Rage and Wind

                                    

                                          
    It's been two weeks of my new training with Rowan and I hate it. Well, I love it and hate it. Everyday I show up to train, and we start with hand-to-hand combat training. After I'm beaten and bruised we move onto target practice. It seems each week I shall have a new weapon to familiarize myself with. Apparently all low tier soldiers go through similar training to find their specialized weapon they will wield through their whole military career. Except they usually take their whole childhood, not the span of a few months. Then, lastly if all that wasn't enough, Rowan has me run at least two miles bruised. It does feel good to swing at his smug face though. Even if they never land.
    Today I rub my sore shoulder in the shower before my wind training. Rowan sure has no problem swinging at me either I've quickly learned. I hurry my shower in the training grounds shower room, and get dressed in the clothes I pack for myself each morning. A simple white blouse and trouser set. I grab my bag and make my way through the castle halls to my wind class. Apparently, the elementals that work with their kingdoms are given their own work spaces. They work on everything to the weather patterns, battle strategy, flight patterns, even a few spells of their own. I arrive on time and knock on the door.
    "Come in," I hear a male voice from inside. I open the door and enter the room. The capitol's elemental has his study lined floor to ceiling in bookshelves. Each full to the brim from a lifetime of knowledge and learning. He has it set up like a classroom almost. His desk in the back right corner next to the only window in the room. Stacked with papers and journals. I walk towards the left of the room to the island he has in the middle of the library of books. The island has burners and beakers testing clouds. I set my bag down on the ground next to the island and walk back over to the middle of the room. He rises from his desk chair to join me in the middle of the room.
    "Good day Aria," the old man tells me as he takes off his reading glasses and begins to wipe them with his gray button-down shirt hem. 
    "Good day sir," I answer as he says I'll learn his name when I learn his wind. Whatever that means. 
    "Now," he places his circular glasses back on the bridge of his nose. "Begin." I close my eyes and begin to try to sense the air in the room. Every day he has me do this and only this. A whole half a day of him watching me close my eyes and stand before him. Only to seem to fail each time.
    "I feel the breeze from under the closed door." I tell him as I struggle.
    "Yes, same as every day." I hear him. "And?"
    "And....the draft from the window? I think?"
    "Damn it!" He shouts as I open my eyes to see him walk back to his seat. "Every day it's the same thing! Hell, I can feel the draft from the castle doors in here! I can feel the clouds move above the castle!!" 
    "I keep telling you I don't know what I'm supposed to be feeling." I answer sheepishly.
    "We don't have time for you to not know! It takes every bit of persuasion to keep the King out of my business with you! Do you know that?!" Each day his anger with me rises. 
    "Yes, sir." No one understands.
    "Oh, so you do know something!" He shouts at me as he plops down into his white leather desk chair. "Tell me! What do you know?!"
    "I—I don't—" my voices begins to crack. After so much time I'm so close to my breaking point.
    "Oh please!" He gets back up from his seat and walks up to yell in my face. "Cry on your own time! Now tell me what you feel!!"
    "I feel—" I choke as I look into his cold gray eyes behind his glasses. I feel a tear slide down my cheek from my right eye. "I feel lost," I say weakly. I know that's not what he wants to hear, but right now I can't help it. "I feel weak," the tears keep forming in my eyes. "I feel alone," I start crying as the elemental takes a step back from me. I drop to my knees and stare down at the floor. The white tiles become blurry as I begin full on crying my eyes out. "I feel hated!" I shout at him. I feel the room grow colder as my arms get goose bumps. "I feel tired!" I feel a circle of wind slowly surround me. The air cold and damp. I begin to hear papers from around the room fly about as I continue yelling at the floor. "I feel beaten!" I feel a few drops of rain land on my back. "I feel like I don't belong!" The wind picks up around me. "I feel like this is all a bad nightmare I can't seem to wake up from!!" I feel the rain begin to beat on my back and head. I look up to the elemental with blurry eyes. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I FEEL!" I see him looking down at me on the floor a sobbing mess. I see him past the rain that beats at my face and the storm clouds around me. However, I see him look down at me with kind eyes if never seen on his face. His hair untouched and his clothes dry. Puzzled I slowly stop crying. That's when I feel it. This rain and wind is mine. I feel it circle around me in a radius. I also feel his wind. It also circles me, keeping my storm at bay. That's why he is not wet. He is perfectly moving multiple streams of air to keep the room protected from my storm. I focus and slowly start to control the storm I've created. I stand back up on my feet as I dissipate the rain clouds from around me and slow the air current I've created. 
    I look him back in the kind eyes filled with worry and sorrow. "Hello," I say to him quietly as water drips down my face. "Edward."
    His old, weathered face softens into a kind smile. The smile of someone realizing you will be okay. "Hello Aria." Suddenly I feel it. The draft of the door, the slight breeze in the hallway, the guard walking down the hall past the door. I feel hurried footsteps coming up the stairs running towards the door. I recognize the dress as it drags in the wind of her movement. I slowly walk over and open the door to reveal Madam Wren before she has a chance to knock on the door frame. I look at her worried expression with her fist raised midair. Madam Wren's eyes take in my wet beaten state as she slowly returns her arm to her side. "Now, we begin." Edward says from behind me.