Melody Kalt (ON HOLD)

2

Melody felt very self-conscious, standing inside the testing room, it was nothing like any of the buildings she had ever seen back home in Wisconsin. It had basically the highest ceiling she had ever seen, with a grand diamond chandelier that was probably bigger than Melody's bedroom back home. She was in the middle of the room, along with Remiada and Remiada's mother, Mrs. Blaker, and in front of them were at least three dozen chairs, but only three of them were occupied by three serious looking people-no, elves. Melody corrected herself, still adjusting to everything that was happening around her.

"We have come here today to test Miss Melody Versand Halt, to see if she is really what she is made out to be." announced a handsome but grumpy elf with tall pointy ears who goes by the name 'Councilor Bronte'.

Melody shudders when she hears her middle name announced, still unsettled by the fact that the elves seem to all know it when just the other day it had been known to just her family.

"Melody, please step forward." Said a different counselor, this one was a pretty woman, who went by the name 'Councilor Oralie'.

Remiada nudged Melody in the back, silently urging her to go forward as Councilor Oralie had said. So melody took three steps forward, not too far away from her friend (if she could call remiada that, seeing as she barely knew her) but not too close to the Councilors.

"Is this really the girl?" asked Councilor Bronte sneering, "she definitely does not look the part of our world's savior."

"Bronte, we must not judge too quickly. First, we must see what the girl has got." said the third councilor, Councilor Kenric. They looked at Melody expectantly, but she just stood there like an idiot.

"Wh-what am I supposed to do?" she asked eventually, just to cause snickers from Councilor Bronte.

"Remember that telekinesis trick I saw you doing earlier?" asked remiada softly, "could you try something like that? But maybe a little... bigger?"

"Er... yes?" replied Melody.

"This cannot be the girl that we are supposed to trust our fate too!" Said councilor Bronte.

Melody really didn't like the way that he was talking about her, acting as if she was nothing. She really wanted to prove him wrong, maybe nail him in the face with a flying pencil. But, of course, there wasn't a pencil on site. She looked around the room, hoping to find something she could use when the chandelier caught her eye. It was much bigger than anything she had ever moved, and probably weighed more than ten times as much as her, but she needed to prove to Councilor Bronte that she wasn't as weak as he was making her out to be.

Melody looked up at the chandelier and looked at all the little millions of diamonds hanging from it, it's just... a lot of pencils she repeated to herself and did what she always did with telekinesis, imagined she had invisible hands. She reached out the invisible hands, imagining that she had one for each diamond and imagined them all unhooked one diamond off the chandelier. a gasp went off around the room when all the little diamonds flew off the chandelier, Melody felt as if she was being stabbed in the stomach, but she did not give up, she did not show signs of weakness. Instead, she made the all the imaginary hands swirl in I figure eight shape, making it look like a sparkling blizzard, with diamonds instead of snowflakes. But the pain in her stomach was getting to such a high point the Melody knew she would pass out if she tried anything more, so with the last of her ability, she shot each diamond upwards, rehooking them to the chandelier's frame, then promptly fell to the floor with a thud. She saw everyone sit around the room in silent shock until she felt stable enough to stand up. The second Melody stood, both councilors Kenric and Oralie started clapping, she gave them both tired smiles before turning to Councilor Bronte. She looked at him with a silent message that seemed to be saying 'how was that for impressive?'

"I say that that performance definitely gets Miss Kalt into Foxfire," said Councilor Oralie, and Councilor Kenric nodded his head, agreeing with her.

"Most definitely," he said. They both then looked over at Councilor Bronte.

after a long pause, he pursed his lips and said begrudgingly, "I guess we will have to give her a chance at level two Everyone's face lit up, but then quickly fell as he added, "but I will reconsider if by next year I haven't seen improvements on our worlds... problems."

"I won't let you down, Councilor Bronte!" Melody hastily told him.

"I should well hope not."

---

"You did it!" remiada shrieked as soon as they had left the building with her mom, "you got in the same year as me! and that trick!"

Melody smirked a little remembering how everyone was judging her before, "and you thought I couldn't."

"Yeah-well I take it back!" she argued, "cause that was awesome!"

"I agreed with Remi, that was most impressive" stated Mrs. Blaker, who had so far been quiet.

"Remi?" Melody asked with a smug smirk, "I'm calling you that from now on."

"Ugggghh, mom! You promised me that you wouldn't embarrass me if I took you along!" Remiada groaned, turning to her mother.

"You had to take me along, Remi, dear." she sighed, "a guardian must always be there during testing."

"Still! You promised!"

"Er... guys?" Interrupted Melody, "where are we going?"

"You're going back to the forbid- you're going back home, we're going to our house." Explained Mrs. Blaker patiently, then strapped a weird black watch around Melody's wrist. "Don't ever take that off," she said before Remiada grabbed Melody's other wrist, pulled out a clear crystal, and pulled them both into the light. Melody felt the tingles in her belly as she had the first time she had light-leaped.

"I still hate doing that," she informed Remiada when they appeared back outside Melody's house.

"Don't talk to your parents about any of this."

"But I thought they-"

"Yes, they know. They are expecting you to leave tomorrow with me to go back to the lost cities permanently. It's just that talking about stuff like this in the forb-human world is very dangerous." explained Remiada. "Meet me in your backyard at five-thirty a.m. tomorrow and

I'll be waiting to take you back."

"But-"

"Stay safe until then," she said, and with that, she stepped into the light and was gone.