The Realm Protectors - Chapter 2: Chapter 2

When I emerge from the nightmare of my dreamscape, the memory of pain is the first thing to return to me. Burning pain that writhed through my veins like fire. I'm not sure how I'm alive right now, to be honest with you.
Maybe I'm dead. I think to myself. Maybe this is the afterlife.
I take a deep breath and smell the tang of disinfectant chemicals.
Definitely not the afterlife.
I open my eyes to see baby blue walls and tiled floors, rows of what appear to be cheap hospital beds along the wall in front of me. Sitting up, I realize that I'm in a hospital bed too. The thin white sheets are pulled over my legs, and there's a machine hooked to me that's measuring my heart rate. The steady beep-beep-beep calms me slightly as I look around at the rest of the room. There's a door in the corner, about ten feet away from my bed. And sitting in the bed across from me is another girl, sitting up and waiting for me.
"Well good morning, Sleeping Beauty." She says, leaning back against the pillows.
"Hi," I murmur. "Um, where are we?"
"Couldn't tell ya." She sighs, folding her hands behind her head, showing off some impressive biceps beneath deep brown skin. She could probably beat me to a pulp if she had the chance. I realize that it's probably best if I'm friends with this girl.
"I'm Ciana," I blurt. She looks at me, eyebrow raised. "Ciana Leonide."
She puffs a coil of thick black hair out of her face. "You seem like a sunshine child."
I bite back the retort of 'and you seem like a rude son of a biscuit.'
"What's your name?" I ask her.
She sniffs. "Avani Gipson. Varsity starting pitcher for the Westwood softball team, captain of the Westwood basketball team, first girl on the school football team, and the first freshman in school history to ever hold those titles simultaneously."
I sit and process that for a second before replying. "Nice to meet you, Avani. I assume you're from Westwood?"
She lifts her head. "She's not as dumb as she is fair!" I bristle at that, self-consciously rubbing my arm. "I assume you're going to tell me where you're from as well?"
I swallow back a rude retort and reply, "Yes. I'm from Christenville."
We sit in awkward silence for a few minutes before she asks, "Is this the Elemental Realm that Grantwood was talking about?"
"You met Professor Grantwood too?" The nervous knot in my stomach loosens a bit to know that Grantwood probably brought this girl here too. Which hopefully means that we are in the Realm.
"She told me that I was an elemental and brought me here." Avani goes on to explain. "But I must have passed out when we came through the tunnel."
"Me too," I realize. "The pain must've been too much."
"We must be really powerful if the pain caused us to both pass out." Avani says. There's a knock at the door and it opens to reveal Professor Grantwood. She smiles at us, gold band around her head shining brightly in the harsh fluorescent light.
"Good, you're both awake." She walks towards us, flanked by two guards and two nurses. The nurses unhook us from the machine and allow us to stand up from the beds. "Welcome to the Elemental Realm. How are you both feeling?"
"Like I was injected with liquid fire and then thrown in front of a bus." Avani replies sourly. Professor Grantwood looks at me.
"What she said." I nod.
Grantwood chews her lip for a fraction of a second before plastering on a sparkling smile. "Well, that is actually some exciting news for the two of you."
Avani quirks an eyebrow again. "Because it means we're really powerful?"
"Exactly." Grantwood nods. "If you would follow me, I will escort you to the next step in your stay here at Asavanra."
"And what is that?" Avani asks.
"The Testing," Professor Grantwood replies. "A series of element based tests to figure out what your element is." Avani and I exchange a look before following Professor Grantwood out the door.
Grantwood leads us down a maze of hallways before we emerge outside onto the most incredible campus I've ever seen. Sidewalks lined with blooming flowers wind their way between the scores of buildings around us. I look at the building behind us, a flat and wide expanse of white brick and blue tiles, a giant blue cross on the front.
"Shouldn't that be red?" I ask the professor.
"In the Otherworld, yes." She nods. "But here in the Realm, we use light blues to associate with healing, since health and healing are associated with water."
"Makes sense." Avani shrugs. Grantwood leads us through campus, past buildings in multiple different shades of different colors, until we arrive at a massive arena made of gray concrete. Eight flags wave from their poles situated around the top of the arena. Each one is a different color and has a different symbol printed on it: an orange one with a ball of fire, a sky blue one with a wave, a pale gray one with swirls of lines, a green one with leaves, a white one with a gold sun, a black one with a dark shape, a deep blue one with an hourglass, and a purple one with a moon and stars.
"What is this place?" I ask. Avani is staring up at the flags too. Professor Grantwood chuckles.
"This is the auditorium." Grantwood explains. "This is where we host school-wide assemblies, the Testing, graduation, and so forth. We also have a smaller auditorium for the drama department."
I stare at her, jaw dropped. "My old school didn't even have one auditorium!"
"This place is the size of a football stadium," Avani breathes.
"We have a lot of students." Grantwood smiles. She waves us on and we follow her inside the massive auditorium, footsteps echoing through the tunnels Grantwood leads us through. We climb down the stairs between the seats and join a large group of students in the middle of the hardwood floor of the auditorium. Endless amounts of conversation echo through the massive structure, bouncing off the seats, the walls, and the giant glass dome ceiling. There's hundreds of kids here, and it's not long before I realize–
"These are all freshmen!"
Avani nods. "She did say they had a lot of students."
Avani and I make our way into the crowd as Grantwood leaves us to go stand on a raised platform in front of the crowd. A group of boys whistles at Avani as we pass and she rolls her eyes.
"You're okay with that?" I ask. I thought she'd punch them right in the babymakers.
She shrugs. "At my school, the only way people like me fit in is by being athletic. That means playing a lot of sports, and that means doing a lot of lifting." She looks back at the boys, a hard look in her eyes. "That means learning that boys will be boys, and what battles are worth fighting." I must look impressed because she adds on, "Don't go thinking I'm a softie now, Sunshine."
I scoff at the nickname but smile as we continue working our way through the crowd. We stop at the edge of the platform and watch as Professor Grantwood produces a ball of light, tossing up and making it zoom around the room, catching everyone's attention.
"Good afternoon, future students of Asavanra!" She says cheerfully. Somehow her voice echoes around the auditorium perfectly, like it's been professionally acoustically treated. "Are you ready to find out your elements?" The crowd cheers. A girl behind us murmurs something along the lines of "Some of us already know our element." Avani rolls her eyes and smirks at me.
Professor Grantwood continues. "You will be called individually to these chambers behind me to be tested by members of our staff." Murmurs of 'What chambers?' rise from the crowd and Grantwood smiles, snapping her fingers. Behind the dais, scores of wooden walls rise, as if grown from the floorboards. The crowd mutters sounds of amazement as they rise, creating multiple rooms for the testing.
"Alright then, let's get on with it!" Grantwood calls. She pulls out a packet of paper and starts to list off names and room numbers. The crowd shifts as people work their way through to enter the chambers.
Avani and I patiently wait for Grantwood to call our names. There seems to be no order to it; it's not alphabetical whatsoever.
"Is there even a list on that paper?" Avani asks. "She seems to be just pulling names out of her a–"
"Ciana Leonide, Room 16!" Grantwood calls, startling me. Avani motions with her head towards the chambers. I walk around the platform and into the labyrinth of wooden rooms.
Eleven, twelve, thirteen... I count in my head as I pass each door until I reach the room with 16 carved into the wood. The knob is warm in my hand as I open the door and step into the room, closing it behind me. A young woman with cropped ginger hair and glasses is waiting behind a deep brown desk. She smiles at me and motions to an X engraved in the floor.
"Please stand on the mark," She says. "My name is Ms. Sandman, I'll be your Biology teacher this year, and I'll be administering your testing today." I nod and she continues. "Do you have any idea what element you could be?" I shake my head. "That's perfectly fine. Now, allow me to explain how to go about reaching your power. Close your eyes."
She waits for me and I take a deep breath, closing my eyes. "I want you to imagine a well deep inside yourself, filled to the brim with power. Do you feel it?"
In my head I picture a stone well like you'd see in movies, filled with sparkling substance. I reach towards the well and feel a warmth in my chest. "Yes," I whisper.
"Good, good." Ms. Sandman murmurs. "Now, I want you to keep that well in your mind. What's inside of it?"
I tilt my head, squeezing my eyes shut. "It's... sparkly. It's colorful, the colors of a sunset. It's not quite water, it's lighter than that. It's bright and vibrant."
"That's a very nice description, Ciana." Ms. Sandman takes my hands and forms them into a bowl shape, like she's about to pour water into my hands. "Now, I want you to slowly dip your hand into that well. Slowly now."
I reach towards that well in my mind, dipping my hand into the substance. It's light, almost like what I'd imagine clouds to feel like. As I do so, a bright light flashes behind my eyelids.
"Stunning," I hear Ms. Sandman breathe. I open my eyes to see a ball of sunlight the size of a basketball resting in my cupped hands.
"Wow," I smile. "It's beautiful."
"Yes it is." Ms. Sandman smiles. I look up at her, a giant grin on my face. "Alright, now go ahead and put it out." I look down at the little ball and imagine pulling my hand out of the well. The ball shrinks and dissipates in my hands until a tiny little sun is left, about the size of a pea.
"Why won't this bit go out?" I ask.
Ms. Sandman offers her hand and I roll the little sun into her hands. "This is your first spark. It's a memento of the first time using your ability."
I watch as Ms. Sandman puts the little sun into a box with my name on it. "Why do our abilities do that?"
"We're not sure why they keep a tiny fraction of our first times using our powers," Ms. Sandman explains. "But it's a nice little memento to have. All of you first sects will be presented with your first sparks at the Welcoming."
"First sects?" I ask.
"That's what we call freshman here in the Realm." Ms. Sandman motions to me. "Each year is a sect: first sect, second sect, third sect, and fourth sect. 'Sect' is short for 'sector.'"
"Ah," I reply. "Will I have to picture that well every time I use my ability?"
"Not necessarily." Ms. Sandman replies. "It's the best way for new elementals to activate their power for the first time. Some continue to use that method, but for some it becomes easy to just reach for their ability without thinking about it." Ms. Sandman claps her hands together.
"Well, I'd best be preparing for the next testing." She says. She grabs a slip of golden paper and hands it to me. "Now when you leave, take a right and go down this hallway for a ways. Once you meet a fork, go left. That hallway should lead you to a larger room marked 'Dorm Assignments.' That's where you'll get your dorm room number and you'll be escorted there. Once you meet your roommates, you will have some time to hang out and get to know each other before the Welcoming."
I nod. "Thank you," I smile, turning the doorknob. I take a right and continue down the long hallway, passing around twenty more doors before I reach the fork. Taking a left, I see a line of students heading towards a large room. I look up to see a blinking sign reading 'Dorm Assignments' above the doorway of the room. I join the line of students and walk into the room, standing in the line leading to twenty desks. There's a teacher sitting behind each desk, each with a throng of teens behind them. When a person hands the teacher their colored card, the teacher reads it and hands it to a waiting teenager behind them, listing a name and a number. The teen then motions towards the person who had the card and the pair exit the auditorium through a stone arch.
I slip into the shortest line and five minutes later I'm standing in front of a teacher. He smiles at me and holds his hand out. I give him the gold card and he reads it quickly before handing it to a girl behind him with flaming red hair.
"Ciana Leonide, dorm 106." The teacher says. The girl nods and smiles at me.
"Follow me, Ciana." She says. I follow her out of the auditorium and back into the sunlight outside. I take a deep breath and smile at the gorgeous campus around me.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" The girl asks.
"It's gorgeous." I agree. She smiles.
"It's also huge."
"Is it easy to get lost?"
"Not really," The girl shrugs. "Everything is color-coded by element, so it's hard to not know which campus you're on."
"There's multiple campuses?" I ask.
"Each element has their own smaller 'campus,'" She explains with air quotes. "Each is equipped with dorms, training facilities, and other element-specific things. It's easier to proof the buildings if they're not mixed-element. For example, a water elemental wouldn't need a dorm where everything is fire resistant."
"Makes sense."
"All of the school buildings and campus buildings are built with gray stone, since gray is more of a neutral color around here." The girl goes on to explain. "And the school has signage posted everywhere. Maps will be handed out at the Welcoming."
We wind our way through the gray school building part of campus before emerging onto a sidewalk lined with white and yellow flowers. Thick metal poles extend up from the ground and connect with cables. I see carts hanging from the cables and ask, "Is that a skyway?"
The girl nods. "It makes it a little easier to get around. The skyway connects all nine campuses and has a loading bay on each campus, so you can easily go from one to another."
"That's awesome!" I laugh.
"I'm Enya, by the way." The girl says. "I'm a fourth sect fire elemental." I look at her attire: the flaming red hair, the clothing made using the colors of fire, and the necklace pendant resting on her chest – a little ball of fire inside of a glass marble.
"I should've known," I smirk. Enya laughs. We continue down the sidewalk and pass under a golden archway decorated with little golden suns, entering a circular area paved with white stones. The buildings are all white with gold detailing and trim, and there's white and yellow flowers lining all the sidewalks and planted in window boxes.
"Welcome to the Light Campus, Ciana." Enya motions to the beautiful campus. "Your new home for the next four years."