The Untamed

Chapter 16: The Strength of Endnark

    “Try to imagine yourself putting out the fire,” the Queen said to him the very next day. “You must focus on that image.”

   But it turned out to be much harder than Clyde could ever imagine. Here he was, standing out in the palace’s training grounds with a small, contained fire crackling some fifty feet in front of him. Queen Sparla and Anya stood some ten feet behind Clyde.

   It had been a rough day and this exercise was only making things worse. He had been at it for two hours already without any progress made. He was on one knee, his left palm was facing the fire and he steadied his left hand with his right hand. He was supposed to “tame” the fire.

   Naturally, the boy grew frustrated and was about ready to burst. The only thing he had managed all day was to make him left arm numb from keeping it straight for two hours. The controlled fire continued to dance around in the wind, mocking Clyde’s feeble attempt to put it out. Luckily, a few minutes later, the Queen ordered Clyde to rest and he did so without any argument.

   He dropped his arm and tried to massage it back to life. At least now he knew how Kane felt when he tried to tame all those other Kin. But the mere thought that he couldn’t put out a single fire enraged him. He bared his teeth at the ground and squeezed his eyes shut.

   “You did your best,” said the Queen approaching him. “Come, let us return to the palace. I’ll give you one hour of note taking and you then you may be dismissed.”

   It was a lucky thing Clyde didn’t go crazy on her. Standing for two hours straight without any progress was infuriating. It turned out that there was much more than just imagination involved in this activity. The hardest part was to remain focused the entire time. He had to concentrate on an image in his mind – concentrate on an image that would cause his opponent to weaken. The Queen had suggested that he imagine the Kin’s weakness during the exam and imagine himself attacking the Kin with that weakness.

   He glared at the little fire – an inanimate object. Something that couldn’t think – something so easy to tame. Not only that, fire’s obvious weakness was water, and it was unlikely he would be facing a Kin using such a simple element. If he couldn’t tame this fire, how was he supposed to tame an actual Kin during the exam?

   The three of them all went back up to the room (which took a good five minutes, cutting into the lecture time), went through a quick lesson about a few more different types of elements Kin use and their weaknesses, and headed down the stairs at nine o’ clock.

   “Is it really that hard?” Anya asked cautiously.

   Clyde kept quiet. He wasn’t quite in the mood to discuss the result of today’s training. Anya seemed to have caught this and she abruptly changed the subject.

   “It’s already been a month and a half since we’ve been here,” she said. “And I feel like we’re already a big part of this island.”

   The boy sighed slowly as they continued to walk down. It was hard to believe the fact that his life had already changed so much in so little time. The more he thought about it though, the more distant the memories of his old life seemed. He remembered the very first day of school – before he met Anya, before he met Tony. At that time, all he could think about was getting through high school with the cleanest record possible.

   Suddenly, Anya stepped on his foot.

   “Have you heard a word I’ve said so far?” she barked.

   Clyde wrenched his foot from under hers and glared at her threateningly. “Yeah, I heard you! We’re a big part of this island!” he mocked.