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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."
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