Cloud Shifters

“There are many practical skills for angels to have when it comes to cloud-shifting.” Instructor Zephran began as they circled around the edge of the giant pit. Cadin looked down to see a thick, misty cloud swirl around the pit. He was not standing near any of his friends, as Instructor Zephran gave them assigned spots, all away from their closest companions. Cadin had no idea how Instructor Zephran was able to remember who each other’s friends were in classes other than her own. But she had nailed it in this class as Cadin was staring at Sun and Lep directly across the pit from him, with a couple of people in between them. Likewise, Xeno and Treven were to Cadin’s left and Vincent was to his right with Cadin’s other classmates directly next to him.

“Today we will work on a skill that is imperative to all angels…cloud-walking.” The students started clapping when she demonstrated by walking right off the edge of the pit, and instead of falling or flying, the mist followed her feet to make a sort of bridge that supported her across the pit, the bridge dissolving behind her. “Now, you have all learned the basics of cloud-shifting today at the other two stations, so we will skip over that,” the class sighed in relief; “however, we must go over the differences that you must understand in order to cloud-walk. Instead of concentrating your energy to your hands for cloud-shifting, you must switch up your way of thinking and cloud-shift with your feet.

“This is the only practical skill that we will be focusing on today, and for good reason. This is such an essential ability, that you are not allowed anywhere else in The Park without it. To earn a passing mark, you must successfully cloud-walk across the large pit without falling—yes, Leptan?” Cadin was surprised to see Lep raising his hand.

“Well, what would happen if you went on the big cloud-mountain without cloud-walking?” Lep asked.

“You couldn’t even get to the base of the big mountain because there is no solid ground anywhere near it. Look.” She pointed at the huge curling cloud. “Do you see any pink paths?”

Lep just shook his head, looking confused. Cadin guessed that he must be thinking about their adventure up the big cloud-mountain and wondering how they had managed to climb it. Since most of the class heard their story on the ride over here, they were looking back and forth between Lep and Cadin.

“What is wrong with you guys?” Instructor Zephran asked the class.

“Well, Lep and Cadin told a story about them climbing the big cloud-mountain last summer,” Lexi told Instructor Zephran.

“Impossible,” Instructor Zephran said softly. “Unless of course they were able to cloud-walk earlier than any angel I have ever heard of, and without any proper instruction. Has anyone ever trained you in cloud-walking before?”

Everyone in the class looked back to Lep and then Cadin with doubtful looks. Cadin didn’t know what to think or say. They weren’t lying.

Lep shook his head and Cadin simply answered, “No.”

“Then you must have natural cloud-walking skills…or a very big imagination,” Instructor Zephran said with a smile. The girl next to Cadin let out a giggle, and Cadin could feel his face warm.

“Let’s have you two try cloud-walking first then,” Instructor Zephran said. “Go ahead, Leptan and then Cadin.”

Lep looked like he had swallowed a cloud-worm as he inched his way toward the edge of the pit. He took a deep breath and then stepped forward. He hovered over the pit and took two more steps. He looked up and smiled just before dropping straight to the bottom, the mist swirling around him. The class laughed but stopped when Instructor Zephran held up her hands.

“Not too bad for a first attempt, though nothing you could climb a cloud-mountain with. You’re up, Cadin.”

Cadin had so many thoughts and feelings coursing through him that he couldn’t focus on any of them. He closed his eyes and tried to connect with the cloud under his feet. Don’t fall, he thought before he stepped forward. His eyes were still closed, as he kept taking small steps towards the edge of the pit. If he was going to plummet, he did not want to see his classmates laughing at him again.

He could hear some whispers, but was too full of adrenaline to process what they were saying. He took another couple of small steps thinking that he should be to the edge by now. He peeked down just enough to see that he still had cloud under his feet and had not yet reached the edge. He shut his eyes tight and took two big steps forward. When nothing happened and the whispers became increasingly loud, Cadin opened his eyes.

He found himself looking into the shocked faces of his classmates from mid-pit that he was hovering over. He had cloud-walked without even realizing it.

“Alright, Cadin!” Lep shouted from below. The rest of the class started to cheer as Cadin tried to figure out what to do. He took a tentative step backward and found cloud-footing. He decided to turn around and try to get back to his original spot. He took a couple more steps and then wondered what he had to do to stop the cloud-walking. As soon as he thought it, he fell. Lep ran over to him and helped him up.

Instructor Zephran had jumped down and used her wings to slow her descent and land gracefully next to the pair of them. Her Aura lit up the mist around her as she looked down at Cadin.

Speaking in a very quiet but firm voice, she addressed Cadin. “How did you do that?”

“I don’t know,” Cadin said honestly. “My eyes were closed and it just happened.”

Instructor Zephran gave Cadin a hard, searching look and then flew back out of the pit. “Well, it is time for the rest of you to give it a try!”

Looking a little shocked, the rest of the class peered into the bottom of the pit before trying to cloud-walk. Most of them fell before Cadin and Lep could climb out. The others took tentative steps towards the edge. So far, no one had done as well as Lep, let alone actually cloud-walked. Cadin decided to sit and watch for a little while as he processed what had happened. Instructor Zephran did not say anything to him as he sat on a raised pink cloud above Lep’s spot.

What was it that Instructor Kade said to me earlier…? Cadin tried to remember. Something about knowing how I was able to climb the big cloud mountain. I guess I can cloud-walk. What about Lep, though. He must have been following me closely and when I jumped and stopped cloud-walking he fell. It is a cool skill to have, Cadin thought as he watched Sun in her third attempt. She cloud-walked four full steps before falling. Instructor Zephran mentioned to the group that angels who had developed their Aura were more capable cloud-shifters.

“If you can successfully cloud-shift before you develop your Aura, once your Aura does shine through, it drastically increases your power and duration.” She did not have to look at Cadin for him to know she was talking to him.

After about half of their session was up, Cadin jumped down and squeezed in next to Lep. About half of the other kids were resting, some had taken to the raised clouds near Cadin, however; no one sat next to him.

“Hey, you back to try again?” Lep asked. “You might even be able to earn your cloud-shifting badge today.” He sounded excited by the idea.

“You think I should try today?”

“I don’t see why not. If you can do it this well already and you earn a badge today, you don’t have to worry about it anymore and you can help the rest of us with the skills, we all need to think about starting to earn badges now.”

Cadin had been thinking that he wouldn’t even try for one that day, but Lep did have a point about the head start.

“So why don’t you practice this cloud-walking next to me, and while you are at it, you can give me a couple of pointers.” Lep gave Cadin a friendly nudge as he stood.

“Deal,” Cadin said as he stepped off the edge of the pit and into the mist. Cadin found that when he didn’t think about it, he had no problem cloud-walking. However, he didn’t have too much time to practice before their final session for the day was up.

All three first-year classes sat on the flat area near the big pit. The instructors stood at the opposite end, holding scorecards. They explained that to earn a level 1 cloud-shifting badge, students had to earn at least an average proficient score in one skill from each section. Ten was an excellent score, nine was great, eight was good and seven was proficient. Six was fair, five was poor, four was bad, and one through three were nowhere close.

The large pit was filled with mist. Above the pit and off to the side were three small cloud-walls.

“We will give each class an opportunity for individuals to step up and be scored on their cloud-shifting skills. An average score of seven or above earns you a proficient mark in that skill. We will start with students from Instructor Zephran’s class. Any volunteers?” Instructor Kade asked.

A brave boy with grey hair raised his hand.

“Alright, Jeremy! We will start with the cloud-walk.”

Jeremy stepped forward and took the big pit at a run. He had three good cloud-walking steps before falling through the mist. He cursed on the way down. As he climbed up, the instructors held up their score cards for the whole class to see. Each of the instructors held up a card with a bright green 3 on it. Everyone cheered for Jeremy when they saw his score, but he did not seem happy with himself as he shook his head. He did not fare any better on his other two skills and sat down with the rest of the class, drained from his effort.

Nobody else from Instructor Zephran’s class wanted to try for scores after Jeremy. Both twins tried from Instructor Nightan’s group, and although neither of them could cloud-walk a single step, they both did quite well at walling and cloud-ball skills. One earned an average score of six for having trapped Instructor Nightan for six seconds in a foot-trap, and seven points for making a solid white wall that came up to his shoulders and only got one corner blown apart by Instructor Kade’s three cloud-balls. The other twin earned a four in building a wall. Even though he got a decent sized wall up, it was not solid and tumbled down after one cloud-ball hit it dead center. He earned a nine for his foot-trap.

Everybody cheered like mad when someone earned a proficient mark.

When it came time for the Dire Dragons, Cadin was nervous. When Instructor Kade asked who wanted to try, Sun promptly volunteered. Cadin was relieved that he was not the only one going. Sun earned all sixes on the cloud-walk and seemed quite pleased when she popped up from the pit. She went on to earn three sevens on her cloud-ball skills, earning a large applause. Her cloud-wall did not fully harden, earning low scores. When she came back, she was flushed and wearing a big smile.

“That was fun,” she said.

“Anyone else?” Instructor Kade asked. No one else seemed interested in trying, so Cadin stood up.

“I would like to try,” Cadin said as he walked forward. Instructor Kade nodded.

Cadin didn’t even look down into the pit; he just kept walking towards the judges as if his first obstacle was the cloud-ball challenge at the other end. When he made it across, a celebration broke out behind him. He looked back and waved at his friends. When he faced the judges again, all were holding up tens, though Instructor Nightan did not look too pleased about it.

“Cloud-ball skill or foot-trap skill?” Instructor Kade asked.

Cadin considered the options. He thought about the energy he would have to use trap Instructor Nightan and hold him for at least seven seconds. “Cloud-balls, please.”

They gave him the preliminary time of one minute to connect with the cloud before the three-minute timer started. He stepped up to the green line in front of the translucent wall and knelt. Feeling the strong tingle run up his arm, he cringed when he realized that a storm cloud was rumbling underneath him.

He hardened the surface of the cloud and reached in to pull out three small cloud-balls, getting zapped by stray bits of lightning each time. The balls rocked as miniature bolts zinged around inside. Fearful of holding the lightning too long, he quickly grabbed one and whipped it at the wall.

It hit a little high, but took a corner off. He took a steadying breath and reached for the second cloud-ball. He took better aim than with the first, ignoring the small shocks and hit dead center. There was only a small bottom corner left standing, and the third cloud-ball sprayed small lighting sparks everywhere when it blasted the last bit of wall to pieces.

The instructors looked impressed as they held up their scores. He received a nine from both Instructor Kade and Instructor Zephran and an eight from Instructor Nightan. The class was cheering like mad from behind the pit as Cadin stepped up to Instructor Kade for the final skill. Instructor Kade pulled up three different types of cloud-balls and set them aside as he waited for Cadin to cloud-shift his wall.

Cadin closed his eyes, knelt and felt a tingle, not just up his arms, but also along his shoulders and up his neck. The storm cloud was still underneath them and thunder rumbled as if in welcome. He summoned the rest of his strength and willed the storm cloud to condense underneath his hands. He tried to embrace all the elements, but the lightning scared him. He pulled his hands up, but the storm refused to follow.

Cadin had not been able to pull the wall when he felt Instructor Nightan’s vibration through the cloud approaching Instructor Kade.

“He has not even raised the wall yet, he must be out of energy by now. We should move on.”

“Not yet,” Instructor Kade said. “Give him another minute.”

Instructor Nightan gave an exasperated growl before returning to his spot. Cadin closed his eyes and focused on the temperamental cloud rolling just beneath the surface. Keep rolling he thought as he tried to pull up as a wave of water and lighting approached their position. To his astonishment, the cloud lifted, not into a wall, but a large mound. He tried to push the bulging interior back to look more like a wall—but ended up hollowing it and leaving a hole through the middle. An exhausted breath escaped his lungs as he focused on filling in the hole. He was losing energy and focus and needed to finish.

Harden, harden! Cadin closed his hands as if squeezing his connection to the cloud and said, “Harden!” A giant crackle spread through the not so wall-like sculpture. Cadin peaked around his “wall” to see Instructor Kade throw the first cloud-ball at him. He hunkered back down and heard a loud crack followed by two thuds. A small chunk of wall broke off from the apex of the wave, but the rest stayed intact.

Cadin smiled as Instructor Kade walked behind his wall.

“Oddly done, but it seemed to work. Come get your scores.”

Instructor Nightan smiled as he held up a six. Several kids booed before Nightan glared at the crowd. Instructor Zephran held up a seven, and Cadin held his breath as Instructor Kade held up an eight.

Instructor Nightan’s smile fell while he rubbed his singed shoulder and Instructor Kade said, “Come and get your first badge!”

Before they headed back to the school, Instructor Kade took off Cadin’s leather forearm guard and inserted a small metal bar on top of the two holes in the leather that were nearest to the wrist. He then put a very thin piece of metal on the inside, so it lined up over the same two holes as the top bar. Instructor Kade then melded the two pieces together through the holes in the leather. He put the arm guard back on Cadin’s left arm. Cadin looked down at the badge and noticed that it was yellow in color with a silver border. There was a cloud etching on the left and a single diagonal bar on the right.

Gur noticed the new addition as well and scrambled down Cadin’s arm to inspect. The dragon tried everything he could to get it off the leather, but it would not budge. He was chewing on the edge of it when Sun came over and laughed. She scratched under Gur’s chin before pulling Cadin’s arm up to her face to check out the cloud-shifting badge.

“Very nice,” Sun offered. “They did not meld the badges on Lance and had some problems with kids trading them and such. What does the diagonal bar mean?”

“The level of the badge,” Vincent said as he walked up. “There are three levels, and any advanced or specialized badges have two or three diagonal bars. Good job by the way,” he said to Cadin as he hopped onto the transport next to Jade.

“Thanks.” Cadin glanced at his arm guard and wondered what his would look like when he graduated. Which Path would be his?