I wake up in a rundown-looking wooden shed on a small cot made up of a table and some cloth. Rubbing my eyes, I pull myself up and lazily look around. I can see light twinkling in through the little cracks between the boards. Ugh… God, am I in another dream? Why haven’t I woken up in the Kingdom yet? I sweep my legs over the side and hop up before my head starts pounding. "Man.. my head hurts," I mumble to myself. What happened last night?
I walk out the door and the sun blinds me for a minute, but as my eyes adjust I see another ring of burnt black grass, much larger than the last one, where the campfire used to be. two of the five buildings were smoldering. Oh god did I blow up again? Is everyone okay? I start panicking and scan my surroundings, spotting the three I talked to all night over by the forest, as well as the old man I originally followed, chopping trees, breaking down sticks, and separating leaves. Oh, thank god, okay. The boy notices me and nudges the old man. He sees me and saunters over.
"That's some ability you've got there," his voice raspy and calm, yet firm.
"Uh... yeah, I don't know how I keep doing that.." my words trail off.
"No worries, little one. These things happen. We can rebuild them." A wave of relief washes over me.
"Can I help?" I inquired excitedly, "It's the least I could do."
"Of course, you can, I'd expect nothing less from a strapping young boy like yourself." He produces a crudely made ax, seemingly from nowhere. His reply made me feel warm inside, but it quickly faded. Why was he being so nice to me? I just burned down the buildings and he doesn't want to punish me? This can’t be real, right? “I think that young boy over there wishes to speak with you, you should go see him.” I nod and scurry off to the others, looking over my shoulder at the old man to see he is no longer there. My confusion takes hold as my body continues moving like an automatic machine, colliding with the archer boy head-on. I trip over his legs as he falls to the earth, barely bracing himself in time to stop injury, stumbling to the ground myself a few feet off.
"Hey now, you need to watch where you’re going," The boy speaks as he pulls himself up with a slight groan, walking over and offering a hand up. I grab hold and he effortlessly pulls me from the ground. Wow… I guess you have to be pretty strong to survive out here. On my feet, I meet his solemn face, "Hey… about last night. That was intense, I'm sorry. If I had known you were going to literally blow up I would have stopped."
The memories from last night play through my brain, all the dark and twisted things he described. Yeah, I’m definitely still dreaming. May as well make the most of it. "N-no, I'm uh sorry for burning down the huts," There’s a moment of desperation as I expect impact, a hit for my actions, but one doesn’t come.
"Nah, don't worry. They weren't too hard to build. Not super sturdy either." His voice almost sounded cheerful. I begin to relax my body. "You know, we spent all night around the fire together, but we never told each other our names." the boy gazing at me, waiting for me.
"O-oh, right... I'm Salem." I answer, "What about you, what's your name?"
"I'm Silven," he points to the middle-aged man, who I can see has long dark hair, and a scruffy face, “That’s Joffrey,” his finger moves to the red-haired woman, “That’s Raina,” he glances around, searching for the elderly man, but not seeing him simply states, “The old man is Gontu.”
"That's a lot of names to remember all at once." I try to pair their names with each face mentally.
The boy laughs, "We'll let it slide the first few times, but unless you feel brave enough to set out on your own, you're going to be stuck with us. So you should learn them quickly." As Silven talks, I'm watching Joffrey cut down a large tree, but something seems off. There's no way the ax he's using would be working that well against that tree. With ten swings of the ax, I watch as the sixty-foot-tall tree falls.
"Hey.." I kind of cut Silven off, which I feel bad for but continue my question, "How did he do that?" There’s a small pause between us as he’s trying to piece together the question I had just asked him.
Silven turns back and his eyes follow mine. "Oh, you mean how he cut it down so easily? That's his Specialty."
"Uh... Specialty?" I look at him inquisitively.
"Specialties are what we call the abilities we have," he goes on, "I call mine Archery Mastery. I can see the exact trajectory and point of impact of my arrows."
"Whoa, that's so cool!" My face fills with awe, as I bounce up and down, “What does it look like?”
“Well… imagine this,” he points to a tree nearby and grabs a small rock from the ground, carving a little circle in the trunk, maybe two or three inches in diameter, “From where you’re standing, This is roughly what I see, only it’s as if it’s glowing in my eye. That, and I can see the path my arrow will follow. Wherever I point it, there is a faint curved line showing how it will fly.”
“That’s amazing! I bet you catch a lot of food.”
“Nah, not quite. I still can’t predict how the creatures move. That all has to come from instinct.”
“Hmm… Fair enough,” I look over to the long-haired man, "What about Jeffrey?"
He chuckles at the attempt, "That was close. His name's Joffrey and he can enhance anything he's touched into a magical quality. That's why that measly little stone ax could take down that massive tree so easily. Actually, he enhanced my bow and arrows. Helps with my aim quite a bit." He smiles, then scoffs, "Not that I need it though."
"And Raina?" I spout, practically vibrating in place. This is so cool seeing people with special abilities!
"I'm not sure what hers is. She hasn't told us yet." he furrows his brow in frustration, "Anyway, we should get to work. We gotta get these huts up so we can all have shelter again."
"Hey... real quick..." It has been itching at me since I woke up. "What happened… last night? Is everyone okay?"
"Well, yes everyone is okay, we managed to move in time. To answer your other question, however, is a little more complicated... Joffrey noticed while I was telling you about the kingdom... it looked like your veins.. were glowing this deep orange, extending from your heart. He alerted me and I started to move back, then your body started to like... engulf in flames. It just.. expanded. The buildings didn't even have a chance to burn, they were practically incinerated."
"That's... Wow.." I don't know what to say, my Specialty is that destructive? What good is that... I should just see what I could do to help fix this. I shake my head, “Well, I’m gonna go get Joffrey to enhance this, see you in a little!” I leave Silven and walk over to Joffrey, wishing him good morning.
“Morning, Firecracker,” He halfway lets a chuckle slip, before coughing it away, “How are ya feeling today?”
“My head hurts…” I reach up and ruffle my hand in my hair gently.
“I’m surprised that’s all that’s wrong, given last night.”
“Yeah, I heard from Silven. Are you okay?”
“I”m fine, kid. I was the first to notice.” He begins heaving at the next tree, grunting with each swing. Even though it’s enhanced, he seems to be swinging harder than he needs to…
“R-right… Well, I was wondering if you could… e-enhance this?” I extend the crude ax toward him and he halts his tree-cutting.
“Yeah, give it here.” He pulls it from my hand and, holding it in place firmly with his right, begins waving his left one over the tool. A purple glow emanates from his palm and the tool raises out of his grip. Now moving both hands around the floating hatchet, the purple aura surrounding it closes in on the tool, wrapping so tightly around it, it’s as if a layer of paint had been applied.
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“That is incredible… how does it work?” I can’t peel my eyes away from his process.
“Well, basically, this aura you see weaves its way into the building blocks of a material, creating magical bonds between little pieces, so small that you cannot see them with the naked eye, connecting them together with much greater strength than found in nature.” He pulls the ax out of the air, continuing, “I can also determine mentally what purpose I designate for the enhancement. For example, this ax, I also enhanced the edge of the rock, sharpening it far beyond what’s possible with our smithing stations.” He takes the ax and gently scrapes the blade against a nearby trunk, the bark shaving off effortlessly.
“That sounds like a really strong power,” I take the ax as Joffrey extends the handle toward me.
“It truly can be. I’m still discovering new things I can use my abilities on every day.” He turns away, walking up his newly-felled tree, “We should get back to work, we’re burning daylight.”
I walk to a trunk far enough away from the others to not have to worry about it falling on them and begin chopping. It took me more than the ten swings that it took Joffrey but it still went down much quicker than it would have with a regular ax. We spend about fifteen minutes cutting down trees and then the rest of the morning chopping the wood into planks. Once we've gotten enough boards, we decide to take a break with the sun directly above. Just then, Silven comes out of the woods carrying a couple of Squirbunnies.
"Hey! Nice catch," Joffrey shouts, and quickly moves toward the firepit and grabs a flint, but then he stops.
"Do you think you can do it...?" his voice suddenly drops to a gravelly hush. I feel a tingle run up my spine.
"Uhm... I think so?" I move to take the flint from his hands but he pulls it away.
"No no. Not with this." He stares me down. I stare back confused, the gears slowly lining up. Does he want me to try to use my powers? Surely he can't be serious. How would I even bring it out? The last times I did it were when I was going through a lot of feelings at once. How would I even control that?
"I... I don't think I can." I’m taking steps back before I can realize I’m backing away from him.
"I do." All of a sudden, he’s behind me and pushes his hand into the small of my back. A soothing, cool sensation spreads through my body. What is that feeling? His voice cut through my thoughts and sent shivers down my spine as I remember the position I’m in, "Remember what Silven said. What he went through. What that kingdom goes through. Every. Year," I shut my eyes, trying to block him out, but his voice worms its way in, "It happened all around you and you didn't even know it, surely you noticed older friends going away and not coming back. Where do you think your brother went?" I begin to feel lightheaded and my vision goes red.
“DON’T talk about my brot-” Joffrey cuts me off, shouting into my ear as the chastising grows louder.
“Good, get angry! Feel the emotion,” He shouts, my blood begins to boil having been talked over, "Now…” There’s a power in his voice, almost like he’s enjoying himself, which only makes me angrier, “This will sound a little strange, but I’ve enhanced you.”
I wonder to myself how he could possibly enhance my body, but my anger overrides my curiosity. “And?” I snapped at him.
His voice lowers, “Your body should be able to handle this ability much better for a short time. But I’m not sure for how long. You need to listen to me carefully.”
I scowl and let out a gruff sound, “Fine.”
“You need to take your anger, your feelings, in and not let them consume you. Take it one step at a time. Think of it like the campfire, we don’t add too much tinder at once otherwise we have an uncontrollable flame. Add pieces little by little, cradling the fire, keeping it alive but not rampaging.” I tread through my thoughts of home, my family, and my friends if I could even call them that. My face contorts in anger, but I hold on to the thought until the emotion passes, letting myself come to an understanding of why they had to do what they did. “Okay, I can see your heart glowing. Don’t panic, or try to look right now, just trust me. Let all of your thoughts fall to the sides. Do you feel the warmth? Focus on that warmth." I take a deep breath and try to clear my mind. Thoughts still speed toward me through my head, but they begin to split away, and I see and feel a warm glow.
“I think I’ve got it.” I calmly state.
“Good. Now, think about moving that warmth. You have to believe that you can, and focus on the thought of it moving. Try to spread it out.” I let my body loosen and focus on the sensation inside. It’s warm... I can feel it moving like waves in an ocean. Getting overwhelmed, I begin to panic, my breathing accelerating. “Don’t force it,” I can barely make out Joffrey’s words. “Feel it moving and move with it, not against it.” With it... Not against it... Taking deeper and deeper breaths, I calm down, open my eyes and extend my arm, extending my palm toward the firepit. I watch as my shoulder begins to glow, creeping down my arm like snakes under my skin. My arm feels so hot, but it doesn't burn. The glow reaches my hand and suddenly a gush of flames swallows the ground in front of us. I instinctively yelp, and then I feel a quick jab under my shoulder and my arm goes limp, the fire quickly extinguishing and the glow fading.
"OW! Thank you… but why did you have to do it like that? That hurt," I glare at Joffrey and rub my armpit.
"You don't have full control yet, don't need you passing out and exploding again." He chuckles and points to the firepit, "It worked well though." I look at the pit and see the fire dancing.
"Holy crap, I did it!" I turn to Silven as he's now jogging toward us and shout, "Did you see that?! That was awesome! It went like WHOOSH! all over the ground! I was able to feel the energy moving inside. It felt like my arm was on fire!" I'm practically bouncing in place.
"AND you managed to not pass out this time?" He laughs, making my cheeks flush, and tosses the Squirbunnies to Joffrey.
"I was able to control it a little, I even lit the fire!" I point to it in protest.
Joffrey speaks up as he starts skinning the Squirbunnies, "Now you just need to learn to put a tap on it. Control the outflow. But that will take a lot more than a couple of minutes of practice."
"Yeah, my Specialty wasn't precise before. When I first started, it was as if there was a dim spotlight showing roughly where it would land." Silven grabs some nearby sticks and sets up some roasting devices over the fire. "It took me 3 years of training to have it as good as I do now, and could still probably do even more."
"Wow, that's amazing!" I admire him in awe.
"It's pretty cool, yeah. Makes hunting a lot easier," Silven smiles wide.
Joffrey shifts toward the fire and skewers the Squirbunnies onto the roaster and sits back. As the meat cooks, Raina comes out of one of the remaining buildings and stretches. She makes her way over and sits by the fire.
"Good morning Raina," Joffrey is the first to greet her.
"Mmph." She grunts and pulls some tea leaves and a can out, places the leaves into the can, then pours some water from her canteen in and places it on the fire.
"There goes Raina with her leaf water again." Silven coos at Raina.
"It's. Chamomile." Raina's icy tone sends shivers up our spines and Silven shuts up quickly.
As we sit around passing the time, Raina pulls her can off the fire and lets the outside cool, before sipping on it and sighing peacefully. Joffrey pulls the Squirbunnies from the roaster and slices them in half, handing them out as he goes. Silven pulls out some berries he scavenged and shares them as well. We eat in peace around the now dwindling fire, finishing up as the last flames go out.
"Time to build us some houses." Joffrey moves unnaturally quickly toward a log nearby and begins chiseling away at it. I watch as he cuts grooves at ninety-degree angles along two sides of four different logs. He motions toward the boards we made this morning and I begin hauling them over. He hammers a board into the groove with a blunt rock on a stick. We spent the afternoon building walls, making a hole for the door, and putting up a roof. We finish the first hut once the sky starts turning a golden yellow.
"That wasn't too bad!" I bellow loudly.
"See? What'd I say," Silven wipes sweat off his brow.
"Now we just have to do one more," Joffrey, without breaking a sweat, begins carving the next four logs. We regain our breath and get back to work, finishing up as the sun sets behind the horizon, the sky a brilliant red and purple. The other four are talking around the newest building, but I make my way to the campfire, quietly stacking up a few small logs. I step back and close my eyes, thinking about what Joffrey told me. Let the feelings through. Let the ocean of heat lap over your body. Move with it, not against it... A warmth swarms in my chest. Okay, now move it to my hand... I take a deep breath and focus all my willpower on my shoulder. Then my elbow. The hot sensation travels down my arm, I open my eyes and point my index finger forward like a gun. Maybe my problem was the point of exit... extending my whole hand last time caused a wall of fire... I watch as the glowing reaches the end of my index finger and a gentle flame, almost like that of a candle, appears on my finger. I gasp audibly and the group looks over, I catch their gaze and freak out, flames shoot out of my palm into the air. The fire roars 30 feet into the air, casting a bright orange light against the dimly lit dirt. I fall backward onto the ground, hitting my elbow and disrupting the flow of energy, the fire halting immediately.
"I... I did it! I was able to make a little flame!" I shout as the rest of them run over.
"Are you crazy?! That wasn’t a little flame!" Joffrey hollering at me cuts my excitement abruptly.
"Uh... I.." my tongue catches in my throat.
"Why would you try that without someone to stop you if you couldn't control it!" His voice grows louder, pounding in my head increasing as his volume does.
"I-I'm sorry... I wasn't trying to make you mad… b-but... I did make a little one…" I cower down and my eyesight blurs as tears begin to well.
Joffrey sighs and crouches down gently, "No... No, I'm sorry. I'm not angry, I was just concerned. I did see the small flame, but you can’t mess around with something as dangerous as your power seems to be. Regardless... That was impressive. Just next time make sure one of us is around… Okay?" I cradle my legs, not making a sound as I stare into nothing. “Come on, kid. Please. You didn’t do anything wrong, you just put yourself in danger. I only want to look out for you out here, it can be rough at times.” I gingerly glance at his face, no signs of anger anywhere to be seen, but look away again. “Alright, I understand. I’ll leave it for now, and when you’re ready to talk, we can.” Joffrey grabs the flint and starts the fire, everyone moving to sit around it until sundown. Joffrey tells a story about some mythical creature that lives in the woods, and slowly I loosen up, beginning to laugh with the rest of the group as we pass the time. The fire dies down and everyone wishes their goodnights and heads off to bed. I was lying down and just about to fall asleep, eyes fluttering shut, my breathing slowing down. Then I heard rustling in the brush outside...