Chapter 5 ~ Wind

When Alice appeared in the main room, she heard a squeal and a shush following her entrance. As Alice looked around she saw the girl, Ani, from earlier and three others. Next to Ani, was the the girl that shushed her, she had deep brown, and almost black monolid eyes. Her raven hair fell in waves around her pale, olive toned face and down her back. She was slightly taller than Ani, but not by much, in front of her, sitting on the kitchen table was a darker skinned girl with short dark chocolate curls that poofed out slightly. Her almond eyes were looking over Alice, though not in a judgemental way, she was just sort of, looking at her. The last mage, was sitting on the chair next to the darker skinned girl, she had brilliant blue eyes and long beautiful red hair. Her skin was pale, almost porcelain like Alice’s. The four girls were all beautiful, and Alice couldn’t believe she was in the presence of the mages from the legend.

“Alice,” Elias spoke suddenly, “These are the mages. You’ve already met Ani, she controls the wind,” He continued, motioning to the blonde, who was presumably the one who squealed. Next he pointed to the girl who was next to Ani, with the raven hair, “That’s Naida, she’s the water mage.” Following Naida was the girl who was sitting on the table, “This is Hayden, she the mage of memory, and lastly Georgia the earth mage” Georgia was the redhead sitting on the chair. “Girls, this is Alice, our final paladin.” When Elias introduced her, Alice brushed a piece of her mahogany hair behind her ear nervously. She wanted to make a good first impression, but they were literal legends, she couldn’t fathom being their equals.

“Um. Hi” Alice said giving a small wave to the girls, and had her spirits lifted slightly when they all enthusiastically greeted her.

“Hi! I can’t believe you’re finally here!” Georgia smiled kindly, her voice smooth.

“Yeah, we’re super excited to start teaching you” Hayden imputed enthused.

“Thank you? I’m still kind of overwhelmed by all of this” Alice confessed.

“That’s okay” Naida spoke up, “Even though we didn’t have to learn all of the elements, it was overwhelming for us at first too.”

“Yea, we didn’t even know each other. We just all of a sudden had to live in a cabin with total strangers and the man that told us he’d teach us magic” Ani laughed a bit.

“Was Elias kinda creepy when he told you guys he was going to teach you magic too?” Alice asked randomly.

Immediately after she said that, the attention was turned to Hayden when she gasped, “I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE!” She spoke loudly, so that it was almost a yell. “He sent me a letter in the mail and then he was just creepily sitting alone in a tavern”

“Oh yea! And then he was all cryptic.” Naida added.

“His hair was longer then too, so it was even worse!” Ani mentioned.

Ani finally seemed to have something to add as she said, “The creepiest part was when he asked if I’d ever heard of magic! With his ominous, mysterious thing happening he goes, ‘Have you ever heard of magic dear?” And then he reached forward and like grabbed my arm and said, ‘What if I told you, it’s real?’ And he had his hand on my arm, and I was like ‘Umm I don’t care what you say, you're creepy.’ I mean I didn’t saay that but I thought it!” Ani ranted in one breath. This rush of discussion seemed to make the five girls forget that Elias, the topic of their conversation, happened to be standing right there behind them. They shared their experiences of how Elias had gotten them to agree to training.

The chatter stopped when a small cough sounded behind them, causing the girls to stop and turn to look at him. “I'm glad you five are getting along, but can you please not talk about my methods of getting you here in front of me.” Elias requested, unamused. This comment was followed by a chorus of laughter, but they did stop talking about him.

“So,” Alice voice rose above the others, “When am I going to start training?”

“Tomorrow morning” She was answered by Elias, “Tonight you can rest from the journey and try to get used to your new home”

“Alright thanks” Alice smiled back at him before turning back to the girls. The rest of the night was filled with chatter as the mages and Alice talked. She soon found that they were super excited to have someone new there, since they pretty much knew everything about each other and the paladins before her had been there for a while too. There was also lots of laughter, as Alice told them stories about her home, in return they told her stories about training paladins, and stories about when Elias was training them in their elements. However after a few hours the conversation was now invaded by the occasional yawn, and after another hour the five ladies were all pretty much dead. So reluctantly, Alice and the mages parted, each going to their own room. Alice closed her bedroom door softly behind her and dropped onto the red bedspread, quickly falling into the calm darkness of sleep.

“Alice. Alice wake up!” A voice sounded from outside of the dark. When there was no response whoever it was shook Alice from outside her covers.

Alice proceeded to groan, unhappy to have been woken up, and turn away, pulling the warm comforter over her body more, creating a cocoon around herself. “Noo” She mumbled pulling herself into the pillow more, attempting to hide from the person attempting to wake her up.

“Alice you have to get up, you start training today.” The voice was stern and had authority now so even in her groggy state Alice could tell it was Elias. In hindsight she probably should’ve realized it was him earlier since his voice was masculine while the other girls had feminine voices.

“Training can wait” She mumbled again, “Let me sleep”

“No. You have to train, I’m not afraid to take you out of this bed myself” This threat earned an especially lengthy groan combined with a long no from Alice. Her father used to physically drag her out of bed when she wouldn’t get up. Yet still she persisted, and dug herself deeper into the blanket. “Fine, suit yourself” She heard, followed by nothing. Relieved, Alice figured he’d been blushing, but after thirty seconds she was shocked when the warm cocoon around her was flung off of her body flipping her as is was yanked out from under her, and ended up hanging from his hand over the floor. “Get up!”

“Ahhh, cold!” Alice exclaimed reaching for the blanket, only to have Elias raise it and stretch it further.

“You brought this on yourself”

“You’re mean”

“Thank you” He gave a sarcastic smile and dropped the comforter on the ground, “Now get ready, training with Ani starts in thirty minutes” He shot her the same sarcastic smile before walking out of the room.

“I hate you!” Alice called after him, earning a dismissive uh-huh from him. She grumbled as she swung her legs out from the kneeling position she’d taken up to get the blanket and onto the floor. As she stood she stretched her back and arms with a huge yawn before throwing the comforter back on to the bed. This room needs re-decorated  She thought as she made her way to the closet. She didn’t have anything against the decor that Alastor had in there, it just wasn’t her.

In ten minutes she’d pulled on a pair of long black yoga pants, a teal long sleeve shirt and her black converse. As Alice walked into the main room, she finished pulling her smooth hair into a high ponytail. She turned into the kitchen, and searched for the cereal, and pouring herself a bowl of cheerios when she did find it. When she was done with her cereal, she realized there was nobody else in the house, confused she dropped the plastic bowl she’d used into the sink and began to wander toward the door outside.

Maybe they’re waiting for me? She speculated as she pushed open the back wooden door. As soon as Alice had taken a step out she was blasted back into the door by a sudden gust of wind. The girl that was so bubbly and nice the night previous was now standing in front of Elias, looking super intense. “In battle, there’ll be no time for us to wait on you” She spoke with much more force than she’d had the night before. “To learn the to channel the wind you have to feel it inside of you” She instructed, “You have to learn to control its energy” Alice was absolutely dumbfounded, how was she supposed to ‘feel it inside of her’ she would ask, but she had a funny feeling she’d get an answer along the lines of ‘I can’t tell you how to do it. Its different for everyone, and you must discover it yourself’

She sighed however, giving in to the training “Alright, how do I do that?” Alice questioned reluctantly. This question made Ani smile, and Alice knew that she’d get an answer similar to the one she’d predicted.

“I can give you techniques, and the right conditions to feel it for the first time, but I can’t tell you exactly how to. Part of it must be in your own heart.” Ani spoke with a teachery tone still, yet it was more serene. “First, you have to be calm and relaxed” She noted, “Ease your tension. Wind is a delicate thing, there is no room for tension when controlling it”

Alice inwardly sighed once again, “Let me guess, I have to meditate?” She asked sarcastically, expecting Ani to dismiss it. Instead Ani told her that meditation was actually exactly what she needed to do. So instead of learning how to move the air, and attack/defend with it, Alice sat in the grass with her eyes closed for the first three hours of her day. About halfway through she began to feel the nagging feeling of boredom in her stomach. She began to fidget in small ways, she’d twiddle her fingers, crack her neck or back, and move positions. This happened constantly for about thirty minutes unti Ani finally spoke up.

“Stop moving! Relax” Alice sighed and tried, being stillish until they finished. She couldn’t help feel like that was really anticlimactic,  since Ani had started out like she was going to be super mean.

“You didn’t get it today and that’s fine, it always takes a while” Ani smiled, pulling Alice from the ground up into a standing position. “Hayden’s waiting for you in her room for your lesson in memory” She instructed, letting go of Alice’s hand. In response, Alice quickly made her way to the door that she assumed belonged to Hayden, she didn’t want to be punished for being late like Ani had done.

As Alice pushed open the bedroom door she was surprised. She’d been expecting a normal room similar to her own, though that wasn’t what Hayden’s room was like. The only  word she could find to describe it was like a gypsy’s tent, but not fully. Like a gypsy’s tent mixed with a therapist's office. The walls were deep purple and blue, the colors seemed to mix and fade like a painting of the night sky. There were tiny lights in the walls too, that seemed like stars to Alice.

You couldn’t see the ceiling since there was a large midnight blue sheet/tent thing that was covering it. The corners of it were attached to the corners of the ceiling, and in the center there was a small that the lighting fixtures chain was threaded through, and the center of the sheet was pinned to the ceiling around the hole. The sheet made it look more like a tent, and it too had the tiny white lights in it.

Even with the lighting it was still dim in the odd room. The chandelier had a black metal frame, and six candle-shaped lights in a hexagon. The floor was a fluffy grey carpet that was soft under Alice’s now bare feet. The bed was in a window nook with no window, it had lavender and light blue comforters and pillows. Behind the pillows was a small bookshelf that had random knick knacks on it. She had a cream colored chaise lounge and a glass table. The room was larger than she’d expected, and next to the chaise was Hayden sitting in a matching chair. Behind the chair was a black dresser, with candles on it. “Uh, Hi Hayden. Ani told me to come in here?” Alice spoke softly, as if the room would reprimand her for speaking at a normal volume.