It feels different to come back to the academy…Last year changed everything in our lives… I’m no longer a normal teenager, all the experiences and trauma’s made me feel years older. World is not what I used to think; safe. Silver hawks are lurking on us from the shadows…I don’t know how this is going to end but I’m sure of one thing… I’m going to give them a good fight, I won’t let them take our planet that easily… I need to train myself for everything…

“Do you think it is a right decision to come back here?” Helen asked for umpteenth time interrupting my train of thoughts. “Stop worrying… academy is as safe as ministry head quarters…” I said squeezing her hands.

She nodded. I was trying to be brave but I had my own doubts…If it is really safe how could they kidnap Mr. Dom? Speaking of him there is no word about his disappearance. How did they get in? If they could get in once, they can do it again… My thoughts were interrupted when Jesse smiled at me.

Jesse and Aunt persisted that I continue schooling. My family moved into Jesse’s home for the time being though they were reluctant to come, they are left with no choice since they couldn’t go back. When the mails arrived informing the start of the school… we were in dilemma but I believed in Jesse when he said he would keep me safe.

I missed the usual welcome message from Mr. Dom. Where is he? Is he alive? I wish we had answers for everything.

I started walking to my room with Helen when James our caretaker of pets called my name. “Hello, Mr. James…” I smiled.

“Harry wants to see you in his room…”he said. I nodded and he led me to Harry’s room and closed the door behind.

The mirror is empty, maybe he is still not here… I started looking around when Harry cleared his throat to get my attention.

“I have something to ask you… did you say to anyone that you’re a lead apart from the one’s who already knew…”he asked in serious tone.

“No…” I replied.

“Well then, let’s keep it a secret for a while… not even your close friends should know about it…” he said.

“Why…?” I tried to ask but bit back my tongue knowing he would never answer my questions. “Clever girl…” he chuckled.

“Is that it…?” I asked. He nodded and I left to my room humming a tune.

My friends are already gathered in my room. Alexis beamed with joy and hugged, Ronny looked weary and tired.

“Where were you…?” Alexis asked.
“I’m in Harry’s room…”
“What for…?” Ronny asked even his voice was weak…
“He just wants me to keep out of mischief… you know like not going after cloaked persons alone…” I smiled. I wondered at how easily I lied.
“Harry said that I shouldn’t tell anyone about me being a lead…” I thought in mind so that Jesse would read it. He nodded after he read my message.

“My dad… he works in daily planet…” Alexis started. I frowned not knowing what Alexis meant by daily planet. “It’s a newspaper that circulates in the magical world…” she said to me.

She continued giving an allover glance, to see if she has all of their audience… “He pulled a few strings in the ministry to get news about Mr. Dom…” She looked at us waiting to see the expected reaction from us. “They say that he is taken by the dark lord, Cyrus… the worst thing is he formed an alliance with Chaos…” She said.

I heard a few sharp intake of breath. “Chaos...Who?” I asked.

“Chaos is the king of silver moon planet, the planet people are called soul drinkers or silver hawks…” Alexis explained.

“They are after something very precious…” Alexis said.
Chills ran down through my spine… I knew she was saying the truth as parts of my past dream flogged my mind… I have seen them together in my dream seeing my picture and talking about me. Was it me they wanted? I’m only going paranoid… What would they want from a simple girl like me? They are probably after something powerful… I thought.

“Do you have any other information…?” Alexis asked. We all nodded ‘no.’

Days passed as we became busy with our daily schedules… It’s mid February when an unexpected notice came to us when we were training in simple combats…

“Three weeks from now… you will have to face the final test…There will be a series of tests to assess your skills, remember Elisa’s words the final test aren’t theoretical…” Mr. Philip mentioned.

“Your first test will be dual combats scheduled in this week… Your combat schedule and partner will be displayed on the notice board…” he said the word ‘notice board’ with difficulty.

He must have remembered Mr. Dom, when he was here there was no need for a separate notice board…he would always convey the information for us.

Helen and I walked to the notice board before we headed to lunch… There were a bunch of people surrounding it, trying to see who they are paired up with, some faces lit; some huffed as they saw their pairs…

I ran my finger across the line and found that I was paired up with a tracker named Katherine… Helen is paired up with a healer named Mike.

The whole time in lunch we spoke about the dual combats… It turned out that Katherine is really a good opponent, she is master in blocking or so Alexi said.

“Who are you paired with…?” I asked as Jesse sat down with his plate. “I am not sure… we are to fight the instructors, I think…”he shrugged his shoulders.

“You…?”He asked. I pointed to Katherine sitting on the table opposite, she caught me seeing her and gave a warm smile, she is skinny little girl with big, bright blue eyes.

“When is it…?” he asked shifting his gaze towards me. “Afternoon… tomorrow.” I said.

“I’ll be there…” he winked.

I was pretty sure that I am going to win but still I couldn’t take her that easy… All the first years are gathered around the raised platform… They cheered as we walked up the stage… Mr. Philip asked us to play fair on the count of three… I drew deep breaths...and warned myself not to hurt her…

She looked tense but she gave a confident smile to let Mr. Philip know that she is good. On the count of three, I made my first move… I marched straight towards, she sidestepped and blocked me. I took a few more routine attacks to warm up.

Katherine is really good blocker, she kept missing the blows by inches… It would tire people easily if she kept this going on. I missed her punches too, she was way too easy to predict. Round 1 we were equal. Round 2, we had to use our powers to win over the other. That’s when I remembered that I never knew what her power was. This is a serious disadvantage… I had to wait to see what her gift was…

I saw empty stage and then I saw that people staring at the surroundings of mine… Something is seriously wrong… I searched my surroundings and I felt a strong fist hit me in my stomach, I fell on the ground unexpected of this sudden attack, she must have the gift to go invisible… I quickly contemplated the situation… She struck me a few times before I could get edge on the way she moved.

I counted my breath and quickly contemplated the situation… can I control a person that I can’t see…? I calmed down and waited for her to deliver another blow… I sent my energy to poke the brains closer to me… I reached out to her and provoked her brain to feel the blow of my fist, I heard a gasp and then a silent thud and she became visible little by little, she caught her stomach in pain. I made sure that I didn’t make it worse on her like I did to Ronny. She will be definitely good in five minutes.


The crowd cheered as they announced that I won the combat… I headed to Katherine as I saw her chatting with her friends at dinner. The dual combats lasted till evening. Helen got beaten pretty badly in round 1 but round 2 won her the combat.

“You are a great opponent…” I said. She smiled. “So were you…”she replied.

Ronny won two rounds… he was paired up with a tracker… It was the first time I got to see his gift… he could tame the air around him; he used it to cause a whirlwind and attack his opponent. When we tried to cheer him, he gave a weak smile. He is being distant from us since he came back from the holidays… he was gloomy and distant all the time. I wonder what’s up with him. We all have been so busy with our days that we didn’t notice how changed he was… he looked dull and lifeless. There is something definitely wrong with him.

I heard that Andy lost to a Fighter and Kenny won their combats the next day…We are seriously waiting to see weekend combat since it’s between Jesse and an unknown instructor. Every year student is allowed to see the combat.

“Are you feeling nervous…?” I asked Jesse as I walked him into the combats room. There was a large gathering.

“The entire school is here to enjoy a lead getting beaten to dust…”Henry smirked.

“Shut up…” I snapped.

“There is none here that could beat you…”I squeezed his hands… He smiled gently. He is really worried about something and I’m sure that it has nothing to do with the combat. He would never care about such trivial things…

He walked up to the raised platform and we all cheered for him. I heard the crowd go silent at once… I saw Jesse smile fade as I turned to see who his opponent was… my mouth literally hung open. How…?

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 13.01.2012

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To all the fans of soulmate... thank you so much for your kind comments and stars that inspired me a lot.