Spark (Legends of the Shifters) (5 page)

As I
sat down, I noticed that everyone in the room was staring at me. The
entire hall had gone eerily silent. “Why are they staring?”
I whispered to the girl on my right, the one that seemed the bravest
out of the three.

She
glanced around with a heavy sigh, and said, “They can tell that
you’re new.”

“
Is
that not normal?” I asked.

“
We
get a new student about once every two weeks, except this time it’s
been almost three weeks. New students are just about the only thing
that seem moderately interesting here. Like an escape into the real
world.”

The
dining room erupted into noise again, and I started to feel a little
better…until a shadow fell over the table. A boy that was the
size of a giant towered over us.

“
Um….Can
I help you?” I asked, a little perturbed.

“
Not
really,” he answered gruffly, his eyes narrowed under thick
blond eyebrows. His thin mouth was set in a malicious smile. “I
just thought I'd welcome you to the conservatory... And let you know
that I'll be looking for you in the arena tomorrow morning.”

“
Looking
for me? Why?” I asked.

“
You'll
see,” he answered. Then, without another word, he turned and
walked to a nearby table, sitting down with some other boys that
resembled his size and appearance.

“
They
keep themselves in half-form,” muttered the girl next to me.
“To appear intimidating.”

“
Roselle!
Don’t talk like that! They might hear you!” said the girl
in front of me. The other girl wouldn’t even look up.

Roselle
rolled her eyes. While the other girls seemed cowardly, she was
brave. She had light brown hair and eyes the same color. Her nose was
straight and small, and her lips were thin, without much color to
them. Overall, she looked plain. I liked her.

In
front of us was a plate of fruit. Apples, grapes, pears, and my
favorite, oranges. It had been years since I'd had an orange. They
only grew in the lower lands, and our island was as far north as
anyone could get.

I
popped it into my mouth, and was greeted by a burst of flavor that
made my mouth pucker up.

Before
I could grab another piece, however, the plate was swept away. My
disappointment was short-lived, however, because a covered dish was
set in its place. I wondered what could be under it, and my stomach
growled in anticipation. Then, a white-gloved hand lifted the lid
off.

On it
was a blank piece of paper.

I
looked at Roselle, my eyebrows raised in question. She motioned back
to the piece of paper with her head. Words swirled onto the parchment
in a black smoke.

It
said,
Tent 114
,
and then disappeared.

“
What
does that mean?” I whispered to Roselle.

“
In
each tent is a magically enhanced world where you have to find your
food. It teaches you survival skills. You cannot only survive on the
few snacks that they provide for us. Not with the amount of physical
exertion that we go through, anyway. They don’t even serve
anything at breakfast except water. Some students have gotten so weak
in the past that the nurse had to take them in and help them
recover.”

I
could barely hear her because the chatter in the room had gotten so
unbearably deafening. I supposed they were all talking about which
tent they were going to.

Then,
a loud roar pierced the air. I looked to where the roar had come
from, and saw a creature that was half lion and half woman.

“
Mrs.
Scarls, the activities director. She’s a sphinx,”
whispered Roselle. “You’d do well to steer clear of her
if you can—”

She
was interrupted by Mrs. Scarls’s gruff voice. “Ivy
Oliver, come to the front.”

Roselle
grimaced. “Well, after this, I guess.”

I
stood up, a little shaky from what might come next, and made my way
over to her. Her eyes were yellow, with flecks of green and brown in
them, and the pupils were black slits. It was very odd to see the
eyes and body of a cat and the face of a human. I blinked several
times just to make sure that what I was seeing was real.

When
I reached her, she transformed back into a human. Her lion skin
shifted, and she gradually began to get taller and skinnier, her lean
muscles changing into smaller, less defined ones. Nothing about her
face changed except for her eyes. The pupils became normal instead of
their once cat-like appearance.

I
tried to keep my face free of surprise. It wasn’t often that I
saw anyone change so openly.

Quietly,
and completely unlike her lion voice, she said, “Because this
is your first day, you will participate alone. The number that you
have just seen is no longer yours.” She motioned for a server
to come closer. He balanced the tray on one hand, and lifted the lid.
The words that swirled onto the paper said,
Tent
1.

Mrs.
Scarls seemed surprised at the number, but she didn’t show it
for long. “Well...there you have it.”

Then
her eyes flicked back to the rest of the students as she yelled, “To
your tents!”

Everyone
stood and filed in toward the doors. I followed them, hoping that
they would lead me where I needed to go. Outside, it had gotten
colder. The night was so dark, that I could barely see anything, and
I accidentally ran into the person in front of me.

“
Watch
it,” they growled.

“
Sorry,”
I mumbled.

Finally,
I saw light ahead. In fact there was a steady stream of lights. As we
got closer, I realized that those lights were numbers, wavering at
the entrance of every tent. And mine was the first. I had no idea
what to expect, but I knew that I would have to walk through the
number to get inside. I stepped up to the number, and reached my hand
out to touch it. It felt like nothing was there.

“
What
are you doing?” asked someone behind me.

I
looked back, startled, catching sight of a tall, dark figure. “I’m
just seeing if I can feel it.” I said.

“
You
can’t…What’s your number?”

I
looked back at the one. “This is it.”

He
laughed. “That’s not possible. This is only your first
day here.”

“
Well,
it’s the number that showed up on the piece of paper,” I
said defensively.

He was quiet for a
moment. “Then I'm your trainer
.” He stepped
closer to the light, and when I saw him, I was speechless. Three long
scars were carved down the side of his face, starting from the
forehead, and running across his eye, down his cheek, and under his
chin. I swallowed hard, wondering what had happened to him.

I
looked away quickly, afraid that me staring at his face would make
him angry. I struggled to come up with something to say. “How
does that mean you’re my trainer?”

He
sighed. “Well, whatever number you get first is the trainer
that you get for the rest of your stay.”

I
paused, thinking, and then asked, “Have you ever had an
apprentice before?”

“
Yes.
Once... But she died.”

I
stopped breathing.

He
didn’t let me think about it too long. “Now, if you want
to eat, you’d better get going. You have less than an hour
before you’re survival session ends.” He handed me a
necklace with a black gem hanging on it. “As long as you have
this on, I can contact you. If you take it off, your session ends,
and you get nothing to eat until tomorrow.”

I
took the necklace and hung it around my neck, glancing at him one
more time. He nodded in affirmation.

I
stepped into the tent, still unsure of myself, and gasped as my
surroundings changed.

It
was still night outside, but the moon was brighter. I was up to my
waist in snow, making my lower body completely numb with cold. As I
peered around, a drift of icy snow pelted my face.

First
of all, tell me what your second form is,
said a voice in my head.

“
A
phoenix,” I said aloud.

My
trainer was silent for a moment. Then, he chuckled.
If
that’s the case, then you’d better change as quickly as
possible.

I
shuffled through the snow for a little before I realized that he was
right. I needed to get in the air if I wanted to eat today. I tried
to concentrate on the warmth, but I didn’t feel it.

“
Why
can’t I call it up?” I asked.

Concentrate
on the exact opposite of your fear,
he replied.

I
thought about it. I had concentrated on warmth, but I was also afraid
of darkness. I would have to concentrate on warmth and light.

I
closed my eyes, and pictured the dawn of a new day when the sun first
starts to melt the snow, and warm your cheeks in the freezing cold.
How it brings hope for a new beginning and how it blinds your vision
with its brightness.

Then
the strange sensation of shifting took over my body. The light
flashed again, and after it had gone, I had to wait a while before I
could see.

Good,
said my trainer,
now get into the
air.

I
don’t know how,
I thought to
him.

Follow
your instincts. Just don’t go too high if you’re unsure
of yourself.

I
unfurled my wings, stretching them out as far as they could go, and
then I launched myself into the air by thrusting them downward. I
pushed down again and again until I was high enough to see the
mountain from afar. I thought that it might be scary to be up so
high, but I found out that it was actually liberating. I angled my
wings downward, and plunged toward the ground, thrusting them out
again when I felt like I was getting too close to the snow-covered
mountain.

I
see you’ve got the hang of it already,
said the trainer.
Now you’re on
your own. I can’t help you find a meal. That’s the rules.

Wait!
I only see snow and rock! How could there possibly be anything to
eat?
I said frantically.

There
was no reply. I made an audible cry of anger that came out as a
shriek. It scared me, but then I remembered. I was a bird. One that's
been jostled around a little too much.

The
only thing I could think to do was travel to the base of the
mountain, where perhaps, because it was of a lower altitude, it would
be warmer and have more of a chance of life. I swooped downward
through the fog that obscured my vision. There were only jagged
rocks, pointed upward in such a way that if I had gone too low, I
would have been impaled.

Still
hoping, I searched for something, anything that would sustain me.
Then, I saw it. There was a white speck circling in the air. I could
tell that it was looking for something to eat, too. I pushed my wings
down to get higher. It might give me a better vantage point. I didn’t
think it had seen me yet. It was looking down, and I was above it.
The bird was big, but scrawny. It's white plumage disguised the fact
that it was starving. I dove for it, reaching out my talons for
capture. It threw me off when they closed around nothing. The bird
had heard me after all, and he twisted out of my reach. I searched
for him now, but he was already several yards ahead of me, and
getting farther still.