Updates


ADVENTURES UNTOLD
The Invisible
My French Teacher is an Evil Sorcerer
Jaci's Story
The Shroud

GREY MAGIC
Darnai
Erudite

BIOGRAPHIES
Kiomati
Shea
Shea Koshan
Niteshade

ASSORTED
Easter Break
In Your Element
Kingdom in the Sky
Watcher
Wanderer
Them
Wind Dancer

GRAPHICS
Livejournal Icons

ME ELSEWHERE
Fanfiction.Net
Fictionpress.Net
Elfwood

CUSTOMARY
Email
Links
Dreambook

In Your Element

As he packed the last can of cat food into the grocery bag, Bryan's eyes drifted to his watch. It was finally six o'clock and his shift was over.
"I'm done," he announced.
"Don't forget the Earth Science final tomorrow, Paul. Remember what happened last time."
"What are you talking about?" he joked. "I made it didn't I? And I passed in the ten minutes left, so what do I have to worry about this time?" Paul grabbed his things and dashed out before Jim could come up with a comeback.
At home, he got ready to pick up Sharon for their date. His reflection stared back at him with brown eyes as he perfected the spikes in his brown hair. He was tanned from his days of perfecting his pitch and performing his duties as the school's star baseball player.
I'm going to tell her tonight, he resolved shakily. I trust her, I'm going to tell her.
So, he's going to finally tell her. Ah the stupidity of the seventeen year old, I could write a book. Wait, isn't that what I'm doing? Oh well. But if she was any other girl, he'd be screwed over. . .
Looking his usual best in the earth tone colors that suited him so well, He went to pick up Sharon. She answered the door and looked as stunning as usual. Her white-blond hair flowed past her waist and the sky blue of her eyes needed no makeup to accent them. She stood a head shorter than his six foot three and slender in a pale blue dress.
Everything was going according to his plan. They ate a lovely dinner at Ricky Geraldson's, chatting idly and enjoying each other's company. He drove them to the park for a walk. Hand in hand, they wandered until they reached a clearing. It was complete with a small waterfall, a rather large pond and privacy from prying eyes.
"Sharon, I love you," he began, thinking it most appropriate, "and I know I can tell you anything. But you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone else about this. I can only hope that you won't freak out and dump me."
"That's a coincidence," she said bemused. "That was exactly what I was going to say to you. I love you," she soothed, "and I promise not to tell a soul if you want. You go first though, since you brought it up."
Bryan took a deep breath. A demonstration would be best. Explanations could cme after, if she hadn't run away in panic by then.
Bryan summoned the earth, which obeyed without question. The ground seemed to leap up and grab him, briefly shielding him from view. It fell away, revealing him, but he looked startlingly different. It wasn't just the change in attire from his slacks and shirt to a forest green cloak which covered all except his boots. He seemed to be gleaming with a majestic forest green aura as well.
"I have magic Sharon," he stated simply. "I control the earth."He looked at her carefully. She was on the brink of tears, but not those of fright. They were, for some reason, joy.
"I'm not alone," she whispered. Blinking away the tears, she summoned a wind that engulfed her and somehow changed her as well. She now wore a light cape, sky blue pants and a cloud white halter top. A golden aura hung around her like a mist. "I am, too. I control air."
"So," he began after a prolonged silence, "does your magic side have a different name from your own?"
"Yeah," she replied sheepishly. "It's Arial. What about you?"
"Mine's Lief. God, I can't believe this. I never knew, never even suspected there was another one like me. While we're at this though, do you have one of these?" He split the earth open and raised a pedestal from the earth. He lifted the item upon it, a strange stone puzzle piece with a raised section scattered with designs and a lowered section with not a scratch on it.
At once, Arial recognized it. She lowered a cloud from the sky and took another piece of the puzzle off of it.
"Ow, that's cold," a voice from behind them said. "Hey, what are you doing here?" He rose up from the water and walked onto the rocks surrounding the pond.
"Who are you?" Sharon asked. He was of similar height to Bryan, or rather Lief as he was now, but more of a muscled build. The darkness of his skin was greatly contrasted by his deep sea green eyes. The muscle shirt was a light blue that people well knew of when they gazed at paintings of the water which contrasted with the deep-sea blue of hiss excessively baggy shorts.
"Calvin?" Lief asked, studying him more closely. "Calvin Shipman?"
"No," he replied, though both his shifting eyes and his shaky voice betrayed him. "I'm Triton. Who ae you?"
"If we're going by that, then my name is Lief, and this is Arial. Don't suppose you have one of these things, too?"
"What things?" he asked, walking forward to see what Lief was holding up. "Hey, Bryan and Sharon?" Lief and Arial looked at each other and smiled.
Triton studied the artifact for a mere moment and recognized it. A wave rolled out of the pond and curled around Triton to present a similar stone to him. As he picked it up the wave curled back into the pond and left no trace of it's passing. "Like this?" he asked.
Yeah-ow,ow,ow,ow!" Lief suddenly grabbed his arm in pain."Gad damn it! What the hell-"
"Lief, what's wrong?" Arial asked, trying to keep a cool head.
"There's a really big forest fire going on right now," he said through gritted teeth. "Could you two get that before I decide to cut my arm off? It's over there." He gestured vaguely with his head to towards the trees.
Arial and Triton stumbled through the for about ten seconds before they came to a wall of flame. It was just a wall, neither advancing, as most fires would, or retreating. It just sat and continued to char all within it's vicinity.
For just and instant, a red glow could be seen moving within the flames, and seemed to be retreating. The figure was gone before either Arial or Triton could be sure that they saw it.
You saw it, it was a, well, I guess you could say ally. It's a bit early to tell yet.
"What was that?"
"Doesn't matter," Arial snapped, "We have to get rid of this fire." She began to summon winds to blow out the fire and, even with Triton's help, nothing seemed to work.
"This isn't working," Triton pointed out. "Maybe if we can get the source, then we can stop this fire."
"That'll never work, it isn't logical. If the center of the fire goes out, then the rest will keep burning."
"Um, hello! This isn't a logical fire! Look at that tree." Triton indicated an oak, half engulfed in flames, half in bloom. "That wouldn't happen if this were a logical fire.  Now, how do we find the source?"
With determination in her eyes, she was picked up by an invisible hand and put into the air above the fire. From above, she saw the magnitude of it and the sheer destruction it wrought. When a tree had been destroyed, the fire fed off of the earth itself.
And then she saw the source. Actually, it was a number of sources, all glowing red. Four points situated themselves around the very edge. Eight other points formed an inner circle around the last and largest one. The y were all feeding off of the center one via the thin, nearly invisible strands that connected them.
"Found it!" Arial announced.
"Great! Here, use this," Triton sent up an unusually large pillar of water from the stream. "The wind might fuel the flames and I can't hit what I cant see."
Arial worked quickly and diligently to exterminate the main point, which proved to be exceptionally difficult. She proceeded to systematically exterminate the remaining twelve points, which had not died when the main one had. As the last one disappeared the remaining fires finally died into nothing. All that remained was the smoky smoldering earth.
Arial did a pirouette in the air. "Good job Tri-oh my god, Lief!" She flew down by his side to find him lying face down and unconscious in the dirt and still gripping his right arm. Arial turned him over and attempted to shake him awake.
Triton was there now, checking to see if he was still alive. A sigh of relief said he was. Barely. As he splashed a bit of water onto his face, he noticed the green aura normally surrounding Lief was now fading and as it did his costume crumbled and fell as dust, reverting him back into his former self.
You guys are breaking my heart. Lief isn't supposed to die yet. This should be small potatoes. The guy has traveled the world to some extent, hasn't he?
"He hasn't,"Arial said, bewildered. "What do you mean 'die'?"
"So it wasn't just me," Triton muttered.
What do you mean he-wait, were you talking to me?
"Is there another disembodied voice here?" Triton joked, though not very convincingly.
"What do you mean 'die'?" Arial asked more insistently.
Wha? This isn't supposed to happen. Oh my-this can't be-oh my god. I have to be dreaming.
"No, this is my dream," Triton corrected. "So what are you, God?"
No, this is my dream. Do people die in your dreams? No. Do they in mine? Yes. As for the God question, that gives me an idea. Arial, if this doesn't work I'm genuinely sorry. WAKE UP!
"Ah!" Lief yelled, snapping awake and fully transformed once more. "Holy shit! Anyone got any anesthetics; or a chain saw?"
"Your alive!" Arial cried joyfully, throwing her arms around him."We thought you were dead!"
"Ah, my arm! Forget the anesthetics, give me the saw!"
"It can't hurt that much," Triton scoffed.

Yes it can.
"Hey! It's the voice, the one that brought me back to the world of pain."
Oh, so now I'm 'The Voice'. I am the almighty Voice, capable of bringing back the dead. I'll settle with that. Okay, I, The Voice-it is so cool saying that-um, yeah, put together those artifacts. They're kind of a puzzle.
"What are we, three?" Triton asked skeptically as he helped put the pieces together. Lief and Arial's pieces went across from each other and formed a yin-yang in the center. Triton's piece fit to the left of their two and completed the carving of a closed-eyed female in profile in the corner.
Lief winced as he moved. He sat back down feeling useless. As he began to tug back his cloak to see how badly burt his arm was, a fresh wave of pain threatened to knock him out.
I wouldn't do that if I were you, sweetie. The burns are about ten times worse than the ones Mike's off Survivor. Bandage it up when you get home. For now, everyone watch the puzzle. Mishnu karana aynu kayah kilomalano.
They watched, mystified as the cracks between the pieces sealed themselves. The female caving in the corner turned to face them and opened her amazingly realistic brown eyes. They closed once more, with a smile and she returned to her former position. The cracks returned and all became as it once was.
"What wasthat about?" Arial asked no one in particular.
"No kidding," Lief agreed. "Hey, wait a minute! How do you know how badly I'm burnt?"
"If it's that bad," Triton interjected, "why aren't you out cold?"
It's a long story. He isn't out yet because I'm taking a lot of the pain and heat because it's freezing here. I'll explain everything when we meet in the summer. In the mean time, Lief, travel! This wouldn't happen if you did. Oh, and find the pyro and bring her to our side. I gotta go now, people are starting to look at me funny. Use the board if you need to contact me. See ya.
"Okay," Triton started slowly once he was sure The Voice was gone, "let me see if I've got this straight. We now have to go and find whoever hurt you and get them to come to our side. If we need anything we use these things and contact 'The Voice' even though we don't know how they work. 'The Voice' is an actual person who happens to be all knowing and we will meet her in the summer. Did I get everything?"
"Um. . . yeah."
"Okay, if your arm--you are Bryan, aren't you?-if Bryan's arm is badly burnt tomorrow for the first baseball practice of the season, then I will know that this wasn't just some fucked up dream."