Blue awoke to the shocking sensation of a large drop of water landing on her head with a splash.

  “Huh? What’s going on? Where am—” She sat up with a jolt, nearly falling off Micro’s shoulder as he walked.

  “Oh, you’re awake?” Micro answered softly. “I was worried you weren’t going to wake up.”

  “What the—” Blue looked around and got comfortable, but another drop of water caught her off guard. “What are you doing out in the rain? Find some shelter, human!”

  “Okay.” Micro stopped to look around, noticing a cave entrance in a nearby hill. “How does that look?”

  Blue looked at it for a moment, then shook her head.

  “No, let’s not.” She decided quickly. After scanning the area with dimly glowing eyes, she pointed at a hollowed out tree in the distance. “See that rotten old tree? That looks less likely to kill us.”

  “Okay.” Micro walked briskly toward the massive tree, the bottom of which had rotted to the extent that Micro could walk into the centre of the tree with plenty of room to spare. “This is a big tree, isn’t it? You could park at least three trucks inside it—”

  “Just get in already,” Blue snapped.

  “Are you uncomfortable?” Micro asked with a worried look.

  “I’m cold and tired! What do you take me for, a frog?”

  “Oh, right. I forgot I don’t have a roof anymore.” Micro apologized. “Are you related to any frogs? You’re about the same size as—”

  Blue didn’t have the energy to respond to Micro’s question, but she managed to kick his cheek hard enough to startle him before laying back down on his shoulder with a tired sigh. Micro obeyed her frank request and stepped into the hollow tree while she shook the water out of her hair.

  “Well, at least I feel a bit cleaner now…” Blue sighed as she climbed down Micro’s arm and dropped to the ground with a light thud. She picked up a dry twig with one hand and snapped her fingers near the end of it several times, but nothing happened. She snapped her fingers several more times before letting out an angry groan. “Hey, boy. I’m out of juice over here. Light the place up, would you?”

  “I don’t have headlights though,” Micro replied with such a sad tone that Blue almost felt bad for him at first.

  “Never mind your light head! Stop wasting all that power inside of you and summon some fire!” she demanded. “A flame, a light, a spark would do!”

  “But I haven’t found a master to teach me how to use that fuel yet,” Micro explained with a frown. “I don’t know how.”

  “Ugh, fine!” Blue stomped her feet. She stood up, holding her shoulders and shivering in the cold. “I can’t believe I’m doing this…”

  “Doing what?”

  “Say hello to your new master.” She shot Micro a fierce look, but her quivering knees undid her intimidating stare. “Lucky you…”

  “You can teach me cultivation?”

  “Call it what you like. Sit down, and shut up,” she shouted and pointed at the ground in front of her. Micro obliged, and awaited her instruction. “I’m only going to say this once, so listen up.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Close your eyes,” she said quickly. “You remember what it felt like when that stinky old cultivator sent his own energy into your head? It looked like rain, but not quite, right?”

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  “Right.”

  “That’s because he has an affinity for water energy. The energy he had wasn’t actually anything like rain, but the nature of a soul determines the nature of your energy. I’m a pixie, so naturally my energy is pure and beautiful, like a flower, or gold coins.”

  “I see…” Micro opened one eye slightly to see the dishevelled and shivering pixie’s face twisted with pride.

  “Close your eyes!” she continued. “Go back to that place inside your mind and look around again. But this time I want you to listen carefully. There’s energy in everything, but the rain should be the easiest thing for you to focus on right now.”

  Micro concentrated as hard as he could, and was surprised to find himself returning to that endlessly dark space.

  “Do I need to look at myself again?” He cried out into the nothingness, hoping Blue would hear him.

  “No, no. No time for that,” She shouted back, her voice echoing in the darkness around him. “Just listen as hard as you can until you can hear the rain.”

  Micro sat perfectly still in the void of his mind, not making a single sound. He strained his ears, trying to hear the rain he knew was falling outside. He waited and waited, unsure for how long, listening and listening, all the while aware of the impatient glare of the tiny master shivering next to him. Finally, after straining his ears to the point that he thought they might soon fall off, he heard the faint sound of water droplets falling in the distance. The sound felt warm and refreshing against the empty expanse of his inner thoughts. And the more he enjoyed the sound, the louder it became. It grew so loud in fact that at one point it occurred to him to reach out and touch it, and when he did.

  “Ouch!” He pulled his hand back in pain.

  “Hey, who told you to do that?” Blue’s angry voice rang out.

  “Sorry…”

  “What you’re seeing is energy the way nature intended, the way it’s meant to be.” Blue’s shivering was still notable in her quaking voice. “Trying to grab it right out of the sky is way beyond you right now. Find a puddle and grab a small handful.”

  “A puddle… right…” Micro whispered as he tried opening his eyes in the dark world of his thoughts where shimmering raindrops fell all around him. Sure enough, upon the invisible ground of that infinite space, glowing puddles were forming which splashed and rippled with every rain drop that fell.

  “Hurry up and grab a handful, then squeeze it in your hand as hard as you can!”

  “With my hand?” Micro asked.

  “You heard me,” Blue replied.

  “Not my core?”

  “As if I know how to use a stupid core,” Blue scoffed. “Are you a tool or what?”

  Micro complied, and though the liquid in the puddle was much less of a shock to reach out and touch, it still burned in his hand. He gritted the teeth he still wasn’t quite used to and squeezed some energy in his hand until he could no longer bear the pain of it. He was finally brought back to the real world with a flash of light and a searing pain.

  “Ouch!” Opening his eyes in the hollowed out tree trunk, he saw the cold little pixie holding a dry stick above his hand as a small flame burned in his palm.

  “Nice.” Blue smiled contently.

  “Wha—” he cried out as the pain finally registered, drawing his hand back to cup it near his chest. “That was hot…!”

  “Thanks!” Blue smiled as she waved her small torch around like a wand. She gathered a few more bits of dry wood and bark into a pile and quickly ignited her small fire with the flame Micro had somehow produced.

  “What just happened…?” Micro coughed as the oily evergreen wood smoke made its way to his face.

  “Fire, I guess?” Blue glanced over at him while warming herself by the tiny fire. “Thank me later. I’m too tired to deal with you right now.”

  “Okay…” Micro said, massaging his sore hand.

  “That wasn’t bad though,” Blue said, looking slightly impressed by Micro’s performance. “Most humans get stuck in their head about everything. You pick stuff up almost as fast as a pixie.”

  “Well, I do feel stuck in this body, but I’ll do my best.” Micro inspected his sore fingers, but they didn’t seem to be too burnt. Rather than pain, they had started to feel numb. “Pain is hard to get used to.”

  “Sure,” Blue replied while adding more sticks to the fire. “You’re also the luckiest human who ever lived, since you have such a wonderful master.”

  “Feng really helped me—”

  “Not that stinking cultivator!” Blue cut him off. “Me! And you’re welcome! Who else could teach a human to make fire out of rain drops in an evening? I may be a genius, the greatest teacher who ever taught!”

  “Wow… Micro nodded, then he smiled widely. “If the old man knew you could use water instead of gas…”

  Micro’s moment of optimism ended abruptly as he was overcome by sleepiness, and he collapsed on his side, the tiny campfire the only thing he could see as he slipped into unconsciousness.