Maleki:

The boy’s silvery hair dipped to the side, and his hand moved impossibly fast towards my chest. I braced my shoulder forward and tensed my body, knowing I couldn’t avoid the imminent blow. White energy moved with the boy’s hand, and a blurry spherical shape collided with my chest. My eyes could only see the sky as I was sent flying and then landed six feet away from the boy. I knew what he was really after, which meant I had no time to lay on my back and recover. I angled my eyes as I began to stand and saw the boy’s white iris’ flick over to Miko.

I had to block the next attack somehow; I needed something sharp, something — something like my scythe. I worked in the fields with Grandfather, so I was familiar with the shape and feel of the blade. Distance and depth of field were second nature when pulling it from the holster tied into my bag. The only thing I didn’t have on my side was strength and timing. Years on the farm doing all my work by hand strengthened my physique, but I had never used this tool as a weapon.

I didn’t understand what he did that first time, but it looked like the air rippled between his fist and its destination impossibly. Never in my entire life have I ever seen anything like that. Is it possible for someone to shoot air out of their hands, or is it some sort of trick? I was sure his hand hadn’t actually moved since he had transitioned from a fist to an open palm with his fingers extended, but that would be the only explanation for what I just saw.

I wasn’t confident I could even block this next attack as I saw it begin to ball into a transparent blur, but I wasn’t physically fast enough to block with my body. I was closer to Miko than the boy, and the scythe would give me another five to six feet of range. I decided the best option, probably the only one depending on the speed of the attack, would be to dash forward with one giant step and throw all my power into one swing in front of Miko’s chest. I lurched forward and saw the temple wall blur behind the blast of energy, indicating its precise location.

The air reverberated around the blast at a much weaker level, but I could still feel it reaching my body, which told me it was approaching fast.

There wasn’t much time, so I started my swing from my left shoulder, arcing the blade at an angle so I could peer the swing directly over Miko’s shoulder without injuring him in the process. I dropped my hips to increase power at the crux of the scythe’s maximum height and pulled my shoulder downward with as much strength as I could muster. The curved blade impacted the condensed air like I had hit a malleable clay ball. The air escaped around the blade, fleeting around the edges in a whistling dissipation and white flecks of energy sizzled away into the air.

My eyes met the white iris’ of the boy, his bright gray armor glistening off the sun in peak day. His face was that of shock; perhaps no one had ever retaliated against him before.

“An Osmium blade — in the hands of a peasant.” The older boy spoke grimly.

I wasn’t sure how many more of those I could block, but it didn’t feel like my own strength would have been enough. I’ll have to ask Miko what Osmium is after this. He read all of Grandpa’s old smithy books, so maybe he has an idea.

“Where did you steal that blade from? I will accept it as payment for your transgression.”

“Trade this blade someone of your status so eagerly desires over a simple accident? I think I’d rather take my chances with the wind.”

“That blade doesn’t belong to someone like you.” He looked at my scythe as if it was a tasty rabbit and he was a starved wolf. “I could finally even the odds between us.” He muttered under his breath.

I didn’t budge.

“So be it, fool. I’ll pry it away from you.” He slid his front leg quickly behind him in a straight line, building up force in his heels, preparing himself to launch forward at an assumingly alarming speed with the amount of blur built up behind him. His left hand rose higher to his right shoulder, and his right palm flattened out to meet his left hand’s fingers that were arced into a circle with his thumb. A bright luminosity grew in his palm, and I knew what was coming next, even if I didn’t know what exactly it was.

I twirled the long, flat side of the scythe around Miko and angled it up at his lower stomach, carrying him backward toward Kallen. Kallen and I briefly glanced at each other, and I could see the words in his eyes. He knew I needed him to keep Miko out of the way, but I could sense from him that this person was more dangerous than I even understood. How had we already gotten into a fight after only a week of being away from the house? Our grandparents would be ashamed. Be that as it may, I was already in this predicament, and there was no turning back. I took Kallen’s non-verbal advice and stored it internally for a better occasion.

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My body was still facing forward, so I gripped the lower snath of the scythe and placed the heel against the ground with the toe angled toward my opponent.

I barely had enough time to react before white air burst out of the boy’s palm, condensing into a more potent blast through his left hand. I couldn’t see the blur, as it was heading straight towards me with no background to track and moving even faster than the last time. With my scythe aimed at the sky, I pulled hard upwards and hoped I hit whatever was coming my way.

Nothing landed against me, and I felt the same dissipation as before. However, during the movement, I had failed to remember his heels being pressed against the ground with blurry aggression. In the time that the air traveled towards me, he had launched himself, moving his right hand into a balled-up fist aimed right at me.

There wasn’t enough time to react; the blade of my weapon was already pointed high and away from its target. The most I could do was prepare a defensive posture and brace for the impending impact. I let the scythe’s top shaft fall to my right shoulder, pulled forward with my left hand, and braced hard with the right.

I turned my head slightly, squinting my eyes to prepare for the crashing force against me. I waited longer than I should have for such a quick movement. Unsquinting my eyes, I saw the armourer boy a foot away from me in an extended attack posture, as if he was frozen mid-attack.

Another voice, confident but much softer with his hands extended in a vast, empty hug, filled the temple’s front steps. “Kaelum, my brother in arms! You always have such an insatiable lust for justice. I apologize for keeping you waiting, but there’s no time to waste.”

My eyes glanced forward at the person who was supposed to have just sent me flying. The ground itself lurched forward to grab his ankles, solidifying him in place. His eyes were locked onto me with great displeasure. I had now seen someone manipulate air, and another the stone beneath us. What did our family not tell us?

“Can you not wait a single moment, Valour?” Kaelum spoke with a tired voice.

“No time to waste, dear friend! Our prophecy requires us.” Valour spoke passionately. This new figure wore armour that reached just before his elbows. His chest plate held his family insignia, which was a “V” slightly overlapping an upside-down pyramid. The armour itself was brownish gold with black accents. He looked younger than Kaelum, but not by much, and still several years older than me. They both seemed battle-hardened, yet I was unaware of any significant conflict in the last ten years.

Kaelum dropped his hands down to each of his ankles, blasting a small burst of air at them to break the rock that held them in place. Despite my predictions, he didn’t pursue Miko or me further. He dusted off his shoulder plates and swiveled on his heels to follow Valour, who was already walking into the temple.

I decided not to press the issue further, accepting the result as the best-case scenario considering all parties were not injured, except maybe Kaelum’s pride.

With Kallen’s visual advice coming back through the fray, I decided it was best to create some distance between the two gentlemen and ourselves in hopes of not reigniting the conflict again. Despite having faired well during the interaction, I was still quite startled by someone shooting air out of their hands and another manipulating the ground to their every command. Hopefully, Kallen could explain what I just witnessed.

There was only silence as we walked away from the temple. We walked to a different section of the city closer to the eastern edge, near the cliff side. As we got further from the temple, the buildings lost their sizes, but they were still more prominent than those in the kingdom’s center.

We found ourselves in a marketplace with shops, stands for food, and a few taverns for travelers like us. I was hungry and thought our following conversation was best made over a table and in chairs.

A building in the middle of the square, the tallest amongst them and with its back to the ocean, caught my eye. There were seats available outside, and from this distance, their specialty appeared to be cooked meats. A sign above the building listed it as “King’s Folley.”

I pointed to the building, and Miko and Kallen were right behind me. The smell of the meat filled the air as we got closer, making me realize how hungry I had been. We chose the first table we walked up to and slumped down into the chairs after an exhausting morning.

I broke the tension in the air, attempting to quell the discomfort that could be smelled alongside the meat. “So, what was that back there?” I asked aloud.

Kallen grunted. “I don’t know. You tell me. I’m not the one who just played fisticuffs with the ‘heir of air’ himself, A child of prophecy, I might add.”

Miko and I looked at each other and then back to Kallen, but I responded first. “So…I have two questions. Maybe three!” Kallen exhaled the air out of his lungs and blinked twice in response. “First question: How in the world did someone shoot air out of their open palm? Second question: How did someone mold the ground around another person?”