The Land of Fire

Chapter 4 (2021 Rewrite)

We silently enter the auditorium where a dark-skinned lady with striking green eyes and a bright smile greets us and hands us each a thick pamphlet with the words Congratulations and Welcome! stretched across the top in thick gold letters. "Exam writers find your name in the first two rows, all others be seated anywhere else." She nods toward the front of the building as if to say move along.

The auditorium is already half full, with students still filing in and standing around with groups of friends. It seems like there are more people than seats, but we make our way to the front and find the seats with our names neatly folded over the back of the chairs in the first row. Blaze winces as his back rests against the chair but gives me a reassuring smile that he's okay.

"Oh my God, you two were amazing! I've never heard of anyone telling off Chloe and her crew. Did Siku talk to you, like, actually talk to you? He never approaches anyone unless he has to, what did he say?" Blaze and I turn in unison toward the second row where a scrawny guy behind us talks faster than I can understand. His smile is lopsided with a thick bush of curly white hair that sits on his head. I pretend to sneeze into my elbow to hide my laughter.

"Oh, I'm Xander by the way. You both look really alike, are you twins? I have a twin, his name is Zander, but you won't see him much." He leans in and whispers, "he's the biggest introvert you'll ever meet." Xander smiles kindly. The words fall out his mouth quickly like a leaky faucet, producing more words than his mouth can hold. He's speaking too fast like he's really nervous or really excited and by the looks of it, it's maybe both.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Blaze, and this is my twin sister, Ember." Blaze extends his hand for Xander and he quickly takes it and gives him three hard shakes.

"Oh, that's cool! Cool, cool, very cool! Are you fire users, you seem like fire users," he asks as he scoots more toward the end of his seat, getting closer until there's no more chair left. Holy crap, what is this, an interrogation? I do not wish to speak without my attorney present.

"We are, we just came here today," Blaze explains and I notice he looks more relaxed. He always likes meeting new people, so maybe this is good for him.

"Just wondering, but who's older?" Xander asks.

"We don't really know, our parents won't tell us since they want us to treat each other with the same respect," Blaze responds quickly.

"Oh, that's cool. Your parents seem cool." He nods.

"Yeah," Blaze smile sadly, "so, what's your element?" he asks, changing the subject.

"Oh, I'm Elementum Aqua, I know we don't get along very well, but we do get along better than you and Elementum Glaciem."

"I'm not really affected by Hate, my sister on the other hand..." Blaze trails off as he sees my blank expression. I don't have anything against Xander. The Hate is mild and I can easily shake it off, I just wish he'd either slow down or shut up... but this could also be the Hate talking.

Between The Land of Water and Ice, and the Land of Fire, we're the only two places that have Hate running through our veins. Well, besides the Vampires and Werewolves, but that's a different history lesson. However, some of us don't have the Hate unlike I do. Blaze and Xander don't seem to have the anger in their blood like me, and I have to admit, I am kind of jealous. But it's proven you can warm up to them quickly if you try hard enough. I've only ever experienced Hate once. It was when we were in Canada and a family of Ice Users moved into their vacation home a few houses down. I'd see them walk to the park a block over, or sometimes they'd be there when Blaze and I were and I'd feel my blood boil with anger before I'd even see them. I remember Blaze started crying because I somehow managed to punch a hole through the snowman we were building and I was radiating so much heat that we were standing in a puddle. It was a good thing no one else was around, mom said. She went over to talk to them later that evening and they moved away a few days later. I didn't know it was Hate until my mom told us about it like we were having The Talk. Thankfully it's much easier to control now.