The Six Elements

Chapter 4- Left Behind

Whisper awoke the next morning to find a small, purple, leather- bound book with the Darkness rune on the cover on her desk. Inside was a complete collection of spells written in Elvish, her native tongue. She flipped through its worn pages as she walked downstairs to meet everyone else out in the training area.
"Hey Whisper." Ignis' tiny voice called as she landed on the other's shoulder. Held in her arms was her own tiny spell book. "Hikari, Tsunami and Faron have already started; Sora hasn't shown up yet, however." As she said this, the Nephilim flew over with his silver wings, waving at them as he did so.
Whisper smiled and waved back. "Hey there, Shadowling." He said, landing in front of them. He stood about a foot taller than her. He wore a plain white tunic with grey leggings and sandals. His wind- blown hair was up in a braid. "Hey there, Torch."
"Morning, Feather!" Ignis said, using his nickname.
"Shadowling?" Whisper spoke up. "Are you referring to me?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry... I kinda came up with nicknames for everyone, but if you don't want me to call you that-"
"N- no, no! It's fine! I was just curious." Her face flushed a light purple in embarrassment.
"No worries!" He grinned goofily, extended a hand toward her. "I'm Sora, in case you didn't know, but you can just call me Feather!" Whisper shakes it. "It's nice to meet you, Feather." A smile spread across her face, the boy's positive attitude getting to her.
Sora began tagging along the rest of the way. The three of them laughing and chatting, and Whisper began feeling more at ease. As they arrived, they could see the others already in the middle of mastering the first spell. Hikari was focusing on a ball of light in his hands; Tsunami sat in front of a bowl of water, trying to make it rise out; and Faron had flowers blooming in his hands.
"You're late." Hikari said, looking up at her with a stern expression.
"I- I'm sorry, I didn't know-"
"Don't bother with him, Shadowling. So what if it you were a couple seconds late?" Sora but in, throwing an arm around Whisper's shoulders. "Better late than never." Whisper smiled inwardly. "Thank you." She said quietly.

Whisper sat, studying the first page; creating shadow crystals. These crystals store energy and restore the creators mana. As she was reading, Whisper's hair began blowing in the sudden wind into her eyes. She tucked it back behind her ear, only for it to be blown back in her face. She looked up and smiled, finding Sora hovering a couple of feet above her.
He grinned down at her. "May I ask what you're doing?" Whisper asked. He simply shrugged and sat in front of her. "The book told me too. So what are you doing?" Whisper held the book towards him, pointing to the sketch of the crystal. "I'm making this."
She set the book back into her lap, focusing and drawing shadows towards her hands. "Ygrene ym ezillatsyrc I, sdrow eseht htiw." The shadows joined together and solidified as a pebble- sized purple crystal. "Woah!" Sora exclaimed, staring at the object.
"A small thing like that won't even last a day," A stern voice calls. "Pathetic how you find it so amazing." Whisper looked over to find Hikari shooting them a disgusted look. "B- but the book s- said-"
"I couldn't care less what it says. You're behind everyone else thanks to it." Whisper looked down at her lap, unable to say anymore.
"Ignore him," Sora spoke up. "Everyone from the Light group acts like they're better than us."
Whisper nodded and went back to studying the spells with Sora studying his.
Whisper read over everything carefully, but so far the only things she could produce were more crystals and shadow puppets.
The sun shone overhead, signaling that it was noon. Whisper sighed. She was unable to get much progress done. Getting up, she continued her studies as she walked back into the house with the others. She went up to her room while everyone else ate lunch, figuring she could grab something later.
Whisper dedicated herself to her studies, writing notes down and practicing until night came and she fell asleep at her desk.
The next day, she and the others went back down to the training area to continue from where they left off yesterday. Whisper tried again and this time was able to manipulate the shadows a lot better now! When she looked over however, she noticed she was quickly being left behind. Sora was creating small twisters, Ignis was lighting fires with the snap of her fingers, Faron created a budding flower, Tsunami was water bending water to the flower, and Hikari was directing small beams of light. Whisper looked away and tried to concentrate on the next spell in her book, feeling embarrassed, but negative thoughts were slowly making their way into her brain.