Willow kept fidgeting and touching his hair as the scenery passed him by on top of Rotter. Andrea danced around his head, trying to tell him it wasn’t that bad in their own way, which the boy appreciated even if he wasn’t quite feeling it at the moment.

  “I didn’t do that bad a job, did I?” Mu asked from nearby, puffing away on her pipe.

  “I liked it long.” He sulked while trying to grab his flower spirit, treating it as a small game to lift his spirits. Though Andrea now barely fit into his small hands as they’d noticeably grown in size.

  He shook his head and there was no longer the familiar bounce of his curls. It felt new and unfamiliar like many other things he’d dealt with in the months since he’d left his family.

  At least it made the more humid northern weather marginally more bearable. Water qi saturated the air due to so many nearby rivers and as they grew closer to the great lake in the center it would only get worse.

  “If you wanted to keep it long you shoulda told me before I started cuttin’. If all you ask for is a hair cut I’m defaultin’ to my style.” She lifted her wide brimmed hat to show a similar short cut that matched Willow’s new look.

  The boy sighed, but let it be. It honestly wasn’t that bad, and now he and his mentor matched in a fun way.

  He’d adapt like he had with so many of the new experiences he’s had.

  Like wearing pants instead of a dress, and snacking throughout the day instead of having specific meal times. It was initially uncomfortable, but soon he’d get used to it.

  Hopefully.

  “It’s fine, Miss Mu. Thank you for doing it for me. At least I’ll need to spend less time combing it every morning.” Which had honestly been a pain anyways, he was used to having someone in his family help him do it, so learning how to do it properly himself had been a bit of a learning experience.

  The alternative was knots and tangles and that was unfun in an even worse way.

  “You’re quite welcome, boyo.” She said with a small smile as she went back to reclining on her spirit beast and taking in the sights as they travelled. Their lessons for the day were already done, and the current travel time was supposed to be spent with either rest or practice at Willow’s discretion.

  So he supposed that he should get to practicing.

  He harmonized with his bond to the poppy flower in his palm, feeling both his body and core shift to match the small wood spirit. His new haircut made it so he couldn’t see the flowers in his vinelike hair anymore, but he tried not to focus on that.

  Instead he focused on the feeling of the sun on his skin and the moisture in the air. Normally he disliked the somewhat muggy climate, but in his wood form it was refreshing. If Mu hadn’t put a stop to it he’d likely be in this state most of the time as they got closer to the Seo clan’s capital.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Something about it being more likely for people to mistake him for a humanoid spirit and the problems that would inevitably ensue from such a mistake.

  He practiced some of the small techniques and control exercises that his teacher had him do. Stimulating growth in passing plants and trees, with only minimal visible results, but he could still see his progress through his senses. He still wasn’t as good at this particular application as his father and Bough were, but he felt he was coming along nicely.

  Especially considering his minimal qi reserves. They were apparently far larger than average for a child his age, but he still ran against his limits daily and wished the growth of both him and his spirits would come faster.

  Willow shook off those kinds of thoughts, something he’d gotten increasingly good at. He had time, he just needed to make the most of it.

  The boy summoned a poppy flower to his free palm, one of the easier applications since he had a ready example in the form of Andrea in his other to base it off of. He then tried to enact one of his latest lessons, imbuing a technique into a qi construct and sending it out before activating it. In this case it was supposed to be a “growth bomb” that would simply feed some of the nearby plants a burst of wood qi all at once.

  That way it was harmless, but still easy to see when he succeeded.

  So far he hadn’t managed it just yet, with the flower dissipating shortly after he sent it out whenever he’d tried so far. It was frustrating, but a not so uncommon trend with some of the exercises his mentor taught him. According to her, he was a quick study, but to him he was always a bit too slow at figuring these things out.

  Willow pumped the small flower with qi, tying it off in a little pattern that should be receptive to a secondary pulse of power he planned to send when it was an appropriate distance away.

  He sent it away with a light toss and an expression of will, and the pattern began to dissolve almost immediately, causing the flower to dissipate and let loose its payload prematurely.

  Another failure. He thought he’d tied it off properly this time, according to the examples Mu showed him it was almost identical. Yet still it didn’t seem to work. Could it be that finicky? Requiring a level of perfection he couldn’t reach?

  He took a deep breath, pulling a bit on the bonds of his friends for comfort before letting it out. He was fine.

  Try again.

  And so he did, performing the same exercise over and over, trying different things to see if any difference was made. Some he’d fill with less qi, others he’d tweak the pattern in subtle ways, still more he’d try to keep a firmer grasp on the construct with his will.

  None of them were even close to succeeding.

  Mu didn’t comment on any of his attempts, she viewed it as valuable to try and achieve such things on his own. Only bringing up his closest attempts in the following day’s lessons.

  Maybe he was going about this all wrong. There was a simpler way of doing this that should get him similar results with much less finesse.

  His reserves of qi were running low and as a result he likely only had one more attempt in him for the day, so he carefully created his next construct, Andrea cheering him on from the side.

  He filled it with qi laden with the intent to grow like so many others before, but this time he forewent the pattern, merely keeping himself connected to the construct with a thread of qi so fine that he doubted his mentor would be able to perceive it, even with her full attention.

  Willow lightly tossed it, making sure to keep the thread of qi stable as it drifted on the wind towards his intended destination, a small clump of flowers on the side of the road they were travelling on.

  The floating flower arrived and nestled amidst its brethren before Willow detonated it with an expression of will.

  The flower patch noticeably grew, the wild growth bringing a smile to the child’s face.

  It wasn’t quite the technique his teacher was trying to impart, but a small success felt good right now.