The Elementals

“I dunno, she looks pretty dead to me.”

I hear a voice. It’s sort of muffled, like their speaking into a pillow. Where am I? What happened?

“She’s not dead.”

I’m lying on my right side, where I fell last night.

Last night.

A rush of memories floods my brain. Celina, the water, everything. It really happened. I moan pathetically.

“See, she was just unconscious.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I sit up and look around. I seem to be in a thick forest. Warm sunlight filters softly through the curtain of leaves, giving the ground an almost magical effect. To my right is a clearing with a small lake, sparkling beautifully. In front of me are two girls, one crouching and looking at me with a high amount of concern, and the other standing a couple feet behind with her arms crossed. They look about my age. Their clothes are dirty and worn.

“Who are you?” I ask when I remember that I can speak.

“I’m Breeze,” the girl closest to me answers, “and that—” she points to the second girl— “is Terra. Nice to meet you.”

Breeze has a pretty face: smooth skin, sky blue eyes, light blonde hair that curls at the ends like the wind was playing with it. A touch of the south hangs in her voice. She’s smiling now, and it gives me a warm feeling inside.

Terra is built more sturdily than Breeze, with a round face and curly hair that escapes her ponytail in a dark frizz. Her clothes are covered in dirt and twigs. She walks over and offers her hand. I take it cautiously and she pulls me up.

“Thanks,” I say and shake the dew drops from my hair.

“Are you feeling better, sweetheart?” Breeze asks.

I wonder why sweetheart doesn’t drive me insane the way kid did when Celina called me that. Her concern is comforting, but considering my last twenty-four hours, I’m staying on the cautious side. “Um, I guess.”

“How did you get here?” Terra asks.

“I ran away.”

The truth feels weird, staggering. I’ve thought about running away, sure, but actually doing it? I’m way out of my league. Not that I’d tell anyone that.

Terra has a hand out as if I’ll fall over. I realize I’m swaying a bit. “From where?” she asks.

“From my orphanage, thanks for helping, I’m fine, goodbye!” I say and walk towards the lake,

“How’d you knock yourself out? Did you walk into a tree?” Terra doesn’t quit talking, keeping pace with me.

“Sure.” Confusion is making me irritable. I try to contain it, swallowing as I remember Celina.

“You’re going all alone?” Breeze sounds worried.

“Yup.

“You could come with us!” Terra says. “I mean it’s just the two of us but if you came, it would be three. A trio!”

“Yeah,” Breeze adds, “I mean we’re orphans too, you know. We ran away a couple months ago.”

I stop. I’m about to ask them to clarify about the whole “we’re orphans too” thing when something slams into me from behind.

My cry is cut short as it and I go tumbling down the hill and into the mud by the lake shore. I squirm away from whatever it is and scramble to my feet. Facing my enemy proves it’s not Terra or Breeze, like I had thought. They’re up on the top of the hill with their mouths open.

The shape in the mud is clearly a person. They get up and wipe the mud from their face and I realize that it’s a boy.

“What the—” My sentence is cut off short as he lunges at me again.

Instinctively, because I’d witnessed many fights in the orphanages, I duck under his grasp, then spring up and punch. My fist meets his shoulder and the boy goes sprawling back to the ground. His face is one I know well. Completely bewildered that a girl could be capable of something requiring skill.

“Hey, you asked for it,” I say, feeling the power fizzing inside me like last night.

I bring my arms up over my head and bring them down forcefully. But I’m nowhere near the kid. Then my vision is out again and I hear a yelp. I get the same clarity from the Celina incident, and see that the guy has been completely soaked and the mud is washed of.

His hair is black, and unevenly cut, like someone took to it with a chainsaw. He’s wearing a red tee shirt with torn jeans. His eyes are wide, and grey, like smoke from a volcano.

“So you’re the water one, huh?” he says.

“The what now?” I ask, really confused. Did I seriously just attack someone, again?

“Hey!”

Terra runs down the hill, Breeze on her heels.

Mud Boy is gone. I was staring at him one second ago and in that time he’s gone thirty feet in a dead sprint towards the tree line.

“Hey, stop—wait!” I shout after him, but his figure disappears into the foliage before my sentence is finished.

“Are you okay?” Terra asks, reaching out for my arm.

My glance at her is distracted. “I gotta go,” I say, starting to move towards the trees.

“Sweetie, hold on!” Breeze calls, but I’m not listening. I need answers. My legs pump faster, running after the boy’s tracks and into the woods, leaving Terra and Breeze behind.