I find myself stranded once again on this beach. Though this time the air feels cold, I look around as the temperature seems to drop at a very rapid pace, the ocean doesn't seem to be frozen though. Seemingly out of nowhere another familiar voice from these dreams speaks.
"Why do you struggle so much to divert yourself? In the end it will all be the same. Destruction, and it will be all your fault. So why not just give up and accept that change is fruitless?"
I look to the left where the voice is calling me, towards the darkness. I see a woman on a wheel chair come out of the darkness. She has no legs, no arms, her body looks immensely malnourished to the point where they look as if they could die of starvation at any given moment. Her blue skin and purple hair catch me off guard, she looks at me and I can see that their eyes exactly match to my own. My breathing starts to run rampant. The strength in my body leaves me as I fall to the ground and lay on my side, staring at the wheels on the chair the woman is on. they seemed to move over in front of me, squirming a bit and then falling onto the ground, her face in front of my own. She stares at me for a moment as I barely have any strength left to breathe. Her eyes then closed for a few seconds, when they reopened, their eyes had illuminated fully to a straight purple. The feeling of fear consumes me as I look into her eyes; Immediately my vision goes out and I hear a familiar voice.
"Did you catch that Namea?"
I flinch for a second and realize that I am in the forest, Luelle stands in front of me, confused as to why I have flinched. I take a deep breath and look at Luelle.
"I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention, what were we talking about?"
Luelle lets out a deep sigh,
"I was talking to you about how you can go from calling the elements to being able to cast for a more powerful affect. One last time, to be able to do that, you need to keep your perception of your surroundings almost as if it was second nature, you also have to put more focus into your magic without losing consciousness. if you're worried about putting too much power I can shorten the range of my barrier so that you end up on the other side, just in case."
I think for a moment before responding.
"That would definitely make me feel more at ease."
Luelle steps back for a bit and then begins to cast her light barrier in front of me. Right on queue I begin to call the element of the wind. As the wind envelops my body and flows around me gently. I begin to put more focus to increase the power. The winds begin to feel stronger and stronger, but once I try to make an attack towards the barrier, my magic cuts off and the wind dissipates before even getting close to doing it. I sigh in frustration as I can faintly see Luelle inside the barrier. She smiles at me, and with a muffled voice I hear her say,
"You got this, just keep trying! Once you get the hang of this the rest of the elements will be a piece of cake!"
Feeling motivated from her encouragement I take a deep breath and call on wind once more. Failure after failure, almost fading into that dream state as before. I keep trying no matter what, I need to get something. After a few hours I begin to doubt myself. I am exhausted, am I low in mana? My body almost collapses onto the ground before I catch myself onto my hands and knees. I notice out of the corner of my eye, that the barrier goes down, Luelle rushes over to me as I barely have the strength to stand. I look up at her as she reaches her hand at me to help me up, I grab her hand and try as hard as possible to stand up.
"You're so close Namea, I just know you are."
I begin to calm my breathing as I take in Luelle's words; the visions of that woman in the wheel chair come back to me. The fear I felt perks me back up as I respond to Luelle,
"I'll keep trying, like you say, I just don't know how I'll know when it actually happens."
Luelle puts her hand on my shoulder,
"You'll know when it happens, trust me. It should look more like a physical form and feel more aggressive than just a gust of wind."
I nod at Luelle,
"Alright lets do this, get ready."
Luelle walks back a good distance and casts her light barrier once again. I also begin trying to cast wind. I focus really hard but try my hardest to not put too much focus into my surroundings, like Luelle said, make sure my perception of my surroundings like it's second nature. The wind flowing around me slightly makes me nervous for failure as I try to clear my thoughts from that. I feel a pulsing warmth in my heart, it begins to get stronger and stronger, the wind around me has begun to feel more aggressive. I focus hard on hitting the barrier. I got this, I have to just release this power now, all I have to do is collect the wind I feel around me and release it all at once. I point my palms towards the barrier trying to not just feel the wind around me, but also collect it so I can release this power. This pulsating feeling in my chest feels as if it wont ever stop, I try to tense up my chest to see if it will alleviate a little bit and right then and there; the wind around me all at once threw itself at the barrier creating a ripple effect onto it. I did it! A few seconds after realizing I had casted magic, my body collapses. I didn't lose consciousness as I can still think and see the barrier as it began to dissipate. Maybe I used up all my mana, I can hear Luelle coming over to me.
"You did it! I knew you could do it! Now we just need to work on increasing the output of your power!"
I smile at Luelle,
"I think I understand a bit more now how I can do it. Similar to how you do your barrier thing right?"
Luelle nods at me,
"Pretty much, plus not only will the power increase, the amount of mana you can use increases as well, it's sort of like working out."
I respond to her,
"Also, how long will I be unable to move?"
Luelle looks as if she's about to laugh but she holds back the laughter,
"It depends, I am pretty sure that you used up all of your mana so your body will use the majority of its energy to recharge, making you incapable of moving. Give yourself about 30 minutes and you should be able to move again."
I untense my body and end all attempts to get up, I just relax in place. Luelle sits down next to me and relaxes with me for the next 30 minutes.
The strength in my body begins to come back to me as I am able to move my body a bit better than before. I sit up and look at Luelle as she sits up along with me.
"I think I should get going back home, I'm honestly surprised my dad hasn't found out that I've been coming here this past week. Luelle, thank you so much for helping me out, It means so much to me."
Luelle stands up and looks at me,
"Don't mention it, honestly. Also, if your father ever finds out or you feel you can't stay at your own home anymore, do not hesitate to come over to our home, It's actually not far from where we are currently. I usually walk that way since its a straight forward walk, and then you'll manage to come across our home. If you tell the guards that I told you to come here they should understand."
I nod at her and stand up,
"Thanks again, I'll see you tomorrow right?"
I reach my hand out for a handshake as she returns the handshake. We then walk our separate ways as I head home. For the next 6 days me and Luelle had trained on how much power I can release with my magic. Wind became easier to cast so I began to train myself on how to cast fire. Since I had already learned how to cast wind, fire felt much easier to cast. I've got a good grip on how to cast fire and wind but, I want to increase the power I have. While training I realize, It's been just about two weeks since me and Luelle met, I look over to Luelle and walk over to her as she notices me.
"It's been almost two weeks Luelle, It's amazing to see how far I've come and how my life dreams seem more and more achievable thanks to you."
Luelle smiles,
"Don't worry about it, you're basically my closest friend at this point, I can't just leave you behind at this point. Hey, do you want to see if you can make a dent into my barrier? You should be able to put enough power in either fire or wind to do something at least, why not try it out?"
I look at her and think for a second, what If I end up hurting her? She's got her barrier so that should be fine, but what if I end up using more than I thought I could like when I began learning? I nod at Luelle,
"Sure, but if something bad happens I'm going to stop immediately."
Luelle casts her barrier, the best thing to use would probably be fire as it has the most power. I cast the element of fire on both my hands, the warmth of the flames engulf my palms as a ball of flame covers the entirety of both palms. I converge both flames together and charge more flames as I prepare an all out attack. Once I've pushed out as much power as I can without using every ounce of mana I have left. I then thrust my hands forward pointing both palms towards Luelle's barrier, Shooting out a breath like attack of fire onto the barrier. The flames almost enveloping the barrier as I keep pushing out as much fire as possible, Until I feel my mana getting low. I stop the fire attack before I use up too much power, my breathe is a tiny bit rugged and as I try to catch my breath I look over at the barrier to see if there was any damage. I take a look at where I attacked to notice a small crack in the barrier. I did it!!! Luelle turns off the barrier and rushes straight for me,
"You did it Namea! You managed to make a crack, your strength is improving a lot. I am so happy for you."
I smile at her,
"I think that may be a good spot to stop for the day, It's getting to around that time. Plus, I put just about everything in that attack, I want to at least have energy to get home."
Luelle nods at me,
"Oh! I almost forgot, I got you something!"
I feel a warmth in my heart at the though of Luelle getting something for me. Luelle pulls out of a satchel, what looks to be a small black box. She hands it to me as I reach for the box. I open it up and inside is what seems to be a very well made and beautiful necklace with a yellow gem as the centerpiece, on the gem is the sigil of the goddess of protection, Irelia. I grab the necklace and put it on. The warmth I feel gets stronger as I feel so happy that Luelle got me something.
"Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. I wish I could give you something back in return but I'm not exactly in a great position."
Luelle gives me a very warm smile,
"No problem, and don't worry about it! It's a gift, you shouldn't feel inclined to give me something back in return."
I lunge into Luelle for a hug. After hugging back we then get ready to go home for the day. In high spirits I walk at a comforting and cheerful pace as I make my way home. After around Thirty minutes of walking I open the door. Immediately my heart stops and my mood takes a complete 180 as I see my father sitting on the chair ahead of me, staring at me with disgust and anger.