Pretty Little Liar (Aruani Element Shifter AU) ✔️

Sixteen

A few hours later, after talking , listening, and asking about a million questions, I found myself following Mike and Eren up a high hill two miles away from the town.

"Umm, care to tell me what we're doing?" I asked.

Mike, who had already reached the summit and was waiting for us to join, grinned. "Well, I want to see what Ymir has given you."

"Huh?"

"We want to see your powers, kid. Ymir was the only other air shifter I knew personally who was higher that a Grade 3. Now come on."

"Umm, okay. Wait, are you sure this place is safe?"

Mike looked around once,  at the empty, silent valley. "Yeah. This is where we come to practice our magic. See that hill over there?"

I looked over towards it. It was very rocky, and misshapen. "Oh, yeah?"

"Eren made that. This is secret turf. Nobody knows we're here. Now, come on."

I nodded, then following the instructions that Mike had given me before, I touched my emblem, and then almost immediately, it lit up the white-silver colour, and my eye started to sting. I flinched.

"Don't worry. It takes some getting used to. Now, spread out your legs. Keep a good balance. Close your eyes if you want to. Now, start with something easy." I heard him flick through the pages of the book. "Okay. Take your left hand and push it forward."

I did so. I opened my eyes and saw a gush of fast wind flying out of my hand.

"Good! Now, do the same with the other hand."

I did as he asked, and the same speed of wind came out of that one.

Eren, who was slouching on the grass behind Mike, grabbed onto his hat as the wind went soaring in their direction.

Mike nodded. "Okay, you're still a grade 1, naturally. I mean, you've only had the power a couple days. But just so you know, Ymir's power was extremely powerful. Very powerful, in fact. I wish I could tell you why, but I only met her a few months before she gave you her powers, and I didn't know her that well. But I know she was a level five, and was very skilled."

I stopped the wind ripples by closing my fingers into fists. I then felt the wind stop, and walked over to him.

"So, these grade things, you said there was eight?"

"Yeah. Eight. There's nobody alive with that grade though. Nobody is higher that a five. It's just a ranking system that they used to have years ago, for fighting. It was an easy way to form groups of the strongest and the weakest. Anyway, the whole thing just seemed to have stayed with us through the years."

"How do you know what level everyone is at?"

"I don't know, but the council know. It's like magnitudes in an earthquake. They can pick up magic on their detectors, and that magic comes up with a number stating how powerful the magic is. I'm just giving a rough estimate, but you're a one, and Eren is a four."

I nodded. "Wait, so, Ymir was a five?"

"Yeah. She was always on the run from the Council from the start. As I said, I don't know how she got so powerful, but the Council always picked up on her abnormally high power energy."

"Right."

Ymir was still confusing me. Where did she come from? She just randomly arrived in our school one day. With what intention? It had to have been more than just Christa sparking her interest.

I frowned, setting those thoughts aside for a minute.

"What are you then?" I asked Mike.

I saw Eren smirk to himself behind him. Mike smiled.

"A few years ago, I might have been a six. But I'm not anymore. I guess I'm a four."

"A six?" I repeated, in awe.

He just nodded, with a small nod.

"Anyway, I'm not anymore. Let's go."

He turned and walked up the hill past Eren, who then stood up and waited for me as I caught up.

"Mike was a six?" I whispered to him.

Eren nodded, then sighed. "Yeah. He was once very powerful. Him and his wife. Both their parents were survivors of the revolution. They grew up far from here, then came back hoping one day to build an army to fight against those that killed our kind. But they were captured. His wife was killed and he was experimented on for months until he escaped. He lost a lot of power. He spent years trying to find his wife before realising she was dead, like so many others. That day changed him, and the whole plan to assassinate the council died."

I was so lost for words, all I could manage to say was "Oh."

"What's taking you so long?" Mike yelled from the hill.

"Nothing! I was just demonstrating to Armin how I make a dent in the earth!" Eren joked, as though nothing had happened.

"Come on," Mike said.

Once we were up at the top, Mike stood staring at us from a boulder.

"Okay Armin. Try blowing out. This is a Wind Shifter spell that's very useful. Breath in, then breath our as strongly as you can."

I closed me eyes, then followed his instructions. I could hear the wind in front of me spiral out.

"Good."

"Umm, Mike?"

"Yeah? What is it?"

I opened my mouth to ask him why he was helping me, but hesitated, knowing it may not be a nice question for him to answer. Eren raised an eyebrow.

"Umm, I was just wondering, why would Ymir come to this city of all places, if she was constantly being chased? This is the worst place for a shifter."

"Yeah it is. I know. I stay here to work for the council undercover. It keeps us safe because they don't suspect a thing from an old post office keeper. Other than that not a lot of Element Shifters live in this city. I used to know a water shifting couple a few years back, but they moved so to be safer or something. But anyway, I would think that Ymir was sent by somebody to do something. God knows what, but there was something. She seemed on edge when I first met her, like she was trying to find something. Anyway, there must have been a reason. But for whatever reason it was, she obviously found it, because she didn't seem to want to live like this anymore."

"Right," I said.

I looked up. Eren was looking away, biting his lip at the floor. I raised an eyebrow. When he looked up and saw my eyes locked on him, he just grinned and walked over towards me.

Putting an arm around my shoulders he said, "I'm starving. Shall we go get something to eat?"