Elementary magic (take 2)

Chapter 1 - Changes

"XIE!" The shout echoed back at her from the wooden huts around her. Her mother's voice sounded angry. She imagined her small friendly round face red with anger, she was doing something wrong again.

Xie giggled, she knew she'd be in trouble but she couldn't resist. Her brother had dared her to sneak out and get some extra puddings from the cooks, she loved a challenge and despite being only 8; or perhaps because of that, she was _very_ good at sneaking. He would be very jealous when she returned, she couldn't wait to gloat.

She was hiding under her own family's hut at that moment, she knew no one would look there. The ground was damp and muddy; she'd be punished just for the state of her clothes, never mind whatever other mischief she got into. Creeping on all fours she inched to the edge of their hut, it was raining again. "That's life in the rainforest," she supposed; "still, better that than the deserts."

Under the walkway platforms; hung from struts between the buildings, the mud was thick and cloying. After a quick scan to both sides and a careful peek over the edge, she determined the coast was clear. The cooks hut was only a short shuffle under the walkways in front of their own, she hurried to the platform opposite and was relieved when she made it to the relative cover without any shouts of anger behind her.

She was almost at the cooks hut itself when she heard it; a scream, not a scream of anger as she first suspected, but a primal, terrified, haunted scream of such fear and panic it echoed in her mind long after the actual sound had stopped. she knew she would never forget that sound for as long as she lived.

Her  heart beat like a drum trying to break out of her chest, her skin prickled as all the hairs on her body stood on end. Though terrified of what she'd see Xie turned slowly around. She could hear more now, not just the shouts of alarm and panic going up all around her, but a strange rolling thunder-like sound, but thunder had never lasted so long, nor had it made her shiver with some kind of instinctive dread.

Then she saw it, what had caused the scream, bearing down on the village just visible beyond the high protective walls, there it was. A wall of solid seething dark water was heading straight for them; straight for _her_. She couldn't make out anything through the water, it was so thick it obscured all forest behind it, a deep dark solid wall, frothing at the top.

Another scream came, loader, closer to her, it was only when her throat felt sore and she coughed for breath she realised the scream was her own. She felt frozen, her feet refused to move as the horror before her unfolded.

But then her own fears were almost forgotten, as she suddenly realised _her_ hut was directly in the path of the water.

"MOTHER!" she called as loudly as she could, raking out every breath she still had, but the now thunderous sound of the water drowned out all other noise. It was too late. The wall of water crashed, with a sound like breaking bone into the walls of the village, they snapped like twigs under the force, then it slammed head on into her family's home. It was over in an instant, the hut vanished as though it had never existed.

Xie gasped in shock and horror, but some primal instinct took over and she turned and ran, she ran faster than she had ever known possible, her raw panic dragging her feet as they fell in front of her.

She dared a glance over her shoulder, the water still came, but it was thin line now, a slither of seething water. She darted to the side, heading to the entrance gate of the village. She was nearly there when she foolishly dared a look back again, her heart and feet froze, the water had changed direction, nothing had blocked it and this was far from the easier path, yet it simply turned sharply like a snake hunting its prey. Though it had no eyes she felt the seething mass saw her, looked at her, wanted _her_.

Suddenly she seemed to recover as the tumult of water drew nearer. Running through the gate she barely noticed the shouts as she left them behind. Out in the open she paused for only a heart beat before darting towards the largest, tallest and most solid tree she could see. She had climbed this tree many a time to escape her younger brother and so pulled and leapt faster than a primate, heedless of the scratches and scrapes that tore at her skin as she climbed. When she could get no further she dared a look down, the water had reached the tree and was now swirling and spiralling around the base, a hunter thwarted from its prey. Xie held her breath, she dared not breathe, the water spiralled round and round; a seething angry whirlpool, till finally it began to subside and the water level dropped. Xie let out the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding and slumped against the tree in sheer exhaustion, her mind struggling to grasp the events.

~~~

Xie jumped in shock as she woke from the dream and shuddered, if only it were just a dream, her memory of that day and the reliving of it now made her skin crawl and her heart skip a beat for a moment. She looked around; she was safe. Around her the villages' Lupines; their useful pack animals, slept peacefully.

She heard the calm deep breathing of the huge leathery skinned animals and sighed, it always calmed her. She often came here for a measure of peace when the orphanage became too much. Despite the rain that still managed to seep through, it was warm and cosy from the animals' body heat. The lingering thoughts of the dream made her body feel cold, and she unconsciously pulled the threadbare blanket closer around her shoulders.

The rain beat heavily down on the small shelter and found a way in no matter what they tried, it was the rainy season; Xie hated rain, she hated water. The water dripped down her face, causing her long dark hair to stick in thin lines running down past her grey eyes following the flow of the water that then dripped off her chin like a waterfall. At least she was warm.

The rainy season in a rainforest, it rained of course, there was little anyone could do. Oh they all knew the elders talked about moving elsewhere, but that's all it was; talk. They all knew the alternatives to the forest, the great desert that would scorch them dry and leach every drop of water from their body, or the open grasslands where freak fires burned everything to the ground with no warning or even a cause to have started them, or even worse the caves; Xie shivered again. She knew the stories about the caves, people buried alive when apparently stable ground collapsed, with no way to predict them. Why move, she knew all the arguments against moving, she had listened to enough of them, hidden away under the elders hut. Yet still, despite how illogical it seemed, a part of her would give anything to be away from water.

She stood slowly trying to stretch her tired muscles, staring out over the village, directly opposite the small hut that was the elders meeting hall looked warm and inviting, candles glowed pleasantly in the windows. Xie looked around her, all was silent, if there was any disturbance the Lupines would be immediately on edge. Besides, it wasn't healthy to stay this wet, she needed to be out of the rain briefly, she was only 14 and was surely still growing. She grinned wickedly to herself knowing that where she planned to go was hardly any healthier than where she already was.

Rising carefully so as not to wake the sleeping animals she tiptoed towards the door, pulling the blanket over her head for what little measure of dryness it afforded she headed out into the rain. It was too late for anyone to be out and curtains were tightly drawn over windows, only the glow of warm candles could be seen. Though it were doubtful anyone was looking she ducked under the raised walkways as soon as possible and crawled on hands and knees through the mud towards the elders hut.

She was barely under the relative dryness of the hut when she heard raised voices. "..they're out there, I'm telling you" She recognised the high pitched and sharp voice of Ladrake, she never liked him, whenever a bad decision was made he seemed to be at the centre of it. Ladrake made no small issue of his dislike for Xie and her constant disobedience; as he put it. "We are not safe here any longer, you must see that Gailron." She could picture his tall skinny frame, with shoulders hunched as he bore down on Gailron as he spoke.

"We have been here for generations with no sign of them." This was Gailron, one of the younger and more reasonable elders. "There is no evidence that they have returned, we are safe here, it took our ancestors 2 generations to find a safe place, I for one am not about to leave it for a bit of bad weather." Xie smiled, she liked Gailron, his strong sturdy frame and rigid attitude made her feel safe.

A derogatory laugh could only be Leara, Xie could easily imagine her long face and pointy hooked noise glaring at Gailron. "Safe! Bad weather! Gailron your more of a fool than I took you for. Are you saying all the recent... incidents, are a coincidence."

Gailron grumbled under his breath. "Superstitious imagination, seeing monsters where there are none, the 'incidents' as you call them, may simply by the result of a couple of wild elementals. We have seen the like before." Xie shuddered, the memory of her dream still fresh in her mind.

"SShhh." The sharp call for silence came from Shadira, the eldest member of the council; and though not officially, she clearly ruled the others. "Do not use that name here, though we have no idea whether they do respond to it, we should not tempt fate. I am not a superstitious old fool" This was clearly aimed at Gailron, Xie knew he would be shrinking away from it already. Shadira sighed heavily, her age sounding in her voice, as the tiredness became evident. "However, Gailron is right." She quickly continued, to forestall interruptions. "We've survived them before and will continue to do so."

Ladrake growled unhappily. "You cannot ignore the organised nature of these events, Shadira you are being blind because you do not want to have to move people." He sighed heavily.

Silence descended like a thunderclap, questioning Shadira was unusual and never wise. Her voice was calm when she replied, yet cut like knives. "I know Ladrake what threat we face, better than you! If there were evidence of a Merged out there, I would be the first to call for moving. We cannot jump at the first sign of trouble or we will never be strong enough to defend ourselves, we will endure this spat like all the others. We must, if a we are to survive as a species, you all know the stories. Every time we have moved before, we lost great numbers, we are finally beginning to grow as a population, I will not threaten that unnecessarily." Her voice was stern and final, Xie knew there'd be no further argument tonight, though the same argument was repeated time and again. She'd heard the same reasoning's before, and though she knew in her head that Shadira was right, and hated Ladrake and Leara, her heart wished they would leave.

But crawling away at this final statement, a small sliver of fear ran down her spine, she had never heard one of the elders refer to them directly, they were only ever whispered about in ghost stories, or told to children as a warning to make them behave. She knew she would get no more sleep tonight, echoes of the conversation ran through her mind. She returned to the relative calm and safety of the Lupine hut, to her job, none of them appeared to have even moved, so she carefully wound her way back into her spot to benefit from their warmth. He back pressed against the pack mother and one of the younger males tucked its large wedged head under her arm and nuzzled closer. She felt momentarily safe and calm, the only reason she ever took a chore no one else would do.