute or two later.
"I just need a little bit from you, little buddy." Vida mumbled as she entered focus once again.
After a couple minutes of this routine, dirt started to get displaced in the spot where Vida was focusing her attention. She didn't notice this, since her eyes were closed to allow her to focus.
After a few more seconds of the dirt moving to the sides of the epicenter, a small mushroom began to poke out of the dirt, slowly growing above the grass.
After a pause, when Vida had thought she failed, she opened her eyes to find the mushroom fully grown. She stood up and started jumping in excitement. Hendrix smiled and chuckled as he watched from the window.
The movement caught Vida's attention, turning towards the window, but Hendrix was already gone.
"I could have sworn I saw Hendrix" Vida thought.
Vida turned back to the mushroom as she got ready for the next step in her plan. Unbeknownst to her, Hendrix had just switched windows. Hendrix justified the decision to keep watching by saying he was just waiting for her to be done so he could use the courtyard's space next. Yeah, that was it.
Vida put her palms back towards the mushroom as her Spirit began to glow from her hands once again. She tried to imagine a burst of spores coming from the edges of the cap of the mushroom.
Before starting the training, Vida had grown excited at all the possibilities of the spores. They could be a sedative, a distraction, or a hallucinogenic like Vida was trying to manifest right now. She had chosen to focus on this firstly because it was one that she knew of a real example of, so she thought that it would be easier to manifest.
She focused solely on the image of the spores bursting out of the mushroom, and the specific effects they would have.
This went on for a couple minutes as Vida grew frustrated. Hendrix silently cheered her on from the window.
After about ten minutes in total, the mushroom bursted open as spores flew into the air, creating a greyish-yellow cloud about Vida. She jumped up in excitement.
One thing that she didn't anticipate, was that the wind would be blowing directly into her face, bringing the spores with the gust of air.
Vida instinctively breathed a good amount of the spores in, bending over in a cough.
Vida's vision began to go dark as she started to hear voices that weren't there. Rather than being scared, she was happy. This gave her the opportunity to verify that it worked.
She saw spots of color through the void of darkness. They were like spores, clouds of color wisped around like wind.
The voices weren't saying anything specifically, but the fact that the hallucinations were auditory as well made Vida happy. The whispers and murmurs were just babbling background noise.
"Vida. Vida!" Vida heard a familiar voice cut through the imaginary murmurs caused by the spores.
"Vida, are you okay?" She felt a hand on the back of her shoulder. Vida got slightly light-headed from the coughing. She fell, expecting to hit the ground, but was caught by someone.
As she regained her vision, the imaginary voices subsided. She looked above her to see a concerned Hendrix. He was holding her in his arms as he looked down at her.
"I knew I saw you." Vida chuckled while she regained her composure. Hendrix started to laugh as well.
"You did great, I saw you." Hendrix smiled. Vida blushed at the compliment.
"It was nothing. I need it to be bigger next time." Vida grinned. Even though it was a small mushroom, the size wasn't the objective, and the fact that she was able to manifest anything at all, let alone a functional manifestation made Vida feel accomplished.
Vida got up off the floor as Hendrix stood up too.
"You were here to train too?" Vida asked.
"Yeah. I just got up early so I decided why not." Hendrix examined the still dispersing spores.
"Why were you up so early?" Vida looked up at the sun, which was still orange in color.
Hendrix paused for a second, remembering the dream he had.
"It's stupid to worry about some nightmare." Hendrix thought.
"Are you okay?" Vida asked after Hendrix paused for too long of a time.
"Y-yeah, sorry. I just couldn't sleep that well." Hendrix messed with his head, getting lost in his thoughts.
"Alright, then how about we go get our chores for the day over with?" Vida started walking back indoors. Hendrix nodded and followed.
The two spent their time cleaning up the kitchen. The head chef was thankful for their help, so after an hour of cleaning he said that he could do the rest of it himself, letting them off for the day.
The rest of the kids still weren't awake yet. Vida and Hendrix went back to the courtyard and sat under the willow tree.
"This is about the time I'd be practicing my guitar." Hendrix snickered.
"I'm sorry that you lost that guitar, I know it was Mr. Frewin's gift to you." Vida looked at Hendrix while Hendrix looked up at the long green leaves of the willow tree.
"It's nothing to be sorry about." Hendrix paused. The wind rustled the leaves as they swayed. Hendrix's face looked blank on the surface, Vida grew curious.
"What are you thinking about?" Vida's question would seem random to anyone else, but it was a question she asked Hendrix very often. Ever since they were kids, Vida was always curious about what went on in his head, since he was by far the quietest of the bunch.
"I don't know. The future mostly. What do you think's next for us?" Hendrix asked back.
Vida paused. She had never thought that much into the future.
"I want to change the world, for the better." Vida answered. She looked up at the leaves as Hendrix looked to her.
"I don't know how, or when, but I know that me, you, everyone, we'll do it, somehow." Vida smiled up at the sky.
Hendrix recognized that smile. It was a faithful smile. Faith in her friends, faith in herself, faith in the future. Hendrix liked that smile, it was infectious. Hendrix smiled back.
"Yeah." Hendrix responded.
"That's if I don't knock myself unconscious next time." Vida laughed, causing Hendrix to join her in laughter.
Hendrix stood up from his seated position, stretching his arms out.
"Alright, the others should be up by now. Time to train." Hendrix held his hand out to help her up. "So we can change the world."
"Yeah." Vida smiled and took his hand.
The two early birds walked to the cafeteria to see that breakfast was beginning to be served. They got in line and sat down. As they were about to dig in, they saw their friends turn the corner as Chase made the biggest yawn known to man.
The group didn't notice the two until they turned to choose a table to sit at, food in hand.
"What the hell? How long have you two been up?" Taro exclaimed as the group joined Hendrix and Vida.
"Oh, I was just training and Hendrix couldn't sleep." Vida smiled.
"You're around Hendrix too much. His habits are starting to rub off on you." Amora chuckled.
"I don't need to get up early. I know I'm a natural, so I only need a couple hours before I'm ahead of you guys." Chase said as he stacked his toast, eggs, and bacon on top of each other. Amora reached over him and stole his apple juice, Chase had no reaction to such a normal occurrence.
"Says the last one to get past one to get past stage one." Akilah whispered.
"I heard that!" Chase waved his fork at Akilah.
"You guys are energetic this morning!" Bloom smiled. Her and Alex walked up to the table with their plates in their hands.
"Bloom, tell Akilah how much of a natural talent I am!" Chase jabbed his fork pointed at Akilah.
Bloom chuckled at the exclamation as she humored him with a simple "Sure!".
"Are you three ready for another round in the courtyard?" Alex raised her eyebrow. Taro grabbed his head and dragged his hands down the sides of his face. He had forgotten about his plans for the day.
"C'mon, guys! Maybe you'll land a hit today!" Alex's encouragement did little to weaken the dread of pain that the three boys carried that morning.
"And I'll see you four in the gymnasium!" Bloom smiled at Chase, Akilah, Amora, and Vida as they nodded and smiled.
The day stretched ahead for the kids, filled with nothing but training.