Ember

Ember

Prologue

Fire.

I believed it was the most powerful element. An opinion that was greatly objected by the others. From my experiences of playing with fire, I was by far the most 'qualified' to make a comment on the subject.

Fire was like no other. When you are a kid you learn the three states, solid, liquid and gas. Earth, water and air. So where does fire come in to it? When are you taught about the mysterious flickering flames. Possibly the least known state, plasma. It was so unique, so completely unrelated to the other states, surely that would indicate it being the strongest. Though I couldn't make an entirely educated comment, wolves only went to traditional school for a few years, up until they shifted and then they learnt about wolf politics. During school we weren't taught science, wolves stayed fairly isolated from humans, we saw no need to learn that.

I had always been entranced by fire.

Even before it started.

* * *

When you're a kid you read the stories of magnificent people, able to control the elements.

My own mother had brought me up telling my favourite story, the elementals.

The legend had been passed down through generations, four strong wolves that could each control one of the elements. Water, Fire, Air and Earth. United, they formed the strongest pack, each elemental one of the four alpha's. The pack was indestructible. It was said that the only thing that could break the pack was the alpha's themselves, you could say that was correct, but from my experiences I have found the truth. When a misunderstanding drove a wedge between the elementals, splitting the pack into four, each wolf joining their elemental till the four newly formed packs went to the habitats that most suited their strongest weapon, their powers. They trained until they could do no more, before the biggest fight in werewolf history caused the extinction of the elementals.

The story foretold the birth of four new elementals that would restore the peace.

Of course it was just a legend, an old tale that we had no evidence of.

But I believed it.

It led me to believe that if you really tried hard enough, the energy would surge to your hand and a waterfall of wonder would shoot out of it. If you really wanted it, that was.

My entire childhood was spent trying to find something special in me. Something unique. For a while, I found nothing.

I had no such luck as I stared at my dainty hand, eyebrows creased, willing something to happen. Water to shoot out of it, a flame to rise from nothing. I would take anything over... well, nothing.

I gave up with an exasperated sigh. Knowing it was useless.

"Rose! Dinner!" My mother called, her sweet voice rang through the air.

I came in slowly, I was just a wolf that hadn't even shifted yet, why shouldn't I be excited at food when I had nothing else to excite me?

On the table sat a large pasta dish drizzled in some kind of sauce that I was too entranced by to fully hear the conversation around me. I could waste time describing it but like I was going to take it in before I ate it. I grinned before digging in.

"Now Rose, your teacher called us today." My father said, giving me a stern look that never failed to make me squirm.

My face went red, I had hoped this wouldn't come up. I felt my head bow down, a natural instinct to show respect to the alpha, even if he was my father.