Battle of the Elements

It was time to leave. I had a bag packed with my clothes and some food preparations. My father had given me a bag of coins for clothes and food before he gripped me in a tight hug.

We pulled away after what felt like an age. There were tears in his eyes as he put his old hand on my cheek. “I remember that little girl who cried every night for me to come to her room because she wanted me to scare away the dark, I am so proud that my little girl is now able to fight the darkness without my help. If anything, anything at all happens, you can come straight back home.”

A tear was sliding down my cheek, I wiped it away with my sleeve. “I will father.”

“I know you will. And be careful. If you get found out, don’t come back here. Run. Run as fast as you can and don’t look back.” His face turned hard and he gripped my shoulders.

I didn’t say anything back before Alex opened my door “It’s time to go.” He said, looking back and forth “Sorry. We really have to go Titania.”

“Ok Alex. She’s coming.” My father said, letting go of me.

I grabbed my bag and a few of my books from my mile-long bookshelf and walked out of the room without looking him in the eye. “I love you.” I said as I walked out the door.

I didn’t say anything as I walked out of the castle. I was scared. Scared of what was to come. Scared for my new and old friends. But for most of it, I didn’t talk because I was excited, so excited that I could feel it rising in my throat, trying to break free and make me shake and squeal and jump. Outside the castle Harrison and Dane were already on their horses with their bags strapped to the horses back. Alex pointed to a white horse with grey speckles and helped me onto the horse before tying my bag onto its back.

“Boy or girl?” I asked while he was tying the last knot.

“It’s a boy.” He said, patting the horse before he jumped onto his own.

“Huh” I whispered into the horse’s ear “Do you have a name boy? How about I call you… Apollo?” I gave his sides a squeeze and we set off on our journey.

Alex

Four hours. Four hours of listening to Dane flirt with Titania and watching her blush every damn time until getting to a village inn.

Titania jumped off her horse “I think we should stay here for the night.”

“Good idea.” Harrison said, finally speaking for the first time since he got on a horse “It’s better to rest here than in the woods at night.”

“I agree. Plus” Dane said, a smile spread across his face, “I could go for a drink about now.”

“Ok, I’ll get us a room.” I said.

“I’ll come with you.” Titania said, hurrying along with me.

At the reception, there were a few drunk villagers hanging around. I went straight to the front desk – two barrels with a lamp on one of them – the lady at the front desk was old and smiled when she saw us. In a small rusty voice she asked politely “Welcome to Nakarkia Village Inn, How can I help you two?”

“Hi, we’re looking for place to stay.” I said, loud enough for one of the yelling drunk men to hear.

“Yes. Just you two?”

Titania put her hand on the desk. “Four.”

The woman nodded and scrawled something down on a piece of paper then looked up at us. She gestured for us to follow her as she strolled through the halls. We came to a door with the number 10 carved into it. I opened the door and let Titania inside. There were four beds evenly placed by the wall with grey sheets and pillows. On the opposite side of the beds was an old, wooden wardrobe.

The old woman was standing in the doorway “I hope it’s to your liking. How long are you staying?” she asked.

Titania answered before I had a chance to “its great thank you. We have some business in town so we don’t know how long it will take but I assure you we will pay for every night.”

“Thank you dear.” The lady said before she left.

Titania

The room was small, but bigger than the room I had at home. I chose the bed nearest to the wardrobe and set my books down on the bedside table.

“You ok?” Alex asked from the doorway. We hadn’t spoken for most of the ride.

“I’m fine. I just don’t really know what to do. I’m excited but…”

“But you don’t know what we’re supposed to do, dealing with the whole magic problem.”

“Yes. I don’t even know what’s wrong with the town yet, let alone what to do to stop it.”

“Well, why don’t we go and get Harrison and Dane first, then we can figure out what’s wrong with the town before we start worrying about how to stop it.” Alex said, waking towards me and resting his hand on my shoulder.

I nodded and smiled slightly. Then I stood up and walked out the door to get Dane and Harrison.

I went outside to find the horses tied onto a fence with the bags still on their backs. Dane and Harrison were nowhere to be seen.

I untied the bags and carried them upstairs one by one into our room. Then I asked the old lady if there was a stable nearby for the horses.

“Yes dear, there’s one out back. I’m afraid it will cost you a bit for the feed though.”

“Sure. I’m willing to pay for you to make sure they get some time to run around every day too.”

“Of course, I’ll do that now dear.” She said with a bow before she walked out the door to the horses.

That’s when I felt it. A pull. I felt like my entire body wanted to go through one door. I turned to where the pull was coming from and saw a door, just open so that I bit of light and music was seeping through. I had a feeling that my entire existence rested on what was on the other side of that door. I walked slowly towards it, with one hand I carefully opened the door and poked my head through. There was music and loud men chanting, the smell of alcohol and sweat lingered in the air. A golden light lit up the windowless room of people dancing and sitting at a bar. The men and women at the bar were looking up at a girl dancing on the table.

Her golden, messy yet perfect hair was dancing and swishing each and every way, her pale skin glowed in the gold light. The light bounced off her tight, short, crimson and orange dress every time she moved, her slender body moved and twirled like a snake. She turned to me, her pale face was lightly sprinkled with freckles and her hair clung to her full, wet lips and her eyes… her eyes were a glowing gold. She looked into my eyes and her face spread into a large, wolfish grin…

Bridgette

Some say I’m brave but really, I just ignore the part of my brain that tells me what fear is. Some say I’m outgoing but I just don’t give a fuck what people think of me. And then some say I’m crazy, but I’m still trying to work out if they’re wrong.

I felt her the minute she walked into the room, the familiar pull of another elemental. I had my hopes set on it being Shane but this girl was good too. She had long – really long – wavy, hazel hair and tanned skin and her eyes were such a bright, rich colour of green that you would never had expected to see on someone so tanned – like most elementals, her eyes were such a magnificent colour you’d probably never seen in eyes before.

I couldn’t help but smile. She was just so new. New to the game of adventure. Even from across the room I could tell she was innocent, kind and naïve – a typical goody-two-shoes. She probably had lived with her parents in a lovely little town and lived a wonderful childhood then she probably went to school and lived out a perfect life and now she was here, out living her own life while her parents expect her to write them a letter and saying how she was doing and if she had met anyone new yet. And then there was me, someone who had parents, someone who had experienced more pain and betrayal than this girl could ever imagine.

I leapt off the table and strode right up to her. She froze on the spot when I reached her. “Hi there. I’m Bridgette.” I said, trying not to smile.

Alex

The mysterious girl waltzed right over to Titania like they were personal friends. I saw her eyes, like two bright, golden flames. That’s when I knew she was magic. I practically ran to Titania’s side and shoved her out of harm’s way before the witch could touch her. I had one hand on my dagger and another on Titania’s shoulder, pushing her back to the door. The damned witched had a huge smirk on her face…