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Brock awoke with a start, breathing heavily. He looked around frantically for a few moments, before realizing where he was. He fell back on his pillow with a sigh. It was only a dream. Or he hoped it was anyway. There had been an enormous storm with lightning and flooding rain. Brock shuddered when he thought of the noise the thunder made. It was enough to shake even the sturdiest of buildings.
Hoping against hope that this really was a mere dream and not a vision, Brock slid out of bed quietly. Walking carefully so as not to wake everyone else up, especially his bunkmate who could have a terrible temper, he headed out to the main room of their dorm. The sun was just peeking through the large, rectangular windows, so Brock figured breakfast would already be ready.
Sure enough, when he arrived at the grand Dining Hall, plates of food were already laid out. Muffins, pancakes, cereal, waffles, Brock had first pick of everything. However, he wasn’t too hungry, so he settled for a banana and some chocolate milk for now. It wasn’t long before other students began trickling in. A few said hi to him and plopped themselves around him. Others settled at different tables, waiting for their friends or looking around in daze, still trying to wake up. Today was a Saturday, so most students didn’t even bother to change out of their pajamas.
Brock noticed some fallen silverware and suddenly an image of an older student tripping over said utensils popped into his mind. He blinked and shook his head.
“You okay?” a voice to his right startled him. One of his roommates, Evan, was looking at him worriedly.
“Yeah… I think I just had a little vision.” The words were barely out of Brock’s mouth when he noticed the exact same girl he’d seen a few moments before. And she was walking straight towards the silverware. “Watch out!” Brock cried, jumping up and reaching out to catch her arm just as she tripped. Instead of falling and skinning her knee like in his vision, Brock was able to catch her just in time.
“Oh! Thank you! How’d you react so quickly? Do you have a speed affinity?” she asked, straightening her clothes out.
Brock flushed and fidgeted a little. “I, um, I’m a seer…” he mumbled.
The girl fell silent for just a moment before shaking her head at herself and saying cheerfully, “Well, thank you for helping me out. You definitely made my morning much better than it would have been!” And with that she skipped away. Brock noticed her friends trying to whisper urgently to her, but she brushed them off.
He sighed again and went back to his seat, suddenly aware of the amount of eyes on him. Hoping he would suddenly get sucked into the ground by some mysterious force, he continued nibbling on his banana. He was even less hungry now. Brock knew the stigma surrounding seers. Sure it wasn’t as bad as the one surrounding those with a dark magic affinity, but still. Why did people have to be afraid of him? He couldn’t help his visions, they just happened. It’s not like he caused the accidents or asked the pets to run away from home. Half the time, it was everyone else’s fault for not listening to him in the first place. That’s why he kept his mouth shut now, most of the time anyway.
“Hey, man, that was awesome,” Evan interrupted Brock’s thoughts. “I didn’t even notice that silverware on the ground.”
Brock looked up and smiled meekly at Evan who grinned and patted his back in response. “Here, try these pancakes. I’m not sure, but I think they have peppermint in them. What do ya think?”
Brock realized Evan was trying to distract him and gratefully took the pancake on his plate. Before he could take a bite, however, a yell caused him to jerk his head toward the entrance of the Dining Hall. Evan’s bunkmate, Jonathan, was running down the aisle shouting something like “It’s raining in the dorm!”
He skidded to a stop in front of Evan and Brock who looked at him in confusion. But Jonathan was too out of breath to talk and only managed to wheeze out a few words including, “Brian,” “rain,” and “oops.” But that was all Brock needed to hear, and he started hurrying back up the stairs.
Brock burst into the main room of his dorm and stepped back in surprise when his shoes filled with water. Sloshing around the entire room was at least two inches of water. Panicking slightly now, Brock splashed across the room and flung open the door to the dorm room, only to be met with a small wave of water that chilled his legs. Standing in the middle of the room was his bunkmate, Brian, who had a small storm cloud swirling above his head. The cloud was dumping rain all over the wood floor. When he saw Brock, lightning flashed and the cloud grew a little while the thunder rumbled.
Brock tentatively waded his way to Brian and asked, “Um, what happened…?”
Brian snorted (a few pieces of hail splooshed in the puddle around him) and said, “That dumbass Jonathan tried to prank me again. I swear, if he puts another smoke bomb in my underwear, I’m gonna create a tornado to carry him halfway across the country.”
“That might not be a good idea…” Brock suggested only to have Brian snort angrily in response as another round of lightning flashed. “Come on, Brian. You need to calm down. You’re making a mess.”
Brian glared at Brock, but the rain did lighten up a tad. “Seriously, Brian. You’re kinda flooding the dorm.” At that Brian threw his hands up in defeat and the rain stopped altogether. Although a gray cloud continued to hover above his head.
Brock sighed in relief and looked around. How on earth were they supposed to clean up this mess? Calling in Jonathan to use his water affinity to mop the water up was probably not a good idea, judging by the tiny flashes of lightning that kept popping up in Brian’s cloud.
“How are we gonna clean this?” he asked out loud.
To Brock’s surprise, Brian answered him. “I got it.”
All of a sudden the room got hot, very hot. The water began to turn to steam, so Brock quickly opened all the windows. Brian was concentrating on the floor, and as the water dried up, so did his cloud. A light bluish gray haze began to form around him, the color of his aura. Brian was making a drought.
Brock watched in amazement as something that would normally take months happened in a few seconds. All the water dried up, and even everyone’s belongings that had been unfortunate enough to be on the floor were dry. The water and steam evaporated until the air in the room felt very dry, and Brock wondered if there were still drinks out at breakfast.
“There,” said Brian, “now nobody, especially the teachers, will ever know.” With that, Brian ambled out to go get breakfast as though nothing even happened.
Brock was about to follow him, when an image flashed through his mind. The storm from his dream. Brock froze and stared after Brian’s retreating back. It couldn’t be about him, could it? No, thought Brock, Brian would never create something so destructive. Right?
Shaking his head in confusion and worry, Brock slowly followed after his friend, hoping his gut feeling was wrong.