Legacy of Fire (The Blaze Trilogy - Book #1)

Chapter 17

I wake up early one morning.

The sun has just barely poked it’s head over the horizon, and so I decide to head over to Marie’s for a bite to eat. Her stall sits right at the edge of Market Square, away from the hustle and bustle of the morning rush. It’s Zander and my’s favourite spot. 

I take a seat by the window, content to enjoy the calm quiet. Marie smiles at me as she brings me my meal. “Training again today, Ava?” 

“As usual,” I laugh, and the woman gives me an affectionate squeeze. Everwood has turned out to be a pretty tight knit community, so it didn’t take long for people become acquainted with me. The bronze-haired girl. Apart from the occasional strange glance, I’ve fallen into step with Terran society pretty well. The people here know what it’s like to feel hunted, and I guess that’s a sentiment I can relate to. 

Unfortunately.

“The Inheritance Ceremony’s coming up fast, isn’t it?” Marie asks.

I nod. 

“Well dear, may Evo be with you,” she says in blessing. Marie turns away, and I catch sight of another figure sitting on the nearby side of the room. 

“Hale?” I say, surprised. 

He looks up, and his eyes widen as he notices me. He grins. “Fancy seeing you here.” He’s got his glasses on, and he’s examining a massive, sprawling map. Typical. 

“And strange to see you when you’re not surrounded by books.”

Hale rolls his eyes. “Ava, you seem to forget that I lead a regiment of Earthborne. I’m actually planning out our next drill.” 

A curious thought occurs to me. I’ve never seen him use his powers. “I’d like to see you control it. The earth, I mean.”

His smile broadens. “Well come watch our Drifting drills this afternoon.”

I almost say yes, but then I look up, and my spirit deflates as I notice the sun rising higher. It may only be morning, but recruit training starts early and ends late. Day after day. “I can’t - I have to go,” I groan. “Training.”

He looks at me thoughtfully, before folding the map up and putting it in his pocket. “Don’t go. Let’s do something different this morning.”

“Hale, I have to go.”

“Not if I can get you out again.”

I suppress a grin. “Are you doing that thing again where you abuse your authority to get me to hang out with you?” 

Hale smiles. “Yes.” Then he rises from his chair, offering out a hand. “Come on, I wanna show you something.” 

I raise an eyebrow. “You know I’m not allowed to skip training without permission.”

“Trust me,” he says wryly. “They won’t even know you’re gone.”

He pulls me with him, and leads me outside. We walk back through Market Square until we fade into the forest, and approach a small, trickling flow water. Hale turns to the right, walking adjacent to the water, and I realise he’s following it upstream. We go farther and farther along, and the mouth of the stream grows to a brook then grows to a river, and eventually we stop at a small lake that clusters by the cliff face of a mountain. And from that cliff face springs a tall, cascading waterfall. 

The sounds of water hitting water echo in a dull roar and swirl in a white foam, and I look up at Hale. “Are we going swimming?”

He smiles. “You could say that.”