War for the Skies (completed) (Book 1 of the Heroes of the Realms series)

Chapter 14

When the platform finally retreated back into the floor, I ran across the training area for a huge heave.

I turned back to see my teacher still smiling. Luckily, there weren't any other Heroes around, as they were still in training, to see me hurl.

"How did you stand that?" I asked, hobbling towards Ms. Flora.

"I go up to the sky a lot. I enjoy seeing the birds... the clouds... everything about it is amazing!" she beamed.

"You do realize there are barely any clouds here, since what we're standing on is above most of the clouds. Also, birds don't fly this high. Also I don't even know how we're breathing. If we're this high up into the air, shouldn't it be super thin?" I wondered.

"Leon..." she laughed, even though I could see she was trying to hold it back five seconds ago. "This is another realm. It isn't the sky you see when you look up from the Earth. I mean, if you jump off the edge of one of the islands, you'd probably land in the ocean somewhere. How should I explain this... Oh I know! It's like another gateway! But this doesn't transport you to anywhere else except for the Earth."

"Oh..." I trailed off, noticing that the walls were also folding themselves into the ground.

The instant all of the walls were underground, a gross stench filled the training area. Everyone was sweaty and panting, as if they had been trained to summon a cloud to destroy three dummies.

The only people I noticed that weren't sweating were the kids we saw running around the island with Lukas.

They all huddled around Ms. Flora and I, and the stench became ten times worse. I felt like my stomach wanted out again. I almost gagged, but then I saw Skylar in the front row, her face as pretty as ever.

Her sweat on her face reflected the sunlight that shone through the dome to her face. Her brown hair became a lighter shade in the sunlight. Her clothes weren't sweaty at all, and she had changed, into some armor. She had a purple shirt underneath two silver shoulder guards, a small chest guard which wasn't guarding her stomach, and blue jeans.

She noticed me staring and gestured toward the teacher.

I snapped out of my trance to notice Ms. Flora talking.

"-is that clear?" she finished.

Everyone nodded except for me.

I didn't want to ask Ms. Flora when everyone was here, so I waited for them to leave. When everyone followed each headmaster toward the right, I pulled Ms. Flora to the side.

"What are we doing?" I asked.

"You weren't listening?" her smile turned into a frown.

"I got distracted!"

"By?"

"Um..."

"Never mind," she shrugged. "A set of three games. All of you will split into groups of four, trained by a headmaster. First your speed will be tested. The top two fastest in each group will pass onto the next game along with the other groups, which will test your general elemental skills. The top two of those will be fighting each other with their elements, and whoever wins that will be the winner."

I nodded and she gestured me to run toward the group.

A blond, male headmaster with full red iron armor and a goatee was listing names on which group is which. I wasn't paired up with Skylar, which made me sad.

What am I thinking? It's my second day! I thought in my head.

I was paired up with about 20 kids, and I didn't know how we could race like that, but I guess some magic virtual reality room fixed that for us.