Hey! This is my example for you all if you need it. Fair warning, I got a bit carried away with my characters so if you're curious about Kate or Thomas's backgrounds or relationship in the Exams this will explain it! Also, it's in Thomas's POV this time.

However, I realize that some of you may not want or care to read this entire thing so...scroll through it and look for the bold pieces because those are the parts you'll need for your writing or just in general - I gave lots of information in this. Everthing else is just me writing about Kate and Thomas. Elementalists and Protectionists should pay specific attention to the sparring bit between Kate and Thomas if you're wondering about the limits or powers of your Gift.

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"Kate!" I call, snatching up the jacket from the back of her chair and jogging over to her. She turns, brown eyes full of curiousity. "You forgot this." She glances down and laughs, taking the jacket from my outstretched hand.

"Oh, thanks. Sorry." I return her smile, shoving my hands into my pockets.

"No worries, where are you off to?"

"Training, I figure if I'm going to have a chance at all in the Exams then I need to figure out what I can do." I nod, falling into step beside her as we exit the cafeteria.

"Well, how about we spar?" Kate frowns and tilts her head, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What? I uh-" Kate runs her hand through her loose curls and blinks confusedly. "I'm not very good with my Gift, I fear I'd be a pretty easy match." I chuckle, rubbing my hand along my chin.

"And you wonder why I asked." Kate gasps, her jaw gaping and her eyes narrowing. She huffs and jams her shoulder against mine.

"Jerk! Now we have to spar, just so I can prove you wrong." Kate teases, poking me in the chest. I laugh, rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, okay." Kate sticks her tongue out, making a face as she pushes her back into the swinging door to the gymnasium. "When did you learn about your Gift?" I wonder, sudden curiousity taking hold of me. Kate makes a humming noise and lets the door swing back at me. I catch it, but only barely, before it would've smacked me in the face.

"Since I got here, I guess." She responds through her snickers and starts to pull her tank top over her head, exposing her black sports bra. "My mom kept my brother and I hidden away for most of our lives, I've practically spent the last five years on our ranch." She says, dropping the shirt on the floor near the wall and pulling her hair back into a ponytail using the hairband she always wore on her left wrist.

"So, you just unlocked your Gift? What about your mom and brother?" Kate scowls, a hard look overtaking her features.

"Apparently they both knew what they were, my mom was afraid that my brother would be taken away for the Exams because of his Gift so she kept us locked away from society; her living in constant fear, Damion in everlasting idiocy, and me in a never changing daze of oblivion." Kate scowls. "She never even thought to consider that her daugther would turn out to be more powerful than her precious son." I raise an eyebrow at the harshness in her tone.

"I take it you and your mom don't really get along." Kate sighs and puts her hands on her hips, breathing out heavily.

"No, it's not that. It's just-" She purses her lips and huffs, "she was more concerned about protecting Damion than she was about me. My mom's the type of person who believes that men are stronger than women, that we're inferior to them. Apparently my dad was a total douche to her and it really screwed up her self-confidence and world views when it comes to equality between genders."

"Well what do you believe?" I ask, pulling the t-shirt over my head, if I was going to spar with an Elemental I was going to be using a lot of energy and like all Hybrids, the use of so much energy causes our bodies to sweat excessively.

"I think that it doesn't matter that you're a guy and I'm a girl. It only matters how much dedication and hard work you're willing to put forth in order to prove that you're the best. Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm weaker than you or inferior to you in any way, and I'll prove it." Kate says with a sassy smile and a flip of her hair.

"You have a lot of self-confidence for a girl whose only just discovered that she's apart of a secret Hybrid society, no less a candidate in the Keeper Exams."

"Well, what about you? Hmm? You're awfully self-confident too, when did you find out you were a Hybrid?" I breathe in heavily and climb inside the boxing ring.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story." I tell her vaguely, silently hoping she'll catch my almost nonexistent drift and drop the subject. Instead, Kate wiggles her eyebrows and smirks playfully.

"I like long stories." I smile and chuckle nervously, reluctant to relive that moment of my life.

"Right." I comment, Kate blinks her eyes and prompts me on with a flip of her wrist. I sigh and nod, dejectedly.

"Well, I was five. My mom was driving the car and my dad was in the passenger seat, drunk off his ass. He was swearing and yelling at her, telling her how everything was her fault."

"What was her fault?" Kate interjects as she climbs into the ring. I shrug and start to scroll through the gaming options on the screen in my corner of the ring.

"I don't know, I was too young to make much sense of it. But he was yelling about me, I think it had to do with the Exams but I don't remember for sure. The thing is my dad was human and my mom was Hybrid, my aunt said the truth about my mom drove him to drink. He was a really bad guy after that." Kate nods, leaning her back against one of the ropes around the ring.

"I'm sorry." I breathe in deeply and nod, quickly changing the subject.

"Anyways, he hit her and she lost control of the car. We on a bridge and we went over the edge, my mom had hit her head on the window and was knocked unconscious and my dad was too drunk to figure out how to open the door. I remember feeling terrified that I was going to die, that my mom would die. I was helpless to stop it when the car went under with the three of us still trapped inside."

"The water filled the car and pretty soon it was forcing itself down my throat and I had no idea what to do. My dad was screaming and my mom was just lying there, unmoving. It wasn't until the buring in my throat reached the point of unbearable that a surge of energy just exploded through my body, everything sharpened and the world just shifted around me." I look up from the screen, remebering the scene as it unfolded in my mind's eye; the moment I unlocked my Gift.

"I felt powerful, I could feel every inch of the water as it was pushed away from me and a blue orb of pure energy wrapped itself around my body. I rememer the car door being forced open and a set of arms reaching in to grab me and the bubble popped. The water rushed forward, drenching me all over again." Kate is silent, her brown eyes so full of emotion as they pierce mine.

"They both died, my mom and my dad. I was the only survivor, after that my aunt took me in. She was a Dream Worker and she helped me train. I've spent the better half of my life trying to build up my power for these Exams." Kate wrinkles her nose distastefully.

"Why would you do that? Sacrifice your childhood for a chance to fight other people, kill others, just to be a Keeper? I don't want to be here Thomas, but I am and I didn't know anything my whole life. I mean, it doesn't seem right, shouldn't the Keeper be good and pure? Not a killer?"

"Kate, no one dies. We all come back and it wasn't really a choice. When my mom died, so did my little brother and my aunt can't have kids. Somebody in the family had to make the choice to train for this, my grandfather is apart of the Guarde. He's the tenth one in a long line of us, I had to make it or risk the fury of my aunt. I figure either way I would die, because there's no way I'll become Keeper and resurrection after death seemed like the better way to go over isolation after death."

"Really? Isolation?" I nod, looking as serious as I could.

"I'm not joking, if I hadn't made the Exams my aunt would've killed me in my sleep and then every dead relative I have, whether I know about them or not, would've subjected me to the deepest corner of the after life as the family disgrace. I had to make this, my life depened on it."

"Then you must be good, you made it." Kate comments, fumbling with the screen. "What exactly is this thing and what does it do?"

"It's a simulation device, you didn't actually think this was it, right? Just a boxing ring with nothing special? You realize we're supernatural, right?" Kate huffs, glaring evilly. A gust of wind swirls through the air and punches me in the stomach. I gasp, bending over as the oxygen is expelled from my lungs

"There's more where that came from." Kate snaps, I laugh; well, I try to.

"How rude." I mutter to myself while trying to regain my breath.

"Stop being a smart ass and explain to me how this works." She bites, her face twisting with frustration. I straighten up and click around on the screen, pulling up a series of simulator options.

"The way this works is you and your opponent agree on a simulation. The ring, which is a special Hybrid training device, creates the simulation of your choice and then you fight. The simulation links itself to your Gift so that you can use the elements in the simulation you picked to cause harm to your opponent."

"How do you know how to use this?" Kate wonders, looking up from the screen.

"Garrett's second-in-command, Katarina, found me a few weeks ago and brought me here. I've been training ever since." Kate nods, looking back down at the choices displayed across the screen.

"So, I can pick any simulation I want?"

"Well, yeah, but you should pick according to your Gift. I'm Protection and you're Elemental so the simulation should have aspects in it that will benefit both of our Gifts."

"What about a rain forest? That is incredibly Elemental." Kate clicks the screen and the world around us shifts from a bland gymnasium to the beauty of a rain forest.

A surge of energy electricutes my veins, pulling the magick inside me out and melding it with the environment around me. Kate's form swirls and sharpens, the backdrop of the forest illuminating her in a aura of power and vitality.

"Are you ready to feel the full power of an Elemental?" Kate challenges, brown eyes glistening. I snort, leaning against the trunk of a tree and crossing my arms over my chest.

"Yeah, only problem is you don't have the power of a full Elemental." The tree on which I lean begins to rattle, the roots pull free of the ground and slither along the forest floor. I jump, pulling myself out of harm's way but the roots just trail after me like silent assassins ready to squeeze the life from me.

"Invisibility." I whisper, feeling the air around me take a breath as my form disappears from it's clutches, gravity releases it's hold over me, and the world whimpers with my abrupt departure. Kate's eyes bulge and the roots stop wiggling, falling along the ground with a thud.

"The hell Thomas! Where'd you go?" I smile and circle around a tree, standing in a ring of moss.

"Right here Kate." Her head snaps to the left and a ring of flames ignite around me, orange and red dance at my feet. "Oh, impressive. You were actually able to pinpoint my location." I praise her as I step out of the ring, pressing my back against the trunk of a tree and out of Kate's sight as my spell comes to an end.

"Well thanks, what're you going to do now? You're surrounded." I pop my head out from behind the tree, flashing her a brilliant smile.

"Am I?" Kate's eyes bulge and the fire dies down abruptly, a zap of lightning reaches down from the sky. I move my hands over my head and pull my fingers apart, creating a purple tinted force field that stops the lightning bolt from making contact with my skin.

"Ugh! Thomas!" Kate growls, childishly stomping her foot as her lightning bolt fizzles out.

"Ha! Come on, Kate! Try harder!" I taunt, darting around a bush as the ground splits beneath me, threatening to swallow me whole.

"Shut up! I'm trying!" Kate snaps back frustratedly, I chuckle.

"Fly." My feet lift off the ground with my simple command, I push myself upward and touch down on a branch high up in the sky. Kate fumbles, her eyes darting around anxiously.

"Paralysis." Kate's body freezes, every nerve and muscle in her body tenses up. Save for the vocal cords because she lets out a high pitched squeal closely resembling that of my name. I snicker and sit down, kicking my legs over the edge of the branch.

"You're losing!" I sing-song, closing my eyes for a moment. Something powerful and thick slithers around my chest and body slams me against the ground. A burst of color splashes behind my eyes, stars dance across my vision.

"Really?" Kate challenges, I moan and slowly push myself into a sitting position.

"Damn." I whimper, crawling to my feet and wobbling a bit. Kate giggles, jerking the rock on which I now stood out from under me, causing me to fall back on my ass. "Kate!" I growl, a surge of pain vibrating through my body.

"Yes Thomas?" She inquires cheekily.

"Hallucination." Kate screams, falling to her knees. She clutches at her head, her eyes unfocusing as my Gift causes her to hallucinate a traumatic experience from her past. The gut wrenching sound continues for another handful of seconds before she goes silent, falling forward on her hands.

"Ugh!" She grunts, uprooting a tree and throwing it at me. I dodge the flying object by diving into the dirt and sliding along the ground.

"Numbness." Kate's body falls to the forest floor, her ability to move, feel, and talk having been stripped from her. I get to my feet and walk out into the clearing, standing over her body. Fear dances through her brown eyes and I turn my face away, reluctant to watch any longer.

"Die." I whisper, quickly glancing down. Kate's face turns purple as the air is taken from her lungs. Her body twitches and her eyes turn red from oxygen deprivation. I take deep breath and avert my gaze. "I'm sorry." I whimper, feeling a shudder climb along my spine. I hated this.

Moments before she would've died the simulation swirls and disappears, releasing both us from it's grasp. Kate gasps, turning onto her side and coughing up blood while trying to force down oxygen. My head swirls and I lose my balance, falling down on my hands and knees, gasping. We were completely drenched in sweat, but that was what happened to Hybrids when they fought. It's just how we are.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Kate sneers, shoving my shoulder with her palm as she wipes her hand along her bloodied chin.

"Whoa, hey!" I snap back, falling down on my side under the exhaustion plaguing me after so much magick use. That's the thing about us Hybrids, we were strong and magickal and those who were in the Exams were the most powerful. But we weren't invincible, using too much of our Gift still caused us to fall victim to severe exhaustion and weakness.

"You could've killed me!" She growls, struggling to her feet.

"No! I couldn't have, the simulation ends when it senses that someone has been defeated! You were fine!" Kate snorts, holding up her bloodied hand and pointing to the blood in the ring.

"You call that fine?!" She barks, furiously. I sigh and thump my head on the floor, Kate scowls and climbs out of the ring.

"Kate, wait!" I call, stumbling to my feet and practically falling over the edge of the ring. I grab ahold of Kate's wrist and bend over, still feeling the effects of my Gift use.

"Kate, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, it was a bad idea to spar with you. Just please, I'm so sorry." I apologize, my voice cracking. Kate's fist softens slightly in my grip.

"No, it wasn't a bad idea. Now I know how powerful some of you are and that just shows me how much harder I need to work." She says through gritted teeth, gently pulling her wrist from my grip and sliding her back down the wall.

"I am sorry though." I mumble, sitting down beside her. "I hated to do that. Well, when we were going back and forth it was kind of fun but at the end there, I didn't want to hurt you."

"Then why did you?" I shrug, thumping my head back against the wall.

"For the same reasons you said it wasn't a bad idea to spar with me. To see if I could win against you; an Elemental. Protection really isn't a very strong Gift unless you know how to use it and I was curious if I could win against you. If I had a chance." I glance sideways at Kate, whose staring at me with a look of resignation.

"I get that feeling. I was watching the other Elementals the other day in training and they are really good, way more powerful than me. I was curious about the same thing." Kate pinches her lips together. "I guess I have my answer, I suck." I frown, shaking my head.

"Like hell you do, I might've beaten you at the end but you kicked my ass with those tree branch moves. We were evenly matched for a while there. You know, before I started pelting you with spells." Kate laughs, a smile lighting up her face.

"Thanks Thomas, high praise coming from the guy who spent his entire life training. Apparently I'm just as good as him, after only a week." I cringe, realizing how bad that makes me sound.

"Right." I comment as silence falls over us.

"You hate violence, don't you?" Kate questions after several seconds, I glance over at her, surprised at her observation.

"How did you-"

"Your mom was killed because your dad knocked her out. You lost your family to alcohol and violence. You didn't want to train for the Exams; you had too. You said yourself that you didn't want to hurt me, you just had to know how good you are. You don't like violence. It's not a hard thing to figure out." Kate shrugs and closes her eyes, yawning.

"Oh." I respond dumbly.

"Damn, using the Gift really drains you." Kate whines.

"Yeah, that will never go away. You'll just learn your limits, become aware of when you're working too hard." Kate makes a humming noise in response and then the two of us sit in silence for a bit.

"I have a question. Well two, actually."

"What?" I open one eye, peaking at her curiously.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen, you?" Kate blushes, a light pink outlining her cheeks.

"Twenty-one." I snort, rolling my eyes.

"No way, you look nineteen tops." Kate's jaw drops and she scowls, punching my shoulder.

"Hey! I'm twenty-one loser." I hold my hands up in surrender, giving her a doubtful look.

"Alright, fine. But I don't believe you, twenty-one is old sounding and you're too pretty to be old." Kate blushes again, but this time her cheeks turn a vibrant shade of red.

"Whatever." She comments, smiling broadly.

"So next?" I ask, Kate blinks and frowns.

"What?"

"Your other question."

"Oh! Right, well you mentioned earlier that your dad was human and your mom a Hybrid and I was just curious how that worked. Are you a halfling or what?" I raise an eyebrow at the bluntness of her question.

"What the hell is a halfling? No, I'm a full Hybrid."

"How?"

"Well Hybrids are humans born with enhanced DNA, right? So when I was born I inherited my mom's DNA because Hybrids are superior to humans. Basically, when a human and a Hybrid have a kid the human side is eaten up by the stronger Hybrid side, making me fully Hybrid."

"You know a lot about Hybrids and Gifts and stuff." Kate comments.

"My grandfather is on the Guarde and I've been here for several weeks." I respond, Kate nods and climbs to her feet.

"Well, I need to go take a nap. I'm tired."

"Yeah, me too." I hold out my hand to her, Kate glances at my outstretched arm and chuckles, grasping my palm in hers.

"Lazy." She comments playfully as both her and I manage to tug me to my feet. She stumbles a step and giggles. "Ugh, man, stupid lack of energy."

"You over-exerted yourself, it'll pass. I did too though so I know how to feel." I pick my t-shirt up off the floor and tug it over my head.

"There you go being all all-knowing again." Kate points her finger at me snd shakes her head, a mocking expression on her face.

"Yeah, yeah. So, I'm wondering about something." Kate pulls her tank top over her head and makes a "hmm?" noise.

"You and I, we make a pretty good team, so maybe you'd be interested in making this a permanent thing? We'll need each other in the Exams, what do you say Kate?" I ask.

Kate adjusts her shirt and pulls the hairband from her hair, letting her curls fall loosely. She makes a face and pretends to think about it for a moment, but I already know what she's going to say. It's written all over her face and twinkles in her eyes.

"Count me in."

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I gave a lot more information in this than was necessary, like about the Hybrid halfling thing and some other things. Sorry to over explain. Anyways, I only gave information one of the fourteen training rooms. This is the sparring room but the individual Gift specified ones are totally up to your creative minds. So have fun!