"How do you do that anyway?" I asked.
"It's a gift."
"Can you teach me?"
"No."
Well that was abrupt, I thought to myself.
"But I will teach you other things if you're willing to learn."
I looked around for a moment before my gaze came back to the warrior who seemed to have adopted me. It was hard to tell how old he was. He had scars that bespoke of hard-won experience and while there was some gray in his beard I didn't think that it was so much a sign of age, but rather of burden.
On the whole my companion did seem to be rather burdened of spirit. Almost as if he carried the weight of the world on his broad shoulders.
He struck me as both very wise and yet as one who didn't put forth his own wisdom rashly. While I was someone who lacked control over my emotions. Just like with killing the soldier, when emotion took hold of me I was a lost cause, until my emotion was spent.
Kuri wasn't like that. He had control over his emotions.
"Could you teach me to be……?" I found it hard to put into words.
"Controlling of your emotions?" Kuri inquired.
"Yes."
"Now why would you want that?"
I blinked, as that wasn't a question that I had been expecting.
"Why wouldn't I?" I asked uncertainly.
Kuri remained silent.
"Isn't it good to have control over one's emotions?" I asked, still uncertain of how I had gone wrong.
"Mastery yes, control no."
This man was utter ridiculousness with the way he seemed to twist words! What was the difference? Mastery versus control?
A question came to mind. Who had the mastery, if I was the one exerting the control?
I glanced to Kuri, "Mastery, how is it done?"
Kuri smiled, "Well, it starts with listening, as opposed to talking."
"What do I listen for?"
"No talking Benaiah. Just listen."
"I……" Kuri held a finger up and I stopped.
I waited, but he didn't say anything. How was I supposed to learn, if he wasn't going to teach?
The thought occurred to me then, how was I supposed to learn if I couldn't first listen?
I blinked, as the value of that truth occurred to me, which meant that I had just learned something. Okay, now what? More listening I guess.
Kuri was still headed southward and the pace we kept was a fast one. The water and the food had really helped to restore me and I kept to his fast pace rather well.
What was that sound?
The sound of the sand first giving way then falling from my foot with each stride forward. I'd never paid attention to so simple a commonplace sound as that of sand moving underfoot. It was quite rhythmic in the ebb and flow of its resonance.