The Taste of Seduction

"Aha! I did it again!"

The moment she already tore her 40th leaf, Austin joked, making the two guys laugh who were watching from afar.

"Meredith… you might as well want to tear every leaf of the bush next to you. I can regrow that part of my garden."

She turned to look at the boys and narrowed her eyes at him as she was being teased with their laughter. As they smiled at her instead after their laughter has died down, she returned her attention to Austin.

"Fine… let\'s try the rocks next now."

"Alright." Austin gestured to a slightly big rock by her foot, bigger than the pebble she picked up a moment ago. "Try to observe and determine how it can break."

She bent down to pick up the rock that was just touching her toe. She was wearing flipflops. The moment she looked at it, she bit the bottom of her lip, her brows creasing together as she wondered to herself how she could break it.

She knew that each difficulty of the object differs, like a level of a game. If the leaf was the easy one, the rock will be the moderate one. Of course, the rubber ball would be the most difficult.

She looked at Austin, the man further giving her hints as to how it can be done.

"You have to focus and control your magic just the same," he said, now pointing at the rock. "But unlike the leaf, the rock has a pattern not the same. Well, not all objects are the same. Try to look at it now."

With a nod and not a word spoken, she closed her eyes. The moment she shifted her focus on the rock, she only saw a light-greyish light as its energy, and no pattern was found.

"This… it doesn\'t have a pattern," she mumbled, enough for Austin to hear. With a smile, he acknowledged her answer, further leading her to it instead rather than spoon-feeding his student.

"True. Now… how do we break it in half?"

Meredith looked at the rock on her palm once more. Her brows creased even further, the woman biting her bottom lip once more as she thought to herself.

\'Unlike the leaf, I followed my thoughts slowly on its energy pattern to break it. I did this again and again to get the hang of it, speeding up my tearing process. But with a rock…\'

She cocked her head to the side. She thought of something that she wanted to try out and surprised the three with what she did next.

She threw the rock on the ground and stepped on it as hard as it could, the rock crumbling into tiny pieces, but not exactly pulverized into powder.

"Uh… Meredith?" Austin called her attention, the woman still staring at the ground and broken rock unfazed. "If you\'re frustrated, we can take a break and have some snacks," he added, the woman not saying a word.

"Shall we bring water and food, Austin!?" Atlas called out, Meredith waving her hand to stop them from talking.

"Hush… I\'m concentrating."

Atlas and Marcus looked at each other in confusion.

"She\'s not hungry… nor angry?" Marcus asked, Atlas shrugging his shoulders as he is discombobulated as he is, too.

As the three watched her, she picked up another rock and stared at it for a while on top of her palm. The moment she closed her eyes, she shifted her focus on the rock.

She then recalled how she broke the rock under her foot. With her remembering the sudden sensation, she put more pressure on her focus as if pressing a button, opening her eyes once she got a feel. She surprised her teacher with what he saw.

Instead of breaking the rock in half, she pulverized it into powder! It was another level of focus—something that Austin thought she could not muster to accomplish within a day of just starting to tear 40 leaves since the beginning of their training.

"Well done, Meredith!" Austin couldn\'t help but compliment her loudly, clapping his hands as if giving her a standing ovation for a good show. "That is another level of focus right there! Your mother would be so proud!"

"Ha!" she exclaimed proudly, shaking her hands to remove the remnants of the pulverized rock on her hand. "I knew it! In breaking the rock, I thought that like stepping on it, it had to be quick, strong, and pressured. I thought of the sensation while I focused on it, that\'s why I was able to break it."

"Which is a good realization," Austin acknowledged, nodding in amusement. "Actually, if you think of a slicing movement quickly with your focus and control, you could break it in half. But you thought of something better that actually requires more energy. Well done! Indeed a fast learner!"

Atlas and Marcus looked at each other. With them understanding what the look could mean without having words exchanged, they understood that if they made Meredith angry, they could meet the same fate as the rock just now…

Austin couldn\'t help but laugh. With him laughing suddenly, she wondered why, her gaze shifting back and forth to him and the other men. Being a man himself, Austin knew not to provoke an angry witch or wizard or else…

It could end badly.

Not wanting to probe in any further with whatever it is that they\'re thinking, she just ignored them and picked up more rocks, trying Austin\'s explanation and doing it successfully. She also did her own method in between, making sure that she gets a feel of both methods before going to the next item to break.

She thought it was impossible to learn in four days just in time for the full moon… but maybe she can indeed do so and do the ritual if her good progress continues on!