This New Life

A New Day

With the sound of metal clashing in the background and hazy figures dancing a song of death around her she felt helpless against those that wished to harm her. She felt thankful that her friends, or at least that's who she thought they were were strong enough to protect her. As she got up out of the pile of rubble she found herself in, Calida tried to summon the powers that by now seemed to come so naturally to her. But nothing came out. 

What did she expect? The world was spinning around her. She could barely tell friend from foe. How was she expected to help her friends? 

A scream releases her from her haze. As she turns she sees the lifeless body fall to the ground in front of her. Betrayed. She rushes over to give useless help clinging to the idea in her mind that he can be saved. But he can't. In that moment of realization, it's as if the trigger that has been holding her back was pulled and all her rage began to spew out of her like a volcano. She began hurling balls of fire around her cooking the hunters alive in their shining suits.

"Don't leave me!", Calida wailed as tears trickled down her cheeks and she grasped her mentor in one arm and attempted to defend him from those who wanted to harm her. 

As soon as she had some breathing room she laid the body down beside her and as she looked at her crimson red hands she was consumed with rage and sadness unlike she had ever felt before. She felt the heat crawling up her spine and where before she attempted to lock it up she couldn't anymore. A wall of flames was released radiating from her body roasting anyone and everyone it came into contact with. She collapses to her knees exhausted as if the outburst had drained her of the last drops of energy she had left and as the figure approached her she felt helpless and as she tried to summon the last bit of fight left within her he got closer.

"Come on! Come on! Get up!", she commanded to herself, "He's getting closer! You can't fall here or else his death would be for nothing! Get up!"

As she got up her hands glowing red hot and her amber eyes alight, her red her flowing behind her thanks to the draft awakened with all the action and also the hole in the wall where her old room used to be. Her black battle suit made out of the strongest fibers the craftsman had, torn. As she lunged towards the figure her attacks showed potential but lacked the degree of finesse that she was afraid she could never learn now that her mentor was dead. The mace-wielding hunter gracefully avoided her attacks as if he knew all her moves before she did and with one strike of his mace sent her flying across the room, crashing through supports and walls until she eventually reached a halt, laying in a pile of stones older than the magic she commanded. 

"CALIDA! NO!" A familiar voice cried out 

"Wake up! We cannot lose you too!" Another voice wailed. "Wake up!"

                                                                                                             ***

"Wake up! Calida!? You're gonna be late for your first day!" Her mother declares from the kitchen.

"I'm awake mom! Don't worry." Calida exclaims confidently as she tries to hide the fact that she's snoozed her alarms countless times even though the raspy voice and lack of music blaring from her room were a dead giveaway to her mom that she was still in bed.

As she tried to sneak in 5 extra minutes of sleep her alarm rings. Oh, that dreadful sound as it echoed inside her head signaling the start of a new day. The day her new life truly begins. She gets ready slowly, still half asleep, and goes downstairs to stuff down her breakfast as she always did. Food truly was her comfort as with every bite she took she could feel her nerves quiet down and her heart beat a little slower.  As she walked down the oak stairs of her family's rural townhouse she overheard her mother telling her 4-year-old brother stories she's heard countless times on the drive to Vermenia at the beginning of summer to get away from the life she once had. 

"....A place filled with magic where a long time ago witches and sorcerers would live together. Where young boys and girls like you would have magical powers and they would run around playing with each other and school would help become big and strong so that when you grow up you could help other people " Calida's mother told her brother in that voice that she dreaded. The one that all mothers use when addressing a child as if it was incapable of understanding.

"So a supewhewo?" Calida's brother said innocently. 

"Yes, Hunny. A superhero, like those in the stories I read you. But then these very bad people came to Vermenia and even though the superheroes tried to fight them and shoo them away they were much stronger than them"

"So....supewhewoes.....lowst?"

"Yes and since that day the superheroes have been missing from Vermenia for years and even those that made them disappear have since disappeared too."

"So....bad guys....gone?" Her brother said in a scared tone hoping he was right.

"Yes but many people still say that they are still around waiting for more heroes to come."

"Can I be......supewhewo mummy?"

"Anyone can."

"When I become a supewhewo I'll beat the bad guys and...and..and"

"Ugghhhh!! You've told us that story a thousand times." Calida groaned as she revealed herself from the stairs and entered the kitchen to eat, "And it's not even a true story. Magic doesn't exist"

"But...But...The stowy" Her brother uttered on the verge of tears as his sister basically crushed his 4-year-old dreams.

To avoid a catastrophe her mother quickly switches on the TV to one of his favorite shows as she already had enough on her plate today and convincing her son that his sister did not just obliterate his dreams was not something she was ready to deal with at the moment.

"Calida!! Stop! What did I tell you?!" Her mother scolded her, "Now, quickly, eat your breakfast unless you want to be late for your first day of school"

"I know mom"

"Being late is no way to make a first impression"

"I know mom"

"And you only get one chance. "

"I know!"

"Come on! Hurry up! You're eating too slow!"

"LET ME BE!"

"You're going to be late!"

"FINE, then I'll just leave!" Calida yells as she grew impatient with her mother. Grabbing an apple from the marble counter she storms out of the house with her school bag hanging off her left shoulder.

As she breathes in the fresh country air she is skeptical about this new life her parents have crafted for her.