by Katie Pottle
“I was thinking,” Sun said to Cadin as they sat on the edge of the fountain, “we all have our own weapons now, thanks to you. I think we can find some more time to practice outside of school.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Cadin said. “The only problem is I don’t know when. I guess I can use the time I have set aside for practicing with my gins.”
“Oh yeah. How is gin training going?”
“Okay I guess. I’m used to things being a lot easier,” Cadin said as he skipped a flat pebble across the surface of the fountain. After he allowed his mixed Aura colors through again, he found the gins overly responsive and just as difficult to control.
“Which may be part of your problem.” Sun examined a flat stone and whipped it across the smooth surface of the fountain’s water. Her stone skipped six times, hit the edge and sank to the bottom. Cadin’s had skipped five.
“What do you mean?” Cadin asked.
“Well, you are the type of person whom many things come naturally to and with little of your own effort put into it, like skipping those pebbles. Have you ever put any true effort into learning to skip rocks?”
“No, not really. They skip when you throw them. I don’t get the point. Yours skidded further than mine did.”
“Because you have never had to put in any true work to painstakingly earn your success like most people do. I learned to skip rocks when I was five. My dad took me to a small pond quite a distance from our house, but it was the closest body of water to us on Lance. I was terrible when I first started. My dad showed me the basics and said I had to practice to get good. And that is exactly what I did. I made him take me to the pond every free moment he had for over a year until I was able to beat him in a skipping contest.
“I put the same amount of work and effort into learning my bow skills. They didn’t just come to me—I worked extremely hard for them.” Sun’s leaned closer, the passion of her argument burning in her eyes. Cadin finally understood what she was getting at but didn’t say anything out of embarrassment. She was calling him lazy, and she was right. He had expected his skills to come to him.
“Imagine what you could do if you actually put effort in. It could take your abilities farther than most people—you simply have to commit to doing it.”
Sun backed off when she was finished and Cadin released his breath. Light reflected off her chest and Cadin realized that she was wearing the arrowhead necklace.
“You’re right,” Cadin said slowly, as if accepting his words as he said them. “I will make a commitment to my team and to myself to train and extend my own perception of my limits. There is more I can do. Now thanks to you, I am not scared to reach for it.”
A huge smile lit Sun’s face as she gave Cadin a hug. Cadin blushed and turned to hide his profile.
“What is that?” Sun asked.
“I…what I didn’t …” Cadin sputtered.
“Look.” Sun pointed behind him.
Cadin’s neck cracked as he peered over his shoulder. A very unusual group landed and marched towards them. Four were obviously teenagers—their wings sporting a light veratal coating, and the other two large angels looming behind were serious and incredibly muscular adults. One of the teenage boys had a beautiful falcon on his shoulder, looking almost as serious as the its owner. Though the boy with the falcon was not the largest in the group, it seemed obvious to Cadin he was the leader, which seemed odd considering the two massive adults. The biggest shock was not their strange grouping—it was their bright red Auras.
“What could they be doing here?” Sun asked the pigeon bathing in the fountain. Surely, she was not asking Cadin because he didn’t have a clue as to why these strange visitors were casually walking towards the Town Square in Glade, the farthest cloud-land from the Contra Quad.
The lead boy locked eyes with Cadin, noted Gur on his shoulder and headed straight for the fountain. The group approached briskly and stopped directly in front of Cadin. His eyes lingered over Cadin’s head for a moment.
“We are looking for Headmaster Tripharian of the Common’s School of Glade.” The head boy’s voice was clear and confident for his young age. He had light skin and jet-black hair. Everything from his clothes to his bird screamed precise and high-end. His falcon eyed Gur but did not move a feather. Gur started pacing back and forth between Cadin’s shoulders.
“The school is not near the here. You will have to backtrack up the path you just came in on and follow it to the forest.”
One of the other boys in the group rolled his eyes. “What a ridiculous village. This should not even count as a city; how can they host their own Qualifiers?”
“All the easier for us,” the only girl in the group said. She had dark features with nearly black eyes. “And what is up with your Aura?” she sneered, eyeing Cadin.
“Enough,” the head boy said. “Let us win this thing and get out of here.” He faced Cadin again. “Thank you for your help.”
“Wait, are you guys here for the Commons Game Qualifications?” Cadin asked—disbelief lacing his tone.
“Wow, this one is sharp as a wrath tooth, Ryker, we better watch out for him,” the girl addressed the leader.
“No need to be sarcastic,” Sun jumped in. “We are simply curious who you are as there have been no introductions. We’ll start. I’m Sun of Lance and this is Ca…”
The head boy—Ryker, cut Sun off mid introduction. His eyes had never even turned to Sun while she was talking. “We do not have time to fool around with children. We are only here to win the Qualifier and move on.”
Ryker turned to walk away and his group followed him. Cadin overheard one of the boys say to the girl in the group, “man, I hope their Com teams offer up some competition.”
“We are a Commons team!” Sun shouted at their back.
Ryker turned, his team following. A slow grin spread across his face. “Surely you must be joking. You don’t even have your wings yet,” Ryker said as he lifted his sheathed sword and pointed it at them. Gur hissed what Cadin was sure was a threat.
“Calm down, lizard,” Ryker said. His falcon gave one ear-piercing call. He pet the falcon on the head and it closed its eyes while cuddling his hand.
“Dragon, not lizard,” Cadin said calmly, though his body was shaking. “And, yes we are a Com Team.”
“I knew they lowered the age limit, but this seems a bit ridiculous. Are your other team members’ pre-pubescent as well?”
Right on cue, Lep and Bart walked out of the leather-smith store.
“Cadin check out the…” Lep started to say until he looked towards the fountain. “Who are you?” He asked the red menaces.
“Must be the rest of the team,” the girl giggled to Ryker.
Lep and Bart understood the tension and joined Cadin and Sun. Cadin grabbed one of the school swords just in case. Ryker did not miss his movement and only smiled.
“Calm down, little boy. We are not here to fight you, unless you are indeed a Com Team which we must destroy in order to place. Besides, that pathetic excuse for a weapon would do nothing against this.” He drew his long, pristine blade out so fast Cadin barely had time to raise the school sword in defense.
“This is a true blade, and you would do well to remember it,” Ryker said, pointing the sword at Cadin. Cadin shifted his stance but was interrupted by a huffy, cherry-faced Ruben from Glade Palace.
“What are you children doing?!” Ruben yelled at Cadin’s group.
“Us? What about these red ruffians?” Cadin asked incredulously. It hardly seemed fair that Ruben was singling out his group when Ryker was pointing the impressive sword at his chest.
“Lord Ryker, you made it,” Ruben said as he bowed—allowing more blood to flow into his face. “Please don’t mind our local trouble-makers,” he said as he gave Cadin a dirty look. Apparently, the Glade Palace incident was not forgotten. “Your father has asked me to see to your accommodations during you visit. Please follow me and I will get you settled.”
Ryker lowered his sword and turned to Ruben.
“Yes, thank you.” The whole team turned and walked away without another word.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Third Qualifier
The whole town was buzzing about the red visitors and how they chose Glade to compete in the Red Qualifier. Instructor Kade explained that the host cloud-land for the Games was allowed to send one team to any other cloud-land per Qualifier. It was not a rule which was generally taken advantage of. The host cloud-land rotated each year between Quads. The Contra Quad had a reputation for being gracious hosts, and fierce competitors.
“Red jerks!” Vincent spat out. The Challenge Club had finished their training and they were all gathered around the little tree on Yi Field speaking of the strange turn of events. “They are only able to take advantage of the antiquated rule because the little head prince’s dad is the wealthiest angel in the entire Contra Quad, and he pays for his son and his friends to travel and train wherever they wish.”
“That doesn’t seem fair to us—I mean to have a red team come in during the Red Qualifier,” Xeno said quietly.
“Of course it isn’t fair!” Vincent exclaimed. “But if you have enough money to pay people off—fewer people care about what is fair.”
“I heard Ruben say at the market that his father is one of the biggest clients at the Glade Palace,” Treven added. “Apparently, he had given Ruben an ear-full when we had broken in—threatening to take away his business and store his treasures elsewhere if Ruben was incapable of keeping his wares safe.”
“Wow, I wonder what he has in there,” Lexi said.
“Well at least we have more of a heads up than usual about which Qualifier is next,” Cadin said.
“Was Ryker cool?” Lexi asked. “He is extremely handsome.”
“He may be good looking, but he is a jerk with no respect for anyone he feels is beneath him and his station—which my guess would be everyone,” Sun answered before Cadin knew how to respond.
“Oh,” Lexi said. She and most of the other girls in Glade gathered to watch the visitors as they toured the school. Cadin didn’t understand what the big deal was. He wasn’t that good looking. Must be the wings.
“We better head back to class.”
“Okay, troops!” Instructor Kade said, with a noticeable bounce to his step. “Headmaster Tripharian asked me to make the announcements about the upcoming Qualifier. As you probably all know by now the next Qualifier is red, we have a visiting team competing, and it will take place tomorrow!”
“Oh no,” Cadin said quietly. Master Emilio was still not back from his trip, and could therefore not assess Cadin’s progress. After his talk with Sun, he really had wanted to prove to himself he had the ability to master the gin-blade. In addition, after his run-in with Ryker, he also wanted to prove he could handle a true blade and beat Ryker's team doing it. Now he would have to settle once again for a school sword.
“Why are you so happy about this red team being here during our Red Qualifier, Instructor Kade?” Vincent asked with narrowed eyes.
“You become the best by going up against the best.” Instructor Kade answered simply. “The Red Qualifier is all about offense. We will be bringing back the Academy teams as defenders. “You will earn points by causing as much damage as possible to the defenders and the statues they are trying to defend. Flying is allowed and encouraged in this Qualifier. Second-year students will be at a disadvantage. If I were you—I would think of offensive strategies to limit flying defenders. You will be in a very similar environment to the Green Qualifier.”
“How can we beat defenders with wings?” Lep asked.
“That is for you and your team to figure out. Team check in is at nine tomorrow morning.”
When Cadin got home he went straight for Tsuyo. This time he took it to Mist Lake which was free of any other angels. At first, he just rolled the gins around in his hand, letting them activate and trying to feel what they were capable of. Grass shuffled behind him.
“I’m...ah…just practicing!” Cadin said as he turned.
The noise turned out to only be Gur who was chasing cloud-hoppers and making snacks of them. Cadin had completely forgotten that he had jumped down from his shoulder. Gur gave him a questioning sideways glance with a hopper leg sticking out of the side of his mouth.
“Sorry, Gur. Continue,” Cadin said with a dismissive wave. Gur happily swallowed his current mouthful and started stalking another.
“Ehh! What am I doing?” He said out loud. He had to admit to himself after the way he had jumped at the sound of Gur that he was not there to just practice. He wanted to be good enough with Tsuyo to justify using his gin-blade in the Red Qualifier.
The training had been going better. He was able to have all his gins return to him whenever he remembered to ask, and he had learned how to catch them with Tsuyo quite well. It felt like Tsuyo was being nothing more than tolerant of Cadin’s gins—as if they were not on the same energy level.
He worked on something trickier as it required him to both defend himself and be his own attacker. He concentrated on shifting Tsuyo into a center-handle blade—almost like a very long and sharp brass knuckle. It was the closest blade shape he could coerce the gin-blade to transform into for what Cadin had in mind for his next exercise. Closing his eyes, he thought of the shield he wanted and summoned the two gins which gave off the most protective energy. Once he had the dynamics right in his mind and ready to call the gins out, shock radiated through him when he opened his eyes to find his gin-shield already made.
“Wow!” Cadin said. Gur looked up from the grass, with one hopper hanging from his mouth and another in his hands. The cloud-hopper took advantage of Gur’s momentary distraction and wiggled free. Gur let him be and wandered over to Cadin.
“Look at this, Gur! They reacted to what I was thinking and did it perfectly!” He held the shield up for Gur to inspect. Both gins were slightly transparent and Cadin smiled at Gur’s inquisitive gaze from behind the shield. Each gin extended out from either side of the blade where they eventually met up and bonded beyond the tips of the blade to create an oval shaped shield. The blade was exposed down the middle so that it could still be used as an offensive weapon. Cadin figured it was the only reason that Tsuyo had willingly transformed into this shape.
Gur let out a little growl and lunged at the shield, trying to tag Cadin. He bounced off and rolled in the grass before righting himself to try again. Cadin laughed and made a game of trying to block Gur, who turned out to be a stealthy opponent. Cadin was being careful to keep the middle blade away from Gur, which the dragon used to his advantage by jumping in the air to one side. Cadin over-rotated the shield and Gur flapped a wing to change direction mid jump to land squarely on Cadin’s chest.
“Good lesson,” Cadin conceded as Gur affectionately nibbled his ear and settled down on his shoulder. “Now let’s try the slice-type gins.”
Cadin spent the rest of the afternoon sending the slice-gins out into the sky and having them attack him. The problem was he played his own attacker and knew what the gins were going to do. He was still proud when blocking the attacking gins and having his shield work perfectly. The reflection on his sword changed and mirrored the small mountain that rose behind Mist Lake. The sun was setting and the natural clouds had overtaken most of the mountain, causing the light to be diffused. The lake reflected the beautiful colored clouds—the setting sun telling him it was time to finish practice and return home.
Cadin’s dad was working on a pair of shin guards when Cadin returned to the house. His dad looked up and smiled when he approached.
“Hey, kid, how was training?” Tal asked as he dipped the hot plates in water. Steam rose around his face, but his eyes never left Cadin’s.
“Actually, really great.” Cadin answered with an edge to his voice.
“Oh, good. Well, get inside so that your mom knows that you are home.”
“Okay. Dad, can I ask you something
?” Cadin wasn’t quite sure how he could phrase a question about Tsuyo without giving away something that could let his dad outright refuse to let him use his gin-blade in the Qualifier.
“Shoot, kid.”
“Uh, if… I…no, have you ever used anything that gave you an advantage in training or in battle that wasn’t common, or something others didn’t have access to?” Cadin could barely make sense of what he said, so he was shocked when his dad answered.
“Yes, I have. I had access to Marvin’s tools and was able to make whatever kind of armor or weapon I could imagine would give me an advantage in school, training or even the Core. I never made anything I wasn’t allowed to have—I simply made whatever gave me the best opportunity to advance or survive.”
“That is so cool! Thanks, Dad,” Cadin said as he ran into the house.
“Hey, wait. What were you talking about?” Tal asked, but Cadin was already through the door and in the tunnel.
I can do it! I should do it! Cadin thought as he ran inside.
“Hi Cadin, how was school?” His mom asked as he ran up to his room.
“Great!” Cadin shouted.
“Dinner in ten minutes!”
“Okay!”
Cadin spent the ten minutes before dinner shifting Tsuyo into different styles of swords, until he found one that inconspicuously fit into his school bag.
He fidgeted all through dinner, but refused to tell his parents why. They kept on him until he said that he was nervous for the Qualifier.
Cadin ran to catch up with Lep on his way to school. He was intent on confiding in Lep about Tsuyo; however, Charlie was walking with him, her curls bouncing down to her shoulders.
“You’re acting strange today,” Charlie said to Cadin.
“Charlie, that’s not nice to say!” Lep scolded gently. “However, you're kinda right. What’s up, Cadin?”
“Later,” Cadin whispered. Lep just nodded and much to Cadin’s relief Charlie dropped the subject.
