Elemental Awakening

Chapter fourteen

Day 20, month 4

Dear Journal,

Things have been getting harder. The nightmares, the missing people, the food shortages, everything. I’m so tired. I keep thinking to myself that I want to just go home, then I realize that this feels like home, so I just want to go to bed and wake up when this is all over. 

The long boat propelled by oars and strong bodies was aided by the powers of wind and water as it sliced through the waves. A storm crashed around them but not a drop penetrated the elemental shield that Sui and Wendy created. They were thankful that the only trouble that this trip afforded them was storms. Constantly crashing at them and unusual for the location and time of year on the coast, it was clear that outside forces were at work here. It wasn’t bugs though, so they were happy.

“We should be able to see the tops of the towers any moment now. The dragons can see them from their vantage.” The helmsman told David as he was pointing skyward to indicate a dragon that was several lengths above them. Risdon was his name, and he was an older man that was no stranger to sailing. The Dragon Maw clan had many skilled fishermen in its’ population being so close to the shore, and Risdon was one of the best. This was his own vessel, and he was just getting used to having an elemental around.

“Thank you.” David responded. He was worried, for just about every reason. He grew up quickly since he had been in the Abysmal Plane, training and becoming a family man rushed everything for him. ‘I’ll never be the same’ He thought as the boat crested a wave and he saw the first glittering top of a golden tower with an onion shaped dome. “It looks like the pictures of Moscow. That place used to be one of those things that I wanted to see in person.”

“Ah, yes, is that beyond the scar? Or the dreaming world?”

“Oh yeah that was in the dreaming world. Or is, I don’t know anymore.” David dropped the conversation and just fixated on the ever growing towers. There had to be hundreds of them, and they were huge. The shadows they cast stretched out to grasp the boats as they were coming into port hope. The port was even a day’s walk from the city. This was shortened because the road was paved with crushed shell and limestone. The gold city kept it maintained to ensure that the road was smooth and even to facilitate commerce traffic. David was prepared for the tax that the city would impose as soon as the group left the boats. He and Cleo would pull gold and melt it into bars as soon as they were over the continental shelf and could see the ocean bed.

The plan was to pull enough gold from ship wrecks to pay the taxmen once they debarked the vessels. Sui thought that putting wheels on the boats would make it easier once they go to land as well, Cleo would be able to build a ramp to the dock for the vessels to just roll up then the few oxen that were brought would be unloaded and used to pull the boats the rest of the way. Sails would stay intact because even if the oxen were pulling they weren’t going to be able to handle the full weight of the ships with people and supplies. Dragons wouldn’t do any of that work, they felt that they were strictly escort and protection, maybe some messages.

Working with a massive sentient creature that holds the vast information of the world was frustrating. Even if a person has a good idea to tackle an obstacle the dragons would only do so much, but at times you could see in their faces that what you proposed has never been seen before. David could tell that they felt that they were forgetting many things, this should be easy for them, he didn’t know everything.

The coast loomed ever closer. The glittering domes and the port were closer, the tops of ships in the harbor were now visible, and the beach sand would be clear shortly. As David started mentally preparing for the upcoming task. A dragon back-winged to a hover and held his position next to the ship so the rider could speak with him. Sir. Master Air, and Mistress Earth are ready for instruction. “I know. They will be needing you to let the gold ship know.” David had been in mind-link with the other elementals coordinating the effort and searching for the capsized commerce ships. Cleo had located them and was ready to lift them with the help of Wendy.

Wendy was going to increase the density of the water little by little to lift the gold to the surface. David would melt the sigil off of each coin and ingot to hide the fact that they were basically stealing the Gold City’s lost revenue. Wendy ‘stiffened the water to walk between the boats and meet the others at the commerce barge. Sui used the air to float to the barge leaving Cleo and David to hitch rides from dragons.

“You are going to get us in trouble for blasphemy with all that water walking business you know.” David greeted Wendy jokingly.

“Oh yeah the Jesus thing.” Wendy smirked “I’ve been wondering if he was not an elemental himself, and he just returned from this world.”

“Hmm, that would be neat, but that would mean that we should be able to return as well.”  

“I don’t think that we want to return.” Sui interrupted “yes this place has a problem, but it doesn’t have the same problems that the waking world has.

Cleo stood nodding furiously without the earth to channel her speech. A definable evil was more comforting to deal with than the demons hiding in each person in the waking world. Hells, Hitler’s mother even thought that he was a good boy.

Cleo set to work pulling the piles and piles of gold from the sunken ships below the surface. She felt guilty in a way for doing this. The dragon clan told them that every person that came into port without a large enough bribe was sold into slavery. So every ship that sank in these waters that had survivors meant that those people were all now just the gold cities property. 

Wendy helped Cleo by increasing the density of the water, to stabilize the gold, but Wendy was caught up in her own mental space of regrets and fear. The attack on her life back at the Dragon Maw was something that was going to stay with her forever. She could not really feel safe.

“Hold it right there Wendy” Sui had beads of sweat accumulating on his brow with concentration.

“Got it.” Wendy bit back clenching her teeth with the stress of holding the water in a denser state for Cleo to slide the gold bullion up the water ramp. The entire process only took about an hour to fill the barge with gold. To the elementals however it seemed an eternity. The four were soaked in sweat and sea foam and exhausted. They left the gold and the task of coming up with the bribe for the tax men.

The bribe would have to be large enough for the tax men to let them pass, but not so large that they would be suspicious and want to inspect the ships. Ideally the flotilla would wait outside the range of vision and send in three to four vessels at a time. Time however would not allow them that luxury. No one had any idea when or how Lochsear would be attacking again. Ashfoot and Dankiyet have been stabbing in the dark when they have set outside their bodies to track down his evil.

The gold was easy to sense as it was being pulled through the water. To Wendy it was similar to being able to tell different types of fabric brushing against her skin. She solidified water under the pockets of gold that Cleo concentrated and began pushing the gold to the surface. She used her power in the same way a piston could be used to elevate heavy loads. Once the gold was on the barge she handed it to David.

Once David had the gold he set to heating each gold bar up just enough to smooth it out, effectively melting the crest and seal off of each chunk. Members of both the Dragon clan and the Cactus Paw began stacking the bars evenly to not disturb the distribution of weight while he quietly worked. After David had all the bars cleaned of seals and crests he began gathering coins and marks and melting them into bars of the same size as the ones that he had been working with. Sui wanted all the gold to be the same shape and size to throw off the tax men and keep them from suspecting that the group were using laundered currency.

“I wish I had more time.” David sighed. Taking a short break from his money laundering task.  

“I wish that, that beast didn’t exist.” Wendy added. “Besides what is time?”

David looked at her and couldn’t find an answer. “Where did that come from?”

“Well think about it. Time is simply a measurement of movement through space. Like the spinning of the world is moving right?” she waited for David to nod before she continued. “Well when you really think about that space doesn’t exist either.” Wendy waited for David’s counter argument.

“Okay I’ll bite, how does space not exist?”

“Well space doesn’t exist in the manner of a fixed reference point. The world spins around a star, well that star is spinning around another system of stars. It’s like this world has two moons and they revolve around this world, and this rock that we are standing on is revolving around that star. This pattern goes on almost indefinitely. Before you came here did you know about the Milky-way galaxy?”

“Of course.” David began to reply

“Don’t say of course like all four of us would automatically know!” Wendy snapped, then continued “The year that I left in the dreaming world was 2031, there are countries that have fallen since the year 1982 when Sui left.”

“How did we not know that we were pulled from different years?” shock emerged from his face.

“Like I was saying.” Wendy continued “Everything is moving and spinning, but we don’t know how this place works, we don’t even know if we are in the same universe, dimension, or if we are just on planet earth before the rise of man, or after the fall.”

“Thinking so hard of the dreaming world is dangerous madam water.” One of the nomad’s family leaders interrupted the conversation.

“You’re right.” Wendy wrapped a shawl around her and dropped the conversation. David looked at her realizing for the first time that Wendy was probably the smartest of the four elementals. Why didn’t she step up into a leadership role? Why did everyone look to him to make the hard decisions when it came to their little group. He shook his head going back to his task of making bars. He wanted to get this completed before dawn.  

...

“Without warning or a way to see where this thing is I can’t advise that we sit here.” Dankiyet fidgeted with her tunic, she was getting larger and her skin itched.

“Until we have the herds in the port we can’t dock up. The ports-men won’t allow us to dock our ships for more than three days. The first of the cattle will be entering the town in about four more days as long as they don’t run into any mishaps.” Leaf added to the discussion. He had just arrived from communicating with the lead nomad group.

“We will take the ships in as the herds come in. Each ship will have an elder and a dragon escort in the event that the Tax men begin to increase their bribe requirement. We will only send in enough ships to fill a team. Until then we should anchor in site of the light house outside the shipping lane. I will go with a queen and speak with the Ports-man and the Tax keeper to keep the peace.” Avensong declared with the Dragon queens nodding and murmuring in agreement.

“We will fit the wheels and build the ramp the day we begin to doc.” Captain Risdon advised. “This salt water will destroy any untreated wood.”

“I will inform the elementals and the Cactus Paw.” Avensong acknowledged.

“I’ll start looking for volunteers to rig the wheels and axels.” Risdon offered.

David directed two boats and the gold barge to enter the harbor as word was sent that the oxen were now at the determined meeting point.The boats came into port as planned but before the boats could rest in their slips in port, they were confronted by the tax men and a member of the Gold City’s representative. “Excellent the Mafia is here!” David declared as he strode right up to the bejeweled man. The man had so many necklaces and rings on him, that David thought that must be the only reason that he had muscles on muscles. His hair was well oiled and dyed in multi colors his tunic was silk and gold embroidered. He positively looked like a peacock. “I am David, the awakened Fire elemental. We need to talk about bringing my boats through harbor.”

The decorated representative's jaw dropped as his standard issued guards and fretting taxmen began to twitch behind him. “Ah, yes, right to the matter. Master Fire, this isn’t how things are done in the gold city. We need to.” His hand danced at his side as he shifted his weight to one leg. “We need to negotiate. I understand the savages you bring are direct, but there is a protocol, a flourish that is needed to ease into the harbor.” A taxman flanked him with the deposit box and record book.

“Yeah about that, I don’t have time for that. In fact, neither do you. Your city will be leveled by myself or a common enemy if you don’t allow my contingent through.”

“And this is why Sui should have been put in charge.” Wendy muttered to Dankiyet. Dankiyet only nodded in agreement.

David waved his companions to remain quiet as the councilman twitched in agitation. “That is impossible.” Guards bristled in anticipation of orders. As their master tensed.

“Well it’s going to have to become possible right quick. I have over four hundred vessels only a day behind me. We are all coming through.” The peacock reacted as though he had been physically slapped. “We just have to come through. Don’t worry, you lot will be paid.”

The councilman composed himself enough to respond indignantly. “You cannot possibly have enough revenue to pay for passage of that many vessels. Why don’t you take them around the shipping lanes?” This agitated the taxman lost money was an unpleasant feeling in the Gold City.

“No I’m going to drive my ships through your port and right up onto your roads. My oxen will be coming in tomorrow to pull the vehicles.” David dug into a pocket on his leather coat and pulled out the laundered gold brick. “I have two of these for each vessel on that barge right there.” David dropped the brick into the deposit box and pointed at the barge as Leaf flew past and removed the downed sail to expose the glittering pile of gold. The taxman feinted and the Peacock lost all composure. “I take it we have a deal…what is your name?”

“Tangden…”

“Nice to meet you, will I be working with you or a lackey from here on out?” Like a shiv David dug into Tangden’s composure again.

Once the bribe was handed over to Tangden, the small contingent was escorted to the end of the main dock. It was solid stone and ancient. The surface was polished from years of salt water washing over the top of it. Several small wooden births were lashed to the chucks that were part of the stone dock. 

“Mistress Earth, this would probably be the safest entrance for you to construct the ramp for your boats. The Gold Kings request that you return it to this state once your retinue has left the water.” Tangden requested, still thrown out of sorts because of the elementals and their unusual antics. 

The earth rumbled in confirmation to Tangden that she would clean up after herself.

Cleo concentrated at the edge of the ancient stone dock. Tremors rippled the brackish harbor water. Black and deep she needed Sui’s help to delve through the gentle waves lapping at the ancient stone pier. She heard a voice in the stones that she stood on, a voice left in the basalt from an earth elemental eons ago. He was kind and he left a story, a page out of his journal. She was comforted to be holding hands with a person echoing through time. Lessons were left etched into the rock only she could hear. Ethan left his name and a few important messages in these lessons. Time froze for Cleo as she was escorted through the meaning of it all.

‘I’ll never meet you, and I’m sort of melancholy about that fact.’ A shadow of the man from the ages stood before Cleo cloaked in the dust of the earth. ‘I might be from a time before you were born, or you might be my senior, and that is what makes all of this so interesting. It seems that our home here in the Abysmal plane is somewhat fluid and looping around the waking world and intersecting at different time points only to be attached by our own entrance.’ As the dust shade continued Cleo’s understanding began to unfold. ‘There is something amiss with the world, everything is perfect, there has never been a war here, yet life is a constant struggle. People must fight to eke out a living and children rarely grow up. We, us elementals, are here to help and give stability to this place. We are building a city for this land, in hopes of creating a capital. It will all start with this peer.’

The shade extended his arm to point out his creation, emphasizing that he implanted this message into the stone as he laid the stone dock in the deep water. Three more figures joined him and for a moment they were clear. Faces and details were seen by everyone that stood on the peer with Cleo. The secret that Ethan wanted to pass to the new Elementals was how to embed a message into the fibers of creation that stone and rock could protect. Only Cleo could be their historian, only Cleo’s element had permanence. ‘As you are here now to receive my message, it means that you are on a journey. Don’t be fooled, though there is no conflict, there is danger.’ The three other elementals nodded in agreement, lending their strength to his words and the importance that he carried. ‘We are preparing the world for a great war, and leaving our tools to you, our successors. Because you are standing on my first great project you have been called to action, and Jasmine’s visions have come true. You still have hope, continue to forge the alliance, but don’t stay in the Capital, if you have no allies in the city, leave; you still have a chance.’

Ethan’s shade disapated as dust fell to the water. Cleo turned to the others on the peer to see them all shaken. David, Sui, Wendy, and Tangden with his entourage all saw and heard the proclamation the ghost from the past delivered.

David cleared his throat “Uh, Tangden, when was the city built?”

“Five elemental cycles ago.” He replied sadly

“So a little over five hundred years, since our arrival is out of sequence?” Sui inferred.

Tangden glanced in the direction of Gold City before answering. “Yes, Master Air, that is correct.”

The dock continued to tremble as Cleo brought boulder and stone and piled them into a smooth functioning ramp for the amphibious vehicles. She continued the road from the dock and built a clearing past the commerce section of the port. The boats would need to be reinforced before the cattle were harnessed to them to pull them the two days’ travel to the Gold City.

Boats unloaded passengers, and some provisions to set up tents. A camp rose outside the port town awaiting the cattle that the nomads ushered down the coast. Dragons flew between the disconnected groups keeping orders and messages relevant to the events shaping the world. The queens were immediately informed of the shade implanted into the stone. With some research they discovered that Jasmine was a queen dragon that had worked with the elementals centuries prior.

Cleo had an urge to seek out more to see what other warnings came from the past.