I look at Titus thinking this won’t end well. I sigh finishing my apple and tossing the core into the fire. I stand up walking over to him and Alistar. Alistar is sitting on the ground concentrating on something. I look at Titus as he smiles, “So tell me what do you know of magic?” I hear Alistar mumble something as Titus slaps the back of his head. “Allow her to answer. This matters.” I frown and roll my eyes at both of them.

“Magic is evil and doesn’t exist.” Titus laughs a little bit as a ball of light begins to dance around him.

“Magic isn’t evil and does exist. You just have to learn to harness it. Control it so it doesn’t cause you to go mad.” I roll my eyes and drop the dampening stone Alistar gave me.

“I still don’t totally believe that I have magic though. So this whole thing will be for nothing.” Titus smirks walking around me. He picks up a stick and lightly hits me in the leg. I get annoyed and glare at him, “Are you going to teach me or not?” I say full of sarcasm. He keeps hitting me and I start to get mad at him. “Stop hitting me.” The end of the stick catches fire causing me to slightly jump. He smiles happy.

“Excellent. It seems you have more control of your powers then I was lead to believe.” He shoots a glance at Aleem but Aleem is too busy looking of maps. He sighs and looks at me, “ Your anger seems to cause your magic to happen. Is there a reason for that?” I stare at the fire for a second as a burning sensation in my back returns. However, this time it isn’t painful but almost comforting. I slightly rub my back confused.

“Um… What? Oh I don’t know. Plus I didn’t feel anything when I did that.” I shoot him a look. He nods putting out the fire.

“Someone like you won’t be able to feel it. The only thing you will feel is exhaustion of using too much magic.” I frown remembering the church and Crag’s Keep. So, I really did kill all those people. My back warms up more as I shift uncomfortably. Titus notices and pauses, “Hm… I want you to concentrate on this stick. Think of something that gets you angry or mad.” I barely pick up what he says since my back has become incredibly warm now. The more I think about killing those priest and my minds jumps to the werewolves that I killed. I look down at my hand as I feel different. I am not that scared little girl anymore. No one will ever hurt me ever again. I slightly smile down at my hand as I attention is brought to my the snapping of the stick on my leg. I blink looking at Titus frowning. The stick lights up in a bright flame as he drops the stick the ground. “Excellent. Now we need to get that anger under control.” He picks up the dampening stone and hands it to me. I take it as the warm feeling disappears from my back.

“I don’t have an anger problem.” Titus smiles as he starts to collect a few sticks.

“You might not, but since your magic is so dependent on it to be used. It will cause you to become angrier so it can be used. Some people believe magic itself is its own living being that wants to be used.” I hear Aleem snort in the background as Titus shakes his head, “Other people believe that it’s the person who controls the magic. Nothing more and nothing less. I will leave it up to you to decide that.” Titus hands me the sticks, “I do want you to practice with the dampening stone on you. This will allow you not to use anger but the actual magic itself.” I roll my eyes going back to Lupa.

“I will give it a try.” Titus smiles at me as I sit down next to her. Titus spends the rest of the night talking with Alistar. From what I can see at least. I start to pet Lupa as I look at the sticks. Oh what the hell. I stick one of them in the ground and start to concentrate on the stick. After a few minutes, I give up kicking the stick frustrated. Aleem looks at me from his maps and I look at him, “What?” He shrugs.

“It will take a few weeks to get to the Southern Desert. So keep trying I guess.” I pause surprised at him but frown.

“Easy for you to say.” He nods agreeing with me.

“Yes. Most likely we won’t all make it to the destination.” I frown at this information.

“Where are we going exactly?”

“The Great Pit of the Southern Desert.” Lupa perks up and starts to whimper. I pet her trying to calm her down but she puts her head on my lap trying to hide. I pause slightly confused at her but I shrug.

“Okay? Why?” Aleem pulls out some books.

“That’s where we will find out how to save the world.” I pause and try to get a stick to light.

“Guessing something big and bad is defending it?” Aleem looks slightly lost for a second.

“I do not know actually. I have picked bits and pieces through what Crag had told me.”

“Wait you actually talked to that giant?” Aleem nods as he starts to put his maps and books away.

“Of course. He never mentioned it before until the last world ending.” He looks at Lupa for a second. “Before he fell asleep, he went on talking about something being wrong with the gods. That one went rogue. Made a way to save the world by doing some tasks. I found that old piece of paper in the new book I was writing in. The gods do work in mysterious ways.” He yawns getting up going to the tent, “Goodnight Zona.” I wave him off as I concentrate on the stick. After a hour passes and a few sticks broken, I decide to call it a night. By now, Lupa is fast asleep in my lap. I slightly laugh at her as I pet her head a few times. I wish you would be back in your normal form. I slowly lay down staring up at the stars. They were just as big and beautiful back home at Nicolas’s farm. I yawn and cuddle Lupa a little bit before falling asleep.

The next few weeks fly by as we travel to the Southern Desert. As we traveled there, I barely make any progress in my training. Without the dampening stone, I am able to start fires easy and somewhat control what they do. However, I always get this feeling of wanting to do more. Even before I can act on those urges, Titus would always put it back on. Alistar and me have somewhat become rivals even though I have no idea what I am doing. Turns out he is an wind mage or something. He can cause small storms to appear and do a bunch of different stuff. I still haven’t figured out what Titus can do, but he always seems to be a step ahead of me. He tries to be a positive influence on me apparently. Some part of me likes the idea of having Titus around. He cares and that’s something very new to me. Aleem buries himself into his books. He seems to be researching anything and everything he can to figure out what is in the Great Pit. With a few days away from the Great Desert, we all decide to stop near a rather large waterfall.

Titus call me and Alistar over. Lupa runs to the waterfall as Aleem starts to read his books. Titus looks us over, “Alistar. Please set up camp while me and Zona go to the waterfall.” Alistar frowns glaring at me.

“But..” Titus raises an eyebrow and Alistar huffs, “Yes. Master.” He leaves going to set up camp as Titus and I walk to the waterfall.

“I know your progression isn’t going well.” I huff annoyed and he smiles at me, “Magic isn’t easy. It’s impressive that you have come this far within a few short weeks.” I roll my eyes.

“Yea. Creating small fires and doing nothing with this stupid stone.” Titus slightly laughs

“It’s better than my first few weeks. I couldn’t do magic until my first year of learning.” I pause surprise

“Really? Why?” He laughs a little bit as we get to the waterfall. Looking at it, causes a rainbow in it’s mists. It looks amazing. Lupa is swimming in the little stream leading from the waterfall.

“Oh I thought I had a different set of magical abilities. I found out what I really had.” I go to the water’s edge looking into the stream. I pause studying my face. My once light green eyes are a somewhat bright orange. The tips of my hair have a very faint orange. I frown touching my hair, “It’s time to face your demons Zona.” I look at him

“... What do you mean?” Titus grabs me by the head as the world fades away.