Cloud Shifters

“We need to practice stealth today,” Cadin heard Sun say to the Challenge Club members as he entered the classroom. They had come to school early for practice in preparation for Badge Day. “We can set up all of the old courses and add in a few cool Lance drills that I haven’t showed you guys yet …what’s wrong?” Sun asked as she took in the confused faces.

“I don’t think they were expecting me,” Cadin said with a bounce in his step.

“Oh, Cadin, good. Can you please set up…?” Sun stopped talking as soon as she turned around.

“Wow,” Lep said.

Everyone else nodded along.

“How did ya…”

“When did ya…”

“What is…?”

Cadin smiled at his friends’ unfinished questions.

“I was at the lake this weekend and my Aura just kinda rocked through me.”

“But it’s not green!” Treven stated as he stepped forward, poking Cadin’s shoulder as if testing whether or not he was real.

“Not blue like your mom’s either,” Vincent said.

“I would say that it is aqua in color.” A new voice chimed in and everyone turned to see none other than Master Sanjen of the Core walk into the Dragon’s Den with Instructor Kade.

“Quick announcement!” Instructor Kade said over all the excited murmurs. “We have an assembly in the Gathering Hall where Master Sanjen’s presence will be explained.”

Cadin walked with his friends down the hall and tried to answer as many questions as he could about his Aura. People were also musing about what Master Sanjen was doing at the Commons School of Glade.

The Gathering Hall was not as quiet as normal, his different Aura causing quite a stir. Several students pointed and stared at him before Headmaster Tripharian took to the stage.

“Welcome!” Headmaster Tripharian said. The room quieted, but whispering resumed when students noticed that there was a distinguished guest standing next to the Headmaster. “As you know, today is Spring Badge Day!” Cheers broke out across the room. “There will be no classes. Instead, there will be badge stations in every classroom and throughout Yi Field, affording every student the opportunity to attempt any badge certification they desire.

“Please keep in mind your Path Choice as you look over the Badge Day schedule. I know that many of our third and fourth year students still need to meet minimum badge requirements to participate in many of the Path Challenges, Qualifiers or graduation ceremonies. Don’t miss out! For first years, this is your chance to test your abilities and knowledge. Today should help guide you in your upcoming Path Choice. It is also a historic chance for first-years to establish eligibility for next years’ Qualifiers for the Calvarian Games!” Cheers rippled through the first-year groups as silence stilled the older crowd.

“And now to introduce our very special guest judge, Master Sanjen of the Core!” Booming applause was punctuated by questions. What was the leader of the Core doing at Glade Common High?

Master Sanjen stepped forward, a commanding presence. The room quieted instantly. “Thank you for having me here today. I am eager to assist with the Warrior Path badges, and to see what the fine Cloud-Land of Glade students have to show. Good luck to everyone!” Cadin thought Master Sanjen’s gaze lingered on him for a moment before the students were dismissed.

While everyone exited the Gathering Hall, Cadin glanced up at the stage and noticed Instructor Kade, Master Sanjen, Headmaster Tripharian and to Cadin’s great shock, Master Emilio exit through a rarely used and discreet side door on the ground level, while the rest of the instructors and winged students flew through the higher exits to avoid the bottlenecking of all of the first years.

“I dropped my book. I’ll meet you guys back at the Den,” Cadin said quickly before ducking under the oncoming crowd.

“I’m impressed with how quickly you were able to respond.” Cadin heard Master Emilio say.

“Well the occasion certainly called for it,” Master Sanjen said as the group prepared to take flight to a higher landing. Cadin strained to hear anything else. “We must come up with a plan of action and protection. Tiberius will not miss out on this opportunity.” The name was whispered with venom and fear.

Master Sanjen flapped his powerful wings and took off to a high landing. The others followed noisily as Cadin stealthily retreated to the Dragon’s Den.

One thing is certain, Cadin thought; Master Sanjen did not just come here for Badge Day.

Cadin stopped his musings when he saw most of his classmates involved in a game of capture the flag. Cadin saw Lep at the bottom of a huge pile of angels, all grappling to get a hold of what appeared to be a dark blue jacket. They turned just about anything into a flag for the game.

“Cadin, you can be on our team!” Sun shouted. She was having a difficult time trying to extract Lep from the bottom of the pile.

“I think it is time we look at the Badge Day schedules,” Instructor Kade announced to the mangled mess of students.

Everyone quickly extracted themselves and found their seats. Sun had ended up with the flag.

Cadin received his handout and his musings about Master Sanjen took a backseat to high school reality. He needed to earn badges.

“As you can see, the entire day offers you a variety of badge opportunities for each Path. They are staggered to give you options throughout the day.”

Lep kicked his heel and whispered, “Check out the second time-slot.”

Cadin scrolled down his schedule and smiled. Dragon Lure—Cloud Biology level 3 badge: open to third and fourth year students.

“We can always visit the station, even if we can’t attempt the badge yet,” Cadin said quietly.

“Do you think Lynn will be running it?”

“Yeah. Who else would it be?” Cadin hoped they would see his mentor from his most memorable apprenticeship. Both he and Lep had learned a lot about dragons through their trials at the Dragon Ranch, and he wanted to introduce Gur to Lynn. She would fall in love.

He looked at some of the advanced badges and decided to visit a couple more of them throughout the day if he had time. He circled the three badges he needed to earn and underlined a few he was interested in checking out. His friends all had three or four badges that they needed, so he hoped to stop by and cheer them on.

“Let’s test out that shiny new Aura of yours,” Vincent mocked from across the grappling ring. Cadin smiled and felt his energy surge. Vincent dove to take him to the ground, but Cadin was ready and easily sprawled, and spun around his back, pushing Vincent’s face into the dirt. When Vincent attempted to get up, Cadin quickly sunk his choke and held on tight until the referee announced him the winner. He released before Vincent passed out and helped him up.

“Ouch,” Vincent said, rubbing his neck. “I guess your Aura gave you an extra boost since last time.”

Cadin smiled, thinking of their last when Vincent’s takedown had worked perfectly. It may have been due to his Aura, or the fact that Cadin learned from his mistakes and practiced takedown defense with Lep after school every day since being tackled in front of half of their class.

His day had been great so far. With his Aura, he felt supercharged and ready to take on most tasks. He had already earned his general studies badge in mathematics, a subject he had taken painstaking notes on all year. It was a required badge to graduate, and he wanted to get it over with.

He only had two more grappling matches to win with three attempts left. When it was his turn for match number two, he approached the ring and reached to hand Gur over to Sun. As he did so, he tripped hard, bashing his arm and cheek on the ground. He heard laughing and turned to see Gregor, the bulky third year and his cronies hovering around the ring.

“Are you okay?” Sun asked as she helped him up.

“I’m fine, thanks.” Actually, his cheek was starting to swell, closing around his right eye.

Sun turned to Gregor and his friends. “You tripped him!”

“No, I don’t think we did.” Gregor’s mouth was drawn up into an evil smile. Cadin felt his energy surge. He turned, ready to attack. Cadin saw Gregor’s eyes flick towards the judges table.

“Go ahead, short stack, attack.” Gregor’s stance was casual. The judges had been on break, but Cadin guessed they had just returned. Not in time to see him being tripped, but there now to watch if he attacked Gregor. Getting kicked out of school for fighting was not what he needed right now. He took two deep breaths and turned to step into the ring, wishing Gregor were his opponent, but knowing that the winged students had flying combat matches.

Still, Cadin channeled his pent-up rage towards his remaining matches and earned his second Warrior Path badge. Master Sanjen stepped forward to fuse it to his arm guard. “Well done, Cadin.”

“Thank you,” was all he could think to say before stepping back to allow the other students to receive their badges.

“Here.” Sun gently pressed something cold over his eye.

“Uhhhh.”

“Feel better?” Sun pulled Gur off his face where he was inspecting whatever she had put on.

“Tons. Thanks.”

“No problem. I was about to clobber that guy, Kegor!”

“Gregor,” Cadin corrected. He didn’t know why.

“Whatever. He should have been disallowed from his badge attempt or something!”

“Instructors didn’t see it.”

“You could have told them.”

“Gregor would have just denied it. He doesn’t have a lot of honor if you didn’t notice.” Sun laughed a little, and Cadin began to smile until it hurt. He wanted to change the subject. “So, what do you have left?”

Sun pulled out her schedule. “Let’s see. I have an Aura energy healing demonstration at I wanted to sit in on, and then I just have to earn my Trade Path badge in personal finance to finish and establish eligibility for Warrior Path. What do you still need?”

“Just my cloud-shifting two badge left for both Warrior and Academic Path eligibility."

“Oh, Cadin that’s great!” Sun interrupted, hugging him.

“Ouch,” Cadin tensed as Sun’s cheek brushed his. “I may have to do a half blind run for my final badge.” Cadin smiled, but he was worried. He loved cloud-shifting but had been having a difficult time conserving enough energy to complete all the tasks required to earn a level two badge. The last thing he wanted to worry about was completing it with impaired vision.

“Sorry,” she said as she gingerly checked his eye. “Ohhh!” Sun stood up so fast, she frightened Gur. “You should come with me to the healing demo and see if they can help your face!”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You know what I mean,” she said briskly, tugging him behind her.

Cadin followed Sun inside to Instructor Nightan’s room. He smiled remembering his first day of school, and how he nearly ended with this homeroom. However, it looked different as it was set up for the healing demo. Most of the chairs were gone, and several large tables with slots in the back for wings took up the center of the room.

“Excellent!” a portly woman with a bright Aura exclaimed as she spotted them at the entrance. “We have another one.” She took Cadin’s arm and led him to one of the tables.

“But, I…” Cadin didn’t know how to respond. He spotted Sun who had taken a seat in the back. He gave her a questioning look, and she responded with an enthusiastic wave. She’s no help. Well at least she took Gur.

“Thank you for volunteering to help our third and fourth year students attempt to earn their Academic Healing badge,” the portly angel said briskly as she forced him down on one of the tables.

“I didn’t actually volunteer yet. I thought this was just a demo. And what do you mean by attempt? What will happen if they fail?”

He tried to sit up as he asked what he believed to be reasonable questions, but the angel seemed quite used to struggling patients and was much stronger than she looked. “Now don’t you worry about a thing, young man. We will get this fixed up for you in no time.” She peeled off the cool piece of meat that Sun had applied off his face, took a good look, and replaced it back over his cheek and eye. She scribbled a few quick notes before waiving a young man over.

She gave him brief instructions before calling “begin.” The boy approached Cadin’s table with a jittery step, making Cadin quite nervous. It somehow took the boy two tries just to take the meat off Cadin’s face, after which he was breathing heavily. The boy glanced at Cadin’s good eye, and quickly back to his now completely swollen shut eye. This could be bad, Cadin thought, but just gripped the table with his hands and closed his eye. His shoulder blades dug awkwardly into the slits meant for wings.

“I’m going to…to heal you now?” The boy said in a high voice. Cadin wasn’t sure if it was a question or not, so he remained quiet. He felt the boy’s hands hover over his face. There was a slight warming, and then nothing. He tried to open both eyes but knew that it had not worked. The boy gave him a sad nod before retreating.

The healer barely looked at Cadin’s eye before turning to the boy and telling him that he did not pass his badge attempt. She handed him a piece of paper explaining that she had written out some pointers for him to work on. This demo suddenly seemed like a waste of time. He should be practicing blind cloud-shifting to prepare. If he failed his last badge, he would not be able to attempt any of the Qualifiers next year. He sat up and was met by the healer’s hard glare.

“And where do you think you are going?” Her words were soft but firm.

“I need to get going. Uh, thank you for trying.” He swung his legs over the side and felt the healer’s strong hands on his shoulders.

“Not so fast, young man. Nobody leaves here without getting fixed up. We have one more student that has been waiting for an hour for a volunteer to heal for her badge. Would you really deny her that chance?” The healer waved over a beautiful girl. She smiled and gave Cadin a wink.

“I…okay. I guess one more try won’t hurt.” Cadin laid back down and the healer replaced the now warm meat back on his face. He thought it was ridiculous for a moment before he realized that the healer was probably taking into account how each student dealt with healing protocol. The healer called “begin”, and once again Cadin was approached by a novice to attempt to heal his face.

Her energy was much calmer than the first boy’s, and a wave of hope washed over Cadin. Perhaps this won’t be such a waste of time after all.

“Hi, I’m Susan,” the girl said as she approached. Cadin’s heart raced a bit faster as she neared. Even with only one good eye, Cadin could see that she was stunning. “What is your name?”

“Oh, I’m Cadin.”

“Hi, Cadin.” She gently lifted the meat and began to clean the area, a step the first student missed.

“And what happened here?” she asked as she washed her hands.

“I fell in the grappling arena and hit my cheek on the ground.” It sounded lame. He did not want to appear weak to this beautiful girl. He thought about telling her that he was brutally tripped but held back.

“Did you hurt anything else from your fall?”

“I also landed on my wrist, but I think it is okay.”

“May I take a look?”

Cadin nodded and held up his right arm. She took it gently in her hands, and Cadin felt an electric tingle race up his arm.

“I am ready to begin.” She said as she set his arm back by his side. “Just relax. I will place my hands over your face and wrist during this process. You will feel a warmth over the affected areas. Make sure and tell me if it gets too warm. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s begin. Please don’t move until I tell you that I am done.”

Cadin felt her hands hover an inch or so above his cheek, just as the boy had done, but as her hands began to warm, he knew that she was in a whole different league. The warming felt strong and sure. It concentrated heavily on the worse part of the wound, and just as the heat began to feel like too much, she moved on to his eye. By the time she finished with his wrist, Cadin felt completely rejuvenated.

“All done. You may open your eyes and sit up when you’re ready.” Her voice was as smooth as her hands.

Cadin did as he was told. To his relief, both eyes opened.

“How do you feel?” She asked as she looked at his wrist.

“Better.”

“Does this hurt?” She pressed on a couple of spots on his wrist.

“Nope, it feels great.”

She moved her focus to his face, and Cadin held his breath.

She smiled at him. “Just relax, Cadin. We are almost done. Does this hurt?” She prodded around his eye, and he felt a dull pain.

“It is a little tender, I guess.”

She nodded and then looked into his eye. She had dark brown irises, with golden flecks. “How is your eyesight?”

He blushed realizing that if he could see the details of her eyes, his eyesight was just fine. “Good,” he answered quickly.

“The tenderness in your cheek should go away within a day or two. I didn’t want to stay any longer in that area for fear of burning you. Good luck finishing up Badge Day. I am done.” The last part was said to the healer.

The healer looked over his face and wrist and asked a few questions before dismissing him. Cadin jumped off the table and glanced back to see her melding a badge on Susan’s armguard. Susan glanced back at Cadin and smiled. He nearly collided with Sun, who was waiting by the door. Gur hoped on his shoulder and curled up.

“You look way better!” Sun said.

“Yeah, thanks. It feels good. Susan did a great job. I was a little worried after the first guy.”

“Yeah, I don’t think he was serious about this badge at all. He ran out of here in search of another badge attempt. I think he just needed one more to establish eligibility for the Academic Games next year, and it didn’t matter which.”

“How do you know that?” Cadin wondered as they walked back to Yi Field.

“He was mumbling to himself as he left.”

“So, are you ready for your last badge of the day?” Cadin needed to change the subject and get his mind off the healing session.

“Of course! I can’t wait to register our team. We worked so hard all year. I’m so glad they changed the rules. I’m ready to compete!”

“Of course you are. You have been competing at a high level in archery for years already. I guess I better get going to the cloud-shifting course—Instructor Russ kept dropping hints about it all week.”

“Good luck! I’ll see you at Qualifiers registration.” She gently punched him in the arm before racing off.

“Sounds good.” He hoped it was true. Just one last badge stood between him and establish eligibility! “Let’s go, Gur!” The dragon responded by opening his wings as Cadin raced to his last badge attempt of the year.