Milo entered the angular pathway that opened before him warily, but confident he had acquitted himself well in the initial assessment.  When he had stepped into the darkened room, he had instinctively began glowing, giving himself enough light to illuminate a small bit of his surroundings, though he was not sure if this would be counted since the assessment had not officially begun.  Still, it could not have been unnoticed by the instructors before it had shut off when the ceiling had opened to allow natural light into the room.  What he had actually done for the assessment was something he had never before attempted; he attempted to summon the very essence of his element, the aether itself.  He had reached deep within himself as well as into the world around him, feeling for that power that was the essence of all the elements, and though it was hard to be certain, he felt like he had, for the briefest of moments, summoned the aether itself, but at nearly the same instant that it materialized, it broke down in a random scattering of its component parts: a bolt of light shooting off in one direction, a shadow flying in the opposite direction, a burst of wind ruffling his hair, a faint rumbling of the earth beneath his feet, and a flash of fire immediately doused by a sprinkling of water.  The aether he had managed to summon had not been much, but it had been enough to show each of the basic elements when it broke down, though it hadn't been his intention for that to happen.  Still, the display was impressive, and Kano had indicated that he was looking for something impressive, and maybe even a bit flashy, and Milo's display had certainly been flashy.

But now it was time for the next task.  Like the first, Kano was rather vague about the nature of this task, so Milo had no idea what to expect.  He simply followed the path that opened before him.  After a short time he was plunged into darkness, which he banished by becoming a human lantern, a simple trick that he was becoming quite adept at.  He soon reached a curtain of vines, which he pushed aside to enter into a small garden that was simply bursting with life.  He had never seen such a variety of plants anywhere before.  Unfortunately, it seemed that his path had brought him to a dead end.  There was no path out of this garden except back the way he came, which simply was not an option.  He took stock of his surroundings once more, paying close attention to everything.  Finally, he saw a small gap in a wall of thorn-covered vines.  He might be able to crawl through the gap, but as he was constantly brushing vines and leaves away from him as they seemed to reach for him of their own accord, he was worried that the thorny vines would attempt the same thing and impale him on their sharp protuberances.  The strips of cloth still hanging from some of the thorns did nothing to allay his fears as he pondered how best to approach this dilemma.  Kano had told them all to trust their elements.  Milo thought about this.  He knew that some earth elementalists had power over plants, and since he had the power of all the elements, he should have that power as well, which means he should be able to hold the thorny vines at bay long enough to slip through them if he was fast enough.  He stepped back a few paces and took a calming breath.  This would be almost like one of his vaulting runs, except there was no vault at the end, just a low dive through a small gap surrounded by thorny vines.  He backed up as much as he could to make sure he had as much time to build up speed as he could get, then took another calming breath before taking off at a full sprint.  As he neared the wall of thorny vines he dove, sliding across the ground, willing the vines to hold still as he slid through the gap.  He almost made it unscathed, but lost his hold on the plants as his legs were still in the gap.  He quickly scrambled out and back to his feet, but not before his legs got scratched up a bit from those thorns.  Still it wasn't major, and he would heal fast enough anyway.  For now, it was time to see what new challenge awaited him.  He looked around him to see where he had ended up.

[@Zelosse][@Kalleth]