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Once she had recovered her balance, Jentus began to speak.
“I am satisfied with your performance with your first try at blocking. Don’t worry about the last half hour of the training I know that you were tired. We will have you blocking in your sleep by the time the six months are over. In the last two hours I have been hitting you with all that I had and I am surprised that you were able to block most of my best moves.
“You are the first student that I have had that could block my kicks and that pleases me greatly, even though they were done at a very small fraction of my skill. Now, we must do your meditation training. To start we will focus on simple breathing exercises and then move onto getting you to the calming state. Okay, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
“Good. Now, let’s go over to where I have two mats that we can lie on while we meditate. Get comfortable so that you can relax without moving. Once we start and through the whole meditation process, we will not move. Continue the breathing gradually slowing down your breathing and eventually breathing in and out through your nose.
“At this point you should feel really relaxed and content. Now imagine heat flowing through your entire body and still maintain the breathing continuing to slow it down. By this time you should not feel your flesh. The point of this is to get as deep as you can and get deeper and deeper the more that you do this. Follow what I have told you and when you come out of meditation we will eat.
“If you come out of meditation before I do, you will have to wait. At no time should you disturb my meditation, because it is a gradual process to get back out of meditation. The deeper you go into your meditation the more preparation you will need to come out of meditation.”
Alexandra continued her breathing gradually slowing it down to a point where a casual observer would not be able to tell whether she was breathing or not. She felt her body being drawn into the earth and her body felt tingly all over. It was like a bunch of sparkles were dancing upon her skin. These sparkles went away as an infernal heat that threatened to sear the flesh off of her bones replaced them.
She had never felt such heat before, not even in the hot afternoon sun that beaded down upon her. Today the sun was high and hotter than usual, but was like a cool winter breeze compared to the fire within her. She could feel the stickiness of the sweat that soaked the leather of her training outfit continuously seeping out of her pores ridding her of all contaminants in her blood.
It reminded her of when she used to stand beneath the falls of her village, the water beading off of her like oil on water. To her it was unbelievable that she was regaining lost energy and beginning to be refreshed. It was also strange that her healing ability was back of all times and she was now feeling as though all of her bruises were going away. The meditation was making her feel stronger and surer of herself.
Alexandra was also getting ravenously hungry and decided to slowly come out of her meditation. Many times she tried to get up, but realized that she was not ready to when her legs and arms would not work. She gradually put feeling back into her arms and legs as she slowly came out of her meditation. After many unsuccessful tries to get up, she finally was able to sit up.
*
She saw Jentus by the fire that he had made while she was still deep in her meditation. When she stood, her legs were a little shaky and she would have fallen back down, but for the tree that she had rested her hand on. Alexandra waited a few moments and then tried to walk again. It was slow going at first, but she eventually made it to Jentus’ side. Once there, Jentus spoke,
“I don’t know how you did it, but I don’t see any bruises on you. I know that I had to hit you real hard because I still have the bruises on my hands. In fact you look stronger than when we first had started this training. Where are you from? What are you? You cannot tell me that you are of this planet.” Jentus was looking at her strangely, like he was puzzled and confused about something concerning her. There was also a hint of fear in his eyes.
Alexandra looked at Jentus for a moment just as confused and distraught as he appeared to be or maybe even more. She did not understand why he was acting this way because she only knew the village that she was brought up in, except for the fact that she came out of an egg and was a Dochani but she had blurted that out to him already.
Of course she knew that she was different from everyone else. That of course would be really strange, very strange indeed for him to realize that she was not Sevlin. Looking up at Jentus’ sad eyes she decided to speak knowing that he would not believe her,
“Jentus, I was born, or came from an egg, in a village far from here on this planet. Why would you think me so different that I would be from another planet, even if true? What makes you think that I am from another planet? If I am from another planet, which one am I from? Besides, do I look any different than anyone else that you have seen?” Alexandra waited for his response.
She really did want to know how much he really knew about the Dochani and that she was one. Mostly, she wanted to play out this conversation with him. He looked at her and then spoke,
“You have this healing thing that no one I know has, and I know a lot of people. I know that I am not that old, but it seems strange for someone your age to be so talented at what I have been teaching you and we have only been in the first day of your training. Before I was assigned to your training, I was told that your spots were not real but tattooed onto your skin.
“They do not look tattooed onto you to me. In fact they are as real as a birthmark. I think that your spots were latent and just did not show before the tattoo man started putting tattoos on you. After all he did say that he did not have to do much to bring them out and in fact never once had to use any dye to bring out the colours, which means that they were already there.
“Even though I don’t trust the dirty old man, he was telling the truth about this. And now those dots are a very prominent feature of your appearance. A legend of the L’art’o tells of a story that a Dochani came to us L’art’o and passed on some knowledge to us of other worlds, one of which was where they were from.
“The world that this Dochani came from was in turmoil and at war with some other world that was mentioned. It was said that our world would be under attack in the far future. There is some twenty odd years left in the prophecy, but with all prophesies they may not be realized when we think that they should be.
“It is our custom to have female outsiders to be branded, and tattooed with dots in order to represent the Dochani visitor. That is the reason for your harsh tests at the beginning and the almost royal treatment that you receive now.
“I believe that you are not just a representative of the Dochani, but a real Dochani. What I am now going to tell you may shock you, but it must be done. You must know what a Dochani is capable of doing, at least what we know of the abilities of a Dochani.
“This information that I give you will help you survive in this or another hostile world. I will tell you of the known weaknesses that some Dochani have and how to defend against those who know these weaknesses. Only some Dochani have these weaknesses and most that do, do not know that they do. The not knowing is what makes a weakness a weakness.
“They, the Dochani, come from a far away planet that is more hostile than this because of the many wars that have taken place there. Many races have fought and lost against the Dochani, but those victories came with a great price. Their planet has been bombarded with so many things that it is almost dead, but for one thing.
“That thing is the heart of the planet and the heart of the planet is made of some ethereal material that cannot be destroyed, so conditions just get worse. The Dochani that came here told us that their planet would heal itself only if the wars stop for a while.
“She said that it needed at least two thousand years of rest, a rest that will be long in coming. The wars are probably still going on to this day and they were going on throughout the existence of their planet. Their planet, as far as the Dochani knew, was around for over three hundred thousand years, which happened to be how long the Dochani were in existence on the planet.
“To us L’art’o the Dochani are a strange race of people. They are not born but hatched from eggs. The eggs can lay dormant for thousands of years under the sand. When discovered and left above ground they will hatch within two months to nine years.
“Once hatched they must be cared for like any other baby as far as I know because some of what I tell you as I said before is passed from generation to generation of L’art’o and thus could have changed from the first telling from the Dochani lady that was here before.
“They look normal to everyone until they gain their spots. I don’t know what age that this takes place, but I do know that you have passed that age and that is why you have the spots.
“The Dochani that was here said that it takes time to gain the spots, so that a Dochani child is protected until she can use her abilities to defend herself. This morning I noticed that the tattooed spots on your body were faded and I had to squint to see them clearly.
“Now your spots are very vivid and I could make them out, even if I was over a thousand paces from you. You must be careful from this point on because your abilities will not be controllable at the beginning. Control will come with discipline and practice.
“About their weaknesses, there are many so I will tell you about the three fatal weaknesses. You may or may not have these, but more than seventy percent of the Dochani exhibit these weaknesses. Less than ten percent of the Dochani exhibit any of the other weaknesses.
“The first fatal weakness is their reaction to water, unfortunately you won’t find out if you have it until after you gain your spots. Water takes away all of a Dochani’s abilities and strength for a time and leaves them defenseless.
“If it happened in front of an enemy, it would be devastating because you would be powerless to stop them from killing you. The second weakness is worse than the first. There was an element out there on some planet that had changed one of their people as said by the Dochani that was here.
“It brought great intelligence to them, but at a great cost to the bearer of that intelligence. The Dochani that came into contact with the substance went mad or insane, which is what the term is known to us as. Here the insane are known as crazy fools that babble about things that are beyond our comprehension.
“The Dochani actually understood these nuts that were on our planet because what they said was true. My ancestors, of whom were to have met this Dochani, said that she was a woman of great beauty that surpassed the beauty of all those that they had seen before.
“Her name was Kenjin and those of the L’art’o called her Mandy. So, this Mandy told us many things about the Dochani. My ancestors said that she left from here to warn others of the impending danger. She never came back to this place and so we started our tradition to honour her.
“The third fatal weakness is worse than the second. If silver touches a Dochani’s flesh, meaning breaks the skin, it is like a poison that has no cure. Within a few days the Dochani will be very ill or dead. It is rare that one survives a blow from a weapon crafted from silver, but Mandy said that some have done just that.
“Those that have survived, survive with defects that somehow magnify their powers and abilities. The Dochani have much strength that is still not fully understood. Some of those strengths can be weaknesses if they are not careful. There are ten main abilities that the Dochani have.
“They heal at an alarming rate, their intelligence is beyond that of the Sevlin, they learn faster, some can travel to other planets, they are stronger, they can naturally live longer than a thousand years, great agility, great endurance, great speed and great natural fighting ability.
“There is only one thing and that is that most Dochani do not realize their potential and are killed long before their four or five hundredth year. That is most of what I know about the Dochani. At least it is what I remember from the basic schooling that all L’art’o must go through. After we eat we have to get back to your training because it will be the key to your survival.”
Jentus put some food on a plate, and handed it to Alexandra.