My sister and I were playing in the garden at the back of our small cottage on the edge of town. We were playing beside the big pond in the middle of our garden, though neither of us were able to swim. The pond could get quite deep in the middle, and I don't know why our parents weren't watching us that day. Maybe they believed we had enough sense to stay away from the pond. Well if this is the case, then they thought wrong. A narrow path of gleaming stepping stones stretched from one side of the pond to the other. Mairen and I were hopping and skipping back and forth across the pond. We were laughing and chattering as we went, though we were also being careful to watch our footing.

Then Mairen came to the hardest jump. It was right in the middle of the pond. The next stepping stone was around three feet away, but what made the jump very difficult was the fact that the stone you were aiming at was slippery and round, unlike most of the others which were relatively flat and easy to grip. I was only one stone behind my sister when she braced her feet and leapt, but she jumped a bit too far to the left. I stared in horror as Mairen fell into the water. She flailed her arms, thrashing in the dark water, but it was no use. "Help!" she screamed before she disappeared under the water. I screamed as well. "No! Mairen! Mairen! Mairen!" I sat down on my stepping stone. "Mom, Dad! Help!" but no one came. My parents couldn't hear me. I howled in despair and then slapped the water in front of me. I hit it again, even though doing so hurt my hands. I hit again and again, and as the despair and anger at my own helplessness rose inside me, I suddenly felt a power growing in my chest. My heart was pounding, but as the power swelled, my mind cleared. No thoughts rushed through my head, my mind was like glass; still and calm. Then one thought came to me, clear as day. It was like someone was speaking the words allowed. I took a deep breath. "Aquatas Melior Magnus: Evaporate." My voice was surprisingly calm as I said the words. Then, I suddenly felt something happening around me. At first I could not see any change in the water stretching away, and then all of the water, which had seemed so unbeatable just a moment ago, slowly started rising into the air. My body finally relaxed as I felt the cool mist touch my skin.

I didn't hesitate. As soon as the last droplet of water had left the pond I jumped off the stepping stone that I had been sitting on and ran over to where I had last seen my sister. She wasn't far away and I quickly found her. Her body was motionless. I crouched down beside her. I shook her. Then I felt tears flowing down my cheeks. Was I too late? Was my sister dead? Had the horrible, merciless water killed her after all?

Then Mairen stirred. She opened her bright green eyes and stared up at me. "A-Alazne, are you okay?" I immediately hugged her tight. "Oh sis, I thought you were dead!" Mairen coughed up a few mouthfuls of water and then she stared at her surroundings. The pond was bear apart from a few strands of pond weed clinging to the sides. "What happened to the water?" she asked in a shaky voice. I smiled then. "I, destroyed it. I made it disappear."

By the time I was ten I was able to cast high level fire, as well as water spells, and my sister turned out no less talented. She could do very advanced wind spells that people twice her age could only begin to learn. When we were twelve Mairen and I begged our parents to let us sign up to a nearby guild that taught mages very advanced spells. Our parents weren't sure at first, but they finally let us go. Probably because they thought that we would stick up for each other if anything bad were to happen, and they were right. We were bullied when we first joined the guild. Other guild members scoffed and turned up their noses at us, claiming that people our age couldn't cast spells, let alone high level ones, but we proved them all wrong. Mairen and I were excellent learners and we swiftly shot up rank after rank in our guild. By age sixteen we had both gotten several requests to join the Masters Cancel but we declined the offer each time, for we had started to enjoy guild life. People asked how little kids like us could be that powerful, and I always told them that it was because Mairen and I always stuck up for each other. After all I would never have found out about my magic capabilities if I hadn't been panicking over my sister on that one, sunny day.