by Katie Pottle
“Awesome! When can we start?”
“Patience, young Cadin. Did you bring your gins?”
“Oh, yeah.” Cadin pulled out his unique set of cloud-stones, fused by his energy.
“Then let us begin.” Master Emilio stood up and walked out the door. Cadin was going to ask where they were going, but he knew Master Emilio well enough to expect an answer like, 'all in good time, young Cadin,' in his low, calm tone. Instead he jumped up and followed quietly, his gins vibrating at the ready.
They walked outside and proceeded up a path that Cadin had traveled many times with his mom. The path twisted and turned until it reached the Glade Cloud Animal and Plant Sanctuary. Gur perked up as they passed through the gate.
“Go ahead, Gur—just don't eat anything.” His dragon scrambled down his arm and started exploring what was lurking in the tall grasses and clouds. Cadin took a deep breath and relaxed as the perfume of spring blossoms surrounded him.
“Do you know why we have come here to train?” Master Emilio asked.
Cadin smiled and said the first answer that popped into his mind. “It is so much easier to connect with the clouds, and everything associated with them out here.” Two ravens took to flight as Cadin waved his hand around the sanctuary.
“Correct. And gins are a cloud-stone of a highly sensitive and reactive nature. It is unfortunate that we were unable to train more with your gins since you fused them with raw gin-stones. I am curious, have you noticed a difference in power, elasticity, or reaction time?”
Master Emilio was obviously excited by the possibilities of what his gins could do since they were a novel item—already fused gins fusing again with the energy released when his Aura emerged; but in truth, Cadin had worked very little with the gins over his summer break, focusing more on training with his team.
“Well, I ...um...they don't seem that different from before.”
“I see.” The lines between his old eyes shifted into the look of contemplation that Cadin had grown accustom to. “Let us start with the basics to warm up and then experiment from there.” Master Emilio brought out his own gins and had all twelve hovering above his hand, slowly rotating at the ready.
Cadin looked on in envy, and he rustled up his slightly larger gins. He dropped one and saw Master Emilio flinch as he bent to retrieve it.
“Have you been working with more than one gin at a time?” Master Emilio asked as he casually lifted a hand and two gins rose quickly in the air, enlarging to ten times their original size. The two gins spun in a figure-eight pattern without knocking each other out of the air. Cadin cringed as he remembered being shown this exact training drill at the beginning of the summer before Master Emilio had left on business. Most visits with his mentor over break had been focused on Aura suppression and his gin training had suffered.
“I did try the figure-eight with both of my slice-type gins, and did okay when I had one going at a time, but when I tried both at once, I had problems.”
“Show me.” Master Emilio focused on Cadin, his gins gracefully returning to their normal size and resting next to their fellows. Master Emilio nodded at him, and Cadin focused on his two slice gins. He concentrated on his black one, which now took on a purple glow when activated. It rose in a wobbly fashion above his hand, and did not expand at all when he asked. It was still hovering, though, so he focused on making it travel in a figure-eight loop. Cadin was relieved when it complied, and he turned his attention to his white slice gin. This one rose quickly and expanded slightly before joining the figure-eight, puttering along slowly until the black gin caught up and knocked it out of the air.
“I see,” Master Emilio said.
“And that was one of the better runs,” Cadin said in a half laugh. In truth, he was a little disappointed in his superior weapons.
“I believe you need to work on your connection with each of your gins and then practice.” The last word was stressed but he did not say anything more about Cadin's lack of progress. He didn't have to.
“I will work harder.” Cadin said.
“Good. I expect you to have all four of your general type gins expanded and figure-eighting together within two weeks.”
“What? That's impossible! I have the first Qualifier coming up.”
“And that is why I gave you two weeks instead of one. Let's start practicing, shall we?”
Cadin knew the conversation was over, so he swallowed his concern and focused on what his mentor had to offer as he picked up his blue general gin and asked it to expand.
The halls were chaotic in-between second and third period when many of the winged students had science classes on the ground floor. Cadin was shoved and got a feather in his eye for his efforts to get to class early. He figured it was probably best to stand off to the side for a couple of minutes and let the madness subside before proceeding.
Slinging his bag on the ground, Cadin sat his small frame into a corner and observed his fellow students. Most were in too much of a hurry to keep his interest for long, however, one girl caught his eye. She was small for an angel of Glade, and probably at least a third-year student as she already had wings. Cadin did a double take and realized her wings were quite miniature. The girl had smooth, dark skin and straight black hair, which flew around her as she rushed to gather some dropped books. Cadin couldn't understand why nobody was helping her. In fact, everyone seemed to be giving her a wide berth.
Strange, thought Cadin as he moved forward to pick up a tome labeled, Hartman’s Complete Guide to Glade Ornithology. He approached the girl and held out the heavy textbook.
She looked up through her disheveled strands of black and Cadin registered shock as she looked him up and down.
“Hi, I'm Cadin.” He lifted the book again for her, as she had yet to retrieve it.
She reached slowly for the text, as though skeptical that it was hers. Her brown eyes flashed across the title and she let out sigh.
“Thank you,” the girl said quietly. “This is not a book I want to lose.”
“You like birds?” Cadin asked.
Again, shock lit her face. Cadin couldn't help but smile. This girl wore her emotions.
“You know what ornithology is?” She asked as she re-situated her things.
“Yep, my mom is a biologist. Sometimes she takes me out bird watching, but honestly it is not really my thing.” Her face fell a bit. “What do you like about birds?” Cadin asked quickly, trying to salvage the conversation.
She looked up and smiled. “They can fly.”
It was such a simple and stunning answer. And then Cadin looked closer. Behind the girl's long hair, her wings were not just small, one was also quite deformed. About to respond, though he wasn't quite sure how, Lep flashed in his peripheral vision.
“There you are!” Lep said as he skidded to a halt in front of them. “Class is about to start.”
“I know,” Cadin responded as he readjusted his pack. “I was just talking to...actually, I'm sorry I don't know your name.” Both boys turned to the girl.
“Valentine.”
“Nice to meet you,” Cadin said with an awkward hand shake, as her hands were quite full.
“I ah, yeah...” Lep said. Cadin almost choked as he looked at Lep's face which was bright red. “Oh, I'm Leptan.”
“I have to go,” Valentine said quickly with a nod. She turned and rushed away, calling over her shoulder, “thanks for the help!”
“I can't believe we've never seen her before,” Lep whispered to Cadin in class. “I mean, she is beautiful.”
Instructor Zephran’s purple eyes darted their way. She walked past them, handing out papers.
“Keep your head in the game, Lep—we have Challenge Club today and Qualifiers tomorrow!” Cadin tried to keep quiet, but a few heads turned his way.
“Right, better to think of girls after we place in the Qualifier anyway—more impressive to them.” Lep was mostly muttering to himself and Cadin shook his head.
The clouds di
ssipated as Cadin and Lep ran through the stray wisps on their way to Yi Field. Cadin was sad to see that no one was gathered yet for Challenge Club.
“What the heck?” Lep said. There were no Challenge Club students, only instructors hustling around and erecting walls and seating.
Their first few meetings had gone well, though mostly only consisting of members from the previous year. They had all agreed to try to get the word out and invite others to train with them. Cadin had been sure that at least some new students would take them up on extra Warrior Path training before the Qualifiers.
“Hey, guys—over here!” Bart came rushing to them from the near side of the field where Cadin saw a small crowd.
“What’s going on?” Cadin asked.
“We can’t train on Yi Field today because they have to set it up for the Qualifiers. Come on.”
Bart led them across the field near the school ‘lake’ which was nothing more than a big pond in Cadin’s opinion.
“Wow,” Cadin said as they approached the excited crowd.
“Yeah, I guess the recruiting worked.”
All the regulars were there helping Sun and Instructor Kade set up, and then there were dozens of other students milling around and talking with excited gestures. Cadin waved to a few second years from Instructor Zephran’s class on their way to help Sun. There was a large group of first years and even several small clusters of older students with wings watching the setup with curious expressions.
“We had better make today’s training good,” Cadin said quietly.
“Don’t worry,” Lep said. “It’s always good.”
Instructor Kade stepped forward and raised his hands. “Everyone, gather around!” He waited for them to quiet down. “Welcome to Challenge Club. As this is a student-led club, I will not be running practice, nor will I be here for most of it. I must head over and help set up for the first Qualifier. However, I will do my best to swing by to see if you need my help. Sun has everything you need to work on water-based cloud-shifting today. Have fun!”
As Instructor Kade unfurled his wings and took off, Sun stepped up.
“Hi, everyone. I’m so glad that we have more students joining us today. I guess the need for Warrior Path training is at an all-time high with the Qualifiers so I’ll sum up what we do here for the newcomers.” Her yellow Aura expanded as she took a deep breath. Cadin loved how excited Sun got about Warrior-anything. “In Challenge Club, we work on Warrior-based skills to allow us some more time to practice and help get us ready for things like mid-terms and Qualifiers. The school provides us access to weapons and props that may be difficult or expensive to come by on our own. We generally have a main focus, but you are also allowed to work on other skills in smaller groups as long as you don’t take the equipment too far from the main Challenge Club area.” Sun took a couple of steps toward the pond and Cadin noticed a bunch of cumulus clouds bunching toward the center.
“Instructor Kade summoned these over the water for us so we can all practice pulling specific elements up through the clouds to work with. Today is water. He said that if we do well with it over the next couple of weeks he will help us wield lightning!”
“Oh!”
“Nice!”
Cadin flinched. He liked lightning, and knew it was a powerful cloud-shifting tool; however, it seemed to zap him whenever he reached for it. Granted it was the most powerful elements, but it was also the scariest to work with. Misusing water only got you wet, misusing air got you cold. But misusing lightning…
“Any questions?” Sun asked, anxiously shifting from foot to foot. Cadin knew she wanted to get to practice right away. “Yes?”
Sun pointed to the raised hand and Cadin was surprised to see Valentine.
“Nice!” Lep whispered beside him. Unburdened by heavy text books and outside of the bustling halls, she looked a bit more at ease. “Um, I’m on the Academic Path, but is it okay if I still train?”
“Absolutely! Everyone is welcome—Path choice makes no difference to us. Any other questions?” When no one said anything, Sun let out a relieved exhale and Cadin laughed.
Sun looked over at Cadin and smiled. “Ready?”
“Yes!” several students yelled at once.
The whole club circled around the pond and attempted to pull as much water into their personal chunks of cloud as possible before shifting. Some made basic cloud-walls and cloud-balls while others attempted more advanced water-based shifting. One of the third-years attempted a mini-cyclone, but only produced a quick storm that basically dumped all the water back into the pond.
Cadin looked to his left and saw Lep wielding a nasty-looking cloud-ball with spikes. Valentine was at his side with a timid smile on her face as Lep explained something to her. She laughed as Lep handed her the cloud-ball.
He looked to his right and saw Sun’s cloud floating just above the surface of the water with two flat, smooth areas on the top.
“What are those for?” Cadin asked.
Sun looked over and smiled. “Slick traps.”
“Why?”
“It hurts to slip on the ice—so I figure, why not make a trap for it?”
“In the clouds? It doesn’t seem like it would work.” Cadin shook his head trying to picture it. “No offense,” he added quickly.
“You’re welcome to try it.” She smiled as her Aura pulsed. It was a challenge.
“Alright, then.” Cadin stepped onto his cloud which instantly solidified under his feet. He was a natural at cloud-walking, but hesitated for a moment when he peered into the algae-filled pond. A large bubble breached the surface and wafted an unpleasant smell through the air.
“Second thoughts, Glader?” Sun asked. Cadin didn’t look up from the green water he was now walking over, but could hear the smile in her voice.
“I think you just don’t want anyone to prove that your silly traps don’t wo…oh!” Cadin had hopped over to Sun’s cloud and was still well away from her traps—but upon landing had his feet swept out from under him. He fell too quickly to do anything about it and splashed butt first into the stinky water.
Hoots and laughs erupted around the pond as Cadin made his way to the edge. Sun reached for his arm and helped him out, laughing the whole time.
“Oh, yeah—I forgot to tell you about the concealed ones!” Sun snorted between laughs, and Cadin let go of his embarrassment and laughed beside her.
“Smooth,” Lep said as he walked over to Cadin and handed him a dry over-shirt. Cadin had no idea where he’d gotten it from, but was grateful nonetheless.
“Thanks,” Cadin said, shivering as he swapped shirts. Gur pounced on the wet one he had dropped on the ground. He turned to Sun. “Well, at least we know your slick traps work.”
“Only for the woefully oblivious,” Lep said. Valentine peaked over Lep’s shoulder and smiled at Cadin without saying anything.
“Ouch! I’m not that bad. At least give Sun some credit.”
Sun was still giggling and tried to take a couple of deep breaths. “Even if it never works on another angel, it was totally worth it!”
“Hey, guys—check it out!” Bart called from the other side of the pond with Instructor Kade and several other students milling around a plump cloud.
“What’s up?” Cadin asked as attempted to shake out his wet pants.
“While you guys were fooling around in the water, Instructor Kade and Instructor Zephran came over and showed us a cool trap.”
“He fell into the water because of a cool trap!” Sun exclaimed.
“Oh, a flake-field!” Valentine said. “They are so pretty.”
“And incredibly painful to land on,” Instructor Kade added. He nodded to Instructor Zephran.
The tall and graceful instructor winked at Instructor Kade before reaching into the cloud.
Cadin nudged Lep aside to see what they were looking at. The top of the cloud was scattered with what looked like large snowflakes made of ice sticking up at odd angles. More fractural fr
agments grew and hardened from within the water-laden cloud. Cadin shuddered at the thought of expecting to land on a fluffy cumulus cloud only to have your feet and calves torn apart by the sharp edges.
“Wow. Can you show us how to do it?”
“And how to avoid landing on them?” Sun added.
“We don’t have much time left today—but we can get started.”
Exhaustion sank into Cadin as he sat on his bed and examined his most precious keepsake. The metal felt smooth beneath his fingers as Cadin traced the raised lines of his medallion. His parents had designed and made it for him a year ago—a symbolic representation of both the Guard and the Arkta Quads. Three small cloud-stones were inlaid down the center, and he gave an involuntary shiver as his fingers brushed the warm surfaces.
“No, Gur! Not right now,” Cadin said as the dragon made a grab for the medallion.
“I’m trying to figure out what to do with it. Go play with your button,” he said as he tossed Gur’s favorite shiny toy in the corner. The dragon scurried after it and continued to wrestle with it around the floor.
“What do I do with you now?” Cadin squinted as he examined the back. He smiled when he saw a familiar trademark etched along the edge. Talvarian of Ansford was one of the best armor forgers in the Calvarian System and he only signed his very best work.
“Ehh!” Cadin shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. He wanted to wear the medallion—it meant so much to him. But it was also a constant reminder of getting kidnapped and the fact that his would-be captors were still out there. The chain had broken and been lost to the clouds. The medallion was recovered by Gur. Even though his parents had offered to get another chain, Cadin had refused.
Gur burped in the corner, and Cadin rushed to open his window. Dragons were cute, but had some of the smelliest breaths in the cloud-lands. Cadin smiled as he heard the familiar sounds of hammer shaping metal. At a pause, Cadin stuck his head out the window. “Hey, dad!”
