It’s a different teacher every year as the teachers always volunteer based on the type and amount of students there are. That year we had a Plant witch teaching us. Which made sense, with two of the students being Plant witches and a Water witch that didn’t need too much supervision. Then of course there was me. Though the rumors in town already caused a lot of people to give up on me.

The class was only two hours long and the first hour was dedicated to the emotional aspect of magic use. Just lessons on how to get into the right head space and how to better control our emotional state. Then after that, the next hour we spend in enchanted rooms, where we could practice our magic freely without having to worry about breaking anything. Or I guess in my case, burning things.

And during the first half of the lesson, I didn’t really pay all that much attention. It was all stuff that I had already heard a thousand times before. People would always give me the same bit of advise thinking it would help, but it never did. Though I would look over at Lydia and see that she was very intently paying attention and taking notes. Not only her, but also the other students Sierra and Amy.

My issue was the actual practical use of my magic.

So when it came time to our physical magic practice, I wasn’t feeling too confident. Everyone else looked excited, but none more than Lydia did. She had the least experience using magic out of all of us, and this was going to be the first time she was able to let it all out.

“This is going to be so cool! Good luck with your practice!” she said to me as we split off into our rooms.

Sierra and Amy both went into the Plant room, Lydia went into the Water room, and I stood in front of the Fire room with my hand on the handle. It’s not that I was nervous. It’s more that I was scared of failure again. I knew that after my hour was up in there, I would still be at the exact same spot as I am right now.

But it had to be done. So I looked down to see if Dog was ready, except he wasn’t there.

I definitely found it strange at the time. Familiars don’t usually leave your side unless you dismiss them. Though he wasn’t far away from me, so I didn’t think anything other of it. He was standing in front of one of the other doors on the other side of the hallway, the room for Blood magic.

He was scratching at the door, so I went over and picked him up “Why are you scratching there? The Fire room is this way silly.”

When I was holding him, he looked at me and gave me a forceful bark, which I didn’t understand “I’m sorry, but I’m not really sure what you want. Lets just get into this Fire room so I can light another pathetic flame.”

That didn’t satisfy him and he barked at me once more. So I stupidly ignored him and walked into the fire room with him in my arms.

There wasn’t much in the room besides a fireproof box that had a bunch of literature on Fire magic and how to use it, along with some other tools that could be useful when practicing. I didn’t bother with any of the books and just grabbed a lighter and objects that I could light on fire.

I put a candle down, lit it with the lighter, then sat down in front of it. All while Dog was huddled by the door, acting like he wasn’t going to help. He barked at me a few more times, but again, I ignored him and focused on the flame.

The flame was small, so I stuck out my hand to try to increase it’s size. And though I wasn’t touching the flame, I could feel the fires heart as if it were in my hand. There was a connection between me and the fire… but no matter how hard I tried to manipulate it, it wouldn’t budge.

My arms dropped and I fell back in frustration. This should have been so easy for me, so why was it that I couldn’t even do the simplest things? Everyone else in class is at least able to do the basics, and I’m struggling with simple movements.

I sat back up and tried something else that should have been simple: creating a fire with my hands. It may not sound simple, but it’s one of the first things that Fire witches learn. Being able to create a flame with only your magic is the most important aspect of being a Fire witch.

With my mind calm and not worrying about accidentally lighting something on fire, I brought all of my energy to my chest and pushed the heat out into my hands. My hands produce multiple sparks, but again, all I’m able to produce is a single small flame in my hand.

The flame was weak, so I tried to push more oxygen into it’s base to keep it alive, but it didn’t work. It dimmed, and I felt it die in my hands.

At that point, I was just frustrated. Being able to keep a flame alive is something even the weakest witches are able to manage. I began to think that I was the weakest Fire witch alive. I wasn’t in a good mental head space. In my frustration, I went into the box again and pulled out a torch.

Once again I sat on the floor and pulled out the lighter to light the torch. It went up almost immediately and held a much more spectacular flame than the candle did.

I sat and watched the fire blaze for a bit while feeling it’s energy. The flame was there and I was able to communicate with it, but it was like there was a language barrier. All the steps that I had done were exactly what everyone told me to do, and I still couldn’t produce anything.

My hand slowly raised and inched toward the flame. I brought my hand closer to the base of the torch until my hand was fully engulfed. I spun it around and wiggled my fingers inside the fire feeling its energy. When I felt I had a good grasp, I brought out a baseball sized portion of the flame to hold.

It was larger than I was used to holding. Practice sessions like this were the only time I was able to hold a flame this large, and every time I did, I would feel so accomplished. The flame looked beautiful dancing around in my hand.

But as soon as I look that bit away from the torch, the flame began to whither.

The flame would get smaller while I would try to pour all of my energy into keeping it alive, but it was all useless. It got smaller and smaller until it was a tiny blue flame holding on to life.

Then it vanished.