#ya series

“Aeli Runik!”

I fell backwards off my stool when a small pebble bounced off my forehead, startling me out of my daydream a couple days after the encounter in the blue world.

A strangled sound came from my throat as I fell, followed by the sound of air whooshing out of me when I hit the floor.  

Giggles erupted around me.  

Even Maedi smiled down at me from the stool next to mine, trying to suppress her laughter.  

I gave her a wry look and climbed back up into my seat.

“My apologies Master Gruner.  I drifted off for a moment there.”

“A moment?” She said. “Aeli, I was trying to get your attention for several moments.”  

My tan face burned crimson for an instant, but I recovered quickly.  

“Would you care to tell us how Raiken works?” She continued.  “Since you’re so keen on paying attention.”

I stood and stayed silent for a moment.  “Raiken is…   Raiken is the manipulation of energy, or Ken.  And it happens by…” My eyes darted around the room, which seemed to be growing smaller as I stumbled through my explanation.  

I glanced at Mae, who was wiggling her fingers.  At first, she wiggled them slowly.  Then, she sped up, moving them more quickly, before slowing them back down.

“People with…  People with Raiken have the ability to manipulate certain types of Ken.  They can manipulate the very energy that particles use to function.” I found my stride.  “By adding energy, they increase the movement of the particles, creating some sort of reaction, depending on the type of Raiken a person possesses.  By removing energy, they slow the movement of the particles, creating the opposite reaction.  For instance, Master Gruner, when you shot this pebble toward me, you used your Dima Raiken to increase the energy of the particles in the pebble and make it fly across the room and bounce off of me.  Had I been paying attention, I could have used my own power to reduce the kinetic energy of the pebble and stop it from advancing any further…”

Master Gruner frowned, unsure of how I managed to come up with the correct answer when she was clearly trying to make an example of me.

“Very good.”

I sat back down and gave Mae an appreciative smile.  

Master Gruner continued on.  “There are five types of Raiken: Zea, Dima, Nera, Eiba and Cosma.  The first four control different forms of Ken: Zea controls life Ken, Dima controls kinetic or movement Ken, Nera controls thermodynamic or light and heat Ken, Eiba controls electromagnetic Ken, while Cosma controls them all.  Only a person with Cosma Raiken can control more than one type of Ken.  People having varying abilities of one of the first four is uncommon, but not extremely so.  Cosma Raiken, however, is incredibly rare.  In fact, Miss Runik here is the only student we’ve had with Cosma Raiken in over twenty years…”

Everyone glanced at me before turning their attention back to Master Gruner.

She kept on talking about how Raiken abilities are inherited recessively through bloodlines, but I could only pay attention for so long before I drifted off again.

When I focused back on reality, everyone was preparing to leave the room.  Master Gruner quickly packed her bag of scrolls and gave me a curt nod before exiting.

I looked at Maedi, who was scribbling something down on a piece of parchment.  She glanced up, startled to see that everyone was leaving.

“What are you writing?” I asked.

“Just notes.  Nice explanation of Raiken earlier.  I was afraid you were going to blow it.”

“Gee thanks.  I appreciate the hint you gave me.  But why couldn’t we just have avoided the whole thing by you poking me when Gruner noticed I wasn’t paying attention?”

    “Sorry, I didn’t think to.  I kind of froze when she looked over toward us.”

“I guess it couldn’t be helped.  She probably would’ve tried to find another way to embarrass me anyways…  Gruner hates me, after all.”

“No, she doesn’t.  She just expects more of you.”

I stared at her blankly for a moment.  “Could you sound any more like an old lady?”  

Mae gave a yip of laughter and I couldn’t help but smile at the way her eyes crinkled in her amusement.

——————————————————————————————-

I meandered through the trees of the orchard, taking my time in bringing my crate of apples back to the storehouse.  

I ran my fingers across the bark and felt the Zea Ken of the trees swirl over my skin as it interacted with my own energy.  

My eyes closed at the sensations.

The trees were a slow pulse around me with multiple small quick vibrations of the wildlife scattered throughout.

I tugged gently at a deeper pulse and the tree released some of its Ken at my gentle urging.  This only happened because the tree allowed it.  It wouldn’t work if just anyone tried to draw energy from their surroundings without heed.  Permission to draw energy from a living being was required.

Even from plants.

I played with the Ken for a moment, shaping it how I wished before I gave it back to the tree I’d borrowed it from.  I smiled and thanked the tree as I felt it respond to the return of its energy.

After glancing toward the sun to gauge the time, I sped up my progress a bit.

“Took your time, didn’t you?”  Brecht greeted me when I made it back to the storehouse.  “Honestly Aeli, imagine how incredible you could be if you actually applied yourself.”

“I was practicing my Zea Raiken…”

Brecht sighed.  “I can understand getting caught up in the life energies of the orchard.  I do so from time to time as well.  But you mustn’t let it distract you.  Especially in your case.  You have three other types of Raiken at your control.  If you keep focusing only on one, you’ll never master the others.  And that could leave someone like you more vulnerable.  Much more vulnerable than those of us that can only control one form of energy.  Do you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good.  Now off you go, or you’ll be late to training.”

I smiled before I dashed off to the training yards.

¥¥¥

Upon arriving at the yards, Kellen clapped me on the back.  “Cutting it a bit close, eh?”

“I’m always cutting it a bit close.”

“She still made it on time,” Mae said.

I nudged Kellen with my elbow.  “See, this is why I like her more than I like you.”

Maedi blushed as Master Stahl strode into the yard.

“Grab your bows, people!” He bellowed.  “And don’t shoot anyone!”

The students shuffled about as we grabbed our bows and arrows before finding our assigned targets.

“Only stone tipped arrows for you, Pahamu,” Stahl said to Kellen.  “I’ll have none of your magnetic antics here.”

Kellen smirked and exchanged his quiver of arrows for one with only stone tipped ones.  He came back in time to watch Maedi release an arrow that struck dead in the center of the target.

“How, Mae?  Just—How?”  I asked, dumbfounded.

Mae blushed again.

“Do you even use Raiken for that?”  Kellen asked.  “Or is that just pure skill?”

“You know I can’t use my Raiken for this.”

“You can control kinetic energy, Mae.  Of course, you could use your Raiken for this,” I said.  “A slight nudge from a redirected gust of wind would do just fine.”

“Yes, but it’s against the rules to use Raiken during weapons practice.  I don’t cheat like Kellen,” she replied matter-of-factly.

Kellen smirked.  “I can’t help it if it just comes that naturally to me.”

“Oh please,” I scrunched my face.  “Mae’s right.  You’re a total cheat.”

“You three!” Master Stahl yelled from across the yard as he walked toward us.  “Runik and Pahamu,” he said to Kellen and I when he neared.  “Why am I not surprised?”  He glanced at our target.  “Well shot, Jeton.”  He smiled at Mae before he turned to me.  “Let’s see it, Runik.”

I stepped forward, spread my feet apart with the left slightly ahead of my right and took a deep breath.  I knocked an arrow and raised my bow.  

The center of the target looked small.  And the longer I stared at it, the smaller it seemed to get.

I took another breath to steady myself.  This was the part I usually rushed.  As I inhaled again, I drew the string back to my jaw as far as I could pull it and lined up the tip of the arrow a little above the center of the target.  I exhaled and released the string with a twang.  The arrow shot forward and imbedded itself a handbreadth to the left of Mae’s arrow in the center.

“Not bad,” Stahl said as I lowered my bow.  “Your patience is better.  But you forgot to compensate for the wind.”

I nodded, taking note of the breeze that was pushing eastward.

“Now Pahamu…  I’m almost afraid to even ask, but let’s see it.”

Kellen stepped up in front of the target and settled into a wide stance.  He drew back on the bow so hard, I thought it might break.  He released and the whole bow seemed to groan with the recoil.  The arrow sped away and went wide of the whole target.

“And this is precisely why no one is allowed to walk back there,” Stahl said with a shake of his head.  “You shoot a bow as if you were wielding your ax…”

Kellen shrugged and stepped back to allow Mae to take her next turn.

I watched Mae closely as she prepared herself to shoot.  She effortlessly flowed into her stance and knocked an arrow.  For someone who looked so delicate, you’d think she’d have trouble drawing the arrow back.  But she didn’t.  She drew it back with such fluidity and surety, then released it in the same way.

A thud echoed across the yard as her arrow buried itself less than half a finger’s breadth above her first arrow.

I gave a low whistle.  “Why even bother practicing?”  I asked.  “You’re already a master.”

Maedi blushed a deep shade of scarlet at my praise.  

“I’m hardly a master.  It’s one thing to shoot here in the yard, quite another when in a real battle.”

“Of course, she’s right.  Again.”  Kellen teased.  “Just like we’re all quite good at our Raiken, well, except for Aeli with Eiba and Dima.  But we all ran away like normal people the other day in that world with a blue sun.”

Mae and I both nodded at his words.

“I have you and Mae for Eiba and Dima,” I said.  “But, very true,” I agreed.  “Very true.”

A pocket of flame sped past my head, singeing some strands of chestnut hair that had come loose from my braid.  I turned and barely had time to dodge out of the way as another, bigger glob of fire careened toward me.  

I shifted to look for who had created the fireballs with tufts of smoking hair sticking out all over my head.  

Clearly, I hadn’t managed to dodge it completely.

“What the hell?” I yelled toward the others around me, frazzled.

A small nervous looking boy shrank away from my voice, as the rest just stared at me blankly.

“Were those yours?” I asked the boy.  He nodded.  “Not bad.  But watch what you set on fire, will you?  Practice with your instructors in the proper areas, eh?  Not in the courtyard.”

I puffed an exaggerated sigh and the boy nodded before scurrying off toward the stables.  I smiled and shook my head, then continued on my way through the courtyard, fussing with my burnt hair as I walked.  

A few other students gave me wry looks as I walked past.

I shrugged and kept walking toward the terrace and the dormitory beyond that.  I stared up at the Kalina Tree as I walked.  

The Kalina Tree was a massive willow that stood in the center of the terrace.  The trunk of the tree was so thick it took twenty-one full-grown men touching fingertips with their arms completely stretched out to make a full closed circle around it.  Eadrin Academy was built around it because of how gigantic it is.  No one had ever heard of any tree being that big, let alone a weeping willow.   People theorized that someone powerful had altered it with magick for some reason in the past, making the founders of Eadrin think it was important.

I bowed my head to the tree as I walked past it and entered the dormitory, heading straight for the kitchen.  A few other students getting food gave me curious glances about my appearance, but I didn’t stop to explain.  I was running late, so I just grabbed a small chunk of bread, some cheese and a skin full of water.  Then headed for the dormitory gardens.

Several more students were lazing around in the gardens as I sped past them and into the miniature maze of hedgerows.  The entire garden was surrounded on three sides by the hedgerows, which acted as a sort of wall.  And there was a small maze of them toward the north end.  Normally, I would admire the patches of lilies, violets, verbena and lavender surrounding the small pond near the center as I walked.  But this day, I just continued to a nearly invisible opening through the hedgerows that marked the northern border of the garden.

I glanced around me to make sure no one was watching and slipped through, breaking out into a run toward the woods as soon as I was free of the branches.

I sprinted all the way to the woods, slowing to a jog only once I reached the cover of the trees.  Moving at a steady trot, it wasn’t long before I reached the Strom River, which is the northern border of the Eadrin Academy grounds.  

Students weren’t allowed to go across the river without trainers or instructors with them.  

But, well…  Some rules don’t always need to be followed.

Once I reached the Strom, I followed it east until I found the tree I was looking for.  To the average eye, it looked just like any other oak.  But if you looked closely, you could see that some of the branches midway up formed an unconventional bridge where they tangled with the branches of a similar tree across the river in the Shen Forest.  

I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure someone formed the bridge and strengthened the trees and branches with Zea Raiken or, simply put, life magick.  Many of the students that study at Eadrin have some form of Raiken, or magick, after all.

I climbed the tree forming half the bridge and carefully crossed to the other side.  I made my way partly down the other tree across the river and jumped down the rest of the way, breaking into a trot again after I regained my footing.

After jogging north a few more minutes, I finally reached my destination, another giant tree in the middle of the forest.  This tree, which my friends and I call the Coll Tree, isn’t quite as big as the Kalina Tree.  But you’d be hard pressed to find another birch like it.

“Where have you been?” Came a deep voice from a nearby apple tree.  “You’re late.  We only have an hour and a half until supper.”  

The dark-haired muscled bulk of my best friend, Kellen, came into view as he hopped down from the branches.  

“What the hell happened to your head, Aeli?”  

“Brecht kept me longer at the orchard.  It was like he knew I wanted to be somewhere else, so he had me load two extra carts.  Then, when I was walking through the courtyard this new kid practicing his Nera Raiken nearly set my head on fire.”

“Looks like he kind of succeeded.  Maybe if you ask Tanlin nicely, she’ll re-grow it for you.  Though, if you could ever learn how to use your power you wouldn’t have to ask someone else.”

“Alright, Mr. Eiba Raiken master.  Just because you can already control metal, doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t struggle to learn our own power.”  I scowled at him.  “Anyways, where’s Maedi?”

“Right behind you.”

I jumped before turning around.  “How do you do that?”  

Maedi just smiled shyly, her green eyes gleaming in a patch of sunlight.  

“There’s nothing loud about you, is there?”  

She shook her head.  

“Just remind me never to make you angry.  Your Dima Raiken can be scary.”

She blushed and her small, lithe form straightened a bit.

I smiled back and, since I was finally not moving, I took this time to shove some bread and cheese in my mouth and wash it down with some of the water from the skin I grabbed.

“When you’re ready,” Kellen huffed.  “I’d like to get started.  We don’t have long until supper, which means less time to explore.”

I nodded and stuffed the last of the bread and cheese into my mouth.  I took another pull from my water skin and readied myself.  The others gathered in closer to me, just in case I accidentally left them behind.  

I’m not the best at controlling my Raiken, so it’s happened before.

I focused my mind and opened myself to the energy, or what we call Ken, flowing around me.  I felt around and sensed Kellen and Maedi standing near me.  Both of them contained incredible amounts of power vibrating within them.  

I then expanded my senses and felt the trees and plants around us.  A squirrel darted out, not far from us.  Its smaller amount of energy swirled about a lot faster than the slow pulsing that came from the trees.  I felt the heat and light Ken of the sun, coming through the leaves in pockets.  The wind gusted softly and the energy of its movement washed over me.  Finally, I sensed the vast pounding of power coming from the Coll Tree.  Its Ken was the biggest in the forest.  

The only thing I had ever felt with a greater amount of power was the Kalina Tree.

Now that I could feel all the bigger sources of Ken around us, I narrowed my senses in an attempt to detect the much smaller ones.  The soil beneath our feet teemed with energy, as did the air around us.  

As I searched around, I finally found what I was looking for, a tiny break in the web of Ken.  It was almost like an error in the energy flow.  Like, for some reason, Ken just didn’t move there.  Or, if it did move, it vibrated so strangely that I couldn’t sense it properly.

I zeroed in on the error spot, which was a few paces away from us.  

The spot was moving, but very slowly.  

Gently, I started to gather Ken.  I drew it in from everything around me.  Some from the plants, some from the animals, some from the wind, some from Kellen and Maedi and some from the Coll Tree.  But this was the tricky part.  If I gathered the Ken too quickly, it was possible I’d bring in more than I needed and cause an explosion that could incinerate everything nearby, including us.  Or I could drain too much energy from some smaller life forms and kill them.  

So, I took my time.  

Once I thought I had enough, I compressed the Ken and pushed it into the moving break, letting it re-expand slowly.  Once the energy entered the break, it stopped moving and began to stabilize.

As the energy expanded and changed, so did the error in the Ken web.  After the crack had grown to a hole about the size of a rabbit, something interesting could be seen through it, another world.

I studied the alien world as the hole grew bigger.  It didn’t seem outwardly dangerous.  Sometimes we could tell if a world was too dangerous to enter before a portal was opened, but this one seemed all right.  Just strange.

The light coming through the opening was blue.  

I cocked my head at the sight, trying to decide what it meant.  I glanced at Kellen and Maedi to see if they had any ideas.  

Kellen shrugged.

“Maybe the star that world utilizes as its sun is blue,” Maedi said softly.  

My dark eyebrows drew together as I studied her round face framed by chin length blond hair.  

I never would have thought of that.  And I have no idea how she thought of that.  

I looked back toward the portal, which had stopped growing, but was still too small for us to fit through. I never said I was perfect.  And opening a portal to another world wasn’t exactly easy.  So, I gently drew more energy and added it directly to the opening.  

Soon, it was ready.  

All in all, the time it took to create the portal was probably around ten minutes.  It used to take me nearly forty-five to get it right without killing something small in the process.  Definitely an improvement.

I stepped toward the opening, trying to get a better look at the other world before I decided to enter.  It was hard for my eyes to focus in the blue light, so I looked at Kellen and Maedi again to see what they thought.  

Maedi shrugged and Kellen nodded eagerly, setting his dark-skinned face into a roguish smirk.

I poked my head through the portal and, having not seen anything I thought potentially dangerous, stepped through.  Kellen and Maedi followed close behind me.  After about a minute of squinting around, my eyes adjusted to the blue light.  

I glanced at Maedi close by.  Her blond hair reflected the light in a way that made it look sky blue.  Kellen’s shoulder length black hair just looked even darker in the light.  Not surprising.  

I wondered how my chestnut brown hair looked.  Then I remembered that a lot of it had been scorched.  I drew my braid up and around to my face, but I couldn’t see if it was scorched or not.  It all looked muddled.  So, I dropped it and went back to examining our surroundings.

Even with my eyes adjusting to the light, it was difficult to figure out what I was looking at.  The ground below our feet was dark blue, almost black in some places.  And it seemed to be wriggling, just slightly.

I bent over to touch it and it felt strange, jelly-like.  Kellen gave me a questioning look but I just shrugged.

I scanned the horizon.  Just about everything had a blue tint to it.  I looked up and found the sun, which was, as Maedi had guessed, blue.

“Huh…” I said.

“What?” Kellen asked.

“Mae was right.  Look.  Blue sun.”

All three of us looked up.

“Weird,” Kellen and I said at the same time.

We went back to scanning our surroundings.  We seemed to be in the middle of a meadow-like area.  In one direction, giant blue-green mountains rose.  And in another, we could see strange tree-like structures.  In the other directions, we just saw the meadow continue on to the horizon.

“Which way?” Maedi asked.

“I dunno.  Let’s just walk this way, I guess,” I said, and we started walking toward the tree-like structures.

As we got closer, it became clear that what we were seeing were not trees.  Or, at least, they weren’t like any trees in our world.  They were as tall as trees.  But they had big, long trunks with multiple arms that stretched out in a circle from the top.  And they were translucent, reflecting just enough of the blue light for us to see them.  

But that wasn’t even the weirdest part.  Some of the things were moving on their own.  They would bend at the trunk until their tops where nearly flat on the ground.  And then they would flip over and plant their trunks again.  They didn’t have any roots, just a base on the trunk that suctioned it to the ground.  The arms moved too.  We could see them stretch out every so often and retract back toward the top of the trunk.

“What are they?” Kellen asked.

“I have no idea.”

“I feel like I’ve seen something like this before in Adyskia,” Mae said.  Kellen and I both stared at her blankly.  “In a book,” she quickly added.

“What book?” I asked.

“It had to do with creatures that live in fresh water.”  We continued to stare at her.  She shrugged slightly.  “The book was sitting on Master Figlop’s desk.”

“Why were you in the Zea Master’s office?” Asked Kellen.

“I was asking him a question about the nature of Zea Ken and how life forms use it to move.  I wanted to know if he thinks it could be possible for someone with Dima Raiken to tap into that kinetic energy created when they move and use it to move other non-metal, inanimate objects like I can normally control.  Or use it to strengthen myself.”

Kellen and I had matching faces with scrunched eyebrows and mouths that were stupidly hanging open.

“Sorry I asked…” Said Kellen after a moment.

“What was the answer?” I asked.

“Hm?  Oh, he didn’t know.”

“Oh.  Ok.  Well, anyways,” I said, “what did the book say about the water creatures?”

“Well, in our world, they’re really small. Like, the size of a fly at the biggest.  And they live in fresh water.  There are plenty in Cemlyn Lake.”  My forehead shrank as my eyebrows went up.  “I don’t think the ones in Adyskia are this complex though.”

“Are they dangerous?” Kellen asked.  “Not when they’re Adyskian size.  I mean, are these giant ones heredangerous?”

Maedi stared at the ground for a moment, her green eyes searching.  “I’m not sure.  I remember something about them using their arms to capture other organisms as prey, but we might be too heavy for them.  I don’t think they really have muscles.  At least, I don’t think the ones back home do.”  She looked back toward the creatures.

“We should probably keep our distance.  Just in case.” I said.

Despite my warning, Maedi started walking toward them.

“Mae! What are you doing?” I yelled.

She didn’t stop walking.  “Look.  There’s something flying toward that one.”  

She didn’t even turn toward us.  

She’s kind of scary when she’s determined about something.

Kellen and I jogged after her.

“Mae, please!” Kellen called.  “Don’t get too close!”

Still, she kept walking.  

“The tentacles are moving toward whatever is flying over there.  Watch.”

Finally, she stopped about twenty paces away from the nearest creature.  Kellen and I caught up with her and watched too.

The tentacles of the creature were indeed moving at a steady pace toward something flying by it.  Then suddenly, one of the arms shot out, extending to a length that seemed impossible.  It wrapped around the unsuspecting winged creature, which gave a high-pitched shriek when it realized it was under attack.  Several more tentacles wrapped around the struggling animal.  After a few moments of struggle, it gave one final shudder and then was still.

Slowly, the tentacles began to contract, bringing the prey in toward the top of its trunk.  The animal disappeared for a moment and then we saw it haltingly slide down inside the translucent trunk.  Right away we could see whatever flesh covered the prey begin to melt away.

We were all so intent on watching the creature eat, that we didn’t even notice the tentacles of another crawling toward us.

“Bairaji stones!” Kellen cursed loudly after a moment, getting our attention.

All three of us backed away hoping to be out of reach soon, but the creature’s body just kept stretching.  Then I remembered the lightning speed and expandability the things possess when they’re within range to strike.

“Run!” I yelled.  

And we turned to run just as a tentacle shot toward us.

It barely missed Kellen’s foot and buried itself in the ground.

I turned to look as I ran and saw stingers start to form down the arm that was stuck.  

Then I saw several more tentacles speeding toward us.

After a couple more close calls, we were finally out of range and back to the portal to Adyskia.  

We quickly went through and collapsed on the other side.  As I lay on the ground panting, I raised my arms and started to absorb the energy out of the portal to release it back to where I had borrowed it.

A few moments later, the portal was fully closed and I collapsed back down.

The three of us didn’t move.  We just lay there, squinting in the light of our yellow colored sun and trying to slow our breathing.

“I’m sorry,” Maedi whispered.  

I turned and sat up to look at her.

“There’s no need to be sorry,” Kellen said.

“I nearly got us killed,” she said, even quieter than before.

“Nah,” I said. “We’ve gotten out of worse than that.  ‘Sides, what’s life without a bit of excitement, eh?”  

Mae smiled weakly.  “I guess we know we’re not battle ready, huh?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I didn’t even think to use my Raiken to fight them off.  I just ran.”

“Neither did I…”

Kellen looked serious for a moment.  “Alright, come on,” he said.  “Or we’ll be late for supper.  And we need to clean ourselves up a bit or someone will suspect we’ve been up to something.”

Mae and I nodded and the three of us stood to head back.

I thought it was time to set it free.

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