Way of The Wand

Chapter 7

Flying lessons—a class dangerous enough on its own, was made more perilous for Jira’s pupils because they had to fly and navigate through a neighbourhood jam packed with houses.

They had the option of flying high above the roofs of the houses, as most were small and only a story or two tall, but flying high presented its own challenges. The higher they went, the colder it got, the harder it became to breathe, and most importantly, the more dangerous a fall would be.

Nevertheless, the pupils always looked forward to their flying lessons. There’d been a few accidents in the past, as common with untested flyers, but it had never kept them from enjoying the thrill of soaring on a tiny broom through the air.

“Today we’re going to do something different,” Jira announced to the class.

They were gathered at the centre of the circle of palm trees in front of Jira’s house. It was the only place outside on the street where sixteen people could converge without clogging up the tiny road.

Jira smiled when she noticed some of them squinting at the brightness of the morning sun.

No better time for flying than that period just before the sun peaked.

“Lila step forward into the circle please.”

Lila did as Jira instructed.

Jira pointed to another student. “Fola, you too.”

“You two are the best at flying, so today, you’ll be racing each other.”

Jira took her wand out of her pocket, a transparent crystal stick with markings and patterns etched into the sides, and pointed it to the soft soil beside Lila’s feet.

“Broom!” She said, and a broomstick materialised right beside Lila.

Jira repeated the spell and equipped Fola with a broom of his own.

“Mount your brooms. Same route as always”

As Fola and Lila mounted their brooms, the remaining students chittered away in excitement.

“Go!”

Fola took off, speeding into the air, but when Lila tried to move, Jira aimed a spell at the little girl’s broom.

Lila turned to Jira, eyes wide with confusion.

Though Jira had informed neither competitor, she wanted this race to be a handicap match. Fola had a head start, even though he didn’t know it. And as for Lila, she would have to get over this unexpected setback to win the race.

Lila’s confusion passed as understanding set in. Given the opponent she would be facing in the task for speed, Jira’s brother, this kind of training was a necessity.

After a delay of about a minute, Jira looked into Lila’s eyes and whispered, “Win,” and then let go of Lila’s broom.

The little girl launched into the air with the speed of a comet, levelling off at a height a little above the roof of the homes around. Sometimes she dipped to fly though porches and weave around poles before pulling back up again.

She cleared her mind to drown out her classmates’ screams so she could focus on catching up to Fola who had made the most of his head start.

No matter how many times she did this, Lila could never get enough of the thrill that flying gave her.

Flying centred her mind, helped her narrow her often turbulent thoughts down to a single goal, a single feeling.

It provided her a recess from her troubles, her loneliness and her fear of it. Nothing mattered up here but the tingle of the air against her skin. When flying, she moved so fast everything fell behind.

Lila continued to blast forward with speed until she disappeared from her mates’ view and arrived at the end of the street, where she met Fola completing a U-turn.

Her chest seized. She was going to lose. Unless…

Though her pupils screamed out in excitement as they waited for the racers to return, Jira’s heart thumped in its cage with unease.

“Come on Lila,” she muttered under her breath, “you can do this.”

Four minutes later, Lila appeared in the skyline, zooming in at top speed in the little space between the two rows of houses on either side of the crooked road, with Fola nowhere to be seen.

Applause erupted beside Jira. She was tempted to join in but decided it would not be fair to Fola.

Lila stopped a few feet away and jumped off her broom, running straight into her fellow pupils’ arms.

Fola arrived a full minute later to an equally jubilant cheer.

It was only when the excitement subsided that Jira had a chance to notice the strange damage on Lila’s broomstick.

The teacher took the pupil aside and questioned her about it.

“What did you do?”

“Won the race like you asked me to,” Lila replied innocently.

But Jira wasn’t having it. The damage the broom had suffered could only mean Lila did something to it. “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Lila replied, her voice dropping to a weak whisper.

“Did you use a spell to make yourself go faster?”

Lila stared down her feet.

Jira frowned, and irritation crept into her voice. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? You could have gotten hurt.”

“But I didn’t.”

“You could have!”

Jira took deep breaths to calm herself. She disliked getting mad at her pupils, as all it ever did was complicate matters.

In truth it was her own fault. Her antics had put pressure on Lila and forced the young girl to resort to drastic actions.

Jira crouched down so her face was level with Lila. “Promise me you won’t go this far to win a race again.”

Lila hesitated at first, but when Jira placed a hand gently on her shoulder, the witch in training gave in. “I promise.”

“Good,” Jira responded, drawing Lila in for a hug. “We still have more training to do before you’re ready.”