The Marks

The Dream

I stood in a deserted area in front of two robe-dressed magicians. One wore a blue robe and the other wore a brown robe. The one in the blue robe showed me as he controlled water from a lake I hadn't noticed. The other molded the rock beneath our feet into a large sphere. They talked at the same time, "We can show you how to unlock your powers." They said, their voices echoing strangely.
I had heard tales from my Grandmother about the people who harbored powers. I always assumed it was a myth. I smiled and said, "People say, I would have the Fire element."
What I said was mostly a joke. But they showed me techniques that strayed from my mind after I awoke. I felt a strange tingling sensation spread throughout my body.
Before I was able to test out whether I had powers or not, I was teleported from the deserted area and the two robed magicians to the stands of an arena. There was no one else in the stands, but it clicked in my mind that I was suppose to be there.
From the far left I heard the loudest noise that I could vaguely guess as an eruption and the air around me turned too hot to be natural. I turned to stare blankly at a large volcano with black lava pooling out of the center. The lava seemed to be spreading much faster than should be possible. I had a split second to observe the lava with a sharp eye before I began running up the arena stands. The lava was onyx with a strange dark blue tint that glared in the sun.
I stumbled my way through the stands, clumsily slamming my foot onto a patch of lava that hadn't been there seconds before. No pain enveloped my foot, but my shoe melted off. I began running on top of the lava, the pain never registering. My other shoe managed to stay intact. I was puzzled why I was feeling no pain, even as I stupidly was using the lava as a scale with my hands to climb up the lava.
Somehow, I found a vent that hadn't been crushed by the lava and I crawled through it quickly. Then, my brother's girlfriend nearly ran into me from the other conjoining vent tunnel.
"Emily," I breathed, shocked that she was even here.
She seemed just as shocked, but before she could voice anything, the vent a few ways down began to crack as lava melted it. We quickly began crawling quickly.
We stopped about five minutes later, and below us there was a room with a large bookshelf filled with thick, dark books. On the other side of the shelf was the doorway. It took little analytical skills to find another shelf directly below the vent. It would be about a three foot gap between the shelves, but we had no choice but to jump. We climbed on top of the closest shelf and I lined up in front of the heaviest looking book. I glanced at Emily's pale face and I was sure mine was just the same. Neither of us liked heights at all.
It took the smallest amount of courage to get the rest of my adrenaline pumping and I jumped trustingly. I thought, please don't let the book fall.
Thankfully, the book held me and clawed my way on top of the shelf. Emily did the same technique as I did and a few seconds later we were jumping off of the shelf as the scent of burning metal wafted in our noses. We clambered out into the hallway, a door every thirty feet.
I began walking briskly towards the exit and I froze after I realized there was only one pair of footfalls: mine. I turned towards Emily confusedly. She looked sorrowful, "I need to find Kai." She said quietly.
I walked back towards her and hugged her tightly. I didn't know whether or not she would come back alive.
And then we split up, sadness eating us away as we walked on.
After running and jumping around the onyx magma, I finally found the double doors for the exit. I was thankful they weren't welded together. A little ways down I found my family. My mother and grandmother were standing still, almost perfectly still. My little sister was pacing back and forth and my grandfather was staring rather dumbly at the smoking arena.
Once my mother and grandmother noticed my presence, they scrambled over towards me. My little sister, Luanai, offered me a relieved smile before her face dropped and she continued pacing. Around the corner came Kai and Emily. They were greeted similarly and finally David, Luanai's boyfriend came around the corner. This enticed a loud, joyous scream from my little sister as she ran up and hugged him.
I smiled at them, but my smile broke when I felt strange glue like feeling stick against my lower arm. I looked down and frowned as I slowly ran my finger along it, tracing the flame like shape. It looked liked a burn, but I felt no pain.
My grandmother's wrinkled hand found the strange marking as she stared at it openly. I also observed it, trying to compare my new marking to my grandmother's Bateman's Purpura on my grandmother's hand. No, my mark wasn't a Bateman's Purpura because it was pitch black.
"That's the mark of the Fire Benders." She said idly.
Then, before I could question or even openly gape, I woke up to the repeated screams of my alarm clock.