The Elementum

“So, how exactly do we know how far we’ve walked? For all we know we could’ve walked right past the village by now,” Sean complained as he walked over a fallen tree trunk.

“Well, from where we were the village was directly east, so I guess if we keep walking in that direction we’ll reach the village. That or we’ll reach the end of the jungle. Either way is good I guess,” Tristen replied.

“Great,” Jason mumbled back.

“Do you think we could rest soon? We’ve been walking for over two hours,” Shana asked John. John stopped and looked around with a tense expression on his face.

“No, we need to keep moving. If we stop we only give whatever is following us more time to catch up,” John turned and walked with the compass out in front of him. Everyone felt a shiver go through their spine at John’s words.

“Something is following us?” Jane asked with sudden panic.

“It’s been following us since we entered the jungle. I didn’t want to alert you since I figured it would go away, but it didn’t,” John replied calmly. “Try not to freak out. That would only encourage it to attack.”

“Well, now that I know I can’t I kind of want to,” Sean jokingly replied.

“That’s not funny Sean. Don’t put everyone else at risk simply because you’re a giant pu-” a sharp sound coming from behind them caused Shana to stop her sentence short.

“What was-” Jane began. John shushed her and walked cautiously towards it. He put his hand over his gun holster and readied himself for an attack. Seeing John’s actions made the others drop their backpacks and reach for their weapons.

There was another snapping sound as something broke leaves and twigs on its way towards them. Everyone’s breathing became suddenly tense. Their senses became sharpened by the sudden danger.

A soft growl was then heard coming from behind a large plant. Jane tightened her grip on her daggers and slowly walked closer toward Tristen.

John’s face was set upon the large plant. Suddenly, he took his gun from its entrapment, and just as he did so something leaped from behind the plant.

John started shooting at it furiously with shocking accuracy. The beast took giant leaps in zig-zag motions towards them. It took three shots on each arm, but that did nothing to stop it.

“Get Ready!” John barked at them as the beast took the final leap unto them.

It stood a mere five feet in front of them. Its mouth was filled with fierce sharp teeth covered in what seemed like blood. Its two arms stood out in front of it menace fully with sharp claws ready to tear its prey apart. Its eyes were filled with a crude mixture of bloodlust and anger. It stared at them pondering how best to go about tearing them to pieces. The beast had the intelligence to rival that of any mammal they had encountered before.

Jane felt Tristen’s tense body next to hers. She couldn’t decide whether it was her own heart pounding she was hearing or his. She turned her head slightly towards him and saw that he was grinning.

Tristen clenched his fist and he looked over at Jason. Jason looked back at him for a split second before nodding. Then, in another second a rock hit the side of the beast’s face. The beast growled in surprise and before it could react Jason was in front of it, and with surprising strength he pierced the beast’s chest with his sword. He drew back his sword and looked at the beast’s face with satisfaction.

The beast growled in pain and with its hand it slapped Jason across the face sending him into the floor. It bared its teeth in anger and a fire formed along its back and tail.

Tristen looked quickly at Sean whose face was riddled with shock. The beast raised its hands into the air and a flame began to cover them.

“Jason! Get out of the way!” John yelled at him. He took his gun and started shooting at the beast, but the beast would not fall.

The monster stood above Jason with its arms now covered in fire. It growled at Jason’s bloodied and confused face. John continued to shoot at the beast’s back splashing its blood all over Jason who was now trapped under it. The beast snarled and began to reach for Jason with its fire covered arms.

“NO!” Jane yelled as she realized what it was going to do. She ran towards the beast without a moment’s thought and extended her arms towards it. The monster started backing away as the flames on its body grew to enormous proportions.

Jane stared at it with a sudden surge of anger. She clenched her fists at her sides and then brought them before her in a pushing gesture towards the beast. The monster became enveloped in a giant flame.

It growled and began walking towards Jane in slow steps. The flames grew as Jane’s anger increased. Everyone stared at Jane with worry and disbelief.

Jane’s breathing became harsh and uneven. The floor where the beast walked started to catch on fire and it began to spread all around it. Jane began to gasp for air as she felt her control over the flames began to slip from her. She felt as though she were falling into a deep hole of nothingness. She saw the beast before her but she could no longer distinguish her other surroundings.

She yelled out in helplessness as she lost control of the flames. She saw them consume the creature before her, and she heard it howl in agony as it could no longer resist the fire that was eating away its thick skin.

The beast collapsed in a heap of burnt flesh amidst wild flames. Jane gasped for air as she looked frantically around her. There were flames all around, and the smoke prevented her from seeing anything around her.

“No, no this can’t be. Tristen! Shana!” Jane called out with terror in her voice. “No, please, they have to be alive.”

Jane began to cough as the smoke filled her frenzied lungs. She dropped to her knees trying to recover some oxygen. She felt her consciousness slipping from her. She looked at the flames around her and stretched out her hand. She desperately tried to take control of them, but as she extinguished one another formed.

“Jane!”

“Shana you have to blow this smoke away!”

“Shana,” Jane coughed. Her hope was replenished by the sound of her best friend’s voice. However, she felt the smoke consume her body and mind and soon she could no longer keep her eyes open. Jane felt someone grab her from behind and lift her up. She looked up to see who had saved her, but she lost consciousness before she could see their face.

“I’ve got her!”

“Jason! Over here!” Jason ran towards Sean’s voice with Jane in his arms.

“The flames are too strong!” Jason yelled. He felt his breathing weaken as he looked around for a way out.

“Over here! I’ve cleared a path!” Tristen yelled at Jason. He had managed to put out some flames using his power. Jason ran towards him. Trees were falling around him as the flames consumed more and more of the jungle.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Tristen said as he grabbed Jane from Jason’s arms.

“These flames are going to eat up half the jungle,” Jason stated as they ran towards the others.

“We have to get away from here!” John yelled at them when he saw the coming. His face became pale when he saw Jane’s limp body in Tristen’s arms, but he just signaled at them to run.

They ran away from the fire as far as their legs could carry them. They reached a small clearing and Shana stopped to lean on a tree.

“Is she… okay?” Shana asked in between breaths. Tristen set Jane down on the floor and looked up at Jason.

“She was still conscious when I reached her,” Jason said as he leaned down to look at her. Tristen looked at Jane and leaned his ear down near her nose.

“She’s still breathing,” Tristen sighed. John sat down on the floor with a heave of relief. Shana rushed over to Jane’s side and hugged her friend. She looked up at Jason with tears in her eyes.

“Thank you,” she sobbed. Tristen held Jane’s hand and brought it to his lips. He kissed it gently before putting it down and lying back on the floor.

Sean looked down at Jane with a mixture of worry and relief.

“How far do you thing those flames will spread?” he asked as he looked back at where they just came from.

“Let’s just hope it rains tonight,” John replied soundly.

“I really hope she gets a hang of this power,” Sean stated softly. Tristen looked at Jane intently.

“She will,” John replied with confidence.

“We should probably camp out here,” Jason suggested.

“Yeah, I don’t think we’re going any further today. I don’t even know where we are anyways,” Tristen said with lighthearted worry.

“Dude, that’s not funny,” Sean complained. Tristen laughed at his tone.

“I know,” Tristen replied with a smile. “Did someone grab Jane’s backpack?”

“I have it,” Shana replied showing him the second backpack on her shoulder.

They began unpacking and preparing for the night. John had brought two sleeping bags with him which he gave to the girls. Tristen had another sleeping bag inside his backpack, so he opened it up flat so two people could sleep on top of it.

“Dude, I’m not sleeping with you,” Sean remarked when Tristen asked him if he want to sleep next to him on the sleeping bag.

“Maybe you should sleep with Jane on that; just in case something happens during the night. We can open up the other sleeping bags and sleep two and two on them,” Shana suggested. With the sleeping conditions set they sat down on the floor and talked about what their next move should be.

“Well, first we need to take care of those wounds you’ve got on your face Jason. You might have slight claw marks on your face for a while, but it won’t be too noticeable if we treat it right,” John told Jason. Jason nodded in approval and John retrieved the first aid kit from his backpack.

“How are we going to figure out where to go?” Shana asked as John treated Jason’s wounds.

“Ah, well, I’ve been thinking about it and it seems like we are…lost,” Tristen replied with a sigh.

“Oh, well that’s reassuring,” Shana replied sarcastically.

“Couldn’t we just keep heading east?” Sean asked.

“Well, sure, but we probably won’t reach the village, and we might end up deeper into the jungle,” John replied as he dabbed Jason’s wound with iodine.

“We could always head west towards the coast and start again from there. I think there was a big cliff somewhere on that beach. We could use that as a guide point,” Tristen suggested as he retrieved the map from his backpack.

“That would set us back for days, but I guess we have no other choice. We can’t just wander around this jungle,” John replied as he bandaged half of Jason’s face.

Everyone looked down with disappointment at the thought of having to spend more time in this immense and dangerous jungle.

“Are there more monsters like that?” Sean asked already knowing the answer.

“Yes, and next time we might not be so lucky,” John replied.

Everyone looked over at Jane knowing full well that it wasn’t skill that had won the battle.

It was sheer luck.