The Planes Walkers

21. Caught

Jet felt the caravan come to a stop. He looked up from the blade he had been examining for some time. It had been a few days since they left Shnela. He figured they would be approaching the border by now. The other two looked to Jet as well. He wasn't sure what they expected him to do. They had to hide in the barrels and crates if it came down to an inspection.

The patting of leather boots approached the caravan. "Are you a trader?" one voice asked. Jet's skin began to crawl. It was almost like all the Empire soldiers sounded the exact same to him.

"What else would I be?" the scout asked, with a bit more twang to her voice. She sounded like the people of Grevale.

"Just had to make sure. It is our law after all." The soldier almost sounded sincere. It made Jet feel sick.

"Why don't you have a look inside the caravan? I don't want to be stopped further down because you didn't look." Jet's eyes widened. What was she doing? She had a free pass and was still trying to get them to look. The three of them scrambled to climb into crates and barrels and attempt to bury themselves in whatever it was that was in the container.

The soldiers began to walk around to the back. He imagined them shrugging to each other and deciding the simple trader was right. Jet was trying to quietly bury himself in what felt like cloth bags of seed. He wasn't quite sure based on the low glow of his new weapon.

Green aura began to float up from the bottom of the crate. Jet suddenly felt the floor beneath him open up. He fell into the Spirit Plane. The bags of seed that fell with him soon evaporated into the green aura. The world around him became a green-hued dirt road.

"Was I in danger?" Jet asked out loud to the ancient. He assumed by the last time he was pulled into the plane, that this time had something similar.

"Young Elementalist, you bring yourself here, not I." Jet found that hard to believe. He hadn't willed it or really wanted it. It seemed to always happen when he needed it. Jet simply made an acknowledging noise that sounding like a "hmm."

The Spirit Plane felt different. This time, the green mist seemed to clear and form shapes similar to a city of some kind. "What is this I am seeing?" Jet asked the ancient.

The ancient didn't reply. Jet decided to wander through the shimmering mist buildings. There were no solid doors or walls, just different shades of the aura that defined what was supposed to be a wall, window, or door. He didn't dare attempt to go inside of one of the buildings. He imagined the aura would collapse upon touch because the mist-like smoke looked so fragile.

"Hello?" Jet instinctively called out. He was expecting some sort of reply from another person, or even from spirits. Nothing in the scenery changed.

"You still have much to learn about your Element. You might be unique, but the spirits can see," the ancient riddled on.

Jet frowned. He wondered if the ancient meant that there were spirits watching him currently. His eyes shot to the windows. He scanned the mass of green until his eyes began to hurt from the repetitive color.

"Return now, and use your Element," the ancient replied. Jet braced himself for the pain that usually followed when he was leaving the plane. No pain came this time. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and looked around. He waited for the world to shift back to the normal one, but it didn't.

"What's going on?" he asked out loud.

"RETURN!" the ancient shouted. The noise shocked Jet to the point where he jumped. Soon the world shifted and bent in Jet's vision. With a few blinks, he was back in the crate. But this time Jet could see rough silhouettes of the soldiers, scout, and Irina and Heyvl. The silhouettes were made of his Element. He saw Irina and Heyvl crouching inside two different crates.

The soldier boots patted against the wood as they climbed aboard. Jet's heart was already racing. It didn't help when he heard them start to open barrels and crates. He only hoped that the other two were well hidden.

"Just looks like trading supplies to me," one soldier spoke.

"Yeah, nothing wrong here," the other one said, right outside Jet's crate.

The lid came off. Jet could only hear the soldier begin to shuffle around the bags of seed. He then began to almost feel the leather gloved hand reach for him until it was stopped with the words, "What the?"

Jet's heart felt as if it were about to explode. He felt a slight tug on the sword. His eyes widened as he realized that the soldier must have moved enough bags around to reveal a part of it. Jet held the sword tightly in his hand, unwilling to let it be pulled through.

"So are we good hear then?" the scout's voice asked.

Jet felt the soldier let go of the sword's point. He let out a silent sigh of relief.

"Yeah, I suppose we are done here."

Jet listened carefully as he heard the soldier's boots leave the caravan and land on the dirt road. He waited until he heard more footsteps. Instead, he heard two quick thwish noises followed by thuds.

"You three can come out now," the scout's voice shouted into the caravan. Jet felt his face grow red as he realized that she had known they were there the whole time. He climbed out of the seed crate and watched Heyvl and Irina appear from two others.

"You knew?" Heyvl asked.

"Well you three aren't exactly the quietest."

Jet frowned. He had thought they did a pretty good job at being quiet. There was wind outside and a tarp to muffle their whispers.

"You three did a good job, but scouts are sort of trained to listen to the quietest sounds," she explained.

They all nodded as they understood. Jet felt a bit sheepish in front of her.

"Anyways, I can't take you three back now. These soldiers would have warned the Emperor, so we must keep going."

"How did you know? They seemed pretty passive," Heyvl asked.

"You don't know how they think. I'm more experienced to understand their games. They always act that way when they are more suspicious. It's a strange backwards game, but a game nonetheless," the scout explained.

"So you're going to take us with you then?" Jet asked.

"I have no choice. My name is Coria, by the way."

Jet felt his face go even redder. He hadn't even realized he forgot to ask for her name.

"I see you found my equipment," Coria added as she looked at the sword Jet gripped. "It's strange. Never seen one turn green before." She shrugged and then continued, "Suppose I've never seen other Elementalists wield our stuff."

"I hope you don't mind, but I'll probably keep it to avoid it being obvious amongst the pink ones."

"I don't mind. But I'll have to show you how to use it. I don't need kids swinging swords and tearing up my caravan."

"We're not kids!" Irina shouted.

Coria smirked at her enthusiasm. She shrugged and shook her head. "Look like kids to me, but Rujar seemed to have faith you three." After a brief pause she then said, "Well we need to get to the desert."

Jet was shocked and happy. He was relieved that Coria was going to let them continue. He knew it wouldn't be long before he got to see his people.