The Elementals

The Elementals: Chapter Four

She opened her eyes to Sam, shaking her awake. “We landed. It’s time to go.” He said, grabbing their bags. Amber stood up, feeling well rested and determined. “I’m ready.” She said. Walking out the plane, Amber stretched her legs. It felt great after being on the plane for so long. And it’s only half an hour’s travel to Cloud Mountain! She thought optimistically. “Alexander said the car would be parked in the front parking spot near the entrance doors.” Sam noted. Weaving her way through the crowds of people, Amber found the front doors of the airport. Stepping outside, she breathed in the cool, crisp air, relishing the breeze. “Look, there’s the car!” Sam pointed out a navy blue jeep parked in the front row of the parking lot. The driver had his window down and he waved to them. They walked over, Amber taking the passenger seat and Sam sliding in back. “Hello there. Sam and Amber, am I correct? My name’s Birch” The boy had a slight accent, although Amber couldn’t detect what exactly it was. She nodded affirmatively. “Great. We’ll be at the mountain in about thirty minutes. Enjoy the view.” 
And boy, was there a view. There were towering mountains everywhere, the grass was green, and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. Amber found herself gaping at the huge trees and sparkling blue streams. She liked how they were on a dirt road, almost as if anything else would have set off the beautiful natural ambience. As if time had flown by, Birch stopped the car. “We gotta walk from here.” He said, pointing up at Cloud Mountain, which stood strong and proud in front of them all. “Come on now. It’s not too long of a climb if you know your way.” He began walking up a winding trail on the mountainside, Amber and Sam following close behind. 
After seventeen minutes of steep trails and rocks, they reached a level path, and Sam sighed in relief. I don’t blame him. Amber thought. She was tired too. “We’re nearly there.” Birch stated, “Just around this turn.” As they followed him around the corner, Amber gasped in amazement. In front of them stood a huge building built into the mountain, with columns towering above them, all the way up to the broad ceiling. The pillars were a beautiful red, with gold accents trailing throughout them, swirling around them like a snake. Birch was smiling smugly at them. “Pretty impressed, I assume?” Wordlessly Sam and Amber nodded. “I didn’t.. I never thought it would be so… amazing.” Amber remarked, finally finding her words. Birch leading them, they walked into the building. Natural light flooded into every corner and room, making it feel all the more magical. “Follow me. You should meet the others.” A little nervous, but also filled with anticipation, she trailed after him, Sam by her side. “Who do you think he means by ‘the others’?” He asked Amber. “I don’t know, but we’re about to find out.” Amber replied, pointing at a door Birch was opening. “Meet the Commune of Elements.” 
Birch gestured to a line of.. Kids. Amber realized almost all of them were kids, and just a few were teens. No adults? “They’re all kids?” Sam asked Birch. “Well, yes. But that doesn’t mean they’re respectable and powerful Elementals.” Birch replied defensively. “Plus, the youngest here is only twelve years old.” A couple of the younger-looking kids waved at them. “Now. Introductions. First off, though, you need to know what we do, and how we classify our members. There are Healers, the medics of the group, Fight Trainers, who train our group and trusted allies and friends in the best and most effective fighting techniques we know. Then there are the Archive Keepers. They make sure the archives are kept safe, and their job is to learn and share their vast knowledge. And lastly, the Mountain Guards. There was nobody there when you came here, correct?” Amber and Sam both nodded. “Wrong. The Mountain Guards stay hidden unless an enemy approaches, so we know up to an hour prior to when somebody actually arrives here. They’ve saved us on many occasions. Anywho, now that you know all that, I’ll introduce you to the leaders of each group. This is Eli, leader of the Fight Trainers. Then we have Viana, leader of the Healers. After that, there’s the leader of the Archive Keepers, Melody, the leader of the Mountain Guards, Kane, and last but not least, our overall leader, Raven. I’ll leave you with them. Birch walked off, chatting with the other Elementals there. Amber and Sam exchanged greetings with Eli, Viana, Melody, and Kane. “We have been told that Raven has to talk to you. We’ll leave you be.” Kane led the rest of the leaders away, leaving them with Raven. “Come along, now. We must talk in private.” 
She led them to a room, dark except for a glowing purple orb in the center of the room on a pedestal. “This orb you see here,” Raven started, “is made of pure magic. Elemental spells created this. It is the oldest thing in this room, in the entire treasury, in the entire building. And nobody knew how to absorb its powers. But I believe that now we do know how. We just didn’t know who. But then, we found you.” She turned to Amber, smiling, her eyes full of hope. “We think that your powers are, well, basically, dormant. We also think that this magic is what it will take to awaken your powers. So… will you do it?” Raven asked her.
Looking over to Sam, Amber saw his eyes, darkened with worry and foreboding. “Are you sure this is safe?” Sam asked. Raven paused. “Well, we haven’t been able to test it of course, but I think it should be safe for her. And… It’s our only hope.” Looking back to Raven, Amber nodded. “I’ll do it.” I have to. Raven sighed in relief. “Well, now that you’ve agreed to help, I can tell you.. How you will get the Elemental’s powers back. But it may be better if you read it yourself. We need to go to the archives.” Raven led them out the door and through the corridors, ending at two grand doors labeled “Archives”. Raven opened them up, guiding Amber and Sam throughout the hundreds of rows of shelves, all of them filled from the floor to the ceiling with books. Raven walked over to one of the shelves nearest the wall, and climbing a ladder, grabbed an ancient-looking book from one of the middle shelves. Climbing back down, she then hopped to the floor. “Here. This will explain a lot.” Raven said, handing the book to Amber. “I’ll leave you to read this for now.” Raven stated, walking out the doors, and leaving Amber and Sam alone with the book.