The Magi -
Physical Training
Elijah woke up to a loud banging at his door. He staggered to the door, hitting his kneeagainst the foot of the bed. Grimacingand limping as he walked, he opened the door, fighting to open his eyelidshigher than the squint he was making. Mr. Button stood behind it dressed in a brown cloak with a patch on theleft side with a big “S” stitched on. Heheld a torch in one hand and a ring of keys in the other.
“Let’s go, Elijah. Wash up and pull out your training gear!” he barked. “Meet me downstairs by the fire in twentyminutes.”
Elijah wasted no time. He hurled himself over the bed, opened his wooden chest, and grabbed thepile of clothes. He ran down the hall,his adrenaline flowing heavily, which woke him up—much more than he had beenjust a few seconds ago. Elijah took aquick look around the hall and didn’t see anyone else up and about. “Maybe I’m late,” he thought to himself. That would be just a perfect way to starttraining. Late on the first day. He picked up his pace.
Compared to the boys’ bathrooms he remembered at the schoolsback home, the washroom looked like a palace. Even the bathrooms at Saint Phillip’s Academy, which Elijah made surewere clean, weren’t as nice as this. Everything he needed seemed to be provided. There were towels, washcloths, even soaps andshampoos, lined up neatly on the counters, waiting to be used.
After he washed up and dried off, Elijah picked up theclothes he was to wear for training. Hisuniform came in two pieces and also had a belt and boots. His brown top was thick—almost like anovercoat, with long sleeves and a mock turtleneck. Instead of a zipper running down the middle,it had metallic buttons stitched diagonally from his right shoulder across hischest, ending close to his left hip. Thetop looked heavier than it felt. It wasvery comfortable, even though it was a tad big. His pants were just as comfortable, snugly fit around his waist, butwhen he walked he could barely feel them. Not feeling his pants was quite disconcerting. He had to look down every once in a while tomake sure they were still there. Thoughthe gear was light, it was warm. He feltlike he could walk out in the cold Canadian outdoors and still becomfortable. The brown belt was muchdarker than his shirt and pants. He hadto put it on similar to a cummerbund.
As soon as he put on his boots, Elijah walked over to amirror and looked at himself. He stillhated the way he looked, and his gear only accentuated his skinny frame. The top was so big he had to wrap his beltaround extremely tight to keep it from getting in the way of his arms when hewalked. He flew down the stairs, almosttripping over himself, and saw Mr. Button and Samuel waiting for him next tothe oval fire.
“Come along!” ordered Mr. Button. They walked down the stairs into an enormousoval arena—almost twice as big as the room above it. Elijah had to squint to see the other side. Around the arena, he eyed lots of largecontraptions and machines and obstacle courses scattered everywhere. Along the perimeter of the arena were manyclassrooms, one of which Mr. Button led Elijah and Samuel inside.
“Have a seat, gentlemen,” Mr. Button instructed. Elijah and Samuel each found a desk. “Since you are far behind your fellowstudents in their preliminary year, you’re going to need to catch up. It’s very common for some students to fallbehind the farther along they get, especially when they start to learn aboutelement control, but the preliminaries are vital to your future progress.”
“What are preliminaries?” asked Elijah.
“We call all the exercises you learn the first year oftraining your preliminaries. The firsthalf of the year we focus only on preliminary exercises. That’s where we teach students how to buildtheir minds and bodies. The second halfof the year, we throw in the elemental preliminaries. This is where students are taught the basicsof controlling the elements.” At hearingthis comment, Samuel shifted excitedly in his seat. “Haven’t met a student yet who could do muchof anything with the elements their first year. We’ve had a few who could make slight changes and do small things, butnothing worth noting. That’s what therest of the time here is for. Once thepreliminary year is done, the rest of the time is spent mastering the exercises and elemental control.”
“So we have to wait until next year to do the elementstuff?” asked Samuel, sounding disappointed.
“No,” Mr. Button said casually. “We’re going to accelerate you two. That’s why we’re here so early today. During this time, a couple hours beforeanyone else is up, you’re going to be taught the basic exercises everyone elselearned last term. That way you shouldbe caught up by the end of the year. Youwill still work with a mentor on elemental preliminaries.”
“A mentor?” asked Samuel.
“Someone to guide you one-on-one through the elemental process.”
“So, are we going to learn about the element control today?”asked Samuel. Mr. Button chuckled. It was clear Samuel was eager to learn to usethe elements.
“In time, my friend,” Mr. Button answered. “We usually take a few days to go over thebasic structure of our training process. I’m going to try and give you a crash course in one morning, so sittight and try to take in what I’m about to tell you, eh?”
Mr. Button walked over to the chalkboard, his bald headreflecting the light of the torches on the walls, and wrote three words: Physical. Mental. Elemental.
“Our training program is divided into three parts,” Mr.Button began. “The first part isphysical. You will learn to use yourbodies as a weapon when necessary. Youwill learn to keep from being seen. Youwill learn to do things that seem unimaginable at first. Since you are behind physically, our firstobjective will be to catch you up.”
Elijah was ecstatic! It made sense now why his uncle Stan was so big and muscular. Maybe he could eventually become just asthick.
“The second part,” Mr. Button continued, “is mental. This is by far the most important of thethree. You will develop and strengthenyour mind. Your mind controls your emotions,it controls your body, and it will control the elements when you areready. Your mental training, just likeyour physical training, will be ongoing. You will learn to control your emotions, control your focus, and thinkclearly in every situation.
“The last exercise you will learn here will be elementalcontrol. This will be just a byproductof the first two. The more you advancein your physical and mental training, the easier it will be for you to advancein your elemental training. As Imentioned before, you both have been assigned a mentor, so they will beresponsible for that portion of our training program.”
“So you don’t work with us?” Elijah asked.
“I’m the supervisor here at the training grounds,” answeredMr. Button. “I have no part in yourtraining other than orientation, gathering information on your progress, andmaking sure you are cared for.” Mr.Button walked back to write on the chalkboard again. “Another part of your training will be yourweekly studies. Remember, we are still aschool, and we believe in your academic education as well. Two days a week will be spent discussingessential subjects.” Mr. Button beganwriting the subjects on the board as he talked. “You will study classic literature, philosophy, geometry, history, andso on. Each year will be different. You will spend time studying how thesesubjects relate to you and how they relate to good and evil.”
Elijah felt very overwhelmed with everything he had toremember, and he glanced at Samuel to see if he looked just as lost. Mr. Button must have noticed because hesmiled and walked closer to the two boys.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Remember, we usually spend a lot longer going over all of this. Just take it one step at a time. This morning, you will work on strengthtraining. While you are training, I willspend the day making a schedule for you both. I’ll write it out and give it to you by the end of the day. Sound good?”
“Thanks,” Elijah said.
“Before I forget, you need to replace time to eat during theday. Our dining area is on the otherside of the arena and through the double doors.” Mr. Button pointed down to the other end ofthe arena, and Elijah could just barely see a set of doors.
“You boys sit here while I go see if your trainer is readyfor you. Good luck gentlemen.” Mr. Button walked out the door and bothElijah and Samuel turned to look at each other. They sat in silence, having no idea what they were in for. Mr. Button returned and motioned to the boysto follow.
The name of their trainer was Mr. Zempke. He was a tall man, most likely in his mid tolate fifties, with very broad shoulders. He had thick, brown hair that was starting to gray, especially on thesides. His mouth was wide and he had abig forehead even more accentuated with his widow’s peak.
Zempke started Elijah and Samuel on some simple stretchesand gradually moved them into performing more complicated and demandingexercises. He talked in very short,simple commands, making it difficult for Elijah and Samuel to figure out whathe wanted them to do. The boys were toldto do the exercises as slow as they possibly could.
“Up. Down. Arms up. Arms down. Point your feet. Lie down. Pull on this. Sit down. Lift up. Turn clockwise. Turncounter-clockwise. Push against myhands. Pull against my hands. Crawl on your hands and feet. No knees, gentlemen! Squat down. Now walk to me. Slowly. Slower. Even slower!”
It wasn’t long before Elijah could feel tingling in hismuscles. It reminded him of the feelinghe would get when he would play a new sport. His muscles would awaken from not being used and suddenly, they would tingleand burn with life. The boys were notgiven a break until it was time for them to join the rest of the students whowere starting to come down for their training. Elijah’s entire body was now pounding. Muscles he didn’t even know he had were hurting in places he didn’t knowexisted. And he had just started!
Mr. Zempke walked to the center of the room and clapped hishands three times. All the otherstudents immediately fell in line and began jogging around the massiveperimeter of the arena. Elijah andSamuel wasted no time joining the others. They soon fell to the back of the line, panting and gasping forair.
Zempke made a signal to start a second lap. Elijah looked at the other students to makesure they were having a rough time with the run too. To his surprise, most of them were runningalong swiftly. Some were even chattingwith each other as they ran. Elijahcould hardly breathe, let alone carry on a casual conversation. He also noticed how broad all the other boysseemed to be. They all fit into theirgear nicely, while Elijah was swimming in his.
When the second lap was finished, Zempke walked over to ahuge pit in one area of the room. Thepit was as big as a swimming pool, but it was hard to tell how deep it wasbecause thousands of foam bricks were piled up to the top. It looked similar to a massive landing pitElijah had seen in gymnasiums, but as soon as the first student jumped intothis pit, Elijah knew this was not used for the same thing.
“Go…Go…Go…Go.” Zempkecommanded each student one by one to jump into the pit. The students jumped in and sank almostcompletely to the bottom, foam bricks covering their entire body up to theirneck. Some sank completely. As soon as they sank to the bottom, Elijahcould see each student, as if they were quickly climbing up stairs withoutusing their hands, slowly begin to rise out of the foam, reaching the otherside of the pit just as their feet reached the surface. It was incredible to watch the agility andgrace each student had. He had neverseen anything like this!
Elijah studied each of their moves carefully, knowing he wasnext. Some students flew through the pitgracefully, as if they were performing a dance. Some struggled a bit more, needing just a little bit of help to getout. But each one made it to thetop. Elijah felt sick. His body hurt. He was exhausted from the run and the twohours of training before class, but more than that, he was afraid of making afool of himself in the pit.
Since he and Samuel were the last in line from the lapsaround the arena, they were the last in line to dive in. It was finally his turn. He pictured his body moving the same aseveryone else’s had been. “Swing yourarms,” he told himself. “Lift your legsquickly.” Elijah jumped in andimmediately sank to the bottom. He movedhis arms and tried to run. Nothing. He didn’t even move. The foam bricks barricaded his entirebody. He stopped moving his arms andtried to climb out using the bricks like steps, but he would just sink rightback to where he started. He began topanic. Everyone stared at him! Elijah continued to push himself in fits offury, determined to at least get to the edge on the other side, whether or nothe made it to the top of the foam bricks like the others. He waded slowly forward through the pile,each step pushing the foam out of the way. Slowly but surely he made his way to the edge. Samuel struggled even more than him. Elijah was sorry for Samuel, but part of himfelt better knowing he wasn’t alone.
The rest of the students lined up to have another go atit. They began jumping in, whizzing pastSamuel and Elijah. It looked so easy theway everyone else just glided out of there. Each foot would barely touch the foam before the other was right infront making the next step. Finally,wheezing and choking, Elijah made it to the other side and tried to pullhimself out. Before he could get all theway up, a hand came down to offer him help. Gladly, Elijah grasped the helpinghand as it pulled him up out of the pit.
“Thanks,” Elijah managed to blurt out. The help came from a boy with dark brown hairand brilliant blue eyes. He was broadand fit, but he was so tall, he looked a little on the lanky side. Even so, he was much more fit than eitherElijah or Samuel.
“Not a problem. I’mjust happy today’s not my first dayagain. Try closing your eyes nexttime.” The boy ran off to the nextexercise, leaving Elijah to wonder if he would die before he got a chance tohave a next time.
The rest of the day crawled slowly by. With each step, with each lift, with eachpull, Elijah gritted his teeth and found whatever strength he had deep insidehim for the next brutal exercise. WhenZempke finally called the session over, Elijah walked straight out of thearena, up the two flights of stairs, took the right turn to the boys’ side ofthe hall, opened his door, and flopped down onto his bed. He didn’t even have the energy to eat. Seconds after his head hit the pillow, Elijahfell asleep, his legs hanging off the side of his bed.
Later that evening, Elijah woke up and noticed a piece ofpaper sitting on the desk beside his bed. His muscles pulsed painfully with every beat of his heart. He couldn’t even extend his arms fullywithout concentration. He actuallyneeded to straighten each arm using the hand from the opposite arm. Elijah picked up the paper and read. It said:
Elijah,
Here is your schedule for the remainder of term:
Mondays – Strength Training: Report at 5:00 a.m.
Tuesdays and Thursdays – Academic discussion group: Report at 7:00 a.m. in Room 1
Wednesdays – Mental Training: Report at 5:00 a.m.
Fridays – Combo Physical and Mental: Report at 5:00 a.m.
Saturdays – Elemental Training: Report at 8:00 a.m.
Sundays – Free day. Youmay rest, visit with each other, or you may visit your family—or in your case,the Roddicks.
Get lots of rest tonight!
Mr. Button
P.S. Your requiredreading for this term has been placed on your wooden chest.
Elijah put the letter down, took off his boots, crawledunder the covers, and went back to sleep for the rest of the night.
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