Eliment Chapter 1

Eliment

Chapter One

Freedom for Some

The cave was dark and damp but I wasn’t about to complain. We were finally away from Them. We had escaped from There. You know what I’m talking about, right? That vile place where they had kept us in tiny little rooms with nothing but a few pillows and blankets (all of which had at least one hole) to cover about three people. That was only if you were lucky, which I had thankfully been. I don’t know about the other four I’m with. I’ve never really talked to any of them before. They all seem to know each other, of course.

I moved further back into the cave to escape from the cold. I couldn’t imagine how the others must be feeling. I could withstand much colder temperatures than any normal person. Than again, I’m not normal, but neither are they.

I didn’t know anything about these people so I sat away from them. Away from the fire that the other girl produced. I realized then that she had fire and that the others treated her as the leader. They all had great respect for her. The boy sitting next to her had to be her twin. I had heard about these two, then. Their names were Aideen and Aden. That’s all I knew about them other than a few reports I had heard here and there.

Aideen and Aden were legends back There. They were the best fighters out of anybody. Practically the best at everything, except for the few records I held. Those records aren’t really anything to be proud of, though. At least not to me. Aideen and Aden probably felt different. They seemed like they would. Both of them had the same red hair and brown eyes that were almost red. I couldn’t tell if their eyes were pretty or ugly to tell you the truth. It must depend on their mood.

The other two with us were both boys. I didn’t know their names from looking at them. The taller one had light brown hair and forest green eyes. His eyes were very pretty. I decided to call him Pretty Eyes. Original, isn’t it? The other one had more of a feminine frame, if you ask me. He had shoulder length blonde hair and golden eyes. He had pretty eyes, too, but his hair was much prettier. I decided to call him… you guessed it: Pretty Hair.

All four of them kept glancing at me every so often. They probably thought I was some weak little kid. I’m not offended by that, though. I’m used to it. I’m much shorter than any one my age: I’m five three. I am very petite with long white hair and blue gray eyes. My eye color is very strange. I have white in them mixed in with the blue. Makes them look…icy. Imagine that being my eye color. Ironic, isn’t it?

It took me a moment to realize that Pretty Hair had said something to me.

“Ummmm… Are you ok?” Pretty Hair asked. His voice was… funny. It was different from any guy I’d ever heard. He was kneeling in front of where I sat.

“What?” I asked stupidly.

“Of course we get stuck with a dumb one…” Aden mumbled.

I glared his way then smiled angelically at Pretty Hair. I was very good at that. “I’m sorry. I’m fine. Just… overwhelmed I suppose. I mean…” I waved my hand around and he understood.

“Well, I suppose we should be introduced properly. I’m Zephyr. The really tall guy over there is Briar and then the other two are…”

“Aideen and Aden. I know. Tops fighters and all. Although, you haven’t beaten every record, now have you?” I smiled at them and then turned back to Zephyr. “I’m Nixie.” I was rewarded with the usual. Gasping all around. I had blown most of my records out of the sky. Especially all of them that had to do with water.

“Well, Nixie, it’s a good thing you managed to get away,” Briar said.

I nodded, my smile turning into a frown. “I already miss Kisha and Taima… I can’t believe they got caught. If I would have known…” A sob choked my throat as my friends’ faces appeared in my mind. A few tears slipped down my cheeks and I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Zephyr’s face.

“Don’t worry, we have a plan to help the others,” his voice reassured me.

“Not if Crybaby slows us down,” Aden muttered. I ignored him this time.

Aideen walked towards me and smiled slightly. “Would you know any of the other’s names? Or their Eli?

“Well, Kisha has rain, Taima has thunder, and then there’s Barak who has lightning. The four of us always trained together. There was also Barak’s roomie, Sylver. I’m guessing he has metal but…”

“He has metal,” Aden interrupted me.

I had to bite my tongue not to respond. I was more mature than that. With that thought, I laughed out loud causing everyone to stare at me. Me being more mature than someone? That hardly ever happened.

“Sorry,” I said, still giggling. “I… have a wild imagination.”

Everyone except Aden took this very well.

“Great! She’s hysterical, too.”

I glared at him. This was beginning to get old.

“What is your problem with me?” I nearly shouted, forgetting to reign in my temper. A wall of water rose up beside me and took the form of a giant feline. It hissed at Aden and whipped its tail back and forth.

Aden didn’t move an inch. He didn’t even flinch. I was used to that. Hardly anybody took me seriously. Aden shook his head and leaned against the wall behind him.

“You can’t actually be proposing a challenge now can you?” he asked.

I crossed my arms and smiled angelically at him. “Why, yes, I am. You probably have a problem with that, too, right?”

“Oh, no problem. Just afraid I might hurt you.”

“Afraid to fight me is more like it.” Two red patches slowly crept up his cheeks. He shook his head and they went away.

“That isn’t going to work with me.”

“Are you sure?” I didn’t bother to take my eyes off of him. I knew he’d be expecting me to make some sort of move. A blink of the eye, a wrinkle of the nose, a wave of a hand… That’s what everyone else had to do. I was way past that.

Water poured down onto him as if a bucket had been placed above him. I burst out giggling, somehow still managing to keep my eyes on him. His face heated up and he did what I expected him to do. He used his Eli.

A great wolf sprung from the fire that sat next to Aden on the floor. The wolf itself was made of fire, just like my cat being made of water. This is what we called using our Eli. This is what They did to us.

I smirked as Cascada moved in front of me. She was the one thing that had kept me going and we didn’t even need to talk to know what was on the other’s mind. I figured it would be the same for Aden and his wolf.

“So, what’s his name?” I asked curiously. I really did want to know.

“Adish,” he replied. “Her’s?” he asked, nodding towards the huge cat in front of me.

“Cascada.”

We stood for a few minutes. Just watching each other. I was waiting for him to make the first move. I expected he was waiting for the same from me. He made the first move. I was surprised to see he was even more impatient than I was.

Adish jumped into the air, straight at Cascada. The graceful cat managed to jump back, pushing me with her. The wolf was relentless, I could see that already. He wouldn’t stop until Aden told him to or if I was dead. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to the latter.

Aideen was furious with her brother. I was happy to see she didn’t blame me. I was the outsider here after all.

“Aden! Why do you have to fight right now?”

Adish growled at her and then looked back at me. I could see he was waiting for me to give Cascada an order. I also saw that Aideen was pissed.

A giant bird made of fire rose into the air and screeched its war cry. Adish looked at the bird and slunk back over towards Aden. Apparently they had some control over each other’s Eli. I was too lost in thought to really take that in, though.

“Wait a minute!” Everyone turned and looked at me. I turned towards Zephyr and Briar. “What are your Elis?”

“They have air and earth. Why?” Aden barked at me.

I sat down on a rock. Hard. “We’re the main ones…” I whispered. I flung my hand backwards, don't even ask me why, and hit the rock wall behind me. My hand started stinging and I knew it was bleeding. I winced at the pain, but otherwise ignored it.

“What are you talking about?” Aden shouted, throwing his hands up.

“You don’t see it? Air, earth, fire and water! We have the main Elis. This is probably just some elaborate test or…” I couldn’t go on.

“Or it’s because we’re the main ones, the strongest ones that we were able to get out.” Aideen said. That cheered me up a little.

I sighed and looked down at my hand. “Damn it.” I whispered. “Cascada, come here, girl.” Cascada walked over and without me having to tell her to, licked my hand. It healed considerably, but not all the way. “It’s okay, girl. I can get the rest.”

I waved my hand and Cascada melted. Without moving a muscle, I called the water towards me and healed my hand the rest of the way. I moved my hand around experimentally to make sure everything was ok.

When I looked back up, everyone was staring at me. Well, Aden was actually glaring at me, but that’s close enough to staring.

“What?” I asked. I didn’t like having people stare at me.

“You can heal?” Briar asked incredulously.

“Yeah. So?”

“No one said you could do that,” Briar explained. Zephyr and Aideen nodded their heads in agreement. Aden was watching Adish and ignoring the rest of us.

“It’s not like I let Them know everything I could and couldn’t do. Surely one of you thought of that?” All of them, even Aden shook their heads. My mouth was close to dropping down. “So, They know everything you can and can’t do?” Again they all nodded.

“Not all of us are super geniuses, remember?” Aden sneered.

I was about to lose my temper again, but I knew that’s what he wanted. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to ignore him or not. Thankfully Aideen stepped in again.

She pulled her brother out of the cave. The three of us left couldn’t hear anything, so we stopped trying. I sat away from the fire, but not so far away that I couldn’t see or would freeze to death.

“Is he always so… malevolent?” I asked them quietly.

“If that means nasty, then yes. But he seems to hate you more than most people,” Zephyr replied.

“It does mean nasty, and why does he hate me so much?”

Both of the guys shrugged.

“Would it have anything to do with the fact that I’m water and he’s fire?”

“No, because Aideen seems to like you a lot,” Briar responded.

I sighed and stared into the fire, hoping that would give me an answer. Surprisingly enough, it didn’t. I glanced at the entrance of the cave and saw Aden and Aideen walk back in. They were both soaking wet.

Zephyr stood up and walked over to them. With a slight wave of his hand, wind whipped through the cave and dried the two off. I heard Aideen thank Zephyr but Aden just marched towards the fire and sat down on the opposite side of it of me.

I looked into his eyes and noticed they were red. They defiantly changed with his mood. His gaze caught mine so I looked away.

“Okay everyone. I think we should all get to sleep. We need someone to stay up on watch,” Aideen said, looking around expectantly.

Aden sighed and stood up. “I’ll do it,” he mumbled, moving towards the front of the cave.

Aideen, Zephyr, and Briar huddled around the fire. I moved further back into the cave and curled into a ball. I didn’t want to intrude on them and also, I couldn’t sleep that close to the fire.