I'll follow your voice.

They were falling, falling around bliss and neutral colors. Then, without visionary of a landing strip, they fell on what appeared to be an invisible floor. The five of them stood, with pain in their eyes and bodies. Roxanne, her fumes of anger still was raging inside her. Peering around, she cleared her throat, calling out. “Okay, funny trick, where are we?” No answer found her ears, fire trickling at her feet. She wanted answers, when she didn’t get one, the fire moved from her feet, crawling up her body. “I’m going to ask again, where the hell are we?!”

“Roxanne calm down, we have no idea if anyone else is here.” Arabella said, looking around quietly.

“Calm down? We fell through the earth, Arabella!” she removed her heels, having landed on them with great pain. “I don’t think calm is an object of choice here! For all we know we could be trapped here.”

“You’re not trapped her,” an echoing voice said. “You are free to leave as you please, but you must first find the center of your soul, to harness your powers. You especially Roxanne. Fire is a dangerous element, and tends to do more harm than good.”

Story of her life, she thought. Whatever this voice was saying, sounded like mumbo jumbo stuff, like infomercials trying to get you to buy their product. Whatever this voice was plotting, she would figure out and stop it immediately.

“Harness our powers? So you mean we aren’t crazy?” Valykrie said, looking up and around trying to locate the epicenter of the voice.

“Where are you?” Dulcie whispered, inching closer to the rest of them, like whatever was speaking would come out and snatch her.

A sudden burst of air shot at the five of them, blowing their hair and bodies backwards so that they swayed uneasily. When the wind had died down, they saw what was before them. A man dressed in an all white robe with a bold golden strip down the middle. The five Chinese symbols for the elements rested on his forehead. “I am neither here, nor there, dear Dulcie. I exist in neither time nor space. I am everything around here. I am everyone here.”

“Where are we?” lily asked.

“Utopia.” His hands stretched out to his sides, the cloudlike setting suddenly falling back to reveal a castle built of marble, stretching out as far as the eye permitted. They were standing in what seemed to be the courtyard made of glass. Roxanne raised her knitted brows, eyeing up the man.

“Utopia. That’s what the man wanted to know about. He wanted to know about Utopia; all of a sudden we end up here? Seems a little bit too easy.” Her arms crossed, her blue eyes challenging whoever this was.

He chuckled slightly, his outstretched palm forming a ball of fire. “So untrusting, my dear Roxanne. When will you ever begin to?” he sighed, the ball diminishing from his hand. “But I knew you girls would have questions, you all have questions, and I’m sure I will be able to answer them in due time. But as of now, we have more important matters to discuss.”

Lily slid her eyes over to Roxanne, both meeting for a split second. “Important matters?”

“James,” the man called his voice like air on the nonexistent wind.

“What is Utopia, actually?” Dulcie whispered, her glazed over eye still taking in the scenery.

“It is a realm where neither time, nor space exists. All who dwindle here are forever young, free of disease and hate. It is also the birth home of your powers, where they have rested for centuries.”

“So you’re saying that this is like…our home too?” Roxanne asked, still suspicious of this all.

“In some sense yes,” the voice was new, more masculine and throaty. “But your bodies weren’t born here, just your powers.”

They turned to see a boy, not much older than any of them, striding down the long stairs. He was tall, built somewhat like a warrior; whatnot with his broad shoulders and toned arms. He had brown hair that swept lazily across his forehead, fanning somewhat at the ends. His skin was a dark tan, his eyes a sparkling hazel. They met Roxanne’s her expression changing immediately; from defensive and critical, to love struck puppy.

“Are these them?” he asked, eyeing each of them up, his eyes falling on Roxanne’s last again.

“Yes. Dulcie, Lily, Arabella, Valykrie and the stubborn Roxanne.”

Once again, this James’s eyes cast over her, squinting subtly. Her left eyebrow arched, her eyes challenging him to say something.

“Interesting bunch.” Was his short reply.

The man with the symbols on his forehead smiled, but turned his attention back to the girls. “As I was saying before, we need to harness and train your gifts. Having them untamed and out of control leaves you girls and Utopia at a vulnerability we cannot have. You will train with the counter part of your power, with one of selected people amongst Utopia. Roxanne, since you seem to be the one with the most unstable temper, you will train with James. James, if you please, escort Roxanne to where you’ll train her.”

She was literally without speech, having just been insulted but yet blessed. James stood there, watching her, his expression somewhat annoyed. That; ruined everything. Frowning deeper, she started up the steps after him, her heels slipping off and into her hands as she did so. This was going to be more trouble than she had originally thought they were in.
“So you’re Roxanne? The prophesized best fire spirit to ever come to be?” he asked after moments of silence.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but being the best fire spirit ever sounds pretty good to me.”

“It’s not.”

“Excuse me?”

“Fire spirits are the one that causes the most harm. They are selfish, narcissistic, angry and all about being the hero. They rush into things without thinking, which is why not many have survived past a year in this.”

“Then how is it good?”

James turned to her, a wicked gleam on his bow shaped lips. “Because we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”