Distant Elemental

“Okay can someone please explain to me what’s going on?” Nayru pleaded, “Let’s start from the beginning.”
“Why was that guy at my work, and what was he doing?” asked Fulgora.
“He was trying to steal my element,” grumbled Andromeda.
“As to why he was at that restaurant, we’re not sure. It could be that he was planning to rob the place, or maybe because it’s on a hill and closer to the sky, it felt natural to attempt to take over the Cosmic element there.” Nova had never seen so much on one go.
“Okay,” said a frowning Nayru, “when you came suddenly to us Nova, did you know what was going on?”
“Yes.”
“What about you?” she turned to Andromeda.
“Well... I knew something was happening, but I didn’t know it was possible for him to take my elemental. How didn’t I know?”
A low mumble emerged from the corner of their lounge room, but either no-one noticed or they didn’t pay any attention to the noise.
“You need to be constantly using your elemental power, not just the gravity part of it. Always you must be in tune, feeling your power and the sub-elementals also.”
“Okay Nova, if it’s that important I’ll find a little deserted oval and practice shooting down trees shall I?”
Nova merely smiled beneath his mask, and only Fulgora noticed.
“Doesn’t that mean we should be doing the same thing?” Autumn asked.
“Yes, but you usually do anyway.”
“Okay, enough about that idiot. I want to know more about that monster!” Nayru slammed her fist into her palm, causing smiles all around.
“I don’t know much about them,” Nova shrugged.
Another murmur, louder this time, could be heard from the corner of their lounge, behind the sofas they were occupying.
“Anyway,” said Blaise, a little loudly, “it seems that we’re going to have to work together from now on to beat these monsters, but I also think we need to practice with our element powers. I think we can do better than we are at the moment to be honest.”
Everyone in the group nodded silently, agreeing.
That’s a great idea!
A few people winced at this sudden intrusion, others gave Skye an annoyed look.
“Sorry. Everyone is so moody at the moment!”
“Well Skye,” started Autumn, “considering we’ve just spent all our power into fighting some Demon of Death and had a chase through the sky, depleting what little energy we had left, I don’t think anyone’s really all that happy. It wasn’t such a euphoric victory.”
This time, the murmur they heard sounded indignant, much louder than the previous sounds.
“Can someone please shut that thing up?” called Blaise.
Thick roots crept from the ground, up through the cracks in the wooden flooring and slowly around the rag already fitted in Ashleigh’s mouth. She squirmed now against her bonds, newly awoken, but couldn’t fight against the roots that tightened their grasp on her, wriggling through her short cut sandy hair, pinning her strong arms and legs together. Another root wrapped around her torso, preventing her wings from emerging.
“I’m going to bed,” stated Fulgora, standing up slowly. With a flicker she vanished.

“So do you think the people at that McDonalds store recognised anyone other than Fulgora? What is she going to do now? I know we knocked out the cameras, but those people still saw some of us. What if they recognised us and told someone? Maybe the police? Surely the police would have become involved!” Andromeda voiced everyone’s questions.
Another noise, louder this time, disturbed the air. It sounded like Ashleigh was trying to scream through her bonds; a fragmented, high pitched noise mostly muffled.
“Calm down!” Skye nearly shouted. Everyone felt a sudden easiness envelope them, and they all settled back, smiling. The noise from the corner stopped abruptly.
“Actually, I’m going to go to bed as well. I can’t think, and we have school tomorrow.”
At this, everyone’s eyes widened, and the peaceful feeling abruptly vanished.
“Shit!” said Nayru loudly.
What were they going to do about school?
“SHUT UP!” Blaise roared as the stifled scream started up again. He stamped down on the ground, which trembled beneath him, and a wide-eyed Ashleigh quaked where she sat. Silence ensued.

“You guys could have just asked me last night instead of worrying about it- no-one from my work goes to our school, so don’t worry.”
A sigh of relief echoed through them all that morning.
“Okay, well that’s fine and dandy,” said Blaise, “but what about this one?” he motioned with a thumb to the huddled bundle of blankets and roots that was Ashleigh.
“I have an idea,” said a deep, gentle voice. Nova stood there, having appeared only recently.
“Oh?”
“Just let her go. The only two she would tell are those girls who sit with you, correct? If so, they already have their suspicions, and I don’t see what they can do about six fully fledged elementals.”
There was a silence after his words.
“I don’t really want them knowing I’m an elemental,” said an uneasy Nayru.
“Yeah, same here,” added Andromeda.
And it was a lucky thing that in the end they didn’t. For when the news did eventually spread, something bad would come of it.

“We have to do something about her, then. Is there any way we can make her lose her memory?” Andromeda asked at large.
“We could scare her into not telling anyone,” suggested Nayru with a shrug.
‘I know, “said Autumn, “how about we let her tag with us in exchange for keeping us a secret? It would only be temporary,” she added quickly.
“I don’t think she trusts us,” said Fulgora.
“I don’t think we can trust her,” added Blaise.
“There’s only one way to find out!” called Skye loudly, clapping her hands together.

Ashleigh looked shrewdly at them all.
“Hang around with you guys? I admit that’s better than falling to your wrath... but why can’t I tell the other two about you? We’re already suspicious, and how do I know you guys aren’t going to do what you did to me last night again?”
As she said these words, everyone else remembered the night before.

“Whoa,” said an awed voice.
Everyone whirled to see Ashleigh flapping in the sky not far away, eyes wide with awe.
“Hey! What are you doing here?”
“Oh shit!” she cried, and whirled around, flapping hard to get away.
“Come back here, you!”
Skye shot forward, followed by Blaise. The two pelted through the sky after Ashleigh, who swerved and dived, tucking in her wings and adjusting her feathers to pin-point degrees in order to twist and twirl through the air. She moved her arms and legs about, working with her weight to turn and duck. Skye appeared before her and Ashleigh went into a steep dive, hurtling towards the ground. Blaise appeared on her right, slowly drawing closer. Ashleigh felt the blistering heat draw nearer and nearer as she hurtled to the ground, the wind whipping her hair about and forcing her to reduce her eyes to mere slits. The ground was coming closer and closer, a tangle of buildings, and as Blaise and Skye came nearer to her left and right, she burst her wings out suddenly. Crying out with the pain, her wings screamed from the muscles as tendons stretched and strained, the wind attacking her and pulling her upwards. She slowly levelled out, and started to flap again, every inch of her muscles straining to pull her back up into the air. She had to escape. What she had seen was so amazing... much more than what she could have dreamed. She had her suspicions about Fulgora... but not about the rest of them! How... how could it be that all six of them, the only six elementals in the world, were all together and all sitting with her in her group at school? Did they themselves know how incredible that was? Even their ages coincided precisely...

Ashleigh screamed. Skye was upon her suddenly, a whirlwind in front attacking her. The wind caught under her wings and lifted her before forcing her backwards. No longer was it lifting her up, it was pulling her sideways. As though gravity had to consider this, she sped backwards before her descent began. She was upside down, no longer able to flap, to stay airborne, to regain her thoughts, or determine where she was or what was going on. She screamed again as all of this hit her in one go. She couldn’t think, couldn’t feel, couldn’t breathe...

Her descent to death slowed suddenly. As Ashleigh took a deep breath in, two hands grabbed her arms and before she could so much as respond, she was borne away through the very fabric of space, and when she woke again, she had no idea where she was. It took a long time to come to grips with what had happened, and once again realise who the elementals were. Her final mystery was solved quite suddenly when a light flickered on and she saw the six of them staring down at her.