Sitting completely still while breathing deeply, it seemed as if each intake of breath was able to suck in visible wisps of air and each exhale showed warm vapor. The sound of the noisy waterfall drowned out most of the other sounds surrounding her, which helped her enter a calm state of mind. Each ripple, swirl and bubble that came from the water around her, she was able to hear them clearly. With a little bit more concentration, it was like she could feel the current of the water as it splashes against the rocks. Taking in deeper breaths, she was finally able to visualize her surroundings as though she was looking at them, even though she had her eyes closed.
Scrunching her eyebrows together, she slowly lifts her right hand and felt joy when she heard water moving along with her hand movements. Opening her eyes, she looks straight at the water in front of her hand, and with a flick of her wrist, the water crystalized into the shape of an orb. She spreads her fingers apart and watches in joy as the orb shatter into many small icicles that were as sharp as needles. She waves her hands in a forward motion and the icicles were sent straight towards the boulder in front of her.
The icicles whistled through the air like an arrow would when it was shot from a bow. Then the icicles pierced into the boulder silently, only leaving behind pin-sized holes. She grips her right hand into a fist and the icicles formed into an orb again, but this time they had spikes, which in turn shattered the boulder from the inside.
Looking at her progress, Relenah had a satisfied smile on her face. For the past few years, ever since she found out she had magic, she had been training almost every day so that she could control her magic. Looking back on how she used to cause chaos during her child years, she was happy with the progress she has made so far. Though, a tiny part of her still felt sad that she was not able to learn magic formally, like most children her age would when they discover they had magic.
Whenever she brought up the topic of wanting to learn from a real teacher, her father would go on a rant on how they will most likely look at her as a freak, or how they would lock her up. Worse case scenario that her father gave her was that the King might just pass down a death judgement on her. She shivered at the thought.
Her father never told her in detail why she would receive such negative reactions, he only told her that she was different, and that different is not always a good thing, especially in the eyes of those that hold power.
When Relenah asked her mother about it before, and her mother would tell her how most people would only be able to control one element. In fact, having even two elements is a very rare occurence and mostly only happened to those of noble birth. After hearing her mother's explanation at that time, Relenah came to realize why her father was adamant in not exposing her magic. If only those of royal birth had two elements, then those in power might see her as a threat to the royal family.
Rolling back her shoulders, Relenah closed her eyes and tried to enter a calm state of mind again. Memories of her years of practice quickly flash by in her mind. She remembered how she first discovered her magic. She was outside with her father and brother, her mother was inside their tiny cabin. Her father and brother managed to hunt down a deer and so the family was going to barbeque the meat outside.
She was in charge of getting the firepit started. Although she had built a fire before, for some odd reason, she wasn't able to get a fire going at the time. Slowly, she felt her temper rise and with an angry huff a large fire suddenly burst from the firepit. She screamed loudly in shock which caught her family members' attention. Her father was stricken with panic and worry and quickly fetched a water bucket before dumping all the water in the bucket onto the firepit.
At the time, her family thought it was just an accidental coincidence and didn't put much thought into it. However, after numerous events of random things happening, her father finally realized that she was the cause of all those accidents.
Like the time she accidentally made it rain above her brother's head after a heated argument, or that time she practically blew away their tiny cabin with a tiny tornado when she threw a tantrum. After feeling guilty about blowing their cabin away, she cried and wailed, and then the trees surrounding them magically started falling one by one, turning into shiny new wooden planks that merged together. With an astonished look on her face as well as her family's faces, they watched as the wooden planks slowly became a large new cabin.
After that incident, her parents sat her and her brother down and then began telling them about individuals that were able to wield magic, they were mostly called elementalists since their magic came from the elements around them.
This all happened back when she was nine years old. Now at the age of thirteen, she had a better grasp of her magic as well as her emotions. She found out the hard way that her emotions had a big impact on her magic. There was this one time where she was learning how to gather wind when a snake appeared near her feet, she felt so frightened that the wind she was gathering in her hands turned into sharp blades and slashed the snake into tiny little pieces before it could bite her.
Afterwards she tried her best to control her emotions especially near her family since she was not able to fully control her powers yet at the time. Now however, she was able to fully control her magic and not let it be controlled by her emotions as much as it used to. The only time her magic ever went out of control was when she felt intense emotions, such as rage or intense fear.
Taking in deep breaths again, Relenah tries to visualize the boulder that she destroyed a while ago. With both hands this time, she pushes foward and slowly pulls her hands back. The sound of pebbles and small rocks shaking was heard as she opens her eyes and sees the rocks gathering. With a deep breath, she pushes her hands together near her chest and the rocks obeyed her commands and slowly merged together, turning into a boulder.
Letting out a sigh, she could feel the magic in her surrounding being more pronounced. This was how she was able to tell if her magic was getting stronger or not. Her father had went into the city once to ask around about magic training, and one of the things he found out was, those that were stronger in their magic were able to feel the magic surrounding them more accutely than others.
Looking down at her hands, she could almost see different colors dancing around her fingers. This was also another thing her father had told her. Those that were able to fully master their elements would have the color of their elements surrounding their body. The brighter the glow, the stronger the elementalist is.
Relenah sighed sadly when she saw the glow in her hands changing from a copper color to a bright azure color. She was glad that she did not emit colors from all the elements that she knew, however, she would still emit colors of elements that she has used recently, like her water and earth elements.
"You've taken your time."
Relenah jumped and swirled around when she heard a clear-toned voice behind her. Looking at the youth standing behind her that had an axe in one hand, and a bundle of wood being carried on his shoulder in the other, she smiled at him.
"Well I was waiting for you to finish your chores. We both know how long it takes you," she chuckles.
The youth rolled his eyes at her, "That's because some of us don't cheat and use magic to do their chores, unlike a certain someone."
"You're just jealous," Relenah smirked, mirth dancing on her face.
"Tch- are you done with today's training? If so then let's go back. Mom and dad said they had something important they wanted to discuss with us today," The youth clicked his tongue and turned around, walking back towards their cabin.
"Alright, I'm coming," Relenah sighed, getting up from her sitting position near the lake. "Oberon, wait for me!"
"If you'd stop walking so slowly then you would've caught up to me already," Oberon teased.
Puffing her cheeks in anger, Relenah was able to catch up to her brother, Oberon, and then stomped past him in a huff.
"It's not a race you know," Oberon continued his teasing. He chuckled when he saw his little sister ignoring him and even started walking faster just to get ahead of him.
After ten minutes of walking, Oberon and Relenah finally saw their cabin come into view. With hurried steps, Relenah barged through the front door and called out, "I'm back!"
Relenah heard the sound of pans clattering in the kitchen before she saw her mother appear near the kitchen door. "You're done with your training already?" her mother asked, her voice gentle and soothing.
Nodding her head, she went into the kitchen to help her mother carry out the dishes for lunch. The sound of footsteps caught Relenah's attention and she turned her head to see Oberon putting down his bundle of wood next to the fireplace.
"I'm back," Oberon called out.
"Welcome back, sweetie," their mother said as she carried out a big bowl of beef stew and gently placed it on the dining table. "Lunch will start in a bit, how about you go call your father? He's in the shed."
Oberon nodded his head and walked outside towards the shed that was situated beside their cabin.
Relenah finished taking out the bread their mother was baking, and placed them one by one inside a small woven basket. With a wave of her hands, she used her wind magic to gently carry out the basket of bread, a stack of plates, and some cutlery towards the dining table.
When her mother saw this, she watched in amusement and slowly clapped her hands, "You've gotten better at controlling your magic, I remember back in the day when you would drop all of the plates you were carrying."
Relenah smiled guiltily, "Ha...ha...ha... sorry?"
Her mother gave her a small smile. Relenah turned her head towards the door when she heard the front door opening. The sounds of heavy footsteps became clearer. She saw her father walking through the front door, with her brother following behind him.
"Let's eat," her father said in a gruff voice.
Her mother took her seat beside her father where as Relenah took a seat beside her brother. The sound of cutlery scrapping against the plates were the only sound that surrounded their dining area for a moment.
Her father suddenly cleared his throat, he lifts his head and gave a long look at his son before turning his attention to his daughter. When Relenah saw this she stopped eating and gave her father her full attention. Her brother and mother also stopped eating and turned their attention to her father as well.
"Oberon, you are sixteen now. As it is, you are of age to enter the knight training program," Her father said in a solemn voice.
Her brother, Oberon, stiffened beside her. She could see him clenching his fist that was placed on his lap. "I know," was his only reply.
"Relenah," her father called out, "You are now thirteen. Based on what I've gathered, this is the average age for children to begin showing signs of magic."
Relenah gulped and gave her father a confused look.
"What does that have anything to do with me, father?" She asked.
Her father heaved a long sigh, "I know you have worked hard the past few years, and I also know that you have very good control over your magic now. Meaning, even if you go to the academy, people will not figure out you are able to control multiple elements."
Relenah got even more confused when she heard her father's comments, "But, didn't you tell me before that going to the city, and exposing my magic will get me into big trouble?"
"That was back then. You were not able to control your magic back then, and people would've realized you had multiple elements. But as you are now, it shouldn't be too hard for you to restrict your magic so that you'd only use one element," her father gave her a meaningful look.
Relenah suddenly felt excitement bubbling deep in her stomach, "So, what you're trying to say is...?"
"Your mother and I have discussed it. Since your brother is going to join the knight training program in the city, then it would be safer if you were to go to the city with him," her father replied calmly. Her mother nodded her head and gave both of her children encouraging smiles.
Oberon suddenly pushed back his chair and stood up, "How is she safer? I would be spending most of my days in the knight academy while she will be sent to the magic academy. How can I keep an eye on her when the academies are so far away from each other?!"
Relenah looked up at her brother in surprise from his sudden outburst.
Their father sighed and had a solemn look on his face, "Oberon, I do not like this anymore than you do, however, are you willing to be the one that is holding your sister back?"
Father's sudden comment made Oberon freeze in his spot before he slowly lowered himself back onto his chair. The air surrounding the dining area turned gloomy and serious.
"Her being able to learn magic without a teacher shows how brilliantly talented she is, not to mention the elements she possess. At least if she goes to the academy, she can learn from an actual elementalist so that in the future, if people were to ever find out her secret, she'd at least be able to protect herself," this time it was her mother that spoke.
Oberon didn't say anything in return after that.
Relenah felt the mood around the room slowly getting better and she sighed in relief. Even though her mother rarely talks, she is always able to difuse any surrounding tension.
"But, mother, father, how am I able to join the academy? I most definitely can't learn all the elements," Relenah said solemnly.
"That is true, however, you can still enroll by choosing one of the elements you are most fond of, and learning the other elements by watching the other students and teachers in your surrounding. There are also a great number of spellbooks that can be found in the academy's library," her father voiced out.
Taking in a deep breath, Relenah can imagine the scenario of her going to the academy and properly learning how to use magic. She was filled with anticipation and excitement from the thought of it.
Oberon saw the look on his little sister's face. He clenched his fists that were under the table and muttered to himself, "Someday I'll become a high ranking knight, that way I'd have the ability to protect Relenah as well as mom and dad."
Watching his daughter and son getting lost in their own little worlds, he turned his attention to his wife, only to see her smiling back at him. He nodded his head and thought to himself, "The day has finally come then. Time for our children to leave the nest."