Eveline UPDATE 8/7/10

I stared at her gawking for a moment before she stared at me intently. “We won’t over work ourselves but the basics must be covered.”

She pulled me out of the cave and into an area in front of the forest that was near our piles of leaves. Celia rolled her wrists until they cracked and flashed a smile in my direction.

“We’re going to start with some simple things, fireballs.” Then she was suddenly holding a ball of fire, she tossed it back in forth from hand to hand and then began tossing it up above her head. Once it was in the air she made it grow larger and multiply so that by the time it had landed in on her palm she now had three fireballs.

I stared at her for a moment as she looked at me expectantly. I looked down at my hands and willed my fire to roar up into the shape of a ball. Nothing happened and I was stuck gazing at my palms.

“Eveline think about whatever has gotten your fire roaring in the past!” I sighed and began thinking intently about fire and loss and some more fire. I was so deeply engrossed in my thinking that I didn’t see Mark watching my struggle from behind. Suddenly I heard him sigh disappointed, probably at my lack of fire and I huffed impatiently.

Then Mark decided to comment, “Maybe you should try meditating?” I felt my palms growing hot as I turned around to glare at him. Once I was fully spun around and completely scowling at him my hands were full of piping hot fire.

Celia grimaced as I looked in awe at the fire I held. I shut my eyes tight and willed it to turn into fire balls. When I opened my eyes I was holding seven of them. They were all quite alive and dancing in my hands, just yearning to get to work. Celia gulped nervously as we continued on to the next step in the lesson.

“Now you need to shrink it back down, fire can be dangerous if not handled correctly.” I groaned, not understanding her.

“But Celia shouldn’t I try and make it bigger…not smaller?” She extinguished her fire as she clasped her hands together saying.

“Fire can easily get out of control, it wants to move and dance, it’s a lot easier to make it grow than it is to make it smaller.” Concentration and patience are also key’s to success. Thanks, I thought to Orland as I began to focus on the fireballs in hand. They seemed to be inching up toward the sky the longer I held them. My piercing bright blue and golden eyes stared at the fire and I thought cool relaxing thoughts about how it ought to shrink down and if it didn’t…

Suddenly all my fireballs went out and I was standing there holding air. I gulped and Celia began to speak urging me to try again.

“That was really close Eveline! Keep focusing your energy on shrinking it down!”

I thought of my annoyance at Mark and my fire flared up again as if it hadn’t just extinguished itself a couple moments earlier. I began to coax it down and it slowly but surely it shrank, inch by inch. Until I was simply holding a tiny flame.

Celia clapped her hands and Mark cheered, I smiled at them losing focus for a millisecond and I lost the flame. I groaned loudly and kicked at the dirt. Celia walked over to me and patted my back. “Don’t worry it was just your second time trying, and trust me your making incredible progress. It would take the typical fire person weeks to be able to shrink it that small.”

“Thanks I guess.” I mumbled still upset with myself and wanting to practice more. Celia could sense my want to get back at it so she announced that she was going to ration out our dinner meals while I continued to practice.

For the next hour and a half I tried in vain to be able to shrink down the fire and keep it tiny. Mark watched me in silence while I kept at my training. I groaned in defeat and slumped down to the ground resting my back against a tree trunk.

Orland came over and laid beside me rustling the leaves as his massive body reached the ground. I patted his head as Celia walked out of the cave towards Mark. They whispered at each other, each looking equally exhausted every now and then glancing at me. I eyed them suspiciously as Celia sighed and stalked back into the cave.

“What was that about?” I asked Mark, daring him to look me in the eyes. He looked at me tiredly and shrugged his shoulders. I sighed in annoyance at his lack of response.

I decided to go into the cave and ask Celia if she needed any help. When I approached the cave I could hear Celia whistling to herself as she chopped up leaves and other vegetables. I also noticed that Celia had brought in candles and placed them all around the cave illuminating the walls and the shadows.

“Hey,” I said, Celia froze for a moment as if she had been caught doing some awful deed. I looked at her strangely and she blushed.

“Eveline…I didn’t hear you come in.” I smiled to myself.

“Could that maybe due to the fact that you were umm singing?” Celia turned beet red as she looked down at her chopping knife.

“It helps me cook, or at least it has in the past.” She admitted. I shrugged, “It doesn’t really matter to me, I’ve sung to trees before.”

“I know.” Celia said, her usual confidence returning to her. She looked at my hands skeptically before she pointed at a bucket of water and a bar of soap, indicating for me to put them to use.

I began to scrub at the dirt that was caked onto my hands from traveling in the forest. Once I was done I picked up a knife and joined Celia at the small table of rocks she had set up to prepare the food.

We began cutting different vegetables in silence, slicing them up into tiny little pieces. Celia was humming to herself happily with a large grin on her face.

“Do you like to cook?” I asked Celia curiously. She stopped humming and looked down at the knife she was holding regretfully.

“Yes,” She whispered softly, “not that it matters though.”

“How can it not matter?” I asked appalled. She glared at me for a moment then said quietly.

“I have a purpose, a destiny, and it doesn’t involve cooking. For you see I’m not running from what I’m meant to do…I’ve let it in and become who I am.” I looked at her quizzically and she continued to speak.

“I’ve always enjoyed the smell of cooking the taste, the feel!” She paused for a moment caught up in the joy of freshly cooked meals, and then a sour expression overcame her face.

“However I happen to be a great wielder of fire. Why I should be honored that I’m already one of the greatest fire teachers out there and I’m only seventeen! I have a whole life ahead of me!” She paused again before whispering, “or I did.”

I opened my mouth to say something but she was already speaking again.

“I’ll always be teaching people how to wield fire correctly! Till I’m gray and my hands are all shrunken and tiny!” Celia was now yelling her words bitterly.

“I wouldn’t have chosen this! I wouldn’t have-“ She stopped again sighing and looking around the cave ashamed.

“But it’s what I must do, and so I will do it to my fullest.” Then she resumed cutting the vegetables and I peeled off the lettuce into tiny bits. I couldn’t find the right words to say to Celia, to sympathize with how she felt. I was beginning to become wary of these so called ‘destinies.’ They weren’t seeming all that great, in fact it seemed more like they molded you into a playing piece of a game. The game of life and death.

Shortly after Celia had regained her composition we had put together a lovely vegetable salad. We yelled for Mark to come into the cave and he walked in slowly looking around the cave.

“I’ll move in the leaves after we eat.” He told us before sitting down next to us. He began to move his hand toward the food bowl only to have it whacked by Celia.

“Wash your hands, and we have utensils! Although we only have one pair for each of us so don’t lose them!” Mark listened to Celia and grumbled to himself as he did what she asked.