When the child of winds and waves;

In the land of demons;

Does an act of monstrosity;

In ignorance and innocence;

The spirit of Devfronds shall be awakened. 

"What are you reading Calvin?" Susan asked, reading over his shoulders. He had gotten ready half an hour early for school, and decided he might as well do some reading in the library. He was slowly working his way around trying to read all the books in there (his dad said he tried, but got bored with the second book).

"I'm reading ancient angelic predictions. They used to spout prophecies back then."

"Only you would read those. As you can see, they're ancient. What's the point in reading it?"

Calvin shrugged, "Since when did you care about doing materialistic work? It's fun." 

Susan rolled her eyes, "Only you."

"Hey, do you think this child of winds and waves is the child mom was telling about. Wasn't the king a water elemental?"

Susan shrugged, "Who cares? These prophecies are probably made up. Besides, I think there is no prince." and then added as an afterthought, "...or princess."

"Why would you think so?"

"I mean, they would be a baby when the royals went missing. Babies can't take care of themselves. I think it was just a lie to keep the public calm or something."

"Maybe they gave the baby to someone to take care..."

"Possible. But whom? The most logical option would be to give your parents. Your mom was already pregnant, it wouldn't be hard to pretend she had twins. And I can't see a child running around here, can you?"

Calvin made a ruse of looking around the room, with scrunched eyebrows, "Nah, I can't." 

Susan laughed, "Come on, Liza will be pissed if we don't get there on time." All their other classes had been canceled, and they had to go to Liza everyday for a month, and train. The first day, they learnt about demons in books. Next day, they did practice with weapons, and she focused more on how to win, how to survive, how to sense if someone is an ally or enemy. 

Then they learnt to dual with fairy magic. Lily had to sit that one out, she was a bird. Calvin practiced for a while, but his magic was too weak to duel, and Liza asked Lily (who was an archer) to improve Calvin's aim. 

They went to a huge field and taught various tricks in the air. Fighting in the air, taking most advantage of their wings, staying airborne for long periods of time, improving the strength of their wings. 

Then they learnt about the species of other kingdoms, their powers, their weaknesses, etc. 

In short, Liza worked them to death. On the top of that, she gave them loads of homework. Demon biology books to read, particular sword maneuvers to master by the end of the day, etc.

If these were a movie, this would be the part where they played a song in the background, and showed them working their butts off.

They said goodbye to his parents, and flew off with Alex to the school. After the assembly, they went to Arena 103 and found a note stuck on the door "To the chosen contestants, come to the tech room 3."

"Tech room? I don't know where it is."

"Me either, but we'll find it."

Calvin nodded and with his angel senses, navigated them to the tech room. They knocked on the door, and were met with Liza who was already there. 

The tech room was like a cinema hall, without the seats. Several projectors were fit inside the floor, covered by glass panels, and Liza was sitting in a chair, holding a remote. 

The floor was softly carpeted. Calvin removed his shoes and socks, when he saw Liza had done so too, and so did Susan.

It was strange, how the elementals were far more technically advanced than humans, and still didn't have mobile phones.

James and Lily came in after a few minutes, and their lips were chapped. This didn't go unnoticed by Liza, but she didn't say anything. 

She turned to them when they were all there and ready, "So, we've been doing basics things till now, the easy ones, you know?"

 The easy one? If she calls that easy, Calvin didn't know what she would call a hard session.

"Today, we're going to do something more practical."

"Oh thank god." Lily muttered beside him. It wasn't very loud, but in a huge empty room with only five silent people, it was heard clearly. But again, Liza didn't comment. 

She went to her remove, which was for some reason, fixed to the wall, and three projectors on the floor flickered. And in a moment, in front of them stood a very real looking, and still image of your basic demon. Humanoid shape, fangs, horns, you know, just the usual.

Liza walked to them, "Now, we'll start small. What do you do to kill."

"The neck. It is it's weakest part." Calvin replied. 

"Good. Now other, get outside the circle of projectors, McKay, get your sword at ready." 

She didn't give any time for Calvin to ask any questions, before the projection flickered off, a door to the side slid up and a very real demon came walking up to him. He panicked for a second, before a voice spoke from the back of his head, "It's a projection, you idiot. You've to kill it." 

Yeah, his senses were not the most polite, but hey, they were knowledgeable.

He readied his sword. The demon lunged at him with surprising speed. It looked very real, and Calvin's heart leaped into his mouth. He dodged to the side, the turned back. He faced the demon. The demon lunged at him, and in one swift motion, he had beheaded him. 

Green blood splashed at him, before the projection, the blood, and the very sticky feeling on his face disappeared. 

From the shocked look on their faces, he could tell they didn't know it was a projection. After that, Liza called them one by one, making them practice on various demons, getting harder and harder. 

After that, Calvin and James were made to practice with bows and arrows and Susan and Lily were made to use swords. 

All in all, it was one hell of a month, but Calvin realized, he enjoyed it...a lot. It was the time for tournament before he knew it.

So, here he was, with a packed suitcase, standing with Susan, ready to go, with his parents ready to wave them off. 

"Take care, kids. Mathew will be there, he is in the committee. Behave, don't insult the other kingdoms, and stick together. You're on your own now. We'll be seeing the final survival round in a public projection, only one of you four will be there at that point, and at that time we'll be shown the previous reruns of your matches. All the best." 

Calvin took a deep breath, "Thanks mom. Bye." 

He waved to his parents, and Alex and Claire (who had come to see them off) and Heather, and took off to the main gates of the kingdom. 

It seemed so long ago, that he had sat in a baby chair and flew to the elemental kingdom for the first time. And now, he was going out of it for the first time too. 

Calvin and Susan trudged up to the massive gates at the entrance. He yelled out to Derek in the tower to open the gates. He did and soon, they were standing out in the short plain like area outside the gates.

If a human were seeing this, they would've felt a fear of height, no matter how unfearful of it they were.

But it didn't affect either of them, because they were creatures of air, and didn't fear heights. They could just fly right back if anything happened.

Liza was already there, early like always and James and Lily were there too. Excitement showed in all of their faces, except Liza, who never showed any emotions. Even then, Calvin could tell she was excited.

With an indication from Liza, Susan and James, the two fairies put a charm on the bags, that made them spout wings.

They jumped off the edge. He couldn't see the ground below, obviously. They were above clouds, and there was no wind. There wouldn't be unless they were in the way of some Jetstream.

Calvin spread out his wings wide, something he hadn't done in a long time. While duelling, wings had to be half closed, as it gave the opponent larger space to hurt. Lily didn't have to worry about it. Bird wings were tougher than angel or fairy wings. It would take more than a jab at the wings to hurt them.

The sun glistened on the gold in his wings, making them sparkle and making the purple more prominent. Susan flew to his right, and James and Lily were behind, talking.

They all followed Liza, who was using a compass of sorts. Calvin closed his eyes, they were going straight ahead as it was. He felt the wind in his ears, in his wings, in his very blood, and it was unlike anything he had ever felt.

After a while, once he was more used to the feeling of flying so freely, he went to bother his angel senses.

"So, what do you think the tournament is going to like?"

"So now you remember me? You had sent me in hibernation all that time ago."

"No, of course not."

"The tournament will bring something good back, and something very bad. But the general outcome will be really good for the people."

"What? How?"

"They'll get their king back."

"Really? That's..." he was cut short when his angel sense warned him that Liza had stopped and he realised why. In front of them, was a large demon, with his wings flapping. It wasn't the worst they had ever encountered, but still it shot fear through him. This was not a projection. It was a real, live monster. Liza smiled, and said, "Who's taking this one?"

Susan volunteered, and shot an arrow in the sky. The monster dodged, but Susan seemed ready for it, because immediately after shooting the arrow, she had shot a dagger towards the side of the demon and it hit it when it dodged. The demon fell into the clouds, and moments later the scattered blue particles of the demon rose behind them.

They lost their way once, before they landed. Liza furled her wings, and the others followed.

They walked into the middle of the forest, the birds chirping around them. A parrot came and sat on Lily's hand, and she stroked its head.

They walked for about half an hour, before coming to a clearing. It contained a huge castle, with golden brown towers that glistened in the sun, windows in the towers, and in general a disney castle.

They went up to the castle like gates and Liza showed the guards, human like creatures with yellow uniform, her 'mentor' badge. Calvin showed them his contestant badge and entered.

The place was like a palace. It had long towers, shining flags, and guards stationed every where. The architecture was old style, like the kind you see in monuments, and it gave him a feeling of smallness. What was he, in comparison to all this greatness?

They were led by a butler to a room. Eight candidates and two mentors stood outside the room. It had red-golden curtains, and flower garlands everywhere. 

There was a door to a side, where two guards were stationed, and a man with a horn was standing. He could see a crowd of people, and a fancy stage with some seats.

Now, they were going to be announced as contestants.

With a blow of a golden horn, the tournament officially began.