Ventus

by Jonathan Dakin

  Chapter Eleven

  Two weeks later, just as the summer holidays were nearly over, I was really into my training. Even though I was about to go into my final year of school to complete my exams, I didn’t really want to go back. I lived and breathed the regimen that the Ventus Cohors provided, as well as my powers. I finally felt happy, and was no longer experiencing any terrible mood swings. Valeska was an excellent teacher, and I was a keen student.

  In our sessions together, she had taught me how to feel both the wind and fire inside of me, so that I wasn’t just tapping into one and not the other. Soon, I mixed them both together, and was able to use my lightning in much more accurate and powerful ways. One night, while we were outside on the moors, I was able to aim the lightning from the clouds at specific targets. She said that soon I would be able to create more powerful lightning bolts from my own body that I could control with great accuracy. I was eager to know how to do it.

  The wind tunnel was also an excellent learning experience, as it allowed me to tap into my primary wind powers. To begin with, Sigwald strapped me onto a harness and blew the wind fairly gently, looking to see if I could move the wind out of my way, or manipulate it somehow. I didn’t really understand what he meant by this, and the first few sessions mainly consisted of me having my hair and clothes blown around in the breeze as I stood there, completely clueless. I thought that Sigwald was annoyed with me, because I wasn’t doing whatever it was he wanted me to do, so pretty quickly he began to turn up the wind speed, which was really scary. The force against my face and body pummelled me as it threw me backwards, and I tried everything I could to stop it from lifting me off the ground. I was thrown backwards so many times that I started to think that perhaps I only had fire powers after all. But one day, when no one was looking, I unclipped my safety harness, and then told Sigwald to send gale forces at me. I could have died: the extreme power smashing against me almost sent me flying through the back of the machine, but I was determined that I was not going to fail. I had to succeed, at any cost. If I was going to be the leader of the team, I had to make sure my powers were at their best, so that I couldn’t let anyone down.

  The first forceful thrust took my breath away, but I dug my heels in, rooting down with every ounce of my strength, and raised my hands defensively, and was almost instantly able to direct the battering gales around my body. I stood there, in a calm crevice that I had created to protect myself, watching as the rushing winds were deflected around me within the tunnel. It must have been a pretty amazing sight to see: a cocoon shrouding me while gale forces bellowed past. Pretty soon I was even able to grab huge handfuls of the spiralling air and throw clumps of it back towards the device that was creating the currents. I almost destroyed the machine, and although Sigwald was impressed, he told me not to do it again. He didn’t want the very expensive equipment damaged. But he did advise me to try the same move in a real wind storm. It made me feel very good to know that I could use the wind as a weapon, and to protect myself. I was beginning to develop ways to use clods of thick wind waves and my lightning together to create the ultimate attack. Valeska was quick to point out that I shouldn’t actually attack anyone, and that my powers were not to destroy people, but to protect them. She was right of course, but when I wasn’t with her, I would still practise my powers offensively. I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt me or my family or anyone else for that matter. The Inimicus were not going to scare me.

  I threw myself into combat training. My teacher, Malik, was an ex-army officer who was trained in practically every martial art I had ever heard of. Initially, I was terrified of him. Even though he was shorter than me, his huge bulging arms and thick chest were very intimidating, as was his penetrating gaze. He never really showed any kind of emotion- he only barked instructions and then said either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ while assessing me. He had light brown skin and a bald head, and he reminded me of a villainous henchman in an action movie. The first time I trained with him, I thought that if I did something wrong he might grab my skull and crush it between his powerful arms. But he didn’t. He was really patient, considering the fact that I knew next to nothing about hand to hand combat. Of course I was athletic and physically fit, but he had me doing all sort of stretches and crunches and twists and throws... It was tiring stuff. After an hour of intense exercise, I was always exhausted. I didn’t want to do anything else, so I made sure I would always see him last, after every other lesson.

  After the first few days, my body was so sore and ached so badly that I couldn’t face seeing him. I was going to just skip the lesson and pretend I forgot I even had it, but in the end I just went and told him how I felt. I expected him to shout abuse at me and belittle me and say that I wasn’t tough or a real man. He didn’t. Instead he offered to show me some yoga stretches that would soothe my muscles, which they did. I felt so relaxed, and my body began to loosen up and soften in to the warming poses. It was amazing. I asked him if we could do that after every practise, and he said ‘of course’. It was then I decided that Malik was a pretty awesome guy, and even though he looked terrifying, he was in fact really genuinely nice.

  Most of my other training was focused in two areas: the scientific side of things, which I eventually decided to stop attending because I failed to grasp even the most simple terminology, and leadership training. Sigwald felt it was very important that I learn how to be a confident and competent leader, since I would be in charge of Ventus. We only went over the very basics because we had so little time, and Sigwald even brought special guests in who were experts in communication and had top managerial roles. They were nice people, but I often got bored, because the physical training had drained the life out of me. It was tediously difficult to listen to someone give you a lecture when you have just been using all of your strength to expel lightning from your palms while dodging punches from a sparring partner. I always apologised if I felt asleep, or failed to pay attention. I didn’t want to be rude. Sigwald didn’t seem to mind, since, he said, when I was living there permanently I would have so much more time to take part in all the different areas of training.

  I didn’t want to live there full time. Even though I loved it so much, I was still missing my friends and family. I even missed Aura. Most of all, I missed playing football outside, in the park, with people I knew. Sure, the Ventus Cohors allowed me to play football, but only inside by myself in the small sports hall, or outside at night, when I couldn’t even see the ball on the ground below me because it was so dark and I wasn’t allowed any lights on. They didn’t want people to know of our presence, or our location. So sometimes I went outside in the evening, just to feel a real, non simulated breeze on my face, and made a lightning storm so that I could see the ball and actually have a decent kick around. But playing sports by myself wasn’t much fun. I asked Malik to join me, but he would only play inside, as staff were not allowed outside of the base unless they had permission to leave it. I assumed that Malik knew how disappointed I was by this, because the next time I asked him to play football with me he managed to round up some of the other staff members and we were able to have a three-a-side match in the sports hall! That was an excellent day, and I thanked Malik so much for making it happen.

  It was nice to know that at least some of the Ventus Cohors cared about me. Not all of them saw me as a test subject. They realised that we had feelings, and were people too. Being away from everyone had given me a new perspective on things. I realised how badly I had been treating Aura, and by doing so how I was upsetting Dad and Sefarina. If I was going to lead them, they had to know I cared about them, and would do anything to protect them. I did love them, even though they annoyed me and were sometimes nasty to me. But I was old enough now to try to let all of that stuff go. If we were going to work together for the rest of our lives, we had to get on. It was time for us to all treat each other better, or at the very least, put up with one another. They were basically the only family I had. Except for my grandparents of cou
rse.

  Grandpa and Grandma would come to the Ventus Cohors base every evening, and sometimes, when I wasn’t too tired, I visited them. It was nice to see them. Sigwald would occasionally join us, since Grandpa seemed to know him so well. With my grandparents, I felt that I could unwind and relax. They loved hearing the stories I would tell them of my training: they were fascinated. They also enjoyed hearing about Valeska and her exploits. Grandma knew how much I liked her, so she invited her around for dinner on one of my last nights staying in Ashbourne, before I had to go back to London.

  “It’s a shame Niyol has to leave,” Valeska started as she cut the thick piece of steak with her knife and fork.

  “It’s for the best,” Grandma answered, “his dad and I agree that Niyol and Sefarina must complete their education before they begin training properly. They need to have something to fall back on.”

  “I’m not sure I agree with that,” Valeska argued politely, smiling sweetly as she placed the juicy piece of meat in her mouth.

  Grandma scowled in a way that old women do: it is polite and not obviously rude, but it is obviously a signal of annoyance. I smirked.

  Everyone around the table fell silent. The large clock sitting on the mantle place above the hearth ticked loudly. Grandma and Grandpa sat at either end of the small wooden dining table, with Valeska and me opposite one another in the middle. I wanted so badly to reach out and stroke her leg with my foot, but I didn’t dare. It would be completely inappropriate.

  “You have a degree, don’t you?” Grandpa interjected into the awkward silence. Valeska looked up at him, nodding.

  “Of course. But then I don’t have superpowers.” She chuckled loudly. I joined in, as did Grandpa, but Grandma remained silent.

  “Niyol told us that you worked in the government...?”

  “Yes, for an environmental agency.”

  Grandpa smiled encouragingly, “Sounds interesting.”

  “Oh yes, I loved it. I’ve always been fascinated by the environment, particularly the ocean.”

  “Sigwald informed me of your involvement in some environmental groups...”

  Valeska froze and her knife and fork clattered loudly onto her plate as she dropped them from her grip.

  “Are you okay dear?” Grandma wondered in concern.

  “Yes I’m fine; I’m just surprised he mentioned that...”

  “Don’t worry, Valeska. It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Grandpa said to her reassuringly.

  “I am ashamed of it,” Valeska answered solemnly. “It could have ruined my entire life. My career. It’s a wonder Sigwald even gave me the chance he did. He was the only person to find out about it, and still he let me work for him. Anyone else would have turned me away.”

  “What are you talking about?” I interrupted.

  “Valeska...” Grandpa began, but Valeska cut him off.

  “When I was a student at University, I was a member of an activist group. They were against corporate pollution. I was led to believe they were peaceful, but quickly discovered that they had a more... radical agenda.”

  I stared at her silently, not knowing what to make of it. People did stupid things when they were young. And it was obvious that Valeska was a very passionate person when it came to what she believed in. She was probably just swept along with the crowd, thinking they were changing the world and not really realising what she was getting involved in.

  “Did anything bad happen...?” I questioned. I didn’t want to put her on the spot, but I was desperate to know the answer.

  “Well, yes. They ended up attacking some boats. Privately owned boats: ones that people would use for their leisure. You see, we thought that people owning boats was wrong, because of all the pollution they cause. I agreed with them- I had done a lot of scuba diving- and so I had seen the devastation pollution had caused marine life. But I didn’t go with them to the docks. I couldn’t. I told them I wouldn’t destroy anything: it was wrong to. They did it anyway. They set fire to some of the boats. They assumed they were empty. Unfortunately one of them wasn’t...”

  Valeska jumped up from the table, sniffling. Her eyes were full of tears and she quickly made her way towards the door.

  “Please excuse me...” she stuttered as she open the door and exited the room. Grandma threw down her knife and fork and glared and Grandpa.

  “Why on earth did you bring that up?” she scolded him.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know!”

  “You’ve really upset her now...”

  I got up from my seat, and made my way towards the open door.

  “I’ll talk to her,” I informed them, as I stepped into the dark corridor.

  Valeska was only a few feet away from me, holding the stair banister as she dabbed her face with a tissue.

  “I’m sorry about that...” I uttered. She spun towards me, thrusting the tissue away from her face and standing up straight and tall. She smiled falsely.

  “It’s fine, don’t worry about me...”

  “People make mistakes, Valeska.”

  She looked at me sullenly, her large eyes watery. She looked like an injured little puppy dog who needed a big hug, but I knew I couldn’t touch her. Even though I wanted to.

  “The past has a way of catching up to you,” Valeska warned as she stepped closely towards me. “I’ve tried my hardest to leave that in the past, but I’ll never be able to. It is a part of me, a part of who I am. And I have to deal with that.”

  I didn’t fully understand what she meant, and I assumed that my expression told this to her.

  “Don’t worry,” she beamed friendlily, “You’ll understand. One day.”

  She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me, squeezing me tight against her. I breathed her in deeply, and hugged her back, pushing her closer to me, closing my eyes and imagining that she was mine. She pulled away and we let each other go. I stood there awkwardly, pretending that the hug had meant nothing to me.

  “Let me tell you something Niyol, something important.” She leaned towards me. “Everyone has a mission in life. Something vitally important that they have to do. Mine is working with you, and the other Elementals. I love the ocean, Niyol. I love the earth. It’s a beautiful place. And I won’t let anyone destroy it. And neither will you, Niyol, because that’s your mission.”

  I nodded as her beautiful eyes gazed seductively into mine.

  “You’ll help me, won’t you Niyol? You’ll help me save the planet?” I nodded again.

  “You’ll do anything to protect the environment, right?”

  I continued to bob my head in agreement.

  “Good,” she said, her thick lips curling up happily. “Because I won’t let anyone get in our way. I won’t let anyone stop us. But you’ve got to work with me Niyol. You’ve got to do as I say. You have to listen to me. I’ve worked with Elementals before: I know what’s best for you.”

  She inhaled, deeply, then pursed her lips and blew the exhaling air softly into my face.

  “You can trust me, Niyol. I only have your best interests at heart. Yours and your sisters’. And you’ve got to help me Niyol. Help me to convince them too. My mission, our mission, is also their mission. You understand that, right?”

  She put her hands onto my shoulders, and squeezed lightly. Her face flew closer to mine, and her chest heaved upwards as she continued to breathe in heavily. I smiled, and her expression mirrored mine. She was so beautiful. The most beautiful person I had ever laid eyes on.

  “Of course,” I agreed, “I understand. I’ll do anything for you, Valeska. Anything you want. I trust you completely.”

  “Thank you,” she replied cheerfully. “You won’t regret it.”

  Part Two:

  Aura