Near a place called Tyndrum in Scotland

We all walk out of the training room together.

"What now?" Serenity asks Iona.

"Lunch is next," Iona replies as we walk into another grand hall. A long table goes up the middle covered in food which has been beautifully decorated. The hall is beautiful with high stone beams and an intricately carved ceiling. Other shifters sit around the room with plates full of food. Archways lead out into a small field. We follow the others to the table and get a plate each, helping ourselves to the meats, fruits and pastries that decorate the long table. We then head out onto the small field outside the archways. Surrounding the small patch of grass are high walls of stone which makes up the mountain which rises on either side of the stone archway exit. Opposite the exit is a drop onto the ground far below. I look back at the stone pillars and see the rock rising above it. You wouldn't think that there was a grand hall behind the archways, that's part of the beauty of the building. It is built so perfectly into the stone. Vines make their way up the stones and water crashes next to us. We all sit down with our food.

"What meat is this?" I ask.

"It is the meat of animals shifters don't turn into," Iona replies.

"All the meat we eat comes from animals that used to live on the Dark Island but are now farmed across shadow to provide food for all the predators," Daniel tells us. I nod my head.

"All the herbivore animals, of course, we wouldn't bring any of the predators over here," Finola laughs.

I bite into a strawberry and flavour explodes in my mouth. I sigh and smile. All we've really eaten is meat for the past few years, not really anything else. I try a pastry and smile again. I especially haven't eaten something like this. I also realize that I haven't eaten since the last time we went hunting which was about three days ago now!

"You all look like you haven't eaten anything like this ever," Iona says.

"We haven't for a long time," Toryn replies.

"Yeah, all we ate was meat, occasionally Serenity would grow something," Tanya tells them. Their eyes widen.

"Can you all use the elements?" Yvette asks, flicking her grey hair over her shoulder.

"Yes," I reply. Serenity touches the ground and a plant begins to grow. A strawberry plant with little white flowers and large juicy red strawberries. Daniels' eyes widen in amazement as he watches my sister. I pick off another strawberry and pop it into my mouth. It tastes even better than the other one. I think strawberries are my new favourite food.

"Help yourself," Serenity laughs as Daniel stares wide-eyed at the plant. He picks it off the plant and pops it into his mouth. The others do the same.

"That's really cool!" Oliver shouts, his huge hands picking at the delicate berry. It looks very strange.

"What about you, Toryn?" Iona asks. He holds out his hand and a flame appears. It goes out as a voice interrupts.

"Excuse me, but can I sit with you?" We look up to see Eric. Daniel smiles.

"Sure, you don't need to ask, you've been sat with us for the past seven years," Daniel chuckles.

"Yeah, but I thought with my sister's behaviour I wouldn't be welcome," he says, looking at the four of us.

"I'm sorry, by the way. What Darcy said was unacceptable." I nod my head.

"You don't need to apologize for your sister's actions, we also don't blame you for them," I tell him. He smiles happily and takes a seat next to Oliver. They both clap hands in a friendly exchange.

"You may not be royal anymore, but you're still my best friend," Oliver tells him.

"Thanks," Eric laughs.

"Show me more fire!" Iona shouts suddenly. Everyone looks at her and starts to laugh.

"What, it's cool!" she defends. Toryn opens his palms as fire flickers, swirling into a ball. I smile, an idea popping into my head. I roar with laughter as Toryn and his hand is completely soaked, putting out the fire immediately. He looks like a drowned rat. Everyone else jumps, then starts to chuckle. He stands up quickly putting his hands together and forming a large ball of fire. I swing my hand up, pulling water from the waterfall and putting out the fire just as it is about to smash into my face.  More balls of fire come charging toward me which I defuse with water.

"Is that safe?" Maryanne asks.

"Yeah, they do that all the time," Tanya states. Toryn's body suddenly rams into mine after he runs through the fire and water which covers my vision. I let out an oomph as he swings my body over his shoulder.

"Put me down!" I laugh. I wiggle in his grip but my younger twin brother is very strong. I can feel him changing direction toward the cliff.

"Don't you dare!" I shout at him, laughing. My hands press against his back and ice begins to form. His body jumps as he suddenly feels the cold burn. He even lets out a little shriek, but not before he chucks me off the side of the cliff. I can hear him sit back down and say,
"now, where were we?" I can only imagine the shocked look that will be on the others faces. I extend my claws and bury them in the rock as I fall, slowly coming to a stop and hanging from my claws. I look at the ground far below me then begin to climb back up the rock to where we eat.

"So, I guess you control water," Oliver says. I smile and nod my head as I go and sit next to Toryn.

"I guess you control the air," Eric says to Tanya. She smiles and nods her head. Her long dark purple hair begins to flutter as the wind picks up.

"What can you do?" I ask. "Lady Indira said that all shifters have powers," I say.

"I can turn people into stone," Eric tells us. My eyes widen. "That is the Scallis family power."

"Wow," Tanya comments, her eyes wide. "Can you show me, turn Isla into stone!" she shouts. I glare at her.

"I am not being turned into stone!" I shout.

"Why? I want to see. Toryn?"

"No way." Tanya roles her eyes.

"I will, Eric has turned me into stone loads of times. Just let me get into an awesome pose," Oliver stands up and holds out his arms in some grand gesture. Eric looks over at Oliver. I frown as his eyes take on a stone like a look, the whole eye. Oliver's whole eye, like Eric's, seems to turn to stone. This time, however, the stone continues covering the rest of his body until a large stone statue of Oliver stands before us.

"He's still conscious in there, he can hear and see everything. He just can't move because he is stone," Eric tells us. I shudder, the thought of being locked in my head like that terrifies me.

"That's kind of scary," Tanya says.

"Don't worry, I don't go turning people into stone unless I have permission. It is highly forbidden to use our powers to intentionally hurt someone outside of training purposes," he tells us. I nod my head and put another pastry into my mouth.

"Can you all show me your powers?" I ask. "Lady Indira and Princess Kayleigh both told us what powers your houses have but I'd like to see them." Oliver returns to a normal state and shakes his body.

"Never get used to that," he mutters under his breath.

"Well, it's hard to show our powers because we can see the future," Maryanne says. I nod my head.

"Did you see our arrival here?" I ask.

"No, it would have been my father who saw such a major vision or my aunt Arabella. They both have the visions pretty strong," she tells us. "Plus my father is the Head of the Scorpallis house so he sees all the visions that we see," Maryanne says. "I am next in line to lead the house so, like all of us, our powers will grow after the choosing."

"Our visions are pretty random," Tylo says. "We don't know what triggers them and they aren't always right. There have been many visions which have changed. We are taught to navigate our visions so we can find out when it will happen and what will cause it to either prevent or ensures that it happens. It is very confusing." I nod my head.

"It sounds it," I mutter.

"I don't think you really want me reading your mind," Daniel says. I frown.

"Not really," I laugh.

"You'll get to see their powers soon, our next lesson is our power training," Iona tells us, standing up.

"Is lunch over already?" Serenity asks.

"We've been out here for forty minutes already and lunch is forty-five. We best start making our way to our next lesson.

We walk into a circular room with a high domed ceiling above us. Red cushions all sit in a circle and a woman in the middle of them. There are also different things all around the room which I guess are things that can be used to help our powers. She stands as we enter and I can tell immediately that she is related to the Scorpallis family. Her skin is the same dark golden tan and her dark brown hair falls to her shoulders.

"Welcome Dragoheirs," she says. "I am Princess Arabella, the younger sister to King Francis and the aunt to Maryanne, Tylo and Finola." I smile.

"It's nice to meet you," I say. She beams, her smile warm.

"Please, take a seat on one of the cushions." I look around and see the rest of the class taking a spot and decide to take a seat next to Iona. Toryn comes to my other side. Eric sits next to him on the other, the two of them chatting away and Tanya next to Eric. Serenity sits next to Tanya, talking to Daniel and Tanya chats across the room to Andrea and Yvette who I have guessed are twins. I am happy to see my siblings talk with others. We have only known each other for a few short hours yet we are already bonding and becoming friends. It has been just the four of us for so long that I wonder how it is coming so easily to us, communicating with others.

"Is everything alright?" Iona asks me. I look at her.

"Yeah, it's just strange. A week ago we never even knew this place existed, that there were other shifters in the world. Now, we have friends and we are communicating with others like we never left society, like we haven't been out of touch with the rest of the world for the past few years," I sigh.

"It comes naturally, you knew us all before you disappeared anyway. Even if you don't remember it, we were still all friends since we were young. It is more like reuniting than meeting new people," she smiles.

"We knew each other?"

"Of course, all Royal children are kept together a lot of the time especially when they join the academy. They grow up together and learn together. It means that they become friends and trust each other and can work as a team when it is their time to rule." I nod my head, a sad smile on my face.

"You're already starting to get your memories back Isla, you'll remember this all soon. Don't worry," Iona smiles. Everyone else gathers in the room and takes a seat on the cushions, then the room goes quiet.

"Good afternoon all," Princess Arabella say, her voice relaxed and soft.

"I would like you all to work in pairs today." I look at Toryn and he looks at me.

"You are going to learn how to use your powers together in a team, so find your partners and I will give you a challenge." Toryn and I don't move as we are already sat next to each other. "I might switch things up a bit," she says. I can see Tanya and Serenity pair up. Princess Arabella goes over to them and thinks for a minute.

"Serenity, can you please go with Eric?" she asks. My sister nods and walks over to Eric.

"Tanya, can you go with Oliver?" Tanya stands and walks toward Oliver.

"Now, Tanya, you control the Winds and Oliver you can turn invisible. What I would like Tanya to be able to do by the end of the lesson, is locate you using the wind whilst you are invisible." Tanya's eyes widen.

"I will help you out soon when I have seen the others." Tanya and Oliver look at each other, confused. Princess Arabella then goes over to Serenity and Eric.

"Serenity, you are Earth and Eric you can turn things into stone. What I would like you to do Eric, is to turn Serenity into Stone and then you have to break out of it Serenity. Once you have done that, I would like you to turn Eric into stone." Serenity's eyes widen. "I will help if you need it," she smiles. "Though your ancestors who had the ability to control the Earth were able to control stone as that is a part of it. It should come naturally." She then walks over to us.

"Water and Fire," she says. "I would like the two of you to weave your powers together. Fire and Water. Neither damaging each other, a perfect balance of each. With you controlling it so the fire doesn't turn the water to steam and the water doesn't put out the flame." We nod our heads then look at each other as she walks away.

"Well, let's begin," I sigh. Holding out my hand, water begins to appear. Toryn does the same with fire.

"Okay, we'll bring them close to each other first," I say, the water dancing toward Toryn's fire. The flames and water swirling around each other but not touching.

"A little closer," Toryn mutters as the space between our elements gets smaller. I can already see the water starting to steam.

"Darn it!" I say, dropping the water. "How do I stop the heat of the flames from making it steam?" I ask.

"Try again," Toryn says. "We need to work together, as one," he says. I look into his glowing eyes and smile.

"Okay, we've worked together all our lives, I'm sure we can do it now," I sigh. We try again. Water and flames dance and swirl until they each form into a ball. Slowly, we bring them closer and closer together. I look at my twin brother and he looks at me. We can do this. The water touches the fire and nothing happens. I look at Toryn. We are working in harmony, our powers against each other are at a complete balance allowing the water and flames to touch, neither stronger than the other. I look at my brother who smiles happily. I take his hands in mine as we sit opposite each other, the ball of water and fire hovering above us. Together, we move the ball around the room, the water swirling on one side and the fire flickering on the other. We seem to work as one, knowing how each other is going to move.

"Let's intertwine them," I say. The ball comes in front of us again. This time, we make the water and fire swirl around each other making a beautiful glowing ball. Smiling, we change the shapes of it, keeping the water and flames in perfect harmony. People duck and weave out of the way as our elements swirl around the room. Exhausted, we drop the elements and they disappear.

"That was really cool," Toryn says.

"We'll have to work on that," I smile.