The Elements
Flying lesson

“S.”

Poke.

“S.”

Poke.

“Shadow.”

Poke.

“SHADOW.” somebody yelled and I felt a pair of arms starting to shake me by the shoulders.

I groaned trying to turn to the other side of the bed. “What?”

“You have to wake up. It’s time for your first lesson!” I lazily opened one eye to see a very excited Hazel.

“Can’t I start tomorrow? I’m tired.” I said and pushed his hands away.

“No, you can’t. You’re starting your lessons today and that’s final.” a deep voice said and when I opened my eyes again I saw Ash leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed.

“Oh, come on. I already said that I’m tired! And for a fact, I can’t think straight when I’m tired. I need at least 8 hours of sleep.” I grumbled tiredly and snuggled further in the blanket.

“Well, that’s too bad because we’re changing that” he said and I eyed him as he moved towards me “and we’re starting that change today.” he continued and pulled the blanket, making me land on the floor.

I moaned in pain and grabbed my head. “Fuck! Dude, you didn’t have to do that! I like my head and back, and I want to keep both of them in one piece. And connected eventually.”

“Okay, drama queen. I noted, now can you please get your ass up from my floor?”

“Pwease! Pwetty pwease, can we start tomorrow?” I said and gave Ash the puppy eyes.

He rolled his eyes and pulled me up by the collar of my shirt. “Nice try. but it doesn’t work on me. Hazel tried this a hundred times before.”

I gasped. “Is he heartless?” I whispered and turned my head to look at Haz.

“I think he is. Nobody can resist the puppy eyes. He must be.” Haz whispered back.

“You know that I’m still here and I can here you?” Ash growled and pushed me towards the bathroom.

“Duh, of course we know that. We are not just good looking. We are smart too.” Haz said and I high fived him with a smirked, but I hurried to the bathroom when I saw the glare Ash was giving me.

“If you’re not ready in 10 minutes the first thing I’ll teach you will be how to duck lightning bolts.”

“Yes, sir!” I yelled already closing the bathroom door behind me.

I did my business in less than 5 minutes and I realized that I have a problem.

I have no clothes to wear.

I sighed and glanced down to see that I was wearing the same clothes as yesterday.

Well, since I don’t have any other choice, I pulled my hair up in a high ponytail and walked downstairs.

“Guys! I have a huge problem! I don’t have other clothes besides this ones and I shit you not, they’re starting to smell.” I whined and jumped on the sofa next to Haz.

Haz gasped and his face lit up like a Christmas tree. “This means a single thing: SHOPPING DAY!!!”

“No, no, it doesn’t. Your clothes will arrive today. I sent someone to grab your clothes from your old home.” Ash quickly cut short Hazel’s excitement.

“Oh. But, wouldn’t my parents be freaked out if me and my clothes suddenly disappeared?” I asked looking down in distress. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I don’t miss them as much as I thought I would. I know they’re not my real parents, but they raised me and I feel guilty for not missing them as much as I should.

“Nope. They knew from day one that this will happen. When Elementar kids are send, if they are send, to a foster family in other dimension, they come with a warning. Nobody is stupid enough to leave a kid that will develop supernatural powers in the future, in the care of clueless parents because when the kid develops their power, they can accidently or on purpose, to kill their parents or they even get themselves killed. Or expose our whole world which is the worse thing that can happen to us. Humans can’t accept the difference between their skin color, let’s not talk about replaceing out other dimensions are real and they’re situated at the bottom of the food chain.”

They knew from the beginning that I was adopted and yet, they didn’t tell me. But they do they had a reason for not telling me. I’m sure that I wouldn’t have understood and God knows what stupid thing I could’ve of done. A part of me hurts for replaceing this out, and then it is the other part that is completely indifferent about it and doesn’t care. I had mixt feelings before, but this ones are overwhelming.

I grabbed my head and squatted down with my eyes closed. I started to breath faster and I was slightly shaking almost having a panic attack.

What’s happening with me? I don’t understand why I fell this way. This isn’t me. Even if they spend most of their time at the hospital, I still care and love them with all my heart and I love spending time with them, no matter how little that is. Then why suddenly a part of me doesn’t even care if-

“Hey! Shadow! What’s wrong?”

I flinched when someone placed their hands on my shoulders, but I relaxed when I saw Hazel looking at me with a worried look.

“I...I don’t know. I-I just feel weird. I feel...“I trailed off unable to replace the right word.

“Conflicted? Do you have mixt feelings?”

“How do you know that?” I almost yelled at Ash as I stared at him.

He sighed. “Because it’s normal. It’s a typical change that appears when you make the transition from Human to full Elementar. Your body isn’t fully turned yet, it takes 3 days do become an adult Elementar lets say. The conflict come from your Human side that wants to hang on the memory of your adopting parents and the Elementar side which is trying to erase that worry from your system. It’s a way of adapting. Your mind will leave all of your old emotional attachments behind to let you adapt to the new world. You will most likely remain attached to one thing and that is that tree you had which makes sense.”

“NO! No, it doesn’t! Why my stupid brain does that?! How does that helps me to adapt?!” I yelled agitated and started to pull at my hair.

He crunched down in front of me. “Firstly, you need to calm down or you’ll have a panic attack. Secondly, you won’t forget about them. You just won’t be as attached as you were. And yes, it does make sense. You go in a different dimension with new people with your new powers, and you don’t know how long it takes for you to fully control your power. By erasing that attachment, you won’t be tempt to go back and you’ll be 100% focused at your task at hand. As I told you, we are the guardians of this world, the faith of all dimensions is in our hands. We can’t be distracted by trivial, stupid things like missing our adoptive parents. We can’t afford that. Yes, maybe it’s not normal, but nothing about Elementars is, but I can assure you that everything will be fine.”

I clenched my fists and took a deep breath. Come on, Shadow. Pull yourself together. To many things depend on you, you idiot, to screw things up.

“Okay. I’m fine. Let’s start training.” I suddenly said and got up with a newfound strength.

He’s right. I have to take my job seriously even if it completely terrifies me, I have to do it.

“Wait-” Hazel started to ask when Ash cut him off once again.

“Okay then, follow me.”

I obediently followed him to the backyard which was way more bigger then I thought. Screw that, it’s enormous and I think it’s actually a real field. There was no trace of any kind of flower, everything was green from the grass to the crowns of the trees. Ash started to press some buttons from a little panel controller I didn’t observe before and after the ground started to shake for a second, the filed was covered in running tracks with different obstacles on them.

Ash started to walk in direction of one. “You have to pass 4 stage in this exam. The first stage is a classic Obstacle racing. You’ll be timed and you have to score a smaller time then 7 minutes, but honestly, no one scores a 7. Not even strategy guys that have nothing to do with physical things. Usually the scores is somewhere between 5 or 6, if you’re really good around 4. Hard, but not impossible. If you want to be departed in a good team, you’ll have to score, in my opinion, around 5 minutes. Now, I want you to run trough this obstacles and I will time you. You have 2 minutes to observe what obstacles you have to pass.” Ash said and gestured towards the running track.

I turned around to analyze the obstacles . Cones, I think I have to change guard while I pass through them, an Agility Leader, but here are numerous variants, a print section, a Monkey net, a Cargo net, a Log hop and then sprint until the finish line.

“Short question. On the agility ladder which one I should do? The In-Out, just hop or side straddle hop? I can do all of them, but I don’t know if I have to only score low or if I have to also do something with a raised difficulty level.” I asked and looked up when I saw that Ash stayed silent.

He was staring down at me. “What?” I asked confused.

He just shook his head. “Just do the one you can do the fastest except the normal hop. Everybody can do that.”

“Okay.” The In-Out hop It is then. It’s my absolutely favorite and nobody can change that.

I walked to the start line and got in the starting position.

“Ready....Set....GO!” Ash yelled and I bolted.

I ran through the cones, did the In-Out hop at the leader, at the sprint section I sprinted as fast as I could and jumped on the monkey net. Here I really felt like a monkey and I couldn’t help but giggle a little. Next was the Cargo net and I climbed it as fast as I could and jumped on both my legs surprising myself with what grace I did. On the Log hop I jumped from foot to foot fast to not lose my balance and then I sprinted the rest of the race.

When I passed the finish line, I wasn’t breathing heavily how I was expecting. Of course I was panting a little, but that was all. I guess this is one of the perks of not being Human anymore.

“What time I scored?” I asked.

Hazel was staring with a pale face at the timer and Ash looked unfazed. “Not bad for a beginner, but you have to be faster if you want to be a part of Team Alpha. Now, do it again, but this time faster.”

I was a little disappointed and discouraged when I heard that, but a wave of determination hit me when I heard Team Alpha.

I walked back at the start and sprinted when Ash yelled again.

“Faster. Again.”

“More faster. Again.”

“That’s all you’ve got? Again!”

“I said faster! AGAIN!”

“My grandma runs faster in her coffin than you do right now.”

That’s all I heard through the past hour and at what I think it was the seventh race, I fell on the ground panting like I was having an asthma attack.

“Again.” Ash said and looked at me.

“Ash, I think it’s enough for today. Look at her! You are killing her!” Haz said and looked at me worried.

“I’m her trainer and I’m trying to make her push past her limits. She has to be better than this if she wants to be the best. Now, again.”

“But-” Haz wanted to protest, but I stopped him when I got up.

“Haz, I’m fine. He’s right. I have to push my limits if I want to be part of Team Alpha.” I said and walked slowly to the start line.

Hazel shook his head and walked inside while I looked at Ash. “Come on. Say it.”

He looked at me for a second. “You really want to be in Team Alpha.”

I laughed at his surprised face. “You realized this just now? Of course I want to. I told you from the first time you mentioned it.”

“Then, I hope you know that this will be a very long month for you.” he said and looked at me with a serious face.

“I wasn’t expecting anything else.” I replayed and stretched my sore muscles a little.

“Okay. The next round it’s a race in nature where you have to let your inner Elementar out. First you have to sprint through a grass field then you move to a forest. Next you have to jump and swim in a river avoiding the sharp rocks underwater and possibly the currents. Then you have a grass field again and at its end a cliff. You have to jump from that cliff and fly upwards, but only when you are just about to hit the ground. The sharper the turn, the more impressed the judges will be. After you land, the last part is a grass field again.” Ash explained and motion for me to follow him.

We walked through the forest until an empty grass field came into view, but we stopped in front of a very scary looking cliff.

“Uuh, Ash. We have a problem. I don’t know how to fly. Nobody really showed me how.” I said glancing between him and the cliff.

“That’s why I’m her, S.” he turned around and screamed “HAZEL!!“.

Hazel appeared in less than a minute without his usually smiley face.

“What?” he asked still angry.

“We have to teach her how to fly.” Ash said and motion in my direction.

Haz groaned. “Don’t tell me that you are going to teach her like you taught me.”

“Why not? It’s fun.” Ash said with a shrug.

“Fun my ass. Let’s finish with this already.” Haz said and crossed his arms while Ash turned to me with a creepy smile on his face.

“To fly you have to imagine yourself flying. Keep that in mind. Now, I hope you do it before you crash.”

“Wha-” I wanted to ask he what he meant with that when he pushed me off the cliff.

I was falling through the air and screaming out my lungs when I remembered what he said. I closed my eyes to concentrate better because the blurred image of rocks and the thought of myself crashing on them wasn’t helping.

Come on, come on. You are flying through the sky, like a little butterfly. No more falling, it’s just flying.

Hey! That rhymed! Shadow concentrate! I pecked through my eyelashes and I was still falling.

Okay, I need a new plan or I will die.

I started to imagine myself stopping in mid air instead of flying. I opened my eyes again and I smirked when I saw that I stopped myself from falling. To my luck, I was an inch above the cliff’s ground.

I let out a breath which I didn’t even know I was holding. “I did it!”

I started to move my body to figure out how I can fly back, but the only thing I managed to do is to look like a turtle.

Imagine.

Easier to say, harder to do. But I have to try it anyway. Slowly, I started to move through the air and when I was sure that I got the moves, I bolted at high speed back to the place from where I was pushed. As I was about to arrive back someone jumped from the cliff, on me unfortunately.

“I’m coming S! AAAAA!!!! Bloody spaghetti, what the hell is this!!” Hazel screamed while both of us were falling.

“It’s me, you idiot!! Now ,get of me or we’ll both die!” I said and tried to push him off me.

“S! Thank God! I thought you died!” he said and flied away from me.

Both of us flied back to the edge of the cliff where a worried Ash was standing. He looked up when he saw me and Haz landing.

I walked to Ash and slapped him. “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! I WAS ABOUT TO DIE!” I yelled at him.

He was shocked at first, but covered it with a smirk. “But you aren’t dead.”

“You are the stupidest person I know!” I shouted at him.

What the hell is wrong with him?? You can’t push people off the edge of a cliff like that! That’s insane.

“Yeah, yeah! Now, the third one is about how good you are at controlling your element. In front of you will be a door-”

I groaned. “A door again? What’s the thing with Elementars and doors?”

He shoot me a glare for interrupting him but continued “- and in order to open it you have to concentrate your power on a little circle that will be draw there until it turns yellow. But you have to do it slowly or it will explode and electrocute you. We will not practice that because it’s a simple task and I think that the other stages are more important with more points. The last round it’s a combat round. This round has another 4 rounds. In the first round you will have to beat a beginner like you. The one’s that are beaten are strategy kids. In the second round, you will have to beat an Elementar which has been in the academy for a semester. The kids beaten here, are strategy or guards. From the third round things get rough. You will have to beat an Elementar bigger than you with a year, which means that it’s stronger than you and with more experience. The ones who beat this round are assigned in teams. In the last round you’ll have to beat an Elementar bigger than you with 2 years. Kids who beat this round are assigned in teams from C to A. They are the strongest from the whole academy and the most respected. Usually, that’s the whole exam, but rumors says that this year will be an extra combat round where you’ll have to beat an absolvent of the academy. I think if you beat him or her, you will be paired to Team Alpha, so we have a lot of work to do.”

“No problem. I’ll work hard, I’ll beat all those fuckers and I’ll be assigned to Team Alpha! I just know it!” I said confidently with hope in my eyes.

“Okay. Now, let’s see what you can do in combat.” Ash said and got into a fighting position.

I smirked and got into my fighting position.

This will be fun.