Distant Elemental

The next day at school was eventful. Everyone seemed to be filled with pent-up energy before the day had even reached recess. The whole group sat down, including Blaise who had come over for shits and giggles. Ashleigh, Bianca and Lily sat on one side of the group, as far away from Fulgora as they could, and kept shooting her furtive looks. No-one else was given these looks, but two of the most innocent-looking people were guilty of aiding Ashleigh in her descent from the cliff. Andromeda and Skye couldn’t stop giggling the whole time.
“Hey Bianca,” Autumn called, “how’d you get that bruise on your arm?”
Bianca instantly pulled the sleeve of her jumper forward and muttered something about falling over.
“You fell over? Where?” Nayru asked with a smile.
“Surely not off a cliff?” Fulgora added. Everyone else feigned surprise and spluttered over their food, suddenly asking a million questions at once and barely concealing their huge grins. Bianca, Lily and Ashleigh glared at Fulgora and Bianca lied through her teeth, fending off questions and insisting she didn’t know anything about an accident on a cliff. It was the most entertaining recess the elementals had had all year, not including the time they had tripped over their principal.

Their principal, Mrs Led Olag, was almost crazy. Very nearly, thanks to her rowdy pupils. She was the most suspicious woman the elementals had ever met, and this wasn’t a natural occurrence. For instance, Mrs Olag would walk down the corridor, eyes flicking from here to there, looking for miscreants when she would notice that as she walked, it took longer for her feet to reach the ground. Her strides lengthened, and she found her whole body slowing down as though she were gradually becoming weightless. The poor woman would commence blinking rapidly as though she had something in her eyes and would ignore this until she was suddenly seated on the floor, unable to move. It was the shock of her life to find herself sitting on the ground, students coming over to surround her and point at her, asking her why she was sitting down. She would attempt to move her mouth as though to speak, but found her muscles straining to obey. She tried to lift her arm to bring her hand up to her face, but it wouldn’t do as she asked, and just as she thought she might be paralysed, up came her arm to whack herself in the face and knock herself out.

Many incidents like this had happened over the short time the elementals had been at this school. They had found it one of the most amusing things in their few weeks there, and the students opinion of their principal hadn’t actually changed that much. Apparently they had already thought she was a crazy bat. The first of these few incidents had started when Blaise thought it would be funny to set her sleeve on fire. He stood a few metres away and was impressing Nayru by showing how he could also make elements bend to his will from a far distance away with nothing in between. Mrs Olag walked past and the perfect opportunity arose. As she stopped to scold someone on their uniform, Blaise clicked his fingers and her sleeve started smoking, just like that.

At first it was only the student she was scolding who noticed. Their eyes rounded, they stuttered incomprehensibly, and after a few, drawn-out seconds Mrs Olag started shrieking like a banshee and waving around flinging her arm up and down. The wisp of smoke disappeared, only to start at the hem of her bluish ‘mermaid’ dress. Whether she found this a coincidence or not was not revealed at this point and she flailed about, whacking herself with had handbag. It wasn’t until she had several scorch marks and many students milling around her that she went crazy and ran off.

Blaise and Nayru had laughed themselves silly and quickly high-fived one another before rushing off to tell everyone else. Since then, OB (Olag Baiting) had been their favourite sport. It didn’t stop the random pranks on other students, but when the opportunity arose, they didn’t miss it.

The next monster came calling not long after the cliff incident. However, it wasn’t the elementals who were the first ones to find out. Bianca came up to Fulgora one lunch time and started talking to her for the first time since she had been electrocuted off the cliff. Luckily, she had been so shocked that she couldn’t comprehend what had happened, and neither could Lily, but both were suspicious.
“Fulgora!” she called out, startling everyone and inviting them all to watch.
“Hey Bianca,” a small, startled smile crawled across Fulgora’s face, “what’s up?” Fulgora’s eyes instantly darted around everywhere in a flicker of motion so fast no-one saw it. She was shrewd and suspicious, aware that something was going on if Bianca was talking to her again.
“Well... I don’t know exactly why I’m telling you this, but one of those monsters has popped up again. Ashleigh spotted the thing, and we thought we’d tell you. I don’t know if you’re a wind elemental even though you said you weren’t, but if you have a connection with elementals...”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” replied Fulgora smoothly.
WHAT!? You, a wind elemental? I’m sorry, but PLEASE!
Fulgora flashed Skye a warning look before turning back to Bianca. “Is that all?”
“Well... yes,” she finished rather lamely.

That afternoon, as everyone got home, they quickly turned on the T.V. and flicked to a channel that had the last news broadcast. Nothing had been reported on the news, but the area Ashleigh had spotted the monster in was a remote place out West, away from the suburbs. It was no surprise the monster hadn’t drawn the attention of the authorities or the media yet.

Andromeda and Nayru jumped on their bikes and started riding home from school the next day. Skye had flown off from the middle of the wide oval opposite their school, Fulgora had run home, Blaise was off with some mates and Autumn had mentioned something about her garden before catching a bus somewhere. The two elementals chatted animatedly as they pulled their bikes from the bike stands, tucked away the chains previously holding them there, put their bags into the baskets at the front and climbed aboard, readying to make their way home. In a flash, a visitor appeared.
“Oh, bloody hell! Don’t do that!” Nayru had almost fallen from her bike in shock.
“Sorry. I came here to tell you something.”
“Then spill,” Andromeda said.
“It is regarding your elemental,” Nova said slowly, looking at Andromeda, “can you not feel the tug and pull that resides over your element?”
Andromeda frowned, thinking. She had indeed been feeling quite queasy that day, and she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly it was. In the afternoon she had decided it was pinpointed on her elemental but, glancing up at the sky, she hadn’t understood the tugging feeling she was experiencing.
“What does it mean?,” she asked slowly.
Nova sighed. He was getting used to lengthy explanations.

“There are sub-elementals that also exist in this world.”

Fulgora ran straight past their home, heading towards a McDonalds store a while away from there. She had entered the dull servitude that was a fast food restaurant job and, although she didn’t need the money, she found the employment there satisfying, and enjoyed earning her money that she could spend on whatever she wanted. The feeling of earning it was an immense pleasure to her. She arrived in the almost desolate car park and slowed back to normal time there, walking in at a normal pace. An interesting scene met her eyes.

“Sub-elementals have a limited control over the element they are attached to.”
Andromeda frowned at Nova. What was he saying...?

A fair-haired youth stood in the middle of the restaurant, facing the teenagers standing behind the counter in their dopey work uniforms. The male was standing with his arms interlocked from the elbow down to the fingers and a strange energy seemed to entwine his arms together. Fulgora watched, fascinated, unsure of what to do.

“These sub-elementals may, in some circumstances, take control of their element and become fully fledged elementals if the previous elemental has forsaken their own power.”

“Uh, what are you doing?”
The workers appeared mystified as they watched the blonde-haired guy concentrate on the energy enveloping his arms. Fulgora had to wonder, what the hell was he doing at her store? She considered walking over and interrupting him, but she had to know what was going on first. The workers staring at the guy looked as nonplussed as she. They looked over at her and she shook her head, utterly confused. He had a power, that was for sure, but it seemed... familiar... and she could not quite place it.

Andromeda leaned against her bike, oblivious of the many school students giving her, Nayru and Nova especially strange looks. “What are you saying? You mean someone could be trying to take over my elemental?”

A deep unease settled over Fulgora. Something was definitely wrong with this whole situation. A strange gleam had leapt into the eyes of the guy whose concentration remained utterly fixated on the energy now pulsating around his interlocking arms.

“In short terms... yes.”