The Elementalist: Sky City (Book One)

Chapter Nine: A Night's Journey

"This sucks..." Wade yawned, marching with the other two in a dreamy daze.

He was moments away from sleepwalking, which both Ben and Fred had seen him successfully do before many a night.

"Weren't you a fisherman?" Fred finally remarked as they continued down the wide, eerily empty road that slowly grew darker with the looming light fading to night.

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Well, don't good fishermen have to get up early? Isn't that when it's best to go fishing?"

"I never said I was a good fisherman," Wade remarked with a tired smile.

With each step, he dragged his heavy feet less and began to wake up. Ben reached into the cloth sack on his back that they'd recently purchased in a Sky Kingdom town. It was white like his new hat, made from the wool of the common mountain sheep that roam the Sky Kingdom, and despite being itchy to the touch, was quite warm in the chilling mountain air. After rummaging around a moment, he tossed Wade a red apple.

"Breakfast," Ben told him.

"Thanks." Wade took a bite and instantly felt rejuvenated.

"And by the way, Fred," he said matter-of-factly. "I was a good fisherman, and my dad taught me that everyone goes early in the morning, thus the fish would be nice and scared off. You see... fish are smarter than people think. So, you need to go when the sun goes down, when no one is fishing, not when it comes up."

"Of course," Fred said without looking back, obviously not very interested in how to be a good fisher.

After a few minutes, a curious look escaped Fred's darkened face. She fell back from walking in her usual spot at the front of the group, to walk at Ben's side. Ben quickly handed her an apple as well, and she took it, cutting slices off with her remaining dagger. It was the sharpest dagger you might ever find, and Ben thought that the slightest nick could cause a gaping cut. But Fred, an expert, cuts with fast precision and ease, not once coming close to cutting herself.

"So," she said to Ben. "I know where Mr. Chuckles here worked, but what about you? Who were you before you were the Elementalist? You've never said."

Taking the third and final apple from his pack, Ben took a big, crunchy bite. It was surprisingly fresh and sweet. Wade could be heard behind them doing the same, and Fred did as well, if only to fit in the best she could. Apples weren't much to her taste, as she preferred anything cooked over an open flame, but managed with what she had.

"I was a blacksmith's son," he finally said once he'd swallowed.

"Really?"

"Yeah, why's that so surprising?"

"It's just... I figured someone like the Elementalist would be someone of higher esteem, you know? Like a kid from a rich family."

"That's not always true," Wade chimed in, walking faster to catch up. "Sometimes the Elementalist is nobody like Ben here."

He winked at Ben and elbowed him playfully.

"Though we still have no idea how there are two Elementalists. That's not supposed to happen. Hundreds of years of history and story, all crazy and unique, but never with two Elementalists."

It was true that most Elementalists in the past tended to be of higher class, as kids of this generation were often told, but it wasn't always the case. Viktor Krane himself was a lowly stable boy from the Magma Kingdom before he was called. The fact was, that no one throughout all of history could truly know who, or what, controlled and decided on who would be the next Elementalist. The Elementalist was a role always shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, and even more so now that there were inexplicably two of them.