Cat

The second test. This was conducted by energy level, based on aura. Those with the smallest aura were given the first chance to redeem themselves. Since it was based on aura size Jonnis was about in the center while Zan and Teytna were in the very back with a few other top tier auras. She had her head down, Johnnis felt bad for her. From what he saw Ink Weavers were shunned and treated poorly. When it came to the high tiers Ink Weavers are always, without exception, in the lower tiers. They are the practice dummies and target practice of any other magic. The second test require a display of power, those who could not control it would automatically be brought down a tier but, luckily Johnnis was already guaranteed a spot and he was far from worried. Teytna was not looking well in the back.

Johnnis sent her sympathetic thoughts from time to time but his mind was focused on those who were tested before him. Half the teachers were sitting with notes and ink wells, writing down things as students attempted to impress, some did well, some stood there, no confidence and no control over their power. The looks on their faces as the concentrated was often laughable but Johnnis payed attention to the way the others moved, most had some sort of hand gesture, one girl looked as if she was dancing. Eventually Johnnis stepped into the field and took a breath, closing his eyes and trying to focus.

That focus was burst by a sudden peal of obnoxious laughter, causing everyone to look to the back of the line where Zan was leaning over Teytna, who was about two heads shorter than the tall thin Zandero. Teytna looked ashen faced and terrified. They're teasing her. Johnnis felt that power in him again, the same largeness that consumed him when chasing the thief in the streets and alleys of Yolen. Something bitter and wound up in him was uncoiling. Suddenly Zan was frightened and looking upward as a large shadow was passing over him. Johnnis paused in his outrage as each student that had been laughing was gaping in fear, Johnnis looked up into the underbelly of a pale yellow serpent as thick as a river and just as long coiled up behind Johnnis except for the cyan blue head with red slitted eyes that was raised and staring in a menacing manner at Zan.

The hiss the creature emitted sounded like a volcano of molten metal dipped into ice water. As it hissed Zan found himself staring at a row of gleaming fangs and a neon green tongue. The eyes were the worst for him. They would not let him move. Would not let him breath as long as those red eyes stared. With a breath Johnnis held out his hand, feeling some control, and the serpent shrunk to the size of Johnnis's palm. Without a word he went to the sidelines with many stares following his path. There he waited for Teytna, who seemed confused, maybe she was frightened as well. For that Johnnis regretted his unexpected outburst.

The creature was still coiled along his arm for the most part, Johnnis was avoided. When Zan's turn came about he was so shaky that nothing appeared and he was knocked down a tier. His chance at Genda's class gone. He gave Johnnis one belligerent look before leaving. Then it was Teytna's turn to demonstrate. The field was grassy and she examined the grass as she stepped forward. Calmly she looked to Johnnis and smiled, pulling out her ink and paper. Students who had come to watch the protege started whispering fiercely.

"Good luck," Johnnis murmured to her, though she would not hear her in a million years. Teytna looked at Genda and dipped her finger in the ink, tossing her notebook down like some sort of statement. The ink vanished into her skin, absorbed by her pale skin. The ink well fell to the ground and black light seemed to shine from her violet eyes. Inky smoke rose from her body and churned in the air above her, the whispers dying as every breath was held to see what sort of Inkling she would produce. The smoke stopped, the strange light left and the black ball of darkness fell to the floor and unraveled into a simple black cat with eyes the color of the sky.

"It's just a cat," someone complained, but the teachers were all standing, never having seen an Inkling painted on the sky, made without paper or pen. Teytna picked up the cat in her arms and placed it on Genda's table. The cat shook its ruffled fur out, students were starting roll their eyes, a few licks were applied to the paws and side. People were starting to leave but the teachers were curious. Genda obviously disapproved for some reason and was looking at Johnnis.
       "You can feel it's fur, subtle things like whiskers," one teacher was saying, stroking the cat. Teytna put a hand on the cat's head. A strange stillness came over the field. All the other students had left but Johnnis while the teachers waited for Teytna, staring at her. Johnnis decided to move in closer, that was when he noticed there was light coming from Teytna. Her eyes were no longer light purple but white, glowing like hot metal under the blast of a smith's furnace, poised and ready to be cooled in the waiting bucket of ice water. Johnnis could feel a pressure building beneath his skin and behind his eyes as he approached. The grey and black liquid shadows that the cat was made of moved beneath the glimmering sheen of reflected light. Then the cat walked away from Teytna and leapt off the table gracefully. The black liquid dripping off what was once an Inkling and was now a living breathing cat with sky colored eyes.
        Teytna had mastered summoning, a type of magic only a rare percentage of people ever receive, through Ink weaving, a type of magic that is the weakest of the common powers. It was like turning dirt into diamonds using power comparable to a star exploding. Teytna with a single act broke the laws of magic as a black cat disappeared into the shadows of tall grass in the fields of Lantos.

Author's Note

What to write now...?