The floating islands had always been her location of choice during training ever since she was a little girl. It was quiet, generally peaceful, and difficult for normal folks to get to. When she first arrived as a ten-year-old, she had gained permission from the locals to train in one of the unoccupied smaller islands. Here, Dala never worried about potential threats or bumping into strangers. Travel was made significantly easier when her golden dragon Charise grew up enough to ride. Whenever they visited, Charise would take the time to go off to hunt some wildlife. The dragon would stay near just in case the teenager fell off the edge of one of the islands, which occasionally occurred. She started the morning with a series of simple stretches to prepare her for the day.

After the stretches, she began practicing with the sword. First, she practiced the basics, knowing how important it was to never forget them. She remembered the words of her previous mentors. If a person could remember the basics then nothing was beyond her reach. Dala then moved onto more complicated sets. Her footwork was excellent but her physical strength was still lacking for such swordwork. Each time she made a mistake, she would repeat the action until it was perfect. She always found another mistake the second she corrected the previous one. Eventually, Dala moved on from sword fighting, focusing on push-ups and general strength-building exercises. Sweat dripped from her forehead and she could feel the sun’s rays pounding on her. The teenager finally stopped her relentless training to take a quick break. She checked her list of training tasks and found she was ahead of schedule.

There was only one thing she had left to work on. Magic. The thought of it made her grimace. After taking a sip from her canteen, she dragged her bag over and pulled out a series of texts she had collected over the years. The first book was an arcane spellbook bound in leather with an orange citrine stone sewn into the cover. The second book was made by the druids and decorated with symbols of nature and the old traditions. The third had a pattern of a star sewn onto the leather cover. Each had detailed instructions on their specific ways of using magic. She opened the arcane spellbook and covered the basics of using magic once more as she had done for the past six years. As always she could sense her own magic and knew it was there.

Dala focused on the magic, feeling it out and trying to focus it into her hands. As always the magic refused to budge. The teenager gritted her teeth and began pushing the magic out towards her hands. Simone had told her a thousand times to let it happen naturally but it never seemed to happen like that. If Dala didn’t push then it wouldn’t move. Angry tears fell from her face as she felt the burning pain spreading through her fingertips. Her hands glowed like the sun itself but nothing else would occur. The teenager dropped her arms, the magic vanishing the second she did. Determined not to let it get the better of her, she sat down once more and tried again. This time she didn’t push it and just tried to let it flow through her body naturally. She sat for fifteen minutes and yet the magic was still as ever. Eventually, she snapped the arcane spellbook shut. She reached for the druid spellbook and began working with hopes of making a breakthrough. After going through each one, she eventually shoved all the books back into her bag with frustration.

“Stupid motherfucking books!” Dala shouted.

The teenager kicked a boulder then instantly regretted it as the boulder was tougher than her toes. She grabbed her foot and flopped down on the ground, looking at the sky. No teacher, no books, no techniques ever seemed to work. She felt like she was trying to break down a brick wall with her head.

“Why’d I have to get light magic?” She complained to herself, “Out of everything I got the most worthless type of magic!”