Ultimate Fan Fiction: Book 1, United

Part 7

Elizabeth
    I woke up the next morning at at least six a.m., ready to take on new skills. Zuko greeted me at the bottom of the spiral staircase at the end of my hallway. Yeah, Catherine and I had our own hallway, over the entrance was the word "I Hope" in Latin (spero), beyond the entrance was a spiral staircase that led to my bedroom and to the left of the staircase was Catherine's room.
    "Morning." I said cheerfully.
Zuko nodded at me and smiled. "Ready to start?" he asked. I nodded excitedly. "Alright, after Catherine wakes up, the two of you will go to breakfast in the dining hall, then you'll see Katara and Rapunzel for healing, stay with Katara and Percy for waterbending, Hiccup and Eragon for dragon training, Merida, Katniss, and Susan for archery, Legolas is a maybe, lunch, then-"
    "Sorry to cut you off, your highness, but that's a run-on sentence." I said.
    Zuko looked at the ground. "Apologies." He said.
    "No need." I replied. "Don't stress about it. I can go with whatever you throw at me." Zuko smiled and continued. "After that, you'll see Sherlock for the art of deduction, as he calls it, and then Jack for ice. Don't worry, there'll be more tomorrow." I grinned.
    Breakfast was divine. Blue pancakes (courtesy of Mrs. Sally Jackson) in stacks that were taller than me, completed with blue butter and syrup, sausages and eggs, ham, bacon (the best part) steaming piles of toast, bagels, all kinds of jams, and jugs full of orange juice and milk and even coffee and tea. The dining hall itself was just as beautiful as the rest of the Vivunt Imaginarae. A long wooden table with tall, stained glass windows on either side, letting colored sunlight flood into the room, with banners, each holding a different symbol, proclaiming a different fandom. I was so mesmerized that I almost forgot to eat. I had actually forgotten how hungry I was from not eating since breakfast the day before.
     Toph came into the dining hall a little later, with her arm looped through Catherine's. Whatever those two were planning,  I wasn't going to stick around when it happened.
    After breakfast, Rapunzel walked over to Catherine and I at the head of the table and said, "We'd better start." I nodded, wiped my lips on my napkin and followed her to the infirmary with Catherine trailing behind. Katara was already waiting for us when we got there.
    "You guys ready?" She asked eagerly.
    "Definitely." I answered.
    Lying on the bed next to her was a practice dummy with several open cuts.     "Watch carefully." Katara instructed. She popped the top off her water pouch and bended some of the water out. The water moved to her hands and soon they were completely covered. Then she moved her hands to one of the cuts on the practice dummy and the water started to glow. When she moved her hands away, the cut was gone. Catherine and I clapped politely. "No need to clap," Katara said, "for something that needs to be done. Now let's see how Rapunzel does it."
    Rapunzel moved next to the dummy's leg and wrapped her very very long hair around one of the cuts on its leg. Then she started to sing.

"Flower gleam and glow.
Let your power shine.
Make the clock reverse,
Bring back what once was mine."

As she sang, her hair started to glow and became an illuminated golden color. The glow moved down the length of her hair like a golden river and to the leg of the dummy.

"Heal what has been hurt.
Change the fates' design.
Save what has been lost.
Bring back what once was mine,
What once was mine."

After she finished, she unwrapped her hair from the leg to reveal that the mark had gone.
    "Any questions?"
    "Yeah, I've got one." Catherine spoke up. "I don't think either of us can control water or have long, magic hair. So how are we supposed to heal people?"
    Katara stood up. "Combine them." She said. Both Catherine and I were confused. "I use my energy to bend the water around my hands, and then the water does the healing. Rapunzel uses her energy by singing and then the magic responds in it's own way. By combining them, you use your own energy to bring out this ability. In other words, you use my method of letting the water do its work, plus Rapunzel's method of letting the magic do its work, and a third method, where you use your own energy to do the work."
    "Still confused." Said Catherine.
Rapunzel giggled. "Maybe it's easier done than said. Elizabeth? Care to try it."
    "Sure!" I said, bounding over to the dummy. Rapunzel took my hands and placed them on one of the smaller cuts.
    "Now focus." Katara instructed. "Let your energy flow through you from your core and to your hands."
    "And focus on steady breathing." Rapunzel concluded.
    I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I pictured water flowing through an open faucet and tried to do the same with the energy in my core. I felt something hot rise up inside of me, full of warm passion. I concentrated as the warm feeling spread all over my body. Suddenly, I felt all the energy I could muster running to my hands, which were sitting on the dummy's torso. I got so excited that I lost all control. A great beam of light shot from my hands and onto the dummy and then went dark. When I moved my hands, I saw that the cut was gone and so was the top layer of fabric on that part of the leg. "Sorry." I said.
    "No no no." Katara replied. "You did very well for your first time. Even better than I did my first time. And you weren't even using water! It was fantastic. You just need to focus a little more and don't lose that focus. Or else you might lose control and that might happen." She said, pointing to the burn.
    "What did it feel like?" Rapunzel asked.
    "Well," I began, "at first I felt nothing. Then, as I focussed my energy, a warm sensation rose up inside me and that moved to my hands."
    "That's when they started to glow." Katara commented.
    "Then I sorta lost control because I was too excited and, well, ka-boom."
    "But you still did very well." Said Katara. "You still healed the original wound, even if you left a burn. But that can be fixed in time!" She quickly added.
    "Catherine?" Rapunzel said sweetly. "Care to try?"
    "S-sure." Catherine stammered as she walked over to the dummy. There was complete silence as her hands started to glow. She opened her eyes, saw the glow and shrieked. She jumped back and the glow disappeared.
    "That was pretty good." Katara complimented. "Just keep your focus. Magic like this isn't something to be afraid of." Catherine nodded. "One of the most difficult things about using magic or bending is telling the difference between magic that can heal and magic that brings danger," Katara looked grim. Rapunzel was still giddy though, she slowly moved Catherine's hands back to the wound and told her to try again, and to stay calm. Catherine's breathing started out rhythmically and steady but started to get quicker and more forced as her hands glowed more and more. I didn't have the courage to say something about how distressed this was making her, besides, I was too busy wondering what would make her act like this, what had caused her to get this stressed about healing something?
    Just then there was a knock at the door and Catherine jumped back again, the glow left her hands. "Come in." Katara said, losing the enigmatic edge. Somebody opened the door.
    "Katara," an adolescent voice said. I turned to see Percy Jackson, grinning widely.
    "Time already?" Katara asked. Percy nodded. "Alright," she said, getting up. "Let's go guys."

****

    Percy and Katara led us down the hallway, into the atrium, and down the hallway with the water droplet with a trident going through it over the doorway. Down that hallway were different doors and on those doors were different signs, one said "weapons", one said "Katara", another said "Sokka", one said "Percy" (in very poor handwriting), and the one at the end of the hallway said "Training". Percy fished a key out of his pocket and opened the door. Inside were several scrolls that bore the symbol of the Water-Tribe, tanks filled with water (some for decoration, with fish, some with nothing but water, most likely for training), a trident hanging on the sea-foam green walls, sword hilts without blades...why? And pouches and other kinds of convenient water holding devices hanging on hooks on the walls.
    "How do these work?" I asked, walking over to the sword hilts. Percy grinned.
    "Like this." He took one for himself and tossed one to Katara. Katara popped the top off her pouch and bended the water through the hilt of the sword so it came out the top, like a water blade. Meanwhile, Percy had done the same thing and the two started using the water blades as if they were real blades, but with a bit of a twist. Katara bended her water from the blade and out behind Percy so that it snaked around his waist, trapping his arm and making him drop his sword. Wasting no time, Percy moved his free hand to one side and pulled the water off him and let it pool in his hand like a big water ball. With the other hand, he picked up his sword and replaced the water blade he had before (which was now spilled on the floor). Katara, with no other options, clenched one fist. At the same time, Percy's blade turned to ice. Katara clenched the other fist. The ice blade shattered and fell to the floor.
    "That's cheating!" Percy complained. Katara laughed.
    "Have fun complaining to Ozai about cheating when you end up battling him."
    "How do you know I'm gonna battle him?" He said snidely.
    "You know the fates better than I do, Percy," Katara chided. "Just because you've said you're not gonna battle him, fate is gonna do whatever it can to make sure you do."
    "Don't even joke about that." Percy responded grimly. "That's scary stuff."
    "Ahem." I said. "I understand that talking about which hero is gonna battle which villain is important and all, but unless you quit yapping and start teaching, all of them are going to be kicking our butts."
    "Good point," said Katara, bending the water into her pouch.
    "Catherine, why don't you train with me and Elizabeth, why don't you go with Percy."
    "What do you want her for?" Catherine asked Percy
    "Percy is used to teaching advanced students. You might get hurt training with him." Catherine pouted as she and Katara walked to the other side of the room.
    "Alrighty," Percy said, "Why don't you show me what you've got. It's alright if you don't know how."
    "I'll try." I said, taking a deep breath. I started moving my arms to get my energy flowing, the way Katara always did, and before I knew it, the water from one of the tanks started moving. Little by little, it started to rise out of the tank and floated over to my moving arms. Soon the water completely covered them. But I wasn't done yet. "Care to fight?" I said slyly. Percy's look mirrored my own as he grabbed the trident hanging from the weapon rack and coated it in water as well. Katara and Catherine cautiously moved to the wall. I shot my left arm forward and the water followed, hitting Percy square in the chest. I lowered my arms and the remaining water pooled in my hands as Percy slowly stood up. He grasped the trident and the water covering it shot straight at me. I raised my arms in front of me and the water in my hands splashed onto the floor, but instead making a pool, it raised itself up into a wall. I clenched my fists, like Katara did, and the sheet of water hardened into a wall of ice. The water from the trident splashed against the wall and pooled onto the floor. Before Percy could reacted, I clenched my fists again, turning the ice wall back into water. As it splashed to the floor, I moved my arms again, bending all the water off the floor and back into the tank before Percy could even blink.
    "Hey," said Percy. "I thought I was teaching the class."
I snickered.

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GAH! STRESS!!

I have so much stuff to do!!! Our School production of Sister Act is this weekend (I'm playing Mother Superior, well one of them we're double cast) and I'm also making gifts for people (a scarf for the director, a pillow for the girl who's playing Deloris on my night, and a scarf and pillow for someone who's feeling really sad) on top of that my school does this thing called senior project where all the seniors basically do an internship for three weeks and there's a ton of paperwork involved and I got way to much to do.

(>^#^<) I need a waffle

~Maeve