Chapter 5) The Test

Lucarus and I are siting near the top of the tree. I hold a small sliver of fire in my hand and hold it in front of Lucarus. “Remember pull the warmth from your whole body into on spot on your palm and then force it out. Try to make it sharp and concise.”

Nodding his head Lucarus concentrates on his palm. Blood vessels in his head begin to pop as his head transforms into a tomato.

“Don’t forget to breath dumbo.”

A release of heated air rushes out of his mouth and then cold air is sucked into his nostrils like a vacuum. A few deep breaths later he sighs “Huuugh I ran out of energy again. I can’t do this, not until I go through the ceremony!”

“Yes you can! Just don’t forget to continuously absorb energy from the phoenix tree. How do you think I have been holding this tiny little flame lite for nearly half an hour? Right now with out the try my max time for such a small frame isn’t even a minute!”

Aarushi Yells up from the ground level. “Hey guys! Come down and play with me!”

Aarushi still comes to the tree every day trying to climb up to us. She is probably the most persistent and stupid girl I have ever met! I don’t know if she is trying to hang out with us or if she wants to learn to climb the dam tree but for the past two weeks I see her trying every day. She starts climbing before Lucarus and I even get to the tree and she keeps going after we leave. Some days she successfully climbs up to us and try’s talking to us but we just climb down and go elsewhere. Poor girl, sometimes I feel bad for her.

Ignoring the girl as we usually do I continue to explain how to produce a flame. “First you need to get better at feeling the energy inside yourself and pushing it out wards all at once, once you can do this we will focus back down to trying to put it in a single spot.” I then demonstrate unleashing all of my energy by making a flash of hot air puff out from every part of my body, instantly heating the surrounding area.

“Ok I’ll try again!” Lucarus obediently follows my directions. He takes a deep breath and push his strength outwards. Instead of having it release in one large flash it more escapes his body slowly over time.

“You need to learn to be more explosive, you’re to calm and relaxed.” I begin refilling my power reserves while talking. “Build the tension in your body and release it violently all at once. Think of it as pulling back a bow string, letting the string gather power and then letting the sting go to send the arrow flying.”

Lucarus nods his head and tries to do it again; he builds his energy up and releases it, still not doing what I asked but with visible improvement.

“Don’t worry about it, you should just build up your power reserves then try again later, don’t give up!”

He nods his head with agreement and pumps his fist in the air. “I won’t give up for as long as you believe in me boss!”

I laugh and pat him on the back “Good! Now let’s go to the river I have something I must watch.”

Lucarus and I begin to climb down the tree, when we get to the bottom Aarushi Speaks up “Where are you guys going? We aren’t done playing yet!” Did she think we were playing with her this whole time?

“My brother has his pyromancer test today. We wanted to see what it was.”

“Oh that’s the thing where people get there powers from right? Does that mean you already passed your test boss?”

“No I haven’t done anything like that.”

“Then how come you can make fire? I thought it was impossible to do that without the test?”

“What would you know about the test?”

“A lot! My dad is the chief of the village and is the only one who has the power to give people the test!” I stop walking and motion for her to keep going. “First you have to be given a seed from the phoenix tree.”

“But the tree doesn’t bare any fruit?” Lucarus buts in asking the same thing I was going to.

“That’s cuz this tree is still a baby! Only the giant ones can bear fruit, our tree still has many years to grow.” Aarushi makes exaggerated movements while waving her arms to show the size of the tree. “Once the phoenix tree is over 1000 years old it will begin to bear fruit. The legend says that there are five great Phoenix trees that bear fruit in this day and age. They were all planted by the great hero Xeodra.”

That name sounds familiar, where have I heard it before? Oh yeah my parents read me stories about him as a child all the time. He saved the world from some really evil creature and brought piece across the world. He had the ability to bend wind, fire, Lightning and many other mysterious powers that have never been seen before. No other person in the world has been able to manipulate any power that is not of their tribe. This means I will only be able to bend fire. I wonder how he did something like that.

“What else can you tell me?”

Aarushi puts her finger to her lip and tilts her head sideways while her hand radiates a purple light. This is the posture she makes when thinking. “ummm when you finish the test you gain large amounts of power and then you can start learning to use fire! Oh after the test finishes you can take the challenge.”

Lucarus butts in “The challenge is what says whether or not you can leave the village right? And you can take it as a group if you want to. The problem with taking it as a group though is that you can only leave with that group.”

“Let’s all go to my brother’s test, I want to see what happens.”

We arrive at the east side of town with the rest of the village to watch my brother’s test. Aarushi points at a man in a red robe standing facing the group and shouts “That’s my dad Kanuk the village chief!” the man turns from the group and walks to Bois and two other boys.

“Looks like we missed the opening speech.”

“Yeah I think your Right Deadra” Lucarus agrees with me immediately.

We all go silent and watch the ceremony. Bois and the two other boys and a girl are siting with their legs under them in an almost bowing state with their hands out in front of them. Kanuk places a small red seed in Bois’s hand then Kanuk places his hand on Bois’s shoulder and whispers something in his ear. Kanuk repeats the action thrice more with each child.

Kanuk then turns around once more and with a confident and powerful voice announces “We shall now commence with the test. Each of these young children will be given a choice to plant the seed within their bodies or plant it in the forest across the river.” With those words I look across the river and see several hundred red trees sprouting from the ground like wild fire dancing in the underbrush of an unmanned forest. It is a sea of red flames that goes up and down the river as far as the eye can see. Hundreds of people must have planted the seeds over there instead of taking the test. What type of coward would do that?

Why would anyone wish to not take the test? And planting the seed across the river sounds dangerous; I don’t think very many ten year olds could swim across the river and back. Sure they might have the energy to get to the other side but I doubt they could survive the journey back.

Kanuk paces back and forth in front of the village with his hands folded behind his back as he continues his speech “You all know the dangers of taking the poison phoenix seed into your body, so I ask for you to not dishonor those who choose to surrender themselves from the pyromancer life.”

Does he mean that we can’t be pyromancers any more if we don’t eat the seed? I’m sure there is other ways to gain the power. Also why do they need to go to the other side of the river to do that?

Kanuk stops pacing and holds his hands in the air. “Suzaku, guide these children in their test!” He lowers his hands and closes his eyes. The children behind him all stand in unison and give each other nervous looks. One of the boys nods his head at Bois. Bois then scans the crowd and looks at me and mouths the words “Good bye.” His eyes shine as he holds back the tears, everyone’s marks glow dark green. Bois and the three children turn around and dive into the river. For several seconds nothing is heard and nothing is seen but the ripples of the children jumping into the river. With a plop a head pops from the water as one of the boys struggles to swim across. Two more heads pop up, it’s the other boy and the girl. I wait a few more seconds and don’t see my brothers head pop out the water. Fear and pain strike me. I look around at all of the adults but no one is moving to help them. I even see my parents holding each other’s hands and staring at the river. An ominous blue color fills the crowd of people as a mix of sorrow and worry spreads.

After a few seconds the head of my brother Bois finally pops out of the water as he struggles to cross the rest of the river. After a minute or two the four kids finally reach the other side. I breathe out a sigh of relief. I look around to have conformation of my relief but every one continues with the tense atmosphere. I look over to the other side. The kids are standing in a circle.

My brother throws his hands in the air and walks away from the group. A few moments later the girl follows behind him and grabs his hand. She looks to be pleading with him but to no prevail. The two walk away and out of sight hand in hand. I think to myself ‘why is my brother being such a coward? What is the worst thing that could happen?’

The other two boys once again face each other. They each nod and eat their respective seeds. A few seconds later they fall to the ground and begin to roll around. Screams of pain and agony fill the air. Fire begins to encircle the two and cover the area around them. The fire reaches out lashing at the phoenix sprout lings and other plants. A red and orange sea covers twenty feet in every direction of the two boys. Flames billow into the sky kissing the top of the taller tree trunks. The figures of the boys slowly turn black and are enveloped by flame.

This scene plays out for several minutes before the flames die down and smoke covers the area. As the smoke clears the figure of one of the boys stands and looks across the river at us. He looks down at his own hand and then a large ball of fire and billowing smoke forms around it. He throws the ball toward the river. It dissolves into the air about twenty feet from him. He has become a pyromancer in a matter of minutes, but at what cost.

The boy turns around to where his fellow tester was and drops to his knees. A new phoenix tree sapling stands in the spot the boy is kneeling at. Those trees by the river side were not planted. Those trees are the graves stones of people who failed the test. The sea of red flame trees filling the other side of the river are a memorial to the hundreds of people who have failed the test before. I drop to my knees my eyes wide open. What kind of world have I been reborn into!

No wonder my brother and that girl decided not to take the test. Based on what I just saw the survival rate is only fifty percent! Maybe even less!

Tears begin to well up inside my eyes. Why can’t they just not take the test? Why can’t we just live happily in peace with out it?

I feel a pressure on my shoulder and I turn around to see my father Feolra resting his hand on my shoulder. My mother kneels down next to me and embraces me into a hug. “I’m sure your brother will be fine out there, he is not alone.” I look up at her confused. What does she mean he will be fine? Of course he will be he didn’t take the dam seed.

Feolra tightens his grip slightly and chokes out “Why didn’t he take the seed, now we will never be able to see him again.”

I look up and him and ask “what do you mean?”

He looks at me and drops to one knee. “Son, the risk of death is high when taking the phoenix seed, but if you do not take it then you may never return to the village. Your brother chose life in the forest over taking the test given by Suzaku. Even though he choose a different path I do not want you to look down on him.”

“I don’t understand, why do we have to choose between something like that?”

“If you do not eat the seed then Suzaku puts a great curse on you. He first takes your power and strength away from you. Then he unleashes misfortune upon you. Our race cannot activate their pyromancer abilities if we do not eat the seed, but this is not why we choose to eat it. We eat it because we must. If one does not then their body will begin to rot and they will become ill. This illness does not affect you until puberty. But it is highly contagious and will spread through the inter town killing every adult in a matter of weeks. The only way to prevent this is to either banish yourself from the village or to eat the seed and prevent the disease.” A tear slides down my father’s face as he looks across the river. “Bois chose to stay alive in the forest rather than risk dying and coming back, it was his decision and we must respect it.”

“So you’re saying that shortly after we turn 10 years old we get this disease that can kill the entire village, and the only way to prevent it is eating the seed from the phoenix tree? But if you choose not to do this you can still live for several more years in isolation?” I look back and forth between mother and father and they both nod their heads. I guess the villagers are not cruel, this world is the cruel one. This also means my brother was a coward.

"What if someone could develop their powers without taking Suzaku's test?"

The gloom in my parents eyes strengthens slightly. My father sighs and says "Firstly that is very unlikley. Even if some one succeeds in doing so it doesn't matter. When the time comes all your magic is slowly drained and you lose any abilities you had, even the ones to control your own body heat. Having an abundance of magic does nothing to help against the disease. Our ancestors have tried everything but the only cure is the seed of death."

"How do you know Suzaku set this curse and it..." I am cut off by my father.

"We know it is true because Suzaku used to walk among us. He used to allow us to have our powers activate at birth without the seeds just like all the other races. But one day he became angry. He started killing all of his disciples before turning to the sky. As he flew into the air as a giant flaming phoenix he dropped five trees of death before disappearing. The older generation began to die off slowly after that. They had time to write their tale but that is all. The years after that are unknown. We don't know when or how our ancestors learned of this method, but by the time they learned of it most of our people had died. We went from a once flourishing tribe that covered the entire continent to a now small and scattered tribe."

I lift my hand up timidly. I spark a small flame inside of it for a split second. A small gasp escapes both my parents lips. The light of excitement in their eyes is drowned by the previous depression of losing Bois.

"So this won't help me with avoiding the test?"

My mother falls to her knees and wraps her arms around my father and me. I can hear a slight sobbing next to my ear.

Silently my father shakes his head. After a moment he speaks. "Lets go home for now."

My parents sit me down and explain that what I can do is not unusual, just very rare. They tell the children it is impossible so they don't get depressed when they fail. Something like this hasn't happened for several generations. They say that after I take Suzaku's test I will gain great strength. I can bring pride and honor to our clan if I work hard. They also warn me that this will have no effect on surviving the test. No one knows why some survive and others die.

Honestly I don't think Suzaku is real. Maybe it is just some convenient lie to make everything easier to understand. Either way I want to end these sets of tests. I know I can't do it now but maybe in the future. If he is fake and this is all just a disease then I can try to find a better cure. But to do that I need to explore the world and understand it better. If he is real then I just need to become stronger, fly into the sky and kill him. Dam. I have my work cut out for me. For now I should just enjoy life. After Suzaku's test i can start planning my future.