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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/2029436-Failure
Rated: 13+ · Assignment · Contest Entry · #2029436
Jenn fails in her first attempt to make fire.
Failure
Write a scene in which your character fails at something very important to them.

Questions to Consider
What constitutes failure to your character? Not everyone thinks of it in the same way.
How does your character react to this failure? Giving up? Finding a new path? Pretending the failure never occurred?
How does this failure affect your character and the people around them? Does it ruin them, or is it just a bump in the road?

Jenn and Lyra left the Clashers’ camp and found an open place along the Elemental Coast. Lyra stepped out of her sandals, and Jenn followed suit.

“Fire,” Lyra began. “That was Gwenn’s base element so I would assume it is yours if you are truly her incarnation.”

Jenn nodded to show she understood. She spent the past few days reading a book of basic magic Lyra gave her. She was ready to put what she learned into practice. She rubbed her hands together in anticipation. Lyra gently separated her hands and turned them palms up. She curled Jenn’s fingers so she could hold balls.

“Now,” Lyra stepped back, “make fire.”

“What?” Jenn inquired.

“You did it when I first met you,” Lyra reminded her. “Do it again.”

Jenn remembered the first time she made fire. She was being attacked by two spiers the size of bears. When one of them bore down on her she raised her hands to protect herself, and fire flew from her fingers igniting the giant arachnid. It had been a reflex that she did not understand. She still did not understand it, and now she was expected to duplicate it. She tried to focus on the memory of the spider baring down on her, but it just wasn’t giving her the same feeling of peril as the real thing. She tensed her muscles, and tried to will fire into her fingers, but nothing came.

“Well?” Lyra demanded impatiently.

“Is there a trick to this?” Jenn asked.

“No,” Lyra answered. “Just tap into nature and capture the force necessary to create fire.”

Jenn nodded and thought about what fueled fire. Oxygen kept a fire going, but what got it started? A spark, Jenn answered her one question. She watched Kael, another Clasher start a fire every day. He would use a flint and steel to create a spark, which would fall on the dry wood she gathered, and a fire would blaze to life. So, how do I make the spark without flint and steel. What can I use as kindling? She looked around the coast but only saw pieces of drift wood floating in the shallow waves. No, she wants me to make it int the palm of my hand. Jenn willed herself to focus but she just could not seem to turn the heat in her hands to fire.

Lyra made a frustrated sound, which broke Jenn’s concentration. The elf stared at her as if she expected more from her. Jenn felt her heart sink at the idea of disappointing Lyra. The older woman shook her head, and simply strode back to camp. Her retreating back was blured by the tears of frustration in Jenn’s eyes. Jenn turned and sprinted into the forest. She stopped when she reached a clearing and slammed her tiny balled fist into the nearest tree. She pulled it back and stared at the sticky red blood oozing from her split knuckles.

“Feel better?” A deep voice inquired.

Jenn turned to see Taurus leaning against one of the other trees. He stepped into the clearing and took her injured hand in his. He examined her knuckles and determined the wounds would heal themselves.

“I take it the training did not go well,” Taurus stated. He led her to a fallen tree and sat on it pulling her to stand between his legs. “What was she trying to make you do?”

“She wanted me to make fire,” Jenn sniffled and realized there would be no tissues. She did the childish thing and wiped her nose with her sleeve. I’m becoming more of a mercenary every day, she thought. She wondered if Matt would still want her if she became as uncivilized as Taurus and the other Clashers seemed. She pushed those thoughts aside. Thinking about Matt only made her depressed and scared. She needed to be focused on what she was supposed to be learning. “I was not able to do it.”

“It was only your first try,” Taurus reminded her. He tipped her chin up to look into her eyes. “You’ll get it.”

“She was already expecting me to have it,” Jenn sighed. “Because I did it when the spiders attacked me. I honestly don’t know what I did then. It just sort of happened.”

“Perhaps that is what you did,” Taurus suggested. “You just let it happen. You let go and your body did what it was meant to do.”

“People aren’t meant to throw fire,” Jenn argued. “At least not in the world I came from.”

“Exactly,” Taurus stated. “You cannot live fully in this world unit you let go of the other. You can throw fire. You know you can because you have done it. So now do it again.”

He turned her so she was facing the tree she’d split her knuckles on. His mouth was at her ear whispering words meant to encourage. All they did was infuriate her. She felt heat rising in her body and she did her best to focus it in her hands. When she lifted her hands they were engulfed in flames, but they did not burn. She turned her palms up, and will the flames into balls. Taurus slid his hands up her arms to her wrists and brought her hads close so she could see both fireballs at once.

“There you see,” he whispered. “I knew you could do it.”

Jenn turned her head to meet his lips with her own. Taurus was right about the stronger arousal she would feel after connecting to nature. She pulled her mouth away before he could deepen the kiss.

“Any idea how I put these out?” Jenn inquired.

Lyra entered the clearing at that moment. “See I knew you could do it if given the right motivation.”

“What can I say,” Taurus smiled teasing Jenn’s chin with his fingers. “I know how to turn up the heat.”

“Can you tell me how to put these out?” Jenn asked.

“Smother them,” Lyra stated. She turned and strode out of the clearing toward the coast.

Jenn curled her fingers into the flaming spheres, and felt them condense into smaller sphere in her grip. She tightened her fingers into fists, and watched the smoke rose from her hands as the flames died out. She opened her hands to examine her palms, and was impressed to see her flesh was not damaged.

© Copyright 2015 Vixey Todd (jlh1982 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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