Elementary

Chapter Eleven

The wind is soft in the dark.

I hear a distant rushing of water.

The ground is cold.

Sitting up, my hair plastered against the side of my face, I look around. Everyone is sleeping with worried eyes. I stand up, and walk toward the sound of the river, my hands in my pockets, and the wind hitting my hair, messy and tangled. Eventually, my feet stop at a point where the dirt becomes mud, and the clear river flows slowly downstream. There are three rocks prominent from the rest, sticking out of the water. From upstream, the water hits them and then curls around both ways to keep moving in the same direction. Turning around, I walk back toward the camp. I stop, looking at all of my peers' faces, and guilty, I sit down, and go back to sleep.

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The sun hits my eyes with a strong blast, and I sit up again. Meliza and Abdalla are already up, drawing on the thin layer of stray dirt with a stick. Hunter is sitting up like I am. 

"What are you guys doing?"  I moan. Meliza sighs.

"London, we are planning ahead, so we don't run into another 'tower incident'." and she gestures to Abdalla's leg, wrapped tightly in a shirt sleeve. Trying to sound nice, and reverse my new reputation of a nature killing beast from last night, I answer in a friendly voice.

"Do you want me to help?" I ask. Meliza and Abdalla exchange looks.

"Sorry, London. Don't you want a safe trip?"

"Hold on- do you think that it was my fault that we ran into the ninja's in the towers?" 

"Ninja's?" Abdalla mutters

"What do you think? If we hadn't been chased out of the forest by outcasts, none of us would be injured!" Meliza yells.

I can't think of anything to answer with. Turning around, I walk for a few minutes back to where I found the tree last night, and sit in front of it. It wasn't even a big deal! So, I broke a tree. There are millions of other existing trees! Otherwise, we would all freeze to death. 

Then, I realize. Hunter's element is earth, and trees are a huge part of earth. Abdalla is air, and trees give air. Meliza is water, and trees need water to survive. I am fire, and fire kills trees. Taking a quick deep breath,  I walk back to the camp.

When I get there, Meliza is walking away, ushering Abdalla and Hunter to come with her. She is holding the map as if she was checking it to see where to go. I widen my eyes.

"Unbelievable. Unbelievable." I yell. Suddenly, I begin shaking, and my eyes become hot and wet. "You were going to leave me in the forest of outcasts?"

Meliza stands there, saying nothing. Then, she turns around and says: "Let's go." 

We begin walking, and Abdalla comes back, limping, to my side. 

"Sorry. It wasn't really your fault. I wasn't being careful."

"It was my fault, though. I led us to that spot."

(We are exactly HALFWAY through Elementary! Whoohooo!!)

Then, we're silent, and we get to the river. Meliza starts walking through easily, and then stops.

"We have to cross the river." She says. "Come on."

"Meliza," Hunter laughs. "You're a water elementeer. We're not." Meliza rolls her eyes, and then looks at the map. 

"This is the only way through without being caught by anymore minions." She says. "You guys are going to have to swim." Abdalla walks forward, and talks.

"I can use air to make a hole in the water that we can walk through." He claims.

"Why not? Go ahead, Abdalla." Meliza says. In saying that, Abdalla steps forward, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath. He raises his palms to the air, and then turns them to face out. Suddenly, an air bubble large enough to hold four people appears in the water. I find myself holding my hands to my mouth, and quietly gasping. Even though I have been completely exposed to Potentia, every time, it still surprises me.

"Come on, guys." He says, and everyone willingly walks into the bubble, but I do reluctantly.

I can't believe that I used to love water. Now, it just scares me. I'm not scared of water, I'm just scared of failing. Soon, I trip, and fall over face first into the water. It burns in my nose, and eventually, it isn't just my nose that is burning. Every part of me that fell into the water is burning. Stinging. Hurting. 

Suddenly, a hand grabs my hip, and pulls me back up out of the water. I realize that I was screaming, and the noise from my mouth dies down, as I gasp for air, the droplets of water dripping down my face.

"Are you okay?" Hunter mutters coldly. I breath in, and out, in, and out.

"Yeah." I say. I look at Hunter, and he suddenly doesn't have a happy demeanor. He's slouching, and frowning. Trying to ignore it, we keep walking, and now I'm avoiding the water as much as possible, trying hard not to touch it.

"You have to be more careful, London." Abdalla says.

"That was really stupid. Do you have a sense of vision?" Meliza blurts.

"Sorry, okay?" I brusquely say.

I look up, and through the ripples of water, and the blurred and mixed vision, I see a man in a black tuxedo. He has brown hair. That's all that I can make out. Then, suddenly, the water begins getting colder, and closing in.