Inhale wait and exhale, inhale again wait then exhale. The same process, repeated over and over and until I feel it. A warm tingle in the tips of my fingers, I continued to breathe evenly - the tingling sensation spreads and until I could feel it in my palms. I didn’t, no I couldn’t stop; this was how I trained.

I meditate and focus on my breathing until I tap into my energy, which taps into the vast cosmic energy that I have access to; it’s scary and quite difficult to manage in a calm environment much less in battle, should I ever have to. “JADE!!” I yelped and a bluish purple blast of energy fired from my palm, leaving a burning sensation in its wake.

I groaned in frustration and anger as I whipped around to see who had broken my concentration, it was Qiyaq, my troublesome friend and peer. “Qiyaq! You made me break my concentration you nit!” I yelled stomping towards him. He reversed his steps, hands up defensively as he sputtered about.

Qiyaq was taller than I, but not by much yet he liked to hold that over me still. He had black hair, that he kept short with bangs that fell in his eyes. His hazel eyes, were the most noticeable thing about him as most people had brown eyes. They were also quite expressive, if he ever stopped talking all you’d have to do was look at his eyes to see how he felt.

“T’was not Qiyaq’s fault Jade. You must be able to keep your concentration and come out of your empowered state, without causing potential harm to those around you.” Came the gruff and raspy voice of my zjiro, who was Qiyaq’s grandfather, Miyare.

Miyare was an elderly man, with greying hair; his brown eyes had seen many things in his lifetime and held a great deal of wisdom. he stood tall, and walked with a stick, as his knees were bad. His greying hair was long and kept in a neat low ponytail.

I stopped and faced my mentor, bowing my head in apology; he was right. Harnessing cosmic energy was difficult, not to mention dangerous as the power can overwhelm the user easily. Concentration and control are a necessity. “Now then, I believe our lesson for today is over. Practice your meditation at home Jade, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” Miyare dismissed me with a caring smile.

I nodded and gathered my belongings; we trained higher up in the valley, he said being closer to the sky would help me to connect better, plus it was perfect for a beginner because of it’s absolute stillness. After I’d gotten my things together, I turned to Qiyaq, “Race you home?” I asked the seer, Qiyaq’s ability was premonitions and he was much further in his training than I was, thus he was released by his mentor much earlier than myself. “Last one down has to buy the winner a new pair of sandals!” he shouted gleefully headed for the nearest rope.

Since we were up higher in the valley than where our village was located we had to scale walls to get back down, well some did. I was a master in acrobatics so for me it was more of a couple well placed leaps, flips and a graceful landing.

As we kept pace with each other, going neck and neck. I sent him a playful wink and jumped from the wall performing a series of spirals and flips, before landing gracefully on my feet. As they neared the point you could safely jump from, I began to tap my foot in mock impatience, “Well you certainly took your time now.” I teased, earning a light glare.

“Show off.” he jested back giving me a light shove, “You owe this show off, two pairs of sandals, a new vest and new long socks.” I countered, hip checking him before dashing off to our village. I could hear his grandfather chuckling from behind us; Qiyaq chased me through the gates and round the statue of our guardian, Qevyaray. She was one of the 13 original Zjariza, and the representative of our tribe, the Melosia Traiv.

The chase continued, until Qiyaq decided to tackle me. “Ah-!” the two of us crashed to ground and laughing heap of limbs. “Caught you!” he laughed as we untangled ourselves and caught our breath. “Oh! Qiyaq why were you calling me earlier?” I asked as we sat in the road.

Qiyaq bowed his head, eyes closed as he tried to remember; I leaned in watching him, almost willing him to remember why he’d interrupted my training. “Oh! I had a premonition.” he exclaimed, head snapping up immediately, his hazel eyes glowing with excitement. I blinked, “Doesn’t that always happen?” I asked confused as to why he was so...thrilled.

“It was about you...the details are fuzzy but you were there...then you weren’t...and then you had other people. I don’t remember much, and Zjarina couldn’t make anything of it except, something big is going to happen to you Jade. Something...life changing.” he told me, his eyes were serious and his tone wasn’t light.

Qiyaq was never like this unless it was important or he thought it was anyway. I shrugged and stood up, dusting the dirt and foliage from my shorts and legs, “Qiyaq, what life changing event could happen to someone as insignificant and plain as me?” I asked him, he shrugged and pushed himself from the ground as well.

“I’ve yet to be wrong yet, Jade.” he told me with a smile as we linked arms and headed to my home. We chatted aimlessly as we walked, topics ranging from childhood memories to current silly spats and who owed whom something.

We’d just reached my home, arguing rather loudly about whether I owed hi