Wings of Eagles

Chapter 12 - Team

Ari's Point of View

Four weeks I'd spent in the camp and in those four weeks I had still not produced any sort of evidence that I was a shifter. Clara worked me to my core in combat classes but for that I was thankful because the more exhausted I was, the less dreams plagued me at night. I barely saw any of Serenity or Iclyn and whatever free time I had was either spent helping out in the kitchens, eating or writing letters to my grandmother who was healthy enough now to write back. I had been overjoyed and immensely relieved when I received her first letter and I had read it over and over again to make sure it was real.

Now, I sat in Meditation with my eyes closed and traveling within myself as I had the first lesson. I focused my energy and soon enough I found the flame which had appeared every lesson. The difficult part was trying to get it to move, at first I tried to touch it but it had been too warm and I pulled my hand back before I burned myself. After that I attempted to move it with my mind, thinking that perhaps it was a sort of telepathic link but that failed too. Then I tried yelling at it, blowing on it and a series of other embarrassing attempts until I finally just decided to sit there and stare at it hoping that eventually it would move.

Today however, I was frustrated. Meditation was the only class I had not progressed in, Clara's training had me rapidly moving up levels in combat until I was in class five with others more my age, I had moved to class five in history as well as I had been reading more and more extra-curricular books. That has been unsurprising at least, I loved history and learning the history of a new world was fascinating, especially due to the inclusion of magical battles and advancements. I let out a frustrated grunt and walked towards the flame.

"What do you want?" I asked it in a bored tone, not really sure I even wanted it to move anymore. It flared a little and I felt that uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach that normally arose when I was angry.

"What do you want!?" I asked again but this time I yelled at it, annoyed and frustrated more at myself than the ball of fire floating in front of me. Not caring about my hand or the burns I would receive, I thrust my arm into the fire. I overbalanced though and fell through it, I gasped and began heaving, surprised that I had not been injured. Turning back to the flame, I squinted my eyes and tried to cup it in my hands. It flared at this, angry that I dare go near it, but I held fast and focused my energy towards it. This seemed to settle it down and it moved in my hands like a creature would, looking for an escape but not taking any opportunities for fear of falling.

The feeling in my gut intensified and I opened my eyes, entering the outside world again. I looked down at my cupped hands and could not believe what I was seeing. The flame in my mind had somehow entered my hands while I was conscious. It lit the mat I was on with an orange glow and the children around me were watching it in awe, their faces mirroring my own.

"Good work Ari, now we'll test whether or not you can control it and move up to class three. If you can't then don't stress, we'll move you to class two anyway." I heard Ashton's voice but it sounded far away, the crackling of the fire in my hand was drowning out all other sounds.

"Can you make it bigger?" I focused on the flame and it expanded just as I imagined it doing.

"How about smaller?" Again the flame listened to my command and it diminished to almost nothing.

"Okay, good work. Now, try this." He took one of my hands and placed a small piece of paper in it. "Put the fire on the paper but don't burn it." I placed the paper in the fire and tried to command the fire again but this time it did not listen and the paper burned instantly. I tried again but with the same result, over and over again I tried not to burn the paper but every time the fire refused my request, not wanting to go against its nature.