The Elementals

When we reach the lake, no one’s there. The mud where Coal attacked me is dry and hard now. Around the outskirts of the clearing on the other side are the remains of a campfire. Walking over to it, I can see that it has been stomped on to be put out. Coal inspects the ash, putting his fingers in it.

“It’s been out for about an hour,” he declares.

“How do you know?”

He looks at me.

“Right, right, fire.” I remember. I imagine my face is red.

Coal snickers. He paces down to the water’s edge. “So,” he starts, and I can tell he’s having trouble on where to begin. His face lights up. “After you punched me yesterday, what were you feeling that made you control the water?”

“Um, I was really mad?” I try. “Yeah, I was pretty mad.”

“Good, good. Now why were you mad?” Coal asks innocently, like the jerk hadn’t tried to deck me.

“Because you had this surprised look on your face, like it was shocking that I could possibly hit you.”

Coal nods. “Well, it was.”

“What?”

“I mean, you’re just some random little orphan girl that ran away. I didn’t expect you to be able to react so fast.”

“So you got punched,” I snap.

“Yeah, but it was a lucky shot. I wasn’t trying very hard.” Coal waves his hand as if to brush the matter aside.

“I think it was a little more than luck—” I argue, my voice rising.

“Keep telling yourself that,” he snorts. “I knew you weren’t going to put up much of a fight.”

“Much of a fight?” I say in heated disbelief. “I punched you pretty hard.”

“It was an okay hit.” Coal smirks. “For someone like you.”

Resentment bubbles inside me. I’ll show him. I feel the power, the energy, spreading from my chest. With a low growl, I shove my hands out at Coal and feel the lake water burst up in a wave behind me.

Coal’s eyes widen in fear. It didn’t occur to me that he might be afraid of water. It makes sense. A rippling shadow of the mountain of water falls over him and he winces. Everything is going in slow motion. I can hear the roaring of water in my ears and I’m not sure if it’s from inside me or from the wave. I see Coal cowering underneath the water and I think about Celina, towering over me.

I am Celina. It’s that realization that stops me.

I gasp and my hands drop to my side. The energy leaks out of me. The wave drops with my arms and a blanket of water falls onto me and Coal, the force sending me to the ground. I sit there, soaking and breathing raggedly, while water floods around my ankles. I look around, trying to find Coal.

“I thought you were going to kill me, Flippers,” he sputters, popping up soaking wet, ten feet away from me.

“Me too,” I say, never so relieved to see someone alive. Even if the someone is annoying as hell.

“I thought I overdid it, but hey, it worked!”

“Overdid what?”

Coal stands up, dripping. “Making you mad. Man, when you brought that wave up, I thought I was toast.”

“Wait, you tried to make me mad? On purpose?”

“Yeah.” A sheepish grin slides his mouth to one side. “I didn’t know how else to get you to use your powers.” He pauses, then looks at me, frowning slightly. “You didn’t actually think I was being a jerk for real, right?”

“Um.” I cough. “No?”

“Why am I helping you?”

“Because you’re stupid?”

He looks injured for a second, then grins and sloshes over and offers his hand out. I hadn’t even realized I was still soaking, sitting on the ground. I take it and he pulls me up.

“Now we just have to figure out how to get that reaction without having to make you angry, and learn how to control it,” Coal says.

I survey the water all over the clearing. Everything is muddy and wet. Puddles are everywhere. It looks like the lake exploded. “Cake.”

“Says you,” Coal mutters. He shakes his head like a wet dog, spraying water everywhere.

“Don’t like water, huh?”

He glares at me, wringing out his shirt. I smile innocently. “No, not really,” he admits.

“Can you swim?”

He looks at me sharply. “Yes!” I stare at him. Coal sighs. “No,” he mumbles.

I think for a second. “I could teach you. You know, for showing me how to use my powers.”

He’s silent for a second, concentrating. Then he does his lighting himself on fire thing and the rest of the water evaporates, hissing, the steam curling off his shoulders. He holds out his hand. I shake it cautiously, ready to yank it away, expecting to burn myself. But his skin is only warm to the touch, though the air around him is waving from the heat.

“It’s a deal, Flippers,” Coal says, grinning.

“Great.” I snatch my hand away as Coal’s starts to glow. “What’re you doing?”

“Trying to figure out what I do to make fire. Maybe it’ll help.”

“Yeah, well do it away from me,” I snap.

Coal smiles and bursts into flames. “What’s wrong, Flippers? Afraid of fire?”

“At least I don’t have to swim in it.”

Coal looks puzzled for second, then grins, showing all his teeth like wolf. I wish he would stop that. Slowly, the ground around us starts to alight. Like it’s following a trail of gasoline, the flames make a ring around me. Then the loop erupts into a blazing wall of heat. I’m not sure if I shriek in fear or not, but I bring my hands over my head and scrunch my eyes closed, waiting for the flames to touch my skin.

Instead all I hear is a slight sizzling noise like butter on a hot frying pan. I look up and see that the fire has been put out. Coal is soaked again and frowning.

“What was that for?” I snarl at him.

“To see if your powers react automatically in self-defense,” Coal says, obviously giving up on drying off with me around. “They do,” he informs unnecessarily.

“Well can you tell me when you’re going to try and roast me?” I snap angrily, though I’m trembling.

“It wouldn’t work if I did that. You would know that it was coming.”

It aggravates me that he’s right. I shudder. Coal’s “afraid of fire” comment is a little too true. I tug my shirt sleeve down; making sure the burn scar is hidden. Shaking off the memory, I turn to Coal, who’s peering at me worriedly. “What?”

Coal shrugs. “You had this weird look on your face, like you’d seen a ghost.”

“It’s nothing,” I say it too quickly. Coal’s eyes narrow.

“You sure?”

“Positive,” I say, hating how tight my voice is. Trying to change the subject, I say, “What’s next? You’re gonna try and kill me this time?”

“You’re absolutely sure? I mean you looked pretty upset.” Coal won’t. let it. go.

“Yes, I am sure.” I say, exaggerating each word.

“Uh huh.” Coal crosses his arms across his chest and stands there, waiting.

I clench my teeth. I feel sort of calm though, not peaceful, but in control. I smile patronizingly at Coal and bring my hand up. The energy comes again, but this time more measured and less like an overpowering wave of force. My vision stays clear and it’s like my senses have been on steroids or something. I feel the water around me, I know where every drop is and I have power over it all. I flick my hand and Coal gets a face full of dirty water. I breathe in and feel the water rise like a curtain.

“Drop it,” I tell him as the temperature lowers slightly. He nods, backing away nervously, glancing up at the sky.

All the water from the entire lake has turned to snow.

I turned the lake to snow.

Laughing in disbelief, I sprint around the clearing, hands in the air. The flakes swirl in dizzying patterns. When I’m across the now empty lake, I turn to face Coal.

“Look!” I call out to him. “It’s SNOWING! I made it SNOW!”

I cackle, racing down into the bottom of the lake. Sliding on the thin layer of ice, I spin around the center and collapse into a giggling heap.

“Come on!” I motion for Coal to join me. He looks at me like I’m insane, which is probably true. “I’m staying right here till you come down!” He shakes his head, rolling his eyes, and then he carefully picks his way down.

“Looks my amazing teaching lessons worked.”

“What teaching lessons, Flame boy?” I’m too happy to get annoyed.

"Flame boy? That’s the best you can come up with?”

“I’m sorry, is there a word for self-centered, egotistical, Elemental moron?”

“Shut up, Water girl.”

And idea forms. It’s completely ludicrous, but I still go for it. Melt, I think. The snow turns to rain. Come to me. The water dumps onto me and Coal, filling up the lake. I see his eyes widen, and his body glows red but it’s too late.

The water floods in and then we’re floating in the middle of the lake. At least, I am. Coal is sinking under. I dive down and grab his arm. I tread water with my arms and legs and motion for him to follow. He does, his eyes flipping back and forth from help, to shooting daggers at me the entire time. His head breaks the surface, gasping for air.

I’m fine, I realize. I dunk my head under again. Sure enough, I can breathe. It’s weird, gulping in water and feeling air go down my windpipe. I have to force the first few breaths, but eventually it feels as natural as drinking water and having it magically convert into air will ever be. Swimming back to Coal, I pop my head up.

“You are the spawn of the devil,” he growls, face white.

“If I had told you, it wouldn’t have worked.” It’s my turn to grin evilly. He makes a face at me. “Steady your breathing, it’ll help you float,” I instruct.

Coal follows my directions, and his terrified expression fades a little as his head rises farther out from the waves.

“Now kick your legs, like scissors, and pull with your arms.” I say, swimming in circles around him.

He does, keeping his head above water.

“Pretty good,” I nod encouragingly. “For someone like you.”

His face tells it all and I turn around and zoom away towards shore, feeling the water propelling me. I sit down on the dirt, waiting for Coal to catch up.

“I hate you,” he gasps, crawling onto land and collapsing. ”So much.”

“That’s no way to thank your teacher!”

“I’m pretty sure that was all me.”

“Whatever floats your boat, Firefly.”

“Ooh, Firefly!” Coal flips onto his stomach and props himself up on his elbows. “How long did it take you to come up with that one?”

I grin at him, because I can tell the name gets on his nerves. Suddenly, his shoulders tense. I twist around and see two figures emerging from the woods. I slowly move into a low crouch. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Coal doing the same. One of them spots us. Pointing, they rush over. As they get closer, to my surprise, I realize its Terra and Breeze. I stand up.

“Tide!” Terra shouts, jumping up and down and waving, like I can’t already see her. I almost forgot that’s my name, and not Flippers.

“What are you doing here?” Coal asks coldly.

I glance at him and see him standing up behind me like some evil guardian angel. His face is stony and dark, nothing like the annoying lopsided grin I thought was his default expression. He steps forward and I never really took in how tall he was. I was the tallest girl at Westerville other than Celina, but Coal is a few inches above me.

“We saw some flashes of light and then something that looked like snow over the trees from where we were walking so we decide to check it out, because we were looking for the last Elementals but then we found you so I guess we don’t have to look anymore,” Terra says, not even breathing hard.

Coal glares down at me with a look that says this is your fault.

I shoot one back: I didn’t set myself on fire.

“You guys know you’re Elementals?” I ask.

“Yes,” says Breeze. “You mean you didn’t?”

“Of course I did.” I say, daring Coal to object.

“Who are you?” Terra is all up in Coal’s face. “Are you her boyfriend?”

Coal looks down at her like I’m going to burn you to a crisp and then some.

“Terra!” I grab her shoulder. I hope that in the dying sunlight she can’t see that my face is red. “Terra. Hi! How about we talk over here, ok? Ok.” I move her over a few paces, away from Coal. I look at him silently asking a question. He nods grimly.

If Terra and Breeze saw us, who else did?