Jacob Nimbus and The Guards of Elementum

Chapter 3

'Who are the other members?' I wondered aloud. 'You know, air and earth.'

'Well,' Omar chimed in, 'Every year a new Guard is chosen, by competing in a competition with the other members of their element. The winner of each competition is awarded by becoming one of The Element Guard. Natalie and I both won in the same year, and we've been winning ever since. This is our third year in the Guard.'

'Awesome!' I told them, 'you guys are that good?'

Natalie smiled. 'I guess so. But we think you might be joining us soon. You're a powerful recruit, like I told you before not many people could take on that pyloik with such little training. No matter what element you belong to, I have a feeling you'll rise to the top quickly.'

Okay, I'll admit that made me feel pretty good about myself, especially since Omar didn't argue. But it must've shown on my face because Natalie said smugly, 'Unless of course you land in one of our elements.'

Omar laughed, it reminded me of my dad's laugh in his happiest moments.

'You know what? You guys are all right.' I laughed, with another grin.

'Moving on,' Natalie said.

She lead us down one of the tunnels to the right, and I got a whiff of delicious cakes and fresh fruits wafting out through a vent on the floor. 'Mmm, that smell is incredible.'

It reminded me of the days when my dad would come home early from work and we'd bake yellow cakes and stuff our faces with berries from the market. Those days were the greatest... I suddenly realized that Natalie was still talking. 'Best bakers in the country.' She was saying.

'Wait, what? Sorry, zoned out for a second.'

She sighed. Omar said, 'That's coming from the bakery under the floor, if you want anything I can get it for you. We've got the best bakers in the whole country, plus we have the coolest waiters. Check this out.'

He grinned. 'I'll have a dozen chocolate chip cookies.'

Natalie made her order, 'Lemon tart for me please.'

They both looked at me expectantly. I felt like a fool talking to a wall, but nevertheless, I cleared my throat, 'Uh can I have some, umm yellow cakes?'

The cave happily obliged. Three of the stones littered around my feet suddenly came to life, with beady white eyes, and pebbles for feet. Atop their backs were platters of food. They scuttled towards us. They were each smaller than my shoe but could still hoist up the golden platters, covered in etched-in designs. I realized my mouth was hanging open and quickly closed it, once I found my voice I managed, 'They're kinda cute.'

That's when their eyes turned red and they charged me... But I didn't even have time to worry. Natalie spun, her icy dagger suddenly in her hand. She slashed the first stone into rubble with the flick of her wrist, the second turned to an ice fragment after getting jabbed by the hilt of her blade, and the third was impaled into the ground with the tip of Omar's dark sword. The angry waiters melted back into the floor of the cave. Before anyone could say anything I told them, 'Wow, they really get ticked off easily.'

'Yeah,' Omar snickered. 'They're called Mites.'

'They're the least harmful monsters alive.' Natalie muttered. 'But they still go rogue every once in awhile.'

'Well, what are we waiting for? Let's feast on this stuff.' Omar said, cracking his knuckles looking down toward his platter of cookies.

We sat down on the obsidian floor and I enjoyed my yellow cakes with strawberries as Omar muttered angrily that he'd forgotten to ask for milk.

When we finished up, they showed me the tennis courts where two twins were playing a game against each other but the ball was flying in random directions. And they weren't using rackets. Omar explained. 'Emily and Jane are air elementees. They're training by summoning the winds to push the ball around.'

'Cool, when will I find out which element I'm from?' I asked them.

'After your tests.' Natalie answered. I ran over to the twins. 'Hey,'

They said together. 'Your the new kid right?' They said together again.

'Yeah, nice to meet you guys!' I said enthusiastically. 'So which of you is Emily and which of you is Jane?'

They rolled their eyes, as if they heard that question a lot. 'I'm Jane.' The girl to my left said, 'I've got golden highlights,

I've got red.' Emily said.

Then they showed me the marketplace, the sign outside said: "The Cave" which I didn't think was very original.