"Good morning!" A voice sang in my ear.
I groaned and covered my head under the blankets. Which were ripped off a second later, baring me to the cold morning air. "NOOOO," I groaned, clawing at the air in an attempt to find my stolen covers without moving too much or opening my eyes.
"You are so cute when you sleep," Koral cooed.
"I'll let you watch if you give me ten more minutes," I mumbled.
"Nope! It's time to get up. We need to practice."
"Practice?!"
Koral stole my pillow. "Yes, practice. You are so set on staying, so now you have to learn what I have to teach."
Though my ears pricked at the word staying I buried my face deeper into the cushion.
"Ugh, nooooo. It's cold! There is no school in summer. Stop. Go away," my voice faded into incoherent jumbles of words. Koral clucked her tongue and whacked me over the head with my pillow.
"ACK! STOP!"
I should have known she wouldn't. The blankets were gone. The pillow too. Next went the cushion, which flipped abruptly over, throwing me face first into the dirt. I yelped before I hit the ground and rubbed my head sleepily.
Koral beamed. "Great, you're up! Let's go."
I looked around, finding a sky just beginning to turn gray. My jaw dropped.. "The sun hasn't even risen yet!"
"I thought you were used to waking up early," Koral teased.
"Not by choice," I muttered.
Koral placed her hands on her hips. "Do you want to learn how to use your powers or not?"
"Powers? Wait....We're learning magic?! But what about Torin?"
She rolled her deep blue eyes. "Yes, now that I have your attention, we are learning some magic. We need something to keep us entertained, don't we? Torin can take it up with me if he has a problem- which he will, but that's not important.... Point is, we can't do anything if you don't get up!"
"I'm up!" I cried, jumping to my feet. "Where to?"
The only thing I got in answer was a laugh and a shake of the head. Then Koral took off down the hill, shouting at me to hurry up. I beamed. This. Was. Actually. Happening!
_____________
Learning magic was not what I expected.
Koral had had me doing squats for thirty minutes. Squats?! And that was after the sprint we'd taken, and the stretching and whatever other thing she seemed to come up with on the spot. Her only explanation was that I needed to be completely awake. She was sweet. But when she taught she acted like those violent dodge ball type gym teachers from the movies.
She gestured for me to stop, and I rested my hands on my knees, panting. I had changed into a tank top and leggings that she had literally summoned from the ether.
"Okay, now that your nice and warmed up—"
"You think?" I seethed.
"You're annoyed. Good. Don't let it tire you. Use it as fuel."
I didn't have the energy to reply. We had already been out here for hours. And I felt well and truly sore. Hell, I felt numb in places I didn't even know I had.
If I don't wake up tomorrow with a six pack, I am never exercising again.
Koral laughed. "It'll take a little more than one session until you wake up with one of those."
"Good, because I didn't want one anyway."
"Have you never exercised before?"
"I've had better things to do."
"Like?"
"Uh, reading? Eating? Sitting? Anything really."
She shook her head in awe. "This might take a while."
I groaned, looking up. The sun was now front and center in the sky, and its heat was beating down incessantly on us. "Can I have some water?"
"How about another set?"
My legs collapsed beneath me and I sprawled out in the dirt. Gladly. Anything but exercise. "When can I have lunch?" I whimpered, my stomach rumbling.
"When we finish."
"It's been hours, Koral!"
"And?"
I whined, "and I'm hungry."
"We could have been done an hour ago. So get up. Come on!" Her voice became a bit too exaggerated when she added, "don't you want to learn magic?"
"You're mocking me."
"I am not."
She was.
"But you do need to stand up. Come on Wreeennn." She would not be letting me escape until I finished this. I supposed I might as well get it over with now I decided, standing back up. "That's the spirit!"
"At least have mercy. No more sets. Just... magicky stuff."
Koral rolled her eyes. "Fine."
I would say I love you but you're the one who initiated me into this torture, I thought bitterly and she only chuckled.
_____________
We had moved to the field where we had changed yesterday; the towering grass swayed in the breeze. We didn't enter the maze of green though. We stayed outside, facing it. Koral had tugged Torin along, saying he was the better one of them to teach "magicky stuff" as I'd called it.
Surprisingly, he hadn't put up much of a fight. Something seemed to have changed in him since last night.... It was weird. But... maybe he had finally seen that I could help- or at least that I wasn't some weak little girl needing to be sent away.
"Watch this," Koral said with a grin as Torin swept a hand through the air, and all of a sudden, the entire field split in half, like the parting of the ocean, revealing straight, clear path through all the way to the other side.
"Woah..." I bounced on my heels. "Show me!"
He smiled, and his eyes seemed to spark with a light I hadn't noticed before. "Watch the motion. And imitate it." He repeated the hand movement in slow motion and, after a few tries, I finally managed it. I beamed when he nodded his approval, and did it in the direction of the field.
Nothing happened.
I gritted my teeth and tried again. Nothing. I pointed at a blade of grass. "I think I moved it," I stated, to which both Torin and Koral burst into laughter. "What? I did!"
Torin calmed himself and extended his hand to me. "Here, think of it like this, your power is like your blood. It is constantly flowing within you. All you have to do is find it, and channel it."
"Okay, okay. Lemme try again," I squinted, and repeated the motion. Nothing. "Ugh! What am I missing?!"
Placing a hand on my shoulder to calm me down, Torin suppressed a smile of his own. "Extend your fingers."
"Why are you helping me? I thought you wanted me gone."
"It's complicated," he replied, proving his abilities once again to be as vague as possible. "I'm willing to try to trust you- if you trust me in return. Besides, Koral can be very convincing."
When I looked at her questioningly, she grinned. "Being able to see peoples' thoughts has it's perks."
I smiled at Torin, seeming to see him in a whole new light. I wasn't ready to trust him not to shove me into the next portal to Earth, but until then I was willing to play along. Especially if I got to learn magic in the process.
Torin sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Now, extend your fingers, quickly," he added.
I did.
"Good. Now do that again, but keep your fingers extended."
I did.
"Look at your hand. In the simple movement of extending your fingers, you push energy from your body and out into the world around you. Can't you feel it?"
My eyes squeezed shut. "Yeah," I said, opening my eyes. I had surprised myself. "I can."
"Great. Now think of you power or magic or whatever you want to call it. Think of it as that energy. Because at the end of the day that's all it is. The purest form of energy." I nodded, and he continued, "Close your eyes again. It's dark. Think of the magic as the light."
Darkness surrounded me, and Torin's voice was the only thing to be heard other than my steady heartbeat. "Feel the energy flowing through your body. Now, the magic lies at it's core. Find it."
I clenched my jaw and breathed gently as I focused. It took a while but... There!
A light.
"I see it," I began.
"Touch the light. Just skim the surface."
I nodded, and held my fingers up to the light. It was beautiful. Pure. It was a part of me. I made myself relax, and brushed my fingers over the light.
"Have you got it?"
I nodded again.
"Now repeat the movement I showed you."
My eyes opened as I inhaled, and moved my hand, weaving it in patterns through the air, which began to crackle. I held my breath for as long as I could, before exhaling and thrusting my hand forward, pushing out all the energy locked within it.
The wind was so strong that the entire field lay nearly flat to the ground, leaving a massive expanse for anyone to walk across. I blinked and the wind died, though the grass seemed damaged for good.
Koral mutely swept hand out and everything righted itself. Torin was just staring at me in shock, his brow low.
"Did I do okay?" I blurted.
Koral didn't smile. "I think we're going to need a bigger field."