by Katie Pottle
After about half of their session was up, Cadin jumped down and squeezed in next to Lep. About half of the other kids were resting, some had taken to the raised clouds near Cadin, however; no one sat next to him.
“Hey, you back to try again?” Lep asked. “You might even be able to earn your cloud-shifting badge today.” He sounded excited by the idea.
“You think I should try today?”
“I don’t see why not. If you can do it this well already and you earn a badge today, you don't have to worry about it anymore and you can help the rest of us with the skills, we all need to think about starting to earn badges now.”
Cadin had been thinking that he wouldn’t even try for one that day, but Lep did have a point about the head start.
"So why don’t you practice this cloud-walking next to me, and while you are at it, you can give me a couple of pointers.” Lep gave Cadin a friendly nudge as he stood.
“Deal,” Cadin said as he stepped off the edge of the pit and into the mist. Cadin found that when he didn’t think about it, he had no problem cloud-walking. However, he didn’t have too much time to practice before their final session for the day was up.
All three first-year classes sat on the flat area near the big pit. The instructors stood at the opposite end, holding scorecards. They explained that to earn a level 1 cloud-shifting badge, students had to earn at least an average proficient score in one skill from each section. Ten was an excellent score, nine was great, eight was good and seven was proficient. Six was fair, five was poor, four was bad, and one through three were nowhere close.
The large pit was filled with mist. Above the pit and off to the side were three small cloud-walls.
“We will give each class an opportunity for individuals to step up and be scored on their cloud-shifting skills. An average score of seven or above earns you a proficient mark in that skill. We will start with students from Instructor Zephran’s class. Any volunteers?” Instructor Kade asked.
A brave boy with grey hair raised his hand.
“Alright, Jeremy! We will start with the cloud-walk.”
Jeremy stepped forward and took the big pit at a run. He had three good cloud-walking steps before falling through the mist. He cursed on the way down. As he climbed up, the instructors held up their score cards for the whole class to see. Each of the instructors held up a card with a bright green 3 on it. Everyone cheered for Jeremy when they saw his score, but he did not seem happy with himself as he shook his head. He did not fare any better on his other two skills and sat down with the rest of the class, drained from his effort.
Nobody else from Instructor Zephran’s class wanted to try for scores after Jeremy. Both twins tried from Instructor Nightan’s group, and although neither of them could cloud-walk a single step, they both did quite well at walling and cloud-ball skills. One earned an average score of six for having trapped Instructor Nightan for six seconds in a foot-trap, and seven points for making a solid white wall that came up to his shoulders and only got one corner blown apart by Instructor Kade’s three cloud-balls. The other twin earned a four in building a wall. Even though he got a decent sized wall up, it was not solid and tumbled down after one cloud-ball hit it dead center. He earned a nine for his foot-trap.
Everybody cheered like mad when someone earned a proficient mark.
When it came time for the Dire Dragons, Cadin was nervous. When Instructor Kade asked who wanted to try, Sun promptly volunteered. Cadin was relieved that he was not the only one going. Sun earned all sixes on the cloud-walk and seemed quite pleased when she popped up from the pit. She went on to earn three sevens on her cloud-ball skills, earning a large applause. Her cloud-wall did not fully harden, earning low scores. When she came back, she was flushed and wearing a big smile.
“That was fun,” she said.
“Anyone else?” Instructor Kade asked. No one else seemed interested in trying, so Cadin stood up.
“I would like to try,” Cadin said as he walked forward. Instructor Kade nodded.
Cadin didn’t even look down into the pit; he just kept walking towards the judges as if his first obstacle was the cloud-ball challenge at the other end. When he made it across, a celebration broke out behind him. He looked back and waved at his friends. When he faced the judges again, all were holding up tens, though Instructor Nightan did not look too pleased about it.
“Cloud-ball skill or foot-trap skill?” Instructor Kade asked.
Cadin considered the options. He thought about the energy he would have to use trap Instructor Nightan and hold him for at least seven seconds. “Cloud-balls, please.”
They gave him the preliminary time of one minute to connect with the cloud before the three-minute timer started. He stepped up to the green line in front of the translucent wall and knelt. Feeling the strong tingle run up his arm, he cringed when he realized that a storm cloud was rumbling underneath him.
He hardened the surface of the cloud and reached in to pull out three small cloud-balls, getting zapped by stray bits of lightning each time. The balls rocked as miniature bolts zinged around inside. Fearful of holding the lightning too long, he quickly grabbed one and whipped it at the wall.
It hit a little high, but took a corner off. He took a steadying breath and reached for the second cloud-ball. He took better aim than with the first, ignoring the small shocks and hit dead center. There was only a small bottom corner left standing, and the third cloud-ball sprayed small lighting sparks everywhere when it blasted the last bit of wall to pieces.
The instructors looked impressed as they held up their scores. He received a nine from both Instructor Kade and Instructor Zephran and an eight from Instructor Nightan. The class was cheering like mad from behind the pit as Cadin stepped up to Instructor Kade for the final skill. Instructor Kade pulled up three different types of cloud-balls and set them aside as he waited for Cadin to cloud-shift his wall.
Cadin closed his eyes, knelt and felt a tingle, not just up his arms, but also along his shoulders and up his neck. The storm cloud was still underneath them and thunder rumbled as if in welcome. He summoned the rest of his strength and willed the storm cloud to condense underneath his hands. He tried to embrace all the elements, but the lightning scared him. He pulled his hands up, but the storm refused to follow.
Cadin had not been able to pull the wall when he felt Instructor Nightan’s vibration through the cloud approaching Instructor Kade.
“He has not even raised the wall yet, he must be out of energy by now. We should move on.”
“Not yet,” Instructor Kade said. “Give him another minute.”
Instructor Nightan gave an exasperated growl before returning to his spot. Cadin closed his eyes and focused on the temperamental cloud rolling just beneath the surface. Keep rolling he thought as he tried to pull up as a wave of water and lighting approached their position. To his astonishment, the cloud lifted, not into a wall, but a large mound. He tried to push the bulging interior back to look more like a wall—but ended up hollowing it and leaving a hole through the middle. An exhausted breath escaped his lungs as he focused on filling in the hole. He was losing energy and focus and needed to finish.
Harden, harden! Cadin closed his hands as if squeezing his connection to the cloud and said, “Harden!” A giant crackle spread through the not so wall-like sculpture. Cadin peaked around his “wall” to see Instructor Kade throw the first cloud-ball at him. He hunkered back down and heard a loud crack followed by two thuds. A small chunk of wall broke off from the apex of the wave, but the rest stayed intact.
Cadin smiled as Instructor Kade walked behind his wall.
“Oddly done, but it seemed to work. Come get your scores.”
Instructor Nightan smiled as he held up a six. Several kids booed before Nightan glared at the crowd. Instructor Zephran held up a seven, and Cadin held his breath as Instructor Kade held up an eight.
Instructor Nightan’s smile fell while he rubbed his singed shoulder and Instructor Kade said
, “Come and get your first badge!”
Before they headed back to the school, Instructor Kade took off Cadin’s leather forearm guard and inserted a small metal bar on top of the two holes in the leather that were nearest to the wrist. He then put a very thin piece of metal on the inside, so it lined up over the same two holes as the top bar. Instructor Kade then melded the two pieces together through the holes in the leather. He put the arm guard back on Cadin’s left arm. Cadin looked down at the badge and noticed that it was yellow in color with a silver border. There was a cloud etching on the left and a single diagonal bar on the right.
Gur noticed the new addition as well and scrambled down Cadin’s arm to inspect. The dragon tried everything he could to get it off the leather, but it would not budge. He was chewing on the edge of it when Sun came over and laughed. She scratched under Gur’s chin before pulling Cadin’s arm up to her face to check out the cloud-shifting badge.
“Very nice,” Sun offered. “They did not meld the badges on Lance and had some problems with kids trading them and such. What does the diagonal bar mean?”
“The level of the badge,” Vincent said as he walked up. “There are three levels, and any advanced or specialized badges have two or three diagonal bars. Good job by the way,” he said to Cadin as he hopped onto the transport next to Jade.
“Thanks.” Cadin glanced at his arm guard and wondered what his would look like when he graduated. Which Path would be his?
CHAPTER TWELVE
Gins
“As you may know, it is the policy for all Commons Schools in the Calvarian System to offer several Games specific to Path choice in your third and fourth years. They are highly competitive and offer huge advantages such as scholarships to the winners. As you must declare your Path at the end of your first year, it is advantageous to start some initial training in your first two years. That is why we encourage you to build teams of four with other students that you are comfortable with who share your interests." Instructor Kade said to the gathering of all first years.
“Don’t worry, nothing is permanent, especially this early in your schooling. Path choices can be changed throughout high school if you meet the minimum requirements to graduate. Team members will come and go, but the earlier you understand your own abilities and desires, the sooner you can focus and train them.
“Today we get to run through three mini challenges, one from each Path.”
“Sweet!” Cadin wasn’t sure who said it, but the sentiment seemed unanimous. Everyone started whispering and squirming in their seats, ready to get started.
Instructor Kade smiled and held up an old bag. “Today is about getting you familiar with the types of challenges you may find for each Path. I don’t want to waste time with everyone picking their own groups.” A few girls close by started a fake whimper. Cadin hated when girls acted like that. Apparently so did Sun as she gave them a look somewhere between sad and disgusted. Cadin started to laugh, but Lep nudged him hard in the ribs.
Instructor Kade waived the bulky bag in the air. “Your first challenge and team assignments are here. There will be nine teams of five. Reach into the bag to pull out one piece to your engineering project inspired by the Trade Path.”
Cadin reached in, feeling for a piece to grasp. Gur used his arm as a bridge, ran into the bag and back out just as quickly, grasping a blue rod with four wheels attached to it. “Oh, sorry about that. Bad dragon.”
“Team blue it is,” Instructor Kade said as he handed the bag to Lep. Lep pulled out a flat orange piece and waived to Cadin as they made their way over to their teams.
Cadin’s team consisted of two hyper boys from Instructor Nightan’s group, one of the whimpering girls from Instructor Zephran’s group, and Hydra from the Dire Dragons. He knew Hydra well since they apprenticed at Lynn’s Dragon Ranch together a few years back. She was quiet and smart.
“Let’s get this over with,” the whimpering girl said with a huff. “I hate putting stuff together. The Trade Path is so pedestrian.”
“We love it,” both boys said together, already taking everyone else’s pieces and fitting them together.
“Your first challenge is a timed engineering and robotics challenge!” Instructor Nightan called out to the groups. “Each team has the same five starting pieces. You have thirty minutes to build a robot that will make it from Point A to Point B the fastest.” Cadin glanced at the Points and noticed a few distinct obstacles. “You must use all five of your colored pieces in your design, and each team has a box of optional parts. You may use as many or as few as you need to give your robot the greatest advantages. Good luck. Time starts now!”
Cadin watched as their pathetic robot crawled across the finish line.
“Uh, sixth place!” Whiner girl cried next to him.
“It could be worse,” Cadin said pointing to the green team’s monstrosity. “I don’t think their’s will even cross the finish line.” Green was hardly visible under all the extra parts they had attached to their dragging robot. “Well, on to the next challenge.”
Even though his team did not work well together, personally he found something truly enjoyable in each Path Challenge. He was shocked by how many students dismissed an entire Path when the challenges ended.
Lep stumbled over to him after the grappling challenge for Warrior Path. “Now that was fun! After that stupid lake ecology challenge, I needed something to perk me up.” Lep sat down with a huff. Sun and Xeno sprawled out next to them. Gur made his way over to Sun to get rubbed behind the wings.
“How’d it go for you guys?” Cadin asked.
“We were on the green team,” Xeno replied sadly, as if that were a complete answer. Sun nodded.
Lep turned towards them with a grin. “Wait, the team with the merchant robot?”
“Merchant robot?”
“Yeah, the one that looked like it had a pack on its back the size of Mist Mountain.” Lep gestured with his arms over his head. Both Sun and Cadin punched him at the same time.
“Ouch!”
“We worked really hard on Orvo!”
“You named it?” Lep looked shocked and ready to break down laughing at any moment. However, he was still rubbing his arm and kept himself in check.
“Well, Orvo may not have been a success, but what about the other challenges?” Cadin’s team had not been in the same rotation to face the green team for second and third challenges.
“We did okay with the water eco quiz, Xeno helped a lot with that,” Sun answered. Xeno stayed sprawled on the ground but gave a little wave to Sun. She smiled and continued. “We could have won at Cloud Chess, but I lost my archers early and Vincent pinned my king with his queen and wrath. The grappling was a disaster. I’m pretty sure our team consisted of the four least confrontational Gladers in school plus myself. And angels from Lance are just a bit smaller in general.”
“We are a big breed!” Cadin said, standing up and flexing his wiry muscles.
Everyone busted out laughing.
When Sun recovered, she waived him down. “Well you are more compact and lithe than most others here. The Gladers we had to go against were brutes, honest.”
“Maybe you are just not cut out for the Warrior Path,” Lep chimed in and received another punch. “Okay, okay. I take it back!”
“I do love the idea of becoming a Warrior Angel. However, there are some amazing choices along the Academic Path as well. I don’t think the Trade Path holds anything for me. I’ve worked alongside my dad enough to know the challenges that the Trades hold, and I don’t think I’m cut out for them. I don't know enough about the Guardian Path to know if I will like it or not yet. Today's challenge didn't really help much—I mean how is identifying Earth flowers supposed to help us know if we want to be Guardians?”
Cadin wasn’t sure if it was a rhetorical question, so he just shrugged. He felt lost. He had not narrowed down his Path Choice options at all. If anything, it increased his interest in each. Oh, well. It’s still early. He
smiled and turned to Sun. “You could always make a living naming robots and such!” He was quicker than Lep and avoided the punch.
The bell rang in the distant school, signaling the end to the day. "I gotta go! See ya later," Cadin called as he ran across the field to grab his belongings.
"What's the hurry?" Lep called from behind.
Cadin turned briefly to answer, "My apprenticeship!"
“You are late,” Master Emilio said as Cadin ran through the door.
“I’m so sorry,” Cadin said between breaths. Gur was excited from the run and decided to continue running even after Cadin had stopped, pacing from one shoulder to another and occasionally crawling over Cadin’s head.
“I see that your dragon is feeling better and has become quite attached to you.”
Cadin put his hand over Gur to stop his pacing.
“Esperanza will be so pleased and mortified. She does not approve of domestication; but then again,” he said with a smile, “she does tend to be overly dramatic.”
Cadin felt relieved that Master Emilio didn’t share Miss Esperanza’s views and seemed to approve of Gur.
“She was once my apprentice,” Master Emilio continued. “She didn’t last long with me, partially because this was not her true calling, and she did not approve of my lifestyle, as I was the first angel in the Calvarian System to domesticate a sylph.”
“Wow—an air elemental cloud-creature, really?” Cadin looking around the room expecting to see it magically appear. “Where is he?”
“Actually, it was a she, and I had her for many years. She is no longer with me, but that is story for another day. Let’s get started on the lesson of the day.”
Cadin wanted to learn more about the sylph, but was excited to find out what the lesson entailed.
“Today, we will start working with your gins.”
“Yes!” Cadin exclaimed. “I wonder if my gins could have helped me in the challenges I just did at school. Will they only be helpful to me if I choose a certain Path?" Cadin fingered the badge on his school arm-guard. He had been in too much of a hurry to take it off. He held up his arm for Master Emilio to see. Gur raced down his arm and attacked the badge.
