Chapter 2 - Ripples in the water

Chapter 2
Ripples in the water

Zain picked up the ball of ice he had created off the table and rolled it around in his palm. His father had just left to get himself ready for the ceremony, and Zain’s mother and sisters were in the centre room sorting their hair. Zain still held the power of water and strained to try and make a connection to the ice. He tried to melt it, make it float or move but couldn’t do anything with it anymore, at least not with his power. The icy lump didn’t feel nearly as cold as Zain believed it would. His father told him that because it was made with the power not through lack of temperature must be the reason why it barely felt cold at all. Zain picked the other two spheres of ice off the table and walked over to the kitchen sink placing them inside directly under the sun light to melt. If they would melt, his father hadn’t mentioned whether they would or not, but Zain believed they surely would eventually. The heat from the sun felt nice on his face standing in front of the window and he considered once more what they day would hold for him.
Lost in thought, he stared outside and admired the rolling grassland scattered with one story buildings made of solid wood with slate tiled roofs. Most of the houses were built on solid stone foundations that extended out of the hillside and many folk had build sloped gardens around their homes on the hill where their house stood. The grass gently swayed in the light breeze that had earlier cooled Zain’s feet when he lay in his room, and flowers of every colour and size danced and basked in the sunlight. Tall flowered trees swayed gently finishing the idyllic scene. The sun’s light made it difficult to see, but Zain could make out a light faded waxing crescent of Tamptal in the distance. Tamptal was one of the once ten planets in the Retina system, and was home to the Nature Mathrin. At certain times of the year with the right weather, Tamptal’s lush surface could be seen clearly, broken with what Zain believed was oceans, however they looked more like tremendous rivers running from the north to the south of the planet like webs could be seen clearly. Considering the distance made it difficult to distinguish how large they actually were. There were also three further spheres in the sky. Two Zain had seen more times than he could ever recall. Tineena and Mikel were Seeth’s only moons, which glowed in beautiful oranges and reds during the right sunset. The third sphere in the sky, slightly larger than the moons yet smaller than Tamptal, even considering how close it was to Seeth, was what was filling Zain with dread.
Martarana is considered the planet of the creator. Although it was marginally smaller than any planet in the Retina system, smaller than even some moons, Martarana is the heart of the system and the possible reason Zain could be leaving his home, his family, his planet forever. It had been coming into orbit for the last week, and yesterday the planetary gate had apparently lit up like a beacon and the streets of Sanda had been alive with music, lights and partying in celebration. Martarana only came into Seeth’s orbit every six years meaning that Zain had been too young to be up for testing, even though he had began connecting to his power. This year he would face the testing like every other young person between the ages of fourteen and twenty four.
Zain walked away from the window and headed for the back door pushing thoughts of the day away again. The less he thought about what was going to occur, the less likely it seemed it was going to happen at all. Although, deep down, he knew for a fact there was no escaping his fate.
He pulled open the light brown door and enjoyed letting the cool breeze caress his face. His house was also built on a solid stone foundation, against a hill that was decorated in a sea of flowers. His mother and sisters had spent years caring for their garden to create such a beautiful display of flora. It was Zain’s and his father’s job to ensure the garden was well watered, which was a necessity due to Seeth being such a warm planet. Only last week Zain had carried what he assumed was almost a tonne of water from the lake using their powers, before making it fall like rain all over their hillside garden. Using the power of water made it extremely easy to perform such tasks as watering a garden or filling up the water tank when it fell low, something many families did not have the luxury of. However, since the age of thirteen when Zain had just started connecting to his power many folk around the village had found use of him and been more than happy to pay some pocket money for his services. Messem (Mrs) Dean had Zain working in her garden or around her house at least four times a week and was always generous at the end of the week with her payment. Messem Dean was renowned in the village for her Titan fruit cookies which Zain’s family were never short of due to Zain’s services. In fact for the last four years Messem Dean had given Zain a plate full with his weekly allowance every week without fail. No doubt she would miss his company too, if he was chosen today.
Zain decided to try and enjoy the morning as best he could before he had to travel to Sanda in the afternoon. Most families had to travel across the planet months in advance just for their child to attend the ceremony, luckily for Zain, or perhaps unlikely, the only working planetary gate was located in the mountains just above the city of Sanda. Seeth actually had two other planetary gates to Zain’s knowledge, but they were deactivated in the War on Spirit. Any other gates were destroyed completely. Zain’s school teacher had taught him that thousands of years ago the planets had been littered with planetary gates, and people and other creatures could walk freely from planet to planet to live or trade. It was a complete economic circle where the planets supported one another through good and bad times. Those times were long passed now and Zain knew that only twice a year the planetary gate above Sanda would light up aside from when Martarana was in orbit. Once during the summer, when Tamptal and Seeth’s gates were aligned for six hours a day over the course of a week. During this time, a trade ceremony would take place and people from all over the planet would come to Sanda to trade with Tamptal. Sometimes the people of Tamptal would trade goods they had acquired from other planets, or detailed plans of new and innovative ideas that people could create, should they have the resources. Seeth trades mainly in items such a cattle, produce and fish. Seeth’s southern hemisphere has masses of barley which they brew into wonderful flavoured beers and ales to trade. The people of Tamptal are not big drinkers, so the ale traders from Seeth rely on the second trading season with Seeth’s other neighbouring planet Son’Leraily, home to the Stone Mathrin. This occurred during winter on Seeth and an identical parade and ceremony occurs. Seeth benefits from trade with Son’Leraily in many ways, the primary being the trade of slate, coal and other stone that can be used to repair buildings in the cities and fuel the fires in people’s homes. Seeth produces coal and other stone itself of course but not at the rate or quality that Son’Leraily can.
Zain made his way down the sloped path from his home, walking past his sister’s vegetable patches where the stems of the root vegetable underneath were beginning to sprout flowers. The scent of mint caught Zain’s nose and reminded him of beef dinners which instantly transformed into a sense of loss and despair and thoughts of what he might lose today. He reached the bottom of the hill which was surrounded by a low picketed fence that was painted white with red stripes. Strolling down the dusty hard packed path that weaved in and out of the low hills decorated with people’s homes, Zain enjoyed the scents drifting from peoples open kitchen windows most of whom were cooking a breakfast to celebrate today’s ceremony, instead of the usual platter of fruit that most enjoyed. Zain could have sworn he smelt bacon. He had never tried bacon but had heard wonderful things about it. Chewy and salty, it sounded divine. His mother didn’t approve of eating pigs for some unknown reason. She just claimed they were lovely and cleaver animals and disagreed with them being eaten.
Lost in thought Zain eventually reached the end of the path and found himself standing in front of Lake Lalida. He took a seat on the small patch of soft sand in between the grassy ledge and the water. He held his connection to the power the entire time since creating the ball of ice in the kitchen earlier and found himself shortly controlling a football sized orb of water from the lake. He made the water float and move around in the air like a fish before deciding to attempt freezing it. He went through the motions his father taught him and watched in amazement at his own ability as the water, if slower than last time due to it’s size, froze completely into a shimmering ball of ice. Again the connection to it snapped away and it splashed into the water below. Zain watched the ripples of the water spread out right up to the edge of the water. The last ripple faded as it hit the shore and Zain saw his reflection in the water. His face didn’t look right. He wasn’t smiling, why was his reflection smiling? He frowned but his face didn’t reflect it. He stared intently at the waters surface. His reflection grew darker. His veins turned black in his neck. The darkness crawled up into his face. Zain’s breathe quickened and heart was pounding. His eyes strained with fear staring at his own reflection. The black was creeping further into his face. The smile grew wider, darker and his eyes were turning yellow. Within a flash his image became distorted into another face, a face of evil, of darkness and of hate. Burning yellow eyes with black smouldering features stared back at him. The face bulged into a massive reflection and a screaming burnt Zain’s ears. Screams of death and of pain, of hatred and lies.
Zain leapt to his feet and scrambled up the ledge, panting as he ran back up the dusty path. His thoughts were awash with terror. The beautiful scenery and wonderful smells, the soft breeze or the sun on his face were no longer in his mind. Only pure fear coursed in his mind. He was not sure how long he ran but suddenly found himself with his back against the wooden door to the kitchen of his house. Heart pounding from fear and from running Zain forced himself to be calm. He had lost his connection to the Power of Water at some point and in his current state wouldn’t be able to connect to again until he was calm. His muscles gave way and he slid down the door until he sat on the floor with his knees up towards his chest. He closed his eyes and the monstrous face flickered in mind. Surely it was just his imagination? He was so stressed from what today could mean for him that he was seeing things. Hearing things as well though?
After he had collected his thoughts and calmed down, Zain stood up and returned to the kitchen to find his mother wiping down the surfaces with her prized Cooth cloth, her face turned to concern upon seeing his face. “You okay Zain? Your face is so pale. Here come have some water”, she said as she walked over to the top cupboard in the left side of the room and pulled out a thin, tall wooden cup and pumped water into it while Zain took his seat at the table. His mind was racked by what had occurred at the lake but he couldn’t bring himself to tell his mother. Not today, he wouldn’t tell her on a day as important as today.
“I’m okay mum, just… I just err went for a jog to clear my thoughts. Guess I’m not as fit as I thought I was. It’s a lovely day for a jog though”, he tried a small laugh to convince her. He didn’t think she bought it. He took the glass of water and drank gratefully, pushing the thoughts of the face in the water away and finally accepting the thoughts of what today could mean for him.