A Flashback
20 years ago in the Scholaro
She was 10 years old then, and she remembers that day that changed her life. The frozen ground penetrates her feet as she was running barefoot in that icy forest. It was as if she had drawn all out of her strength just to get away from that place.
That was dreadful.
She heard the distant voices of her predator. The more that her heart was racing fast when she heard them following the trail of her own blood which she made on the ice-cold.
That was the day she wished she would grow up fast so she could defend herself.
That day she realized how difficult it is to be a pup, a she-wolf pup actually.
She heard from their conversations that they were the Night Flyers, a group of vampires whose hobby is to hunt when it's a dark moon.
She continued to run swiftly as she could. Her eyes beamed when saw the boundary just a few efforts away. But then, just when she was near to the salvation that she hoped for, she felt someone grab her back and drag her away.
She screamed.
She begged them to stop.
And when she turned, she saw the monstrous faces of her predator grinning wide at her.
" Hello, pup..."
She heard one of them say, perhaps the group leader.
He crumpled her face and scratches his pointed claws on her cheeks.
" We hate sharing territories with your kind, so you must be extinct while you're young,"
She was trembling.
Yet, her fright suddenly turned into anger when she heard the last words he said.
She growled.
They laugh at her, teasing, taunting her.
" So what now kid huh?"
They muttered laughing.
But before they could rip her flesh, she howled in her wildest.
Then there was a pause.
In a little while, the sound of hustling leaves liberates the air.
And her attacker was stunned when they noticed the trees began moving as it if it was a living person. Its branches began to sweep them, crushed them, and pierced their chest. They tried to escape, yet the ground teared up, vomiting fire as if something under it was chasing them.
Now, the table was turned.
The attacker was now being attacked.
And their horrible scream echoed in the forest.
Until they were all devoured by that fiery molten rocks.
The vampires were all dead, but the kid was still raging in fury.
She was still rumbling. Her yellow eyes were still glistening.
" Gaia!"
She heard someone calling her name.
" Hey...Gaia! Stop...it's okay now..."
While she was drowning in a strange force she can't control, that voice had drawn her back to the surface. The last thing she saw was the face of a middle-aged man, and the crumbling icy forest, good thing that she passed out before she completely devoured the entire place.
And when she woke up the next day, she found herself in an unfamiliar room with that old man again at her bedside.
" How are you feeling now?" he asked.
Looking at his smile, she was convinced that he was not a bad person.
And as time goes by, she found herself at ease in this place.
After a Month
She learned that Scholaro is a school for the special. Destiny swept her into this place because she is special, that's what Amarok would tell her.
Here, they were trained to be the strongest, to be the most powerful.
They were treated like they were a project that needs to be perfected.
And here in this school is where she discovered that she's not like any other she-wolves, that was one of those rare wolves who were born of elements.
" Yellow gold eyes when triggered...ability to manipulate stuff that's related to earth, trees, rocks, mountains, and volcanoes, and shapes them into weapons. The ground obeys her howl and shakes at her growl. She is the master of animals and plants. No doubt you're the one born of the earth element," Amarok told her.
" But..." he grabbed some sticks and throw the other one at her.
" that's not a big deal," he commented.
Gaia wondered why he throw a stick at her.
" Fight!" Amarok holds his stick to his side.
She hesitated.
She doesn't know a thing about combat.
" One rule to remember in this school. You can't use your element unless I said so," Amarok told her.
And he would train her in combat day and night, pushing her to the edge of her physical strength. There were days that she got sick, kid as she was, the training was too overwhelming for her.
And every time she was not feeling well, Amarok would just tell her that she's earth and so she must find within her ways to heal herself.
She would get up early for different series of training, and go to bed late and tired. There was a time when she was left in the forest alone and thrown into the territories of rogue wolves.
And for all those challenges where she would get mad or cry, Amarok would always tell her she must not.
" Emotion is everyone's weakness. Even deities could fall because of it. I am not training you here to become the most skilled in combat, but I want you to eliminate all those emotions you could feel. I want you to be a wolf and not a human,"
Amarok would always rant him those lines whenever she would fail.
She remembers when she was sixteen, she got beaten forty times. Yeah, her flesh could heal instantly, but that doesn't mean she couldn't feel the pain.
She was growling then.
Her eyes were glistening.
She was pushed to her end, and she was nearly tempted to draw out her elemental power, yet she tried hard not to for that will mean failing the test.
" I am not telling you not to feel the pain. I do not forbid you to be angry! You can! But you control your fury, or else you'll wreck more than a forest!"
Amarok's voice soared along with the blows of the rod.
" And most importantly," he stopped then and faced her.
" You can't love a thing," Amarok said.
Gaia's face was blank. She's still comprehending what his mentor means.
" A creature who loves is a slave of emotion. You can't fall in love, Gaia, remember that. Start loving someone, and you'll be doomed, so by now, let's get rid of that emotion," Amarok said.
So, when she reached eighteen, unlike the typical girls in the land who would gather with families and friends at parties, she was different.
Amarok told her that the girls who were doing that were not real Vikings. Vikings were taught to be experts with weapons, and not with boys. That they were warriors and not a princess.
And so her eighteenth birthday comes with a traditional game which Scholaro used to celebrate whenever a female student reached adolescence.
" How do you see him, Gaia?"
The telepath Skalds ( teacher) asked her.
She knows she can't lie or hide her thoughts from him. He can read anyone's mind.
Gaia took a deep breath and directed her gaze once again at the guy presented in front of her.
They had picked up the most charming, good-looking, and oozing personalities in the school, and were asked to stand in front of her to be rated.
" Skilled in combat, gentleman, kind-hearted, and a noble blood,"
The telepath Skalds enumerated the good traits of the guy.
" What is your opinion?" he asked her again.
" He doesn't interest me," Gaia replied.
Silence.
It was as if the Skalds is waiting for her to say more.
" Uhm...well too common," she added.
The Skald's face was serious.
" Okay," he said.
Then the next one comes forward.
Gaia took a deep breath again, calming herself. The Skalds must not hear even the slightest admiration in her thoughts.
" Not my type," she commented to the next one.
The Skalds glared at her.
Wrong response.
Gaia bites her lip, Damn! Why did I say that? She thinks.
She shouldn't be saying that because that means she probably had a certain type of guy she would like.
" Next.."
" An archer, a noble, had conquered several regions..."
The Skalds again enumerated the good traits of the last guy being presented to her. He could be the dream of any girl. He's near perfection.
But she knows she must not view him like how the ordinary girls do.
" What's your thoughts?" the Skalds asked her.
" Well... I too can conquer regions," she replied.
" Is he handsome?" the Skalds asked more.
" Yeah..,"
The Skalds glared at her.
She grinned, " yeah...but not enough to affect me!" she added.
It seems that the Skalds were convinced.
" Okay, explain," she said nodding his head.
Darn! Why do I need to explain more? She whispered in her thoughts.
" I hear what you're thinking!" the Skalds reminded her.
" What is more to explain here when you all showed me an example of perfection but all that I saw was...weakness," she blurted.
And then she saw the Skalds smiling in satisfaction.
She passes the ceremonial game.
" Remember this, Gaia... you fall in love when your defenses collapse, so to avoid it, keep your walls fortified, and the best way to do so is to never stare at anything beautiful. And to purge out this deceptive emotion in your heart...you must focus on what is unlovable in a guy instead of being lured by what's lovely."
Those words of Amarok echoed in her thoughts.
And after 20 years she was still living by that principle.
He's right. To love is to acquire a weakness.