Elemental Grounds

Elemental Testing

Today is the day! I hum, "Today is the day". I finally get to go to the Elemental Ground Arena!!!! I finally turned 15; I'm now old enough to pick an element. We get to work our way to the top. If we don't like our element that's fine, just go to the element hospital. It's pretty costly though, so I have to be careful with which element I'm going to start out with.

The arena is a huge dome, surrounded by comfy seats. I'm lined up to go to the middle. There are thousands of other people here, eager to pick their talent. The powers to choose from are: water, fire, wind, earth, lightning, ice, darkness, and light. We have to audition for the one we want, and if we don't get it we are placed into a different element that the judges think fits best. This is so the population of elements is well rounded. The world can't have 50% wind 49% earth and 1% ice. It just doesn't fit well for teaching, and it gets pretty boring for people to watch the same elements fighting over and over.
When it's finally my turn, I pick lightning. I am provided with basic lightning talents. They don't tell us which ones we are provided with, but it's not hard to do research. It'd be foolish not to do your research because then you'd get stuck with an element that you didn't want. The beginning powers are: I can turn things off and on, can shoot lightning bolts, and have quicker running speed; which is not quite as fast as lightning, but it will do for now.

I am teleported. It's dark, I can't see anything. Easy. I turn the light on. It appears that I'm in a forest. It's raining pretty hard outside, I'm soaking wet and shivering. Snakes, lions, and wolves have surrounded me. Without any time to think, they already have come running at me. I start shooting lightning, knocking them down one by one, but it's not enough. I run as quickly as possible. Even more animals have followed me. The crackling of hyena laughter fills my ears, leaving chills down my spine.

A lion has caught up to me and pounces on top of me, sending me toppling on the ground. Think, Mira, think. His gnawing teeth are just about to rip my throat out, when BAM a lightning bolt hits the tree. The lightning travels through the ground, sending all the animals around me in shock. A tingling travels upward on my arm, leaving a beautiful mark consisting of the outline of the tree on my arm.
"Congratulations Mira." "You've passed." The loudspeaker announces. I teleport back into the dome, heading straight toward the judges to receive my power. "That's quite the mark on your arm there," says one of the judges.
"I know." "It's quite beautiful, don't you think?" I say.
"Yeah." "We will tattoo over it with special lightning genetic ink."
"Great. Thank you."
Everyone receives a special tattoo for them, resembling which power they have. I call my parents. "I passed!" "I got lightning!"
"Congrats Mira!" "Let's go celebrate with some ice cream after we go to the element hospital."
"Okay mom!" "Bye."
Fifteen minutes later my mom arrives. "I got you something special."
"Really? What is it?" I ask curiously.
"You'll see."