Day three, how I mine for words? (NaNoWriMo)

“Who does she think she is, just because she's one level ahead of us...” Rork let his voice trail off. She must be ready for her exam already, he thought, if she doesn't need her staff or source of fire. Fortunately for him his staff was his source of life force, seeing as it was a living branch, essentially. Donnie was special, as were all Kins, they worked with metal, crafting it, working it into mechanical gizmos and machines or weapons with magical properties, they didn't really need a source of metal to do their magic, as they had their “magics” already built and prepared, for the most part.

“Well, we should probably get to lunch now, and then get back to our studies for tomorrow,” Donnie seemed a little eager to leave, he had after all been standing with Rork for the past several hours since Rork was wanting another chance to see the Grand Wizard, but with this last little nudge, rork finally conceded that it was time to go.

Lunch was nothing unusual, Rork had the typical meat mixed with veggies and swallowed it down without a second thought. He immediately returned to his room, wishing Donnie the best of luck on his final, and returned to his studies, though after spilling blood on his bedroom floor twice, he decided that it might be better to practice on something that stained everything a little less, so he went out to the edge of the nearby forest and grabbed some twigs and several small, broken branches and brought them back to his room.

He awoke the next morning feeling dreadfully tired, but was glad to see the trees that were now growing inside his room. He felt ready for this test. It might be Friday, and his day of weakness, but there's nothing that a whole week full of cramming can't help. At least that's what he felt before he heard what he had to do in order to pass his final exam.

Chapter 3

“I have to do what?!” Rork exclaimed as one of his professors explained the task he had to perform to continue on with his studies at the next level.

“The concept is simple. Professor Turan here will be using one of his mechanical devices to chop down trees; your job will be to stop him. The method is up to you, though usually fast regrowth of the tree is what most students have done. It can slow down the blade and eventually stop it if done for long enough. Of course, the tree must still be living in order for you to pass, so you can't just draw upon the tree's own strength. Do you understand the task at hand?” The professor, robed in brown finished his explanation with the question this time, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head to the side to put emphasis on how stupid Rork sounded asking that question.

Anger starting to seethe from within, Rork managed an “I understand,” before the professor nodded and gave the signal.

“Professor Turan, you may begin!” And with that, Turan pulled his green tinted goggles over his eyes and started up the contraption on his back which sputtered and spat out smoke. As it whirred to life, Turan turned the handles, causing the circular blade in front of him to spin quickly.

Rork looked at the field before him. It was just a normal exercise field with grass on the ground, except that now there were twelve large trees growing in a small clump in the middle of the field. Why today? Why this? Not only is it my weakest day, but I'm going up against the element that is stronger than me on the day when he's strongest. Rork grit his teeth as Turan turned to the first tree and put the blade against the bark. Chips started flying and as Rork made his mental connection with the tree, he could feel the pain the tree felt in a drastically lessened way. Fighting to gain focus through the fog of pain was almost more than Rork could bear, let alone trying to force the tree to grow into the blade which was cutting it. While causing a tree to grow with its own energy was simple, and forcing a tree to grow without any added energy was now only somewhat easy, forcing it to grow into what was hurting it was like trying to erase the chalk off a chalkboard by using your fingernails to scratch off the chalk.

There was no way that Rork was going to be able to stop the machine with just quick growth. Something else would have to be done.

The blade spun freely and loudly as it finished cutting through the first tree.

Rork winced feeling the tree cry out in pain as it toppled over and landed right in front of the adjudicator's table. Interesting, there were only three agonarchs at my last trial, now there's four. And one of them is wearing gray instead of brown. This fact didn't keep Rork's attention for long, however, as Turan was already driving his whirring blade into the second tree.

Gotta suck it up came Rork's initial reaction,and again, he tried to cause the growth of the tree to increase, he even tried bringing in some of his own life force to help the tree, but the tree needed much more than he was able to provide, and he quickly found himself even weaker than before.

The blade made its exit through the back of the second tree.

Again, the tree fell over towards the agonarchs, this time coming much closer than before. It almost seemed like it would land on them. Three of the adjudicators in brown looked up and flinched, but the fourth remained calm as a barrier of light caught the tree and deflected it harmlessly onto the first.

“Sorry about that,” shouted out Turan, “I'll be more careful with my cutting from now on.” And with that, he revved up the machine, and approached the third tree.

And that's when Rork realized why there was a fourth official at his testing. It should have been obvious, first of all because only those who were strong in that element were allowed to grade the finals, but also no one had a long, white beard like the fourth man, dressed in the simple, gray robe. Holy cow! The Grand Wizard is watching my third level exam! Rork turned back to the third tree as Turan started chopping into the woody flesh of its trunk.

Looking around quickly, Rork reached out to the grass instead of the tree, and forced it to grow. While this was still difficult, it came much easier, as he wasn't causing it to grow to its death. The grass grew slowly, but with purpose. Turan didn't notice it until it had already wrapped itself around his ankles and had started climbing up his legs.

“Woah!” Turan let go of the controls, stopping the blade as he reached for his sword which was at his side.

With Turan distracted, Rork focused back on the tree, causing it to regrow its lost portions and growing around Turan's blade

Turan had chopped himself free by this time, and looking over at the tree let a small smirk escape. “Well, you've done ok so far, but,” at this point in time he pulled the blade out of the tree, sending splinters flying, “the blade wasn't in deep enough to keep me from pulling it out.” He started up the devil machine again, and it almost seemed as though he were cutting through the tree faster than before.

Enraged by his success which was ripped out from underneath him, Rork Reached back out to the grass, this time though, instead of just telling it to grow, he commanded it to grow differently. He was so focused on the grass, however, he didn't notice that the agonarchs had stood up, mouths open in awe as not grass, but giant oaks sprung up from the ground, lifting Turan high into the sky, scratching and cutting him on the way up because they were growing so quickly. Higher, and higher and higher the trees went until finally “ENOUGH!” was heard from where the officials were sitting. Caught off guard by the sudden outburst, Rork unconsciously disconnected himself from the grass-turned-tree and looked up just in time to see the Grand Wizard himself appear at the top of the tree stand, grab Turan, and then watched as both of them disappeared, only to see them on the grass, the three brown robed professors rushing towards Turan.

As the three tended his wounds, the Grand Wizard walked towards Rork. “That was some display of power, and on your day of weakness too.”

Rork just stood there, mouth wide open, unable to put two understandable syllables together. Who was he, that the Grand Wizard should compliment him on his strength? This was definitely going home in his letter.

Rork watched on as, with just a twinkle in his eye, the Grand Wizard caused the trees behind him to shrink back down to their normal size and nature. “Well, boys, it looks like what you told me is correct. Now, Rork, what you've shown today is truly outrageous. Not only did you overcome your weak element, but you did it on your weak day. You even took it a step further and almost reached the fourth level without any teachings on how to get there. I think you may have the gift I'm looking for. Now, I'm afraid I must be leaving and for several weeks at that, but then I will return and, with your permission, take you on as my pupil.”

Again, Rork could do nothing but stare, jaw slackened as he heard news flowing into his ears that was too good to be true. The Grand Wizard's pupil? That only happened to one person in a hundred years, and then it was expected of that pupil to be the next Grand Wizard.

Rork pinched his cheek to make sure that he wasn't dreaming and expected to feel the tug of sentience pull him back into a morning grog, but nothing came.

(howdy all!  I have written yet another section of my amazing story, hope you all are enjoying it!  With a little luck, you might even be loving it! woohoo! yeah.  Again, it's still unedited, though I did make one change about the Kins, they also do weapons now instead of just gizmos and machines.  Just some more lore with which you guys must keep up.  Hope everyone's day is going superly!  Enjoy your Friday and weekend (though, you'll hopefully be checking in for those days too)! peace!)