Around me, all the students charged as if it was a game store 50% discount sales day. And we were the last pair to not have moved yet.

"Kard..." She blushed and looked away then quickly looked back: "please hold onto my wrist..."

What? Wut? WUT?

There are days I really feel like I need to get my ears checked.

"Hurry please!" she offered her wrist to me.

"Ok!..." I replied, reluctantly seizing her wrist.

Veritas's skin was pale as snow, smooth as marble, yet soft like a marshmallow...

There was an involuntary shiver the moment we touched, and her face also reddened a little. Then doing her best to conceal the awkwardness, she followed up what I suppose was a spell chant:

"Valebunt praemitto!"

Before I even had the chance to ask lift my tongue and ask what the it meant, I felt my foot missing the ground and swung it back and forth several times, only to find myself kicking the air. When I looked down I realized my body was being levitating from the ground, slowly. I began to feel a powerful yet gentle force, like a giant pair of invisible hands lifting us higher into the air. Veritas who ascended beside me wore a fixed expression, her face back to its normal colour. I guess it really went to show how much focus it required to maintain the spell. After what felt like about a minute or two later, we stopped at ascending and came to a stop about a treelength above the canopy. Up here, the air was fresher and chillier than down below. More importantly we had a good view of the lay of the land stretching out for several kilometers. But since it was winter and everything was covered in snow, I was only able to make out a frozen river, some mountains in the distance and of course the forest we were hovering over.

"Kard..." her voice was clear, despite the blowing winds.

"Yes?" I casually replied.

"Sorry, it's just...I should've asked if you were afraid of heights before I lifted you up here..." she said, her voice a panicky whisper.

"No, not at all!" well it is true that I am not scared of heights, but dangling off a building or cliff is where I draw the line. "Plus, the view here is pretty good." I added.

"Oh, thank you." she said as her worry in her voice retreated, "please hold on now, I am about to go forward now."

"K." I nodded.

It felt like the same invisible giant hand was around me again, this time pushing us forwards. I then felt a giant finger pushing my back, forcing me to lurch forward until I was in a superman position. I looked to my side and found Veritas in the same position, except hers was a hundred times more elegant, like a fairy straight out of fairy tale. As we glided forward through the air, snow rushed at our faces, yet never touched us. It seemed that they were repelled by some invisible barrier, which I could only assume was another of Veritas's spells. Near the end of the forest passage, I began to realize we were losing altitude.

Wordlessly I looked to Veritas, then decided it was best not to interrupt her focus, and surely enough, as we got closer to the ground, we gradually slowed down. And the moment, it felt as if I ran into a giant fluffy wall stopping me from going further as I felt the sane giant invisible hand slowly straightening me back to a standing pose before gently placing me onto the ground.

"Kard are you alright?" Veritas looked to me.

"Yeah," I said, letting go off her wrist and began stretching: "dang that was amazing!"

"You really thought so?" she asked again, holding a hand to her chest.

"Yeah. Why would I lie now?" I asked quizzically.

She looked pleased with the answer and turned away to mutter some prayer to some goddess before turning back to me again:

"Very well, let us carry on." She said as she turned and began crossing the bank.

"Oh ok." I shrugged and followed her.
The ice on the frozen river was solid and steady, with its width being just about a school bus length wise. Across from the frozen river was another forest similar to the forest we just flew by, and once we reached the shades of the new forest, Veritas suddenly spoke up:

"Kard, do you have any siblings?"

"Nope, I am just a single child."

"What a coincidence!" Veritas clasped her hand together in joy: "and where are you from?"

"I was born in Houxing of the Eastern Empire, but I've been in Ayre here now for more than 8 years. What about you?"

"Ah...I was born in the capital of the Wind Dominion, Nascatur. I came here to Ayre about 3 years ago as an exchange student. Once my time as a student is up, I shall return to my home..." her voice trailed off at the end.

"I am guessing you're from a nobility family?"

"True." She let out a small sigh. "As the eldest daughter of the Aeolus family, it is my noble duty to take my place as the lady of the house once the time has come. But for now..." she stopped in her tracks at once and looked at me, causing me to stop as well.

"...I want to enjoy the time here now as much as possible!"

It was a real smile no doubt, perhaps the purest I had seen in my entire life. But there was still one smile able to capitalize that...

Smile.

My pupils widened, as ancient memories of my past life, or the memories of that life that no longer belonged to me surfaced like bubbles in a stream. Glimpses and mirages of feelings both happy and sad, coursed through me like a raging river. I was paralyzed, powerless even, and I couldn't stop it.

No, don't stop.

Slowly the nostalgia began to sink in, and I submerged myself with the little details of my life that I never noticed. The time I chased this kid around in the change room cause he stole my underwear. The time I got lost running in gym class, and the whole class had to look for me. The time I ninja juked and 1v5 in dodgeball (ok the last one quite a bit of bragging)...etc. But one face kept on surfacing, like a reflection in a pond. And even though it changed every time a drop of memory landed in it, it would eventually blur back to the same face.

Her...

Her.

Just why?

Curses!

I clenched my teeth at the thought of her. It was a part of a memory that died away the day I lost my arm...no, I have simply chosen to repress them, they were here the whole time.

"Kard? Is there something wrong?" Veritas voice was so small, I barely heard it, but the worry on her face was clear enough.

"No, it's nothing..." I lied.

​There was a sharp swoosh in the air, like something cutting air and it was coming towards us. And before I could even finish turning around, a slim small projectile stopped short 10 centimeters away from my skull, and just hovered there in mid-air unmoving for some reason. I gulped along cold bead of sweat rolling down my forehead, as I took a closer look of the projectile: it appears to be a plain black shuriken, but in a life or death exam filled with magic wielding elementals? I am afraid things are never as simple as they look.

"Shame." Came a shadowy voice from somewhere above in the trees.
Veritas narrowed her eye brows.

"Of course, I am not talking about you, Ms. Elegant goddess. I was talking about myself." Came the shadowy voice again.

Veritas tightened her lips.

"It is my honor to fight one of the top class students of the academy who is also the daughter of the Duke of Wind himself!"

Veritas lowered her head, and remained stone faced.

"And what a surprise you choose this human as your teammate, this is quite the news indeed...Hehehe..."

At that remark, the hovering shuriken shattered into a million pieces. And when she lifted up her head again, her eyes seemed to be holding back small tempests.

"Of course, fighting you alone will be tough enough...So allow my partner to give your partner a little greeting..."
As soon as the shadowy voice finishes, I felt a series of slight tremble beneath my feet. I looked to direction of the sound and noticed a large hulk of dark mass heading in our direction, and when the figure finally stepped into view, my fist clenched themselves.
Standing at 8 feet, I recognized him as the same bully of that 4 man gang, who terrorized the poor human kid and triggered me on a personal level. Fury began to coarse through my veins at the sight of him, I gritted my teeth and stepped towards him.

"Kard? Wait, I can deal..." Veritas sentence was cut short by mine:

"This one is mine, you just take care of the other one." I said, my decision final and strode forward.

Q: If you can magically wield elements, which element would you want to wield?