Trickster of the Butterfly

Chapter 15- Healthy Free Day

"You turned her against me!" Anakin stared furiously at his master.

"You have done that yourself," Obi-wan replied sternly.

"You will not take her from me!"

"Your anger and lust for power have already done that..."

Watching the dramatic scene between Anakin and Obi-wan before their epic battle on Mustafar in Star Wars Episode III, Michael just loved using up his free day watching classic movies, even if it was for the hundredth time he's watched them. He was lounging down on the couch with Shane and Ezekiel as they watched. The guy really had some procrastination issues, he's still got a philosophy quiz to study for and a ton of other homework from three other subjects, but he thougt Darth Vader's fall and rise was more interesting.

"You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind, until now... until now you've become the very thing you swore to destroy..." Obi-wan said broodingly.

Michael slipped into deep thought. He did that sometimes when the stuff he read or the shows and movies he watched showed some deep and useful meaning. Somehow that scene spoke to him.

"Argh!" his brothers stared at him. "I've got homework to do! Snap out of it Michael!"

Michael got up from the couch and went into the garden and sat on the bench to: not do his homework. The vision he had back at the hospital about the obscured girl troubled him a lot.

"Get a hold of yourself Michael. May mas-importante ka pang kailangang gawin," he said to himself.

He thought about the resolution he planned to be able to use his time-powers more efficiently. Since lack of energy and exhaustion was the problem, he figured one solution: exercise. He was out of shape that's for sure, going to bed at 1am everyday and watching anime and movies all day was not good for anybody's health. He was determined to not get outrun by another group of athletic gangsters ever again.

So, he went inside and changed into jersey shorts and shirt decided to take a couple of laps around the neighborhood then all the way to Manila Bay, a kilometer away. He ran at a slow pace though, the gunshot wound on his shoulder was still healing and stung as he ran.

He went back to his house after getting all sweaty and smelling like the sea.

"Warm-up, that was just warm-up." Next, he did push-ups down on the lawn, bad idea. His left shoulder stung like crazy. He gave up on that after two counts and instead lay on his back to do partial curl-ups.

"Anong ginagawa ni kuya Mike diyan sa dumi?" Ezekiel asked as he and Shane watched their brother from the porch go all-out with his garden work-out.

Michael sat up on the grass, sweaty and incredibly muddy.

"Kuya Michael, 30 minutes minimum work-out time," Shane suggested.

"At bakit diyan ka sa garden nageexercise? Gusto mo bang maging sweaty mud monster?" Ezekiel said, looking disgusted at his muddy brother.

Suddenly, Michael felt something crawling down his back, his worst physical phobia: a catterpillar.

He shot up from the grass and frantically jumped up and down, trying to, "Ah! Ah! Get it off! Get it off!"

"Hahahaha! Yan jumping jacks, excercise din yan diba?" Ezekiel mocked.

Shane just nodded in approval.

After bathing off the mud, sweat, and smushed catterpillar blood off his back. He greeted and kissed his parents as they got home. They all sat down at the dining area, prayed thanks and ate dinner.

"Nag-work out ka raw sa garden?" his dad asked.

"Opo."

"Mike, alam mong kakagaling mo lang sa coma at may sugat ka pa sa balikat mo, wag mo masyadong ipush yung sarili mo okay?" his mother said worriedly.

Michael sighed. "Opo. Nagdecide lang ako na parang ang unhealthy ko lang kasi."

"Basta don't do something risky okay? Si kuya Dane mo kaya nasan na?" Mrs. Randelo
said.

Immediately after eating, he went to his bedroom.

He felt really good after working out. He looked at his alarm clock and saw that it was already 9:00pm. He got his notebooks and started on his homework.

Amazingly, he finished at 12:59am, that's a new record. What's even more amazing is that his class starts in 6 hours.

"Phew! Good job! Ang healthy ko talaga no?" he said to himself. All that exercise was supposed going to help him have more energy if kept doing it everyday. He prayed his shoulder would get healed faster so he could do a full work-out without the stinging next time. None of the exercise was gonna be helpful for him if he didn't get any sleep though.

He lied down on his bed. Falling asleep was hard for him as he tried not to think about the dark visions he had while he was still in a coma. He tried to distract himself by maybe summoning a rainbow tendril so he could drain what's left of his energy and pass out.

After 5 minutes of concentrating on his hand, nothing happened. He rested his hand on his chest and touched something cold and metallic.

"Huh?" he was surprised to see an ornate sheath and silver dagger right on top of him.

"San to nanggaling?" he got up and examined the dagger and actually recognized the design from watching the History channel.

"A Roman pugio?" he felt a tingle of excitement run down his arm.