Countervail

Chapter 1A

Dakedei knew she was at home, with her birth parents, but it was unlike an Elemental to just stay away from the family—especially for as long as Foxfire had. Eventually Dakedei had gotten in touch with her and asked her what was going on. She hadn't stated much, other than she'd return once school was over, which was in four days. He knew this, but he asked anyways. She was his responsibility since Dragonov, the family's head, was away—that was his job. He was the head while Drag was out on his prolonged trips to take care of whatever it was he did, and he didn't want to take full responsibility should Fox up and leave.

"Four days," Torren confirmed, holding up four fingers for unneeded emphasis. He was one of the younger members of the Element family, and definitely more dramatic for no particular reason.

Emilia tugged on Dakedei's jeans, her dark eyes already glistening brightly in her optimistic way. Emilia was special in the way she kept everyone calm and under control, even though she was the youngest member of the family, being only nine. She might've been really young (and short) compared to the others, but she spoke in a way that made people listen to her—yet she was gentle and had adoration for any living species. "Can we at least call her again, Dakedei?"

The family's co-head looked down and ruffled her strawberry-blonde hair. It was amazing that even with such poofy, long hair, she kept it silky and untangled. "Sorry, kid, but we can't bother her. She's taking a bit of a vacation."

"Yeah, she'll be back before you know it," Torren added. "Just be patient." That was an ironic statement coming from him.

"I hope so. I miss her." Emilia seemed really worried, but that didn't surprise anyone. Fox had been gone too long for anyone to think she had good intentions. She looked up at Torren, but couldn't see his reaction because of his floppy, black and overly-long bangs covering the top half of his face, leaving just his nose and mouth revealed. For someone with such a powerful Element, he sure did lack in keeping his hair trimmed. It irked her that she couldn't see his purple eyes; she couldn't tell his thoughts from his voice alone. But there was something strange about those eyes, and why he always kept them covered, and it irritated her not knowing. She had only seen them once for a brief glance. He didn't need to see anyways; whenever his Element wasn't in use, he was rendered partially blind.

"We all do," Dakedei responded. He turned at the sound of Alleghany's voice, seeing her entering the room with Laex behind her as usual.

"We're back." she greeted in her sweet, chiming voice. She elegantly moved her hand to fix the flowing draping of her dupatta back over her shoulder, her eyes not moving or blinking once in their strange way.

"Good. What did you find?" he didn't like snooping into Foxfire's business, but she was a part of the family, blood or not, and she was his responsibility. If anything happened to her, then it fell on his shoulders for not keeping her in better check. Alleghany had a knack for finding things out about people without really doing much snooping (even though her Element of Electricity had nothing to do with such a skill), which was why Dakedei had sent her out to see what the girl was up to.

"Nothing, really. Fox should return straight to us. Have you picked anything up, Torren?" she torpidly blinked her strange, reptilian eyes at the Psyche Elemental, her long pixie bob cut of bottle dirty blonde hair and burgundy ends not even moving as she shook her head. She was unique in many ways, starting with her odd eyes and quirks.

The amazingly tall man beside her crossed his arms, standing stock still and as silent as ever. Laex was a silent giant, as the family often called him, standing at six-ten and rarely speaking to anyone beyond Alleghany. It was only deeply ironic that he held the Element of Sound. He always had a sort of gruff look about him, when anyone could see his face. Normally it was covered with either his hair or some sort of scarf, hiding his expressions and making him even more of a stone.