The dust isn't going to settle any time soon. The wind pressure's slowly dying down. I can still feel Hewlett's heart-beat.
"Settle," Brother Sabantu announces in a low sickly tone. I feel his power grasp the entire room. My hand drops from my eyes to see all the dust has stopped. The dust then quickly drops to the ground.
"Hewlett!" I turn to running on all fours; my claws grip for traction as I speed up. Reaching him, he tries to get up. "Don't stand so fast, remember what you told me?"
Hewlett coughs up a bit then says, "You did not listen back then." His breathing's calmed down.
"Aren't you gonna help me up Father? I mean I did win," Champo says. The sound of his voice scrapes my skin. But Hewlett is safe, he's hurt but he did way more damage than I did to Champo.
"I'll help you get up when you learn to read the room foolish son," Brother Sabantu admits. Champo's far to my right using the wall to stand. His clothes are torn around his right arm which looks heavily bruised.
"I managed to get a hit on him," Hewlett hysterically manages to say.
"Yeah, you did really good Hewlett." He doesn't look all that injured—
"That was a very good battle you fought Hewlett. Make sure to rest up, you used more amaka than your body could handle," Brother Sabantu says. Amaka? I've never heard that. I'll ask Hewlett later about it. But even more surprising is Brother Sabantu. He sounds like a real campaigner. "That lizard expression on your face tells me you don't know what I'm talking about." There's the Brother Sabantu I'm getting used to.
"Just the amaka part..."
"Champo!" Brother Sabantu shouts. "What's amaka?" Champo's already half way to us and his hands not bleeding anymore.
Champo sighs then says, "Amaka is the energy we guide into our bodies and out into an element. It's all around, existing in those elements too. Few humans can see it and even fewer can guide it." Is that why Master Dell never used anything like this? "Though it's a given for something supernatural becoming strong enough to see it."
"Thanks..." I manage to say. So that's why I could see Hewlett's wind attacks.
Champo reaches us then says, "What I don't get is why Hewlett didn't tell you ab—
"How many times have I told you to go clean up upstairs?" Brother Sabantu grumbles after smacking Champo behind the head.
"But you didn't even tell me before!" Champo argues.
"Well, I've told you now, haven't I? But you still aren't upstairs," Brother Sabantu asks. If this is his normal side then I never want to see his bad side, let alone be on it. Champo limps out of the underground room, heading for the bar floor while Hewlett's become unconscious. Brother Sabantu says sleeping is the best way to recover from over using amaka. "Take him to your room and come back here once you're done."
I put Hewlett on my back and make my way up the stairs to the bar. A few steps before the door that opens to the bar, I smell alcohol. I quickly step out—
Champo covers his mouth with his left hand, a bottle of alcohol inches from his mouth in his right hand. He jumps off the counter and coughs up a bit of alcohol from his mouth before gulping. "I was applying it on my wounds!" Champo says out of breath.
"O... kay." I walk past him and make it to the stairs.
"Hey Yori?" Champo calls. His back is the only thing facing me.
"Yeah?"
"Don't tell Father about this." He barely turns his head back, "Haven't turned eighteen yet."
I should get back to Brother Sabantu before he comes back here then. "Sure. I won't." I reach Hewlett and I's room and toss him on his bed. I zip back to the door behind the counter and eventually, the underground floor.
"You're not pregnant now are you? Cause you sure took your time," asks Brother Sabantu. He's sitting on a chair completely made of sand.
"Ugghh..." So Champo and Brother Sabantu both use sand?
"Forget about it and come closer," Brother Sabantu says. He makes another chair beside him without lifting a finger. Show off. "Don't tell me you're blind too? Take a shit!" Did he mean seat? Yeah, I'm definitely leaving in a week. "Musunga told me about you being a student of Master Dell." My heart beats in an explosion. Brother Musunga can't go around telling people about that!
"I should have—
"Who your Master is as useful to me as toilet paper when I'm constipated. He might have actually made your life significantly harder by telling me something like that," interrupts Brother Sabantu.
"I know and I-I tried to keep it all a secret but it was kind of obvious with where I was found," I can't control how much my hands are shaking. I'm not telling him about the grimoire though. Or that I have to meet someone Master Dell trusts somewhere here in Saalku.
"I don't think you know," Brother Sabantu announces standing up from his sand chair. "You being his student means I can't afford to train you half-footed."
"You mean half-hearted?"
"Stupid, that's what I said." Really? In fact, wait did he just sa—"You heard me right! I'm the one who will be training you here."