Facing the Flames

If you had told me that two months ago I would be sitting in my parents winter chalet about to go and join my siblings out on the slopes, I would have laughed in your face...well if I had the confidence to that is. The last time I had seen my family, I was in the midst of being escorted into the royal academy's awaiting limosuine as my entire neighbourhood watched, that kind of event stuck vividly in the mind of a shy 14 year old who could hardly deal with the common trials and tribulations of everyday life...let alone what was befalling her.

The gracefully sprawling ice covered slopes and vast plains of glittering frozen lakes of my childhood should have provided the perfect Winter Wonderland for my siblings and I. As the second in line to the Winter Court throne, I should have spent my youth carefree in this frozen oasis...my only worries being passing history or whether or not I would like the dessert after dinner.

Unfortunately, fate sometimes throws curveballs to keep things interesting and I was the living proof of this. The Winter Court royals were born with the power to control the water element...it was all based upon some spark of magic in our bloodline that changed potency with each generation. Out of all three of my parent's children...we were all the evidence needed to prove this. 

My brother as the heir to the throne had the most power...over the Water element anyway, my sister had hardly any yet she was perfectly content with being able to form intricate looking snowflakes and make the occasional dusting of rain if anyone so happened to annoy her...I however was a complete outlier, an outlier of a disastrous proportion.

The signs had been subtle at first...almost conincedental. It started with the slighest hints of a cold, my family never got sick, let alone from a common cold...we ruled the coldest season, quite literally. The next indications had been a little more showy...I was always chilly for starters and yet always seemed to be running a temperature. It was only when I accidently started melting the snow wherever I went and actually almost liquified the small ice rink near my house...that's when my parents put their foot down and asked the United Magic Academy of Fae to help me in the investigation of my strange abilities. 

Flash forward a few months and the academy had come to pick me up to take me away for several years to develop and train my significantly powerful Fire elemental abilities...something unheard of for someone from a different elemental court, let alone someone from a different elemental royal bloodline.

It was embarrassing, to say the least. After almost setting my mother's personal evergreen garden on fire during a light run...that's when everyone knew I needed help, I needed special training and to be others with similar abilities...at least until I knew I could control my own powers.

What was meant to be several months turned into almost 8 years. It turns out that my Fire elemental abilities rivalled that of the Summer royal family...I could pretty much be the heir to the Summer throne if my magical talents were anything to go by. This fact alone, led to not only years of careful magical training at the Fae's academy as my powers developed...but to months upon months of genetic tests and political kerfuffle.

As bubbly and carefree as the Summer court were, even their naturally upbeat natures were struggling to not be suspicious of my strange existence...and I couldn't blame them, I wished for nothing more than to be living in my brother's shadow yet instead I had to completely show him up and have command...and quite a significant prowess of the opposite element.

8 years later, at 22 years of age and I was finally home. My parents were busy off with their royal duties, leaving me for some much needed bonding time with my siblings...yet it was hard. My once awkward 18 year old brother full of teenage angst and the subtle arrogance that came with being a royal heir was now newly engaged and had developed into the perfect specimen to be the one day ruler of the Winter Court. My baby sister that I remembered as being a bratty and vain 10 year old, was now an adult...a beautiful young woman who had a passion for the arts and languages, there wasn't one dialect of Fae that she didn't know...even the almost extinct ones.

Whilst I found their transformations dramatic, I definitely did not want to know what they thought of my development. The powers running through me had since matured and now I appeared to look like an odd mix of Summer and Winter court Fae whilst being 100% genetically Winter court. Whilst my pale skin and hair matched my heritage, my vivid red golden eyes were completely unique to the Summer elementals. The more Fire magic they had running through the veins...the more vivid their eyes and my eyes were the shade of an African setting sun. 

I had definetly learnt to control my abilities, the years of intense training had ensured that...but I still couldn't shake the nerves that bubbled through me. The last time I had been home, I was a young, scared girl with intense powers she couln't control and no one to relate to. Despite that I had now returned home as one of the princess's of Fae's Winter court...I still had to spend 3 months of every year either in the Summer Court training with the Royal's army or back at the academy helping to train others and refreshing my own abilities. 

Despite my unusual circumstances, I was still determined to bond with my family once again and settle back into my life as part of the Winter court. This was why I was currently standing on the enclosed back porch of my childhood home, watching my siblings sled down the soft snow covered hills surrounding our home as I internally psyched myself up to join them. The first several months of my training at the academy had been about the regulation of my powers and keeping them from displaying themselves against my will. Something as small as stepping onto ice or snow back then without thawing it would have called for celebration on my behalf. 

Now as I looked down at the pillow soft looking white fall surrounding the porch, I felt exhilerated...I felt free. Sure, I was different to my family...yet that wasn't going to stop me from being apart of their lives again. I had already been away for far too long.