A Whole New Me Read online

  Chapter 10

  Dylinn wasn’t joking. Sine Llorel had never came around Dylinn sent 3 of his workers to wake her, but they couldn’t get to her and so they told Dylinn she was dead to the world. Dylinn came to get her up and the men laughed at him because they thought that if 3 men couldn’t get her up then there was no way Dylinn all by his lonesome would be able to do it. But Dylinn somehow knew she was awake the whole time. Azalea was woke since 3 o'clock this morning, she scared herself awake and she apparently scared Dylinn awake as well. She wouldn’t tell him what scared her awake though she would just say it was a nightmare. Difference between that nightmare and the ones she normally has was the fact that last night's nightmare was one she just so happened to be living. Dylinn let it go for now but she knew he would ask again.

  “Come on Azalea you gotta get up Llorel’s waiting for you and he’s getting pissed,” Dylinn said.

  “Surprise, Surprise, so I guess he does have some kind of emotions,” she said without once opening her eyes.

  “Yes and you’ll discover a whole hell of a lot more if you do not get up.”

  “Technically I am up.”

  “Alright let me put it this way either you A) get up and meet Llorel out on the training path or you B) tell me why you screamed last night?” Aww so Dylinn wants to play games, she thought to herself. Alright I’ll play.

  “Which one would you like me to answer?” Azalea could almost see the confusion on his face but he didn’t take long to answer her.

  “B.” Hmm ball in my court.

  “So are you implying that training isn’t that important?” she asked propping herself up on her elbows.

  “Compared to…” Well played, I can see exactly what he’s trynna get at.

  “Compared to what? You tell me?”

  “How can I tell you when you won’t tell me why you screamed?” He retaliated. Guess it’s time to nip this game in the butt, she decided.

  “Fine how about I do both A and B?” Dylinn had the most victorious smile on his face; it made her laugh for several reasons.

  “I’d make a deal to that.”

  “Good now get out so that I can change and I’ll get back to you.” Dylinn hesitated for a minute as if he didn’t trust her but didn’t say anything more as he exited the room.

  Azalea stepped out from under her sheets and stepped under the steaming water from the shower. She came out of the shower smelling like vanilla and jasmine, and dressed in sweatpants and a cami. She walked out into the hallway expecting to see Dylinn and screamed when she saw a dog the size of a small bear in the hallway instead. It was watching her with its glowing eyes and sharp teeth that barely fit in its mouth. Azalea scooted along the wall to get away from it and it watched her every step. When she saw Mrs. Sarah coming down the hall she almost jumped for joy but she was afraid the mutt might take it as a threat.

  “Is everything ok, I heard you scream,” she asked. Azalea didn’t bother opening her mouth she just looked from the dog to Mrs. Sarah and back to the dog. When she looked back at Mrs. Sarah she saw that Mrs. Sarah was smiling down at the dog as if it was a child. What is wrong with this lady? She obviously wasn’t afraid of it. A hand gripped her shoulder and caused another scream to erupt out of her.

  “Mrs. Green I didn’t mean to startle you Mr. Jones sent me for you Azalea didn’t even bother to acknowledge the man she was just glad to get away from the scary mutt; she didn’t know why all of a sudden everything just kind of scared her lately.

  “What took you so long? We were supposed to start at 5:30 not 6 going on 7.”

  “Sorry lost track of time,” she said meeting Llorel in the short grassy field. Llorel let out a sigh before looking in her direction.

  “Take your shoes off,” he commanded.

  “Why?”

  “Because I want you to fight with your shoes off.”

  “But what are the chances that I’m going to have time to remove my shoes before fighting? There’s a 99% chance that I’m going to have shoes on when I’m fighting so why not get used to it?” Azalea didn’t mean to come off as defiant especially after she was late but he has got to get out of his current state of mind, the one that say’s he can boss her around whenever he wants to. “You are an elemental Azalea, I want you to be able to feel the earth beneath your feet, take your shoes off,” he commanded again. Azalea could tell that he was getting mighty frustrated so she did what she was told and removed her shoes; Azalea removed her socks as well so that she could feel the blades of grass between her toes and the rich dirt beneath the soles of her feet. It actually felt really nice almost a silky rich texture between her toes.

  “The tricks of an elemental comes as easy as breathing does to you, you just need to enhance it. Earth is your forte correct?”

  “I believe so.”

  “Ok the grass around us has been trimmed make it grow,” he commanded. Well that seems easy enough. Azalea called upon the rain and asked for it to sprinkle over the field and she used her energy as a shield to avoid getting wet, then she asked the rain to help the grass grow she closed her eyes lightly and waited until all was said and done. When the last of the rain hit her shield she opened her eyes to see that the grass came up as high as her thighs. When she looked at Llorel she tried to stifle a laugh. He was drenched in rain it hadn’t occurred to her to shield him as well, and he was not happy about that. Azalea sent some powerful wind his way and his expression changed from anger to pure shock as the wind tousled his shirt and dried his clothes. The wind had even carried her apology to him. Once he was dry she thanked the wind as it parted, then Llorel’s anger was back.

  “Was all that shit necessary?” he asked angrily.

  “What do you mean?” she asked innocently.

  “Azalea” he yelled. “All you had to do was tell the damn grass to grow; you didn’t need to do all of the extra shit.” His angry expression was replaced quickly with something that resembled astonishment and now she was confused. Did I do something right or wrong? “But” he continues in a lighter tone. “Because of that idiotic move of yours I found out that you not only control earth but you also control energy, water, and wind as well,” he ended with a nod of approval. “So let us do this again I need you to make the grass grow taller.” Taller? I was already up to my knees in grass. But he wants taller so I’ll give him taller. Azalea tried to make the grass grow even more by simply commanding it to and when she opened her eyes the grass surrounded her on all sides.

  “Now what?”  She asked to Llorel though she couldn’t see him she could feel his presence, she could tell he was near.

  “There’s no grass around me Azalea it’s just around you, which is a good thing and a bad thing. It’s good because it protects you like a shield but it’s bad because it’s pretty obvious where you’re at which gives the one trying to strike the upper hand.” Azalea looked around and she was most definitely enveloped by grass but she could step out, which she did, and she could shield herself by grass every step of the way making something like a crop circle with her enemy in the center which brought her directly behind Llorel without him even noticing.

  “I guess there are two good things that come out of it,” she said from directly behind him. He turned around quickly to face her but she couldn’t tell if she scared him he was totally emotionless.

  “I guess so” he said stepping back. “Now make it all go away without closing your eyes you have to have your eyes open at all times it’s a defense mechanism. And try to command it to go away in your head without saying it aloud. You should want the element of surprise on your side, you don’t want to say what you’re going to do and have the enemy know.” Azalea did everything she was told and watched the tall blades of grass disappear within a blink of an eye.

  Azalea and Llorel spent hours training… well she was training and he was just commanding. Now she was able to do things that she didn’t even know was possible.

  Llorel rolled out a nume
rous amount of human cut outs. There was a barrel rolled out beside her filled with bows and arrows and blades. She took the bow and arrow in her hand and shot it at the cardboard cutouts. Azalea had the arrows covered in fire seconds before it hit the targets. She picked up several blades and launched them all and used her wind affinity to control where she wanted each blade to go and the blades struck 3 of the cutouts in the heart region.

  “This seems too easy won’t the people be actually moving and attaching?” Llorel didn’t answer he just rolled the cutouts away after dislodging the blades and arrows. He left Azalea with nothing but grass surrounding her. She grew the grass like she did the last time but taller this time, she felt like a tiny person, then something hit her(not literally)and she let the wind carry her through the grass as she ran. She felt like she was running on air (which at one point she actually was). She was able to pull a tree out from within the grass and of course she climbed it—she had to. Once she was at the tippy top without giving it a second thought she jumped onto one of the tall strands of glass and began to slide down until her feet hit the ground then she made it all disappear.

  When Llorel came back he was with 3 other people, 1 boy and 2 other girls.

  “Azalea this is Caleb, Bre, and Casey. You wanted moving and attaching so I give you movers and attackers these are some of the best fighters I know.”

  Caleb had the goofiest, most mischievous smile Azalea had ever noticed and it almost had her backing out of the challenge. His skin tone was like a Hershey texture, he had a gorgeous fire in his gold eyes it was unexplainable. He had neck length dreads and his side burns connected to a stache and beard and Azalea found him highly attractive. Bre was gorgeous. She had a coco skin tone with long wavy black hair and a side bang. One of her dimples was pierced and her eyes were hazel. She wasn’t model thin like Casey she actually had meat on her bones. Casey’s skin tone was a bit lighter than my olive skin tone and she had long blonde hair with platinum streaks. She was wearing a scowl and it was so not attractive and Azalea could already tell Casey wasn’t gonna like her. She towered Azalea by at least 2 feet but Azalea wasn’t scared. She was used to men being taller than her so Caleb’s height didn’t scare her either but Bre was just as short as Azalea was.

  “Alright Azalea this is just like our practice against the cut outs.” Caleb, Bre, and Casey took their stances and drew their weapons. Llorel offered Azalea a weapon but she told him she would just be playing defense. Azalea took her stance as well and shielded her body with her energy; she did the same to the others so that the weapons wouldn’t pierce their skins. The others weren’t aware of the shields so when Caleb launched his blade he wasn’t expecting her to use her wind affinity to send it right back his way and if the shield wasn’t there he would have had a blade sticking out of his abdomen. He smiled his appreciation and asked, “How does this shield work?”

  “In a way things can be given but they can’t be received.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Casey asked Llorel.

  “It means that whatever is in the shield can come out but whatever is outside the shield can’t come in,” Azalea answered.

  “I don’t need your little shield,” Casey snapped. It was most certainly Azalea’s pleasure to remove the shield as Casey had asked.

  “Fine by me,” Azalea replied lowering Casey’s shield.

  “Ce-Ce if you do not keep the shield you’ll get hurt,” Llorel said but Azalea could tell Casey didn’t care and she had her doubts. “Alright,” Llorel said as if it was his final answer. They all picked up their weapons and picked up where they left off. Every weapon thrown Azalea’s way was sent back 10x faster and harder, at one point she left the safety of her own shield to fight with Casey in the middle of the field. Casey tried to jab the blade in Azalea’s chest and Azalea could tell Casey was out for blood.

  Azalea grabbed Casey’s wrist as it was about 3 inches away from her own chest, she twisted it and had Casey pinned to the ground. She kicked Casey’s hand and Casey’s blade fell out of it.

  Azalea  kicked the blade backwards toward Caleb as he was trying to approach her from behind and Azalea could tell that he had stepped out of his shield as the blade grazed  his skin deep enough to draw blood. Bre stepped out of her shield and ran toward Caleb.

  “Stupid Bitch! Look what you did, get off of me!” Casey said from beneath Azalea’s hold on her. The moment Azalea let her go she ran over toward Caleb. Azalea felt bad but there was nothing she could do so she just stood there a bit awkwardly. Caleb looked up and caught her eye,

  “I’ll be fine,” he said talking to the girls around him. Once they uncrowded him he winked at her before walking away.

  “Reckless bitch!” Casey said bumping into Azalea purposely. Though Azalea felt bad about what happened to Caleb she refused to sit there and let Casey get under her skin. Azalea pushed her with everything she had. It didn’t take much effort to get her in the air she was weightless; she landed about 30 yards away. Azalea watched stunned as Casey disappeared. Where’d she go? All too soon Azalea felt an arm wrap around her neck along with the cold silver blade pressed to her neck.

  “Do some sneaky shit like that again and you’ll find yourself headless,” Casey whispered angrily. Azalea never did respond well to threats.

  Azalea elbowed Casey in the side and broke away from her engagement and put her in one of her own with the blade pressed against her throat.

  “I could say the same thing to you.” Azalea’s grip on Casey tightened as she pressed the blade farther against her throat. She kicked Casey to the ground from the back of her knees forcing her to kneel.

  “Which one of us do you think will be headless first?” she asked as Casey struggled to get free, Azalea pressed the blade in deeper and she felt Casey stiffen. All too soon Azalea felt Llorel pulling her away.

  “YOU STUPID BITCH!” Casey coughed out.

  “You’re one lucky son of a gun I swear,” Azalea said shaking her head and releasing herself from Llorel’s grip.

  “Go Ce-Ce!” he told her.

  “I’M NOT SCARED OF THAT BITCH!” Casey said getting to her feet.

  “You should be,” he said back.

  “Well I’M NOT and I NEVER WILL BE,” she yelled getting into Azalea’s face.

  “Ce-Ce GO!” Llorel said now standing by Azalea’s side.

  “I think it’s you who should be scared of me,” Casey said before walking away.

  “I’ve been through worse,” Azalea said laughing at her mockingly. Casey flipped Azalea the bird before going out of sight.

  “Be here, on time for training tomorrow,” Llorel said not once looking at Azalea as he said it.

  “Will the wicked witch be there?”

  “If she’s smart she won’t be,” he said before walking away.

  “Well then I guess that means I’ll see her there,” Azalea said rolling her eyes.

  “Don’t worry; Ce-Ce’s a bitch to everyone on their first day, lucky for you I’ve never seen her that mad before so I guess you made an enemy for life.”

  “I’ll add her to the list.” Bre laughed “How come you didn’t fight much today?” Azalea asked.

  “Oh you noticed?”

  “Yea I noticed,” she said hoping Bre would say a little more than that.

  “I’m pregnant,” she blurted as if she couldn’t wait to spit it out.

  “Oh well congratulations are you still with the baby’s daddy?” She didn’t answer, Azalea saw the tears in her eyes and they stopped walking Azalea wanted to say sorry but what would she be sorry for? Well maybe she could apologize for making her cry. Before Azalea could get a word out Bre turned and said, “No one knows that I’m pregnant. I don’t even know why I told you I guess I was just tired of holding it in. No I am not with the baby’s father… I was attacked… or raped whatever you want to call it,” she said in a low whisper. Azalea decided to just drop the conversation all together and just leave it at that and
so they continued to walk.

  Azalea sat down in the foyer thinking that hopefully she could catch Dylinn but she got Caleb instead.

  “Do you believe in love at first sight or do I have to walk by again?” he asked taking the seat right next to her. Azalea decided to ignore that comment but she took it as a sign that he wasn’t mad at her for stabbing him.

  “Are you ok?”

  “I’m just fine thank you, you know it’s not every day I get stabbed by an elemental with extraordinary powers, I take it as a compliment.”

  “Ok whatever you say, I’ll make sure to stab you more often,” she said getting up and deciding to wait for Dylinn in her room.