Prologue
Sophia was
walking home from her dreary job, whistling because she just got a raise. She kept dropping change because she loved
the look on kid’s faces when they find a coin on the sidewalk. When she got
home, she put on some apple cider for herself over her home furnace. She
reclined on her sofa, sipping from a glass of water, when she heard the
doorbell ring. She left it alone, because her home was a target for
door-to-door salesmen. She reclined on her couch again, enjoying the silence in
the small house. But then, faint but not doubt she heard it. It was the trill
of an extinct bird that only her and her old friends knew about it. They called
it the twinklecaller, because it sounded like a star falling from the night
sky, and she knew exactly how that sounded by experience. She sprang off the
sofa and ran for the door. When she threw it open, two old faces greeted her.
“Azula! Alex! Please come in!” she
cried.
“Hello, Sophia, it’s been awhile.
Oh, is that apple cider I smell?” Alex asks.
“Yes, yes it is! Alex, would you like some? How about you
Azula?
“No thanks Sophia, could I just
have a glass of water.
That’s right, you don’t like hot drinks. Azula,
I’ll get you some water, don’t worry.
“Thank you, Sophia,” they both said
at once. A few minutes later, Sophia was whistling to herself in the kitchen,
while in the dining room, Alex and Azula were urgently talking in low voices.
“All right, an apple cider for
Alex, and a glass of water for Azula,” Sophia called cheerfully, setting down
the glasses with the air of a waitress.. They both took one, Alex politely
sipping at his glass, while Azula threw her water in the air, then in midair
she froze it into a form of an ice dragon complete with scaly wings and a full
set of miniscule teeth.
“Show-off, I thought that we agreed that you
wouldn’t show off like that, Azula,” Alex muttered.
“Oh, I’m sorry Alex, I didn’t
realize I should not keep using my powers now,”
Alex rolled his eyes and gulped down
the rest of the cider, while Azula looked at him as if looks could kill.
“What do you mean, you should keep
using your powers now?” Sophia asked
confused at the strange looks on her friends’ faces. Azula went on with her
thought as soon as Alex was done without even acknowledging that Sophia had
talked.
“Anyway, Sophia, we’re not just
here for a visit. There is a reason we are here. It’s because,” Azula stopped,
scared to finish the sentence. Alex jumped in with a quiet voice and finished
it for her.
“Heat, you’re not going to believe
this, but the Element is back.”
Chapter One
The Rememberance
“Yes, Sophia, we are sure that
she’s back. We saw a fireball in that meadow she used to love to practice in, and
then there was a chunk of earth, then a mixture of water and clouds swirling in
a tornado to put out the chunk of earth. Remember, that was her basic exercise
when she was here before,” Alex reminded her.
“Not very basic to us, of course,
but…” Azula started, but she trailed off when she saw the scared look on
Sophia’s face.
“But, if she’s back, then that means… ” she
stopped, horrified at the thought in her mind. “No,” she whispered.
Alex sadly understood the pained
look in Sophia’s eyes.
“Yes, Sophia, it’s true. The
Darkness is also back. That’s why we came here as quickly as we could. We need
to go the Kiara’s hideout. The Element will explain in more detail,” Sophia
perked up at the thought of meeting her mentor again, but Azula thought
otherwise.
“But it’s too late now. I know we may be intruding,
but can we rest here tonight, then go tomorrow?” Azula asked. Sophia stood
there in shock, and Azula had to get up and shake her a bit before she could
respond with a simple, “Yes.”
After the
night had been slept away, the trio hopped in Sophia’s car and drove 500 miles
to that meadow Kiara loved. Sure enough, she was there, going through her
exercises like it was nothing. Her ‘basic’ fire exercise had nearly made Sophia
pass out the first time she tried it. A few years ago, Alex, Azula, Sophia, and another
girl named Skylar, who unfortunately
died in the first battle against the Darkness, struck down by his daughter
Shadow, were all Kiara’s apprentices before. Each of them had learned each of
Kiara’s powers, Azula learned water, Alex, who had been named Rock at the time,
learned earth, Sophia, then named Heat, learned fire, and Skylar learned the
air power.
At the
sight of Kiara doing her exercises, something gave in Sophia’s heart. She
jumped out of the driver seat and ran down the hill leading to the meadow.
Forgetting about dignity and adulthood, she squealed like a 7 year-old girl,
“Kiara! You’re back!” she cried. Kiara jumped at the sound of her voice,
dropping her ball of water she was molding with her bare hands as easily as if
it were clay. Sophia turned back to the hill, seeing that Alex and Azula were
making their way down the hill. Kiara cleared her throat, and Sophia turned
back to her teacher.
“I’m assuming that the other two
told you about my returning,” Kiara said. She tried looking cheerful, but as
always, she couldn’t fool anyone. Her eyes gave her away. They looked sorrowful,
like she was weighed down by a million troubles. Her eyes could explain every
single feeling that she was going through, because they weren’t just one color.
Depending on her mood, and the power she was teaching, they could be burning
with the heat of the sun, or they could be as deep as the ocean. Right now,
they were as cloudy as a winter sky, threatening a storm. Sophia tried to
ignore that and talk to her anyway.
“Listen, we know why you’re back,
and we want to help you defeat the Darkness,” Kiara smiled with those deep,
multi-colored eyes that, when they were younger, Alex had fallen in love with.
He had asked her to be with him forever, and she had said,
“Young Rock, I have too large a
duty to the world to be burdened with love,” It was true. When Kiara was two
years old, her mother, drunk, decided to leave her in the woods. Instead of
dying with hunger, the earth swallowed her for a whole month and taught her to
survive. When she was found again, it was because a flood swept her away and
taught her his ways. Then she was discovered in a fire, and then a tornado
whisked her away. After those experiences she couldn’t get adopted in the
orphanage where she had been hastily placed. She practiced every day on the
roof, because even then she knew she had been chosen for something big. The
only thing that kept her from running away completely was her normal brother,
Seth. Then it happened. When she was thirteen, he stopped visiting her. Completely
disappeared from the face of the earth. Kiara couldn’t deal with anything
without her brother, so she ran away a week after and continued to train.
Almost 5 years later after that last day at the orphanage, she saved the world
with the help of her apprentices she had found one day, spying on her,
fascinated with her moves and power. Yet now she was skeptical. “Heat, I can’t train you again. I must begin
anew. Remember your scar. This will be more dangerous than before, and that
could happen again, only fatal,” Sophia rubbed her arm where the old battle
wound was. She had been hit by the Darkness’s blade of Mist, an almost fatal
blade named after his younger daughter Mist. It was only her mentor Kiara’s
blast of fire that had kept her alive that day. She didn’t want to have to be
saved by Kiara again, so she wanted to train more. She refused to be turned
down.
“Please, Kiara, we already know the
moves. We’re just a little rusty. Teach us again, and you’ll have a team, just
like old days. Please?” Kiara broke down.
“Well, I suppose it would save time, if you
remember enough. Can each of you remember the basic exercise beginning pose?”
Kiara tested. Kiara had made up all of these moves and poses herself for
maximum power. Alex and Azula went into their positions; Alex’s position was
squatting, feeling the ground, fingering it as if it was a dead pet, and he was
saying good-bye. Azula’s was her hands like a tent, and then faced out against
her stomach. Sophia followed, her position being chin up, two fingers together,
braced like a karate artist. Kiara did the sky pose, facing with her face to
the sky, arms high, as if she was praising. She flashed back to this same day,
5 years ago, when Kiara was demonstrating and Skylar was the one who did that
pose. Sophia’s heart melted with sorrow in remembrance of Skylar. Then they
started training.
Chapter 2
Training
Sophia had
forgotten how hard this was.
Training is fun, no doubt, but it’s tiring. Morning, noon,
and night, sometimes they needed to get up in the middle of the night to train,
because they are facing the Darkness as an enemy, and he would be anywhere.
Azula, Alex, and Sophia were so out of shape that Sophia fainted on a similar,
yet harder version of an exercise, something that she could do when she was 14,
and Alex and Azula couldn’t lift their arms after the first day. Kiara,
however, was fit as ever, doing the hardest exercises like she was lifting a
feather. “I have kept up training since my disappearance,” was all she’d say. Sophia
and Azula would catch Alex staring at her with disbelief, not being able to
comprehend how she did it. During a yoga lesson to relax their aching muscles,
Kiara started floating without realizing it “Show-off,” Alex had muttered. Alex’s
personality before the first training lesson 5 years ago told him that nobody
could be better in training, and after being trained as the most stubborn form
of Earth, it was worse than ever. But Kiara hadn’t even raised an eyebrow. Her
concentration was so deep that she could stay completely still, not a single
twitch. She stayed like that long after the others had stopped, going their
separate ways to nurse their wounds from practice battles. Sophia had gotten a
good deep scratch from Azula, who had fashioned a blade of solid and sharp ice
from the nearby pond and sliced her across the arm. But Alex had paid Azula
back, because he could search the ground for precious metals, and somehow he
had found a steel sword, somewhat dull but able to inflict a pretty serious
injury. Her arm was in worse shape than Sophia’s right now, but probably not
for long. I heard her scheming to get Alex back, because of all things that
Kiara can do,, healing was not taught to her. Because of this, Azula had to go
through some pretty serious treatments by Kiara to heal enough that Azula could
stand doing anything will her arm. Sophia crawled into her bedroll, tired
enough to sleep for a whole month. She heard Kiara moving around the fire,
tending kindly to the flames. After a little while of laying in her makeshift bed,
Sophia opened her eyes a tad and saw her mentor lying on her back, floating
about 2 feet in the air. Somehow that calmed her mind that had become frantic
because of her fire training, and she could finally close her eyes and sleep.
Sophia opened her eyes, but she wasn’t near Kiara’s fire.
She was in a dark place, and her shoulder was burning with the pain she
remembered from so long ago. She knew what this was. It was a mourning dream,
and it was for Skylar.
Sophia waited for the dreadful moment, but all she saw
from her position on the ground was Alex and Azula fighting back to back
against The Darkness’s minions called Twilights. The transparent pools of black
were floating around, trying to get into one of their heads to control them.
Then it happened.
She saw the flash of light from Skylar’s most powerful
attack. Sunlight flooded the dark place, and the Twilights disintegrated for
the time, so we had a clear view of her. The only Dark things in the place were
Shadow and Mist, the Darkness’s daughters. Shadow’s weapons of choice were two
short blades called her Midnight knives, and Mist liked using her Mist Scarf,
which caused a deep fog to come over the place when she used it. Shadow was
skipping around in various shadows caused by Skylar’s attack. Around and around
the room, she was definitely trying to get to the person who was causing their
father’s minions to disappear. Sophia watched helplessly as Shadow skipped
through her shadow, and bounced into Alex’s. Shadow got to Skylar quickly, and
without hesitation plunged both her knives into Skylar’s back. The light faded
as her life was seeping into the dreaded Midnight knives. The place became
dark, and Skylar’s life was gone.
When Shadow was done, she removed the blades
from Skylar and cleaned them on the sleeve of her short dress, as if she had just
skinned a messy animal. Sophia found herself screaming and shooting random fire
into the air. Her wound felt freshly cut and her grief for Skylar was heavier
than ever. Sophia bolted upright in her bed.
Azula was bent over her, looking
worried. Alex was still sleeping like a rock, and Kiara was feeling Sophia’s
wrist, apparently checking her pulse. Kiara stood up. “Azula, please help me
get Sophia on her feet. She needs to be calmed down,” Azula reluctantly took
her hand and pulled her up with Kiara’s help, and Sophia rose shakily on her
feet. “Follow me, Sophia. Let’s go to the field,” Kiara created a soft swirling
cloud for her to lie on until they got there. Though it would have been a soft
and comfortable ride, Sophia refused immediately. Understanding, Kiara made a
platform for her instead out of soft earth and springy grass. Nodding faintly,
Sophia gratefully laid down again, but she didn’t close her eyes for fear of
another dream. The pain from her arm was fading now, but she still wanted Kiara
to know about it.”Kiara?” Sophia ventured cautiously. Kiara’s eyes always gave
away her emotions, but now they were clouded, hiding any feelings going through
her head. “Kiara?” Sophia repeated, raising her voice. “Your heart and mind are
one. You should know this. But when fire takes over, you can become out of
control,” Kiara said. It didn’t sound like she had been listening at all to
Sophia. “Kiara?” Sophia asked yet again. This time Kiara turned around. Her
eyes were a deep sea green. She looked at peace, like the sea at rest. “The
time has come for you to learn what I do when I have these dreams. I created
this technique myself, as with much of the other training things, because my
powers always conflict with each other. Especially fire. Fire feels that all
other powers are weak, and fire should rule over all. You don’t realize it, but
you must release these feelings before they overcome your own thoughts,” Sophia
watched, amazed, and Kiara sat down, in a comfortable position, and breathed.
She imagined steam coming out of her open mouth. Sophia shut her eyes tight,
and opened them again. Wait, Kiara was breathing steam. It was coming out a bit
thicker now, visible to her without straining her eyes. After a few minutes,
Kiara surfaced from her trance and Sophia stared at her like she was from some
foreign planet. Kiara smiled. “That look is exactly the same to the one you
wore when you first saw me,” Sophia quickly wiped the look off her face and
asked, “How… What… Can you…” she searched for the right words. As usual Kiara
came to her rescue. “How to do this, that’s up to you. What it is? Well, I’m
releasing all the angry fiery thoughts that keep me from functioning as the
other elements. If you didn’t release this energy, you will have horrible
thoughts, stop being able to function, and have dreams like the one you did,
but more frequent, and more deadly. If you didn’t learn some kind of technique,
it could kill you, or someone you love” Sophia stepped back, shocked. Kiara fell
to the ground, her head in her hands. She seemed to be crying, mumbling a name
that Sophia couldn’t catch. Feeling bad for her mentor, she stepped forward.
Kiara reached up and and grabbed her hand. She raised her head. “Once these
dreams start, you can’t go back. You can’t ignore it any longer. You HAVE to
learn this technique!” Kiara looked a little crazy, her eyes storming like
tornado clouds. Sophia tried to tug away from her again, but Kiara pulled her
down. She closed her eyes, and took a deep, shaky breath. When she opened her
eyes, they were gray clouds, but they had stopped swirling. Sophia tried to
break the strange silence. “So, how do you do this?” Kiara started talking, her
voice fast and stuttering. “The first thing to do, the key to this, is
breathing calmly,” Kiara took a deep breath and her breathing slowed. “Then, when
you have a slow and steady heartbeat, you take every thought of any dream, or
fiery thought you have, and imagine it surfacing in your brain, and as it does,
you imagine it coming out of your mouth and nose. You let go of it. You can’t
think about it when you’re letting it go, or it will be called back and even
harder to get rid of the second time. Go on, try it,” Kiara urged, breathing
slowly and steady now. She seemed to regain her sense. Sophia closed her eyes, and
thought of the dream she had. It surfaced quickly, and she felt a slight
shudder of horror at it. She pushed it away on out her nose. It flew out, and
Sophia opened her eyes, ecstatic about what she had done. Then she gasped,
because she didn’t breath a small breath of water vapor like Kiara, she had
breathed a cloud of smoke. She could feel the dream in it, struggling to get
back in. She concentrated hard on pushing it away, flying through the clouds,
gone forever, and kept her mouth shut. She only opened it when she heard Kiara
say, “Good job,”
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