As much as Cassidy loved flying, she starting to become tired of having to shift every time that she wanted to go anywhere. True, she could jump if it's lower, but she would then have to be sure that it was close enough that she wouldn't injure herself.
Sighing as she shifted again, wanting to go explore, she took off from the land, hearing a small child gasp in awe. Most people weren't bothered by Dragons, but Cassidy guessed that he had never seen a dragonheart shirt, nor had he seen one as small as her.
Cassidy took in the sights around her. The brilliant blue sky was completely clear, but that was hardly anything new. The weather was controlled by the weather control people, who had abilities that allowed them to keep away bad weather, somehow. The clouds had never come over unless they had wanted them to. The floating islands were very peculiar things, although Cassidy didn't question how they stayed in the air, or how they defied science in their form; it was magic, like how she could manipulate the wind to her will, as well as people, apparently. The islands were quite simple, and the whole complex system was all connected by green vines, which didn't look strong, but they seemed to do the job of not letting the islands all fly away; like how balloons are tied to string to stop them from being lost to the sky, and all tied together so that they don't get lost and, like with balloons, they rose and fell, like when the helium was running out, and they sank, pulling others down, but the ones with more helium in them pull them up. The islands were like that, but they weren't filled with helium, and sometimes islands were low, and sometimes they weren't. Cassidy wondered if it was related to how many people were on the islands, but was confused as to how that would work, because people weigh very little in comparison to what the island must have weighed.
Seeing a small island that looked different to all of the others, Cassidy flew over there, resting on a soft, white substance that was freezing cold. As she turned back, she realised that it was snow. The trees looked different to the ones on the island; this island had pine trees, lightly coated in what appeared to be a fresh coat of snow.
"Pretty sweet, huh."
Cassidy turned around, shrieking a little as she realised that she wasn't alone. Behind her was a boy, who reminded her of her brother in some aspects, but he looked much happier than Lykon did. He had pale blue eyes; paler than hers, with golden and white specks visible, and he had pale blonde hair, with icy white and blue highlights that matched his eyes. He was wearing a darker blue hoodie, which had a layer of frost on it, although Cassidy was unsure if it was real or just part of the design. He was smiling at her with a crooked smile, and she smiled back.
"Yeah... How's it snowing? I thought that there's weather control here?"
"Glad that you asked! These islands shift, as you may know, which explains the difference in trees. As for the snow itself – that's my doing. Well, me and a friend of mine. I can change the temperature enough that it can snow, and the snow won't melt, and my friend helps with the snow; he's a water user."
Cassidy nodded, surprised that it was possible to do that with their elements.
"So, your Element is air?"
"Yep. Had it all my life! I'm a descendant of that last air dragonheart. He's my grandfather... But I have a lot of relatives, thanks to him."
Cassidy was confused, and obviously must have looked it, since he added "He had quite a lot of children in his age, so I have a nice selection of cousins and aunts and uncles."
Cassidy nodded, understanding. She had been curious as to how the locals all had their abilities, but she was more curious about the ones who wouldn't – Surely not all of the descendants had powers, after all, she didn't have any at that age, although she supposed that she was a dragonheart, so maybe she was a different case, but if her mother was a descendant, maybe her family originally lived there? She thought about it for a while, as the blonde guy stood, watching the snow, focusing on something. She only snapped out of her thoughts when she felt something cold and wet go down her back.
Furiously, she turned around to see the guy holding a few snowballs. Seeing that he was stood under a tree with a ton of snow in it, she devised a plan. Focusing on the air around the tree, she raised the temperature as much as she could. Almost instantly, the snow melted and became water, drenching the guy.
"The name's Cassidy. I'm smarter than you think, and you don't want to get on my bad side."
"Luc. If you think you can beat me in a snowball fight, think again."
They both looked at each other, smiling, and then they both had the same thought – 'Snowball fight!'
Cassidy ran to shelter, and Luc took off into the air somehow, and he got lost in the trees. Cassidy started building a fort, but not in a traditional way. Remembering how the island could shift, she focused on what she wanted to appear, and a castle slowly started forming around her, the trees vanishing as a castle of ice formed. It had leaves and small pieces of twigs inside the ice, to strengthen it, and the castle grew to a size that Cassidy felt was suitable, and she went inside, where she prepared an attack. As much as she liked throwing snowballs, it wasn't going to cut it. This was a full-on elemental attack.
Just as she was scanning for Luc, she heard his voice in her ear. She quickly spun around, but there was nobody there.
"Looking for me?"
Cassidy was infuriated; how was he able to take to her without actually being there?
"How are you doing that?" She yelled in response.
"Vibrations. I can create vibrations that are like sounds, and if you focus on what you want the air to do, focusing on how the air vibrates as you speak, duplicate that, and focus on the ear next to someone's ear, and voila!"
The whole time that he had been talking, she had been trying to locate him, using echo location. She had been forced to shift to do this, but when she found him, she shifted back, doing exactly what he told her to do, and focusing on where he was, and she focused on the vibrations that occurred while screaming, and she duplicated them, but over by Luc.
She didn't hear any footsteps, but somehow Luc appeared behind her.
"Okay, how do you do that?"
Luc winked, before stepping onto the edge of the castle, where there was a good few meters drop, and he kept stepping backwards. Somehow, he was still above ground, levitating at the same height as he had just been standing.
Trying to work out how it worked, she started getting annoyed, and started a small tornado in her fury, which caused Luc to start to fall, for some reason, but luckily he managed to catch himself, but only once her tornado stopped, which was almost instantly after Luc fell.
Thinking about why these events occurred at the same time, Cassidy realised that he had been using the wind to keep himself hovering up. He flew off, although she wasn't sure where to, and her castle started to melt, as did the snow. Cassidy sped up the process, adjusting the air temperature to hot enough to melt the ice, while keeping herself sealed in a cool pocket of air. Once everything was back the way she liked it, she let the temperature return to what it was before.
She decided to try levitation with wind, although it was very difficult at first. She had to start small, with a leaf, which was more difficult than expected. It was one this creating a strong wind to blow something away, but having control was a completely different thing. While she could move the leaf, it wasn't nearly as steady as she had wanted it to be. She tried with heavier objects, which was successful, but still not as good as she had wanted.
Temporarily giving up on the levitation, she decided to try controlling the air itself; it was much easier to do, since the winds were wild, but the air was much calmer. Using the Island's shifting abilities, she created a lake and on impulse, jumped in. She didn't want to get wet, so she created a bubble of oxygen around her, taking it from the water so that she could breathe. When that actually worked, she was so happy that she forgot to control it, and ended up soaking herself. She quickly swam up to the surface, gasping for air. She got out of the water, creating a tornado of hot air around herself, acting like a hairdryer, quickly drying her off. After she did this, she quickly shifted into Dragon form, before flying back. She couldn't yet levitate herself, but she knew that it would be all that she would keep on practicing until she could do it well enough that she could levitate herself and someone else at the same time, with full control.
xx1
