Cloud Shifters

His teeth chattered as they turned up the main road. Their group got the transport that vibrated, and Cadin had to catch Xeno from falling off more than once. During the “smooth” parts of the ride, everyone talked about their childhood experiences in Glade Commons Cloud Park. There were a couple of students from the far end of Glade that never made the trek and Xeno’s grandfather never saw the need to leave the forest to take him.

“I can’t believe that you have never been to the The Park, man,” Vincent said, calling it by the common slang name. “It is awesome—so light and fluffy.” Jade hugged Vincent as he wore a nostalgic look on his face.

“I am not so sure about it,” Xeno responded. “A place without trees or land sounds kinda boring.”

“It’s anything but boring,” Treven chimed in. “You can basically do anything you want in the large pit and not get hurt. One summer I was over there every other day perfecting my flips.”

“What about you guys, you ever go The Park?” Treven directed his comment at Cadin and Lep.

“Yeah, we used to have a pretty good time there,” Lep said looking directly at Cadin. “That is until we got kicked out.”

“What, really?”

“Hey, don’t look at me like that Lep. You are just as responsible for getting us kicked out for the rest of last summer as I am,” Cadin defended.

“How did you guys manage to get kicked out of a place where you are basically allowed to do anything?” Vincent asked.

“Well, Cadin likes cloud-creatures, obviously,” Lep began as he pointed out Gur, who was enjoying a nap in Cadin’s lap. “But at The Park there aren’t any cloud-creatures except for a few birds. So, we managed to stay out of trouble and have fun most of the summer just jumping around the clouds and watching the older kids train. Well, Cadin liked watching them so much, that just seeing them trying to create cloud-bridges to walk across the pit was not enough.”

“Hang on Lep; you were the one to suggest that we follow them to their next training site,” Cadin interjected.

“Yeah, but when we found out it was off limits to younger angels I was ready to back off. You, on the other hand, wanted to go climb the back side of the steep cloud-mountain to try and watch them.”

“True.” Cadin smiled at the memory.

Lep shook his head and continued. “So here we are climbing the steep cloud-mountain, which was quite shifty, and all of the sudden Cadin started running ahead super-fast. I see Cadin jump off the mountain and grab onto a huge bird and at the same time the cloud shifted underneath me and I fell through the mountain!”

“Oh!”

“What happened?” Lexi asked. It seemed like the rest of the class had started to listen to Lep’s story.

“Well, I watched Cadin struggling to hold onto this huge eagle as I fall through the mountain and land on the padded bottom. As soon as I land three different park rangers fly down to me and ask how I got there. I told them I fell through the mountain and my friend was hanging onto an eagle. They seemed to think I was crazy until Cadin came crashing into the back of one of them with an injured eagle in hand.

“The eagle got sent to the cloud-creature rehab center at Town Hall, and we got banned from The Park for the rest of the summer.”

“You say you were climbing the steep cloud-mountain?” Instructor Kade asked.

Lep seemed surprised that he had been listening. “Oh, ah, yes. It was the big one on the far side of the park. I fell for a long time before I hit the bottom.”

“I see.” He stared at Lep and Cadin as if evaluating them. Not quite knowing how to take it, Cadin turned to Sun.

“Have you ever been to Glade Commons Cloud Park?”

“Nope,” she said with a smile. “But I am looking forward to it. We have a Cloud Park in Lance; however, the base natural clouds are wispy cirrus—not the cumulonimbus clouds that build up into cloud-mountains.”

“What can you even do in a wimpy cirrus cloud-park?” Vincent asked.

“Well, angels with yellow Auras are a bit lighter on our feet and wings than you big green clunkers.” Cadin let out a laugh but turned it into pretend coughing when he got dirty looks from everyone before Sun continued. “Cirrus clouds hold us up just fine though the Com students work on fast cloud-shifting, rather than the strong barricades. I guess both are useful for different reasons. It is fun seeing how different Aura lands do things.”

They pulled through the gated entrance to Glade National Cloud Park. The Park was fenced in, so that everyone knew how far the safety bottom to the clouds extended. There were several small cloud-mountains and a huge one that rolled up into the sky. The ground was littered with training pits of various sizes and the first-year groups all headed off to a secluded section of the park.

“All right, all three classes have a seat on the pink, flat area!” Instructor Nightan yelled. He stepped back as Instructor Zephran cleared her throat.

“Many of you have been here before, but some have not; so, before we get started on the training, we must go over the basic layout and rules of The Park.” Several moans escaped from the audience. “First of all, take note of the pink areas and paths around you. These artificially marked pathways indicate the only solid cloud-land in The Park.” Cadin had never paid much attention to the pink in the past. He thought he remembered his mom saying something about it the first time that she took him there, but he had been too excited to jump into the big pit to take it in.

“In the rest of the park you must cloud-shift to get around. If you do not successfully cloud-shift where you walk, climb or jump on the clouds that are not pink you will fall through to the bottom. The bottom, as many of you can attest to, is solid and soft to prevent injuries. The pits,” she said as she waived over the bowl-shaped holes in the ground “are filled with natural clouds for basic training and where we will be doing our lessons today. The mountains are for more advanced training which we will get to later on in the year.

“And now for the rules.” Her face turned very stern, and Cadin knew she was serious. “You are not allowed to go beyond the pit area and onto the cloud-mountains until you have earned your level 1 cloud-shifting badge. We are here to practice, not play. You are to practice the skills that we are here for; therefore, no flips or crazy jumps into the pit during skills training.”

“Oh, man.” Treven moaned.

“Please be conscientious of where people are in the pit. It hurts when someone lands on you. No wandering off without one of the instructors. We will have time for group breaks and lunch. Anyone who breaks the rules will be suspended from school. All right, enough with the rules, let’s get to some training! Instructor Kade.”

“Thank you, Instructor Zephran,” Instructor Kade said as he stepped forward. “Today we will be working on basic skills in three main areas: manipulation, walling, and walking. At the end of the day, you will have a chance to earn a level 1 cloud-shifting badge. Calm down, we don’t really expect anyone to earn a badge after just one day, but it is good to get experience in trying for badges. To earn a badge, you must receive at least a proficient mark in one skill in each of the three areas. This badge counts as a general studies badge and is one you must earn before graduating from Commons School.

“Now, each of the three classes will have a certain amount of time for each skill set. In the small pit at the far end Instructor Nightan will be working on manipulating skills. In the other small pit, I will be working on walling and in the big pit Instructor Zephran will be working on cloud-walking. Each group will start out with their main instructor and we will rotate from there. But first, it is good to get a feel for the natural clouds and the pits before we train, so everyone gets twenty minutes of free time where you can go a little crazy and have some fun. Yes, Treven, that includes flipping as long as you don’t land on anyone,” Instructor Kade finished as he saw Treven’s hand fly up at the mention of free time.

Cadin ran and launched himself into the big pit, sprawling out and feeling for just a moment like he was flying through the clouds before falling and landing with a belly flop on the cushy bottom. He got up and quickly made his way to the edge of the pit where the pink hand-holds led him back to the surface. Just as he reached the top, he saw Treven flip forward and spin at the same time, getting at least two and a half rotations in before landing and then stumbling on the bottom.

“Man, I have to learn to stick that!” Treven said as he scrambled up behind Cadin.

“That was totally cool,” Cadin said. “How do you do that?”

“Oh, it took a few summers to get that one down, and I still can only land it some of the time. You start out with a front flip and then twist your body in midair. The tighter your arms, the faster you rotate.”

Cadin tried a couple of twisting flips, but after landing on his head, which hurt no matter how soft the bottom was, he decided to stick to his dive. Sun did a very elegant front flip and landed it. She crawled up giggling, saying that she had always wanted to do that onto a fluffy cloud. Treven, Lep, Xeno, Jade and Vincent had a cannon ball contest to see who got wedged the deepest into the bottom of the pit. Treven and Vincent were the best, sinking down to where Cadin could only see the tops of their heads and their arms wrapped around their legs, before the bottom of the pit contracted and spit them out. Cadin gave Lep a high five as he climbed out. Lep smiled and challenged him to a far jump contest. It was something that they had done since they were kids. Lep’s sister, Charlie liked to join in, and was a surprisingly good jumper for her size.

Before they got going, several other people said they wanted to join. Instructor Kade and Instructor Zephran agreed to judge—Instructor Zephran from the bottom of the pit, and Instructor Kade from the top rim. Lep went first, launching himself forward and landing with his feet out in front of him. Cadin saw that it was a good jump with a great landing. Instructor Zephran stepped up to where Lep had landed and used a green cloud-wand to mark the position of Lep’s heels.

“Next,” Instructor Kade said when he saw that Lep and Instructor Zephran had cleared the area. Treven jumped with his limbs flying everywhere. He did not make it close to where Lep had landed, and had a bit of a crash landing, tumbling forward as he hit the bottom. He still had a smile from ear to ear when he crawled back to the top, and Cadin laughed and gave him a high five.

Xeno, not having been to The Park before, did not have the utter abandon that most everyone else did. Before he got to the edge of the pit, he froze and tried to halt, but had too much momentum and just stumbled into the pit.

“You just need more practice,” Instructor Zephran said as she helped him up.

Lexi and Vincent along with the twins from Nightan’s group and two girls from Zephran’s group all jumped and did decently well. Lexi jumped the closest to Lep’s mark but was just shy. Only Cadin and Sun were left to jump.

“Ladies first,” Cadin said. Sun laughed and pushed Cadin back to clear her path. Before she started, Instructor Kade announced, “right now Leptan is leading the group with only two people left to jump!”

Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch. Sun wore a look of serious concentration and Cadin thought he saw her yellow Aura flair before she ran forward and launched herself just off the end. She flew through the air, and Cadin thought that she had Lep beat. Her feet landed just past Lep’s mark, but she leaned too far back on her landing and fell back on her butt. Everyone cheered for her effort, but Instructor Zephran marked where she landed with her butt rather than her feet which put her in third place behind Lexi.

When it was Cadin’s turn, a lot of classmates yelled out in encouragement, but Lep was trying to get in his head—another thing that they had done since childhood.

“Now don’t mess up your footing,” Lep said casually, “cause ya know that the launch point can be a little tricky.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me, Lep. I promise to wave as I pass by your mark.”

Lep laughed as Cadin backed up. He took a deep breath and focused on his launch.

“Pink,” Lep said as Cadin raced forward.

Lep had done it; Cadin kept looking at the pink mark on the edge of the pit. He ran fast and the pink mark approached quickly. He knew as he set to launch that he would be too far, and his jumping foot would be past the pink mark. At that moment, he cleared his mind and just focused on the feeling of nearly flying. To his surprise, his launching foot met solid cloud and he was able to jump. He was so shocked that he flailed through the air and botched his landing—finishing just shy of Lep’s mark.

Most people laughed at Cadin’s awkward landing, but everyone gave him congratulating words and high-fives for earning second when he pulled himself out of the pit. Lep’s smile was enormous, and came close to breaking into a laugh a few times, but he held it in. Grateful, Cadin patted his friend on the back and congratulated him on his victory.

Later, when they broke up into groups to practice skills, Instructor Kade approached him. “That was almost a nice long jump, Cadin. I was sure you were going to miss the launch.”

“Yeah, I’m not quite sure how I didn’t fall. I was so shocked I didn’t focus much on the landing,” Cadin said.

“I think you’ll know how by the end of today.” With that, Instructor Kade turned around to gather people up and start the lesson. Cadin had no idea what he meant. He wanted to ask Lep what he thought, but Lep was helping Xeno get past his fear of the pit.

“Alright,” Instructor Kade said in a firm voice. “Wall cloud-shifting drills are fun and easy with the right type of cloud. Here on Glade we have an abundance of cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds, which are the best for pulling up enough material for many types of walls. When cloud-shifting, you must remember that clouds are nice and smooth on the outside; however, on the inside, they are wet, fierce, windy and sometimes filled with lightning.

“You can break open a cloud when cloud-shifting, but it is not advisable for walls because it will weaken the cloud. We want to work on building the cloud up to a suitable size and shape, and then hardening it. This skill is called walling, and used most often in building cloud structures and as a defensive skill by building a wall between you and your attacker.”

Instructor Kade’s face slackened before his eyes narrowed on the cloud. He opened his hands and knelt down, touching the surface of the cloud outside of the pink path for a moment before standing up quickly and throwing his hands into the air. The surface of the cloud followed his hands and shot up beyond them. Instructor Kade guided the cloud up over his head, like half of a flattened rainbow, before he closed his hands into tight fists—the cloud made a crackling sound and hardened before their eyes.

“Okay everyone, step around and take a look.”

Cadin peeked around the outside of the white wall and saw that it curved in a little bit on the edges, almost like it was a large tree trunk that was hollowed out and opened in the back.

“This is a more advanced wall than the ones that we will be working on today, but I wanted you to see some of the possibilities. This wall curves around the edges and the top, to give me peripheral protection. You will notice that it is an opaque white on the outside—non-see through walls give you the best protection but no visibility. You can make transparent walls from clouds, but they are more susceptible to being damaged. The most difficult wall to make in terms of transparency is what I have done here. It is opaque on the outside so that my attackers cannot see me, but transparent from my side so that I can see all of you.”

The whole class moved around to see from Instructor Kade’s point of view. Cadin was amazed that he could see right through the cloud-wall, though the view was a little distorted.

“Walls are versatile and useful if they are done correctly. They can be added to and the more energy that is put into them, the longer they will last. If done incorrectly, then you just used up a good chunk of your energy for nothing. This is the type of wall that we will be working on today,” Instructor Kade said as he dissolved his first wall with a sweep of his hand and pulled up a second, smaller, chunkier cloud-wall that had no curves.

“This will earn you a proficient mark in shifting a basic cloud-wall. This is a base wall, used in all Paths for different purposes. Note that it must come up to at least your shoulders, and must be as wide as it is tall. It must also be properly hardened, which I will test in various ways. For this wall, it does not matter if it is opaque or transparent—that is a skill for another day.

“Cloud-shifting should be new to most of you, so we will start with the basics. As angels, we are naturally connected to the clouds. Your job is to find that connection and feel it with your whole body. Now, spread out and let’s give this a try.”

They were off to the flat side of the small pit and Cadin found a spot next to Sun, with Lep right in front of him. Lep was smiling and looking around until he saw Cadin and gave him a little gloating nod.

“Okay, now relax your mind.”

Cadin’s embarrassing second place long jump popped into his head.

“Now, bring your energy to your hands.”

“And reach down and touch the base of the cloud at your feet. Feel the cloud and try to imagine it rising up with your hands.”

Cadin did as he was told, but he was concentrating on Lep rather than the cloud.

“Now rise and bring the cloud with you, imagining what shape you want it to take.”

Cadin stood up with the rest of the class, his eyes on Lep. No piece of the cloud followed his hands, but he didn’t really care. Cadin could see the side of Lep’s face, and it turned bright red with effort. It looked to Cadin like Lep was trying to lift an immensely heavy object. He heard a sound like a paper ripping, and Lep suddenly fell back on his butt, holding a small piece of hardened cloud. There was a hole at his feet, spitting lightning and wind at him.

Instructor Kade came running over and told Lep to put the piece back over the hole. Waving his hands over the plug, the hole became smoothed over. Lep looked around, and when he turned to Cadin, Cadin gave him a thumbs-up and smiled. Lep smiled a little bit before looking back at Instructor Kade.

“Good try,” Instructor Kade said so that the whole class could hear. “Leptan was able to cloud-shift a little bit; however, he ripped a hole in the cloud because he hardened the cloud first and then pulled. Great first effort, though. Remember, pull first and then harden. Everyone, let’s try again.”

After several more tries, Cadin still had not shifted the cloud; though he attributed part of this to being nervous because once again Instructor Kade seemed to be watching him. Cadin could tell that he was trying to be discrete about it, but he could sense Instructor Kade’s eyes on him. Others in the class including Sun had managed to cloud-shift some. No one had managed to make a complete wall—for some they could pull the cloud up but could not harden it, and the cloud just drifted away. Others managed to rip cloud-holes like Lep.

After a while Instructor Kade stopped leading the whole class and started wandering around to individuals to give advice. Cadin started to relax a little bit and remembered the first wall that Instructor Kade had demonstrated. It would be really cool to be able to make a wall like that, Cadin thought. He sat down and just felt the cloud underneath him. The cloud itself seemed full of energy when Lep ripped it open. There must be a lot of different elements inside to work with. Remembering that Master Emilio said that cloud-shifting was a natural skill for angels, Cadin felt the smooth surface of the cloud and then thought about what was going on inside.

Cadin tried to connect to those elements and will them to push the cloud up from underneath as he pulled from above. Cadin felt a slight tingling down his arms as he raised his hands up. The cloud rose with his hands and followed wherever Cadin moved them. He was still sitting down, and now that no one could see what he was doing he relaxed and thought he would try a couple of things out. He wanted to see if he could harden the cloud as easily as he could move it now that he felt connected to the cloud from both the inside and the outside. Cadin pulled the cloud up into a small wall shape and then willed it to harden. The cloud crackled as it solidified, but being so small, it did not attract anyone’s attention.

He examined his creation, feeling quite proud of himself. The wall was not completely opaque, nor was it transparent. He wondered how he could make the wall see-through. First, he had to get rid of this wall. Otherwise he would bring attention to himself, and he did not want any more attention until he did something worthy of winning. Cadin tried waving his hands over the wall like he had seen Instructor Kade do, but nothing happened.

Thinking about it, he decided that he had to reconnect with the cloud and will it to return to its original form. Putting his hands on his little wall, he first tried to un-solidify it, releasing it from its locked state. Then he pushed it down to return it to the whole cloud.

Cadin glanced around. Instructor Kade was at the other end of the class, helping Lexi and Hydra. He announced that they had five minutes left before rotating. Lep still had his back turned to him, and Sun was busy trying to harden the thin mist that she had pulled up. Cadin sat back down with his back turned to the class. His hands tingled as he brought up more cloud, full of water and wind. This time before he solidified it, he brought more water into his wall and then closed his hands, capturing it in a high-water state. Again, it gave off a crackle and this time solidified into a transparent wall riddled with cracks. Cadin looked at it and decided that more water was a good way to make it transparent, but guessed that the wind in the wall caused the crackling. Dissolving the wall, Cadin forced the wind out and gathered more water in its place. Closing his hands, Cadin was pleased to see a blue, transparent wall.

And now to try a totally solid wall, Cadin thought. He put his hands on the ground and willed the cloud to become very dense and full of all the cloud-elements before he pulled it up.

“Time’s up!”

Cadin jumped to his feet, surprised that the voice was so close. It was Instructor Kade who was only a few steps behind Cadin and staring down at the spot where Cadin had been sitting and cloud-shifting his walls. He didn’t know why he felt embarrassed like he got caught doing something wrong, but Instructor Kade said nothing, so Cadin got up silently and followed his classmates over to Instructor Nightan’s pit.

“Did you see my last wall, Cadin?” Sun asked, motioning quickly with her hands as if she was raising twenty cloud-walls. “It was huge, but it did not solidify.”

“Yeah, looking good,” Cadin said, a little distracted.

Sun misinterpreted his mood. “Don’t feel bad, lots of people didn’t get it.”

Lep seemed to overhear Sun as he patted Cadin on the back coming up from behind them.

“Yeah don’t worry, buddy, I’m sure you’ll get the next one.”

Cadin just smiled and decided not to tell them about his walls until he was sure he could make a proper one.

“So, how’d you do?” Cadin asked.

“Awesome! I even got a good size wall that solidified and everything. But when Instructor Kade came over to examine it, he shot some ice balls at it and my beautiful wall crumbled. He said I was the closest to getting a proficient mark though. Just too many cracks in the wall.”

“Nice. You probably just needed less wind,” Cadin said while looking ahead to the next pit.

“What?” both Sun and Lep asked at the same time.

“Ya know, keep the wind out before you solidify it.”

“How?” Sun asked.

“Feel around for the different elements when connected to the cloud. Look at the next station. Maybe we will learn to shoot the ice balls,” Cadin said.

Instructor Nightan was waiting for them at the bottom of the pit with his arms crossed.

“Well, get down here.”

Everyone scrambled down the sides of the pit.

“We cannot practice manipulating cloud-shifting skills out in the open, like you can with walling, because if any of you are actually able to produce something, it could go flying anywhere and hit somebody just standing around. The walls of the pit on the other hand will reabsorb anything that you can send.

“You will learn by facing me in the center as I demonstrate. Then you will practice by spreading out and facing the wall. Does everyone understand?”

The class responded with an affirmative grumble.

“Let me be clear,” Instructor Nightan said smoothly. “When I ask you a question, I expect to hear a ‘yes, sir’ or ‘no, sir’ loud and clear. Does everyone understand?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good. Let’s begin.”

Instructor Nightan spent the first part of the class explaining the basics of cloud-shifting, the same as Instructor Kade, though with a little bit more of an edge. To Cadin, it seemed like Instructor Nightan felt like he was forcing the cloud rather than willing it. Cadin liked the idea of willing the cloud better. His first lesson with Master Emilio seemed to be paying off already.

“Once you have properly manipulated the cloud, that is changed it to your will by either separating a piece of it, changing the elements within, or by distance shifting, there are some very useful things that may result. However, remember it takes a large toll on your energy to cloud-shift, so if you have the option to use tools or a weapon to accomplish the same goal, it is usually better to save your energy.

“A Warrior Path example of manipulative cloud-shifting over a distance is trapping, where you make the cloud form up around your enemy,” as Nightan was saying this, he reached down to the cloud and looked at Cadin. Cold mist circled around his feet. He glanced down and saw the cloud around his ankles.

“Once the cloud is where you want it,” Instructor Nightan said while smiling at Cadin, “you harden it.” As Instructor Nightan closed his hands, Cadin could feel the cloud solidifying, locking his feet in place. All his classmates stepped back to look at Cadin’s cloud-prison. He wanted to try to get out but knew that it would be futile and he did not want Instructor Nightan to get the pleasure of knowing that he was uncomfortable. Instructor Nightan continued his demonstration without releasing Cadin from his cloud-trap.

“You can also raise the mist, and impair the vision of a large team,” Nightan said as he raised his hands. And much like raising a wall, the cloud lifted, but in a much less dense fashion and over a wider area. Cadin was livid at being trapped and having mist all around him. He started to struggle to try and release his feet, but the cloud stayed firm. Close to a panic, Cadin started hitting the solid cloud boots with his hands until he saw Sun’s yellow Aura dispersing the mist around them as she approached.

“You okay?” she asked.

Cadin just nodded in response, because he did not trust himself to speak. He bent down and felt the solidified cloud around his feet. He then leaned over further and touched the cloud. He could sense the solid cloud-boots through the natural cloud. He willed it to disperse back to its normal state. It took more energy than releasing one of his own walls with his energy connected to it, but to his relief, the cloud around his feet loosened and dispersed into the mist.

“How did you do that?” Sun asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” Cadin whispered, when he saw Lep and Vincent walking toward them.

Cadin heard a loud clap and the mist reabsorb into the cloud.

“A more common skill that we will be working on today,” Instructor Nightan said, pausing when he saw Cadin’s feet, “…uhm, are cloud-balls.” Turning toward the end of the pit where students were not standing, Instructor Nightan reached down to the cloud and grabbed into it. A sound like paper tearing echoed through the air. Instructor Nightan stood up with two handfuls of cloud, the bottoms looking raw and open as wind flew out and water dripped down his arms. Instructor Nightan threw both cloud chunks at the pit wall, the little round clouds spinning and spewing out elements. The pit wall absorbed the incoming cloud-balls.

Instructor Nightan pulled up a transparent cloud-wall near the pit wall. He walked back to his previous spot and ripped up two more cloud-balls, and set them on the ground, and then pulled up another two. The holes in the cloud were releasing wind and water. Cadin thought he saw a small lightning bolt fly out of one and hit the pit wall. Instructor Nightan again reached his hands into the main cloud floor, but instead of ripping out more cloud balls he seemed to be concentrating. The wind spewing out of the holes took on a concentrated form and swirled around the cloud-balls. The wind lifted all four cloud-balls into the air, and quicker than Instructor Nightan had thrown them, whipped them at the cloud-wall.

The balls exploded on impact, crushing the cloud-wall to rubble. The shards from the cloud-wall and balls quickly reabsorbed into the pit. The class cheered, and Instructor Nightan gave a little bow. He then swept his feet over the gaping holes in the cloud, and they resealed. Instructor Nightan looked quite winded after his performance and figured that the last skill drained him of a lot of energy.

“Now,” Instructor Nightan said after taking a deep breath, “there are variations to what I have just demonstrated, but the main skill is to manipulate the cloud into alternate forms that are useful. You will want to experiment with what type of cloud-ball you can pull up, and what it is most effective for. For instance, the water in the cloud-balls can be turned to ice. The raw elements of the cloud can be released and directed. Lightning is a particularly strong offensive weapon, though incredibly hard to wield. Cloud-balls are used in many areas, including healing, biology and trade skills. There are ways to prolong how long they last, but for now, we are just concerned about you making them.

“To earn a passing grade toward a Level 1 Cloud-Shifting badge, you must either perform a successful foot trap or break down a transparent ice wall with cloud-balls from a distance of fifteen feet. It is best to practice this in pairs for obvious reasons. To perform a foot trap, you must feel where your partner is relative to you through the cloud. Once you have identified your target, you make the cloud lift around their feet and then harden, manipulating the cloud from a distance.” Instructor Nightan closed his fist as he explained and Cadin flinched.

“To create a suitable cloud-ball you must reach inside the cloud and tear out what you need. If you are good, you can pull out specific balls of dense cloud, wind, water or even lightning. It is up to you to figure out which one works best to break down a translucent cloud-wall.

“You will pair up and first practice foot traps while I build cloud-walls around the perimeter. You will then take turns practicing throwing or using the elements to try and blast apart the walls. Any questions?” No one raised their hand and they paired up to practice.

Cadin went with Lep while Sun teamed up with Xeno, and Vincent with Jade, leaving Treven to pair up with a large, quiet boy named Alex.

Lep kept talking about how excited he was to try the cloud-balls as he had already made one. Cadin had mixed feelings about both skills. Though useful, Cadin really did not like having his feet bound by the foot trap and did not want to do it to anyone else. The idea behind the cloud-balls seemed cool, but he wasn’t sure about ripping holes in the cloud.

“Okay, I want to give it a try,” Lep said. He paced back from Cadin the full fifteen feet. Cadin thought it would probably be easier to practice closer to each other and then once they had done it successfully they could try from the full distance for the badge, but he didn’t want to disturb Lep’s enthusiasm. Lep got a very serious look on his face and stuck his tongue out a little bit as he reached for the cloud. After a while of trying, he was able to bring some mist up a few feet in front of himself.

“Well it is a start,” Cadin called to Lep. “You should try to harden it now.”

Lep’s face turned red with concentration, his blonde hair falling in front of his eyes. Cadin heard the crackle in the distance.

“Yes, I did it!” Lep yelled as he jumped up to give Cadin a high five.

Instructor Nightan had heard Lep and came over to investigate. He looked at Lep and then down at the solidified little lump in front of him.

“Where are the feet of the person you trapped, boy?” Instructor Nightan asked as he kicked at the stump.

“I…well; you see I didn’t trap anyone,” Lep said in a low voice.

“Then why all the celebration? I suggest you get back to practicing, as it seems you really need it.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Cadin said as Instructor Nightan walked off. “Nobody else has done that yet. He was just being sour because you probably did it better than anyone in his class.”

“Yeah,” Xeno said. He and Sun had come over to check out what Lep had done. “Hey, how did you get it out in front of you? My fog just keeps following my hand.”

“Oh, you kinda have to think about what’s in front of you while you are touching the cloud,” Lep said with a proud smile.

“Cool, I’ll give it a try.”

“So, you ready to give it a go?” Lep asked Cadin.

“Sure,” Cadin said without much enthusiasm.

“Don’t worry; I’m sure you’ll get it.”

Cadin went back to his full fifteen feet and reached down. The connection with the cloud was becoming easier as he already felt the tingle up his wrists. This time Cadin concentrated on the vibrations on the surface of the cloud. He felt almost like he was under the water of a lake with a frozen surface, and he could see and feel what was going on above him. Each person had a vibration that rippled through the surface of the cloud, much like the plant in Master Emilio’s office. Cadin reached around through his connection with the cloud and easily found Lep’s vibration which was fast and exciting. He explored a little further to find Sun, whose vibration was erratic and happy. Xeno’s was slow and calm.

Cadin tried to lift the cloud up around Lep’s, feet but couldn’t quite feel how. He started to sweat with his effort.

“How do I get the cloud to rise in the distance?” He asked Lep.

“I don’t know, you just do.” Lep was distracted and kept yelling advice over to Sun and Xeno.

Cadin redoubled his effort, feeling his body tremble. Just as he felt the cloud rise a bit, Lep jumped. “Oh, I felt a cold tickle! I think you got some of the cloud up.”

“Nice,” Cadin said as he released his connection to the cloud. “I don’t have enough energy to trap you, though. Plus, it seems kinda useless if you can feel it before I am able to harden it.”

“A good observation,” Instructor Nightan said from behind Cadin, making him jump. “There are many stealth options that you can work on after you master the basics. However, first you must produce a suitable step one trap. Continue.”

Lep could harden traps, but never around Cadin’s feet, and Cadin seemed to have the opposite problem. He was getting better at raising the cloud where he wanted it, but could not harden them. Instructor Nightan called time, and Cadin looked around at all the cloud-walls around the pit.

“Pick one wall with your partner and take turns trying to break it down with cloud-balls,” Instructor Nightan said. “I have marked the fifteen-foot range for each wall. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Cadin and Lep stepped up to the wall with Sun and Xeno on their left, and Lexi and Hydra on their right. Lep found the green mark that indicated fifteen feet and smiled at Cadin.

“No problem, we can do this.”

“Be my guest,” Cadin said to Lep.

Lep reached down to the cloud and after a minute or so, Cadin heard a crackle. Lep’s face turned red as he pulled at the solidified cloud. Finally, Lep ripped a piece of cloud up as he fell back. The ball was dark, and Cadin saw a few sparks jump around on the raw side of the cloud-ball.

“I got shocked by lightning coming from my hole!” Lep huffed as if offended that the cloud would do such a thing.

“Did it hurt?” Cadin asked with a smile.

“Well, not really. Just stung a bit.”

“At least you got a cloud-ball out of it. The wall is waiting.”

“Oh, right!” Lep jumped up and focused on the wall. He switched his cloud-ball to his right hand and stepped up to the green line. Most everyone nearby stopped to watch.

“Knock it down, Lep!” Sun said.

Lep took aim and threw. The cloud-ball swirled with a bit of lightning coming out the side. It hit the top left corner of the wall and shattered it. Everyone cheered and went back to their walls with renewed enthusiasm.

“Nice,” Cadin said.

“Yeah, that took a good chunk out of it,” Lep said with a big smile playing across his face.

“Go ahead and try another one,” Cadin said.

“You don’t mind?”

“Nah, it will take me a while to try and form my cloud-balls anyway.”

“Nice work, boy,” Instructor Nightan said as he examined the wall with the corner missing. “Let’s see if you can keep it up.” Instructor Nightan stood behind them as Lep reached down to try and pull another cloud-ball up. Cadin sat back and watched Lep and Instructor Nightan as Cadin connected to the cloud. He could feel Lep reaching into the cloud and solidifying it. Lep looked like he was trying even harder to pull up this cloud-ball than the first one with sweat dripping down his face.

Cadin both heard and felt Lep pull the next ball up. This one looked different than the first. It was lighter in color and did not look as dense. Instructor Nightan had a nasty smile on his face, and Cadin guessed that this was not the type of cloud-ball that would do much damage to a transparent wall. Lep did not seem worried as he stepped up to the green line with his head up and shoulders back. He threw the cloud-ball hard and true. It hit the wall dead-center; however, instead of blowing apart the wall it bounced straight back at Lep. Too surprised to dodge it, the ball hit Lep square in the chest and knocked him back into Cadin.

“I think you were on more of the right track with your first attempt.” Instructor Nightan walked away without another word.

Once Instructor Nightan left, Lep seemed to realize how funny it was and started laughing. Cadin, Sun, and Xeno joined in, finding a bouncing cloud-ball quite ridiculous. Soon many people in the class had pulled up various cloud-balls. Lexi threw one that had an odd shape which whipped around like a boomerang before it was reabsorbed into the pit wall. Xeno picked up a huge cloud-ball, but was unable to throw it the full fifteen feet. It just sank into the bottom of the pit with a sputter.

The holes in the ground were many, massive and quite distracting. When it was his turn, Cadin used a different tactic. Instead of solidifying the top of the cloud and ripping it out, Cadin searched the cloud for features that he figured would best break down a translucent wall. Lep’s dark lightning cloud-ball had certainly performed better than anyone else is so far, so he focused on a nice stormy piece of the cloud. He willed it to the surface and reached into the cloud.

“Cool! How are you doing that?” Lep asked, but Cadin was concentrating too much to answer.

Cadin felt a rumble under his feet and saw the cloud light up under him as a bolt of lightning arced through the cloud straight for Cadin’s hand. He pulled his hand out of the cloud just before the bolt reached the surface. Part of the bolt escaped through his hand hole, whizzing past his ear and grazing Instructor Nightan’s shoulder before reabsorbing into the wall.

“What the…!” Instructor Nightan spun around and zeroed in on Cadin. “How did lightning escape?” His words were slow and dangerous.

Cadin opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“Well?”

“I was reaching inside the cloud to avoid ripping a hole…and it just zapped out.” Cadin held his breath as Instructor Nightan drew closer, still holding his shoulder.

“Basics first! Someone could have gotten seriously hurt. Follow my directions and learn what I teach before you go experimenting with cloud-shifting. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!” Cadin spent the rest of the time dutifully ripping small holes in the cloud.

“Time is up!” Instructor Nightan shouted, making Lep and Cadin jump. “Off to the cloud-walking section in the big pit.”