Elemental

Chapter 2: Indecision

I race down the stairs, two steps at a time. At the bottom, I look around, but there's no sign of mom. The door is open, so I sprint out to find quite a spectacle on my lawn. My mom's silently weeping, a hand across her mouth and another holding her hands behind her back. There are seven men in all, and they all have blond hair. Six of them are wearing white pants and shirts and look to be around 25, but one of them is wearing black. He looks a couple years older than the others. All of them are wearing necklaces with suns on them.

"Let my mother go," I demand.

"That was impolite," the man in white said. "We haven't introduced ourselves yet!"

"Just let her go!"

He shakes his head. "You need some manners. Let's make a deal: your mother for that water girl." He points to Brooke, who is standing beside me. I hadn't even noticed she'd followed me outside! Wait, water girl? Does he mean she's a water elemental? That must be what he meant!

"Aden, it's okay," Brooke whispers in my ear. I shiver when her breath touches my neck. Now is not the time to be thinking about romance!

"No," I reply. "I won't let them take you."

"But your mom!"

"I know..." What do I do? Despair and indecision pepper my thoughts. How can I save them both? Is there a way to save both? There has to be a way! Fighting wouldn't do: 7 on two and they might be elementals. I could try running, but where would I run? The stream blocks my path after a few meters... WAIT! A stream!

I look at my mom. She is frightened, but not hurt. The seven men don't have weapons, but that heightens my suspicion that they are elementals. I assume they aren't fire elementals, because all the fire elementals I know have red hair. They must be either water or air elementals.

When they all seem distracted, I make my move. I swoop Brooke up in my arms and dash into the trees. Before long, I hear sounds of the men chasing after us.

"Get ready to morph when I say now," I tell Brooke. "The current will carry you to the larger river. We'll meet up at where the stream and river meet. Ready... now!" I fling Brooke towards the river. Halfway across, her body turns into water, still in the shape and size of a human's. I wait until I hear a splash and then zoom back towards the house.

As I suspected, my mother was left with only one guard. I sneak up behind him and punch him as hard as he can in the back of his head. As he crumples, I pull my mother along towards the city center.

"Where are we going?" She asks, breathless. I can tell she is shaken.

"Town hall," I reply.

Once we arrive, I find my father, who is mayor of our town, Wirox. I leave my mother to his care, give them both brief hugs and hurry out the door, trusting my mother to explain the situation to my father.

The place I'm meeting Brooke at is about a half-hour's steady jog away. It should take the men longer to follow the many twists and turns of the stream. I pace myself so I don't get tired right away. During my jog, I mostly contemplate my feelings about Brooke. I know I feel something more than friendship for her. What if she doesn't feel the same way, though?

I turn my thoughts to what just happened. I hope Brooke got away okay. What if those guys were water elementals? My heart aches. The sooner I see her, the better. I speed up a little.

Before I know it, I see our meeting-place. Finding a sturdy tree with low branches, I climb a ways up. When I stop ascending, I start looking around for Brooke. After a quick scan, I settle down on my branch for a longer search.  All I see are trees. Trees, trees, tr- what was that?

I hear a rustling somewhere below. "Brooke," I whisper faintly. "Is that you?"

"Aden? Oh thank goodness you're okay!" Brooke is standing on the ground a few feet away from my tree. After spotting me, she walks over to the tree and attempts to start climbing. She isn;t a very good climber, though, so I give her a hand and help pull her up to my level.

"I was so worried about you," I tell her once she is sitting. "Did they try to follow you?"

"I'm not positive," she replied. "I know they started to, but I went too fast so I lost them. How long are we gonna sit up here?" She looks fearfully towards the ground.

I smile at her. "I won't let you fall. We have to stay up here until we know it's safe to go down. Then we can-" I stop. Is it my imagination, or do I hear voices?

"What's wr-"

"SHH!!! Be quiet and don't move a muscle!" I whisper urgently.

I listen intently. That was definately the voice of the man in white. I can hear their footsteps coming closer. I can tell by the look of fright on Brooke's face that she can hear them too. When I look down, I spot the seven men from before walking along the stream.

"-had to have gone into the larger river," I hear the man in white say. "Where else would she have gone?"

"I don't know, master," one man replies.

"Nowhere. She MUST have gone into the large river. Maybe she was going to-" As they move farther away, I can't hear them anymore.

"That was close," Brooke whispers. "How did you hear them so soon?"

I shrug. "I guess I have sharpened senses. Man, I wish we knew who those people were!"

"Yeah..." Brooke says uneasily.

"Wait, you DO know who they are, don't you?" I say angrily. 

"Technically, I know one..."

"Who are they?!"

"Are you sure you want to know? You might get caught up in some dangerous situations."

"I'm sure. Now tell me."

"Well, as I told you, my name is Brooke. Brooke Coasab. My father was part of a secret society called The Dawning Sun society. They believe  that elementals are better than normal humans and that humans should be terminated. Only elementals are allowed to join the club, and even for them it is very difficult. They must go through a rigorous acceptance ritual. The leader is an air elemental, so the airs hold the most power. When my dad fell in love with my mom, the society permitted their marriage. When they had me, however, the society demanded they give me up to them to be formally trained. My father refused. When the society came for me, my father and mother tried to escape with me. They soon realized, though, that the society was tracking and catching up with them. My father entrusted me to his friend from the society, Andrew, in a fire village. We never found out what happened to my parents. Andrew raised me like his own in the village of Koepar and I lived a normal life. About a week ago, Andrew spotted an air elemental he recognized from the society who had opposed my father. We weren't sure if he had seen me, until now. I left home to protect Andrew and have been travelling by the river and making pit-stops in villages like yours."

"So those men are from The Dawning Sun... So which one do you know?"

"I'm pretty sure the man in white is the man I saw back with Andrew."

"You are correct," a voice says above us. The man in white!

"Quick, get down!" I tell Brooke. We scramble down and land right in the waiting arms of the other six men. The man in white leisurely climbs down.

"How did you find us?" I ask through clenched teeth as one of the men ties my hands behind my back with a piece of rope.

"Why, we could hear you talking a mile away!"

"Who are you?"

"My name is Vayu. I am a representative of The Dawning Sun Society. Now you tell me- are you an elemental?"

Let's see- if I lie and say no, they'll probably kill me on the spot. If I tell the truth and say yes, I have a better chance of living. Then again, I'll lose the "element" of disguise.

"Yes," I say.

"Hmm. I think the president would like to see you. Let's visit him right now!"