Elemental

Chapter 3: Recaptured

The thugs behind us push us forward and we begin our march south, parallel to the river. We cross the stream at some point, but one of the henchmen holds Brooke over his head so she can't escape.

As we walk along, I contemplate different escape tactics. Most of them aren't very good. Hands tied, seven on two, the outlook is bleak. I am walking behind Brooke, but what good does that do? Even though the men are all staring off into the forest and not watching us, my hands are bound. If I go elemental, the only thing I'll accomplish is setting the entire forest on fire. Unless...

Recently in training, we had been working on only turning parts of our body into fire. It's super hard, but if you do it right, it's pretty awesome. When we tried it in class, I mostly either turned fully elemental, or gave myself minor burns. But as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.

I concentrate on my hands. The key, our coach told us, is to imagine the part of your body you want turning into fire. Sounds easy, right? Not when you can't even see your hands. But if I don't even try, then Brooke and I are doomed.

It takes a really long time, but eventually, I feel my hands heat up. I did it! I feel the rope fall off, so I turn my hands normal again and quickly untie Brooke. She looks back at me in surprise and raises her eyebrows. I smile. As I finish untying Brooke, I hold her hand a minute longer and give it a squeeze. Then I let go and me and Brooke exchange meaningful gazes.

No going back, I read in her eyes.

All or nothing, mine say.

In perfect unison, we punch the two men nearest us as hard as we can in the back of their heads. We race off in opposite directions, her to the river and me deeper in the forest. While I run, I listen for pursual. I feel relieved when I don't hear any footsteps after me, but I turn my head just to be sure. When I turn around again, I almost run into Vayu. I skid to a stop right in front of him, as he shakes with silent laughter. I turn to see the other two men have also materialized. DUH, THEY'RE AIR ELEMENTALS!!! OF COURSE I COULDN'T HEAR THEM!!! I curse myself in my mind.

"You're little friend may have gotten away, but you must come with us," Vayu says as one of the men reties my hands, this time much tighter and stronger.

Just as he finishes, the other four men stumble towards us, rubbing their heads. I smile at them. "Headache?" I ask innocently. One of the men lunges forward and punches me hard in the jaw. I try not to give him the satisfaction of knowing how much that hurt, even though I taste blood in my mouth.

"Now, now," Vayu reprimands. "He can't be too scuffed up for his Judgement. And he has to make it all the way to the Capitol!"

Judgement? Capitol?

We start walking again, this time in a seemingly random pattern of twists and turns through the forest. I wonder at how the men keep their sense of direction. As the sun starts setting, we come upon a clearing that Vayu deems acceptable for making camp. The men quickly get a fire raging, so I station myself close to it for warmth and protection from mosquitoes. This seems to suite the men, who set up a circle around me so I can't escape.

Vayu, who had gone into the woods, came back with four fish in his hands. Wow. He must have caught them by hand! As a couple of the men start roasting them over the fire, Vayu walks over to me and unties my bonds. I look up at him curiously. He smiles at me. Why is he being so nice to me? Come to think of it, he's been the nicest one here! Well, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!

The men finish cooking the fish, so Vayu cuts them in half. We are all handed a piece. When I bite into mine, I'm amazed at how bland it is. I guess I'm used to a lot of spices and salt, but the fish tasted like NOTHING!

When we all finish eating, all the men but two lay down two sleep. I lay down also. Contemplating my situation, I figure it wouldn't be worthwhile to try to escape, so I settle down for a good night's sleep.

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I am roughly awakened by a hard kick in the ribs. I look up sleepily to see the man who had guarded my mother, also one of the men I had punched yesterday.

"Don't hurt him, Phong," Vayu calls over. Why is he being so nice?!

Phong glares at me, but doesn't kick me again. Instead, he picks me up roughly by the shirt and starts tying my hands again. I can feel the rope cut into my flesh.

Soon after, we start walking deeper into the forest. After about another hour of the mind-numbingly boring trip, Vayu turns around to face me. I percieve in my peripheral vision that all the men are grinning.

"Sorry, Aden, but we can't just lead you to our Capitol," he says. Vayu nods at a man standing behind me. I feel a jarring blow on my head, and then everything goes black.