Chapter 6 – A Shadow's Reflection

I was in a world with all the vibrant colors existing but no definite shape when I started to dream, even though this dream felt as real as the last one. As my eyes slowly adjusted to the scenery, I realized that I could hear something in the background. Thump. Thump. Thump. It was a sound that I didn't hear for sometime now, yet I strangely felt that I had it all this time: the sound of my heart.

When my vision finally cleared up, I saw that I was facing a light colored ceiling full of dark shadows wavering steadily. I tried to twist my head so that I could at least see sideways, but my neck felt too stiff, almost as if I hadn't moved my neck from that position for a while. When I managed to move my head all the way to the side, I noticed that I was on a bed, by the feel of it and I was in a small bedroom.

The light that came from the window was dim, but I could make out a tan colored chair across the way and near a dark wooden door with a large, dark form sitting in it. For some unexplained reason, I felt that this person was the figure I saw in the cafeteria for my first day at the academy, but this time, there was no hood to cover his face. His face was of a young teenager, but it also had the feature of adulthood by how serious his expression that was etched in his face. His hair was shoulder length with layers near the ends of it. It had a light metallic color by what I could tell in this light, but wasn't for sure what color it was even though his eyebrows were the same.

The teenager appeared to be sleeping, since I couldn't see his eyes and also from the way he slouched in the chair, his arms dangling beneath him and legs spread apart. I felt a growing curiosity of who this person could be and suddenly felt my body moving on its own as it got up and walked over to him. I stopped just a few feet away and just stared at the person who just lied there. I felt my arm moving towards the teen's face and I lightly touched his brow and watched his face relax some more. His face was cool to the touch and pale in the light, and I felt contentment deep within me. As I pulled away though, one of his gloved hands reached up and grasped my arm gently. I was surprised considering that he was still sleeping even as he grasped me, and even more as he muttered, "Please… tell me your name…"

I felt myself pause at this question, as if I was considering on telling him or just trying to remember it myself. At long last I felt myself speak. Even though it was only a whisper, I knew that it wasn't my voice that I spoke through my lips: "My name… is Kerryn." My voice was somehow sweeter and more soothing than my original voice was.

A small smile played on his lips as he sighed, "Thank you, Kerryn." His hand dropped back to his side and he resumed his deep slumber. I felt my lips curl at the corners as I watch his relaxed form, his chest lightly heaving at every breath he took in and breathed out.

My body started to act on its own once again as it turned around and walked back to the bed and laid in it once more. I closed my eyes and started to slumber just by listening to my heart beat slowly fade away…

I gasped as shot my eyes open and jumped up just to see the room in the academy that I was in. I sighed and dropped my head back into the soft pillow as I contemplated the scene that I was just in.

"Why does it feel like I hardly ever sleep normally anymore?" I muttered to myself as I rubbed my eyes. I knew now that it was just a dream, but I couldn't help but remember how the teen's face had felt, how his voice sounded, and even the grasp of his hand… I shook my head. It shouldn't be possible that I could dream of some place unfamiliar. I went through my mind. I heard a fact on the human mind that dreams were a way of storing memory of things that happen in different areas of the brain. But why were there voices I never heard and a room I never seen in there? Was it actually a vision of the future? Or maybe-

A loud knock on my door interrupted my train of thought. "Hey, are you ready yet Adina?" I recognized the voice as Andre's. It wasn't really that difficult to tell the difference between the twins when things are normal: Ash's voice was usually loud, excited, and extremely annoying when he gets too hyper; Andre's voice tended to be low most of the time, shy, and even dull if he's not in the mood to talk much about something.

I glanced at the plain, black clock that hung on the wall across my bed, when I suddenly remembered that I was suppose to meet Axel around noon – it was already 11:45 a.m. I called out to Andre and to whomever else that was likely to be there. "I'll be ready in a minute!" As I got out of my bed and started getting ready, I pushed the thoughts of my dreams aside. I'll worry about that when I have the chance.

********

"Ok are you ready now, Adina?" Axel asked me after me, Axel, Ash, Andre, and (to my very distaste) Cael came to the training area that rested at the center of the school. It was very strange to even see that the place was a mixture of blues, despite the rest of the school was either white and grey, or just plain white. The training area seemed almost as large as the cafeteria I ate in yesterday, but slightly bigger with a glass dome over it!

"I… I think so." I stuttered as I walked onto the large open area. Axel was waiting in the center while the other three went off to the sides to watch. I glanced around me only to find no other people. "What do I do now?"

Suddenly, I noticed bright flames coming from Axel's direction. When I turned to see what he was doing, there were flames that were shaped as pinwheels on either side of him. Then they transformed into metal wheels with a hint of red in it and eight spikes that went around each wheel. Axel grabbed them both. I think Ash said his weapons were called Chakrams. "Well we start by summoning your weapon, and to do that, we have to get you in the mood to fight." He replied with a smirk on his face.

"That was so cool Axel!" I turned to see Ash whooping out loud with laughter from a distant corner in the field. Andre, who was next to Ash, just had a pose that made me think that he was rolling his eyes. I couldn't see where Cael went, not that I even cared for him.

"Don't get too distracted now Adina!" I heard Axel say nearby, and just as I turned back towards him, Axel was right in front of me swinging his Chakrams around. Just when they were about to hit though, I dodged, pushing myself away just in time to see the weapons graze my stomach, ripping my clothes slightly at the spot.

"Nice dodge there Dina!" Ash's voice yelled out as I landed a bit farther away from Axel.

"Can you please stop yelling out Ash?" Axel had come in close again and just missed my arm as I said this. "You're making me lose my concentration here!"

A long pause. "Sorry!"

I tried to keep my temper under control as I tried to dodge Axel and ignore the shouts from the sidelines, but it was Cael's voice that did the trick.

"Better hurry up and try to summon your weapon now!" It rang out with muffled laughter. "You'll die before I get to fight you later."

I yelled out in frustration, "THAT DOES IT!" and ran towards the last voice I heard which (happily) turned out to be Cael. Cael was on the side nearest to me and he was quite surprised that I turned onto him so soon. I heard Axel shouting behind me, but I didn't turn back, nor did I even care. When Cael was within reach, I felt a burning sensation to destroy deep within my chest. It expanded outward till I was blinded with rage. What I didn't see though, turned out to be a mistake. As I looked upon Cael's face, I saw his astonishment turn into a smirk. I was thrown back by what felt to be a blast of air. As I slammed into the ground I saw what turned out to be Cael's own weapon.

It was an interesting weapon that you wouldn't expect to exist in my world: a silver hilt that had intricate designs engraved into it. At the base of the silver handle was a ruby the size and shape of a chicken egg and was held in place by a few, thin tendrils of silver that came in swirls. The blade itself though was what struck me the most as odd: you wouldn't be able to see the long blade itself if it wasn't for the tint of a deep red in it.

Cael's smirk grew as he saw my fascinated look. "You like it? I call it Crimson Wind." He lifted his blade higher as he looked at it with admiration. Then he glanced at me with a look that I didn't like. "It pretty much has the power to blow away annoying people like you, or if I wanted to, I can cut people to tiny bits without the worry of blood staining my blade."

He swung sword down upon me as he said the last word as I closed my eyes and lifted my arms to try and guard. But when I closed my eyes, a bright, silver light suddenly flashed through the darkness and a clang of metal against metal sounded near my ears. When the ringing died away completely, I dared myself to open my eyes a crack. What I saw completely shocked me enough to open my eyes to their fullest.

The weapon that appeared in my hands looked simple enough without any colors or designs, but I thought it looked cool and unique with my uniform. It looked like a polished silver scythe that had a long reach in both blade and pole, but the only difference to it was that the blade extended to both sides so it almost had a shape of an anchor head.

One side of the blade had somehow reached around Cael's neck so that if I dared to move it, it would probably cut off his head. I was tempted to do just that too if I wasn't distracted by Axel appearing right next to us with his Chakrams gone. "Wow, would you look at that." Axel muttered as he examined the weapon in my grasp. "Interesting design for a weapon. Anyways, now you've learned how to summon your weapon. Let's call it a day now and see what abilities it has at the same time tomorrow. Make your weapon disappear now, Adina and let's get something to eat in the cafeteria."

I grumbled with disappointment when Axel walked away and tried to will my weapon to disappear, and it actually worked more easily than I thought it would. Cael was in his state of shock for a few more moments before he replaced it renewed hatred and stalked past me. Before he passed me completely though, he muttered, "You were just plain lucky this time, but you'll not have it when we spar next time for real."

When Cael had disappeared from sight, the twins rushed over and started congratulating me with each of their own personality expressing it. "Yeah! That was so cool Dina! How did you do that?!" Ash exclaimed in his usually hyper voice.

"… Good job." Was all that Andre said to me when he came close enough.

"Thanks, Andre, Ash." I said to each twin politely in turn. I turned towards where Axel and Cael were last seen.

Axel was just standing there and looking towards us with a smirk on his face. "Hey, if you guys don't hurry up I won't be able to give you a treat!"

I glanced at the twins in turn and raced ahead after saying, "Let's go guys!"

When we reached Axel, he asked, "So what's your weapon's name anyways, Adina?"

I stood there with my mind blank as a clean slate. "My weapon's… name?" I inquired.

"Of course your weapon's name!" Axel stated it like it was obvious. "Try to think for a moment. It usually comes to you once you learned to summon it on your own."

I sighed as I closed my eyes and did as I was told. At first I didn't feel anything different. But then the words flowed into my mind as I felt something enter my right hand's grasp. I opened my eyes to see the same weapon in front of me, gleaming brightly with the light bouncing off of the sharp crescent shaped blade. I noticed that I also had on plain silver fingerless gloves that had a certain thickness on where my palms lied. Probably to grip the shaft better since there is no grip to it. I thought. Going back to those interesting words, I bounced them around slowly in my mind until I was satisfied that I could get use to it.

"Well…?" I heard Axel say with a slight curiosity edging his voice.

"…Shadow's Reflection." I finally said out loud as I glanced up and through the dome I saw large puffy clouds. "It's called… Shadow's Reflection."

When I turned back to the group, I saw them looking at my blade with newfound admiration. I also saw that Cael had rejoined us, but it was in the shadows, like he didn't want to be seen. I could tell that he wanted to say something badly to me just by looking at his eyes, but he kept his silence. After a few more moments of surveying us, he turned and walked away.

*Sigh* The longest chapter I written so far… and that's not including the Author Notes! Anyways… now that we have gotten this far in the story, you might as well as review, and tell me what you think! But try not to be harsh about it, ok?