Chapter 6

As the others were celebrating, Crystal sat on her bed fiddling with her wand. She had so many questions, did her father know that his necklace was a wand, did he know that she was going to go to the ring, why did it turn from a necklace to a wand?

Ash noticed Crystal and walked to her. "That's a nice wand." Ash smiled.

Crystal didn't answer.

"Where did you get it?" Ash asked.

"My dad gave me a necklace with an amethyst embedded in it, during the fight it turned into a wand." Crystal explained.

"Well, you're very lucky that happened." Ash said and walked away.

Breeze and Ripple gestured for Crystal to join them.

"What's up?" Crystal asked.

"We were told last night that there's a training room, wanna go and practice?" Ripple asked.

"Sure." Crystal said.

They walked out of their room and traveled next door.

The training room was crowded. There were ten mini arenas and most were filled.

Crystal, Breeze and Ripple walked into an empty arena and walked to separate corners.

"Remember, no killing." Crystal said.

"Obviously." Ripple laughed.

Breeze raised her hands and a gust of wind came in Crystal's direction.

Crystal was thrown back and hit the wall.

Ripple shot a jet of water at Breeze who used a strong wind to block the water.

Crystal waved her wand and a rock came from the ground and threw Ripple up in the air.

She then pointed her wand at Breeze and a bright light flew from the wand.

Breeze rolled aside and flew up in the air.

Ripple stood up and a geyser of water erupted from the ground beneath Crystal.

Crystal flew up into the air, she broke her fall with a rock that lay next to Ripple.

Breeze flew around Crystal while blowing gusts of winds at her.

Crystal used her wand to knock Breeze out of the sky.

A fire mage in an arena nearby pointed at Crystal, "She has an advantage, that isn't fair."

Crystal jumped from her boulder and walked out of the arena. "I'll see you guys in the room." She left them and trotted back to her room. When she returned, Ash, Icy and River were all asleep.

She got into bed and placed her wand on her nightstand. She looked at the clock to see what the time was. "It's only seven o'clock?" Crystal gasped.

Ash awoke with a start and fell onto the floor, "Where's the fire!?"

"You are the fire." River yawned.

Icy giggled a little bit, "How long were we out?"

"It's seven." Crystal said.

"Wow, it's really early." River said.

Ash got up and looked around, "When's the next battle?"

"Not until nine tonight." Crystal said looking at the schedule on the wall.

"Who are we up against?" Icy asked.

"Flame preparatory school." Crystal read aloud.

Ash sank in his bed.

"Icy, you're taking a break." Crystal said.

"We have the advantage because we don't have any nature mages." Ash said.

River and Crystal shared a look of excitement. "We can win this." They said together.

Ripple and Breeze returned a few hours later. They were sweating like crazy.

"I told you not to take the bet." Breeze said.

"Well, I won in the end." Ripple laughed victoriously.

"Guys, we're talking strategies here, care to join us?" River asked.

They sat around the table looking at the next playing field.

"Where did you get that?" Breeze asked.

"We got it from the night mages, they dropped by and gave us the list of people we'll be fighting and the map of the arena." Ash said handing Ripple the map.

Ripple looked at the list of mages. "They're all fire mages."

"Icy's sitting this one out." River said.

Breeze took the map from Ripple, "There's elevated platforms, we can use them to our advantage."

"You can fly up there right?" Ash asked.

"I can, looks like the next arena will be fought in the sky."

River and Ripple gulped.

"If one of us falls, we'll die." Breeze said.

"So Breeze, stay at the bottom and catch us when we fall." Crystal instructed.

Breeze nodded and flew up to her bunk..

"Ripple, River, you guys are in charge of defending us from the fire mage's attacks," Crystal said. "Me and Ash will be in charge of killing them."

"Are you sure, you couldn't kill that other earth mage last time." River said.

"We were trained to hate fire mages, so it shouldn't be too hard." Crystal said calmly.

"Hey!" Ash scoffed.

"Ash, you're different." Crystal grinned.

That night, Icy wished them goodluck.

River hugged her friend not knowing if she would ever see her again.

They were placed on a platform at least fifteen feet above the ground.

The platforms were placed at different heights. Some were lower than others, others were placed on their sides so they could be climbed.

"Breeze, get into position." Crystal said.

Breeze flew under the platform out of sight.

The air horn sounded and they began to jump towards their enemies.

A fire mage shot a fireball at Ash as he poked his head out from a rock wall.

River fired a jet of water that turned the fireball to steam.

Ash's body became engulfed with an orangey glow that was all too familiar to Crystal.

"Crystal, pay attention." Breeze yelled from below the platform.

Crystal waved her wand a platform turned over.

The two mages fell to their deaths.

Ash fired a ball of fire towards another mage who dodged.

River and Ripple made geysers erupt from the ground.

The two fire mages flew up into the air and fell to their deaths.

The final fire mage snuck up behind Crystal and threw her off the platform.

Breeze flew down after her.

Crystal waved her wand and the platform turned upside down.

Breeze caught Crystal and brought her up to the platforms.

They had won their second battle.

They returned to their room exhausted.

Icy was asleep, and didn't awake when they returned.

Everyone got into their beds and fell asleep instantly.

Crystal placed her wand on her nightstand and fell asleep.

Crystal dreamt about the day of the fire. It felt so real though. She could feel the heat of the flames, she moved around freely, it wasn't just a dream, it was a vision. Crystal ran into the burning house. She saw her younger self asleep. Her father carried her out of the house. Crystal walked through the flames.

A six-year-old boy sat between the flames. He looked oddly familiar. He cried as the house fell apart around him.

Crystal looked around the house. All the flames seemed to be coming from the boy. Is this how the fire started? Crystal saw that the back door was opened. She saw two fiery figures watching from the distance. Those must be the boy's parents. Crystal thought.

The figures soon ran off into the countryside.

She saw her father chase after them.

The house began to rumble. The boy stood up and turned around.

"Ash?" Crystal's jaw dropped.

Ash ran out the back door as the house began to crumble

Crystal followed him, but stopped when he jumped into a hole labeled, The Fire Realm. Crystal turned back and saw the house explode. She was thrown backwards into the trees.

She awoke from the dream with a start.

River looked at her with a worried expression on her face. "Are you ok?"

"I think." Crystal mumbled.

"What was that?" River asked.

"Oh nothing, it's nothing." Crystal smiled.

River nodded and eyed Crystal suspiciously

Crystal knew that she would have to tell River soon, but she didn't know if that was real. But if the dream was correct, her father was alive.