Weather Control

Chapter 4

"Find a desk," the woman said. She pointed at the small tables with chairs. This must be what school is like. I had never been to school, as it wan't mandatory until the age of thirteen, and by then, I was nobody, an unknown thief. Drew had taught me how to read and do some writing, but I hadn't really been practicing at all. Finding a seat wasn't hard. I ended up in the middle of the room. The 'students' -if they would be even considered that- were snickering about ignorant earth people. The woman sat down at a larger desk in the front of the room.

"May I have a volunteer to tell the earthlings about why they are here?"

Someone's hand shot into the air. It was a boy in the front row. The woman told him to stand up.

He turned around to face us. "You're here to learn how to control the element of weather so you can  supply weather to all the people on earth. But you had to be brought here by a tornado because your parents are enemies of the kingdom and they were banished. For some reason, the king has found it necessary to bring you here so your powers don't get unleashed down on the earth. He thinks they might hang you for witchcraft. I, personally, don't see the problem with that." 

The boy smiled wickedly and sat down. The woman seemed impressed with that description, and I would be as well, if not for the fact most of the information he just gave was false. Because of the war with the Frostickers, the number of people controlling weather was slowly decreasing. 

The kingdom needed as many soldiers as they could get to fight in their wars and still have enough people to control the weather. So why not people from earth? Earthlings have so much more sympathy for Frostickers, as the Frostickers were earthlings as well, so as we learned to control the weather, more and more people would disappear to fight in a war. Loyal people might start to dwindle, and the Frostickers would win. Except for one thing: the king was a very likable person to most. He made sure to care for his people and protect them. He would do anything to protect his country. His loyalties were won, not bought.

The woman started passing out huge books filled with writing. "For you earthlings who don't understand writing and will never learn how to read, you are not required to read along." The woman said. "The rest of you, open it to the first page." Many of the people from the ground, i noticed, did not open the book. 

Drew had taught my brother and I how to read and write as soon as he found out we couldn't. he was a good teacher, but I hadn't practiced reading or writing for at least two years, if not more.

Not surprisingly, Sunshine had the book open and was already on the second page and we hadn't even started the lesson. 

The lesson was boring. It was about the history of the people living in the clouds called weathers, and how the weathers interacted with the earthlings throughout time. I really didn't care. None of it was about the war, or the royal family, and that was all I wanted to know. When the class ended, I was relieved. The woman let us go back to the room we had slept in last night before supper. We were allowed to bring a history book with us to do additional study, but almost none of us could read. Only Sunshine brought a book. 

When we got to the room, I sat on the bed and took off my boots. They were specially made to be perfectly quite. It was a great tool for a thief. 

Sunshine came over and sat on my bed. I groaned. "Go away," I said.

He laughed. "You're the one who wanted me as a partner. You'll have to get used to me eventually."

I shook my head. He was right. "What do you want," I finally asked.

He made a broad gesture. "I want to share with you my knowledge." He grinned. "I just want to show you what I found in the history book."

"And what amazing thing did you find?" I asked sarcastically.

"Well," he said, "there are a lot of bad things going on right now. Apparently, we, the weathers, are at war with a group called the Frostickers. We've been at war for over fifty years. Even worse, the king's children are missing. The prince is rumored to be captured by the Frostickers, and the princess is thought to be dead." He looked at me. "I think you already know that, though," he said slowly. "You've been here before."

I didn't say anything, only confirming what he said. He was smart. Too smart. I did know about the prince and the princess. I really didn't care about them. I had met them once before. I was not impressed. The Prince, I supposed, was fine, but the princess was probably better off dead. It didn't come as a surprise the prince had been captured. The Frostickers had been capturing people at random for years, including my brother. If I saw the prince when I saved my brother, I wouldn't stop to help him. My brother was too important.

"So how did you figure out I had been here before?" I asked Sunshine.

"It wasn't hard at all," he said. "You had a strange accent. A really strange accent. I couldn't figure out where it was from, but now that I have been around a whole class of Weathers, I noticed you have the same accent as them. Not as thick as them, but I'm guessing the common young was not your first language. And, it was very obvious when you took off running through the streets you had been here before. So, it was easy to figure out."

I winced. "That easy?" He nodded. I swore vehemently. If Sunshine could figure it out, who was to say the commander or the shrill woman couldn't? If it was that obvious, they could've already known. They could kill me without question. I could be dead by morning.

"Hey, it's alright," Sunshine said. "I don't think anyone else noticed." 

It didn't calm me a all, but I hoped he was right.

"If you tell anyone," I hissed, "it will be the end of you." 

His eyes widened slightly. "I won't tell anyone. I promise. I wasn't going to." 

I shook my head. "I mean, if someone asks you, you can't tell them you know. The commander will kill you."

We sat in silence as he processed what I said.

Without saying anything, he got up and limped across the room to his own bed. I stayed where I was until supper.

Supper was the same as before, and we were soon taken back to the training room with all of the weapons.

We were ordered to get the weapon we were supposed to pick out yesterday. Sunshine grabbed a bow. Trevor grabbed a mace. I picked out two daggers: A throwing knife and a larger dagger. It should almost be considered a short sword.

The woman paired me up with the small boy Trevor was fighting with. He had picked out a one-sided curved sword. He was as comfortable with his sword as I was with the knives. We fought hard, but neither of us could gain an edge over the other. 

I was tiring though, and he didn't seem to be. I eventually could only defend myself. I was constantly aware the blades were real. One wrong swing of my arms and I could be injured or even worse, dead. 

I finally threw up my arms in surrender. The boy lowered his sword, glad to be done. But I wasn't finished. I kicked his legs out from under him, and before he could get up, I pinned him to the floor with my knife.

"You surrendered," he said angrily. "You're not fighting fair."

I grinned wickedly. "I'm a thief." I said. "I never fight fair."

He smiled coldly and said, "I will remember that for next time."

He was still angry though, and his face didn't show it. 

Until we went to bed, I avoided him. He was good with a sword, and just because I wasn't here to make friends, I wasn't here to make enemies either, and I had just made one.