Chapter 16
“Be careful of the pumpkin biters” Tim told Kevin and me, as we passed the castle’s first line of defence into the school, “they are little pumpkins that have had faces carved into them and then a spell put on them to become little monsters and bite people”.
“Will we ever see any?” Kevin asked and before he could say anything four pumpkins fell from the top of the defensive walls, they bounced off the floor, springing upwards and towards the three of us. Tim swatted them all away and Lincoln who came up behind us and burnt them to a crisp, I looked up and saw golden blazers. “it’s someone from Aries”.
“Of course, it is” Yasmin said, she and Grace were together, Aries was the smug team, full of the rich and well-connected, Wyatt’s older brother is in it, he joined at the same time Lincoln joined Scorpio, ever since then their rivalry has intensified, Wyatt has followed his brothers lead and began to try and pull pranks on me, spells he has learned, trying to trip me up, calling me names, I don’t mind the demon King name though, less of an insult, more like the name of a cool general from the olden times.
“Everyone settle down” Mr Ridgewell called out in our form class. “I have been told to inform everyone, that the school’s Halloween event, now has a costume contest, and I know a lot of people like that sort of thing and there is a parent and child category for anyone who wants to enter that as well”.
“Have you got your costume sorted?” Grace asked Charlotte to my and Kevin’s surprise, we forget she is friends with Charlotte, that might be because Charlotte hasn’t said a word to me or Kevin since the battle Royale.
“Yeah I have a ghost princess thing” Charlotte said, flicking her hair behind her “Mum helped me with it, what are you going to wear?”
“My mum said she knows a spell to give me demon eyes, so I’m thinking half demon half vampire”. Grace smiled widely, her eyes widened with a large sparkle in them she is looking forward to this Halloween event
“Oh, I like the sound that”.
“Demon eyes?” Kevin said, rubbing his chin, “You should do that Charles” he chuckled to himself.
“Yeah, that might make a few people believe that I am a demon” We both laughed at that,
“What are you going as?” Kevin asked.
“Werewolf, mum said she had a spell, it turns me into a complete werewolf apparently” Mr Ridgewell slid a piece of paper over to everyone on the table.
“Get it signed and bring it back in tomorrow.” He said, I picked it up, it was confirmation of who will be coming to the event.
“Clear thoughts children!” Ms. Manor shouted, she walked past me and Kevin, we were still working on turning the switch on and off. I have had no problem with this since the first class, I think my training with my parents has helped me a lot, our class is mixed with kids from form Y, thankfully I’m not stuck with the kids from my form who happen to not like me. On the flip side of that, a girl from form Y was super friendly, Amy Evans, with purple hair, a small chin, and green eyes, and she might be the nicest person in this school, I don’t think I have seen one person who doesn’t like her, and she likes everybody, she is nice to me always making conversation with me.
“Charles!” Amy said jumping to the front of my table, “How do you do that?“.
“Imagine turning it on and pointing your finger at it”.
“Is that it?”
“Yeah, pretty much, mum says you have to mean magic, you have to picture it clearly and mean it too”.
“Thank you” Amy ran off back to her table and began to talk at rapid speed.
Click... “you’re right,” Kevin said, clicking... turned his switch again, and he did it four more times “Nice, what lesson have we got next?“.
“elemental,” I said.
“Hello Charles, nice to see you,” Headmistress Simmons said. Sat on the same table she was on last time, “Take a seat please”, I took a seat. “I have spoken to your parents and they have informed me about some recent events, involving you and members of the public having an issue with your magical element, and the unfortunate situation with the rebels using your face to recruit more members and boost morale”
“I didn’t know that’s why they used my face,” I said honestly.
“I’m sorry you found out this way, but I have come up with a way for you to defend yourself better” She reached behind her back and pulled out a stick, “This Charles is deadwood, different to the normal deadwood you might have heard off this type of dead wood, comes from a tree that was destroyed from magic, and can only be broken by magic, so here’s what we are going to do, I want you to break this as fast as you can! Only using your dark magic! I will know if you don’t” She handed me the stick, it’s just a normal stick, something easily found in any woods or forest, I squeezed it quickly. It didn’t break. “I told you you need magic to break it”. I looked and smiled awkwardly, “When I say go break it... go!”
I focused on the stick in my hand and felt the cold feeling travel down my arm, through my wrist and into the stick and it snapped immediately,
“Too slow” Simmons said, and gave me another stick, “again... go” I tried to do It quicker, but it snapped, “too slow., again”.
“My arm is dying!” I told Kevin when we sat down in the cafeteria “And it feels cold too”.
“Why what happened?” Kevin asked I told him what happened, and he leant over and grabbed my arm, “It is cold”.
“I know right and no matter what I couldn’t get it to go as fast as what she wanted!”
“When we get the guild ask someone for tips”.
“that’s a good idea”.
We ate our food and laughed at the boy trying to train his summoned parrot, but it went rogue and attacked several other students and another boy’s summoned cat tried to chase it down. Food was up in the air and drinks spilt on the floor. After that we had P.E, a fun hour of playing football, I have always liked P.E, maths and English were next they aren’t fun, I was happy to be out of school and going to the guild, Mum met us outside of the transmission centre, Grace is made up she has taken a shine to my mum, and I had the perfect person to ask for advice.
“You have to go faster,” Mum said, after hugging Yasmin. “You have a slow element then”.
“A what?” I asked.
“a slow element love, some elements move fast around the body, like Fire, lightning and light” She gestured to Lincoln, Kevin, and Grace “You have a slow one, like earth and ice”.
“That sucks! Can I speed it up?”
“You can but it won’t be as quick as others, slow elements are usually good for defence, good sturdy. What I would recommend is to have magic always ready, if you know you might need it, get it ready to go, that’s the first step eventually you’ll have enough elemental magic, and have the ability to constantly have your magic subconsciously move around your body”.
“Is that what you do Mrs King?”
“Of course, Grace, and call me Bella my dear”.
I had a bag full of deadwood sticks I had to break for my homework, Dad watched over me and tried to give me tips, but he couldn’t get past the slow element since his one has always been fast, we had one earth mage in today, Scarlett Mirage, she has blonde hair and frown lines so deep she must constantly be frowning at people, red thick lips constantly cracking her neck, she is the mother of the head of team Aquarius, apparently her daughter has been keeping an eye out for me and has forbidden anyone to be rude to me, her daughter doesn’t always make it to the guild she likes to help with school events.
“What cut you Nick” Scarlett pointed at a deep cut on Dad’s wrist I hadn’t noticed before.
“minotaur” he said, sighing, “more keep popping up and each one is being controlled by someone, but never mind that let’s help this one”. I think Dad has spoken about Minotaur lately more than he has ever wanted to.
“Charles, can you feel your element moving?” Scarlet asked in a soothing tone.
“I can,” I said, feeling the cold sensation in my right arm, “it’s cold”.
“Hold it in your arm, do not allow it to move” That doesn’t sound too hard, but my arm began to shake uncontrollably, “hold it for as long as you can!” my arm was now shaking to the point its knocking on the table, I began sounding like a deep voice kettle, the guild quietened, the only sound that can be heard is my arm bouncing on and off the table. In the corner of my eye, I saw Mum watching me with a stern look, Tracy looked like she was getting ready to say something, and the other guild members had a mixture of worried and determined looks. and now I sound like a police offer knocking on a door with how loud I am banging, I couldn’t hold it any longer, it was already by my wrist I let the magic pour into my hand like a dam that burst, the stick in my shattered into dust, my hand slammed on the table one last time and I could feel all the cold and shaking pain leaving it. I leaned back in my chair and took in a deep breath. Suddenly Dad pulled me to the side as the table we were sat at split in half. Little bits fell onto where I was sitting, and the larger pieces fell like icebergs losing a large piece, leaving the pole It was originally on.
“What happened?” I asked, that might have been a dumb question since every head in the room turned to look at me with a look that said really? “It was me wasn’t it?”
“Attention everybody” the guild master called for attention, “what’s about to be said stays in this room, no body is allowed to discuss it outside of here, got it?” rounds of yes and okay’s echoed. “Good! Charles that goes for you too!... now, from what I witnessed you are practising your elemental magic and speeding it up, but it’s a slow type, and you held it in one spot but accidentally kept adding more elemental magic to it, subconsciously you knew what you were meant to be doing by breaking the stick, so you added more, to the point you couldn’t hold it anymore, you shattered the stick and had leftover magic, a lot of it and slammed it all into the table and broke it in two, but before you feel bad Charles, a table can be replaced and we have found a new way for you to train, speed and power! Your headmistress came up with the idea for you to be able to defend yourself with speed, and now we have to see what you can do when you collect power, so here’s the plan, in the guild I would like you to work on building up magic and controlling the power, eventually it will lead to a powerful punch and seeing that the idea of attacking you, will put a lot of people off! And you got that? while in schoolwork work on speed with the headmistress?”
“Yes sir,” I said, the guild master instantly turned and began talking to other members, “Does the master know the headmistress?” I asked Dad.
“of course he does,” Dad said with a smile, he looked at me, “Headmistress Simmons, is the guild master’s Ex-wife”