by Katie Pottle
“Ladies first,” Cadin said. Sun laughed and pushed Cadin back to clear her path. Before she started, Instructor Kade announced, “right now Leptan is leading the group with only two people left to jump!”
Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. Sun wore a look of serious concentration and Cadin thought he saw her yellow Aura flair before she ran forward and launched herself just off the end. She flew through the air, and Cadin thought that she had Lep beat. Her feet landed just past Lep’s mark, but she leaned too far back on her landing and fell back on her butt. Everyone cheered for her effort, but Instructor Zephran marked where she landed with her butt rather than her feet which put her in third place behind Lexi.
When it was Cadin’s turn, a lot of classmates yelled out in encouragement, but Lep was trying to get in his head—another thing that they had done since childhood.
“Now don’t mess up your footing,” Lep said casually, “cause ya know that the launch point can be a little tricky.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me, Lep. I promise to wave as I pass by your mark.”
Lep laughed as Cadin backed up. He took a deep breath and focused on his launch.
“Pink,” Lep said as Cadin raced forward.
Lep had done it; Cadin kept looking at the pink mark on the edge of the pit. He ran fast and the pink mark approached quickly. He knew as he set to launch that he would be too far, and his jumping foot would be past the pink mark. At that moment, he cleared his mind and just focused on the feeling of nearly flying. To his surprise, his launching foot met solid cloud and he was able to jump. He was so shocked that he flailed through the air and botched his landing—finishing just shy of Lep’s mark.
Most people laughed at Cadin’s awkward landing, but everyone gave him congratulating words and high-fives for earning second when he pulled himself out of the pit. Lep’s smile was enormous, and came close to breaking into a laugh a few times, but he held it in. Grateful, Cadin patted his friend on the back and congratulated him on his victory.
Later, when they broke up into groups to practice skills, Instructor Kade approached him. “That was almost a nice long jump, Cadin. I was sure you were going to miss the launch.”
“Yeah, I’m not quite sure how I didn’t fall. I was so shocked I didn’t focus much on the landing,” Cadin said.
“I think you’ll know how by the end of today.” With that, Instructor Kade turned around to gather people up and start the lesson. Cadin had no idea what he meant. He wanted to ask Lep what he thought, but Lep was helping Xeno get past his fear of the pit.
“Alright,” Instructor Kade said in a firm voice. “Wall cloud-shifting drills are fun and easy with the right type of cloud. Here on Glade we have an abundance of cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds, which are the best for pulling up enough material for many types of walls. When cloud-shifting, you must remember that clouds are nice and smooth on the outside; however, on the inside, they are wet, fierce, windy and sometimes filled with lightning.
“You can break open a cloud when cloud-shifting, but it is not advisable for walls because it will weaken the cloud. We want to work on building the cloud up to a suitable size and shape, and then hardening it. This skill is called walling, and used most often in building cloud structures and as a defensive skill by building a wall between you and your attacker.”
Instructor Kade’s face slackened before his eyes narrowed on the cloud. He opened his hands and knelt down, touching the surface of the cloud outside of the pink path for a moment before standing up quickly and throwing his hands into the air. The surface of the cloud followed his hands and shot up beyond them. Instructor Kade guided the cloud up over his head, like half of a flattened rainbow, before he closed his hands into tight fists—the cloud made a crackling sound and hardened before their eyes.
“Okay everyone, step around and take a look.”
Cadin peeked around the outside of the white wall and saw that it curved in a little bit on the edges, almost like it was a large tree trunk that was hollowed out and opened in the back.
“This is a more advanced wall than the ones that we will be working on today, but I wanted you to see some of the possibilities. This wall curves around the edges and the top, to give me peripheral protection. You will notice that it is an opaque white on the outside—non-see through walls give you the best protection but no visibility. You can make transparent walls from clouds, but they are more susceptible to being damaged. The most difficult wall to make in terms of transparency is what I have done here. It is opaque on the outside so that my attackers cannot see me, but transparent from my side so that I can see all of you.”
The whole class moved around to see from Instructor Kade’s point of view. Cadin was amazed that he could see right through the cloud-wall, though the view was a little distorted.
“Walls are versatile and useful if they are done correctly. They can be added to and the more energy that is put into them, the longer they will last. If done incorrectly, then you just used up a good chunk of your energy for nothing. This is the type of wall that we will be working on today,” Instructor Kade said as he dissolved his first wall with a sweep of his hand and pulled up a second, smaller, chunkier cloud-wall that had no curves.
“This will earn you a proficient mark in shifting a basic cloud-wall. This is a base wall, used in all Paths for different purposes. Note that it must come up to at least your shoulders, and must be as wide as it is tall. It must also be properly hardened, which I will test in various ways. For this wall, it does not matter if it is opaque or transparent—that is a skill for another day.
“Cloud-shifting should be new to most of you, so we will start with the basics. As angels, we are naturally connected to the clouds. Your job is to find that connection and feel it with your whole body. Now, spread out and let’s give this a try.”
They were off to the flat side of the small pit and Cadin found a spot next to Sun, with Lep right in front of him. Lep was smiling and looking around until he saw Cadin and gave him a little gloating nod.
“Okay, now relax your mind.”
Cadin’s embarrassing second place long jump popped into his head.
“Now, bring your energy to your hands.”
“And reach down and touch the base of the cloud at your feet. Feel the cloud and try to imagine it rising up with your hands.”
Cadin did as he was told, but he was concentrating on Lep rather than the cloud.
“Now rise and bring the cloud with you, imagining what shape you want it to take.”
Cadin stood up with the rest of the class, his eyes on Lep. No piece of the cloud followed his hands, but he didn’t really care. Cadin could see the side of Lep’s face, and it turned bright red with effort. It looked to Cadin like Lep was trying to lift an immensely heavy object. He heard a sound like a paper ripping, and Lep suddenly fell back on his butt, holding a small piece of hardened cloud. There was a hole at his feet, spitting lightning and wind at him.
Instructor Kade came running over and told Lep to put the piece back over the hole. Waving his hands over the plug, the hole became smoothed over. Lep looked around, and when he turned to Cadin, Cadin gave him a thumbs-up and smiled. Lep smiled a little bit before looking back at Instructor Kade.
“Good try,” Instructor Kade said so that the whole class could hear. “Leptan was able to cloud-shift a little bit; however, he ripped a hole in the cloud because he hardened the cloud first and then pulled. Great first effort, though. Remember, pull first and then harden. Everyone, let's try again.”
After several more tries, Cadin still had not shifted the cloud; though he attributed part of this to being nervous because once again Instructor Kade seemed to be watching him. Cadin could tell that he was trying to be discrete about it, but he could sense Instructor Kade’s eyes on him. Others in the class including Sun had managed to cloud-shift some. No one had managed to make a complete wall—for some they could pull the cloud up but could not harden it, and the cloud just drift
ed away. Others managed to rip cloud-holes like Lep.
After a while Instructor Kade stopped leading the whole class and started wandering around to individuals to give advice. Cadin started to relax a little bit and remembered the first wall that Instructor Kade had demonstrated. It would be really cool to be able to make a wall like that, Cadin thought. He sat down and just felt the cloud underneath him. The cloud itself seemed full of energy when Lep ripped it open. There must be a lot of different elements inside to work with. Remembering that Master Emilio said that cloud-shifting was a natural skill for angels, Cadin felt the smooth surface of the cloud and then thought about what was going on inside.
Cadin tried to connect to those elements and will them to push the cloud up from underneath as he pulled from above. Cadin felt a slight tingling down his arms as he raised his hands up. The cloud rose with his hands and followed wherever Cadin moved them. He was still sitting down, and now that no one could see what he was doing he relaxed and thought he would try a couple of things out. He wanted to see if he could harden the cloud as easily as he could move it now that he felt connected to the cloud from both the inside and the outside. Cadin pulled the cloud up into a small wall shape and then willed it to harden. The cloud crackled as it solidified, but being so small, it did not attract anyone’s attention.
He examined his creation, feeling quite proud of himself. The wall was not completely opaque, nor was it transparent. He wondered how he could make the wall see-through. First, he had to get rid of this wall. Otherwise he would bring attention to himself, and he did not want any more attention until he did something worthy of winning. Cadin tried waving his hands over the wall like he had seen Instructor Kade do, but nothing happened.
Thinking about it, he decided that he had to reconnect with the cloud and will it to return to its original form. Putting his hands on his little wall, he first tried to un-solidify it, releasing it from its locked state. Then he pushed it down to return it to the whole cloud.
Cadin glanced around. Instructor Kade was at the other end of the class, helping Lexi and Hydra. He announced that they had five minutes left before rotating. Lep still had his back turned to him, and Sun was busy trying to harden the thin mist that she had pulled up. Cadin sat back down with his back turned to the class. His hands tingled as he brought up more cloud, full of water and wind. This time before he solidified it, he brought more water into his wall and then closed his hands, capturing it in a high-water state. Again, it gave off a crackle and this time solidified into a transparent wall riddled with cracks. Cadin looked at it and decided that more water was a good way to make it transparent, but guessed that the wind in the wall caused the crackling. Dissolving the wall, Cadin forced the wind out and gathered more water in its place. Closing his hands, Cadin was pleased to see a blue, transparent wall.
And now to try a totally solid wall, Cadin thought. He put his hands on the ground and willed the cloud to become very dense and full of all the cloud-elements before he pulled it up.
“Time’s up!”
Cadin jumped to his feet, surprised that the voice was so close. It was Instructor Kade who was only a few steps behind Cadin and staring down at the spot where Cadin had been sitting and cloud-shifting his walls. He didn’t know why he felt embarrassed like he got caught doing something wrong, but Instructor Kade said nothing, so Cadin got up silently and followed his classmates over to Instructor Nightan’s pit.
“Did you see my last wall, Cadin?” Sun asked, motioning quickly with her hands as if she was raising twenty cloud-walls. “It was huge, but it did not solidify.”
“Yeah, looking good,” Cadin said, a little distracted.
Sun misinterpreted his mood. “Don’t feel bad, lots of people didn’t get it.”
Lep seemed to overhear Sun as he patted Cadin on the back coming up from behind them.
“Yeah don’t worry, buddy, I’m sure you’ll get the next one.”
Cadin just smiled and decided not to tell them about his walls until he was sure he could make a proper one.
“So, how’d you do?” Cadin asked.
“Awesome! I even got a good size wall that solidified and everything. But when Instructor Kade came over to examine it, he shot some ice balls at it and my beautiful wall crumbled. He said I was the closest to getting a proficient mark though. Just too many cracks in the wall.”
“Nice. You probably just needed less wind,” Cadin said while looking ahead to the next pit.
“What?” both Sun and Lep asked at the same time.
“Ya know, keep the wind out before you solidify it.”
“How?” Sun asked.
“Feel around for the different elements when connected to the cloud. Look at the next station. Maybe we will learn to shoot the ice balls,” Cadin said.
Instructor Nightan was waiting for them at the bottom of the pit with his arms crossed.
“Well, get down here.”
Everyone scrambled down the sides of the pit.
“We cannot practice manipulating cloud-shifting skills out in the open, like you can with walling, because if any of you are actually able to produce something, it could go flying anywhere and hit somebody just standing around. The walls of the pit on the other hand will reabsorb anything that you can send.
“You will learn by facing me in the center as I demonstrate. Then you will practice by spreading out and facing the wall. Does everyone understand?”
The class responded with an affirmative grumble.
“Let me be clear,” Instructor Nightan said smoothly. “When I ask you a question, I expect to hear a ‘yes, sir’ or ‘no, sir’ loud and clear. Does everyone understand?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Good. Let’s begin.”
Instructor Nightan spent the first part of the class explaining the basics of cloud-shifting, the same as Instructor Kade, though with a little bit more of an edge. To Cadin, it seemed like Instructor Nightan felt like he was forcing the cloud rather than willing it. Cadin liked the idea of willing the cloud better. His first lesson with Master Emilio seemed to be paying off already.
“Once you have properly manipulated the cloud, that is changed it to your will by either separating a piece of it, changing the elements within, or by distance shifting, there are some very useful things that may result. However, remember it takes a large toll on your energy to cloud-shift, so if you have the option to use tools or a weapon to accomplish the same goal, it is usually better to save your energy.
“A Warrior Path example of manipulative cloud-shifting over a distance is trapping, where you make the cloud form up around your enemy,” as Nightan was saying this, he reached down to the cloud and looked at Cadin. Cold mist circled around his feet. He glanced down and saw the cloud around his ankles.
“Once the cloud is where you want it,” Instructor Nightan said while smiling at Cadin, “you harden it.” As Instructor Nightan closed his hands, Cadin could feel the cloud solidifying, locking his feet in place. All his classmates stepped back to look at Cadin’s cloud-prison. He wanted to try to get out but knew that it would be futile and he did not want Instructor Nightan to get the pleasure of knowing that he was uncomfortable. Instructor Nightan continued his demonstration without releasing Cadin from his cloud-trap.
“You can also raise the mist, and impair the vision of a large team,” Nightan said as he raised his hands. And much like raising a wall, the cloud lifted, but in a much less dense fashion and over a wider area. Cadin was livid at being trapped and having mist all around him. He started to struggle to try and release his feet, but the cloud stayed firm. Close to a panic, Cadin started hitting the solid cloud boots with his hands until he saw Sun’s yellow Aura dispersing the mist around them as she approached.
“You okay?” she asked.
Cadin just nodded in response, because he did not trust himself to speak. He bent down and felt the solidified cloud around his feet. He then leaned over further and touched the cloud. He could sense the solid c
loud-boots through the natural cloud. He willed it to disperse back to its normal state. It took more energy than releasing one of his own walls with his energy connected to it, but to his relief, the cloud around his feet loosened and dispersed into the mist.
“How did you do that?” Sun asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Cadin whispered, when he saw Lep and Vincent walking toward them.
Cadin heard a loud clap and the mist reabsorb into the cloud.
“A more common skill that we will be working on today," Instructor Nightan said, pausing when he saw Cadin’s feet, “…uhm, are cloud-balls.” Turning toward the end of the pit where students were not standing, Instructor Nightan reached down to the cloud and grabbed into it. A sound like paper tearing echoed through the air. Instructor Nightan stood up with two handfuls of cloud, the bottoms looking raw and open as wind flew out and water dripped down his arms. Instructor Nightan threw both cloud chunks at the pit wall, the little round clouds spinning and spewing out elements. The pit wall absorbed the incoming cloud-balls.
Instructor Nightan pulled up a transparent cloud-wall near the pit wall. He walked back to his previous spot and ripped up two more cloud-balls, and set them on the ground, and then pulled up another two. The holes in the cloud were releasing wind and water. Cadin thought he saw a small lightning bolt fly out of one and hit the pit wall. Instructor Nightan again reached his hands into the main cloud floor, but instead of ripping out more cloud balls he seemed to be concentrating. The wind spewing out of the holes took on a concentrated form and swirled around the cloud-balls. The wind lifted all four cloud-balls into the air, and quicker than Instructor Nightan had thrown them, whipped them at the cloud-wall.
The balls exploded on impact, crushing the cloud-wall to rubble. The shards from the cloud-wall and balls quickly reabsorbed into the pit. The class cheered, and Instructor Nightan gave a little bow. He then swept his feet over the gaping holes in the cloud, and they resealed. Instructor Nightan looked quite winded after his performance and figured that the last skill drained him of a lot of energy.
