Winning The Impossible

Chapter Four

We caught a couple of raccoons and several fish for supper. Darren started a fire for us to cook them on. It took about ten minutes to get them all thoroughly cooked, but we eventually finished them seasoned them up. Axel was proud of me for catching the raccoons which in turn made me feel prideful. I hadn't ever had someone be proud of me before and the feeling made me happy. My dad was never proud of me really. He would teach me how to use any weapon, but still say that I needed to work harder even if I'd bested him. My brother was always trying to beat me (which he never did), but my dad was still never proud of me. My mom didn't want me to be sword fighting and using weapons, but she didn't know that's what made me happy. It was the only thing that would let me concentrate enough to let my anger go away. It made me try harder the more I got mad. I would put all my anger into the weapon in my hand and push it all away on the person I was fighting.

Every year a sword fighting contest was held, for boys only though. I entered myself in as a boy without my dad's permission and worked hard to get first. And I did get first until they learned that I was a girl. Then they got my dad and my dad punished me because he said that I could've gotten hurt. I had complained that I didn't have a scratch but that my opponents did. I couldn't practice with weapons for a month after that. And that was when all my anger was let out on my parents, teachers, and my brother. There hadn't been a day that would go by that I wouldn't get yelled at by one of those three. I ran away for a day, but then my brother came to go find me. Of course dad had told him to and of course my brother, Daniel, was mad because he was doing his own 'stuff' and had to go find me instead of doing what he wanted. I was sent to my room and, well, punched a hole in the wall. That was when my parents learned my anger was something to fear. I was locked up in my room with weapons and Daniel came in sometimes because he was my twin after all. We would spar for an hour or so, and then he would have to go. My parents only came in to give me homework and food. They would make small talk but never stayed long enough to talk for a while. I hated being locked up and my anger was too big to just fight it off. I tried, believe me. I could beat Daniel in less than five minutes. My sword would take control and I wouldn't even need to try.

I know I'll have to tell Axel and Darren my past sooner or later because they deserve to know if they're going to live with me. I'm not looking forward to telling them but I know I'll have to sometime.

"So are you going to tell us what happened when your dad left you? And why they left?" Darren asks suspiciously. "I've been wondering about it since the fight and really want to know now."

I look at them both. "I would've been told to get over it and would've been pushed around by the other kids. I don't know why I was left to die in that fire other than I could do things that no one else has been able to do for centuries. I never wanted anyone to find out what I could do."

"What can you do? I don't believe it would harm anyone." Darren scoots over to sit next to me. I can, well...look for yourself." I hold my palm out and feel a slight tickling on my hand. A little flame shoots out of my palm. It dances around my hand and I move it around my fingertips. "That's what I can do...I was the one that started the fire. The fire my mother died in. My mother died because of me."

"I don't believe it was just you. I think there was something that made you mad and you probably couldn't control it. Could you control it at all?" Axel looks amazingly at the small flame.

"No I couldn't very much. If I was mad any way. I could if I was happy but as soon as I got mad flames would burst out and no one around me was safe. I was locked away in a metal room the first time the flames showed up and was kept there most of my life. I tried to control it and sometimes I could but Daniel, my brother, made me so mad that I burned through the metal walls and...killed my mother and made Daniel and my dad leave. I was found later by a guard, with no burns even though I was in the spot where the fire first started. The guard took me to the orphanage and left me there to survive in a place where no one liked me."

"It wasn't your fault your mother died." Darren tries to comfort me. "Daniel made you mad, Danielle. Your brother made you mad even when he knew what would happen."

"But if I'd been able to control it then, the fire wouldn't have been made and my mother would still be alive. I'd still be living with my family and we'd all be happy like before."

Axel looks at me. "Why have you never talked to anyone about this? I know you would've been treated differently if you had told someone. We'll have to work on your fire also, not just fighting."

"I never expected you to actually want me around after I showed you." I'm surprised because they want me around even though they know what I can do. "No one's ever showed me that I was loved because they were scared of me. No one wanted me around and hated me."

"It's their fault if they're scared of you and hate you. You could help others. I'm betting you can also take away fire, not just create it." Axel pauses. "And you're not alone with people being scared of you and hating you." He looks toward Darren. "Why don't you show her why I chose you?"

"But..." Darren starts. "Okay." He holds up his hand and I wait to see what will happen. I'm surprised when a little ball of crystal clear water forms on his palm. "You're not the only one who people rejected. My parents left me when they figured out what I could do. They didn't want a child who could do extraordinary things, like you. I know how you feel about this because I've felt the same way. Every time I got scared or mad, water would form around me and people would get hurt. My best friend made me mad once and...well let's just say he died about the same way your mother died, only water not fire." I put my arm around him as he starts to tear up. We sit there holding each other for a couple minutes until we finally let go. "You've been hurt, I've been hurt, but we're both still alive, still standing. No one can say we've lived through nothing, because we've had people become so jealous and so scared that we were left. And if that doesn't hurt someone...than I don't know what does."

I never thought that someone could ever go through what I went through, but now I know that someone's there for me. Now I have a 'family'. People that honestly and truly care about me. This is new to me. It'll take a little while to get used to being noticed in a good way. We all have scars and I'm just noticing this. Maybe...maybe I should not 'judge a book by its cover'. I have always thought that I have felt the worst of pain but there's someone sitting beside me that has felt the same as I have, maybe even worse.

"So how are we going to work with the fire and water?" I wonder how we'll be able to practice with that. "Is there even something we can do to help control it?" Axel looks at us both with a thoughtful expression on his face. "There has to be something to help you two work on it. We'll figure something out sometime."

"Maybe we can just try to create our element and then try to fight each other without hurting the other. Or I can create water for us to drink and Danielle can create fire for cooking food." Darren adds. "Would that work, you think?"

"I don't know, maybe. There's no way to be sure if I can control it enough to not burn the forest down." I put in. I don't want to hurt anyone trying to help someone. Fire is something that is really useful. It's more thought of as painful and hurting. "How can I even use fire to help someone? Fire is known for pain and hurt. How can I help someone with something like that?"

"Can you take in the fire? Not just create it, right?" Darren asks me. "I'm not sure if that would work or not. I haven't ever tried to put out a fire."

"We'll learn how to do it together. After all I need to learn how to stop a flood in case one happens to flare up. It might help sometime."

We talk for a while more about how we can train. Eventually I get tired, so I get a sleeping bag and a pillow that Axel had brought for us. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, I think as I start to lie down. I fall asleep as soon as I lay my head down on the pillow.