Burning Darkness [ Under Heavy Construction]

Chapter 2

~Summer~
~June 26, 2015~

     With my arms now set ablaze, the adrenaline began to kick in. The fire fueled my new found strength. The small campsite fire now felt like a small energy source.

"Is it burning?" Devonte asked.

"Nope." I couldn't contain my excitement and a sudden burst of energy surged through my body. From then on, I felt stronger than ever before, the difference in strength was unbelievable. No wonder Devonte's confidence went up, he not only felt stronger, but he was also stronger.

I inspected my arms, "do you know what this means?"

"I know exactly what it means," Devonte said with smiling. He folded his arms, "this trip just got a lot more interesting," he said.

I've been waiting for this ever since I turned seven. I concentrated my newly found energy and focused the fire on my arms. I looked down and the fire was extinguished.

"Of course you already know how to control it," Devonte said unimpressed. He stood up and walked toward his tent.

"Where are you going? Don't you want to see me do a couple of things?"

Devonte kept walking and held two fingers in the air. "Nope, I'm going to sleep. It was fun being the only one with my element while it lasted."

He disappeared into the tent, leaving me outside by myself. I looked up at the beautiful night sky, trying to process everything that just happened. The tingly feeling I got during my training sessions... Could it have been my fire element all this time? I hesitantly looked at the campfire again and the strange menacing face flashed and danced with the flames. I kicked dirt over the fire until nothing but the lingering smell of burning wood was left.

I walked back to the tent and got under my sleeping bag. I locked my fingers and put them under my head. After a few minutes of staring at nothing, I felt my eyes grow heavier until I had no choice but to close them and rest.

                             💎SKY💎

~Summer~
~Jun 27, 2015~

The ever so bright morning sun seeped through the thin fabric of my tent. I sat upright groggily with my eyes feeling heavy. I looked at my arms for a couple of seconds, then a fire set ablaze. A smile touched my lips. Then it happened, it wasn't a dream. I yawned and stretched while putting out the flames before accidentally setting my tent up in flames.

'The first day of training,' I frowned at the thought of this being my last time training with my family. Even though I didn't like training here, it was always fun and full of memories.

I quickly changed into a more comfortable set of clothes. A white T-shirt, with khaki cargo shorts, medium white socks, and black vans. Simple enough. After coming out, I went over to the river and splashed water on my face. Devonte was busy talking to our parents and pointing towards the pile of sticks, I'm pretty sure he was telling them about yesterday.

I wiped my face and was caught off guard by a crushing hug from my mother.

"Congratulations!" she yelled accompanied by a tight embrace.

She let go and held me at arm's length. "I'm very proud of you, you're an elementists now."

"Mom, I'm not a kid," I said.

Mom gasped and nodded. "You're right. Well, congratulations Devin."

Dad walked towards me with wide arms. Oh no, I thought. He stopped and held a hand out. I shook it with a firm grip and he patted me on the back. Devonte joined us and nudged my shoulder.

"Okay, now that the Francis family of elementists is complete, it's time to get down to your training," dad said.

"Yes, today you guys will have to have to kill five bears each," mom added.

"To prove that you have completed this task, you must bring all four of the five bear paws back to the site. 20 for Devin, and 20 for you, Devonte. That's a total of 24, you understand? You can only have one weapon or a weapon set, so choose wisely," dad said.

"There is no time limit, take as long as you need, but you wouldn't want to fall behind in training. I suggest you kill as fast as possible, you may begin," mom finished as she walked back to the armory with dad.

I ran to my tent and connected the screw head to the wooden pole. I dumped out the rest of the weapons and kept only the first aid supplies. I put on the backpack and took off in a sprint. I saw Devonte in the distance jumping over fallen branches and running through bushes. I cursed under my breath, he already got a small head start. I took off in the same direction but slightly drifted off to the right.

                               💎SKY💎

I stopped, grabbed my knees, and slumped over to catch my breath. I've been running and searching for a while and haven't run into any bears. That's surprising because last year they were almost everywhere. Add in the heat from the Texas sun, beaming down on top of me, made matters even worse.

I sat down on a fallen branch and took off my backpack. Devonte's probably off fighting a grizzly right now. 'My last family training trip,' I thought to myself. I can't even imagine being here next year without them. There are so many memories here, even if I don't like coming yearly.

I remembered Devonte had almost drowned one year. The time we got chased by a herd of deer and played capture the antler. I couldn't help but laugh in remembrance of our small success and many shortcomings. Devonte always found some way to make these trips memorable.

"Mm."

My body stiffened for a quick second before I turned around. I slowly turned my head to the left, then to the right. That eerie sound seemed pretty close, perhaps too close. I picked up my backpack and tightened my grip on the spear. I stood up and tried my best to stay still. My eyes shot to the left and I swung my spear. Blades of grass flew up into the air and harmlessly fluttered to the ground.

I sighed a huge relief and slung my pack across my shoulder. I don't know what or who made that noise, but I'm not going to stick around and find out. I exhaled a deep breath when I saw what looked like a small body of water in the distance. I began heading in that direction and tried my best not to look back.

What was that? I don't like the fact that there may e someone else here other than us. First, the weird face in the campfire, and now I'm hearing creepy noises from I don't know where. I'm bringing this up to dad when this is over.

This doesn't feel right, something's probably watching us. Maybe it's just my nerves, making me overthink. I had to remain focus on the task at hand. Devonte isn't going to beat me on the first day.