Dragons Rising ✔️

Ch 21: Mistakes

"You two, watch me. We'll be starting with a few basic techniques today," Sarafin said.

I started to tell him that we'd learned the basic techniques in P.E., but before I could, he had the tip of his sword under my chin.

"Pay attention." He lowered his sword.

I was annoyed he'd started without warning, and I immediately got into a fighting position.

He lunged toward me, sword outstretched, but I was ready this time. I managed to deflect his first few blows before he disarmed me with a move I'd never seen before.

"Now all three of you try to disarm your opponent."

When we had all tried to repeat the technique, he corrected us and demonstrated it again. Then we had to repeat it once more.

Much of the rest of our lesson was like that. Sarafin would demonstrate some move that made me look like I'd never held a sword before. Then he'd have us try the same move until we could do it perfectly, and we'd move onto the next one. By the end of the lesson, I was even more tired, sore, and bruised than I had been before.

For the rest of the day, what lessons I could participate in without a dragon went by in a blur, until we were all at dinner looking like we'd been hit by a landslide. None of us talked, being too tired to make much noise. After dinner and cleaning my sword, I went to sleep. Everyone else had to brush their dragons before they could follow suit.

The next day was much the same, except my lesson with Callah was so much closer. When three o'clock finally rolled around, I was sitting in my bedroom watching the others practicing Doballick through the window. Reluctantly, I turned into a hawk and flew to Callah's office, allowing the vigor of flying to distract from my nerves.

As soon as I was in Callah's office, she asked, "Did you bring your wand and rune book?"

I nodded and hesitantly took them out, gingerly holding the wand in my right hand and the book in my left. I wanted to throw them aside, bu Callah wasn't going to listen to me until she saw I was right with her own eyes. Using a wand wouldn't make my powers more controlled, and she would see that soon enough.

Callah took a wand out of her own pocket. All the common sense I had screamed at me that a cinem with a wand was wrong, but I didn't say anything.

"Hold your wand like this."

I mirrored her firm grip and wished that I could've been anywhere but here.

"Watch." She traced glowing blue lines in the air. When she finished her rune, its lines glowed brighter. Droplets of water appeared on the symbol. She flicked her wand at the rune, causing the symbol to fade away and the water to fall like rain.

She took a deep breath. "That was effessing, something you know a bit about already, from what I've heard. For all elents, a small amount of effessing is relatively easy in times of great emotion. However, that kind of out of control magic can be dangerous. To gain control over your element and prevent that from happening, you must start with the basic runes." She went to one of the marble pedestals along the walls and carried it over to the center of the room as if it weighed less than a textbook. Next, she retrieved a candle from her desk, lit it with a sparker, and placed it on the pedestal.

"Look at the first basic rune in your book."

I tried to stop my nerves from buzzing as I did what she asked. The rune looked kind of like an abstract picture of a snake writhing in agony while being eaten by another snake. Magical words were something I could memorize easily enough, but I didn't know how elents were supposed to draw these accurately, let alone remember them.

"Try to trace that rune in the air with your wand."

Every bit of me knew I shouldn't, that using magic I wasn't even supposed to possess would only end badly.

Callah seemed to read my mind. If her wing eye-spots hadn't been dim, I would've assumed she was. "The only way you will keep your magic in check is to use it. Imagine it is a wild, unbroken colt. To break the colt, you must ride it. In the case of your powers, this means practicing them in a controlled way."

Unfortunately, what she said kinda made sense. I reluctantly started tracing the basic rune in the air. At first, there was a glowing red trail following my wand. Then I messed up the symbol, and it flickered out. The candle's flame was unaffected.

"Try again until you succeed in making the flame move. Remember, focus your magic into precise movements of your element. Do not let your magic go wild in here."

Before I could do as she'd said, there was a knock at the door. I quickly shoved my rune book and wand in my pocket. When Callah opened the door, she spoke quickly with a short elent man in the hallway. They spoke too softly for me to make out individual words, but I could tell whatever it was they were talking about was important by their tones.

Callah turned to face me. "Continue practicing. There is something urgent I must attend to." She left before I could reply that this was a bad idea.

Groaning, I pulled out my rune book and wand again. As frustratingly convoluted as the first rune was, I still tried my best to trace it, repeating it again and again after every slip of the wand made the rune's lines disappear.

Finally, when I thought I'd go cross-eyed from trying to read the tiny print about how exactly to draw the rune, I did it. The glowing lines stayed an inch from the end of my wand, hovering as if they had always been there. I pointed my wand at the candle and was more than glad to see the flame arc wildly around its wick. It followed my every command, moving, growing, or shrinking with a mere flick of the wand. Whenever I'd used my powers before, it had been fleeting and uncontrollable. This was completely different, and that difference was thrilling. My doubts were chased further away with each movement of the flame.

I twirled the wand around in complex shapes, watching the fire grow and die and fly around to follow my will. Then I had the idea to try and see how big I could get it. Up, up, up, I flicked my wand, delighted when the flame grew to the size of my fist, then my head. After that, it got even bigger almost without my direction, soon seemingly larger than I was. I stumbled back from the pedestal, feeling magic tugging at me. Maintaining it was harder than I'd expected, and the exhaustion was so immediate and overwhelming that I could hardly stay on my feet. I tried to extinguish it, or at least to make it shrink, but my attempts only seemed to encourage it to grow larger.

Before I knew it, the fire become a veritable wall stretching to the ceiling. It roared in my ears, threatening to roast anything within arm's reach. The tugging in my chest turned to a violent yanking on my lungs, making it hard to breathe. I tried to shout for help, but it was no use. Even as the flames grew brighter, my vision grew darker.