Finding the Lost Boy by J. S. Bendle

  Chapter Seven

  "So out of all the masters you liked Jason the most." Katelin said, as more of a statement of clarification than anything else. She had taken to learning more about Eathen with so much enthusiasm that he was happy to tell her.

  "He was the closest thing I had to a friend until now." Eathen said. As he smiled and turned to better face her they locked eyes and he became strangely aware of how close they were under the covers.

  So did Katelin and they both started to blush at almost the same moment. Katelin was the first to break eye contact. "So were the other masters mean to you or were they just not as friendly?" She paused and thought about trying to relate with having teachers that she liked more than others, but decided against it. After all, even on her least favorite teachers worst day she'd never been beaten around a room for four hours.

  "Well, before I started training with Master Jason they were all strictly professional, but for the most part they were always fair. They praised me for working hard and when I learned something quicker than they planned, but the never treated me like like I was an equal." Eathen paused. That had all been years ago and trying to put all the random words of the different Masters together to rebuild his opinion of them at the time took some thought. "But my training with Master Jason changed all of that. As my sight beyond sight improved, my view of everything became clearer, and I started to see some of the many truths. I was more than their equal. I even though couldn't beat them in their own arts, no one could, but eventually I could match them and our sparing matches would end in draws simply because I didn't want to show them how far I'd come."

  "Because they were already bitter about how far they'd seen you come in such a short time when they had worked their whole lives to only be able to stand toe to toe with a child." Katelin added. Eathen nodded, she'd hit the nail on the head perfectly. Jealousy wasn't something that Eathen had picked up on much in his "sheltered" childhood. Katelin knew it as well as any normal teenage girl, making her the subject matter expert. "Still you shouldn't have had to deal with that as a child. I'm sorry." she said. On the one hand she did feel sorry for him, because she really thought he was too young to deal with the emotions of adults. On the other hand it was one of the more normal aspects of his life that she'd heard so far.

  "Don't be." Eathen said. "The real problem came when I tried to tell them how to improve their techniques."

  Katelin fought the urge to laugh but she couldn't hide the grin that was evidence enough. "You think? I'm sure they must of loved that." she said. She wasn't sure if Eathen was familiar with sarcasm until she saw him smile back at her. "I'm just kidding." she said, giving him a playful shove. At first he seemed so alien to her, but really he wasn't that strange if she looked past the crazy powers and all that.

  "All of the Masters handled it differently but it was the worst with Master Chen." Eathen began. "He was the first one that I was able to beat, right after I learned the rebound technique. Although he was always the worst tempered of any of the Masters."

  "Tell me about it." she said and settled in for another story. The two didn't mind each others closeness at all. Eathen blushed as her hair brushed against his face and he thought how wonderful she smelled. Katelin couldn't believe how close she was to the boy that she'd pulled out of the field the night before. It wasn't just the physical closeness that was getting to her either. She felt like he was a life long friend, someone she'd had in her life forever and that she wanted to be with forever. She pushed away the idea that he would eventually work through everything figure out how and why he was here and leave and her life would go back to how it was. None of that mattered at the moment. He was here and she would be here for him.