The grounds themselves were vast. As we explored as much of this area as possible, trying to see through the gathering mist, we walked along many winding, hilly paths, which were accompanied with gigantic, tall hedges either side. Along our journey, we would happen upon small, open spaces where, before us, in stunning glory, were different fountains made of expensive marble. These fountains sprayed jets of water high above our heads in some form of elaborate dance. Furthermore, powerful statues, depicting different kinds of creatures and humans, both mythical and real, chiselled to perfection, pointed us towards our intended destination.

When Jasmine and I came across these areas on our exploration, we giggled in amazement and delight, before sitting down on the fountain edge and resting our tired feet for a moment, hearing the birds call around us and allowing the wind to rustle our hair. Apart from these noises, we couldn't hear anything else.

It was then that Jasmine revealed her powers to me. I had put my feet up on the fountain edge and was looking into the murky water, watching the koi carp beneath us swim lazily about, when the mist around us thinned into nothingness.

Suddenly, glorious sunshine fell down upon us like a ray from heaven. The moment this happened, I looked up at Jasmine, startled, as the warmth seeped through my thick coat, heating my cold skin. Seeing the swirling colours in her eyes, I realised that she was responsible for the change in weather.

I laughed in delight and wonder.

"Jazz," I abruptly cried, jumping up and down in excitement, before twirling around, now toasty warm. "Oh WOW. Your powers are amazing."

She laughed.

"Thanks," she said, grinning and I noticed that she had even made the clouds wonderfully fluffy, as if it were a glorious summer's day rather than a frosty winter. "It was getting far too cold out here for my liking, so I decided to do something about it."

I beamed at her.

"And you think my powers are 'oh so wonderful'?" I answered, looking at her in awe. "God. I'd love to have yours any day. Thinking about it," I added, "I'd ensure that England was permanently bathed in hot sunshine."

After my comment, Jasmine flashed me a smile, nodding in agreement. However, before she replied, her face somewhat darkened.

"You say that and yet, when I 'awakened', my powers were a nightmare to control. As soon as I experienced this change," she explained, "I created a storm over London, after finding out that I had failed my Science exam, nearly causing my teacher to be sucked into the core of a swirling hurricane!"

I laughed at hearing this statement, particularly as I remembered the weather report I had seen on the BBC news commenting on such a story.

It was still causing a buzz now.

Most meteorologists had stated that the whole incident was a freak occurrence of 'global warming'. Clearly, they had never heard of an 'awakening' before and the mind modification scouts had done their job properly.

Oblivious to my reminiscence, Jasmine continued on, unfazed.

"It was only through the help of my scout that I eventually managed to regain the upper hand. Also, this means that even now," she added, "I have to have complete focus in order to stop them from spiralling out of control."

As soon as she had finished talking, the humour of the situation dampened. I realised that she was speaking the truth. This was because I noticed that the sunlight was wavering and large grey clouds were beginning to form, high above our heads. Now, as I spoke, my voice had a faint uneasy tone to it.

"You're in control though right?" I asked her, a little apprehensive, as the clouds had proceeded to blot out the sun and were now going a darker black.

Throwing a glance in Jasmine's direction, I looked at her in alarm. I was unsettled by the tension in her face and frame.

"Jazz." I abruptly asked, my voice becoming agitated, as the light around us darkened even more. "Jazz...tell me that you have it all under control?"

Jasmine didn't answer me. Instead, she was frowning in concentration, the colours in her eyes going crazy.

"Jazz." I called to her again, as the clouds became seriously black. I thought I smelt the familiar smell of burning that accompanied a thunderstorm in the making. "JAZZ. ANSWER ME GOD DAMN IT!" I cried as the wind picked up and began to howl in my ears, whipping my hair against my face.

Jasmine didn't answer me. Flicking my eyes to hers, I was alarmed to see that the swirling, multi-coloured hue she had originally possessed was now replaced with a deep, coal black. I screamed again at her but, this time, the wind had picked up so much that it whipped my voice away.

I heard the hedges around us groan.

Dear lord, I realised, as I saw her frowning in effort and strain. She had lost control once more and, to make matters worse, I couldn't do anything to help her.

I was powerless.

Just before I thought I was going to be whisked away by the powerful winds hurtling around me, I heard Jasmine burst out laughing. She registered my petrified expression and the weather immediately returned to normal.

It was almost as if it hadn't changed.

When I had regained control of my pounding heart, I threw her a furious look.

"Don't ever do that to me again," I snapped, not seeing the amusing side of the situation. I breathed out a sigh of relief. "I genuinely thought that your powers had got the better of you and I was going to be swept away."

Jasmine looked wounded at my accusation, as I glared at her. However, despite my fury, I was pleased to see that her eyes had once again returned to their lighter shade of grey and not the scary black they had been a few moments ago.

"Aw Alex," she eventually said, helping me to my feet, her beautiful eyes wide with hurt. "Don't be like that. I may have been shaky when I 'awakened', but my scout gave me some wonderful advice. I wanted to –"

"So I and everyone else who happened to be in this area were your guinea pigs?" I interrupted, scowling.

She looked crestfallen by my anger.

Suddenly, her eyes flashed in annoyance at my fury.

"Oh lighten up," she snapped back, cross at the lack of faith I appeared to have in her. "Nothing bad was really going to happen to you or anyone else. I had it all under control...honest."

The moment she had finished, I threw her a disbelieving look and crossed my arms in protest.

After a brief hesitation, I sighed in surrender.

I didn't want to have a fall blown argument with her, mostly as we had only just met and she could turn out to be the only friend I would ever make here. I also realised that, if I had been in her shoes, I would have wanted to use my powers to see if I could control them better, particularly if I had been given some really useful advice. Anyway, perhaps she had realised that I had been trying to control my powers previously, just before we had met and, after realising this, had become desperate to do the same?

Who could blame her for wanting to do that?

Realising that that I had been too harsh on her, I took her hand in mine, before pulling her towards the massive lake.

She threw me a surprised look.

"I thought that you were mad at me?" she asked, although she allowed me to lead her onwards.

I threw her a small, apologetic smile.

"I was," I replied, "but then I realised my reaction was unreasonable. At the end of the day, you only wanted to practise your powers and I can understand that completely. After all," I concluded, "I wanted to do the same earlier on, when we first met."

After she had heard my response, she looked at me thoughtfully, her eyes shining.

"Thank you for understanding," she finally said, smiling. "Although I'm sorry for scaring you. I didn't mean to."

As soon as Jasmine had finished, I pushed any leftover anger away. From that moment onwards, I vowed to have more faith in her and acknowledged my own weaknesses in being too hasty in judging peoples' actions. Dropping her hand and laughing, I raced off towards the lake, hearing Jasmine soon follow me in hot pursuit.

"Bet I can reach the lake before you." I shouted, grinning and running like a maniac.

I heard Jasmine laugh behind me, as we hurtled towards the gleaming lake before us.

"I bet you can't." She cried.

To my astonishment, she overtook me.

Clearly, she was a good runner.

As we giggled all the way down to the lake, our hair flying out behind us, I realised that this was a start of a fantastic friendship.***********

AN:

So here we find out more about Jasmine. What do you think of her? Do you like her as a character? Was she right to use her powers? Who else would like to control the weather? 🌞