Unfinished Beginnings

Chapter 2

I woke up to a pounding on my new dorm room door. "Time for training. Eat the daily fire meal as described in your packet and meet in the training room." I lay awake for a second more; just to make sure the person wasn't waiting for an "okay" or something. I quickly read my packet and fixed up the fire meal.

I watched everyone turn and look at me when I walked into the training room. I ducked my head and made no eye contact as I walked over to the fire area. My instructor was waiting for me with a smile. Nerd. My instructor was a nerd. Not an ugly nerd but a cute one. Wow. He's got the most beautiful eyes.

"Hi!" he smiled and I nearly fainted. "I'm your instructor, Leader Feiro; you can call me Fye. You must be Spirit, is that correct?"

I nodded and smiled. "Well then let's get started." He led me to a door. Opening it, he motioned for me to enter. The room inside was a giant screen. Really, the walls were made of screens.

"Here, you are going to learn how to control your power. I bet you've already done something that you didn't try." It's true. Last night, I was reaching out to grab an apple, and I fried it. Fire shot out of my hand and burnt it.

Suddenly, a giant monster came out of nowhere. I sprang back and fell into Fye. He grabbed me and shot the monster with a fireball that he built with his hands. The monster quickly died and fell to a pile of ash.

"H-how did you do that?" I asked, shaking in fear.

"Relax. None of this is real. They're on screens, remember." Then, another monster appeared, this one bigger than the other. That's a daggon. You see that fur on it's chest? That's it's weak spot; shoot there and you will kill it instantly."

I held my hand out and focused real hard. My hand began to feel hot and burst of flames shot out and hit the Daggon in the head, which knocked it out for a couple of minutes.

"I did it! Yes!" I jumped in the air, my brown curls flying everywhere.

"Great job. Don't get too excited, though. It was only your first try." Fye said. We practiced and practiced. We stopped when a bell rang.

"What was that?" I asked.

"That bell means it's time for lunch. Follow me, I'll show you where the cafe is. Come on." I followed him out of the room, Raine caught up with us when we went passed the water area.

"Hey, Spirit. How was-" She stopped when she saw Fye. Wow, she mouthed. "Oh hey, I better go. My instructor wants me to eat with her, you know, so we can talk about the pre-assessment."

"The pre-assessment? What's that?" I said.

"It's when you go on a mission to get whatever relic Leader Derek, the training administrator, decides to use." Fye said, slowing his pace to walk beside me. I was wondered about the pre-assessment when we walked into a room full of tables. Fye walked me over to the far end. When we sat down, a plate full of hot soup appeared. The food tasted awesome. Way better than the food we got during Power Ed.

"So, when is the pre-assessment?" I said after I finished eating the delicious soup.

"Right now." Fye answered.

The view from the starting launcher was beautiful. Next to me was my partner Fye.

Leader Derek walked back and forth in front of the line of partners. "The goal is to find the golden stone. You and your partner are to retrieve it and report back to me. If you are not with your partner, you lose. Yes, this is a competition. First ones back gets a point on their record. Let the competition, begin." A countdown began and people started to launch off their platforms. We flew through the sky at 50 miles per hour.

Wait! How do I land?! I started to panic. "Hold on to me!" Fye said, who was beside me.

"What!? Why?" I yelled back.

He looked at me with his deep hazel eyes. "Just trust me." It took me a second to get over to him. I wrapped my arms around him and held on tight. He thrust his hand down and fire came out. I squeezed my eyes closed as we descended.

"It's okay. We're on the ground now." Fye said softly. Opening my eyes, I noticed how many trees there are around us. I glanced at him and quickly remembered that my hands were still holding on to him. I quickly let my hands drop to my sides; I could feel my cheeks turn red in embarrassment.

"Okay. We came from there," he said as he pointed south, "so we should go this way." He began to head north. I followed quietly behind, keeping an eye out for monsters.

A sudden growl erupted the air around us. "Hold up." Fye whispered. "Stay here, I'm going to scout ahead." I nodded as he slowly made his way through the trees.

After about 15 seconds, I heard Fye begin to struggle. I ran up ahead and saw him wrestling with a dragonite, a huge dragon-lizard-snake type monster. And he was surrounded by 2 others.

Remembering what I learned during Power Ed, I quickly shot the one on top of Fye right in the left eye, it's weakness. Fye got up and looked at me out of breath. "I told you to stay behind."

"I know, I just wanted to help." I said, a little hurt. Just then, the other two dragonite looked at me. Uh oh! I began to run. I ran and ran until I stopped at a dead end. Turning around, I saw both of the malicious monsters who obviously wanted to hurt me, cornering me. I pushed myself as far against the big rock, which was blocking my way.

Come on Spirit, come on. I lifted my hands in the air, trying to blast them with a fireball. Dang it! Why won't it work? It was no use, I as going to die and never get to see anyone again. Tears began to stream down my face as I said silent goodbyes to all my friends and family.

"Spirit!" called a distant voice. I knew it was Fye, but he was too far away to get to me in time. The monsters were about a yard away and I was going to die. I screamed as the first dragonite picked me up with his giant, sharp claws. I remembered that a Dragonite first squeezes you 'till you pass out and have no ability to defend yourself. Once that happens it eats you.

The breath was sucked out of me and dots began to cloud my vision. "Spirit! No!" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fye shooting as the monster who was standing guard. It fell to the ground, dead. Fye then shot the Dragonite that was still squeezing the life out of me. The monster let go and I fell to the ground. I lay there, unable to move. A sharp pain erupted from my left knee.

Fye finished off the last Dragonite with a blast to the right eye, and came sprinting over to where I lay cringing from the pain. "Spirit, are you okay?"

"Yeah." I said, coughing. I began to get up, only to fall back down. "Ow."

"Your knee is broken. Let's find a place to stay for the night." He looked around. A cave nearby caught his attention. He helped me up and let me lean on his shoulder as we slowly began to the cave, where Fye started a fire to keep us warm.