He excitedly unfurled the scroll, surprised to see the seal of his teacher. It had been one month since he had stopped seeing his teacher. He missed him dearly, but visiting had always been so painful. He could never bring himself to ask a question because everyone else seemed so much smarter and more powerful. It always felt like he was insignificant, it would be silly for him to believe he had a question of value.

“Come see me, I have a gift for you”

His eyes widened, he could not believe that teacher would offer him a gift. Of all the people surely he was the least important and he had done nothing useful to be rewarded for. It made no sense and yet it was clearly spelled out in the scroll.

With his teachers voice in his head he managed to haul himself to the door of his teachers training ground. He knew that in order to see his teacher he would have to pass through all the other students explaining why he was there. He decided his best bet was to act confident and hope the students would accept his purpose.

Puffing up his chest he entered and the eyes of a thousand soldiers followed him. He tried to be unfazed and walk confidently. Before he left home he had put on several layers of armour to make him appear to be self-sufficient and confident. He did his best to use them, swinging his arms and striding consistently to make a solid clanking sound.

Reaching the guards he pronounced that he was here to see the teacher and to receive a gift. Most of the guards ignored him, busy focusing on their own appearance but the two foremost glared at him defiantly. They responded harshly, interrogating him on every detail regarding his leaving the school and re-emphasising his own insignificance.

Word by word his adorned confidence was shattered and his voice began to quiver. Soon he could take no more and the guards laughing began to take off his armour. He fled to the side, trying to hide under a bench. If he could make himself small and unseen then he thought he might find some respite.

No longer were the guards hands taking away his armour, however now it was a mass of invisible hands taking off his armour. No matter how well he hid he was still grasped at and his armour was practically falling off.

Now his armour was gone and he curled up wanting to disappear, truly he felt he did not deserve to be in this place of great warriors. The hands continued to rip at his skin, they tore away at him until they felt like they were ripping at his brain and heart.

But then he noticed something unusual, there was something inside him that the hands could not touch. It felt like a small perfect pearl in the deepest recesses of himself. The hands scratched at it and yet they could not make contact.

He focused on this newly found center and discovered it emitted some what of an aura when he paid attention to it. Embracing it as his core he swam in what felt like an infinite source of energy. The hands still ravaged his body and yet dwelling in the core he found an untouchable permanency.

Moving out from his hiding spot he held nothing except this tiny pearl. Feeling incredible pain through his body he turned back to the guards. They laughed at him in his ravaged state and launched their spears at him among curses and insults.

With the increased threat he braced for the pain that he had always shied away from in his life. The spears approached and he grasped the pearl with everything he had.

The spears crashed into his body with incredible force and then proceeded to fall harmlessly aside. Any remaining armour on his body was destroyed and the force of the spears had blown away any place to hide.

Seeing the incredible events taking place he trusted himself totally to power of the pearl at his core and marched towards the guards. Everything that had once caused him pain still persisted, but it no longer hurt.

The guards ran out of spears, even if they had more it would not have mattered. They moved aside and he thrust open the doors to his teachers room, embracing the warm gentle light that shone upon him.

Walking forward he surveyed his teacher, who smiled gently as he always had.

“You said you had a gift for me?”

Contemplating his student the teachers smile increased.

“It would appear that you have already received it”

The student was stumped for a moment, until he appreciated the power of the pearl within him. Now he knew that no matter how big the fear of impending pain was he could proceed with confidence, shying away from none.

He stepped up and embraced his teacher gratefully.