Q: Did you hear about the guy whose left side got cut off?
A: Yeah, but I hear he’s all right now.
Andy’s Woodsy Adventure (Chapters 1 to 14)
Andy’s Woodsy Adventure – Chapter 15
I sprinted quickly under the water back to the other side and as the edge loomed near, I decided to try something. I kicked ferociously moving my body angled upward like a dolphin might and suddenly found myself flying into the air straight out of the pond and towards Chris.
“CANCER!” I said as I did a somersault forward and landed on my two feet.
“Show off!” said Chris.
“See I don’t need any training, I got this!” I said feeling rather proud of myself.
“Sure you don’t Mr. Air Gasper…”
“Hey, I would have eventually figured it out.”
“Uh huh. You might not get an ‘eventually’ in certain situations you know.”
“Alright alright, I get it, no need for a lecture, so what’s next?”
“Are you ready to try a new Zodiac sign?”
“Absolutely!” I said extremely confident.
Having mastered the Cancer power I did feel rather assured that the rest of this training and becoming a full-fledged Keeper was going to be a walk in the park. Little did I know what was soon to come would absolutely test my limits.
“Ok, I want you to try Taurus. I’m pretty sure I know what it does.” said Chris as I changed out of the bathing suit and back into my normal clothes.
“Pretty sure? That’s not very reassuring Chris.” I said sarcastically while tying my shoes.
“My gut tells me it deals with super-strength ok? Look, I’m just trying to go with my Guardian senses here, so cut me a little slack and don’t worry, I’m positive it’s not going to make you gasp for air,” he said snickering.
“Ha ha, that jokes going to get old real fast.”
“Not for me!” Chris said as he held his throat with both hands and pretended to gasp for air.
I wasn’t amused.
“Ok, see that huge boulder over there?” Chris pointed to a massive rock nearby that stood about 8 feet high and measured about 6 feet wide.
“Yeah…”
“I want you to try to lift and throw it once you activate the Taurus Zodiac.”
“Alright…TAURUS!”
Nothing felt different after I’d said it. I paused for a moment waiting to see if anything would happen, but nothing did. My muscles didn’t become huge monstrosities nor did my body change at all. In fact, I didn’t feel any different.
“I don’t think it did anything!” I said to Chris as I approached the boulder.
“Just try lifting it!”
“Well what if the power is something else, I could end up hurting myself!”
“Just do it and stop worrying!”
I wasn’t really sure how I was going to lift this mammoth rock regardless if the Taurus power was super-strength or not because it was so dam wide. But when I saw an area at its base where I was able to slide my hand underneath, I figured I would do my best to lift it from there. I thought for a moment about the last time I sat at a weight bench trying to lift a measly 50 pounds and how hard it was, and figured this would be the same. As my the palms of my hands touched the rock’s underside firmly at its edge, I pulled as hard as I could upward and suddenly the boulder flew straight into the air. I watched as it quickly passed the highest height of the trees surrounding me, rising hundreds of feet skyward until it eventually stopped its ascent and hurriedly began falling back towards the earth and back towards the precise spot where I now stood.
“Oh crap! Run!” I shouted to Chris.
“I want you to catch it,” Chris said far too calmly.
“You want me to do what???”
“I want you to catch it!”
“You’re nuts!”
“I told you your training would challenge you, but you didn’t believe me!”
I really wanted to run. My heart was racing as I watched the rock get bigger and bigger, wondering if the velocity of it might end up crushing me. I placed my hands in the air, palms facing the sky and really wished I could somehow cross my fingers, but decided to close my eyes instead.
CRA-ACK!!!
I immediately opened my eyes looking to see what happened and saw the rock was now laying in two huge pieces, one directly to my left, and one directly to my right.
“I did that?” I said stunned.
“Well you were supposed to catch it, but yes. Good work though!” said Chris smiling.
I gently nudged the one piece of rock sitting on my left and saw it roll forward with ease.
“Hey Chris, you want to shake my hand?”
“Very funny and no, not really. And no pun intended, but you really gotta get a grip on how to handle this new ability Andy!”
“You think?”
I spent the next 30 minutes trying to do just that and managed to push one of the two huge broken pieces far into the pond by accident. On another attempt, I almost flattened Chris with the remaining half. But by the end of it I figured out how to lift it without breaking it, as well as throw it without dropping it, which left me feeling quite happy with my accomplishment.
“Very good! Now let’s try to do a combo. I want you to put the bathing suit back on and go retrieve the part of the boulder you pushed into the pond.”
“Seriously? Haven’t we done enough training for today?”
“This is the last exercise for now I promise.”
I quickly changed back into the bathing suit and managed to rip it in half in the process, completely forgetting about my activated super-strength.
“Now what?!” I said standing there in my boxer briefs.
“Just go in the water like that before you manage to destroy anything else!” Chris said as he rolled his eyes.
“TAURUS! CANCER!”
I swiftly jumped into the water and swam downwards towards the large piece of rock that now lay at the bottom of the pond.
How am I supposed to get this up on land again? I thought to myself while staring at the half of boulder.
I wondered for a moment if the Cancer abilities also came with enhanced strength, but I only managed to move it slightly forward in the water when I tried. It appeared as if I did have some extra muscle, except it wasn’t going to be enough to complete the task. Chris did say for me to do a combo, so maybe I need to take a deep amount of oxygen in and switch from Cancer back to Taurus.
I rapidly tried to inhale as much oxygen into me as I could and then muttered the Zodiac sign underwater, half expecting it not to work.
“CANCER!”
But it did, as suddenly my eyesight wasn’t very clear. In fact everything was so murky now, I could barely see the boulder anymore.
“TAURUS!”
I immediately placed my hands around the submerged boulder knowing I didn’t have that long to hold my breath. With as much force as I could muster, I jumped off the floor of the pond while holding onto it and found myself shooting straight up to its surface in an instant. And for a few seconds, I saw as every part of me rose totally out of the pond, all while gripping onto the large piece of rock. I then realized I needed to quickly throw it back onto land before it was too late. Unfortunately in my haste, I forgot all about just how strong I was and tossed it carelessly towards the edge of the pond.
I then watched in horror as I fell back into the water seeing the broken half of the boulder roll straight into Chris…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson