Ember
Lime seems asleep on the ground next to me, his little limestone body glittering in the sun’s warmth. A gentle breeze passes through the same trees and secluded field that surrounded me last night, blowing my hair in front of my face, but my attention doesn’t waver from the pebbles trembling at my feet—a sign of Stella’s wrath.
“I just don’t get Billy,” Stella snaps as she paces in front of me. Her blue hoodie matches the sky, and her black curls are tied up in a messy bun that bounces with each of her steps. “If he didn’t want to tutor me, then he never should’ve offered! He always gets sidetracked because of her.” The shaking of the pebbles intensifies until she finally sits beside Lime and begins ripping blades of grass out of the ground. “I just thought that… I dunno.” She sighs. “It’s stupid.”
I tilt my head with concern. “What’s stupid?”
Stella throws some grass. The breeze twirls it away from us. “That I meant more to him than some kind of trainee.”
“You like Billy; don’t you?” I ask, smiling.
Lime sits upright and stares at Stella curiously.
“I don’t know.” Stella focuses on the grass. “It doesn’t matter. He can date whoever he likes, but he’s not taking this training thing seriously. That’s my issue.”
“I get it,” I say sympathetically. “I mean, I’d be upset too if I were in your shoes.”
“Well, lucky for you,” she says with a hint of a smile. “You have someone who doesn’t let you down. Even when Aiden was late to our study session last week, he made it up to you that night. Didn’t he?”
Kisses are all I remember from the time she’s referring to. “Um, sure.”
“Oh?” Stella smirks.
Blush flames my cheeks. “We did some studying.”
A realization sparks in Stella’s dark brown eyes. “I see.”
“Yeah… I mean…” My cheeks grow hotter. “We’ve been together for a little bit, you know?”
“Yeah.” Her smile grows larger. “You have been.”
I shrug. “I don’t know. We’ve…” Lime stares at me with large, round, shadow-filled eyes. He’s so small, cute, and innocent. Even if I want to talk to Stella more and pick her mind about guys, I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to do it in front of our little rock buddy.
Stella follows my gaze to Lime and gets the hint. “Why don’t I make you a little friend to play with? Does that sound okay, little guy?”
Lime jumps to his feet and claps enthusiastically.
Stella’s eyes turn milky white as she concentrates on a spot next to her. There’s a low hum, almost like the ground is moaning. The pebbles rattle near my foot again, and a few cracks form in a circular pattern on the ground. A chunk of dirt explodes upward, scattering earth into the air. The chunk is egg-shaped and double the size of Lime. It cracks, and a dark gray rock bursts out. Like magic, three spots concave on its surface, creating two eyes, and a mouth underneath them. A little moss mimics a beard, giving the creature an elderly quality. Two small arms and two little legs form using rock from its body, causing it to shrink ever so slightly.
The new golem blinks a few times, focuses on me, and falls backward with a squeal.
Stella giggles, and her eyes revert to their dark brown color. “Hmm, we’ll call you Rocky.” She glances at Lime. “Why don’t you take Rocky to the edge of the woods and play?”
Lime trods to Rocky, who is now sniffing the grass. Lime taps Rocky’s shoulder, and he looks up with a grunt, confusion etched across his stone face. Lime helps him to his feet and points at the woods. Rocky stumbles a few times while they walk until Lime picks up a stick and gives it to him to use like a cane. Once they reach their destination, Lime gets a brown leaf and shows it to his new friend. Rocky stares at the foliage with wide, amazed eyes.
“Okay. Where were we?” Stella says, snapping my attention back to her. “It sounded like you and Aiden are getting pretty cozy; aren’t you?”
I bite my lip and look away, staring at the leafless trees. “I mean, he is my boyfriend.”
“We don’t need to talk about it, Em. I just got the vibe that you wanted to.”
“Well,” I say, feeling a little self-conscious. “There’s actually something I want to pick your mind about.”
“Sure. Shoot.”
“Have… have you ever been with someone?”
She squints. “What do you mean?”
“You know, been with someone.”
Her eyebrows rise with recognition. “Oh. That.”
“Yeah.” I realize it’s hard for me to talk about sex. I know I want to be more intimate with Aiden, but my knowledge is so limited on the subject. I pick at the grass, distracting myself with the coolness of the dirt. “That.”
Stella leans back on her hands. “I had a couple boyfriends in high school, and we messed around a little, but we never went that far.”
“Why not? If you don’t mind my asking.”
She shrugs. “I wasn’t ready, but a friend of mine was. She had a good relationship with her boyfriend, and they made sure to be safe. She trusted him, and he really cared for her. They only broke up later because they were going to different universities in other cities and didn’t know if the stress of a long-distance relationship would be good for them. They’re still friends though.”
“They broke up?”
“Yeah, but I told you that because of a lot it comes down to trusting who you are with. I never really felt that security with any of my boyfriends, which is why none of them lasted that long. They were always abandoning me for one reason or another.”
I let Stella’s words sit with me for a moment. “I see.”
“So, I take it you and Aiden haven’t slept together yet?”
“No.” I shake my head, feeling my insecurities boil inside me. “Not yet. We… well, we want to, but we aren’t quite ready.”
“Oh?”
My nerves intensify, and I stumble over my words. “We… we haven’t, well, figured out the best way to make sure no… no surprises happen, if you get what I mean.”
Stella nods. “Ah.”
“Yeah.” I think about the other night with Aiden, of being intimate with him and of our hearts racing. We always stop, knowing we can’t go any further, then the topic of sex dies as quickly as we had brought it up. “But it’s not like either of us has tried to figure out what to do next.”
“Why not?”
The reason swells within me, engulfing my heart. “I’m nervous.”
Stella’s eyes are understanding. “That’s understandable. It’s a big step.”
I swallow hard and fidget with my hands. “It is.”
“Eliza never talked to you about any of this?”
Involuntarily, I wince at hearing Eliza’s name. “I mean, she did, a little. Some basics, but nothing too in-depth. Since I was homeschooled and practically a hermit, she knew she didn’t have to worry about me getting pregnant.” I sigh. “I guess, like a lot of things, there wasn’t a dire need to talk about it.”
The breeze blusters, carrying scents of wet earth and a saltiness that reminds me of the lake on the other side of campus. More of Stella’s curls escape her bun like couch springs.
“Sometimes it can also just be uncomfortable to talk about,” she says, her tone comforting.
“A lot of things were,” I mumble.
“It’s okay if you want to take more time with Aiden. You know that, right?”
“Oh, definitely,” my words come out quickly. “I know Aiden would understand because he’s a decent human being, but I want to. I trust him. We just need to figure some things out.”
“If it helps you to know, I’m on the pill,” Stella says matter-of-factly.
“You are?”
She nods. “I started taking it a few months ago to help keep my cycle regular, but I guess it’s a good preemptive measure.”
“Maybe I’ll look into that, then.”
“They have other options here on campus. Just so you know.”
“They do?” I ask, feeling a little more comfortable with the topic.
“Yeah. You can go to the nurse’s station, and they’ll help you figure it out.”
I smile, grateful that I brought up this topic with Stella. “That’s great. Maybe that’ll help Aiden and me over this bump. Thanks for letting me pick your mind about all of this.”
She smiles. “Of course. Anytime.”
A bird calls in the distance, and another one answers. I sigh, feeling a little relieved that I at least know what to do next about one situation in my life.
“How are you doing otherwise?” I hear the concern in Stella’s voice. “I know yesterday was rough, but I didn’t want to push you too hard about things last night.”
I take a deep breath, letting the fresh air soothe me, but a pit forms in my stomach. “I told you pretty much the rundown of what happened. There’s nothing more I can do until I talk to Eliza again.”
“When do you think that’ll be?”
“I think I’ll wait until after the Defender test.” I stare off into the shadows of the woods, feeling the weight of all my worries settle back over me. “I need to get through that before I take on any more emotional trauma.”
Stella lays her hand on my knee. “I think that’s completely reasonable.”
I try to smile, but my lips don’t work right, and I’m pretty sure I resemble a frog. “Thanks.”
She pats my knee. “How about we train? That’s the whole reason we came out here anyway before I went on my Billy rant.”
I laugh genuinely. “I also think that was completely reasonable.”
She glances at Lime and Rocky, who are now building a little house from sticks and leaves. “Let me get those guys, and we’ll get started.”
We get to our feet. I stretch my arms in front of me, getting ready to battle. It’s always a doozy going against Stella’s golems, but it’s fun to train with someone other than Aiden to get practice against different abilities.
Stella gathers Lime and Rocky and carries them over in her arms.
“So,” I say, studying the golems in her secure hold. “I don’t think you’ve ever explained to me how you create these little guys. What’s it like?”
She smiles and sets Lime and Rocky on the ground. Her eyes turn milky white again with a swirl of gray. “It’s hard to describe.” She scans the field. “I feel each rock buried in the ground for miles down, but some are way larger than others, and if I disturb too many, I could probably cause a sinkhole. I sense the endoliths living in them.”
“Endoliths?”
“They’re little organisms that live in rocks. I tap into them and share their life force with the rest of the rock, which allows me to change the formation into golems. I only really learned about the term a few years ago when I was doing some research. For the longest time, I had no clue what I was doing.” She laughs. “Plus, focusing on training these last few months has helped me hone my ability.”
Lime squeals loudly and puffs out his chest. Rocky imitates him but coughs.
An expression full of genuine joy stretches across my face, and I give Stella a proud smile. “You know, your ability is pretty darn cool.”
She waves her hand in the air like she’s dismissing my comment but smiles ear to ear. “Girl. Don’t I know it.”
My eyes burn hot. Thermal energy swells from the ground, through my body, and twists around my wrists like two large rings. “Let’s practice, shall we?”
Stella squeezes her hand upward and squints at the ground a few yards from her. It shifts and rumbles. I firmly plant my feet so I don’t lose my balance. Two boulders, one a little bigger than Stella, the other a bit smaller, burst from the ground and land with a boom. Stella twists her hand, and the boulders mold together like an invisible sculptor forming them. The golem groans like bending steel as its body forms. Arms emerge like two rock clubs on each side, and a head forms with deep hollow eyes and a cracked line indicating a mouth. The legs are lanky but thick. It sways for a moment, adjusting to its new lifeform, and blinks a few times before focusing on Stella.
Stella waves. “Hey there. I’ll call you Alphonse.”
It smiles, as if welcoming the name.
My stomach flips. This golem is quite larger than the last one she created when we practiced.
Stella turns to me, and her lips pinch up in the corners. “Are you ready?”
“Sure am.” I surge more thermal energy into my hands. An orange aura appears around me, and my auburn locks float off my shoulders, turning even more red in the sunlight. “But first, a little tip. You’ll want to improve your speed with creating these guys. I could’ve easily taken you out before Alphonse was done forming.”
Stella purses her lips. “That’s true. Maybe I’ll see if I can be faster with the next one, but for now, let’s see how he does.” She nods toward Alphonse. “Okay, big guy, go get her!”
Alphonse heads straight for me with strong, heavy but quick strides.
My heart does a mini somersault.
I aim heat blasts at the golem. Each one is larger than the last, launching through the air like shooting stars. They burst into flames on his chest but die out quickly. Alphonse lowers his head, narrowing his black eyes, and quickens his pace like a charging bull.
He doesn’t seem to appreciate my attacks.
I dodge out of the way just in the nick of time, letting him pass me, and attack him with a blast on his back. It explodes like a firework on impact. Alphonse turns quicker than I thought he could and knocks my shoulder—hard. I tumble to the ground, extinguishing my aura, and gasp for breath.
Alphonse comes after me, each step causing a mini quake. The thermal energy in the ground licks hungrily around my body, begging for me to claim it—and I do. My body tenses with energy, and I lift off the ground, floating. I manipulate the energy in the air into a lasso to capture Alphonse. The golem groans as the energy squeezes him. Dark marks form on his body, and steam rises into the air. A small crack forms around his midsection.
Every inch of me is alive with the energy dripping from my pores, wanting to consume what is in front of me.
A larger crack travels up Alphonse’s chest, and he groans while failing to grip the burning energy around him.
“Dang, Ember!” Stella yells.
Alphonse slightly blocks my sight of her.
“What’s up with your skin?”
I dare a glance at my arm. Confusion smothers the inferno in me. My skin is shimmering with the tiniest bit of sparks fluttering throughout. They’re blue, reminding me of Aiden.
Alphonse breaks from my bonds, and his fist meets my face at an exponential speed. Stars. I see stars, and I’m flat on my back, coughing for air. My cheek feels three times its normal size and aches horribly.
“Ember!” Stella rushes to my side.
Lime and Rocky crawl up my torso to examine my face.
“Are you okay?”
“Ow!” I reach for my cheek and wince in pain as my jaw pops back into place.
“I’m so sorry! I was, well, I was taking advantage of you being distracted,” Stella admits ashamedly. “I told Alphonse not to hit you that hard, but I don’t think he cared for your fire lasso trick all that much.”
“Probably not.” I chuckle but wince again as I slowly move my jaw around. “I guess good on you for taking advantage of an opportune moment.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to actually hurt you.”
Something dawns on me. “Wait. Did you say you told Alphonse not to hit that hard? I didn’t hear you say a word.”
“I can communicate with him telepathically.”
My eyes bulge. “You can?”
She nods. “Yeah. I can with the larger golems I create but not the smaller ones, like Lime or Rocky. I’m not sure why, but it may just have to do with their mass or something.”
Lime frowns while looking at my cheek. Rocky steps next to him, also examining my injury. The contrast between Lime’s clean limestone body and Rocky’s aged, dirty rock body seems comical almost. Even though Lime is older in golem years, Rocky seems a bit wiser. Or it may just be the moss beard.
“What do you guys think? Will I make it?”
Lime pats my non-injured cheek, and Rocky nods.
I look at Stella. “Let’s get back to it, then.”
“Are you sure?”
I gently place Lime and Rocky on the ground and stand, ignoring the throbbing in my cheek. “If I stayed down every time I got punched, I’d never get anywhere.” Thermal energy reignites my hands, and my aura resurfaces. I glance at Alphonse standing a few feet behind Stella and nod in his direction. “What do you say, big guy? Ready to go again?”
Alphonse nods and punches his hands together.
Stella’s eyes turn milky white, and the cracks in Alphonse disappear. She steps backward, admiring her work.
I light up like a match and narrow my eyes with a knowing look at Stella. “I should go after you, shouldn’t I?”
She smirks. “Probably, since the golems are tied to my abilities.”
I aim a small heat blast at her, but she drops, dodging my attack. She sweeps out her bottom leg, and I flip backward, using a small speed boost, putting me quite a few yards from her. Alphonse charges at me. I channel a wave of thermal energy, and it rushes toward him, ready to consume him.
Sharp pinches prick my legs. I hop backward in pain, noticing Lime and Rocky biting me. The distraction dissipates my thermal energy wave. “Hey!” I shout and aim small heat blasts at them, knocking them off me.
Lime squeals loudly and lands with a thud a few feet from me. He raises his fist in anger. Rocky lands a little farther away in a cloud of yellow dust but doesn’t move.
Alphonse stops mid-run, focusing on Rocky, as do we all.
Stella’s eyes return to normal. “Oh, no,” she says, her voice pained, and heads toward Rocky.
“I’m sorry.” Regret pours over me like a bucket of water, extinguishing my abilities. “Is he okay?”
Stella picks up Rocky, and I approach her. With sad eyes, Lime crawls up Stella’s body.
I take in the view of Rocky in Stella’s arms. His eyes are barely open, and numerous cracks, like spider webs, scar his body. Very slowly, he turns his head toward Stella’s, and a whimper escapes him, like he’s in pain.
My heart shatters, and I glance at Stella. “Can’t you fix him?”
Stella shakes her head. “Unfortunately, no. He’s made of sandstone, which I discovered after trying to practice with sand, that it doesn’t form a strong surface. If it was just a couple cracks, he may be okay, but there are just too many. His structure is too weakened.”
“Oh, no. I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have let him fight. Plus, I would’ve needed to put him back to sleep anyway. I can only handle having one little golem alive constantly.” She eyes Lime. “Isn’t that right, buddy?”
Lime takes Rocky’s hand and nods, but his sadness remains.
Stella heads for the edge of the woods, and she lays Rocky on the ground next to the little stick house he built with Lime. He closes his eyes, and Stella places her hand on his little head. Her eyes glow white, and she closes them. A somberness falls over her. Rocky sighs, and his features dissolve. The rest of his body cracks, turning into sandstone chunks on the grass.
I swallow back the tension in my throat. Though I’ve seen Stella put other golems back to sleep, this one hits me harder than the rest. Maybe it’s because I’m the reason his little, short life was put to a quicker end.
Lime sits next to the spot of sandstone, staring at it, unmoving.
Stella pats his head. She stands, looking at me. “I think Lime gets lonely sometimes. He’s never too happy with me when I put the other golems back to sleep.”
“Maybe you can make another one sometime that can stick around?”
She chuckles, but it feels forced. “Definitely not while I’m in school. I know my limits, and Lime keeps me on my toes enough as it is.”
“That’s fair.”
Stella eyes Alphonse. “Plus, Lime knows he’s an exception. I can’t have all these golems just running around. That would be chaotic.”
Picturing a herd of rock golems loose on campus grounds is both comical and terrifying. “I agree with you there.”
“I won’t lie,” Stella’s gaze falls to the ground. “The first time I put one of my golems back to sleep, it nearly killed me. I felt so bad, but my creations are meant to protect, not to keep me company. That’s why I hope I’ve improved enough to make it into the Defender program. If I don’t, well, I’ll have to rethink a lot of things.”
I walk to Stella and rest a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll just have to keep on practicing to make sure we both make it in. What do you say?”
Stella’s eyes glow white once again, resembling marble. “The program will be lucky to have us.”
My eyes burn. “That’s my girl.”