My shoes desperately tried to get a grip on the wall. I pushed hard, vaulting myself up to the top. I grabbed the edge and balanced myself. I winced as I felt the sharp uneven surface of the wall dig into my hands. Astrid was sitting at the top and clapping her hands. "Good job, Amara. Unfortunately, that's the easy part."
She got up and walked to the edge of the wall. I followed behind her and saw the course before us. It had huge stones jutting out of the ground, spaced a good deal apart. The only comforting thought was the net at the bottom to catch you. Astrid abruptly turned around and faced me. She smiled at me and flipped backwards. She landed on the first boulder with a thud. I followed her and jumped down. I nearly fell off.
It was clear that Astrid's skill greatly outweighed mine. Astrid took off, leaping from stone to stone. She had a graceful and lethal aura. She was calm and seemed to be at home in the training grounds. I couldn't help but admire her. When she reached the other side, she called out to me. Now, the reality of this situation crushed down on me.
Even though if I fall, I know I will be okay, but it still didn't stop me from fearing it. Taking a shaky breath, I jumped, barely making it. I steadied myself. How was I supposed to do this six more times?! I gritted my teeth and kept going. I knew that Astrid was not going to let me give up even if I wanted to. Each time, I barely made the jump, my foot slipping and my muscles screaming in pain from the strain. On the final jump, the platform was a good distance away from where I was standing. Astrid was sitting there, encouraging me and giving tips.
I stood there. How was I going to make this one? All the other jumps were somewhat possible, but this one was different. How Astrid made it was a mystery to me. I knew I would not make this with the small amount of energy left in me.
"Astrid, this jump is impossible!" I called out to her. She visibly grinned. "Really Amara? I'm disappointed. I thought you would have learned by now, but I guess not. I'm half fire-nymph, for goodness sake! We are the definition of impossible. Technically, everything we do is impossible, every movement, every breath, and every word. You can make this jump!"
I was stunned by her words because everything she said was true. Maybe I could make this jump. Maybe I could do the impossible. I took one deep breath, gathering all of my strength. Finally, with one long hard look at Astrid, I jumped. I pushed off the rock with so much force that I surprised myself. Somehow, I found myself above the platform. I landed with a thud and fell over, exhausted.
"Astrid, am I dead?" She giggled. "No, you still have a life to live."
I groaned as I stood up, all of my muscles burning. I nearly collapsed again. Astrid noticed my exhaustion. "Let's take a break."
We sat there for a good fifteen minutes. Somehow the burning in my arms and legs subsided and I felt better. Astrid stood up and stretched. I followed her lead. Again, Astrid took off. I sighed and followed. Most of the course consisted of jumping, swinging, and all the normal life threatening exercises. Of course, I had a really hard time keeping up with Astrid's insane stamina. When I completed the last stage, I flopped onto the grass with a groan. Astrid just watched me with amusement in her eyes. I think we stayed there way longer than Astrid had wanted. She kept trying to get me to stand up. Finally, she gave up and proceeded to drag me across the grass until I had enough of sharp rocks and broken twigs stabbing into my back. I reluctantly got up and followed Astrid to a small clearing.
The area was surrounded in boulders and the occasional tree. Some of the rocks had deep cuts in them and others scorch marks. In the middle of all the rocks was a sand pit. The sand had many ridges from the multiple tracks of feet. Astrid walked onto the sand pit and towards one particular rock. It was taller than most with more slashes into its face. She stopped in front of it and gestured for me to come over. As I came over, desperately trying not to get sand in my shoes, Astrid suddenly blasted the rock with fire. The flames were pure white, leaving the rock with charred black.
She turned to face me. "For your first task, I want you to make a circle of ice around you." She said with excitement burning in her eyes. Cautiously, I walked over and stood in the middle of the sand pit. How am I supposed to do this? I thought back to the incident. Apparently, I seemed like my powers were triggered by strong emotions. Hmm maybe I need to be angry. I then thought about all the things that made me angry. I felt a slight tingle in my hand and a tug in my stomach, but nothing happened. Hm, maybe not anger. I kept thinking and started to pace. Maybe I need to be in pain. At this point, Astrid was watching me with interest. She somehow had pulled a chocolate and nut bar from nowhere.
"Try thinking happy thoughts." Astrid suggested in between her chewing. "Works for me."
I wanted to slap myself. What is wrong with me? My mind immediately went to negative emotions. I calmed myself and followed Astrid's advice. I focused on all of my thoughts, pushing away my dark past and focusing on the present. I felt my fingers become numb as frost started to gather on my fingertips. I focused harder and imagined forming ice in a circle. Slowly, I spun in a circle. Icy spikes sprung out and formed a circle around me. Astrid clapped. She came over and burned my ice spikes.
"Well done! Now you just have to do that again until you can do it with little to no thought."
I sighed. At least, it wasn't that bad. I flexed my fingers and began. I continued for an hour, creating a circle of icy spikes which Astrid burned down again. At the end of the hour, I could flick my hand and ice spikes would pop out around me.
"Alright, that's enough," Astrid said. "Now that you got the hang of it, I want you to hit the rock."
She patted the rock and stepped back. I focused on the boulder. I thought of ice spikes rushing forward and shattering on the rock. As I imagined the scene, ice spikes shot forward. I didn't hit the rock, but the spike flew past and smashed into the rocks behind it. I almost hit Astrid with one too. I winced. Astrid gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You'll get there."
I shot again and again. Each one missed and crashed into the other rocks. I wasn't a very patient person and it wasn't long before I was frustrated. So, with that anger, I mustered every ounce of emotion rolling through my mind and dashed forward. Everything slowed down and I could feel my body temperature drop dramatically. I raised my fist and slammed it into the rock. The force was so great that a loud crack rang out over the estate. When I looked back up, the rock was split in two. A big crater was split between the two parts. I stared in shock. Surprisingly, my arm was fine. Actually, my whole body was numb. When I looked down, my arms and legs were covered in frost and snow. Astrid was standing next to me just as shocked. Astrid turned to meet my eye and gasped.
"Amara, your eyes!" She exclaimed. "Their turquoise."
I gently touched the corner of my eye. Before I could say anything, we heard a rustle in a nearby tree. Astrid immediately was on guard. Confused, I asked her what was wrong. Her eyes darted back and forth surveying the trees. Without looking at me she answered.
"Someone's here that should not be." She stalked forward carefully. I followed her. A small pop came from one of the trees. Suddenly, blinding pain exploded through my leg. It shot up and raced through my body. I fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Astrid whirled around and kneeled down to cover me. I heard someone shouting and screams. I soon realized that I was the one screaming. As my vision blurred from the pain, I saw three people running toward me. I recognized Gram first, then Caspian and Luka. I heard loud crashing through the trees as the intruder retreated. Luka and Caspian took off after them.
As I desperately tried to stay focused, I realized that my pain was similar to something I had felt before. It was the same pain I had felt when I was shot. Not only was it similar, but it was in the exact place I had been shot in the dream. I was so shocked that I lost my grasp on reality and slipped into the darkness.