Silver Wheel: Beginnings

Zac led me to a patch of grass at the side of the house. It wasn’t huge, but it was big enough. He told me to stand at the far end and then turn to face him. I heard a rustling sound and turned to see Zac standing behind me with his wings outstretched. They looked like butterfly wings; shades of blue and silver.
“Wow, so those are your wings. They’re beautiful!” I exclaimed.
“Thanks.” He said, walking towards me. “Tag, you’re it.” With that, he flew up into the air.
“Hey, that’s cheating.” I grumbled, jumping to reach him. After a few attempts, I sat on the floor pouting up at him.
“Try and get me down.” He said, laughing slightly.
“What? I thought you were supposed to be teaching me anyway.” I said.
“I am; now try and get me down.” He repeated.
I stood up, looking around me. There was nothing in sight that I could use, so I thought about air. There was only a little breeze, not including the small amount generated by Zac’s wings. I stood there and started concentrating on the air around me. It was a cool day, which made a change from the usual rain. I felt the wind pull slightly at my hair and heard it rustle the distant leaves of the trees.
As the breeze caressed my hair, I started to concentrate on the direction it was moving and how fast it was going. Then, very, very gradually, I asked it to change course. I then turned my thoughts to trying to get to getting Zac down. I thought about just causing a huge gust to blow him off, but that would be too simple. Take it away.
I asked the air to move away from Zac, trying to create a vacuum; it did so without too much prompting. Zac’s face was a picture. I watched as it changed from his usual grin to something that made me want to roll on the floor with laughter.
Zac slowly started to drift down to the ground. My laughter nearly died on my lips as I realised what could happen if I didn’t return the air. I quickly ordered the air to go back to normal and then moved over to where Zac was kneeling on the ground, coughing.
“I’m sorry.” I said. I waited for him to finish coughing before I tapped him on the shoulder and shouted “Tag, you’re it!”
I ran a small distance away and then turned back around to wait for him. After a few seconds, a huge gust of wind knocked me sideways. After I had regained my balance, I looked over at Zac and found him smirking. We then started our game of tag, which involved us both trying to knock each other off balance.
After about half an hour, we found ourselves lying on the ground completely breathless from our game. We were exhausted and giggling like crazy. Once I had caught my breath, I rolled onto my side and looked at Zac.
“That was the most fun I have in ages!” I exclaimed.
“I can’t remember the last time I was nearly beaten like that.” Zac laughed.
“What do you mean nearly?! I won fair and square.” I argued.
“You better had!” I snapped my head around and saw Flint walking towards us. Zac reluctantly got up and walked away, leaving me with the part demon.
“My turn.” Flint said. I stood and looked at him for instruction. “I’m going to be honest with you; I don’t want to teach you anything. Fire is just too destructive for someone who doesn’t know what they are doing.”
“But you had to start somewhere.” I complained.
“Yeah I did, and I don’t want to go into that now. I am not going to teach you certain things, but I’ll teach you enough that you won’t get hurt.” He said.
I didn’t bother protesting that I had done well in my other lessons. I knew that Flint was just trying to protect me, and I could see where he was coming from. But, I a part of me was telling me that I needed to know how to control fire, not just how not to get hurt.
“I’m going to create a weak wall of fire, and then you are going to find the weak points so that you can extinguish it.” He said, waving his hand.
Flames leapt up from the ground. But, there were two odd things; one, the fire was a bright red and two, there was no heat. This shocked me so much that I nearly stepped back. I would have as well if I hadn’t noticed the same fire behind me. So, I was in a circle of cold red fire; cool.
Anyway, to the task.
I started to think of fire and then I realised that it needed three things to survive; heat, fuel and air. Well, I already knew that I could suck out the air if needed, but I thought I would try something else first. Maybe I should try the heat. The next question was how to get rid of heat from something that had none.
Okay, so maybe what I tried wasn’t the smartest thing; again. Well, the thing was I needed to learn and if Flint wasn’t willing then I was going to do it by my self. Yes, being able to get rid of a wall of fire was good, but not all that useful. So, I tried to move the flames to create an opening. Okay, I know that doesn’t sound so bad, but I then tried to walk through it.
Okay, you are all now screaming at me or groaning, or at least wondering why the hell I did that. The thing was, I felt so safe when I was with Flint that I thought nothing could go wrong. I know this time nothing really serious happened, other than me burning my hand again, it could have been an awful lot worse.
“When will you ever listen to a word I say?” Flint exclaimed. I could see through the flames that he was defiantly not impressed at my first attempt. “Let me see.”
“No!” I shouted as he went to dismiss the flames. “Let me do this without your help.”
I was mad, not only at myself but at him. I know that I shouldn’t have been, but if he would just have taught m properly, rather than try not keep me from hurting myself, then it wouldn’t have happened. But, anger was good, it could be used. I turned my anger to the flames, searching for a point where they weren’t burning as tall as the rest. After finding a good place, I directed my anger towards it, causing it to go out. I then spun in a circle, sending the effect clockwise around the circle.
Flint walked over to me as I brought my hand up for him to see. He looked into my eyes and then led me back to the house and into the kitchen. I sat on a stool and Sage finally came. He gently took my hand and started tending to the burns. I wasn’t paying too much attention to what he was doing, I just stared down at the floor.
Once he had finished bandaging my hand I went up and sat in my room until dinner. The food was great, but everyone eat in silence. By the time dinner was over it was getting dark outside. I excused myself and told the guys that I needed some air.