Elemental first chapter draft

It was hard to believe that after all these years she was free.



To look around and see no walls, nothing confining her from the world was amazing. To see a forest for the first time in her life, an actual forest like the ones she had read about. The enormity of the trees was just breath taking. They seemed to reach endlessly into the sky, their branches stretching out like they were trying to reach something she couldn’t see. She remembered Davyd telling them how the bigger the tree is, the older it actually is.



The trees here must be hundreds of years old then, she thought. She felt that familiar dull ache in her chest which happened whenever she thought about Davyd. Now isn’t the time to be thinking about my past, she scolded herself. All I should be focusing on is getting as far away from Cornwell as possible. Even as she was mentally scolding herself, her mind was already drifting back to parts of her past and the events of that morning.



Escaping so easily had been worrying. She had been running since she had dropped over the compound’s wall, only stopping a couple of times for a quick rest or a drink from a stream. Her legs felt weak but she was terrified that if she stopped for too long she would turn around and see them, the Oni Tempus, descending upon her. No doubt Baron, the leader of the Oni Tempus had sent the other eight out to find her and the boy she had escaped with. With one Elemental already in their grasp, she knew they were going to be desperate to find her seeing as she was, as far as she knew, the last of her generation and they had probably finally figured out that she was one herself. Of course escaping just really confirmed it but she didn’t care anymore if they knew or not. She had known since she was young that she was an Elemental and after eighteen years, she was tired of pretending.



She had spent all those years pretending to be normal, pushing her power into the deep recesses of her soul every time it fought to break free and fight back. Every time she was thrown from the roof, her power had surged up, ready to take control and protect her. It had taken all of her will to dampen it and let herself fall into the painful hay pile below which was meant to stop the children from dying from the fall. It didn’t stop the children from getting hurt though. She had gotten several broken bones over the years from the falls but she kept telling herself that it was vital she didn’t reveal herself.



She had survived to see the next generation of ‘potentials’, as the Oni called them. At the time she was one of the few from her generation to still be alive. When they had brought in the next generation, which was said to possess the other two elementals, she had seen a young boy standing at the end. His eyes had found hers, they had been full of terror at the situation he was in. They had also been the clearest blue colour she had ever seen and she had instantly felt a connection. She had known he was like her, one of the elementals the Oni Tempus sought. She didn’t know how but she just knew. Watching him standing there, terrified and alone, the enormity of everything finally hit her. She couldn’t stay there any longer, pretending. They had to escape and get away from Cornwell and the Oni Tempus. Eventually they would figure it out and with three living Elementals in their grasp, the Oni Tempus would be the closest they had ever been in countless centuries to reaching their goal: the uprising of the creature Khaos, who would ultimately bring about the end of the land’s existence.



The boy on her back suddenly shifted his weight and she quickly tightened her grip so he wouldn’t fall. She paused and glanced over at J.T, the young boy on her back, who had been sleeping soundly since they had crossed a large river sometime ago. She felt so guilty only taking him when she escaped the compound but she knew that he was the only one she could’ve taken. 



He is lucky she thought. He hasn’t been there as long as me and now he gets to escape and be free from the pain and torture that myself and everyone else endured. A small voice in the back of her mind whispered, pain those other children are going to be forced to endure now that you’re not there protecting them. The guilt on her conscious was so heavy she felt like it was pushing her into the ground. She had been protecting the children alone for over a year now since they had discovered that he was one of them.



An image suddenly rose in her mind of flames rising into the sky, the Oni Tempus descending like a hunter finally catching its prey....



No! I can’t afford to dwell on thoughts of him and the children right now. They won’t save me if the Oni Tempus catch us.

She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. As she done this she pushed all her emotions into the dark crevasses of her mind and then exhaled. It was a technique she had developed so the guards and the Oni couldn’t see that their torture and their ‘tests’ were having an effect on her. She hadn’t wanted them to see that they were slowly overwhelming her because she knew if she did show any form of emotion it would make them feel superior. Well more superior than they already thought they were. She sighed and realised she had been standing still, wrapped up in thoughts of her past. It was a terrible habit she needed to break.



The sun was beginning to sink into the horizon and she realised she had better find a place to hide before it got dark. She turned to get a better look at where she was and froze as she suddenly found herself staring straight into a pair of cold amber-filled eyes.



“What are you doing so far out here?”



Run! Her mind screamed.