Sky Jump

by Anastasia Bolinder

  Taking a calming breath, I brought my mind back to the task at hand as I started writing; the words I put were simple, but I hoped it would brighten Clara’s day.

  ‘Dear Clara,

  I’m sure your sister has told you that we may have met at the Skyjump competition. It was great to see you compete and you have a lot of talent! Don’t give up even when they knock you down.

  Sincerely,

  Quil’

  Smiling at the page and knowing it was short but would give Clara a smile, what I wouldn’t have given to be able to compete when I was her age.

  A hard sigh lodged in my chest as I looked to the SkyJump seal, what was the point of being who I was if all I did was hide?

  The thought of the shadow from earlier caught in my mind and as if I was still being watched; I glanced around my room, though unlike before, the feeling was distant from memory not piercing like a present fear.

  I put a hand to my cheek that was not as sore as I thought it would be though I still winced,

  “Time for bed, Quil.” I said, remembering how my father always said it with his hushed tone.

  It was only in that moment that I remembered how much I had missed him while I brushed my teeth and readied for bed. Before I got under my covers on the uncomfortable mattress, as if to antagonize me, my guitar’s visage caught my eyes bringing back to mind the soft melody of my father’s much bigger guitar that was a satin color that sounded something close to the breath of the wind in autumn.

  He would play me the tune I had started the day I had been threatened by Lucy that still felt unfinished as I lay down. My lips slanted down in a soft frown as I looked to the ceiling.

  It was not long before sleep enveloped me, but one thing that caught my attention was the banner above my head that I had forgotten about until this moment that I had sworn to take down that night. Yet with my eyes fading, it reminded me all too well of the rope tunnel I had crawled through just that morning and the antagonizing fall that sent me tossing in slumber.

  Chapter 14

  “Just One of Those Days”

  I had woken up to, for the second morning in a row, the banging from my snob of a neighbor as I tried to cover my head and drown her out. I could not play a soothing guitar but she could bang on my wall? Something about that seemed very wrong to me as I grouchily got ready for classes and upon trying to get out of bed, had nearly fallen to the floor from my comforter trying to mummify me once again.

  Had the thought of studying with Keten not entered my mind I would be concerned about how the day would proceed.

  Glancing at myself in the mirror I realized I had forgotten to take my hair out of its pony tail and felt a slight raw spot on my head from turning on it in my sleep.

  Sighing, I worked hard to look better than bed headed, bluish-black cheek bruise and slit eyed, sleepy headed girl that stared back at me.

  By the time I was grabbing my bag and rushing out the door I looked decently like Equila, the girl who I was starting to realize as I passed all the other girls was out of the Silver fashion trend and clueless about fashion in general.

  In my first class with Mr. Deplen, we talked about mammals and the science of why animal’s keen instincts made them superior predators while others lacked main qualities of predatory instincts.

  One of the boys brought up how a wolf could down an elk was a show of raw power.

  I had raised my hand but Mr. Deplen seemed to shun me as if my first day was the complete and only chance I would ever receive in his class.

  “The wolf, though strong, looses if a grown elk is what it’s attacking. Many wolves that hunt a weak old buck could lose their lives to it’s antlers or a kick.” Mr. Deplen said in his grading tone.

  For that one moment I was glad he had said something. I was a mix of elk in my Skyjump beast form and having a boy underestimate such a creature’s power felt utterly stupid. While class had gone on I was glad I hadn’t said anything, I would have sounded too close to the situation, though I had never fought wolves in my SkyJump form I knew my instincts would be to do as Mr. Deplen had described.

  “Never underestimate an opponent but never count the lesser as the weaker of the disagreement.” It was the first thing from Mr. Deplen’s annoying voice I wrote down and put in quotation marks.

  When I looked up, Lucy glared at me and in an honest moment of insane courage I glared back at her and her nose twitched, but I was the first to turn my face from her.

  I would show her I was not afraid.

  Dismissing the class, Mr. Deplen finished with an assignment; to find a creature that seemed like the underdog and prove why it was a worthy opponent for a predator of its habitat.

  Sliding my notebook into my bag I felt that even though his voice would become so aggravating I might want to slam my head against the desk, I realized that his class was something I was interested in. Besides the fact I could turn into a creature I had always loved animals.

  “Sup, loser.” The whisper was practically next to my ear as I spun to the side and found Lucy glaring at me with her cat eyes and fashionable clothing slightly shimmering.

  “Leave me alone.” I said, turning from her and making my way through the busy teens that felt like cutting through a heard of animals.

  Lucy kept close on my tail until the hall widened from the exodus of students passing. Glancing to the side as I made my way to my next class I saw she was making her way to my side. Trying to ignore her I kept walking; think of something else I said internally, but as she followed, I felt like an unpleasant shadow was trailing me and just waiting to strike.

  “Poor baby. Get your bruises from falling, loser?” Lucy asked at my side.

  How did she know?!

  My lips curled and I considered bringing the point that she had fallen at the SkyJumping competition back at her, yet Alissa’s words also entered my mind as I worked my mouth to a calm tone stopping before my class.

  “Lucy, don’t you have a class to get to?” Or another poor soul to curse I thought internally.

  Her face went mildly confused at the fact I was so calm, she opened her mouth when the bell rang. Looking up she shut her mouth and eyed me over before positioning her dark red lips in a snarl.

  “Until later, fashion flop.” And with that, she was off, running down the hall.

  My jaw tightened and I felt my muscles clench with a buzz in my ears, there was a slight glow that took my attention as I realized my necklace was glowing again but brighter. With a hard-shaking sigh telling my crystal to lessen I turned and walked into Mr. Jacobsen’s class as he had just informed everyone to take a seat.

  Rushing to the table at the back I slid down beside Alissa and Zac hardly looking to them as I tried not to blow up. I brought my notebook to the table and slammed it down slightly harder than I meant which made the teens in front of us glance back at me with head shakes and disapproving looks.

  My temper fizzled as my grip loosened on my book and I hoped to just blend into the wall or sink into the tables frame.

  “Whoa, what happened between here and your other class, Quil?” Zac asked with a slight smile as he and Alissa looked me over.

  Glancing over to them I stil felt flustered.

  “Lucy happened.” I said with my voice in a soft storm.

  Alissa shook her head as Zac folded his arms to see around Alissa and put his chin over his arms.

  “What is her problem?” I asked, letting another sigh escape my lips, that felt like a rock leaving my lungs.

  “She hates to lose.” Zac said and a soft smirk caught his lips at the thought, I had no idea why he would smirk.

  “What did she say?” Alissa asked looking to me.

  I rolled my eyes and realized I had more than one encounter with her.

  “This time it was about my fall and my clothing.” I said feeling like an idiot even though I desperately did not want to care what she said, yet, even in this room every girl, even Alissa wore something sliver, from a scarf to e
arrings.

  “Quil, she’s just a jerk, girls like her are really just insecure about themselves and show it by what they say to others.” Alissa said, her hair was put back in a ponytail as was every girl in class.

  “And when did you become a mentalist?” Zac asked, with a slight laugh in his grinning eyes as Alissa looked to him and opened her mouth but seemed to think it was not worth answering.

  I would have laughed at the sight but my mind rolled around with the idea of what she was saying. Was it really that simple? For some reason, the way Lucy’s eyes tore and glared at me I felt she hated me for more than just winning the SkyJumping competition.

  “Uh oh.” Alissa said and I looked up to find her glancing over the room.

  My eyes darted up and followed hers to a spiky haired teen who glared at me with a smirk that was cruel as barbed wire. The moment our eyes fixed one another’s I felt I was suddenly glaring at a wolf and if I looked away he would try to eat me.

  “Class, today I think we will be talking about the workings of mage powers.” Mr. Jacobsen’s voice brought Jack’s eyes from my mine and only then did I feel safe to look away.

  The teacher leaned confidently against his desk and motioned to the room,

  “You might want to learn something like that in this class, right?” he asked and all the students laughed softly.

  I felt my chest was still a bit too tight to fill with laughter just yet.

  Glancing back at Jack for the second time making sure he was not looking this way, my attention turned fully to Mr. Jacobsen as he stepped forward and started speaking,

  “Mages have certain emotional attachments to their power…” I felt like I was for once in his class learning something I already quite literally knew, “…When, for instance, I feel a strong emotion, my magic can become more active without my mind trying to be cleared for it to work.” He said nodding.

  In a way, I realized it was a lot like turning into a SkyJump beast, because to turn I had to clear my mind to become my creature self. While differently, my magic could also be triggered by strong emotion.

  A girl raised her hand on the front row and Mr. Jacobsen nodded for her to speak.

  “Wouldn’t that mean magic is hard to handle if its active? I mean, could it start a blaze if you get angry?” The girl questioned in a tight voice.

  Mr. Jacobsen shook his head in a no and held his hand out before him.

  “It’s not hard to handle in such a form, in fact it’s easier because it’s already waiting to be used instead of having to conjure it up… To deal with the second part of your question, it won’t work of its own accord unless I want the magic in me to form into a task.” He nodded to his hand and a flame burst from his palm floating inches above his skin as he looked to the girl as the class sat forward.

  “If magic has no task placed before it when heightened it simply feels something close to a buzz inside your ears that keeps building until you either put it out or put it into a task. So, in a way, it could start a blaze if the mage was untrained enough to not think about setting a blaze, by the thought of it, not as much the angry behind the building of the magic.” He said quickly snapping his fingers and making the flame diminish in seconds.

  The class was enthralled and I had to admit, by far, this was one of my favorite classes. Now I wondered if I could put a flame in my palm as he had, but a slight fear of his words caught in my mind… What if I had thought of wanting Lucy’s hair to catch flames when she ran off? Would my magic have listened?

  I was suddenly starting to wonder if I should be learning this kind of thing or I needed to remember from now on to try and not think anything when I was angry, but what if something happened?

  Mr. Jacobsen turned and I raised a hand making him nod to me.

  “Yes, Miss Deshion?”

  The class glanced at me and I had to look to him to keep from losing my nerve as the hair on my neck stood up.

  “How do mages control it? I mean what if they just think something like you said. Can they stop it before they light a fire?” I asked.

  He considered my question and opened his palm again but still kept his eyes on me.

  “Like most people, in a moment of high emotion, thoughts run through your mind. Experienced mages learn how to stifle the power they are about to use before it could be used,” he motioned to his hand and the slight shadow almost like a ghost of a flame started to appear in his hand as he concentrated.

  “I am keeping the flame in a half state that is seconds before it becomes real,” his jaw was set as he let the flame become real and nodded, “It takes years of practice to do something like holding magic in a half-used state, but it can mean the difference between many unnecessary magical problems.”

  I felt slightly relieved. I knew something about how to control my mage abilities but now all I could think about was where I would be able to try something like that and see if I could have a flame in my palm, and if I could stop it right before it was made real.

  The rest of the class was slightly less interesting as we learned about the beginnings of magic and I felt bored, I loved the story but in this class I wanted to know more secrets of becoming better at using my magic.

  “Our last thought for today’s class has to do with a question I am asked repeatedly. Most people who are not mages think that Earthen Brethren were alive as were the Skyjump’s, that they had some sort of mage powers to do what they did in the Skyjump legends.” Again, I cringed at his words that made me sound like a fossilized race rather than a real person, yet my interest was as peaked as were the other students as we all waited for him to continue.

  Mr. Jacobsen clapped his hands and the screen of glowing goo congealed together as he used his magic to form a picture on the slightly translucent screen.

  “Although many speculate about the Earthen Brethren…” the way he spoke about the Earthen Brethren also sounded as if they were an extinct race, which, in one way I wished he was right about compared to his view of SkyJump’s, “…some say they were capable of some dark mage powers or that they were mages who progressively became dark.” He turned to us and on the screen a mountain was depicted as he motioned to the class.

  “What most believe, though, is that they were given the ability to twist the fabric of things around us that are within our grasp. Whereas Mages use mostly unseen things to create magic, such as atoms and molecules and simple flux of surrounding microorganisms.” He looked to the slightly watery goo as it wavered when a shutter crossed the land depicted on it. “Like shown here and in the old stories they could make the land shutter not from magical means, that is a force unseen to the world but by touching the ground and using a sixth sense that was what made them called Earthen Brethren.” He said and the picture showed a man with his hand to the ground closing his eyes in deep thought.

  Another girl raised her hand at the other end of the class and he nodded to her.

  “So, it’s like for some people Magic is a sixth sense while others have Skyjumping or the power to like change the ground and weather.” She said hesitantly.

  He nodded and clapped his hands making the blobs disperse in their colorful array, ascending up to the ceiling to cast down an almost stained glass glow.

  “That is exactly it, Ms. Candid.” He said nodding.

  For some reason the Earthen Brethren suddenly seemed less dangerous and slightly interesting, though, I felt it was evil to even think such a thing as a Skyjump, yet in the old stories the Earthen brethren had not always been evil.

  A boy raised his hand on the second row down from us and Mr. Jacobsen nodded to him.

  “You talk about the earthen brethren like they are extinct, aren’t there still some rumors about both SkyJump’s and Earthen Brethren having descendants?” He asked sounding slightly harsher than I would have expected.

  The teacher took this boys words with much more consideration than he gave for the other questions as I put the boys slightly metallic combover into my mind as s
omeone I would watch out for.

  “Though there are rumors, how many of you collectively know one or more of either race?” He asked and looked to us all.

  People glanced around while I tried to act casual as though knowing no Earthen Brethren, I knew more than three SkyJump’s if I included myself, though in all honesty the few I knew were not young.

  Mr. Jacobsen nodded again seeing our reactions,

  “Of all the races still present, Mages are the only ones that have survived with time if only for the fact that SkyJump’s and Earthen Brethren seemed to never find a way to settle with one another after the war.” And with his last words spoken the bell rang and he dismissed class.

  Putting away my work, a slight knot held in my chest as his words replayed in my mind and I felt I had heard something that didn’t sit well with me.

  Mr. Jacobsen spoke about mages as if they were better than either race but wasn’t it the SkyJump’s who saved them?

  Walking out of the class was quieter and for the first time I felt differently about Mr. Jacobsen as my mind replayed his words and felt annoyed he seemed so sure.

  Alissa knocked my shoulder as I walked beside her to our next class with Zac, conversing with a tall boy who knew fencing from the way they both talked about an upcoming fencing match.

  “Still thinking about what Lucy said?” She asked, looking me over with a half-smile.

  Glancing aside to her I laced a smile on my lips, though it felt fake.

  “No, just didn’t sleep well, I guess.” I said, looking ahead of us as we passed by other students conversing.

  Alissa nodded and came back to my side after going around two older boys who were not paying attention as they walked, fighting about some match they just had against each other.