Chapter 7 - Rowan

I have felt more and more hate focused my way, I took naturally to the fire and combat training is a breeze. Once again though people will not give me the time of day, my name alone is enough to make people stand back from me. We are allowed to interact with people within the school of fire now, which is nice, but I'm not much of a people person. People around me are so quick to a temper, and that is mostly the fire that now burns in their souls, I feel it more than I should. Machina guides me though, the little guy definitely has kept me sane and out of my head, just no friends and my families' letter to me, addressing me by my birth name, and not respecting my choices. I need to take a breath more often I am noticing; I mean I almost just burned this page off, and it wouldn't be the first one with some scorch marks. Strangely enough the writing does help even though I can't get a hold on the small things around me, and end up just writing gibberish about my days here, or worse nothing at all. Mostly because of the missing pages.

I saw Liz on the field as they were leaving the other day and she is just as terrifying as I thought she would be, her movements unlike anyone of her elements, fluid and graceful, almost like she was blessed by water or air. I am excited because soon they will take the elements and mix us with one element at a time, our social life that is, training like that doesn't happen until much later on, after graduation from the basics of course. Well, that's enough writing for now I need to get to training today, I hope they pick earth to go with fire.

Breezes 6

I take in my surroundings on the battlefield, well it's the training field, but with fire nothing is ever filled with a small action. The people surrounding me, are not just trying to stop my actions with it being said, they are trying to burn the hair off my head. The first boy his name is Lyka, his elemental is that of a large black cat, he is the real threat facing off to me, the other two are not so much of a worry. Lyka is probably the closet one to my level out of the entire class of fire. He and I don't have to many things to argue about. The students insult us from time to time but, they are never and I mean never run their mouths on the field.

I feel it before I so much as see it, a lance of fire, Lyka makes the first move his elemental dashing behind him and pulls his hand back, the flames miss my face by about three feet as I tuck to the ground. I get my feet under me while rolling, the flames I call form and dance off my shoulders as I command pushing me a bit faster. The third person, an elf, I think his name is Sigmund or something like that; makes his move, a wave of fire rushes toward me, from the base of his feet in a semicircle about 5 feet tall. I press the ground with my hand and imagine a lance of flame white hot lift me off the ground, and it just happens. My bond with Machina, ignites the jet of flames from my hand and sends me into the air just above the flames.

A second thought presses my mind, as the second person moves, a human girl, I don't know her name, but she is vicious, I have had to train against her several times, and never come out without a scratch or two. She leaves the comfort of numbers and dashes over me, now I am about ten feet in the air, and she just ran to me, using the flames at the base of her feet. I try to formulate the thoughts of how to get out of the situation, and flames ignite on the base of my feet, propelling me through the air. She had planned for it against me, he legs shift blasting her into the same direction as me. Whit hot pain grasps at my leg as I see her foot kicking out to smash mine sending me tumbling through the air. I crash to the ground, and before I can move, two walls of flame, erupt from the ground around me, and meet at the top. Lyka standing at the end of flames drags his hand down to the earth pressing the flames that were never quite hot enough to scorch my skin raining down on top of me in a wave blinding me. Did I mention the Lyka is the most intense person out of all of us to train against?

The flames vanish with the simple move of my hands and a thought, and that's exactly what the girl was waiting for, she had been waiting above me, waiting for me to clear the flames, and give her a clear shot. That's exactly what I did, and she punished me for my simplicity. She dropped from the heavens above me, dropping a raised leg, smashing my head into the ground; the pain that filled my vision was excruciating. I felt my head bounce against the ground a few times. What is her foot made of stone? I lay there quite excruciatingly defeated in my dodging training. No, I was not allowed to go on the offensive, and the goal of this training is to teach us how to dodge the attacks for as long as we can, I think I counted to about 8 seconds a new record in today's training.

Her voice resonated though my ears, "She was weak, and to slow for me," First off, I do not go by she and have explained this to people, and in the hazy of confusion caused by the impact of her foot, and my rage; logic itself burned to nothing more than ashes in my mind. I felt my body moving before I could tell it to, my legs swept out to either side of me in a circular motion pushing me to my shoulders using jets of fire, I pressed my spin faster. She dodged back far enough for me to regain my feet, I felt a little blood trickle down my forehead, and felt the warm liquid driving my hatred in that moment past the boiling point.

Twin flames shaped like daggers appeared from the backs of my hands as my twist in the air placed me softly on my toes, the jets of flames holding my heels just above the ground. Now it's my turn to go on the offensive, my dash took me under her arms, and the first blow took her breath away, my right hand sent shockwaves up my arm as it crashed into her ribcage. Her scream only fueled my blood lust as my left hand met her chin, the jet of fire speeding it up to almost a blur I couldn't see. Don't stop pushing. My foot left the ground behind me and with an arcing sweep over my shoulder pushing my body down and around my pivoting right leg, crashed onto the girls left arm the reporting crack of bones and gasp from all around me, pulled me from the rage.

She laid on the ground grasping her arm, crushed, and the pain on her face shown me what I had done wrong, and three gouts of flame separated her from my vision. An instructors voice called out to me, "Stop that's enough!" he was no bigger than me, but the way the instructor held himself beckoned me to try my luck against him.

I took several steps back from the wall of flames, and dropped to my knees, I hold no ill against people normally, and try to brush off trivial moments like these. But the confusion, the burning fire inside me, and the rage that she knew would be triggered in that moment pushed me to a point I don't like to go to. I felt tears welling in my eyes, and the instructor strode past me dispersing the flames with the flick of his wrist, she was at least sitting up in Lyka's arms from what I could make out past the tears.

The pain on her face very real, and completely caused by me. I'm going to get scolded for this but I know I will have to pay for this so I'd might as well make a scene of it. I pushed myself of the ground with a blanket of flames, dramatically as possible, "My name is Rowan Evaris, I do not tolerate people calling me she and her, you will refer to me as they or them, or simply put Rowan. All chosen of fire know this, I will not hold back against anyone who tries me as such." With my final words the daggers of flames, I had still been holding subconsciously, shifted around my head in a crown; I at least felt like this next one is required, I summoned the image of an eagle's wings and had the flames sprout them from my back beating gently. The air around the wings and the crown hissed and stirred my vision, the tears that were once on my face fizzling away. Everyone in the arena turning to look at me I finished my announcement, "If you would be friend or enemy, it matters not, I will hold all of you accountable."

The instructor moved past me with a grace I couldn't see and in his arms the girl I had just struck down rested holding her arm close to her side, the limp wrist and fingers swaying in the wind. Guilt panged across my mind, and I had never intended to hurt someone in rage, well here at least I would have to apologize to her for being so extreme, and maybe thank her for giving me this opportunity. As the flames and crown dispelled from around my head and back, the sound of gravel crunching filled my ears, and Lyka's voice filled them instead, "You know Rowan, most people are just afraid of you and your family from what I gather, maybe you should take a step back and think about what they are thinking. I mean you broke her in a blink of an eye, and she is one of the strongest people here."

I glance over my shoulder and feel a smile press onto my face, her kick had sent my hair loose and the growth since leaving for the Council had made it fall down to almost my shoulders, "Maybe it's all this hair weighing down on me," a dagger of fire lanced from the back of my hand. He took a step back from me, as I gathered my hair in my left hand, "Maybe it's time for a cut," The dagger of flame lanced through my hair taking it off above my neckline. The smell of singed hair filled my nose, and it was too late to turn back, I pressed my hand upward and removed the hair that had been held into the neat ponytail moments before.

The ashen- brown hair in my hand, I notice was a bit longer than I expected, maybe I took more off than I wanted to. I hold my arm out in front of me and engulf the hairs in flame with a thought. In an instant I went from Dianne of the royal castle, for everyone here, to something else. A mumble filled the air, and two words hit my ears as Lyka spoke to them, "Fallen Royal." Well, I felt like that isn't the worst nickname this could have gotten me here.