The Monster's Apprentice: Chapter 60 - Becoming One with The Dirt | Part 1

Feb 23, 2026

“Dragons are the rarest and most dangerous of monsters. Some slumber deep within Ageria’s oldest mountains, guarding treasures lost to time, while others walk among us, wearing the skin of men. To provoke a dragon is to court certain death.”

— Professor Cornelius Ward, “The Legend of The Old Hunters,” page 310

On a particularly chilly morning, Emily met with Henrik at the training yard.

She had on her full hunter’s garb, witch hat and all. She was excited to finally learn a new form of magic. After spending a year studying just telekinesis and pyrokinesis, she had started to grow bored with it. Sure, there were still new and interesting spells and techniques for her to master, but it was nothing compared to learning a new element.

When she watched Henrik fight using the earth, creating pillars and hurling large rocks, she couldn’t get the image out of her head of her doing the same. The excitement racing through her chest wasn’t just fueled by her desire to learn, though; it was also from the thrill that Mina said she could skip her morning run today. That way, she had more time with Henrik.

He was waiting for her on a grassy hill near Star Lake, sitting with one leg propped up, and his head toward the towering mountains surrounding them. The early morning sun was just peeking over, and the warm light reflected off his armor, making him look like he was glowing.

“I must say, Cresthill Valley is a rare kind of beautiful.” He didn’t look at her when she approached. “A man forgets places like this exist after too many seasons buried in the forest.”

“Yeah… it’s definitely better than anything in Peccatum.”

Henrik smirked. “I remember Peccatum before the forges consumed it. Now it stinks of rust and desperation. We used to call it the ‘City of Ash,’ though some of my men just called it ‘the Pit.’” He finally looked over at her. “Soot in your lungs. Birds fleeing the rooftops. Streets choking on filth and steam. And still, they called it progress.”

“You should try swimming in one of their canals.”

Henrik raised a brow. “You willingly entered that water?”

“I mean… ‘willingly’ is a strong word. I was running from a guy I may or may not have pickpocketed. Or maybe two guys. Okay, maybe three. There wasn’t anywhere else to go.”

“And here you stand. I assume you learned from that?”

Emily hesitated, scratching the back of her head with a sheepish smile. “Still can’t swim, if that’s what you’re asking.”

He stared for a moment. “How long has Mina been training you?”

“We haven’t really gotten to water monsters yet. Or, like, lakes in general. So. Technically, my ability to swim hasn’t been as urgent.”

Henrik shook his head, muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, “By the gods…”

“Anyway!” Emily clapped her hands together. “We’re doing geokinesis, right? Rock stuff? Ground-punching and pillar-lifting and, maybe boulder-throwing?”

“We are,” Henrik said, adjusting how he was sitting so he could take off his boots. “But forget the theatrics. This is not a performance. The earth does not bend for show.”

“Right!” she said excitedly. “Where do we start?”

“By removing your boots. I have found that when studying magic, especially for the first time, it is important to immerse yourself in the element. There is no better connection than through the skin. When you’re studying pyrokinesis, for example, feeling the warmth on your skin can help you understand its nature more intimately.”

Emily sat beside him and unlaced her boots. She liked the feel of grass between her toes. “That’s kind of poetic,” she murmured.

“It’s not poetry. It’s principle. Geokinesis is not like fire. It does not leap to your will. It does not dance or flow. It endures. It waits. It listens. And only when it is sure of you, will it answer.”

Emily frowned. “So… I have to talk to the ground?”

“Not with your voice,” Henrik said simply. “With your intent and your will. If you treat it like a tool, it will remain inert. If you treat it like an ally, it may one day move with you.”

She looked down at the dirt. It didn’t feel like anything special. Just… dirt. “But how do I even start?” she asked, her eyebrows knitting together. “What if I say something wrong? What if it doesn’t like me?”

“It does not judge you. It simply waits for you to be certain.”

That didn’t help. Emily felt about as certain as a drunk bird trying to fly a straight line. She curled her toes into the soil, trying to feel something, anything. But all she could sense was cold.

Henrik let her sit in the silence for a long moment. Then he raised his hand and twirled it slightly. In response, a ring of pebbles lifted gently from the earth. “A flame can be snuffed. Water can be diverted. Wind can be silenced. But stone resists. It breaks only under pressure, and even then, it remembers the shape it used to be.” He let the pebbles fall. “If you wish to move the earth, you must first learn to stand like it. Resolve without arrogance. Force without rage. Weight without collapse.”

“You make it sound like I’m supposed to become a rock.”

“Yes,” he simply said.

She sighed. “Okay. I can do this. Probably.”

“Like with all forms of magic, the technique in learning how to control it will take years of constant practice and determination. For elves, it may come more naturally because of their innate connection to magic. With us humans, magic is weaker, and we must dedicate our bodies more to it. You, however, are the conduit. I suspect it will come to you far easier than it did for me or any of my knights.”

“I learn quickly.”

“As I have been told,” He stood. “So, first

“First, sit with your feet on the ground. Close your eyes and center yourself with some deep breaths.”

Emily settled onto the cool earth beside Henrik and closed her eyes.

“Breathe through your nose,” he instructed, “slowly. Hold it. Let it go through the mouth. Again.”

It didn’t feel all that different from when she was meditating with Violet. Only, instead of visualizing the energy within her, she would have to think of the Earth.

After several minutes of concentrated breathing, Henrik spoke again. “Now imagine roots growing from the base of your spine, reaching deep into the ground. Imagine how it worms, and the dampness of the soil. Feel the connection, the strength and stability it provides.”

Emily tried. She really did. She pictured the roots exactly as he said, visualizing thick tendrils burrowing into the dirt, curling through worm tunnels, weaving through packed clay. But that was all it was: visualizing. She frowned and shifted slightly. The image was there, but it felt like she was watching it through glass.

Henrik’s eyes remained closed. “You are not connected.”

Emily sighed. “I’m trying. I just… I don’t feel anything.”

“It is to be expected. You are thinking too much. Thinking is not grounding.”

“I know that,” she muttered, rubbing her palms against her thighs. “It’s just… when I did telekinesis or pyrokinesis, even if I didn’t control it, I felt something. Like an itch, or a hum under my skin. But I’m not feeling anything now.”

Henrik finally opened his eyes. “Geokinesis is not like fire. It does not reach out to you. You must stand still long enough for it to see you. You are scattered. Like dust in the wind. Until you are still, truly still, the earth will not listen.”

“I can be still,” she said defensively.

Henrik raised an eyebrow. “Then do it.”

Emily sat with him for the rest of the morning. The sun climbed higher, the breeze tickled the back of her neck, and birds chirped somewhere in the trees. She tried not to notice any of it.

She lasted maybe five minutes before a beetle crawled past her foot, and she flinched. Then she started wondering if rocks could feel things. Then she started wondering if she was the rock, or if the rock was her, and then everything just spiraled into nonsense.

At one point, she opened one eye and glanced at Henrik. He hadn’t moved a muscle. It didn’t even look like he was breathing.

Her stomach growled.

Henrik’s eyes opened slowly. “Eat. Then return.”

After lunch, she returned, and Henrik motioned silently to the same spot. She sat again and returned to breathing.

By late afternoon, Emily was beginning to fume. She didn’t want to admit it, but this felt like failure, just like when she got kicked out of the academy. It hadn’t taken her this long to feel something with the previous two forms she had learned. She was the conduit, magic was supposed to come easily to her, so why wasn’t this? She curled her fingers into the soil, trying to feel something. Anything. But all she could feel was the heat of the sun, the sweat on her neck, and the growing weight of disappointment in her chest.

Henrik finally stood.

“Enough for today?” Emily asked hopefully.

“No,” he said. “Now we test your stance.”

“My what?”

He motioned for her to follow. A few yards away, a narrow stone pillar jutted out of the ground. It was about three feet wide and half as tall as she was. She hadn’t noticed it earlier, likely because Henrik had grown it while she was trying to “become one with the dirt.” But it was strange, as she hadn’t heard it either.

“Stand,” he ordered.

Emily approached the pillar, eyebrows raised. “Up there?”

“Stand tall. Feet shoulder-width. Back straight. Chin up.”

She climbed onto the pillar with a bit of a wobble and straightened her posture. It felt no different from maneuvering across the balance beam in Mina’s training yard. She had done well to master her balance over the year she had spent training, so standing at the top of a short pillar was nothing.

“Okay. Now what?” she asked.

Suddenly, the ground beneath her trembled. The pillar jerked slightly, then shook again with more force.

“Whoa—hey!” Emily’s arms flailed as she tried to keep her balance. “What are you doing?”

“Stand your ground.”

“That’s easy for you to say!”

The pillar shifted beneath her. Emily let out a yelp and jumped off, landing in a crouch.

Henrik frowned. “You fled.”

“I didn’t flee! I bailed! It was a tactical bail!”

He didn’t even blink.

She groaned and climbed back up. She was wrong, it didn’t feel like the balance beam at all. Where that was moving in opposition to her, the pillar here was moving against her.

When the pillar started rumbling again, Emily tried to keep her balance. She tried to sway her body to adjust to it, but the movement was too random for her to keep track of. Again, she fell, this time backward.

“You are not grounded,” Henrik said as she sat up.

“Yeah, I got that, thanks,” she said with a sigh.

He ignored her tone. “You must anchor. Plant yourself. The earth is heavy, yes, but it is also constant. You must meet it with your full weight.”

Emily blinked at him. “You’re telling me to be heavier?”

“To be unmoving,” he corrected.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been ‘unmoving’ a day in my life.”

Henrik actually sighed. “That much is clear. Remember, you cannot treat this as you would with any other form of magic. The earth is sturdy, unrelenting. You must listen to it, and meet it with equal force.”

She climbed back up, but before she could even stand, the pillar shifted and threw her off. She squealed, flailed, and tumbled sideways.

By sunset, she had lost count of the number of times she had. Her arms were scraped, her elbows bruised, and her pride in pieces. She had thought this would be easy, like all the other spells she had learned, but she just wasn’t getting it.

The training sessions bled together. With each day, Emily had less and less time to herself. Whatever spare time she had between her training with Mina, Violet, and her studies was spent with Henrik.

And still, after so many days and so many attempts, she was getting nowhere. It was like the magic within her was refusing to cooperate. She was trying, truly, but geokinesis remained cold and unmoving in her hands. There was no flicker or connection, just the same silence inside her that she remembered from the worst parts of her magic academy days, and the more she thought back on those days, the less confident she felt.

By the sixth day, she lay on her back in the grass, staring at the sky with her arms sprawled.

Henrik stood nearby, arms behind his back. “You assume the message lies in success.”

Emily lifted her head and squinted at him. “Doesn’t it?”

“The earth is not like fire or wind,” Henrik said, and Emily rolled her eyes at hearing him repeat those words for the thousandth time this week. “It is not stirred by passion or lifted by will alone. It does not bend because you demand it. It does not move for those who are unsure of their place atop it.”

Emily exhaled, frustrated. “I know. I’ve been trying to be grounded. I’ve sat still for hours, I’ve listened to the trees, I’ve memorized every rock on this damn hill.”

“You are listening to the world, and that is good. But are you listening to yourself?”

Emily stared, confused.

Henrik approached, crouched beside her, and picked up a small stone from the ground. He held it out in his palm. “Earth is not just patience and strength. It is honesty. Brutal, unwavering truth. It does not ask you to be fearless, it demands you be real with yourself.”

Emily furrowed her brow, unsure whether to feel enlightened or just more confused. “What does that even mean?”

He placed the stone beside her and rose to his feet. His shadow stretched across the grass as he turned from her. “Some things cannot be taught with words. Only lived. Be patient, Emily. The earth will open to you, but only when you stop trying to shape it into something it’s not.”

Emily stayed quiet.

“Perhaps we should rest for today. Tomorrow, I want you to try meditating on your own.” With that, he left Emily there, lying in the sun.

She grumbled, sitting up, and thought long about what he said. She wasn’t quite sure she fully understood it, but a small part of her deep down had the feeling she might soon enough. It made her a little nervous. If she couldn’t even get a grasp on geokinesis, then what chance did she stand against the Queen of the Vampires?

Emily tried not to think of it, only hoping that tomorrow would provide her with answers.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED TODAY’S CHAPTER!

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