It was always a thrill for her. The way that the sand would twist and turn as it hardened, shifting into it's new and glistening form. It was one of the few things that her powers were actually useful for, making ceremic figurines.
Amara had found out about it purely on accident. Actually, it had been Tabby's idea. The other mutant had made a small sand castle outside and told Amara to 'flame it'. For some odd reason or another, because it clearly wasn't that Amara had been using common sense, she had listened to Tabby and lit the castle on fire. And it had turned into a beautiful, glistening sculpture that still sat on Amara's bed-side table.
Since then, turning sand-sculpture into ceramics had been not just a hobby of Amara's but a way of calming herself down. She still burnt her rosemary and thyme, because even after all these years the scent still calmed her down a little, but this was more calming. More serene. And she didn't care if it bothered her room-mates, or if they didn't think that this was the time for it.
It was difficult, any small mistake or wrong movement could destroy the whole thing, but it gave her something to concentrate on which was exactly what she needed right now. She used her small etching tool, which had cost her almost fourteen dollars, to carve in one of the finishing touches.
A small sand window. It was simple but in this craft, simplicity was best. If you put to much detail in one spot than you risked ruining the whole sculpture. So it was just a simple window with two criss-crossing lines and an indent in the upper corner that would make a gleam once it was turned to glass.
Amara smiled, sitting back in her chair and wiping the sand off on her pants. The small sculpture on her desk looking just as finished as the real house. Just as simple too. That was what she had been aiming for when she started this piece of work, hours earlier and in the middle of the night, and she was sure that her room-mate was glad that she was done sculpting.
This piece would fit on her shelves perfectly. It would go inbetween the glass castle and the glass convertable, the latter was also one of her late-night works, on the shelf right above her bed. She just had to 'glass it' now.
A small flame appeared in her hands, the heat radiating off of it was just one more small bt of comfort, and she gently placed the flame on the sand sculpture. The red flames danced up the walls of the sculpture, slowly spreading, slowly getting hotter.
The fire darkened in color as it swam around the building, a glistening white trail being left in its wake. The light from her desk-lamp shined on the blue-white glass, the smoke from her herbal incensce drifting around her and mixing with the smell that the hardening glass made.
It didn't take long for the sand to turn into hardened glass, which meant the glistening flames and their sparkling trail soon dissapeared as Amara stood up. The insensce was put out, the lamp turned off, and the newly made sculpture was placed in the middle of her shelf.
Feeling much better, calmer and no longer sick to her stomache with nerves, Amara crawled into her bed for some much needed sleep. There were a few moments were the covers of her unhappy room-mate were moved around, glad that she could finally get to sleep, before the quietness that one in the morning deserved moved in.
Amara closed her eyes, feeling much calmer than she had all day, she let herself drift into a peaceful sleep. After all, if she could make a boat out of sand and turn it into glass she could sail on one for a few hours, right? And unlike when she made her figurines, she wasn't going to be alone. Tabby would be out there too.