The group walked through the forest and onto the long winding path that led to Moondoor cliffs, Kestrel running ahead, Cora chatting with Seraphina, Mia yelling at Kestrel to "Slow down or I will smite you with a big tornado thingy!"
Once they arrived at the base of the cliffs, Bjorn, who was waiting for them, handed them each a long coil of thick rope, a helmet, and a harness.
"So, we'll be climbing Moondoor Cliffs today. Rock climbing is an extremely dangerous activity, so you will need to work together to stay safe. Remember, teamwork makes dreamwork!"
Cora was tempted to shoot flames at him after he said that phrase, but she restricted herself to giving him the most burning glare she could manage. She concentrated so hard on her evil death stare that it felt as if her
eyes were glowing. Wait – it wasn't just her imagination – Cora's eyes were lighting up! They had turned a bright amber and were flickering like flames. She caught her reflection in a pool of water and gasped.
"What's wrong?" asked Seraphina, stepping towards her. Cora glanced at her reflection again, but her eyes were back to their usual deep brown.
"It's nothing, don't worry..." she muttered.
They all pulled their harnesses on (Again, Kestrel's had to be exchanged for an extra small one.) and inserted the rope into the harness, tying it securely. Henrik's rope had to be untangled about five times, however each time, he would sit on the ground and refuse any offers of help. Eventually he was forced to ask Bjorn to do it. After they had all put their helmets on, they started to clamber up the cliff. Cora and Kestrel particularly seemed to be enjoying it, going quite fast and swinging about on little crevices of rock.
"Guys be careful! We're high up now, you could fall! And as much as I hate you sometimes, I don't want you to die!" shouted Henrik, from below. He wasn't particularly strong, or tall, but he had better-than-average endurance, so he had been climbing steadily since the start.
Cora and Kestrel, however, didn't listen to a word she said. They continued to go far too fast and far too high.
A piercing scream filled the air, and as the group turned their heads, they saw Cora hanging from the rope, a frown on her face.
He caught movement in the corner of her eye. Someone was falling as well! He couldn't make out who it was until he saw the trademark blonde hair.
Kestrel.
Who else would it be?
Kestrel untied her rope and threw herself off and dove after her, as the others screamed. A moment later, a grinning Kestrel whooshed up with a
gasping Cora having a piggy- back. Kestrel put Cora back on the cliff and swooped into the air like an eagle.
"THIS IS SO FUN!!!" She cried.
Cora shot flames into the air once again.
"I've been practising all night and I think I've finally got the hang of it!" she cried, waving her hands this way, and making the flames swirl as if they were alive. Seraphina gasped.
Cora laughed. Suddenly she started feeling strange. A tingling sensation started in her hands, where the fire was dancing. It spread along her arms, heating them up, and caressed on down her back. Her skin felt as if it was getting hotter, almost burning!
"Cora!" someone shouted from behind. She didn't see who. "You're on fire! And I mean that literally!"
Cora looked down and true enough, her entire body was engulfed in burning orange flames. Her hair swirled about her face in sparks of heat, and her skin glowed gold. Her clothes seemed not to be affected by the fire though. Cora breathed out slowly and looked at the others. They had all made it to the top of the cliff and were standing. Staring.
"She's setting fire to the grass." said Henrik, somewhat too calmly for the situation.
"Yeah." said Mia. Then, "Oh my God! She's setting fire to the grass!"
Henrik rolled his eyes and ran forwards but stopped before he got to the ring of fire surrounding Cora. The burning heat was so intense now, that he had to shield his face.
"Do the storm thingy!" shouted Seraphina at Mia.
"I can't just 'do the storm thingy'!" shouted Mia.
"We need water. Kestrel! Stay here and make sure Cora doesn't move!" shouted Henrik.
Kestrel shook her head and shied back.
"What? Why?"
"I don't like fire."
"What?"
"I don't like fire!"
"What!?"
"I'm not doing it." she said, stamping her foot on the ground to make her point.
"Oi! I may be on fire, but I can still hear you too! I'm perfectly capable of not moving!" shouted Cora grumpily.
"I wish I could do that...," Seraphina said, awe evident in her voice. She flicked her arm up. To her shock, she created a shower of water droplets and sparks. "Oooh..." She went.
Kestrel scrunched her face up in concentration.
"What are you doing?" Mia asked, entirely amused by the whole thing.
Suddenly a huge dark cloud bloomed above them.
Rain flew over the flaming Cora. It took a few minutes, but soon all the flames had sizzled out of existence, and all was left was a soggy, miserable Cora. She looked as if she had just been told that all her birthdays for ever more had been cancelled. And then all the Christmases.
Seraphina put out her sparks by clapping her hands together.
Henrik returned with a bucket of water.
"Oh." he said.
Furious raised her head from her paws and looked up for a moment, before falling asleep again.
*****
They had not been expecting to be split up.
Nearly every student under the age of eighteen was divided into the four main elements preceding their training. They had also been ordered to change their clothes to those matching the colours of their elements – green for Earth, yellow for Air, red for Fire and blue for Water – and so that they were suitable.
Camp t-shirts were provided, each displays the letters 'Moondoor' in angular letters across their chests. The clothes were provided, and the six friends had the pleasure of finding out that they could keep the clothing for future lessons. Mia and Kestrel were pleasantly surprised that the camp had t-shirts, much like Camp Half-Blood in Percy Jackson!
Kestrel put on her silver helmet and adjusted her breastplate. The Air squad (as they had been dubbed) was focusing on flying for the period. They were going to the north cliffs and were expected to wear protection to avoid any unfortunate incidents. Not that she thought she needed it, however, but it was better to be safe than sorry. She even put on a white and yellow cape that she had found.
Next to her, Mia put on her breastplate and helmet and turned to Seraphina who said to her "You look like a dying pigeon."
"Awesome, that was exactly the look I was going for" she replied, laughing. Cora had exchanged her usual red dress for something a bit more sensible for fighting using fire. She stood their talking to Seraphina, who decided to stick with water for fear of being burnt to a crisp.
Henrik crept up behind Kestrel and said "Nice rug. The latest fashion since sofa cushions. I bet all the models are wearing that!" he said, looking at the cape.
Kestrel laughed but her cheeks flushed red. She pulled it off. She didn't want to look like a superhero anyway.
"AIR! TO ME, PLEASE!" shouted a male voice.
"Sorry. I've got to go. I'll see you after." Kestrel called to Cora.
"Yeah. Unless you get attacked by monsters, or killed by a booby trap-"
"I will see you after."
"Of course, you will! Whether that be dead or alive."
Kestrel just shook her head and ran after her group.
This was going to be fun.
*****
Cora was not enjoying this.
Not enjoying this at all.
Largely because of the partner she had been assigned.
He towered over her at the age of seventeen and cracked his knuckles menacingly. Cora gulped but tried not to let her nervousness show.
"Ready?" he asked, his voice deep and scratchy. His swampy eyes narrowing on the girl. He smiled in a way that showed no kindness.
Cora nodded.
The drill was to practice blocking oncoming fire and perfect shooting straight towards the other person. They had been warned beforehand the importance of not letting their power get to their short-tempered heads. They may very well be able to make fire and it have no effect, but that certainly did not mean that they were fire-proof.
Most people had been put against campers of the same ability, so that the odds were even.
Cora had not.
It had been because of an odd number of people and the boy had been asked to take it easy on the new initiate – but his eyes said something different.
Before Cora could even react, a bloom of fire spread rapidly through the air towards her, boiling the air and making her stumble back. The boy laughed.
"Are you sure you're not Water?" he said, as if talking to a five-year old. "Because your face just then when you saw the fire..." He began to laugh again, howling and clutching at his sides.
Cora felt rage burn in the pit of her stomach, burning in her veins and burning just behind her eyes making everything seem a shade of red. Before she could warn him about the fire so that he was able to block it, she threw all her anger into one burst of heat and flame.
The boy yelped in surprise and pain as the flames licked at the bare skin on his arms. However, very soon that look of evil returned to his eyes, doubled by the fuel of revenge.
"You will regret that..." he hissed, like a snake. A flash of scarlet light erupted from his hands and Cora was knocked on to her back, lightning flaring in her head. Everything seemed too bright and too loud and too fuzzy, so she lay there for a few seconds, waiting for the pain in her skull to subside. She could just about make out the shocked faces of people crowding around the fight to see what was happening.
The fight.
The fight.
This was no longer just a drill.
Cora staggered up, using her hands to push herself off the floor of the combat arena. She glared at the boy with swampy eyes.
"What you gonna do? Send a few flames? Do you really think that's going to do anything to me?" He smirked. "You baby."
Cora stood and faced him with all the ferocity she could muster. Ember growled at her feet. "Don't underestimate me" she hissed.
He just smiled and sent a shower of sparks flying her way. She lifted her arms in defence and found that she had created some sort of invisible
shield. It didn't stop the boy. He sent spark, after spark, after spark, which turned into flames like daggers. Pounding at her shield in a never-ending torrent. Several times she tried to fire bolts of flame back at him, but each time a dagger of flame stabbed through her arm and she wrenched it back.
"Come on man. Call it off now." she heard a voice say from the crowd.
"Not yet." he growled back, still smiling.
After another minute or so of the same, she mastered the courage to pull down the shield and fire another batch of flames at the boy. He was caught off-guard, not expecting her to do such a thing. Both their flames met in the middle – flickering and spitting like a dragon.
The heat was excruciating, even for two Fire elementals. She could see him squinting away, his jaw set hard.
She pushed the fire further and forced it to be as powerful as she could make it.
He did the same.
The collision point of the two sets of flames grew. Both in size and intensity. Cora knew that the only way this would finish was if they both yielded their flames at the same moment.
But that was not going to happen.
She could see it in the hardness of the boy's swampy eyes, and she knew that if he didn't stop, she wouldn't either.
Suddenly, a sharp pang of pain ripped through her body. Her flames stopped, and miraculously, so did the boy's. He seemed to have felt a similar thing. Cora stumbled slightly to the side and looked widely around. What she saw shocked her.
Ember was battling the boy's soul – a flaming horse. Her claws were scratching at its flanks while the horse was attempting to tread on the lioness with its powerful hooves. Ember's claws cut deep into the horse's flesh.
"STOP!" yelled the boy through tears. He was on the floor.
The horse reared up and brayed loudly. It brought its hooves down with an incredible force and kicked at the lion. She fell on to her side, breathing heavily.
"STOP!" Cora yelled too. Steadily, the two Souls moved away from one another, their eyes still burning bright with anger. Cora noticed that the crowd had moved further back, staring in shock and fear – blank faces and wide eyes. Their instructor was nowhere to be seen.
She got up and made her way over to the boy, who was still cowering on the ground. She held out her hand for him to take and helped him stand up. Despite now hating him with a passion, she wasn't totally uncivilised. When he stood, she leaned closer and whispered venomously into his ear.
"I'm not a baby."