Elemental Awakening

Chapter Four

David lit the match and tossed it onto the clear pungent liquid on the floor and all around him. All his years of grief and loneliness had come to this. It would finally be over. He would finally see his parents again. The last time that he had seen them was the night that his home had burned down, and his parents with it. He had been bounced around group homes and foster families for the last two years.  David just felt out of place in the world. He had no friends or family, he had been expelled from more than one school for his behavior problems, David was a year past graduation and should be thinking of going to university. The only thing that David thought about was joining his parents, what did he have left to this mortal world, why did he feel like he was stuck in a nightmare that he couldn’t wake from.

The last time he saw his parents alive his mother had just finished cooking supper and let David stay up till midnight for when his father got home from work. They had eaten supper and David went back to his room to lay down for sleep, his father had lit a cigarette to unwind, unfortunately David’s mother had left the gas oven on, and there was a leak. The explosion rocked the house and ignited everything except for David’s room. David walked out of his house that night and into a nightmare.

So David stood in an evicted house with his can of gasoline and a pack of matches. In emotional pain and frustration David made his decision. After pouring the gasoline over every surface in a one meter radius, he struck the match. David watched the flame play for a second, held his breath and tossed the match. Just as the fire began to bloom in the petrol he regretted his decision. “I want to live!” Then something unexpected happened, the fire did not touch David but consumed everything around him. David was encapsulated in a ball of fire that was rapidly changing colors. The fire began to constrict as it changed through the spectrum going through every color known to man, twice over did the colors of the fire change finally stopping on an intense emerald green. When the colors stopped the flame stopped moving, everything stopped moving. The fire looked as if it was made of glass; he noticed that he could see through the statuesque flames. He was no longer in a house, it was night time and he was outside, but this was not Norwich England; the last town the county called home for him. This land was very, very different from anything that he had ever seen. He wanted to see it more clearly, but how was he to get out of the shield of fire, he wanted it to move. He reached to touch the flames, as he did the point that his fingers made contact with moved. Slowly starting at the point of the flame he had touched; the fire began to move, the movement eventually engulfed the entire shield. As the fire came back to life David’s body absorbed the flames.

As he became the flame his awareness stretched out to the future. He could see visions of what was and what might be. He saw himself in a stone home with a woman that was as beautiful as a sunrise. He saw a baby in her arms, and he saw himself smile as he touched that little person’s hand. It had been so long since he had been happy, he wished so much for that to be true. He saw sadness too, he saw a once great community destroyed by some force. Something that he knew was going to destroy the world.

 Painlessly the fire became part of his own being. He stood for a moment with his body engulfed in flames as green as an emerald, fading to jade. Ghostly he glowed in the night, the fire was no longer violent, it danced calmly over his skin almost delicately. He could control this fire; he drew it down and made it smaller so that he could hold the flames in his hand. He was the fire, he could wield it like it was an extra arm. With his power over his green fire he gained a new understanding, an awareness that he did not have before. He could see the world as the fire saw it. He saw food and fuel what could and could not burn. He knew what would make him stronger or weaker. He played the fire from hand to hand making little balls juggle in the air. As his acrobatics started to become more elaborate he heard a voice.

“Eh hum” A woman cleared her throat to get David’s attention “If you please flame elemental we need to be moving on now” the woman’s lack of surprise and wonder actually annoyed David.

“Uhhh, what you mean?” he questioned.

“We need to get to our village before the sun blisters you.” It was at this time that David noticed a girl with this strange tall woman. They both seemed to melt into the terrain, when you didn’t look directly at them. The girls spoke when David looked at her “My name is Dankiyet and this is my mother Avensong. I am your guardian and guide on this journey. We don’t know why you are here so early, but we know that we will need you soon. There are three more elementals, you are fire.” It’s her!

David thought about this for a moment, “okay this is a bit unusual, but it feels right” after everything that he just saw in his transition why not.

Avensong  spoke again “I don’t know how well these clothes will work for you here. You may start with them if you must but we have clothing more suited for our land.”

“I’ll change later if I have too.”

“Very well then, let us leave now.”

The group headed off into the night in the direction of the cactus paw village. Avensong knew that what took her and Dankiyet three days to travel would take them at least five with this freshly woken elemental. The boy looked water fat. How is that when he's supposed to be the fire elemental? Why was he a male? That had never been a male fire elemental.

“So how did you find me?” David was board and wanted to understand where he was better. He hated walking without a distraction. The horizon was impossibly flat, it stretched out into eternity. He had no idea how Dankiyet or her mother knew where they were going. Hell he didn't know where he was.

“The tracking stone.” Dankiyet stated plainly. She continued walking but noticed David slowing down. She unstopped her water bag and handed it to him. "You need to get used to the heat." He took the water bag and nodded. He sipped at the water and handed it back to her, thinking that this would be their only water source for the entire trip.

"When we stop I'll take that change of clothes, these shoes aren't going to do too well if we are going to walk like this for days." Dankiyet looked at him appraisingly. He was picking up fast. David didn't see much food for his fire. He figured if that's the case then there must not be a lot of water around either. Fire and water fed off of each other he believed, especially out here. The water fed his fire's food and that in turn fed him and the fire. In fact he noticed that he didn't feel hungry…just sort of anxious. Like an itch down inside of him. His skin felt like it was crawling with insects. The further that they walked the more intense that it became. "Oh bloody hell!" he stopped to itch himself.

Avensong looked at him, it had begun. What was he sensing? "Do you feel as though insects are crawling under your skin?" he nodded as he furiously scratched at himself.

"Stand back." He stepped away from Avensong, and Dankiyet. He burst into flames as he made himself stop scratching long enough to stretch his arms out as wide as they could go. "Ahhhhh." He sighed in relief as the sensation of complete and total calm passed through his body. He rolled his head back and took in a deep breath of the surrounding air. He could smell something. What was it? The smell made him nauseous. Even as the fire wrapped him in a protective layer of heat he still felt cold. He looked to Dankiyet and Avensong. "We need to go! Now!" David began running on the soft sand in a direction slightly to the left of the line that they had been following.

"David! What do you feel?" Dankiyet was out of breath trying to keep up with this water fat boy. She was the fastest sprinter in her village and she couldn't keep up with him. "David! Stop! We can't run like this." He slowed down enough to let them keep up with them.

"I feel him. I know him. He is trying to talk to me, and wants me to devour the plane." David didn't even look tired or out of breath. His fire suffused him with energy, he didn't feel tired. He noticed as his fire was getting hungry it started taking little bites out of his clothing. His shoes had already melted away from him and he could feel the sand turn to glass under his feet with every step that he took. "I won't let him use me."

"How do you know where we are going?" Avensong asked him more than a little out of breath.

"To the Cactus Paw." He said flatly, not even turning his head.

"David! We are the Cactus Paw! We came to find you. How do you know who we are we haven't even told you yet." Dankiyet was astonished. They had never heard of an elemental having the gift.

David stopped short, he looked around. "I don't know…it's like I woke up and now know everything. But I don't know were all this new knowledge came from. It's strange. I think I know you too. I think that we met some time, but not yet." David dropped to his knees, at that point his fire extinguished itself. His head dropped, and he fell to his side.

Avensong and Dankiyet looked at one another and decided to camp there for the day as the sun's rays were just starting to crest the horizon. Avensong began. "I think he has the gift."

"I was thinking that when he said he knew where to go to get to the village." She busied herself with making preparations. She then noticed that David's clothing was in taters with little scorch marks all around him. His shoes were gone, and right where his feet stopped a trail of glass foot prints leading back the way they had come started. "Oh mother, he has power, he doesn't even know how to use it yet." She laid out some clothing for him, at the same time that she was thinking that she might not want to because he may burn that set up too.

"You are not promised to any one Dankiyet." Dankiyet looked at her mother, in fascination.

"What brings this up mother?"

"I knew the moment that you were born that you were destined to greatness. At first I thought that it was because you were to be shaman one day. I believe now it is because you are an usher to this elemental." Avensong looked at David's sleeping form. Then began again. "You know your grandmother isn't the only one that gave you the sight."

"Yes mother I know." Dankiyet answered, she too looked at David. He seemed to be in a coma more than a resting sleep.

"He's so young. I doubt that he could be much older than yourself." Avensong lay down next to the boy under her own blanket, and then pulled the canvas hood a devise more than an article of clothing, over her face to shield herself from the sand and sun. Dankiyet did the same after making sure that David's hood was secured to his blanket. They slept until the sun was sitting low on the mountains in the west. When they woke David was already dressed in his new clothing and sitting cross legged at their feet.

His blanket and hood were already wrapped into a tight roll like he had been doing it for years instead of his first time. He waited till Dankiyet and Avensong had done the same with theirs. "I have had dreams of this place." He scooped up a handful of sand and let the granules slid through his fingers. "Every time I slept this place came slamming into my head." Another handful of sand sifted out of his grasp. "I have seen you Avensong, but in my dreams I called you mother. I know Magrotin, and I know Lamasuli. I have dreamt of this place since my parents died. At first I thought it was because I was so alone. Now I know that I am meant to be here." He finally looked up at the two women and smiled. "We need to go. He is going to try to get into my head again tonight."  

"Who is 'he' David?" Dankiyet asked. She was skeptical of all of this. "And did you not see me in your dreams?"

"I think I was using your eyes in my dreams. I don't know who 'he' is yet, but I know that we don't want to find out till we have Wendy, Cleo, and Sui with us." He started walking in a direction slightly to the right of the original path, and far to the right of the path that he was streaking last night. "You know Dankiyet, you are going to fall in love with me."

Dankiyet sputtered, "I most certainly will not! I am your guardian and it would be unethical for me to take advantage of you like that." David turned around his face was inches from hers. He grabbed her wrist and brought her fingers to his mouth. Right as she thought that he would kiss them in some sort of courtly gesture he blew on them and her hand burst into painless flame. He then let go as Dankiyet held her hand up on her own in wander. Avensong looked on in disbelief.

"I knew I could do that last night when my fire came to life. The last fire elemental is Aven's grandmother." David answered.

"What did you do? I can only light candles and cook fires." Dankiyet began to play with her flame, it was the normal orange and yellow that everyone else sees. She could still manipulate it like David could.

"I spoke to your inner flame. Try to put it out and relight it." She did as he requested. Closed her fist and the flame was gone, she then opened her hand as wide as she could and a flame began to grow in the middle of her palm. "Cool. I don't know why mine is green though." He copied her motions. Making an emerald green flame burst forth in his palm.

"We need to go." Avensong interrupted. And started heading off to the village. Dankiyet and David began to follow her and still played with their balls of fire back and forth. They could hear a whoosh of dragon wings overhead and quickly extinguished their flame.

A dragon began to back wing as he and his rider came in for a landing about a dragon length away from them.

"HO! Friends." The rider jumped from his dragon and began to walk up to the traveling party.  "Tai-yueh-ta-ti. My dragon is Adad, and I am Lake-stone. How are you this evening?"

"Tai-yueh-ta-ti." Avensong returned the warrior greeting that is shared with neighbor tribes. "Health to your dragon, Rider, may he rise often. Why are you patrolling this far from your perch?" Avensong exchanged greetings then got to business.

"Adad saw your torches, and wanted to know why you are bringing so much attention at night. But I don't see any torches on you anymore. Did you drop them when you heard us?"

"The elementals have arrived early. This is David the fire elemental." Dankiyet introduced David and he let the green flame once again grow in his hand.

"Very nice, the queens have been receiving reports of tribes and villages being attacked by something. It would be welcome to have the elementals fight with us." He looked at David and nodded his head in respect. “I hope that it is just bandits, I would hate know that the Gold City is trying to take land again.”

"Where is your mate rider Lake-stone? Is she near?" Avensong inquired about the absence of half this dragon pair. It was unusual to see a dragon and his rider without their mates. “And we will help if it is either situation.” The Gold City a City state that believes it is the only political component in the Abysmal Plane. The leaders in the city believe that the desert tribes want a unified government, and would be grateful for protection and trade. But the Gold City really just want the revenue from the taxes and to sit and bloat. Every soul in the Gold City is corrupt.

"We have a clutch!" the rider beamed with the excitement of his dragons impending parenthood. "And her rider my mate is pregnant too." Blessings be it didn't happen often but it was not unheard of to have a joint parenthood amongst rider and dragon teams and their mates.

"Congratulations! Do you have enough youths to attend to the hatching?" Avensong inquired because often the dragon clan would scout new riders from allied tribes. It was good practice because these riders and dragons would want to stay with their parent tribe. The tribes often wanted a rider to attend to them, and would volunteer prospective riders to the dragon clan.

"None have heard our draglets in the perch, if you want to send youths it would be welcome." Lake-stone paused for a moment. He continued after carefully choosing his words. "It would be most appreciated; we had an illness spread through the perch a few years back, and have a lack of choices in riders."

"Oh of course, we will send volunteers as soon as we reach the village." Avensong paused "None have heard the clutch?" this was not good. The first to hear the thoughts of the infant dragons still in their eggs should be tribe members in the home perch. Their world was changing so fast, the elementals waking so soon and the clutches not having riders was not a good omen. Chills ran up Avensong's back as the thoughts set deeper in her mind. Avensong's attention was brought back to David as he burst into emerald flame. "The itch?"

"Yeah. How far are we from the village?" David began to scan the area, as if listening for something. "He's waiting. He knows that I have chosen my destiny." David's eyes began to focus on one point in the distant horizon. He then addressed the dragon directly. "Adad, you will find the cause in that direction. May your rider never fail." He gestured in the direction he wanted the dragon team to investigate. He waited for the rider to mount and the dragon to leave before turning to Dankiyet. He looked at her for a moment his eyes wondering over her face. "I have decided."

"What is that elemental?" Dankiyet waited for David to make his proclamation heard. She waited standing under his gaze. She could almost hear his thoughts as he appraised her. She had the feeling that she would blush if he let her into his head. Just as she was shifting her weight to start walking David spoke.

"I'm not going to wait. I will have to make you fall in love with me." He began walking expecting Dankiyet and her mother to follow. But the two women stood there dumb struck. The gall that this boy was showing was just too much for these proud warriors to handle, but they didn't know what to do about it. "Well are you coming or not?" the women with little choice began to follow him. This time he seemed content to walk and his fire didn't burn as hot. There was no glass trail of foot prints following the group this night. With the progress that they made running the entire night before they should be back to the village by the time the sun crested their mountain.

For the most part they had to admit that their journey was short. They had expected it to take long because they didn't expect the elementals to be so prepared for their world. They were new, why are they so ready to be here, they are young how can they be the wisdom of the people. David was another matter. He was an arrogant boy that thought he was a man already. Dankiyet knew that he was going to be trouble. How was she going to be his guide if he kept this love nonsense in his head? She will just have to make sure that he knows it is the women that choose husbands not the other way around. Besides he hasn't met the other girls of the tribe yet. He would surely find those girls attractive too. Maybe as soon as they got there he would forget about Dankiyet.

She mused that it was unlikely. She could feel the pull already. She was supposed to be the next shaman. She had no time to take care of a boy or man. Whatever he might be. Why was he so bent on her falling in love already? He doesn't know who I am. Why does he know who my sister and father are though? No elemental has ever had the sight. Not a single one. Certainly their children all had the sight, but none of the elementals themselves. It was one more curiosity to add to the list.

The trio walked in silence for half the night. When the red moon was at its zenith and the blue moon was following the group stopped for a meal. David sat in quiet chewing his dried ration of fruits and meats. His gaze was intent on Dankiyet as though he was willing her to look at him. Every time that she glanced in his direction she had to look away. He made her so angry the way he looked at her. Like he was contemplating their future lives together. She had to turn her back to him so that she wouldn't be tempted to look at him, so that she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of her attention. His flames gave them light for their meal but no heat.

"You know you can't hide from me." His voice sounded cold, like her actions deeply wounded him. "I can hear you. I can see you, but even if you were a hundred miles away I would still know where you are. My flame, my inner flame, the thing that made me who I am before I even came here. It knows who you are, and it can hear you." Avensong sat and bemused how well this youngling was playing Dankiyet. It was about time that she got the attention that would put her in her place. David finished his meal and stood to leave and continue their trek through the dessert. Before he took his first step he extinguished his fire. He didn't want to be seen, but as soon as he dropped his living shield he felt the itch, just under his skin. He knew that they were close to the village and it would be dimmer. One of the reasons he didn't want to be seen. Dankiyet and Avensong stood and followed.

The women noticed right away that David wasn't really heading in the right direction. But they continued to follow for a full candle. Dankiyet finally spoke up "David we haven't been going the right way since we left our meal."

"I Know. I don't want him to find me."

"Who, David? You said that someone could see you when you first got here. Do you know who it is?" this reference someone watching David was very curious. Why did David know this but she didn't. Why does his flame give him the sight? Was the evil energy she felt on the outset of this trip the same evil energy that could take hold of David?

"I don't know his name. I just know that he has seen me, and he wants to use me. I don't even know if he's human." David stopped walking and turned to Dankiyet. "Every time I think about him I see his face. It scares me. The picture in my head is all black and white like an old time movie, but clouded too. He has fangs, and his eyes are just pools of hatred. He wants all the life on this world to be gobbled up by something that he keeps calling the Swarm. I don't want him to know where our home is. And he can see me when I'm all lit up like a Christmas tree." He paused for a moment before walking again. "Erm I don't know where I'm at when I don't have my fire up." He looked as though he was chewing something that tasted very bad. "I need you to lead again, um please." Dankiyet started walking in the right direction leaving David feeling very sheepish.

Lucky for the group David's miss rout didn't take them very far off their course and they arrived at the village just after dawn. The first stop after arriving in the hive structure was the village center. David had to see Ashfoot. This would either raise more questions for Dankiyet or resolve some of the ones that were swirling in her head. She had to know why David seemed to have the sight. How did he awaken the flame in her own body?