Tesaldia looked around the large castle. She hated it here. She had to cater to Vyrdaes every wish. Tesaldia walked into the hallway and nearly ran into a boy who was walking down the hall, obviously a servant also. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you," Tesaldia said hastily.

Then as she looked at him she realized something about the boy. He was the boy that had been looking at her in the egg shop! "So you must be Tesaldia," the boy said in a tone of great scorn.

Tesaldia nodded. "I heard Vyrdaes talking about you, he said there was a chance that you had some kind of power, that's why I stared at you in the egg shop."

Tesaldia looked shocked. "Me, have a power, believe me if I had any kind of magical power then I would be the first to know about it."

The boy just stared at her and then walked away. Tesaldia continued to walk down the hallway until she got to the kitchen. The boy had gone in there too. "Wow, long time no see," he joked.

Tesaldia made no remark. "By the way I'm Shai."

Tesaldia just smiled and then went over to the water basin. She pushed the old pump's handle up and down until the water came out. She grabbed a bucket and filled it with water. Her master had requested that she clean the floor in the ballroom. Tesaldia turned around and tripped over a pot that had been lying on the floor. The bucket flew through the air and the water poured out of it. Tesaldia screamed no and reached her hand toward the water as if to catch it. Then as if listening to her, the water stopped in mid air. Shai looked and then walked over to Tesaldia. "That's neat, how did you do that?"

"I don't know, I just did it I guess."

"This must be the power that Vyrdaes was talking about."

"It must be."

Tesaldia heard the sound of someone walking down the hall, she quickly grabbed the bucket and put it under the water. She stared for a moment, how would she make the water fall again? Tesaldia said go, and waved her hand over the water. Nothing happened. She waved her hand over the water frantically shouting out different words. Nothing worked. The door creaked open and Tesaldia put the bucket over the ball of floating water. She grabbed a cloth and covered the top of the bucket as she flipped it right side up. Tesaldia didn't look at Vyrdaes. She was too nervous. What if he saw that she could control water? He would kill her for sure. "Tesaldia," Vyrdaes bellowed, "hurry up and go to the ballroom, I want that floor spotless for tomorrow night."

Tesaldia held her tongue, she was about to tell him to wash the floor himself but didn't, as she thought of her father sick in bed and needing money. The pay for a servant was actually quite good at fifty pylas a week. In a month she would have two-hundred pylas but almost all of that would go toward food, the cabin, and clothing. There would only forty pylas that would be left over at the end of the month. At that rate the egg Tesaldia wanted would be sold before she had enough money to buy it. Tesaldia waited for Vyrdaes to leave before she tried to get the water back into the bucket. Tesaldia looked at the ball of water. I have no idea what's going to make this water drop again. Tesaldia pushed her hand through the ball of water and this made it drop to the floor. Tesaldia stared down and groaned. "Great, another thing for me to clean up."

Shai kindly offered to clean up the mess and Tesaldia took him up on it as she went off to clean the ballroom. The ballroom was very large and took ages to clean, as Tesaldia had to constantly lift and move things to get the floor beneath and then she had to make sure not to put the item back until she had let the floor dry. It took her three hours before she had finished and was dismissed by Vyrdaes.

Tesaldia walked out of the castle and down the road. It was dark out but there were lanterns that lined the road. Vyrdaes three dragons circled above the castle watching everything that went on. Then one of the dragons swooped down. He dived down, and looked as if he would crash right into Tesaldia. She ducked but the dragon swooped over her and headed for the woods. Tesaldia looked up and saw that the other two dragons had stayed at the castle. Tesaldia kept walking.

She got to her cabin when she heard an animal scream. It sounded, like a horse! Tesaldia ran toward the scream. She ran faster and faster hoping it wouldn't be too late to save the creature. Tesaldia was getting slowed down by the trees that grabbed at her clothing and pulled her back. Tesaldia could see the wing of a bright red dragon in the clearing of the lake. So that's where Vyrdaes dragon had gone to. Tesaldia ran fast and finally burst out into the clearing. A horse was fighting for its life as the dragon attacked it with the lethal fangs. Tesaldia ran forward she grabbed a large branch and ran up to the dragon. It turned and looked at her as she swung the branch and hit the dragon across the face. The branch barely did anything. Tesaldia looked at the helpless horse. Finally Tesaldia thought of something. She ran to the lake and screamed go into the water and moved her hands sharply toward the dragon. The water sprang out of the lake and hit the dragon. The dragon was shocked. Being a creature of fire he was weakened by the water and retreated immediately.

A few minutes passed before Tesaldia found the horse again. It was laying on the ground. It was a shiny white horse with a silvery mane and tail. It looked at her. Tesaldia ran over to it. Bright red blood dripped over the white coat. Tesaldia laid her hand on the horse's side and tears ran down her cheeks. Then the horse slowly closed her eyes, and took her final breath.