Chapter 2

Amaryllis makes friends gradually, but also enemies.

Light streamed in from the open dormitory window. Amaryllis opened her eyes to find that her room mates were not there. She summoned a gale of wind to blow her watch over. The watch face read 9:00a.m. With a shriek Amaryllis jumped up and dressed, throwing her clothes on and dashing out of the room and into Combat class only to find that her hair was messy and sticking up.

The class sniggered and Amaryllis blushed to the roots of her hair as she struggled to flatten her dark brown hair down. “Explain yourself,” a cold voice sounded from the left of Amaryllis. Amaryllis turned to see a stout and strict-looking man with a short beard. The teacher, she guessed. Her guess was confirmed by his sense of authority and a small sign on the nearby wall reading ‘Mr. Flay’. His eyes, she noticed were fiery red and angry, which meant that he wielded the elemental magic fire. “Explain yourself, I said.” The man repeated.

The crowd of students fell silent at once. Amaryllis sensed that the teacher was not one to mess with, and realized that she had no reason for being late. She bit her lip and tasted the metallic blood that surged out. Amaryllis decided to go for the honest response, “I- I have no reason.”

The room became deadly quiet. After a fraction of a second, the man looked her in her eyes, “do not think that being able to wield all four elements you are the c**k of the walk, because you aren’t and in fact, you shouldn’t even be existing” Amaryllis lowered her eyes, blood boiling. The air fizzed and popped around her and a stone statue standing near the door of the classroom started to shake. The students in the class watched with fear and awe.

“Now sit down.” Mr. Flay ended. Amaryllis’s heart fell and she took sat down on a chair behind a desk in the corner of the classroom. Students whispered things and pointed at her in fear and awe as she passed them, noticing her multi-colored eyes.

“Back to what I was saying, today, the first day of the academic year, we shall start off with some duels. In these duels, you are free to use your magic or physical strength. The aim is to defeat your opponent by getting your opponent on the ground for ten counts. There are containers of things that you can use. Who would like to volunteer to do a demonstration?” Mr. Flay scanned the room with his red eyes, wearing a hungry expression.”

A hush fell over the class. Seeing no volunteers, Mr. Flay picked two students out of the crowd. “Jeffery, Roderick” The two boys got up and walked up onto the low stage in the room, reluctant and scared. Jeffery was Earth elementalist and the Roderick a Water elementalist.

“Stand a meter in front of your opponent,” Mr. Flay intoned. The two boys got into their positions and stood there, poised for action. “The demonstration will begin and end when I blow my whistle,” he continued and held a whistle to his lips.

The shrill whistle pierced the air. The boys advanced towards each other and circled each other. The Earth elementalist struck first and using his earth magic, lifted a hefty stone and sent it spinning at the other boy. Coolly, Roderick deflected the stone with a shield of water, sending it spinning into the corner of the room with a crash. He then made a wave of water leap towards Jeffery.

The wave crashed on the Earth elementalist, drenching him from head to toe and making him snarl in frustration. Roderick smiled and continued to send waves rolling at the Earth elementalist, who desperately countered with chunks of rock.

Still, it was obvious that Roderick was winning and soon, Jeffery was flailing as his energy supply depleted. He wasted too much energy earlier, Amaryllis noted. With a triumphant smile, Roderick sent a final wave at Jeffery. That was the final straw for him and with a strangled yell, Jeffrey collapsed onto the ground, accompanied by many cheers from the crowd.

“One, two, three…” the crowd counted enthusiastically. Jeffrey lay face up on the wooden ground, his head in a puddle of icy water.

“Seven, eight, nine, TEN!” the crown finished with a shout. Jeffrey was pushed up and dripping and head hung in defeat, the Earth elementalist returned to his seat sulkily. Roderick returned to his seat with a triumphant smile.

“Roderick is the winner,” Mr. Flay said and snapped his fingers. There was a bright flash of fire and the puddles on the ground dried up. “Let us have another demonstration,” he said and eyed the crowd hungrily. His fiery eyes fell on Amaryllis and his thin tongue snaked out of his mouth as he licked his lips, as if savoring something. “Oh, yes. You. The new girl.” A hush fell over the class. “But, that’s not fair, she can control all four elements,” someone in the crowd muttered.

“Let’s see how good you truly are, as a little test” Mr. Flay said, “would you like to duel against me?”

Author's Note

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