THE APPRENTICE II

39

When Hazel got to Pentadilune, she was led to one of the guest bedrooms in the hall. The guards informed her that Heskit had given them the signal to let her in any time she wants. So, when she asked to go inside, they stepped out of the way with no protests at all. She gave a knock.

"Just a short while!" Heskit's voice was muffled through the golden doors.

She tapped her foot against the floor and checked her watch impatiently. Both her wristwatch and her phone were set to New York time, which was 8 hours ahead.
Hazel was about to knock again when the door opened. Instead of seeing him, she found a dark skinned woman with disheveled silvery hair. She had on a guests' robe and gave her a shy smile. Heskit  soon followed.

"Hazel, you're early!" Heskit ran a hand through his hair. He turned to the woman and gave her a hand shake. "Thank you for that. Um, there's...you can ask anyone for breakfast and I can have someone send you home safely,"

"Okay, your majesty. Good morning." She gave the two a kneel. Hazel cringed at this with a small wave, gave her some black pants. She gave the girl a grateful face. "Thank you,"

"Don't mention it." She briefly returned and checked her watch again. "I'm 30 minutes late,"

"Right, well. Apparently just in time!" He nervously chuckled as he led her to one of the lounges. He had on the inner shirt from the ball last night and ran his fingers through his hair in an attempt to fix his appearance.

"Listen, I don't care what you do with your time, just make sure to respect mine." She let out an audible sigh as she stopped in her tracks. "I don't know how they let you do things here, but I'm training you the way I train my students. Do better,"

"My apologies." He accepted the lecture and they shared an awkward silence. He was about to speak.

"You should probably go take a shower-,"

"-Yes, I should."

*

After about 30 minutes, he had taken her to one of the isolated island that was about 7 minutes away from the palace. It was filled with stone pillars and squares that were about 40 square feet wide. There were trees lined up beside each walkway. They floated on the water and led to other squares, while others were leading to the woods and mountains.

She breathed deeply and spread her arms. She let the sunlight hit her face and the crisp air revitalized her.

"Phew! The energy in this place is amazing!" She howled and stretched her arms.

"It's where our soldiers and mystics train." He explained. She got out a foldable chair, leaned back, and crossed her legs. She resembled one of those vacation posters plastered on every airport. "What are you doing?,"

"I wanna see what I'm working with." She put on a pair of sunglasses. She clapped her hands twice. "Okay, kitty-kat! Chop chop!"

Heskit shut his eyes and breathed deeply. His movements were much more fluid than the ones in mystic arts that involved more finger tutting.
Different colored lights rushed from his hands, the streams gathered up to form a ball, then morphed into a huge luminous tiger. It burst into tiny butterflies that scattered all over the place.

He made them transform back into streams of light, harnessed them into a beam, then inattentively  aimed at a pillar. It hit about half of the stone and dissipated into the water. He put his hands down, panting. He faced her for her approval— poker face. She is unreadable behind those glasses.

"Interesting." Her voice was monotonous and she placed her fist under her chin. "I wanna see you combat with it. Can you call another mystic for me?"