Chapter 11

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 11

For the following 4 months we trained like this, only each day was getting more and more tough. But it began helping, and after just half a month of running to the woods each morning, I could already feel my stamina getting better. Santuric said it was not as much my strength that needed boosting as it was my stamina, channeling the Fyre did more than just take your breath away. And after two months I could do the run in double-time without any problems.


The mental training was the hardest part though. For quite a while I had trouble finding this feeling that was actually driven by impulses. Then one rainy day, about 2 months in, sitting in the semi-cover of the tree, this strange emotion appeared within me. It wasn’t unfamiliar and I was able to keep it for a while. Santuric had apparently sensed this and turned towards me. He’d said: “Good. Now you are finally making progress on this point too.” After this it had accelerated. Where I had had to make myself a bow-and-stick to light a fire in the previous months, I could now conjure a fyreball within my hand to light it, and Santuric told me I was emitting a heat without akin.

This was where it all started to pick up. Soon I was able to stand even in the heaviest downfall and meditate, and the rain would just vaporize before it hit me. My fyreballs were getting larger and faster too. I soon learned to throw them and hit a target very precisely. And in the beginning of August, Santuric said I’d have my final test before I’d have to move on. “There is not much more I’ll be able to teach you, so we shall go to see the council when you have passed the test” He had said. So on August 7th, I woke early out of being nervous.

I woke and got out of bed with the dawn of the sun, but Santuric was already gone. I went outside to look for him, but saw only a wooden pole in the open terrain, about a meter above the ground. Walking closer, I saw Santuric sitting behind it, waiting. “It’s time to begin your test” he said. “The objective for you is to stand here” he pointed at the pole “and not fall down while I send various things to knock you off it. You may try to stop them any way you can except for attacking me. Did you get that?” I nodded and mounted the pole.

It was only wide enough for me to stand with my feet together, and then only just barely. Santuric walked about 20 meters away and closed his eyes. For a whole minute, nothing happened. I looked around, somewhat anxious, until a large rock appeared out of nowhere in front of me, flying towards me at a high speed. In the short time I had to react, I raised my hand and launched a fyreball that hit it and threw it off course. For the next minute, about 50 rocks kept appearing launching towards me. I either dodged them or sent them away. After the last one had been sent and dismissed, there was a break. This part hadn’t been hard for me, hadn’t even lost wind.



Then the ground started to tremble, seriously testing my balance. Right when it began, I almost fell off, but thought fast and used a small burst of Fyre to send me straight again. Then, while still quaking, pebbles began bombarding me from all sides. They were not very big, but they were fast so I shielded my face and focused on raising my heat till it was hot enough to melt them before they hit. Then the pebbles and the quaking stopped and almost before I could react, a huge wall of water appeared above me. Before I could come up with a rational way out of it, I raised my arms and let go of a stream of Fyre, vaporizing a column of water that I could just barely fit within. I had to keep this up for around half a minute whilst the water kept roaring besides me, and the constant stream of Fyre started to tear on my energy. Just as I started to loose balance, and scrape the stream of water, it stopped, and my arms fell down, exhausted. I began to topple in the pause, but made a last minute thrust of Fyre to correct myself. I had a little time to look around; the ground wasn’t wet at all. But I didn’t have time to ponder it much.

Now a soaring wall of stone appeared, only with a narrow slit for the pole to pass trough. In my exhaustion I hesitated for a moment, and the wall started moving slowly towards me. If I didn’t do something, I was probably going to be knocked off, and would have to stay and train more. As much as I had learned, it was very hard work for someone who had been in a cubicle for 7 years. I forced myself to raise my arms and throw a fyreball, but it only dissipated with no effect. I tried a couple more, but to no avail. The wall was picking up speed; at this rate it was going to hit me in a couple of seconds. I tried conjuring a stream of Fyre again, but my energy was too low to call much more than a tiny stream. The wall came closer, and just as I reached out towards it to push in panic, flames appeared around my head, and I couldn’t see anything.

When they dissipated again, I was still standing on the pole. I turned around and the wall was now moving away from me, I had somehow teleported on my own. Santuric walked towards me. “Good. I didn’t expect you to pass the wall first time. You may dismount now.” I half jumped, half fell off the pole, and sat down besides it. “Get rested for we are going to the council soon.”

_____

Original post: http://www.fyreball.com/d/AMACUX

Weeks chapter, enjoy.

It might have been slow going for now, but in 1 or 2 chapters, the plot is going to pick up a lot. Remember, if you have a friend that could be interested in joining in on the story, then please tell them. They might even join Fyreball.com


Enjoy

- Ting