Conquering Fire

Chapter Two

The next morning I woke up in a real bed with a quilt patched in all different colors of blue. The bed was in a one-room apartment with a miniature kitchen, a wooden dresser, a dressing rack, and a minute wooden table with three wooden chairs. There was a door in the back of the house, which I guess led to the bathroom.

            “Huh, I wonder whose house I’m in.”

            “Hello, Ellie are you up yet?” asked Ty from outside the door. Maybe I am in Ty’s house but I thought he lived with his parents, and there was only one bed.

            “Uh, yeah come in.” I replied.  The wooden door opened and I could see that I was in the apartment district and I was in one of the more expensive apartments.

            “I hope you like your apartment,” he said as he and a healer walked through my door. The healer was a girl, probably early thirties, with short black hair that didn’t even reach her shoulders.

            “Is this my apartment, Ty?” I questioned. I’m almost positive that this is over the limit Uncle Rupert gave me.

            “Yes, it was the only one available,” he said as he walked over to the bed with the healer.

            “How much did it cost?” The healer walked over and started to do a healing spell over my ankle. Apparently, Ty had briefed her in on the story.

            “Eleven hundred coins.” he said. I can see why it was the only one available! Only poor people live off campus because it’s cheaper and this is really expensive for someone like me.

            “Eleven hundred coins!” I was shocked. “Not good, not at all.”

            “Ella, what’s wrong? Are you in pain?” asked the healer, probably thinking that the spell was having the wrong effect.

            “No, but I will be. My uncle is going to kill me. I can’t believe this apartment cost five hundred coins more than my limit.” I said to the healer. I can’t ask him for money. That would the worst day of my life. I have had some very bad days in my life but that one would by far be the worst.

            “It’s alright, I’ll let you pay me back if you feel you need too.” Ty told me.

            “I’m paying you back.” I declared. There was no way I was going to make Ty, a guy I barely know, pay for part of my house.

            The healer finished my ankle and moved to my arm. A couple minutes of silence passed.

            “Alright then, you are all healed. I will be leaving now.” She had felt the tension in the air and she walked out the door. We both watched as she floated out of the little apartment as quietly as she had come.

            “Well I guess we should get to class,” said Ty

            “Alright, let’s go.” I replied.

            We walked together until we had to go into the dressing rooms to put on the school uniforms. The uniforms are different for everyone. The fighters wear armor like the guard by the tunnel; the mages wear magic robes of the color to represent what type of magic they are best at, blue for water, red for fire, green for earth, gray for air, and white for ice. There is one student who wears a gold robe and that signifies that he is blessed with the ability to use all of the five types of magic equally. Professor Aaron dealt with both the reject fighters and mages. The reject fighters wore a different type of armor and the reject mages, like me, wore black robes. I walked down the halls and arrived at my classroom.