She shook her head. “You should feel energized being this close to a young active volcano. It’s the very essence of your Fire Elemental abilities.”
I closed my eyes and focused again, but I felt nothing.
When I opened my eyes and shrugged, she looked disappointed. “I don’t quite understand your skills, Kaden, but that’s okay. It doesn’t impact what we’re going to do here,” she said.
A couple of small wooden huts sat on the island's edge, almost touching the sea, and I was shown into one of the rooms. “You’ll be staying here,” Elana announced. “The rest of us will stay about fifty miles away at Crater Island. You can communicate with us through your microphone, as long as you don’t destroy it. If you do, we have a satellite system dedicated to this project, and a drone will be sent out to communicate with you.”
I nodded, and she put her hands on my shoulders. “Okay, chin up, we’re going to fly over to the other island, and when we land, you can start your experiments.”
I went into the hut and began exploring shortly after the rest of the crew left. I hadn’t gotten to know any of the specialists or experts as they’d called them. One man I met named Sofie had ridden on the airship with us, but no one took the time to explain what he did. I hadn’t asked. I figured if I needed to know, someone would tell me.
“Kaden, do you copy?” Elana’s voice came through the speaker.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Good, okay, we’ve safely landed. Are you ready to begin?”
“Sure, I guess,” I said with trepidation.
“Okay, good. Go to the second hut, not the one you’re sleeping in, but the one next to it.” I hadn’t explored that building yet, so I was curious about what they’d put out for me. When I walked in, I was shocked to see a massive boulder in the middle of the room. “Okay, I’m here.”
“Good. Your first experiment is to identify the individual grains of sand in the boulder. I want you to focus on those grains of sand. When you can feel them, let me know, and I’ll tell you what to do next.”
I took a deep breath and focused on the boulder. There were several elements within the rock, but sand was the least prevalent.Most of the stuff we think of as sand is silica, I said to myself as I searched the rock for that element. “Okay,” I think I’ve found it all.”
“Good, very good,” Elana said through the speaker. “Now, I want you to remove the grains of sand one at a time and place them in the bowl sitting on the table next to the front door. Do that until you’ve removed all of them from the boulder.”
I concentrated and found one of the grains of sand closest to the outside of the rock and, with my powers, released it. I moved it quickly to the bowl, then did the same thing again.
Usually, with this kind of concentration, my powers would try to force their way out of my body. But not here. It only took me a few minutes to remove all the sand particles from the boulder. “I’m done,” I said.
“Did you need to resist your powers?” Dr. Fagan asked. I could tell he was disappointed.
“No, they didn’t surge like they usually do.”
“Interesting,” I heard Elana say in the background. They didn’t switch off the microphone, and I could hear a group of people discussing what the problem could be. Finally, Dr. Fagan came back on.
“Kaden, let’s experiment with the water next. Do you remember the experiment you did in the classroom where you moved a drop of water from one part of the room to the next?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I want you to do that again, but this time if your powers try to surge, don’t hold them back, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed and looked around, finding a beaker just like the one in the classroom on a shelf. I found a small bottle of water in the opposite corner of the room, opened it, and with my powers, gently lifted a drop of water into the air and moved it slowly to the beaker.
“Um, I did it,” I announced to the room.
“No surge?” Dr. Fagan asked.
“No, nothing.”
We did several more experiments, then the whole crew came back to the island and had me repeat them—still nothing. The surge didn’t happen to me here.
“Could it have something to do with the school?” the man named Sofie asked.
“No, that’s unlikely. Kaden, you can come back to the main island with us. There’s no need for you to stay here when your powers aren’t pressing you,” Dr. Fagan said, and we all boarded the airship and flew back to the main island.
It looked more like what I’d expected. The island was covered in tropical rainforest. Coconut palms swayed in the wind, and bird and insect noises surrounded me. “Um…” I said as I left the ship, “…this is an improvement in accommodations.”
