Elementals

Chapter 25

Earth: Year 3205
Northern academy

Breeze:
They’ve been promoted. I mean, he’s been promoted, Rain, my brother… I can’t seem to gather my thoughts at the moment. Just looking at him in a different uniform has rendered me speechless to say the least. He’s going away too, with me and Blaze? I can’t get out of this, I can’t snap out of it no matter how many times Blaze tries to. In my maze of questions, I turn my head towards Senior Pool who doesn’t seem surprised at all about the set-up of this session. For some reason I’m led to believe that he’s known for quite a while. He knew we were going up here today and he even knew it was against Rain and Ember. Why didn’t he tell us? Why didn’t he tell me?!

“Hey, Breeze…Breeze, snap out of it!” I finally hear from Blaze as she actually manages to snap me out of it. The way she looks at me is of that kind of look that I’m not interested in having aimed at me. “Easy for you to say, Blaze. It’s not your sibling standing up there catching you completely off guard.” I snap at her as she sighs deeply. “No, my sibling is dead, thanks for reminding me so warm-heartedly.” She answers back as I bury my face in my hands for a moment, knowing I crossed the line even before she answered. “I know, I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to put it up like that…” I let out as I sit back up.

“I know you didn’t, but a little restraint in your choice of words would be nice.” She answers back as she for a minute or so stares right onto the Grand Master who’s made eye-contact with her. For a moment she looks completely distant. “Blaze?” I let out, but she doesn’t seem to respond. I look quickly over at Pool who seems to be as curious to the eye-contact going on as me. Pool and I make eye-contact again and he tells me to snap her out of it. “Blaze!” I let out even louder as she seems to snap out of it. “What?” She answers as she shakes her head slightly. “Are you alright?” I ask. “Yeah…yeah, I’m fine…” She lets out slightly befuddled.

I don’t know if I believe her or not, but I’m forced to drop it as everybody’s attention is brought to the front. “Juniors of the Northern Academy, I’m Grand Master Vulcano. I’ve come all the way from the top of the food-chain to be here today and I bring with me the Master Elemental of Wind, Storm, to assess two very special Junior Elementals. They will be put up against two of your own recently graduated Elementals. And considering this is a special occasion, I will be the one to lead this session with Master Elemental Storm, and your very own Senior Pool on the side.” My eyes move over towards Senior Pool for a moment. There’s something about his attitude that puts me off. He knows something we don’t.

“So without any further delays, I’d like to ask the Junior Elementals of the hour, Breeze and Blaze to come to the front. You two will be going up against these two Elementals, each representing your greatest elemental weaknesses.” The Grand Master says as Blaze and I share a weak look at each other before we get up on our feet and make our way to the front. I can pretty much feel my heart beating violently inside my chest. As we get there, the Grand Master steps down from the podium, motioning both ‘teams’ to come closer. I presume this is some sort of a pep-talk about the session, explaining the rules as we didn’t know them already.

“Ember will go up against Breeze and Rain will go up Blaze afterwards. The rules here are quite simple: you stop when I tell you to stop. Until then you fight as if your life depended on it. Where you’re going after this, there isn’t any more games or rules, it’s just reality.” He says as Blaze and I look at each other briefly but then we nod. I keep my eyes on Rain for a moment who seems to be in his own world, but then he looks up at me. I’m using every ounce of strength to stay in control of my element. I will let it all out when I’m on that podium fighting Ember.