“Freedom and swiftness”

  “To master the wind, you must know freedom itself,” said Araban, facing David in a room littered with small holes around every corner from the ground to the walls and roof, from which David could sense a drift flow as air blew, moving in and out through them.

  “How exactly am I supposed to know I’m freed?” asked David, confused as to what Araban meant by knowing freedom.

  Araban then let out a tired sigh upon hearing David's question, wondering if he had to explain every minute detail to him.

  “I suppose it will be easy to show you,” Araban spoke as his turned into white draconian eyes, and then, with just a single gesture, summoned a gust of wind blowing out from the hole underneath David’s feet, blowing him off from the ground.

  “No again,” David yelled as the winds lifted him off the ground and sent him flying straight to the ceiling.

  “Feel it as it blew through the wind and around you.” Araban then used the power of the wind to summon another gust of wind to blow down David from the ceiling just before he could collide with it, pushing him back down hard to the ground.

  “That is how you know freedom,” said Araban, while David just lay down, groaning from the pain of his aching body.

  The students of the wind school stood on an open grassy field in the forest not too far from the academy. In front of them was their instructor, Winrin, a slender, simple-looking man who, to the naked eye, could be mistaken for an ordinary man, but…

  “Tell me, do you understand what exactly the power of the wind is?” asked Winrin.

  The students just looked at him with a look of confusion, not understanding the question. Flora simply scoffed, just wanting him to get on with the lesson, as she was bored out of her mind from simply standing out in the open sun.

  Winrin, seeing as none of the students could answer his question, just sighed before snapping a finger. Then a powerful gust of wind blew around the students, circling them and forming a vortex around them.

  The students, shocked and surprised by their teacher’s actions, look at the swirling vortex before them with a look of fear and terror. They could feel the air around them getting thinner as the vortex slowly sucked it all away. Thinking, before all the air could be completely sucked away by the vacuum, the students used their powers to create a dense ball of air around themselves.

  “What’s going on? Why is Mr. Winrin doing this?” asked a student.

  “Is he trying to kill us?” asked another student.

  The students knew their teacher well and knew how difficult his training could be at times, recalling how he once took them to a mountain where the air was at its thinnest all to train; he even once forced them all to lift and push away massive boulders using the power of the earth. There was also a time that he made them all spend an entire day using the power of the wind to keep a rock hovering over their heads; he said it was to enhance their focus and control over the wind, but the exercise still led to most of them having to visit the infirmary with a concussion. But all that paled in comparison to what he was currently putting that through. The winds grew stronger and stronger, and as they did so, most of the students began to struggle to fight against the immense force of the wind pushing against them.

  “I’ll admit, you all are young,” said Winrin with eyes turned into white dragon eyes.

  Most of the students then began flying, being pulled and dragged away by the strong winds straight into the swirling winds of the vortex before being flung out and crashing down hard to the ground.

  “Because of how young you all are, I, along with the rest of the teachers, thought it would be best to only train on the basics; however, due to recent events and the attack of the academy, it has been made abundantly clear to us all that for the sake of you all, you must be able to defend yourselves, and there is no better way to do so than to show you,” said Winrin.

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  More and more of the students were sent flying out by the vortex’s strong winds, with most of them even lashing onto the ground in a desperate attempt to avoid being dragged away by the wind. But it was to no avail, as the strength of the wind seemed to be too much for them, flinging them off the ground and into the swirling winds. Before ejecting them out and crashing them down hard to the ground. Before long nearly all the students had been flung out by the vortex’s raging winds, all with the exception of one student who was seemingly far too stubborn for the wind to drag out.

  Flora gritted her teeth and fought against the strong winds pushing against her, using her powers to create a dense ball of air around herself to try to counter the raging winds blowing around her. But she knew it wouldn’t last; the winds blowing around her were far too strong for her to continue to resist. It was taking every single ounce of strength and power she could muster just to maintain the ball of air around her, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to sustain it much longer.

  Flora’s mind then began racing, thinking of ways she could escape the swirling vortex that didn’t involve her being forcefully flung out of it. As her mind continued racing with different thoughts on her, she could get out, but there was nothing she could come up with. Flora then let out a sigh out of frustration, thinking that there was truly no way she could get it. A sly smirk then formed on her face.

  “Yeah, right,” she said softly with the smirk still plastered on her face.

  She then closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. The ball of air surrounded and protected her, shielding her against the raging winds, then vanished, causing her to be pulled in by the wind.

  “The wind is the fastest of all four elements. Because of its speed, it was able to strike so quickly that it would be impossible to perceive the blow before it was received. But speed alone wasn’t where the power of the wind lay.”

  Flora, with her eyes still shut, began to see flashes of her life, recalling how, for as long as she could remember, she always did things her own way. Always getting into trouble and receiving an earful from her mother. Her father wasn’t always around, as duties as a Golden Dragon General kept him busy, but during moments when he was at home, he would always find a way to make her smile. They would spend their time together laughing, playing, and joking around. Flora felt as though he was the only one that understood. Everyone always yelled at her and kept telling her what to do and what not to do when all she wanted to do was simply play, have fun, and be free.

  “Hey, Flora,” she heard a voice echoing in her mind. She then slowly opened up her eyes and found herself seated on top of a wind dragon flying high up in the sky. She felt someone behind her holding on to her in a loving, warm, and comforting embrace.

  “Yes,” a young Flora responded with a cute and tiny voice to the man holding on to her, Victor Supriyi, her father.

  “Do you know why the wind blows?” asked Victor.

  “Nope,” said Flora while swinging her head from side to side.

  “Do you want to know?” asked Victor.

  “Not really,” replied Flora, causing Victor to chuckle.

  “Well, I’ll tell you anyway,” said Victor.

  “Take a breath,” said Victor as he inhaled, with the young Flora following.

  “Now breathe out,” Victor and Flora then exhaled.

  “Feel the blowing wind, moving you already. It is always on the move, never stopping; even when something opposes it, it keeps moving and either blows it away or blows through it, but it never stops. And do you know why?” asked Victor.

  Flora simply nodded her head no, seemingly more eager to know now.

  “The answer is easy, because it can,” said Victor.

  “What? Is that even a reason?” Flora asked naively while scratching her head.

  “Yes, and a superb one at that,” said Victor.

  “Really, doing something because you can? That counts as a reason,” said Flora.

  “Yes, it does, and in fact, it’s the most important reason one can have. It’s easy to do something that’s asked of you, obey, and comply with any and every command given because you don’t need to think about action; all you have to do is obey and follow. But when you do something because you can, you have to think and contemplate if that is truly something you want and if it’s something worth doing, and then do it. Do you get it, Flora?” asked Victor.

  The young four-year-old just stared at her father with a blank expression on her face, failing to grasp or understand anything he said.

  Victor, seeing the blank look on her face, just sighed before saying, “You’re like the wind, Flora.”

  He then kissed her head.

  “You follow the path you want to follow, and even if something gets in your way, you either blow it away or blow through it. Just be careful and try not to get into too much trouble, and above all else, always be as free as the blowing wind,” said Victor.

  Flora then breathes out and opens up her eyes, which had now turned into white dragon eyes. She then smiled as he felt her body being pulled and dragged by the wind. She then turned to air and joined the wind to blow.

  Stand outside the vortex amidst students who had just managed to get up after being flung out of the vortex Winrin, sensing a presence within the wind, just smiled proudly.