The Gerfin

"Let's go to the practice room now!",said Zane, getting up. "Or Miss Eva is going to burst with anger!"

Natalie grinned and nodded and said,"Yeah, sure, let's go"

The children were all still standing in front of their sticks and forcing it to break merely by the power of them looking at it and it looked like it was definitely not working.

When Zane and Natalie entered the room, Eva looked at them sternly but did not say anything.

Both of them went back in front their tables and looked at that unfortunate piece of stick.

Zane knew that it wasn't going to work for him so he wasn't particularly concentrating.

Suddenly he heard a crack. A stick had broken for someone.

Every head turned towards a girl standing with a broken stick in front of her.

"Miss Helen?",said Eva approaching the girl."You managed to break the stick"

The girl looked pretty surprised at herself and she nodded.

Eva looked at the girl and smiled,"You're a gerfin, dear"

The girl frowned and asked,"And what exactly is a gerfin?"

"It is a being who can control non-living things without touching them. You can control anything telepathicallly",said Eva

"So I can control anything without touching it?",asked the girl excitedly

Eva shook her head,"Now now girl.....don't get too excited, you can't just control anything! All you can do is fragile things, like breaking a thin stick or lifting a feather. You won't be able to lift mountains or any building.....it will need years and years of practice to even summon a door for example or an animal or even controlling a human without touching them!"

Helen looked a little dejected but her eyes shone with excitement.

"How come I never noticed it before?",asked the girl

"Well",said Eva, half-heartedly ."Because you never tried to do it! And congratulations, you're a gerfin!"

The girl nodded and muttered a thanks.

Eva clapped her hands for attention and said,"Okay everyone! Moving on, looks like we've found ourselves a gerfin. So now, we will move on to a next test which might help us determine which one of you is what."

The kids looked excited, Zane wished he too had something to be excited about.

"Now",said Eva."Everyone take the stick in your hands and try to make it invisible!"

Everyone looked at her as if to say that it's not possible but then, they had seen a girl break a stick without touching it. So why not?.

She beckoned at Helen and said,"Miss Helen, you can come here! You've been declared a gerfin, Gerfin's cant make things invisible"

Helen went towards Eva and sat down on the chair beside her.

Everyone, including Zane, held the stick and concentrated on making it disappear.

Of course, Zane knew that it wasn't going to work.

He just held the stick in his hands, knowing it wouldn't work, he didn't know why but somehow it reminded him of his family. He remembered feeling so helpless, so vulnerable, the fire that killed his family, the arrow that had sprouted from his father's chest as he watched with horror.

Somehow those memories made him angry, extremely angry. And his stick caught fire.

He let go of it.

He didn't know how his stick caught fire but everyone was looking at him, including Natalie.

" Zane, are you alright?",asked Eva, scowling

"Yes yes! I am alright!",said Zane stomping on his stick to put out the fire

Eva came towards Zane and crossed her arms.

"Care to explain what happened?",asked Eva

"Umm...I don't really know",said Zane truthfully

"One second I was angry and another second the wood caught fire!",said Zane looking at Eva in the eye.

"Okay...I believe you,but I think we would be having a little chat about how you did that",said Eva before turning back and going away.

Natalie kept looking over at Zane as if he was a time bomb that could go off any second.

All of them, excluding Zane, kept trying to make their sticks disappear but had no luck.

And everyone looked tired, like they needed a break.

Eva wiped her forehead."I think it's enough for today every one! Leave your sticks where they are ,we will continue in the evening".

Zane was sitting on his bed, fiddling with his lead knife.

Natalie came and sat beside him.

"Is that a lead knife?",asked Natalie

"Yeah", replied Zane

"Who gave it to you?",asked Natalie

"My mother",he replied, pocketing his knife.

"Oh",said Natalie, realising that it must be a sensative topic for Zane.

Zane was wearing a locket.

"And who gave you that?",she asked again

"My mother", replied Zane

He opened the locket and there was a picture of him, his mother and father inside of it.

"She's your mother?",asked Natalie

"Yes",he replied

"She's pretty!",said Natalie and then her eyes travelled to the man standing next to Zane in that picture.

"You.... you're the son of King Felton? The First True Alpha king in about a thousand centuries?!!",asked Natalie, looking kind of scared.

Zane grinned and said,"Yeah"

Natalie put up a painful smile and nodded too.