Years passed slowly in the small town of Eyo, the boys from the orphanage nearly adults now. Marin who had regained all lost dignity and respect was still the biggest and often took his anger out on anyone smaller than himself, but was sure to leave Benj alone for fear of the other boy. Being the oldest, he was the first to begin elemental training and had been classified as an Earth Waker. He often showed off by juggling pebbles without touching them and attempting to lift boulders indirectly. They floated above his hands, the different techniques he had learned controlling them.
The others had received training as well and were novices in Water and Earth waking as was common. Only a young girl raised by her grandmother controlled Wind in the village. They all practiced together despite being forbidden to use them outside of class and tried one-upping one another daily.
Benj had kept a steady friendship with the stray boy for these last years and spent most of his time away with him in the woods where they played swords and axes, climbed the great oaks and raced. Benj had become quite strong with the other boy’s help and finished work early each day to return to the forest, eager for the next day of play.
He had just finished his eight rows of planting when their Lady approached them.
“Boys, listen closely now.” She composed herself and smiled, clapping her hands together. “The youngest of you has just turned past the age of requirement, meaning he will begin his training as well. As with the last three to pass the age, I must once again remind you, it is forbidden to use your waking outside of class. Are we understood?”
All the boys nodded and laughed before returning to work. Their Lady sighed and shook her head.
“Thank the Greater none of them are fire wakers. It’s the most dangerous. I could only imagine..” She rambled on to herself about the village being burned down and the world dying as Benj looked to the others for instructions.
“Go to the schoolhouse on the right, to the far edge of town. Talk to Master Rumm to be tested for your element and assigned to an Elder. Good luck.” Serin said, pointing north. Benj’s heart raced as he ran full speed the three miles to town and through the door of the schoolhouse. He arrived panting and sweating, his face red and hair tangled. He brushed it back and wiped his brow on his sleeve. Master Rumm looked up and smiled.
“Ah, Benj. I wondered when I would see you. Have a seat.” Benj did as he was told and looked around the school. It was a single room schoolhouse and had a lighter yew colored wood inside and many windows. Sunlight streamed through and warmed the room to a comfortable level. The ceiling was painted as the night sky and the planets were illuminated with various rocks stuck to their surface. Several rows of seats sat in the room facing Rumm’s cluttered desk. A silver bowl sat there filled to the brim with water beside an unlit candle and stone.
“Let me see your hands.” Benj presented his hands to Rumm who turned them over after several moments of intent searching and studying. He made various ahhs and ohhs but never spoke above a whisper to himself. His rough hands were like shale and his face weathered and cracked like a sea side cliff. His hair was gray around the edges like ocean foam and his eyes were a deep blue.
“You have very strong bones and a firm grip, wide fingers and a square palm. Yet you are compassionate and share.” Rumm stopped and pondered for a moment. “Look here ma’ boy.”
He placed the pebble in Benj’s hand. Its’ surface was smooth and green like jade, but the stone was surprisingly heavy for being the size of a snail shell.
“Think about the stone. Concentrate like you can read it like a book. Imagine it had secrets to tell and try to extract them like squeezing water from a sponge. While you do this, move your hand upward like this, fingers pressed into a tight fist with your thumb out.”
“Like this?”
“Perfect. Here we go.”
Benj stared at the stone, watching it twitch in his palm as his heartbeat shook his balance. He eyed the jade glossy surface and seemed to lose track of time. The rock was there, and he was there, and that was all. Except. Something else was there too. Something he couldn’t see or smell. But he knew it was there all the same. He looked past the rock then to the bowl of water and watched its’ reflective surface, watched as it shone in the light and glistened, watched as it flexed and raised up from the bowl in a shimmering orb levitating from the bowl by several inches.
He sat up startled and the orb collapsed into the bowl, splashing across Rumm’s desk and lap. Benj shook his head and stood in an attempt to help.
“Im. Im sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s fine son, its fine. I should have been paying better attention to it rather than you. I could’ve caught it, but it’s nothing.” He stood, Benj following him outside. “So, fellow Water Waker, are you ready to learn? Your training begins tomorrow at eleven o’ clock.”
Benj’s heart jumped and he nodded erratically. He had waited anxiously for this moment his entire life. He thanked Rumm hurriedly and ran off to the woods to tell his one friend. But as he arrived he saw the woods were silent and the sun was low. He pondered how long he had been inside as he sat on a stump and scratched his chin. He was so excited before he now seemed exhausted, his eyelids drooping lazily.
“Maybe it was the water waking.” He said finally before leaning against a tree and nodding off. The other boy dropped from the tree and laughed before leaving his friend in peace.
The other boy walked slowly, kicking dust up with his heels. He had nowhere to be, no family, no home, no boss. He was his own man as far he was concerned, and being as such; decided to go hunting to appease his stomach. The angry rumbles aside, he was silent in the tops of the tallest oak, waiting for movement below. An adept climber, he ascended yet higher in wait.
Maybe I’ll bag a nice hare or sparrow. He thought as he slipped his sling from his belt. He placed a stone as wide as his palm within, his long thin fingers curling around it. He held it at his side ready to swing, and began to count the new moons he had seen. After deciding he was about the age of sixteen, counting from when he knew for sure he was nine, he decided also he was not a Waker of any sort and was glad he had grown up using tools and weapons. It was an easy existence he decided.
Eager to catch something, he stretched his neck up, his long limbs craning to hold himself out from the tree. The branches he clung to leaned dangerously several feet from the others and threatened to snap, but the oak was strong and held. The boy stood then, perilously balanced on the treetop in which to see further. Something caught his eye.
What in the world is that? A bright light was off in the distance about four miles away, something wavering and alive. He leaned closer and wished he had the sight of an eagle. A foreboding smell wafted up to him, a heavy musk like scent he often smelled around dusk.
Fire.
Just then his head swam and his legs shook. His grip slackened and slid from the branch with a gash across his palms. The boy fell, plummeting through the bramble and forestry, hitting branches against every part of his body and scraping down the tree bark. He landed hard on his back, knocking the wind out of him and his consciousness with it. He lay there in a mound of snapped branches and brush, hidden from sight as Benj walked past, just having woken from his nap. He didn’t see his friend and hurried home, realizing how late it had become. The sun was setting behind the mountains and the moon was high in the sky, painting the forest in pale light like a ghost.
Benj ran past the phantom trees and ghastly shadows, his fear growing with every trail he took. He ran faster and faster until his home was in sight. He laughed then and slowed to a walk, chuckling at his own stupidity.
“What would I have to be scared of in those woods?” He said as he entered the house and struck up a conversation to avoid suspicion.
“So it turns out I’m a Water Waker.” He said to no one in particular. The other boys continued eating but a few smiled as they were too. Benj sat and poured himself a bowl of soup, eyeing the liquid.
Maybe I could manage to..
“I wouldn’t try it, Benj. It’ll spill all over you and it’s still hot.” Another boy interrupted his thoughts. Benj looked down glumly and picked up his spoon. He ate silently and thought of different places he could practice without the others noticing. He finished last and walked outside to the games allowed only in the backyard after the sun had set. Several torches lit the yard around the sides and a campfire crackled in the center. Merin shot several pebbles into it as the other boys followed suit.
“Hey, Benj, over here!” The boy from before called. Benj approached them slowly with a surprised expression. “Ready to practice?” He said to him.
“Yeah, uh, sure, Kanan. You guys are all Water Wakers too?” Benj asked hopefully. The four boys nodded then frowned at the others.
“Yep, just us. Not like the eleven Earth Wakers they’ve got though.”
“Oh well, just means we’re special.”
“Yeah, you are special.” Kanan teased. He removed a gourd from his tunic and poured it into a small hole. “Just levitate it in the air and try to hold it for as long as you can.”
Benj shrugged and began to concentrate. He clenched his jaw, gritting his teeth, and did as Rumm had showed him with his hands. Slowly, everything around him began to disappear one by one. In the end, only the water stood before him floating in a black astral plane. The world had vanished leaving him to his plans.
He focused on its smooth glassy surface as it began to warp, bubbling, then rose slowly above the hole. It floated gently then bobbed, only to be recovered by Benj, and ascended steadily. The process took several minutes and after the glistening orb had risen to the height of the house, Benj could hold it no longer. He began to lower it, sweating with the strain, when a pebble flew through the fire and into his calf. He cried out in surprise and pain as it burned into his flesh, blackening the bruise. The water soared into the air and rained down on the campfire, extinguishing it.
Merin roared with laughter then spat.
“Look what you did, speck! I hope you’re a Fire Waker, ‘cause that fire better be lit before I get to you.” Merin began walking toward Benj, fists clenched. His arms were much wider now and his muscles pronounced. His chest was broad and he stood taller than all the orphans by half-a-head. His face was distorted in a vicious scowl and his eyes black as the night.
Benj ducked a swing and rolled away from him. Merin followed and kicked at him, missing again. Benj backed away from him until he hit the house, the back of his head throbbing from the force. Merin snickered menacingly and reared back. Benj squeezed his eyes shut and fell to the ground. Merin threw his fist forward, smashing into the wall of the house where Benj’s head had been, and cursed profusely, slinging word after word in seemingly no order.
“That’s it you little piss ant!” Merin screamed and raised his broken hand and his good fist into the air, and suddenly, waved them up then down. A rock buried itself in the wall beside Benj with a thud. Benj yelled and ran as rocks and pebbles hurled themselves after him. Benj dared not cry as the objects stung him like fire and left whelps as large as his eyes.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Merin called behind him and grabbed him roughly by the collar, ramming his knee into Benj’s gut. “Your little friend aint’ gonna’ save you now.” He said and threw Benj to the ground. By now the other boys were protesting Merin’s advances and began to wish their Lady were back from town.
Benj began to cry now, tears streaming down his face as he felt his body burning with pain. Various whelps had burst to bleeding sores and his thrashed torso cried in anguish with every breath. He wiped his tears away and looked at them.
Suddenly Merin howled in pain, his arm bleeding from a thin slice of skin. He grabbed it with his broken hand and cringed again. He looked from it to Benj and back. Benj stood, his tears floating around his hand, and sang through the air again to Merin’s flesh. Each teardrop left a thin cut behind its’ travel and whistled away into the darkness. Merin clutched at his bleeding arms which were dripping to his pants now, and cried as he fell against the wall, sobbing.
Benj staggered then and collapsed, exhausted from the waking and fainted into the dirt.
No comments:
Post a Comment