Achlys

I wish I had normal dreams for once. But no. It started as always. Everywhere flames. Ashes. Sadness. Fight between women and warrior. And when weapons cross, dreams change. My classmates wake up. I am not that lucky. My dreams changed to the day I lost everything. My mom screamed at me and left me and dad. Him becoming obsessed with my training and punishing me even for smallest mistakes.

I was in dads dojo. I was in combat with my brothers. Them attacking me from every side. I was on the ground and had blood in my mouth. Blood was everywhere. My brothers didn't stop. He didn't say stop. If he said so they would stop but all of us were afraid of him. I closed my eyes. Then it all stopped. My brothers didn't kick me anymore, my father didn't stand next to us with his judging face that said: you are weak, I don't want to be called your father.

Everything disappeared. I opened my eyes and I wasn't that little girl in her own blood. I was me now. The 15 years old girl that was best in school. I was standing in a dark forest. A path appeared in front of me. It was going to darkness when I turned around the same path that was leading to light. I stood here unable to move. Not because I couldn't - I could - I just didn't know which side to choose.

I heard a really deep voice: "Hi little girl."

"Hello." I turned around to face Lunar Wolf. "Lunaris" I bowed

"You know, you don't have to choose now." She smiled and I nodded. "Then why do you always end up here?"

I smiled at her: "I like to see you."

She shook her head: "It is a bad idea. Let's go somewhere else." Third path appeared and we walked on it.

After some time of silence she continued: "Did you have a bad dream again?"

"Can you call it a dream?" I laughed.

She looked at me. "You shouldn't laugh, all of your dreams mean something."

I got chills from what she said. "I hope not."

"I am sorry child." Her voice sounded really sad. "You are too powerful."

I wanted to cry. "How could my dreams about that bastard mean anything?"

"I don't know. But it can mean a lot of things." It was quiet for a long time before she said: "you should wake up."

"I don't want to."

"Why?"

"You are not there."

"I can't be there with you. But any time you need any help just call my kids. They will help you."

I stopped: "Lunaris, I will find you and free you." I said before I turned around and forced myself to wake up.

No surprise I woke up in sweat. I used magic of air to get it clean before someone could actually wake up and shout at me. I took a quick shower and went to school. It was still dark out and school wouldn't start any time soon. But I didn't want to meet Salia. She was a pain in ass since the party on the other side.

I took a long walk-through the forest. Some places are really beautiful only at night. I went to my favorite spot in the whole world, waterfall and cave behind it. It was hard to get in and still be dry but I made it. This place reminded me of Lunaris. Whole cave was so big I could build a city here. That was the point I knew where I was. If I went more inside there would be a way to get into Dead city. But who is healthy would go and provoke dragons. Especially in the morning. Most dragons hated mornings and those that didn't were really scary.

I had to be with these 5 people. Lucia seemed to be better even though she was still a little pale.

"Hi." Alex waved at me. I put on the best smile I could and went to her.

"Hi."

"You are late." She smiled

"I know." I didn't need her to remind me. If this gets to Salia I will be in trouble.

"Why?" She looked cute when she tilted her head.

"No reason." I smiled at her

"No reason." She repeated.

"30 laps. GO! GO! GO!" Mrs. Volk shouted.

I started to run. It took me under 15 minutes better than yesterday. Still not good enough. My classmates ran it at the same time as yesterday. They really should start being serious about this. Then the stretching and push-ups. Today we went for wushu. I swear if she picks one more like this, I will let her disappear. Every single time someone messed up we had to stand on our hands for 3 minutes. And because my amazing classmates knew literally nothing, we spent about half of our time standing on our hands. I didn't want to see them.

I wanted my peace before all this started.

I skipped lunch. Instead I headed to the library. None of them would be there and even if they were I had my spot.

I went to the back and sat on the ground. A tear escaped my eye. I took the first book by hand and opened it.

I hate tears.

The book itself was boring, I read it already like 80 times. It was the same thing non-stop. Yet still I believed that if I looked differently this time, I could find a clue or something.

"What are you doing here?"

I almost got an infarct: "what are you doing there?" I asked Alex. Lucia was standing right behind her.

"We are looking for you."

I raised my eyebrow: "me?"

"Yes stupid, now let's go get some lunch. I am starving."

I looked at Alex in disbelief. She really seemed to care. "I am not hungry. You can go." Another thing I hate is when someone is too much.

"She made me go. You are going too." Lucia said. Her voice was domineering. I hated that.

"No thanks." I looked at my book again. They stood her. I wanted to scream at them to fuck off but I didn't.

They sat next to me. I hate that too.

"What are you reading?" I jumped out of my skin when Alex lay her head on my shoulder. I quickly stood up.

"We should get lunch." They looked at me for a while but then they got up. I wanted to tell them that I am sorry, but I was never allowed to show weakness. Never.

We went to the canteen, the boys were there eating. For some dumb reason Mr. Rowe made us sit together, do things together. Basically I was always with them. I didn't know how I felt about that.

I sat with rice and some veggies. I loved veggies. Yesterday I wasn't about to eat because our training reminded me of something I didn't want to think about. But today, I wanted to eat. I didn't feel very hungry but I ate the whole plate. I needed to pee so my classmates went first.

I walked to the gym, stood next to my classmates. Nothing was happening for a while, Mrs. Volk wasn't there, no supervisor was there. And then Mr. Rowe walked behind him, walking a man. No man. The man I thought I never see again, the man who broke me, the man that I hated the most, the ma-

"Class, this is Master Zhao, please welcome him. He will from now on teach you." Mr. Rowe announced. Zhao was smiling. I remember that smile. I wanted him to smile the same way when he looked at me, but he never did.

"Hello."

"Master Zhao I still have a lot of things to do. If you excuse me." I wanted to cry for Mr. Rowe. I wanted to scream at him that he can't let a bunch of kids with this maniac. But I didn't do any of that.

"I will teach you magic." Zhao announced and I got paralyzed. I hated his voice, it made me feel weak. "We will start with you showing what you already know."

No...No...No...No...I don't want to.........please no. "Achlys start."

No. I walked away from my classmates. If I show the strongest spell I got-no it won't help. Think Achlys, think. Suddenly I remembered what Lunaris said: your dreams mean something. I didn't want them to mean anything and I was afraid that he would come back. I hated him, I didn't want to see him again, ever. But he was there and I had to come up with a way to protect my classmates.

I stopped at a fairly good distinction. No runes, no core spells, just the simplest. And don't overdo them. "Fire." Fire spell that is weak. I was good at controlling most of the elements, fire and water were the ones I could control best. I put my rage into my fingers, not much because I could kill somebody with that amount.

A small fire appeared in my hands. Don't be afraid. I won't be. I let the fire grow. That is too much. I know. The fire disappeared.

"Air." I looked at him in confusion. He never taught me how to do that.

I cleared my throat: "Sir, I don't know how to do that."

"Don't lie to me."

He can feel magic, why did I try that? Am I stupid? I felt like I was about to cry. Don't you dare to cry. Air isn't that hard. I tried to find weak emotion, not a single one. Problem with Air magic was that it was uncontrollable. I took a deep breath and tried to remember happiest moment in my life. Slowly I put my hand in air. I was so afraid of what would come. Think about happy things. They are more controllable. I made wind, really weak one. And then I put my hand down. I hated the look of amazement on faces of my classmates.

"Water."

PLEASE STOP. I tried to break free from him for years and now he is standing here. The man who broke me, the one I promised to never do anything he orders. I was listening to his orders. I hated how weak I was, how I didn't stood up to him, how I listened him. I hated myself for listening and actually doing what he ordered. I put my hands down and tried to control what I was about to do. No big magic. I remained myself. I put both of my hand up and made little maelstrom in my hands. It didn't take long to make even a little storm. That was bad. I quickly put my hands down.

"Earth."

I was about to look to his eyes and say that he can fuck himself if he thinks I could do anything with earth. But then I remembered the time when I almost died because of saying no to him. He probably would have lost his post but I am not sure if he would kill me or not.

I wasn't in the mood to find out so I just turned around my hand, my fingers pointing to grow. It took me everything to make that little crack.

"Fine, Mr. Rowe you are next."

He knows. But how could he? He knows! No, no, no, no. He can't know. He probably picked randomly. He never does that.

"Mr.-" Zac tried to say something but Zhao interrupted him.

"Master Zhao." he corrected him

"Right, sorry. Master Zhao, it's really good what Miss Raven did but I don't think any of us are capable of that."

One of his eyebrows went up: "You don't know how to use magic?"

Everybody shook their heads. Zhao looked at me. Not impressed that I knew how to do it, more like annoyed or even pissed off.

Run. I hated my mind for always wanting to run away. I hated it for being such a weakling.

"Fine. 100 push-ups." All of my classmates looked at him as if he was insane. He was. "You come with me." He pointed at me. Then he turned and left.

"Are you okay?" Alex was standing next to me, when did she get here?

"Yea." I shook my head. There was no other opinion. I had to go.

He was looking out the window at something in the clouds.

"Why were you holding back?" he didn't look my way.

I didn't answer, there was no point. Either I would lie to him and he would be even more pissed off or I would tell the truth and in a better scenario he would hit me. In worse I would lie in my own blood, again.

"I asked you something." He raised his voice. My whole body started to shake, every single muscle in my body wanted to run from him. My brain wasn't able to make any sentence just: him=danger, run. Danger, run.

"I am sorry." I said because silence wouldn't be good in this situation.

"I don't ask what you are. I asked: why were you holding back." 3rd time I am fucked.

"I..." I took a deep breath. "I was afraid to hurt someone." I whispered. It was true. My emotions were too strong if I wouldn't hold back someone could even die.

He came to me and lifted my chin. I was staring in his eyes. Same green as mine, that was the reason why I hated them so much. And then it came out of nowhere he punched me in the gut. I couldn't move. I slowly sat down. My eyes sighed and went darker, I could see but not properly. I refuted. Nothing came out of me except all the water I drank today. I felt how tiers were running down my face. And then I saw blood. My blood. I refuted my own blood.

"Stop being useless." He pulled me by my hair "be useful for once." He pulled me so thigh and high I needed to stand up. "If you don't want another one then get yourself together and go back to the gym."

I am trying but you are not helping.

It would take me a while and he knew it but the thing was he didn't care. He punched me again and more blood came out. Please, stop. I will do anything, just stop. My mind was shouting all kinds of excuses and apologies. But it didn't help. Eventually he stopped and I caught my breath. Somehow I managed to look normal and went back inside with him. He had this look on his face.

I hated him so much!