2

The group goes on a hike.

Liiran doubtfully looked at the team, selected by the kindest and most noble head of the Council of the Great Darine Atana, and realized that he really hit. Of course, he suspected something of the kind even at the moment when Atana spent ten minutes explaining what a difficult situation was in the city and in general on the islands of the Small Triangle. I just didn't think it would be this bad. The team is worse than you can imagine.

The commander is Liiran Vue, who just two months ago, for unknown merit, sucked out of his finger, received a silver chain and all rights, along with the duties of a junior leader. The father was happy and proud. Well, his dear son, a recognized lazybones, inclined to hide in corners and avoid unnecessary responsibility in every possible way, received a chain at the age of eighteen. And he didn't even have to participate in the madhouse called the coming-of-age exams. Hooray! Honor and praise to the offspring! Let all the enemies who doubt that something worthwhile could grow out of this sleepy creature have a rest.

If you think and remember, you understand that some especially gifted individuals may never receive a silver chain for the rest of their lives. Even if they manage not to miss a single adult exam. These exams are held four times a year. They go there in droves, clutching admission in trembling hands. And it is not necessary to take the exam in your city. On the contrary, it is considered a special chic to receive a chain in someone else's territory. That's just getting these chains, hardly half of the several hundred present at the exam. And to get a chain outside the exam ... For this you need to excel in something.

Liiran had been trying for two months to figure out where exactly he had gotten into such a mess. It seems that he didn’t do anything particularly heroic, he was never known as a genius, he kicked out of responsibility, and in general, he tried to avoid dangers and pull everyone who was lucky enough to be around from them. Basically, not a hero. He would have preferred the quiet existence of a non-commander. They have more free time and almost no responsibility. Yes, and exams could begin to be ignored, after a few years and attempts. And no one would run after them and demand that they surrender without fail.

It didn't grow.

In general, Liiran was going to offer his candidacy as an apprentice to some architect. And here you are: a chain on your belt and a bunch of tasks in the teeth. No one even deigned to ask: does he need it? And now this team.

Liiran looked back at his newly minted subordinates. Nothing, of course, has changed. The six people stood in various positions and tried their best to hide their true attitude towards being in this room. Liiran understood them. He, too, was, to put it mildly, dissatisfied.

Marika Taya tried to feign happiness and kept looking sideways to the left. She smiled, adjusted the bag on her shoulder, sometimes began to tap her foot. Marika, in fact, is not such a bad acquisition. Adept of the elements of the earth. Small, graceful blonde, blue-eyed, with dimples on her cheeks. You can’t say that this girl can smash a stone half the size of a house into very small fragments with a blow of her strength. And if he gets angry, he will turn the whole mountain. True, then the unfortunate magician herself will be returned to the world of the living for a long time. There was a precedent.

This miniature girl also knew how to think quickly, make the right decisions, knew a lot of useful things and always learned quickly. If she were a little more decisive and stop spreading her strength in several directions at once, there would be no price for her. And so, another adept of the earth with good inclinations, no more.

The second girl was the exact opposite of Marika. Dorana towered over her diminutive neighbor like a ship's pine over an ornamental cherry. Dorana's character was absurd. Red hair. Explosive temperament. The direction is unclear: she managed to use all the elements at the same level, although the level was far from perfect. This girl also fenced very well, healed well and loved to give slaps in the face. Fortunately for all the favorite activities, there were those who wanted to keep her company. Swordsmen enjoyed training with her. She was willingly called to the hospital when there were not enough professional doctors due to the influx of the bruised and wounded - after regular exams, competitions or banal fights. And there were always drunk idiots who could not ignore the outstanding charms of the girl. For which they received in the face.

For three years now, since the skinny little girl took on her feminine forms and began to attract drunken looks, Liiran had been trying to understand what men find so attractive in the figure of this fury? Every third woman of the Small Triangle had similar volumes. Maybe it's all about growth? Or is it because of the hair color? In general, there will be more trouble from Dorana than good.

That was the end of the girls in the team, and Liiran tried to understand whether it was fortunate or not. On the one hand, he passed the fate of being the commander of such outstanding personalities as the airwoman Naraya, who is not able to control the wind, and Temi Koyan, who looks like a meek deer, who either says don’t understand what, then tries to collapse into a swoon, then with a fright, thin ice needles are thrown where horrible. Or it causes a compact hurricane that does not distinguish between enemies and friends. On the other hand, the guys who were standing here and now are not far from this famous couple.

Short and chubby with the bluest eyes in town, Tiyan Ravitsa. It was with this guy that Liiran once skipped classes, arranged tricks and painted the ceiling in the teachers' lounge black. Tiyan is a good guy, a true friend and the soul of the company. It actually has only two drawbacks. He does not know how to stop in time and does not measure strength. Tiyan is one of those who may well think of killing a mosquito by bringing down the whole house. And he will succeed. Tiyan is a very strong structurer. With some of his professional blindness, he is able to change the structure of matter in such a way that iron will break like glass, glass, on the contrary, will be stronger than Rai armor, and water will turn into something jelly-like, remaining water. Only in this case, someone must necessarily stand above his head and control the process. Because Tiyan himself will not stop, until the iron crumbles into powder, glass does not turn into a flash of light, and water into stone. He is unable to see the final state. More precisely, not so, he still has not learned to distinguish between the desired and the actual. It always seems to him that if you put in a little more effort, the result will be better. In general, a walking natural disaster, from which you do not know what to expect.

The fair-haired boy with a wide smile is Kalar Dua. That smile of his is a flaw in itself. She annoys too many people. This guy also likes to fight too much. He doesn't even need to look for a reason. They called him a shorty - he gets into a fight. They said that the smile is stupid - the same reaction. They looked askance - yes, this is generally a mortal insult! And try, prove that you did not look. True, he has one indisputable advantage - in such fights he never crosses the line and does not begin to call on the elements. What a lot of people do wrong. And he also knows how to put up a strong defense, walks on water, as if on land, and he can call the same water to any place and in any quantity. And how the presence of water nearby enhances its universal weaving, this is not worth talking about. The water loves this boy.

Dean Lima is a true adept of fire. It is written on his face, and in huge letters. He, like all real firemen who realized their element in early childhood, grew into a self-satisfied proud man who sincerely believes that only mountains are cooler than him, and even those through one. The fact that he was three years older than all those present here and had already managed to fill up nine adulthood exams did not bother the guy in the slightest. The stars in the sky are misaligned. Next time he will definitely succeed, he will show everyone and get a chain on his belt. Because who, if not him?

In fact, Dean is very good at burning everything around. Without parsing. May throw clods of fire, may not throw them. With a very strong desire, he can put out something. Universal weaves, for which it makes no difference which element to invoke, for him a dark forest, he simply ignores them. He cannot do something less destructive and more sensible for the simple reason that he does not have enough imagination for such something. But any amount of power. He would be sent alone to smash the enemy army. Somewhere far away. At least there will be some benefit. To anyone.

The tallest, thinnest, most green-eyed and suspiciously thoughtful is Khiyat Daka. A very strange person. Once he was the smallest and most mischievous boy in the same class in which Liiran and Tiyan had to study. There was no one to educate him. Taladat, who was listed as his guardian, appeared in the city well if once a year. The good neighbors who fed the orphan also had their own children, so they could not help with anything other than food. The quarrelsome sister of the guardian, whom Hiyata was left to, did not think about the child often enough. So something grew out of it.

Something snapped, was ready to argue on any occasion, spat from a high mountain on any titles and titles, almost completely ignored the knowledge that they tried to put into his stupid head at school, ran very fast and fought very deftly with superior enemy forces. Liiran sincerely did not understand how this something could finish school, how it passed all the necessary exams, and when it managed to learn how to create such strong and durable weaves from water with such dexterity. They are not like anything, They are finished and verified to such an extent, as if he spends most of his time on improvement. So far, none of the same-year-olds or children not much older than Khiyat have managed to repeat what he easily spits out, without ceasing to run or fight. This is on the one hand.

On the other hand, he managed to remain the same absurd boy who argues, spitting on the authority of the interlocutor, does stupid things, runs up and does not want to think about the future. He's the only one who doesn't care a bit about the coming-of-age exam in a month. He doesn't care much at all. He was small, everything suited him. At the age of sixteen, he suddenly began to grow and by the age of seventeen he had grown to a meter and eighty - also normal. Oh, will there be an exam? Well, it will, so what? Need to get ready? What for? To get a silver chain? And what is it that you need to get? Okay, okay, I'll try. Now leave me alone, I'm going to bed. List of essentials to take? For what? To get ready? Okay, if I have time, I'll take it. In fact, Liiran overheard this conversation six months ago, and Khiyat has not yet deigned to come for the lists. I must have forgotten.

- I hope the great and kind deigned to tell you where we have to go? Liiran decided to clarify. And then you never know what, suddenly they do not know?

“To the Grey-haired Giant,” Hiyat replied. “The activity there is abnormal and the water does not respond. As if someone was drawing power from her, regardless of the consequences.