I am woken up by one of the older trainees early the next morning. I had barely gotten any sleep last night,

I am given an hour to eat before the classes start and it is during this time that I need to be the most careful. My fellow recruits have given me a warning, telling me that the boy I had fought with yesterday is out for my blood.

So today I am going to lay low.

I stick with my group as we eat, hoping that the numbers will stop him from trying anything.

I don’t run into the other trainee and Seven tells me at the end of breakfast that the older trainee got on the bad side of one of the teachers and he isn’t in the breakfast hall.

I sigh in relief. I really don’t want to get into a fight with him again. I would never say it out loud, but the older trainee frightens me.

Nothing of real interest happens during breakfast and I walk to my first class of the day without any problems.

The class teaches us about the basic hierarchies in our kingdom. I know most of the material already, so I zone out about halfway through the class.

The next class is much more interesting, a swordsman is talking about some rather common creatures, when the word “Changeling” comes up.

My ears practically perk up as I bring my full attention back to the class.

“Changelings are very uncommon to encounter and if you ever do meet one, you probably won’t know until your dead.” Some surprise enters the swordsman’s eyes when he realizes that he has gained the whole class’s attention. He continues in his gruff voice “Changeling look like humans, they talk like humans and they think like humans. Only they aren’t human of course, they are only fooling you into thinking they are. Using some kind of magic, they change their body’s shape until they enter human form.”

To the surprise of the swordsman teaching the class, a student raises his hand into the air.

“Err. Yes? What is your question?”

“What do Changeling’s usually look like?” A boy of eight winters asks the swordsman.

“Little is known about Changelings, but according to some, they all look different. Enough about Changelings, I’m supposed to talk to you about monsters and creatures like…”

The class ends and the recruits head towards the weapon-master’s class.

At this point I slip away, The Hooded man asked me to come see him instead of the weapon-master, and I am not going to disobey The Hooded man.

I arrive at The Hooded man’s office and knocked.

“Come in.”

I am about to enter, when something strikes me as odd. Maybe it was the tone of his voice when he said ‘come in’. I decide to trust my instinct and move to the side of the door. I open the door, immediately moving my hand away just in time to watch two wooden throwing daggers passing the spot I would have been if I hadn’t moved out of the way.

“Impressive, caution is always appreciated in a place like this.” The hooded man walks out from behind the doorway as he says that. Before I can react, he trips me and puts a wooden sword against my neck. “But I want to teach you a very important lesson. Never relax, in this business, there is always someone wanting to kill you.”

“Yes, sir.” Is my only reply as I keep my eyes centered on the wooden sword at my throat.

“Get up. We need to get started.” He says moving the weapon away from my throat.

A long grueling lesson starts then. While Scarface had us focus on strength and endurance, The Hooded man has me focus on my balance and understanding of momentum.

My weeks continue, until a month later I find myself alone, lost in my own thoughts. A group of trainees turn around the corner and walk towards me.

I don’t pay much attention to them until one of them tries to punch me. My training with The Hooded man is all that saves me as I duck under his fist.

I back away from the group of trainees. Several of them are jeering at the boy who missed his punch. He is a boy of fourteen with brown hair and eyes. It looks familiar and it takes me a moment to realize that he was the same boy who started a fight with me all that time ago.

His face is twisted in anger as he stares at me.

“What was that for?” I ask him.

“Because of you, I was made to survive in the mountains for a month. Do you have any idea how cold it is up there? Huh?” He says as he advances towards me.

I am confused. I didn’t do anything to-oh. I see. All of the things I had been hearing about him in the past month finally come together. “That wasn’t my fault, it was yours. You got on the bad side of some of the teachers.”

I realize how stupid it was to say that as he decides to send a series of kicks my way.

I do my best to redirect his kicks around me. But he has been training here for a lot longer than I have and he finally lands a kick in my chest. It doesn’t hurt too bad, but I still realize that I don’t really stand a chance in this fight.

He shoots another kick at me, I duck under it and run towards him. He prepares to block me, but to his surprise, I run right past him and the other trainees.

They all pause for a second, then run after me.

I know the area well and I am quick on my feet. So it doesn’t take long for me to lose them.

I hurry to my next class.

Over the next couple days, I see some of the older trainees from That Boy’s group watching me from time to time. I do my best to stick with my group of recruits whenever I can, but I know that it is just a matter of time before That Boy finds me alone.

“Beta.” The Hooded man says, distracting me from my thoughts. “That stance is atrocious, fix your posture.”

I quickly fix my posture as I watch The Hooded Man for his next move. Within a few seconds, I find myself flat on the floor.

“Your mind is not with us today. Tell me why.” The Hooded Man commands as he puts his quarterstaff back on a rack.

I stay quiet, unsure as to whether or not I should tell him.

“Did you not hear me? I told you to tell me what is keeping your thoughts.” He says.

“Yes, sir.” Is my immediate response before I tell him the situation.

“I see. You have quite a problem on your hands.” He says, obviously bored with the situation.

He then moves back to the training and I make sure to not let my thoughts wander.

I doubt The Hooded Man will do anything about them. It isn’t his style to directly intervene in that way.

Three weeks later, I realize that my group has already moved out of the room, I am all alone and I am not the only one who has realized it.

Three trainees, including That Boy swagger into the room.

“It’s actually a little impressive how long you managed to avoid us.” That Boy says.

My eyes go to the door in hope that I might be able to run past them like last time.

That Boy catches my eyes and slowly closes the door. Cutting off any hope of escape.

The three boys walk towards me and I slowly back away. All of them are older and stronger than me, there is no way that I can fight them.

I feel my back hit the wall and that’s when it starts. I manage to land a few punches, surprising even myself, but they soon overwhelm me.

I end up on the ground with both hands held behind my back with That Boy squatting over me.

“You know. Killing other students isn’t allowed, but accidents are known to happen.” That Boy says, parroting words that we had both heard long ago. “In fact a lot of ‘accidents’ have been happening around me over the last few years. It’s rather odd. I must just be ‘accident’ prone.” He puts his foot on my head and slowly pushes my head into the ground. “The poor boy, while we were pushing him around, he fell and broke his neck against the wall.”

Over the next couple of minutes, they take turns beating me until I am a bloody mess on the ground.

“Goodbye, Beta.” That Boy says.

My fear rises to a fever point and I act on instinct.

For a moment, my senses leave my body, I am a part of the room surrounding me, then the building, then the world.

Without thinking I take my fear out on the boys surrounding me.

My senses slowly return to my body and I feel a drop of wetness hit my cheek.

I open my eyes to see a scene that I know will forever be in my mind.

Spikes of earth return to the ground.

I stare at the scene for a moment, before I start running.

I run towards The Hooded Man’s office.

He takes one look at my face before he says, “Show me.”

I take him back to the spot of the carnage. Three bodies stare up at us.

He turns to me “How did you do this?”

“I-I made the earth move. I don’t know how.” I respond.

His rarely seen eyes widen a little bit and he whispers “A natural Elementalist.” Then he looks at me with a serious expression. “Don’t tell anybody about what happened here. From now on, you will stay with me an hour later than usual to practice your abilities. Do you understand?”

I nod. It is very hard to focus on what he is saying with three bodies lying before me.

“Good, now take this healing potion. Drink it, then go clean yourself up. You are a bloody mess.”

I do as he says. And my days continue like nothing had happened. But I know the truth. I will always know the truth.

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and months turned into years.

I continued with the same routine, until the week after I turned sixteen.

That week, I received my first mission. I will finally be leaving the training grounds.