(Outdated) The King of Elements (part 2)

Chapter 57

The team rushed into the entrance, equipped with only their element and their wit with them.

~~~~~

Go to the target range whenever you get to Amity. I've got to discuss something with you. Dre frowned as Michael's voice seared through his mind. It was eerie having Michael said that he needed to speak with him, especially the underlying panicked tone in his voice. What could be so worrisome that Michael, a person that was basically employed by the Grim Reaper himself, was so worried that he had to speak with Dre in private? Did it have something to do with Keiko? She did seem different to him this morning, but not different enough to need to worry about. He exhaled through his nose, tensing his jaw.

"Ke'Undre? Are you there?"

"Huh?" Kimmy's voice brought Dre back to Earth. He looked down at his blank sheet of paper, his charcoal pencil hovering over slightly.

"Are you okay? You've kind of zoned out for a while."

"I did? How long?"

"About ten minutes," she said, pointing up at the clock over Mrs. Saffron's head. He glanced at it; sure enough, it was 10:40, ten minutes into the class. Dre began to wonder why Mrs. Saffron didn't get on to him for not working until he realized that she was leaning her head on a hand, snoring. "Is everything okay?"

"I think. I was probably just lost in thought." He ran his hand down his face. "What are we supposed to be doing again?"

"A still life drawing of the can on the desk," Kimmy said, gesturing to the empty soda can sitting between them. He glanced at her drawing paper in front of her, seeing a rough outline of the can's shape. "Did you have that dream again? The one with him?" she asked in a low voice, darting her eyes from one side of the room the next, looking to see if any of the students talking among themselves or texting happened to catch a piece of the question.

"No, it wasn't about that. It was about what Michael said before we came in. He wanted to talk to me about something in the target range. Speaking of, does Keiko seem... off to you?"

"Off? How do you mean?"

"Well, she seemed- I don't know- different somehow. Maybe she got taller something. She almost looked like she was Megumi's height now."

"Really?" She put on a perplexed expression. "I think I'll need to see them two side by side. Oh, and if you want, I'll go with you to speak with Michael, if you do me a favor."

Uh oh. She's got that Megumi gleam in her eye. "What's the favor?"

"My parents wanted me to train with them Saturday. We're supposed to go to the forest that they go to for their training. And since I'm going with you to meet Michael..." her voice trailed off as she looked at him with a mischievous grin.

"You want me to go train with you." He sighed. "Honestly, Megumi is beginning to rub off on you a little bit too much."

~~~~~~~~~

"Man, this sucks," Chris mumbled as he walked beside Hwan-Jin down the forest path. Jeremy decided to separate in three groups, with Jeremy joining Loyalty and Sakura to ensure that they don't stray too far from the mission. Of course, Jeremy had to stick Chris with Mr. Personality. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he said, "How are we even supposed to see the bloody things? This forest is about as dark as Loyalty. The damned butterflies are barely even shedding enough light to see my hand in front of my face."

"You're a Fire elemental. So yow about you do me a favor. Give us some light and shut the hell up."

"Rude," he said under his voice. "Whatever. Are you still bitter at Loyalty? What?" he added as Hwan-Jin stopped in front him.

"Bitter? I'm more than just bitter. I'm livid. He plucked the flower of someone that belonged solely to me. If I had my way, that bastard would be long dead." He started through the forest again, paying no heed to Chris.

"You're not serious, are you?" Chris jogged to catch back up to him. "Blimey, you are serious. Look, I know that you're cynical and all, but that's basically treason. We're a team, a family. We made an oath to-"

"Don't tell me about oaths." Hwan-Jin's voice was quiet and malicious. "I'm aware of our oath to protect our teammates as we would our actual family. But there are things that break oaths." He looked at the tracker on his wrist. "It's directly in front of us." He knelt in front of a fork in the road, searching through the thick grass. Chris watched behind him in silence. There was no way that Hwan-Jin could've been serious, could he? Sure, he'd always been at odds with Loyalty, but he couldn't believe that Hwan-Jin was bitter enough to want to kill him. Chris furrowed his brows; he had to let someone know about this, before it gets too out of hands. "Found it."

Hwan-Jin raised the orb over his head; a low, deafening hum pulsed from it, echoing through the trees. Seconds later, the hum was replaced by the numerous screams of Edge Walkers.

"It was a bloody trap!" Chris called. Hwan-Jin had already rushed into the forest, his hands gloved in a yellow wave of aura.

~~~~~

The forest was eerily quiet. Their footsteps seemed to amplify in the inhuman silence. Jeremy took the lead, with Loyalty and Sakura following close behind. Bioluminescent butterflies passed, shedding the only miniscule light throughout the forest. Loyalty furrowed his brows. He'd never stepped foot in the forest. Of course, he supervised Apprentices telepathically with the aid of Spirit elemental Masters, but physically being there was completely different. The dim lights floating around them gave Loyalty a sense of walking through a graveyard. He felt as if death surrounded him, watching his every move. "I don't like this, man."

"No lie. It was bad enough fighting them during the invasions. Now we're deep in enemy territory. This is complete lunacy."

"It is, but it's necessary." Jeremy whisper was almost as pronounced as if he had spoken regularly. "Apprentices go through this to awaken their element, remember?"

"Yeah, but we ain't Apprentices," Loyalty said as he stepped over a downed branch.

"And we can use our elements, too," Sakura chimed in.

Jeremy looked over his shoulder. "I can't. Right now, I'm no different from a Human. I'm basically a crippled soldier."

"That's not-" was all Loyalty heard. An unrelenting face demanded his attention. It felt as if an entity possessed his body, making him walk off the path towards a thicket of trees.

Suddenly, he stopped after taking three steps and knelt, reaching for whatever took control of him. He felt a smooth stone under a bush and felt the entity surge through his arm down to his toes. Just as quickly as it surged, it was gone, and so was the stone.

~~~~

Class seemed to drag on forever, and Mrs. Saffron's snoring seemed to rattle the windows. Kim sighed as she finished the rough outline of the can, a simple cylindrical shape done in a mechanical pencil. Curiously, she looked over to Ke'Undre's paper and frowned at the little amount of work he had done. "You'll get in trouble if you don't finish your outline before the end of class," she whispered.

Ke'Undre didn't respond. He simply stared vacantly at his paper, mouth slightly agape. "Ke'Undre?" She lightly tapped his shoulder. Lifeless, he toppled over onto the floor.

"Ke'Undre!"