The Unknowns (Book 1)

The Unknowns Chapter 14

The Unknowns

Chapter 14

“Very good Austin!”

I stop lifting trees, and let them drop to the ground. Ancient smiles approvingly, and then she tells me to throw fire from my hands. I’ve practiced for a few days now on this, and it seems to be getting better. I can’t stop it in midair though, so Anna has to throw water at it so we don’t burn things. I roll back my shoulders, and she has me aim at her. I put one hand out, and I feel warmth start spreading from my upper arm down to my fingertips. Flames erupt from my hand, and spiral to her.

She stands there calmly, and when it’s inches from her face, they disappear, but not by my command. Her powers are unlimited. Every day I train with her she uses a different power. She refuses to mention what her first power was, or what her name is of course. She can throw fire just like me, and seeing what I might be capable of helps me push myself harder in class.

“Austin, now that you’re able to do that, learn to stop it. Try me again, but this time I want you to stop it. I don’t care if you stop it feet away from me or a half of an inch away, I just want you to do it.”

I nod, and then I put my hand out again, and fire erupts out of it. It sails over to her quicker than I thought, and my heart starts racing. I won’t be able to control it. I command in my head for it to stop, but it keeps sailing right on toward her. I keep commanding, and each time I feel less control on it, and I now feel like I’ve lost complete control of it.

Right when it’s about to hit Ancient in the face, it disappears. I know it wasn’t me who made it stop. She shakes her head, and then commands me to do it again. And again, and again, again, and again. On the tenth time she tells me to stop and take a break. Irritated with myself, I plop on the snowy grass, and take a gulp of water. I can’t keep wimping out like this. I watch Ancient train with Anna. Believe it or not, Ancient says that Anna needs to be graceful and lady-like when it comes to fighting. When I think of Anna, I think of her beating the living day out of a Hunter with no elegance in sight.

After a while, Ancient tells me to get up, and then she tells me she wants to try something. “I want you to throw your fire at Anna and force yourself to make it stop. I know from source that you’ve stopped a fireball from hitting her, so why not try it now?”

No. It was weird the first time, like a connection kind of, and I’m not too excited to have that feeling again. It felt wrong, and for a moment my feelings changed for her. I take a deep breath, and then I put my hand out to start, but Ancient shakes her head. “Both hands.”

She’s really laying it thick this time. I take a deep breath, and then I put my palms facing Anna, and fire shoots out. A lot of fire. I see Ancient looking at the fire deeply, and realize she’s adding to my fire. I feel myself losing control already, too much for me to handle. Anna stares at me with her brown eyes, her eyes showing me she has so much confidence in me. It’s getting closer to her. My eyes harden on the fire, and then I picture it disappearing, and in my mind I’m commanding it to stop. My voice is solid, sounding deep, sort of like my father’s. It gets closer to her, but I see it start disappearing. Little by little. In a few seconds it will make contact with her face, but she shows no sign of fear. She gives me that confident look, and it’s all I need to make the rest of the fire go away. I watch as the last bit of it disappears, near her face. She blinks, and I see Ancient nod, as if she’s answering a question in her mind.

“Anna, you can go ahead and start running. I need to talk to Austin.”

Anna nods, and then she bends down, and then she starts running. With Ancient’s help, she now can run a great distance ahead of me. I look at Ancient, waiting for her to talk.