Everything Starts

CH: 16, ACCIDENT

Jacob was working me hard. I felt like I was stopping to catch my breath every ten minutes. I had just thrown a massive ball of water at a tree when I heard multiple pairs of footsteps approaching.

"Hey guys. What are you doing here?"

"Well Adrian was bragging about how well you were doing yesterday so we wanted to see for ourselves," Fay said.

"Yeah what's with the freaky blue eyes?" Ethan asked.

"Blue eyes?"

"Yeah when you do the water ball thing your eyes do this weird blue glowy thing."

I looked at Jacob. "You didn't tell me my eyes glow."

"Well, I stand behind you the majority of the time and you tend to keep your eyes closed, which, by the way, is something we are going to have to work on."

"Oh. Is the glowing thing normal?"

"I've never trained a hydrokinetic before but I'm sure it is."

"That's reassuring."

"Adrian, you guys are welcome to stay and watch but Alora needs to get back to training. And for safe measures, stay a few dozen yards back."

"Sounds good."

Adrian and my other friends walk back to a safe viewing distance and I turn back to face Jacob.

"This time I want you to really try to focus on keeping your eyes open while you form the sphere instead of just before you release it. Being able to keep them open will help you stay more alert during the assignment. Same size and same target, just focus on your eyes."

"Got it."

Keeping my eyes open was harder than I expected. Normally when I close my eyes it helps me ground myself but I couldn't do that now. I kept my feet shoulder-width apart, put my hands to my sides, palms facing the ground, and took a deep breath.

Something I've learned during my time with Jacob is I have to let my power take over my body. I picture water flowing through my body, the blood in my veins turning to water and dying to be released. My hands start shaking and my breaths become deeper and slower. The air almost seems crisper. I've more or less gotten used to the image of a floating ball of water in front of me but this is the first time I see it form. I watch the droplets of dew rise from the ground around me. I almost lost my concentration at the sight of them slowly inching closer to me and one by one, combining into larger spheres. When they started stopping mid-air, Jacob told me to start moving my hands to keep them coming. I move my hands like I'm playing in the ocean and watching the ripples my fingers make as they break the surface of the water, only now I'm creating the ocean. According to Jacob the more water there is the more powerful I will feel. I believe him when the sprinklers start going off, and more water floods towards me. Instead of a ball of water trailing around me there is a wave. I was still imagining the power taking over me. Starting in my toes, flowing up my legs and torso, then down my arms into my fingers. When my power reached my fingertips I felt a shock through my body. Like I was truly powerful and no one could stop me. I fought to keep my eyes open. The water had formed a cylinder around me and it was all I could see. I couldn't see Jacob or my friends. For all I knew it was just me and the water.

I felt my feet slowly lift off the ground. This had never happened before and threw me off guard but not enough to stop my power from flowing. I kept going up and up until I stopped almost ten feet off the ground. The ground below me was drenched but somehow I was perfectly dry. I felt another shock run through me. It only lasted for a second but it was there. I couldn't hear anything so I didn't realize what was going on around me until Jacob grabbed my leg and pulled me down, breaking my concentration. When my feet hit the ground I looked over and saw my friends huddled around Adrian lying on the ground, eyes closed. I ran over to him.