Storms of Fury

Storms of Fury::Chapter 3

Adira easily maneuvered through the trees, the trail markers much easier to see in the daylight. She had snuck away during her break in training and had looped back around many times to ensure she wasn't followed.

The sounds of the small village became louder and louder as she moved forward, helping to guide her. When the village finally came into view, she ducked down, keeping low behind the bushes and trees, not wanting to be seen by these strange people. She peeked over the shrubs that encased the village like a miniature wall and saw people walking around the grounds freely. People were standing around talking and laughing, seemingly doing noting productive. Small children chased each other, weaving through the cabins and people.

'Why are they just standing around? Why aren't they working? And why are those children running around unattended? Shouldn't they be training?' she wondered.

She sat in the bushes for hours, watching the strange ways of these people. They seemed to have no schedule; running off individually to get food if they were hungry and retiring to their homes if they felt the need for a nap. It was all so unorganized...

'How do they survive like this...?'

Ching! Ching! Ching!

A bell sounded and all of the children began to run in one direction and all of the adults went into their respective cabins.

"Alright kids! Gather around!" Adira looked to see none other than Justin standing on a large rock while all of the children gathered around him. "Now I want you all to get into a big circle around the rock." The children followed his orders, spreading out into a large circle in front of the large rock. "Ok guys," said Justin as he walked in to the middle of the circle. "I want you to split yourself into two teams."

The children began to group off into two separate groups and Justin helped direct them to make the teams even. Once the two teams had been established, they stood facing each other with Justin in the middle.

"Now when I say go, I want you to, as a team, make as many snowballs as possible. Ok?" All of the kids nodded their heads. "Alright ready...set..." He paused and looked back and forth at both of the teams before yelling "GO!" The children began to scramble to create small balls of snow and stack them up as fast as they could. One boy tripped over his teams pile, destroying all of their snowballs and making the team start all over.

Adira watched the children as they formed the wintery balls. They would close their eyes, clasp their hands together like they were holding a ball and blow into the space between their hands. A snow storm would form in their small hands and create the snow ball.

"Stop!" yelled Justin. The children stopped their snowball making. "Ok you all know the rules. You get hit with a snow ball and you come over to stand by me. Now...SNOW BALL FIGHT!" the kids began to pick of their snowballs and lob them at each other; laughing and cheering the entire time.

Adira watched, confused. What was the point of this training? Maybe to heighten accuracy... But the snowballs did no damage to the children; they simply fell apart when they came in contact with the other child. They were hardly a useful weapon...

When the children ran out of snowballs, Justin counted the 'casualties' of the teams and declared the winner.

The children dispersed and ran to their houses to clean up, leaving Justin standing alone in the yard. He turned around and looked out into the woods, scanning them as if looking for something...or someone. His eyes passed over Adira's hiding place and she tried to stay as still as possible, barley daring to breathe. His curious amber eyes seemed to lock with hers for a moment and she froze, thinking she was caught. But instead of walking over to her and attacking her like she expected, he simply walked away, farther into the camp.

Adira sat in silence for a few minutes before getting up and walking out of sight of the camp. She stopped when she was sure that no one would see her and that she hadn't been followed.

Justin's lesson was less than helpful to her, as he had not actually instructed the children on how to create he snowballs, only to make as many as they could. It seemed like more of a practice than anything, but she had picked up a few things from watching the children. She cupped her hands together in front of her, as if she were holding onto a ball, closed her eyes and blew into the center.

Nothing happened.

She opened her eyes and tried again, but still nothing.

'If I use happiness for light, what do I use for snow?' She wondered. 'How am I supposed to feel cold and distant?'

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, repositioning her hands, and tried to detach herself from the world. She let the sounds of the forest fade into a dull roar in her ears, until all she could hear was her steady heart beat.

Thump-thump...thump-thump...thump-thump

All thoughts cleared from her head as she sat in silence. Before she lost the bliss of utter nothingness, she blew into her hand, her breath much colder than usual.

She opened her eyes to see a small white ball resting in her hands.

A triumphant smile spread across her lips as she tried again and again and again, becoming more successful with each attempt. She could now create the little frozen ball in a matter of seconds. It was all a matter of concentrating on the snow and nothing else, to have every care and emotion fly out the window and be replaced by snow and ice.

She stood and stretched her hands out in front of her, like she had seen Justin do that first day. The cold seeped into her mind and, faster than a person could blink; she had blasted a tree with snow until the bank led all the way up the trunk and to its higher branches.

She looked down at her hands, amazed by what was happening. She now had used the power of two clans other than her own, something she would have thought impossible just a few days ago. The snow bank loomed over her as it began to melt from the heat of the summer. She had power, such immense power...

* * * * * *

Adira hopped over the half-broken wall and ran as fast as she could to the training field.

"Adira!" She froze at the sound of her instructor's voice behind her. "Where have you been? You're late."

She spun around to face him and folded her hands behind her back, as was the customary stance when faced with an instructor. His long black hair was pulled

back into a ponytail neatly at the nape of his neck, and he was cleanly dressed, though he had been teaching in the training fields all day. "My apologies, Instructor Levi. I went for a walk and lost track of the time. It won't happen again."

He narrowed his dark eyes at her. "See that it doesn't." And with that he walked past her to the training fields and Adira followed behind him.

"Hello Adira," Michael walked up to her, taking a swig of water from his canteen. "Your late, that's unlike you." He gave her a quizzical look.

"Yes, I lost track of the time."

"Hmm...Yes well our mothers want to speak to you about your dress again."

"Again?" she groaned.

"Yes, they said something about needing to fit it and something about shoes..." She walked away before he could divulge anymore horrors that she was to be faced with.

She walked around until she found Collin and Aster. "You guys up for sparing?"

All the while she fought them, her mind was elsewhere. It was at that small camp out in the woods. The camp that held possibly the biggest secret the world of the Auroras would never know.