Running out of time

Chapter 16. Roy - Goodbyes, secrets and portals

"Mum, I love you" I hugged her as tightly as I could. "I know you have to go honey, but why now?"
"I can't tell you that"
"But as your parent, I deserve to know" mum argued back. I smiled at her and turned to dad. "I'm gonna miss ya dad" I reached for a handshake, dad never believed in informality. I was shocked when he slapped my hand away. Instead he pulled me into a hug.
"Don't let us down Chase".
"I won't, promise" I let a smile slip from my lips.

I swung my backpack onto my shoulder and shut the door behind me. Terrence was waiting outside.

"So, ready to go?" I asked, he looked shaken. "Right, I want to excel in the academy, but the only way to do that is to teach you the way my teacher taught me" he replied
"And how's that?"
"This has to be a secret"
"Sure"

He turned away from me and told me to close my eyes. I did as told. When I opened my eyes I was staring at a different person. Half his face was scarlet red while the other has an icy glow. The line drawn down his face continued up to his hair. Half of it had ice and snow at the tips while the other had flame and fire. My jaw reached the ground. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"don't look at me like that" he said twitching his mouth and averting his eyes.
"You bloody turned into fire and ice!"
"You'll learn how to control your state too"
"State?"
"Yeah, your other form, the one that unleashes your power"
"I think I'm going to vomit"
"Go ahead, I did"
"Gross!" I turned away from him and stared at my feet, I wonder what I'm going to look like... The lady they called Master Ruth, the one with the loud booming voice, has pointed at me and called me fire. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.
"Terry, can I call you terry? Two days ago that lady you called Master Ruth pointed at me and called me fire. Does any of that relate to whatever you're calling 'your state'?"
"Five years ago she pointed at me, back then she had declared me different. I found out why: my father was never recruited for the academy but if he was, he would have had the element of Lightning my mother had the element of water, I learnt that you'll always have similar traits and elements to your relatives, which is why I have fire and ice. The fire half of me is the strongest as it is one of the four great elements, ice is secondary such as spirit and lightning and nature; the four great elements are Fire, water, Earth and air. Do you understand any of this?"
"Slightly" it was a lot to take in
"Ok, that's good enough"
"So, what now?" I asked, I hoped we could skip straight through the introduction and begin saving the world. Looks like I'm gonna have to wait.
* * *
"Roy, I'm going to show you how to summon a portal"

I groaned, all four of us are back at the academy working our butts off to try and use our so called "powers".
"You're not exactly doing such a great job of it" I mumbled under my breath
"Focus" commanded Terrence. He looked even bleaker than usual. His eyes were drooping as if he hadn't had a wink of sleep. It look like if he had a tail it would have been tucked in between his legs! "This part is about believing, if you stop believing you can do this you won't, simple as that"
"Are you kidding me? Is this some sort of fairytale where I would believe that I can fly I'd fly all the way to Neverland?"
"This isn't done kid's fantasy, focus, remember"
"Arghh! It's not bloody working!" I snapped
"Try this" suggested terrence calmly
"Imagine that there's an uncompleted puzzle in front of you, there's only one piece missing. Now, you've got to find that piece and fit it in the right way around"
"Have you turned into some kind of therapist?"I asked sulkily
"No"
"Come on" he continued flatly "just give it a go"
"Fine" I said giving in
"Have you found that piece of the puzzle yet?"
"No" I hissed sourly
"Try again, this is meant to clear your mind so you can summon up your power and open up the portal inside your imagination"
"Yippee" I mocked sarcastically did he really expect me to open a portal when all I can do is let a small flame dance around my fingertips? "You don't suit sarcasm, you don't need it anyway, you can't even summon s portal" he sneered "hey! That hurt me right here!" I pointed to my heart. "Terrence, I think I'm doing it"

Suddenly fire swirled around my arm wrapping it up like a present. It finally left floating off my fingertips and into the air in front of me. Magically it formed into a portal with scarlet red fire surrounding the swirling blue lights within. The other three in this room (Ben, Anna and Lucy) stared at me like I was a caged animal at a zoo. As quickly as I appeared it vanished, leaving no trace it was ever there.

Author's note: Sorry this chapter is so confusing! I hope you get your head wrapped around these crazy made-up concepts. I know I explained a lot about this new world in this one chapter but I hope it clears some things from earlier on in the story as well as telling you some new things too! If this is way too confusing to you please comment so I can improve; I'm very open to constructive criticism! Hope you're all enjoying the story so far and connecting with the characters, I can't wait to see their next adventure!💙💚