Rose's POV

I see Matisse approach me from the distance.

"Hey bestie! How are you feeling? I can't believe what Mr.Howard made you go through, but I am glad that you know Roman. Are these you dragons? How come- " He starts rambling, being cut off from his twin.

"Give her time to answer Matisse, but your dragons are cool though." Timothée comments. I thank him, sitting in my seat.

"That makes 3 dragon companions right?" Louis asks me, also sitting down. I nod my head as William just whistles lowly.

"Class, today we will be discussing vibrations. I would like for all of you to remove your shoes and place them in your bags." Mr.Patterson waits until everyone has followed his instructions to continue talking. "Every single one of you are capable of feeling the vibrations in the ground, one of the reasons why you are in this class. But, I have noticed that only a few of you notice the difference, depth, and location between the waves. From now on, I want you all to walk around the school without your shoes on, if you dare disobey me, have fun with stable duty." I notice a couple of people grimacing within our class.

"Now, Rose, Louis, and Caden, go to the back of the room and await my instruction. The rest of you, head towards the back of the class, but do not go past the designated markers." My teacher orders. I stand up and go to the very back of the room with Louis. Another kid looking of asian decent is back here as well, I assume Caden. Mr.Patterson hands each of us a blind fold to put on, us three do so.

"Class, I do not want you to move or make any other differences in vibration. You three will walk to where you think the vibration is coming from. The purpose for this exercise is so that you can walk towards where you believe the vibration is being caused only relying on your instincts. Your classmates will be able to feel the vibrations and be able to see where they are coming from. You must guess the direction of and head towards the origin of the movement wave. If you are correct and are not deterred by my distractions, you will feel a stone at your feet. Collect all of the stones you can, and in the end, we will see who has the most." My instructor tells us.

I close my eyes and center my mind, I become one with the dirt that makes up the ground of the back of this classroom. I feel a very subtle difference in movement in two directions. One is on the surface, the other feels like it is coming from underneath me. I make my way towards the latter and almost trip over a stone. I pick it up and continue feeling for any vibrations. I am aware of the movements from Louis and Caden because their vibrations are more forceful. I sense another vibration similar to the last and follow it. Everyone is quiet, watching the two others and I move around the class.

"You may stop and take off your blindfolds." Mr.Patterson instructs. I take off my blindfold and adjust my eyes to the light. I notice that I have 7 stones, Louis has 5 and Caden has 2. We look up to Mr.Patterson questioningly.

"Does anyone want to tell us what they observed?" My teacher asks. He chooses a student who raises his hand.

"They weren't able to see, but because we were, we saw you sprouting stones from the ground and other times just throwing rocks. Rose maneuvered around all of the distractions and only picked up the stones. Louis and Caden fell for your distractions a couple of times." He says. I look to the floor and see that there are in fact rocks littering the ground.

"Thank you Darius. The reason why I chose you three as examples is because I observed that each of you have a different style of sensing vibrations. Rose can depict location and differences in force, thus why she was able to navigate only the stones. I noticed during her placement test that is easy for her to sense attacks stemming from the ground. Caden senses vibrations through location solely, which is why the rocks were able to distract him. Same goes for Louis." Mr.Patterson tells us.

"Now Rose, you have 7 stones, please give them to me." He tells me, I do as he instructs. He pulls out a solid gold ring band from his pocket and forms seven small indents in them. He then manipulates the stones to a minuscule size and fits each one in an indentation. He seals them with a clear protective layer and hands the ring back to me.



"This is your reward for collecting the most stones. Louis, Caden, please set your stones back on the dirt." Mr.Patterson says.

"Thank you." I reply, slipping it right on the index finger of my right hand.

"Everyone head back to your seats. I will begin my lecture on how to sense the differences between vibrations ranging from humans, to animals, to even a growing oak tree shortly." My superior says.

I head back to my seat, admiring my new jewelry. I am fairly surprised that Artemis and Apollo didn't follow me, but then I see that they are napping. I take note of Mr.Patterson's lecture very precisely, knowing that I will be trying this out with my dragons later. The class concludes and I say goodbye to the group of four, walking towards my class with Joel. I see him chatting with Stephen when he spots me.

"Hey blondie." I say as he whisks me into a hug.

"Don't worry me like that, I will make sure you eat more if that's how hard Mr.Howard will push you everyday." Joel tells me. I nod. I need to try and eat more anyway, I promised Roman.

"And who might these little guys be?" He asks, walking back to his friends.

"This is Artemis and this is Apollo." I introduce my dragons, loud enough for the group to hear. We lightly chat until the fire wielders from yesterday interrupt us.

"You better watch your place Rose." One threatens, Apollo growls at the boys tone towards me.

"Yeah, be glad that Emmanuel only warned you yesterday." Another adds, Artemis following in his brothers' actions. I guess Emmanuel was the dragon rider, based off of yesterday's conversation.

"Go worry about yourself Nithin." Joel tells the first one off. "And I didn't think that your minions like Xavier here need to speak for you anyway." He adds, referencing the second one to speak.

"All I'm saying is watch your back." Nithin stalks off, being cautious of my dragons. Xavier throws a glare our way before following his friend. Trevor just scoffs.

"That is so beneath them. You didn't even do anything to them." He tells me.

"Let me know if they keep bothering you okay?" Marquez adds. Gabriel and Joel nod in agreement.

"They are just jealous that Rose's skill level is the same as theirs. They have been here for three years already while this is only Rose's second official day." Stephen voices. I am about to comment when Mr.Bychkov starts talking.

"Good morning class, today we will begin our weight training sessions. Because you are Level 1, weight training is already included in your class. For other Fire Manipulation students, they have to take the additional course. Follow me to the weight portion of the Academy gym where I will individually hand out your workouts." He says.

We walk out of the class following our teacher. I step into the weight portion of the gym, following Gabriel. Mr.Bychkov begins handing each student an index card of what I am assuming are their workouts. He gets to me then informs me of my tasks instead of handing them to me.

" Я вижу, что у вас уже есть утяжелители на лодыжках. Я хочу, чтобы вы тоже носили эти утяжелители. Сядьте на беговую дорожку и бегайте с настройкой 7 в течение десяти минут. Затем я хочу, чтобы вы сделали по 20 повторений сгибаний на бицепс, сгибания рук на трицепс, подъемов ног и разгибаний рук три раза. После этого, жим лежа, сколько, по вашему мнению, вы можете сделать за 3 повторения. Наконец, делайте берпи с 2 отжиманиями между прыжками на оставшуюся часть урока. Понял?" He tells me. [ T : I can see that you already have ankle weights. I want you to wear these wrist weights too. Go on a treadmill and run at setting of 7 for ten minutes. Then, I want you to do 20 reps of biceps curls, triceps curls, leg raises, and arm extensions three times. After that, bench press how much you think you can do in 3 reps. Finally, do burpees with 2 push-ups between the jumps for the remainder of the lesson. Understood? ]

"Да г-н бычков." I reply, internally groaning at how much I am going to do. [ T : Yes Mr.Bychkov. ]

I immediately start on the treadmill, I think it will take me a while to adjust to the weights. This is a faster pace than what I am used to, but I don't stress about it. After 10 minutes is up, I do 20 reps of these arm exercises three times with 20lb weights and the additional wrist weights.

My arms are burning by the time I am done, and I am glad to see that I am not the only one who is sweating. I go to the bench press and wipe off my sweaty hands. I put my hands in some chalk before I add 15lb more weight to the bar, equaling 165. I shakily raise my arms on my last rep of bench presses, then lift the bar back into its spot. Lastly, the dreaded burpees. I have completed around 40 burpees when Mr.Bychkov tells us to get in a line.

"There is five minutes left of class and I want to see which of you are able to maintain a flame at this point of exhaustion. Manipulate the fire from this torch, if your flame extinguishes and/or dies out, sit down in your spot." He instructs. We all gather a small flame just like our teacher told us to.

A minute hasn't even passed and majority of the class is sitting down. I am focusing on keeping my flame alight while trying to stabilize my breath. I notice from my peripheral vision that I am one of three students left standing. Mr.Bychkov walks up to me.

"Ваше пламя вот-вот погаснет. Вам следовало сначала манипулировать большим пламенем. Меня не волнует, что вы устали, вы расслабляетесь. Вдобавок у вас трясутся руки. Я жду от тебя большего, Роза. Дай своему пламени погаснуть. Oпусти и дай мне 50." He scolds me, shaking his head. [ T : Your flame is about to die out. You should have manipulated a larger flame to begin with. I don't care if you are tired, you are slacking off. On top of that, your arms are shaking. I expect more from you Rose. Let your flame go out. Drop and give me 50. ]

I stop manipulating the shameful flame and give my instructor 50 push-ups. He is right though, my arms are shaking because I am not used to having wrist weights while I lift. I need to work harder next time, I don't want to disappoint my superior. I could have done better today.

I finish my push-ups and rise with a stone cold face. Mr.Bychkov gives me one last look before walking off. I lower my gaze to the floor, my eyes hardened. He expects more from me and I just let him down, satisfactory isn't good enough. I can hear my superior dismiss us for the day. I set down the wrist weights, walking out the door.

"Сделать лучше." Mr.Bychkov harshly says as I pass by. [ T : Do better. ]

I give him a stiff nod, going to get my stuff for my other classes. I am dwelling in my thoughts, criticizing my performance in the weight room. I didn't even notice Joel come up to me.

"What's wrong? What did Mr.B say?" He asks.

"Nothing that wasn't true." I emotionlessly say.

"You did better than most. Don't dwell on it, he's just being harsh." Joel tells me. I nod, not seriously taking in his words.

I think Joel realizes this because he doesn't say anything furthermore. I get my backpack, giving Joel a brief goodbye. I think my dragons know that I am upset about something because they just nuzzle their heads against my waist. They were in the room the whole time, but I don't think they understand why I am not as upbeat as usual. As if knowing I need comfort, my companion talks to me.

'What's wrong little one?' Belvedere asks.

'I didn't perform well during the weights session for my fire class, and now my instructor thinks less of me.' I sigh out.

'Personally, I think he is just pushing you to do better. But if you want, we can train outside of school hours to develop your abilities. We should especially ask Ampiere to assist you, given that she can manipulate fire. This way, you will do better next time.' Belvedere suggests.

'That's brilliant! Thank you Belvedere, I can always count on you.' I tell him.

'Anytime little one.' He responds. I walk into my Air Manipulation class with a little more enthusiasm.

"And thank you young ones for helping cheer me up as well." I crouch down and rub their bellies in gratitude. I sit down in my window seat, ready for another day of instruction. If feels kind of weird walking around the school without shoes on, but I'll get used to it soon.

It is strange though how apparent vibrations can be when there is nothing separating your feet from the ground. I see Iverson and one of his closer friends eyeing me from their seats, or more specifically, eyeing my aura crystal. I just bask in the sunlight from my seat, waiting for Mr.Monroe to begin talking.

"Good morning everyone. So yesterday we briefly went over meditation and focus, today we will find out each of your concentration styles. This will not only help with your focus, but will teach you what you value in your life. These values may or may not align with the teachings of Air Nomads, we will soon find out." My teacher begins. "Everyone to the back of the room, but do not cross over the marked lines." Mr.Monroe instructs. We all move to the back, awaiting to see what he has in store for us today.

"As you can see, I have set up a table with items correlating with your 5 senses. This will help me narrow down how you focus, which will make it easier for you to meditate. For those of you such as Iverson and Rose, we will specify your thinking process and how you utilize your senses to help your focus. I will call you up in groups of three. When you get here, tell me what you think about when you go into your meditative state, and I will give you an object that may help you with easing your concentration. Let's begin with Wilbur, Angel, and Victor in that order." Mr.Monroe calls out three names. The last boy I recognize as the one who is close friends with Iverson.

They look around the table talking to Mr.Monroe about their concentration and what not. After they are given objects to ease them into meditation, he calls out three more names. This process repeats until I am called up with Iverson and another boy I don't know the name of. My teacher speaks to them first, dismisses them, then focuses on me.

"How do you go into your meditative state?" Mr.Monroe asks me.

"I clear my mind and focus on small details. I usually hone in on my senses and concentrate on how they make me feel. For example, how does the sunlight make my skin feel, how may I look to others, what sunlight represents, that sort of thinking process." I sum it up to him.

"So you utilize all of your senses and focus on your surroundings?" He asks me. I nod.

He thinks for a moment before fetching something. Mr.Monroe returns with a rough diamond shaped crystal of hematite.

"Do you know what this is?" He asks. I nod once again. "Good, Hematite is known for manifestation, grounding and clarity. It is obvious that you are able to meditate well, and have the basic focus and concentration requirements to meditate successfully. So I am giving this to you so when you are meditating in nature or your room, it is a reminder that you need to understand the principles of your senses to have an overall grounding on the concept of meditation." He tells me.

I thank him, taking the rather large crystal and placing it in my backpack. Mr.Monroe just tells us to meditate using our new objects when he is done breaking down the table. I close my eyes, petting my dragons' heads that are on my lap.

'Anything interesting going on?' I ask Belvedere, a little bored.

'Oceanus was just about to tell us of an incident that happened this morning.' He says.

'May I listen in?' I ask through their mind-link.

'Sure.' 'Okay.' 'Can she hear us?' Responses fill in.

'Hello Star, I am able to communicate with dragons when I allow them into my mind space. This allows me to bond-link and mind-link every dragon I have a connection with. Can you please enter my mind so that your voice is clearer?' I debrief. I feel her presence at the back of my mind. I let her in, getting used to the pain yet still not comfortable with it.

'Sorry for interrupting, you can begin.' I tell Oceanus after the pain stops.

'No problem Rose. Anyway, I was working with some of the new dragons off to the side when Marcus was called in for a meeting with Headmaster. I guess he must have forgotten to block me out because I was able to hear every bit of their conversation. Headmaster told Marcus about how their are more sightings of Shadows within the magii community. He said that they are building an army of Shadows to go to war against us. When Marcus asked what the Shadows were, he responded with souls that were risen from the dead, taking the walking form of a shadow. Only necromancers have the power to do this, but only one necromancer has ever been known in the history books.' Oceanus tells us.

'That's insane.' Ampiere states.

'We must fight against them.' Nightshade replies.

'We are not prepared.' Belvedere voices.

'I can't believe he didn't tell me.' Star says.

'Why now?' I ask.

'I think that is the most frightening part. War may come and we don't know why they have begun their "revolution".' Oceanus tells me.

'You mustn't tell a soul little one. We don't want to ensue panic among the Academy.' Belvedere tells me.

'Of course, I will not tell anyone. I am just absorbing the information. I mean, is the Academy even protected enough to prevent attacks?' I question.

'The barrier should help ... but I don't know how that may affect these Shadow people.' Star tells me.

'Alright, well I must go, but thank you for telling me Oceanus. And let me know if you here anything else.' I tell everyone.

'I will see you later little one.' Belvedere says to me. I reinforce my mind barrier so that nobody will be able to read my thoughts. The bell rings, I guess I must ponder this matter another time.

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