The Elementalists

1.

"Can it ever be two elements at once?"

"Yes. Two elements in one person have been recorded but usually compatible elements. Earth and Water. Fire and Air. Water and Light. But it just shows the one element you have a majority of. Over the next couple of years, the other elements may emerge or show a hint through training."

He relaxed his concentration on ending the speech. The colors began to shift once more as he withdrew his hands. "Now, place your hands around the glass, don't touch it, and just take your time. Relax, clear your mind."

I rolled my shoulders and placed my hands around it, excitement bubbled in my belly but I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Concentrate. I can do this. Mich has been teaching me yoga for years.

Inhale... Exhale... Inhale... Exhale... And clear your mind.

I could feel my body relax and my breathing fall into a pattern till I realised that the feeling in my belly wasn't excitement, it was urgency. Something was begging to be released and it knew the time had come.

But I didn't know how to reach it.

My mind was as clear as clear could be. Yet it was farther away than the human realm at the moment. My brow furrowed in impatience.

"Keep concentrating." Came the examiner's voice. "Think of it like a well and try to draw water from it. Or like a stream, channel the flow of the stream to you."

A stream. A stream.

A stream sounds good.

I took another deep breath and lowered my heart rate further before imagining a glowing stream in my head. It started with a trickle and I felt the urgency in my belly spread to other parts of my body.

"Good! Good! Now your hands. To your hands."

My eye twitched irritatedly as his voice intruded upon my concentration almost making me revert back to square one. But I revived the flow again and thought of it surrounding my hands. The feeling ebbed away from the rest of my body and strengthened in my hands.

"Stretch it between your hands. Like a rubber band."

I'd been expecting further instructions. The flow was getting thicker. More was good. It would happen faster. A rubber band. I heard him intake a sharp breath as I let it loose and euphoria filled me.

That's when the glass exploded.

There was a loud crack as a warning before glass started flying everywhere. I cried out in surprise and raised my hands to protect my face just in time. But surprisingly enough, nothing hit me. I slowly opened my eyes. My heart rate had gone from calm and collected to the speed of a rabbit during a humping session and I saw the elderly examiner holding a hand out towards me as the air shimmered and twisted in front of me. Glass shards were glinting dangerously in the air. The space around them seemed almost warped, as if they were stuck in something... which they were.

Once again, my curiosity came into play and I stretched my hand out. It came in contact with something soft, yet hard at the same time. Malleable, yet unbending. But light seemed to be bending around it and my surroundings looked a little dull. Suddenly, the shield in front of me dropped as well as his hand and the lights in the room flickered before brightening up again. I looked around with wide eyes. The glass clinked softly as it finally hit the ground. So this was the power of a Light elemental.

"Cool." I whispered, my eyes drifting back to him in anticipation of more new tricks..

But he was staring at the ground in annoyance. I looked down as well to see the floor littered with broken pieces of glass. The color in them was frozen between the pale red and blue. Some pieces were completely red or blue and some were half of each. It made for an interesting combination. The wave motion of the colors had stopped, unsurprisingly.

"Well, I never." My examiner sighed. I looked up to see him rubbing his face as he stood up. "This has happened before but usually with glasses that have been used a lot or have some kind of defect. We'll have to go old-school." I watched him as he got up and walked over to a small table on the side adorned with a vase of yellow flowers, a jug of water and a glass.

"This method takes some time so I guess we'll be here for a while." He picked up the jug and half-turned to me. "My name is Terry. Terry Goldson. And you are?"

"Fiera." I replied.

There was an expectant silence before he frowned and turned all the way to face me. "Don't you have a last name?"

I shrugged. "Not that I know of."

The frown turned deeper. "Which elements are your parents?" He gestured to the shards of glass with the jug, the water sloshed. "Water or fire?"

"That's what I was hoping to find out. I don't know who my parents are."

Immediately, surprise and pity passed through his face. Something I was accustomed to. He looked down before turning away. "I apologize. When was it?"

"My guardian, Mich found me abandoned in the forest. He didn't know my age but jotted that date down as my first birthday and I turned sixteen on 11th March." I shrugged. "That's when we moved back here from the human realm."

Quietly filling up the glass, he lifted it to check the level, pour some water back in the jug, check again and fill again. I think he was stalling. He turned around after keeping the jug down and brought the exactly half full glass over to me.

"Well, this method is a little tougher." He seemed to want to move on from this uncomfortable topic. I was used to it. "Do the same thing, except use more power because this is plain glass. Your power has to penetrate the water inside and it will react accordingly."

"How does it react for each element?" I asked out of curiosity.

"For air, bubbles appear in the water. Water - the level rises. Fire - the water heats up. Earth is a little tricky because I need a leaf." He looked around the bare room before walking towards the door and out of the room. I remembered that there were a few potted plants right outside the door and he came back within a few seconds with a handful of leaves. They were scattered on the table and that's when I noticed they looked a little dead. And few of them were dry.

"Earth - will revive the leaves to an extent. And... what am I missing?"

"Light." I provided helpfully.

He nodded. "Right. Light. The water will glow. I need to dim the room for the that. He glanced at the tube light in the corner and I realised it's intensity was decreasing.

My jaw dropped open. "That's so cool. Mich is a Light elemental too and he does that!" I paused and collected my jaw. "What did you do earlier?"

The proud look disappeared from his eyes and confusion took over. "What did I do earlier?"

"The forcefield, barrier kind of thing." I leaned forward eagerly. "That was cool."

He chuckled at my language before speaking. "A shield. It was made of the light. I can bend it to suit my needs or to a certain shape if I require. Haven't you seen this before?"

I shook my head. "Mich tried to avoid it. He wanted to keep most of it new for me. All of this is literally a whole new world for me." Go ahead, Aladdin, sing to your heart's content.

"Hmm." He rubbed his chin before shaking his head. "Let's hurry and get this over with. We've ready taken too much time and there are more kids."

I put my hands around the glass without any prompting and kept my eyes open. I wanted to see this.

The air around my hand started to shimmer and glow. My fingers were still pulsing from earlier and euphoria filled me once more. I could feel my face involuntarily stretch into a grin before the water started reacting.