Page 35 of The Scars Within
Clara slipped.
It may have only been a couple of seconds, but her freefall felt like hours. Every cadet watching from the ground gasped. I raised my hands over my mouth.
Clara threw her arms downward, and her descent started to slow. She continuously channeled air downward to pump enough to keep from falling to the ground. She managed to tilt her body forward towards the wall and landed her forearm and elbow on another thin wooden platform, quickly grabbing with her remaining hand to hold herself upright. She screeched in pain and kicked the air.
“Clara!” Her professor yelled with a deep voice, an unsaid instruction to remind her that she knew what she needed to do.
“I... know...” Clara grunted. She lifted her body enough so that one leg could lift onto the platform. She took a moment to balance herself sideways on the platform so that her left arm could hang freely. She made a very particular motion with her hand and stopped abruptly, her hand frozen in midair. Then she quite literally hauled a boulder—a boulder—up off the ground with a pull of her elbow towards her body.
Once it was close enough, she let herself go from the platform and rolled onto the boulder. Her professor raised his hands, guiding the boulder slowly back to the ground. The boulder landed with Clara lying on her backside, her chest rising and falling.
Everybody clapped.
That was absolutely incredible.
After the professor checked on Clara and helped her up, he turned toward us first-years. “Who wants to try the first few obstacles?”
He must be mad. None of us had channeled the air element yet. That would be simulating our doom. Literally.
“If nobody speaks up, I will pick at random,” the professor teased as he slowly walked down the line of us with authority. I kept my eyes fixed downward.
“How about that one?” a familiar voice said from afar. I looked up to see a tall man walking towards the group. The sun was beaming so brightly that I couldn’t see his face.
“Which one?” Skuttlezwagon asked the unknown man.
Shadows finally covered his face as he raised his arm and pointed. At me. “That one.”
It was Captain Thorne.
My father.
Did he figure out who I was? Or was he picking on me because I had been caught eavesdropping on his conversation with Rhodes? I couldn’t be sure, but I met his stare anyway, standing tall with my shoulders back. He may be over a foot taller than me, but my dignity was ten times the size of his.
Swallowing the knot in my throat and remembering the pinky promise I made to Shayde earlier, I stepped out of the crowd.
I am about to fall to my doom.
I made my way to the top of the Doom Simulator with Professor Skuttlezwagon. She was giving me pointers the entire lift up, but I don’t think I heard a single word she said. My blood was pounding in my ears. She handed me a pair of climbing gloves, and I resisted, but she insisted they were mandatory.
“Now, you must know that Professor Reynoski and I will not let you fall. This is just a little test we do to ensure that first-years understand the risks of wielding the air element. It isn’t just fun and games.”
“Well… that is a terrifying way to do so,” I said.
“Over the years, it has been the most effective,” she replied with a smile as she patted me on the shoulder. “Did you see how Clara got into position at the start?”
“Yes, Professor.”
“You’ve got this,” she gave me a thumbs up and stepped back.
I did not feel like I, in any way, had this. But knowing that my father was an air wielder gave me the slightest bit of hope that maybe air is the elemental magic running through my veins as well.
I stepped up to the starting line and got into position: knees bent, one foot in front of the other, arms at an angle. I looked down at Professor Reynoski.
Three.
I diverted my gaze to find Laney and Tatum.
Two.
