Rocks

The young man panted heavily as he climbed over the ice wall with the others as they ran the obstacle course. He watched as some of them slipped on the ice wall. He heard the Firewarrior curse loudly.

"Is that all you can do, and you want to be Firewarriors! Get up that wall now, or you'll be doing guard duty for the next week outside!"

"Finally... the end." He smiled in silent victory.

He stood recovering his breath while watching the other recruits slowly make their way through the course.

He stood in formation as he noticed the Firewarrior approaching.

"That was terrible, all of you drop down and give me fifty!"

He dropped with all the recruits and started doing pushups as he listened to the Firewarrior's words.

"Recruits, if you want to be Firewarriors then you need to get through the obstacle course, hand to hand fighting, using fire energy, and firing fire energy weapons! If you can do all those things then you'll be brothers and sisters in arms, until then you're all useless!"

He heard the Firewarrior curse.

"Storms coming recruits, you better hurry up or only death awaits!"

He increased his pace with the other recruits as he felt the snow and wind starting to blow against his body.

"Forty-eight... Forty-nine... Fifty!"

He stood in formation with the other recruits quickly glancing around at the other recruits noticing they were also panting and feeling exhausted.

"We're all in the same position here..." He said to himself.

His heart sunk when he heard the Firewarrior's words. "Hand to hand combat drills form a circle let's begin!"

The recruits all formed a large circle and watched while two recruits would face off against each other. He watched the other recruits in the center of the circle until it was his turn to fight.

He looked around him at the storm slowly building around them. "Great, when it's my turn the storm will hit… I'll go through everything and survive, not giving up yet."

He looked determined as he was called out for the next fight.

He walked into the center of the circle and cracked his neck staring at his opponent, he put his hand in his fist and bowed at his opponent.

The voice of the fire called out to him.

"You don't need to hit him, to beat him, you just need to end the fight quickly as the storm is closing in on us."

He nodded silently and proceeded to approach his opponent with his guard raised.

The fire spoke out again.

"Just catch his fist or leg, and we'll finish this quickly."

He ducked under his opponent's leg kick and kicked his opponent's leg out from under them. He then pounced on top of his opponent punching his opponent's face until they tapped out causing the fight to end quickly.

As he walked back to the edge of the circle he looked up as the snowstorm picked up around them. He also noticed that the Firewarrior had a giant smile on their face.

"Some more training in the storm is coming I think." He stood at the edge of the circle waiting for the Firewarrior.

"Fire energy training, everyone removes your outer clothes and use your fire energy to survive the storm, if you fail then use the battery and return to camp as a failure!"

He took his outer clothes off with the other recruits and sat in the snow as he started circulating the energy inside him. The snow he sat on melted quickly.

He briefly opened his eyes and looked around him, he ignored the flirtatious looks and smiles from the female recruits and looked at the Firewarrior who was standing with his arms crossed watching him in silence.

He closed his eyes focusing on the energy inside him circulating and keeping it under control.

"Recruits, you need to remove the water pooling around you as well, or it'll freeze again, and cause you to waste your fire energy melting it again!"

"This is getting hard..." He said to himself as he tried to slow the energy circulating in his body.

He saw the flame in his flare and suddenly the energy rushed through his body faster.

"I...can't control…this much…" His body screamed in pain as he felt his veins and muscles tearing. "Need...to expel...or I'll explode."

A burst of energy shot from his body into the environment around him. He opened his eyes and looked at everyone staring at him while panting.

A sphere of energy was around them keeping the snowstorm away. He looked at the Firewarrior who shook their head as they looked at him.

"Recruit you have power, but no control. fighting isn't about using power to destroy enemies, because on a battlefield there are many enemies and something like that would only cause more enemies to arrive. A Firewarrior needs to be efficient and have control!"

He watched as the Firewarrior walked closer to them.

"The moment you touch a fire weapon with no control, it'll take all the fire energy inside you and leave you as an empty dried up dead husk!"

He watched as the sphere slowly became smaller eventually fading away as the snowstorm started to beat against his body.

The fire inside him spoke, "you need to control the energy release, or we'll run out of energy quickly and die before we even make it to a battlefield."

He looked at the fire.

"Then tell me how to control it. It's like a giant river inside me, and when I try and let a little out, the entire river just wants to force itself through the tiny gap until there is nothing left."

The flame flared. "Everyone who uses this energy is different… You need to work it out yourself or we'll both perish quickly, now we're in a serious need to feed on more energy."

He opened his eyes looking exhausted, hungry and lost in thought.

"How do I control this…" He muttered to himself and didn't notice the Firewarrior looking at him.

"Recruits... Training is over head back to camp. MOVE IT!"

He watched the Firewarrior turn and walked back through the gates into camp.

He stood with the other recruits and walked back to camp with his head looking at the ground. He cursed and kicked the snow in front of him.

"How to use the energy without feeling my body tearing apart… Even the flame doesn't have the answer… Or… They have the answer, and just don't want to tell me so I figure it out myself"

He panted heavily as he walked through the gate and turned when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"What's this feeling, it's like energy is flowing into me… What's happening now?"

"AAAARRGHH!"

The scream woke him from his thoughts as he looked at the person who had placed their hand on his shoulder was now on the ground.

"His skin has turned blue…" He panicked.

"Did I just take his energy?"

He looked at the other recruits around him who all took several steps away from him as he watched the on-duty patrol Firewarriors came running to them.

His heart was racing, "I didn't do anything… I just feel hungry and tired."

He fell to his knees staring at the recruit that was turning blue.

He looked at the on-duty Firewarriors and listened as they talked to each other.

"We need to take him to the rocks there he'll recover his energy."

They looked at him. "It seems this one had something to do with it, we should also alert their supervisor…"

"I'm sure he heard the screaming as well. He'll be here shortly."

He watched as the Firewarriors picked up the fallen recruit, and he looked at the other recruits staring at him with open mouths and fear.

"I didn't do anything..."

A voice called out.

"This isn't a show, so stop staring and go get something to eat!"

He stood up and watched in fear as the Firewarrior place his large muscular hand on his shoulder for a moment.

"Again... Energy coming in from him…" He looked at the Firewarrior who frowned and removed his hand.

"You. Follow me. We need to talk…" He watched as the Firewarrior turned his back walking away from him, as he followed behind him in silence.

"You're never going to be able to use fire energy weapons, because weapons take fire energy to work. You on the other hand either release it in large bursts which can kill everyone around you or absorb it from anything or anyone that has energy inside them. If you have no control, you're dangerous to the others, and will be either killed or sent far from here to the Firelands as a lowly prison guard or an executioner."

He followed with his head down staring at the ground in silence and looked up as a blast of heat washed over him. He stared at the open door in front of him as another wave of heat washed over his body.

"Inside now recruit" The Firewarrior's voice called out to him through the doorway. "Come and see what happens when you don't have control,"

"The energy in here is very pure, it will fill us quickly." The flame in his body jumped around in excitement as he started to breath in the energy as he walked inside.

He stopped and looked at all the stone coffins in the room with large fire batterys underneath them. He walked up to one of the open coffins and looked inside. "Small stones... These are also giving off a lot of energy."

"What are you doing, come over here!" He looked up at the Firewarrior who was looking over another open coffin. Walking over to the Firewarrior he looked into the open coffin and saw the recruit that had touched him lying amongst the small rocks with their eyes closed.

"Their face its slowly returning back to its normal color." He said and watched as an attendant walked up to them looking at the Firewarrior. "This recruit is fine. Only they used up all their Fire energy without knowing the dangers. They will be fine after one cycle."

He looked at the Firewarrior who just nodded in silence and stared at him. "You put this recruit here... Even now you are still not showing any sign of control and are absorbing the energy in this room…"

He was silent and lowered his head looking at the ground. "Am I that much of a danger to those around me?" He whispered.

"Yes, you're a danger to others. Its either control yourself, or removal before you kill your unit." The Firewarrior tapped the stone coffin.

"I will put it in simple words for you to understand... I'll personally turn you into ash if you can't show any signs of control."

The Firewarrior turned and walked through the stone doors leaving him in the room as he stared at the other recruit in the coffin.

"He's right… I have no control, maybe the next person I'll kill instead of just putting them in here." He fell to his knees.

"I'm sorry."A tear fell from his eye and landed on the stone floor with a hiss. He stood up and walked towards the exit."Fire eater hold it!"

The voice made him stop and turned to look at the source of the voice. He saw the old man with the black cane staring at him with his only eye. He stood at attention waiting for the old man to speak, as they just stood at him in silence.

"Every dawn you are to come to the gate for control training, if you fail the training, I'll kill you myself as you are too much of a danger to the FireStrike unit."

The old man turned around facing the recruit in the coffin in silence and he watched as the old man waved him away with his scarred hand. He quickly walked through the stone doorway with his heart beating loudly in his ears and breathing deeply.

"That old man is truly a monster… I wonder who he is?"

The fire in his mind spoke."Who cares who that man is. He is a monster and for us to receive training from him, will make us become a monster too."

He looked up at the cloudy sky replying to the fire sadly. "Yet if we fail, then we die, is that also exciting?"

The fire flared for a moment replying with a sharp tone in their voice. "You're way too tense. You say you understand about paying the cost, yet you have too much doubt that you can pay the price."

He ignored the words of the fire and stared at the gate in sadness and anger. "Control, how do I even do that? All I want to do is be a Firewarrior, and now I'm told I can't even use a fire weapon."

He changed his direction and looked at the building that was falling apart and barely standing. "I need to learn how to control, I need to survive, or I am going to end up just like that building."

He turned and looked back at the room he had come from and noticed the old man staring at him. He sighed to himself and walked towards the dorms in silence.

"Tonight, could be my last night alive... What should I do?"