Le’Nara’s graduation day finally came, and I was a bundle of nerves. It was time for her to pack up and leave us, but it was also time for me to do the same. A lot of children leave home and start training at the age of twelve; I’d held off until I’d turned fifteen, so I was already behind in my “learning” in some ways at the other school.

I didn’t sign up to West Gondor’s School of Learning using my family name. I didn’t even use the name Mik’hail since I’d learned that separated names were generally held for the wealthy or powerful. Mik’hail actually stood for “Storm of Hail”, or “Icestorm” in the old language. I was actually “The Young Lord of Storms of Hail, of the House of Dancing Flames”. Talk about parents with a flair for the dramatic!

I’d simply signed up for classes under the name Michael. It was close to Mik’hail, and was my old name from Earth anyway, so it would be somewhat nostalgic to hear it used again. No last name, as those were uncommon among most of the masses. I was simply going to be “Michael” when I attended the other school.

Several guest showed up for the graduation ceremonies once again, and there was one guest in attention who I was desiring to see over all others, and yet whom I found myself hiding from also. De’Nara had made the journey to the isle, she was allowed to since she was a graduate of the island, to see her sister graduate. My heart longed to see her again, but I was also dreading that things would be so much different between us. Five years is a long time. What if she’d forgotten about me and I no longer held a spot in her heart, as she held in mine?

I longed to see her, and yet I found myself avoiding her – and with my mastery of feeling the flows of magic, air, and land on the island, it was a simple task for me to do so. I put off our meeting, until after I could sort out things with Le’Nara first. After all, it was her day of graduation. She deserved my attention first, and I could catch up with her sister – for good or ill – after.

The graduating ceremony was the same old experience; people dressing up, prancing around, being bragged on – with one distinct difference; Le’Nara. When she came from out back to walk up on the little stage to get her ring (mother didn’t give diplomas; she gave rings of graduation), she marched out onto the stage completely naked.

Father hopped up and down and Mother laughed gaily!

It was Le’Nara’s ultimate tweak towards Father. For the past five years on the island, he had forbidden her from wearing anything at all. She stayed as naked in her fifth year as most of the girls do in their first year. It was his way of telling her to grow up, listen to him, and become a woman. For graduation, she was finally given the right to get dressed like everyone else…

And, she marched out on the stage as naked as ever. It was her way of saying, “Dirty old perv, you never had control of me. I was simply naked because I wanted to be!” He sputtered. He fumed. Mother laughed, and Le’Nara strode up and accepted her ring as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

It was really the only part of the ceremony that stood out at all, as the rest was just the same old, “you did good, be recognized, yay me” ceremony over and over.

After the ceremony, I saw De’Nara and Le’Nara hugging and talking, so I held back until they were finished. De’Nara saw me and smiled lightly and waved, and then walked off as well. I don’t know if she was being considerate and giving her sister and me some time alone, or if she was avoiding me also.

I’ll worry about that later too, I suppose.

“Congratulations,” I told Le’Nara with a hug. “Looks like you’re finally going to be graduating. Any idea where you’re going next?” I knew she wasn’t going to Gondor with me, but she’d said she’d have to wait and see where her family needed her before she made any plans on her own. I thought maybe with De’Nara here she’d know more.

Le’Nara simply giggled and hugged me lightly while taking my hand and tugging on it. “I’ll be heading home to Andor for a while, and then we’ll see what happens after that. Don’t worry, we’ll always stay in touch. We are business partners, you know.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, and be drawn along at her pace once again. She tugged me all the way to my room and then bounced up and down. “So!”

“So?” I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about.

“Where is it!” She started hopping back and forth and snooping all around my room. My pillows were tossed off the bed, the sheets yanked and dumped into a pile, my closet was ransacked, and most of my clothes were haphazardly thrown willy-nilly all over the place.

“Where’s what?”

“My gift!” Le’Nara never quit digging or tossing things around. In just a few moments, it looked as if a hurricane had spawned multiple tornados in my chamber. “You gave Sis something. I know you’ve got something hidden somewhere for me! Is it under the bed?” With a wave of magic, my bed was lifted up off the ground, flipped upside down, and then stacked on its top against the wall.

The more she hunted, the more my room got trashed, and the more energetically enthusiastic Le’Nara became in searching. I finally had to laugh and show mercy on her when she stuck her head down the laundry shoot and half wiggled down it while looking. Head, shoulders, arms, and breasts were down the laundry shoot, and her hips and legs were stuck out and kicking furiously on this side. I couldn’t resist the temptation and smacked her across her cheeks a few times playfully for fun before I realized she was truly and soundly stuck!

Laughing, I had to pull and tug, and eventually dump a whole bottle of mineral oil around her hips and waist before she got enough slippage to wiggle back out. For a while there, I thought I was going to have to tear part of the wall itself apart to free her!

When she finally got herself free, she simply flopped on the floor and pouted at me. “Don’t tell me you didn’t get me anything. Were you too busy getting ready yourself, and forgot about me?” She sounded about like she was going to cry, and I couldn’t tease her any longer. Besides, I don’t think my room could’ve handled any more of this either.

Leaning over, I hugged her lightly and then kissed her on the forehead. “Of course, I didn’t forget about you. I got you a present. It’s just not here…”

“OH!” She hopped up, hugged me so tightly I couldn’t breathe, and then dashed out of the room wildly.

“Wait! Wait a moment!” She was heading towards mother and father’s room, and I could just imagine her demolishing their chambers as badly as she’d demolished mine!

“It’s not there! It’s not there!” I was yelling at her, and the moment my words registered, she turned and starting running down the hallway back past me. I didn’t know where she was going to go search next, so I leaped out, wrapped my arms around her and hugged her into a tackle on the ground.

She wiggled, squirmed, and slithered out of my grasp in moments. Holding onto an excited Le’Nara was like holding onto lightning itself. Holding onto her while her torso was all covered in mineral oil? HA! Good luck with that!

“It’s in your room!” I yelled at her as her bare foot kicked me in the face as she squirmed out of my arms. Blood dribbled out from between my fingers as I grabbed my nose, and she was up and streaking wildly down the hallway. I heard her yell something like “OUTTA MY WAY” as she bounced down the stairs and disappeared out of sight.

Getting up, I held my hand over my nose – it was bleeding quite freely – and I stumbled my way down the hall to chase after her. I guess I’ve learned my lesson. When it comes to tackling an excited Le’Nara, one simply doesn’t tackle an excited Le’Nara.

As I started down the steps, there was one of the other younger students sitting there on her rump and a basket of laundry scattered everywhere. She looked wide eyed; like a deer in a tornado; and it appeared as if she’d simply been trampled. Seeing me, she finally brushed herself up and hopped over towards me.

“My Lord Mik’Hail!” She grabbed my hand and slightly tugged it away from my face. Blood freely poured uninterruptedly from my nose. “You’re hurt!”

A brilliant gift for stating the obvious, this one had. “Juss ah bloodde node,” I tried to tell her.

She looked at me a little funny; apparently, she doesn’t speak bloody-nose; and then she leaned up, placed her hand on my nose, and muttered a few words of magic. A soft white glow of life magic wafted from her hands to my face, the pain went away, and my nose stopped bleeding.

“Frank few,” I told her.

“Oh!” Her eyes grew big and opened wide. “OH!”

“Fhat fiz fit?” I asked her. She was well and truly looking odd; like the cat that got caught eating the canary.

“My lord..” She was starting to fidget somewhat. “I think your nose healed wrongly. It’s a little crooked. Maybe even a lot crooked…”

“Fhat foo fean fly flose fealed frooked?” Gingerly I reached up to feel my nose. It felt… off. Skewed. It wasn’t where it was supposed to be at all. The top of it was where it normally felt like it belonged, but the rest was several inches to the side of my face.

Shit!

“Fits flofay! Fly fot foo flow!” I didn’t have time to deal with this right now. “Flank foo!” I squeezed the girl once to show my appreciation for her efforts, and then I ran around her and chased off after Le’Nara.

Apparently, being fleet of foot is a trait of her family's, as I never caught up to her until I got to her room. I couldn’t have been more than a few moments behind her, but a tornado had already tossed the place. Pillows tossed, sheets were thrown aside, the drawers were all out of the dresser, and the window was broken. From where the other drawers were tossed to the left and right of it, I think one must’ve simply gone out it.

“Flea Fara!” I yelled to get her attention. “Flea Fara! Flover Fear!”

She looked over my way and I pointed to the umbrella stand beside the door. When she’d rushed in, she’d simply tossed the door open, and it had hidden her gift. I’d placed it there earlier so it’d be in an obvious place so she couldn’t miss it, so of course, just to prove me wrong, she missed it.

Squealing, she bounced over to the stand and grabbed up the cloth wrapped bundle inside her umbrella stand. With trembling hands, she tried to unwrap it, but she was too excited. Finally, there was a huge gust of magic and the wrappings blew apart and scattered with such force that they hurled themselves through the wall.

Le’Nara really, and truly, had broken part of the house.

And now she simply stood there in a daze looking transfixed at her present. Mother appeared from out of nowhere, fire flicking across her hair and down her back. She looked as if she was prepared to turn something into melted goo.

With eyes blazing, she quickly accessed the situation. And then, much to my relief, she chuckled lightly and winked at me. Gently, she reached up and tapped me on my nose – a searing surge of pain burst through my face – and then she disappeared and I could breathe normally again. Feeling my face, everything seemed like it was back where it belonged once again.

And Le’Nara was still just staring wordlessly at the simple stone staff she was holding.

Le’Nara isn’t a warrior like her sister. She managed to avoid father’s swordship training for all five of the years that she attended school here. I didn’t think something sharp, dangerous, or jagged like a sword would suit her. Instead, I simply carved a smooth staff from stone with a small crystal orb being the top of it.

I’d worked for a year to infuse my magic in it as much as possible; just as I had with De’Nara’s blade; and I had reforged the stone many times until it had changed to an alabaster blue shade. It was sturdier than any steel, but I don’t know how it’d compare in terms of hardness against De’Nara’s blade. I really hadn’t forged it with the purpose of it being something that a person would go out and exchange blows with another weapon with it in mind.

The staff was made to simply look plain and not too fancy.

And, to hold the sun itself within its crystal orb…

Inside the crystal at the top, I’d channeled wave after wave of fire and air magic all year long. The air was a buffer for the fire, and the fire was packed, compressed, repacked, and compressed again, and again, inside the center of the crystal itself. At first, it was nothing more than a plain little candle flame, but then it grew brighter than a lantern, and then changed itself to look like a welder’s flame. Now, it was simply a small little sun floating and turning inside the crystal, forced by my magic to hold the shape of an eternal rose.

The crystal itself was simply smooth and durable. I don’t know how durable, but I had tried to make it as hard and indestructible as I possibly could. Who knows what would happen if some idiot broke it and allowed that mini-sun suddenly to release all the fire and air magic I’d trapped within it? It wasn’t something I wanted to happen, so the orb itself I had worked on strengthening as much as my magic would allow.

And all the simple stone staff itself did was absorb heat. Nothing too fancy with it, but if it didn’t pull out the heat that the crystal produced and channel it into the ground, it’d be much too hot to walk into the room here without cooking – much less even imagining to pick it up or hold it.

And still Le’Nara simply stood and held it without moving, blinking, or making a sound…

I hope that’s a sign saying she likes it and isn’t disappointed!

“It’s called Azure Skyrose,” I told her gently – at which point she nodded slightly once and then fell over in a faint to fall to the ground!

She was out cold, but the staff was still firmly gripped in her hands, shining like the sun.