It was like a SWAT team had invaded the house!
She bolted downstairs, running into her older twenty year old brother, Darryl.
“Who are they?” she hissed, smacking her brother’s chest.
“Let’s go Dexter!” Darryl shouted over another explosion.
Fire and thick black smoke started racing towards them at a speed that would get them incinerated within the next second.
The most incredible, horrifying shocking thing happened.
Darryl’s arm shot out and a blaze of water jetted through the tunnel of fire.
The floor disappeared beneath them and Emerie let out a terrified scream, unable to recognise her surroundings.
“Shh calm down Em!” Darryl ordered, hugging his sister as they fell through a large tunnel. “Dexter!”
Dexter nodded, arm shooting out on both sides.
A slab of earth shot out from beneath them just as Emerie’s feet slammed on top of it.
Her legs weren’t bent so the impact had shot ground shock straight through her legs, causing a hiss of pain to escape her.
“You idiots,” she growled, black eyes wild and frantic as she looked around desperately for an explanation in the darkness. “I need light!”
“Hush Emerie,” Dexter said in the darkness, his hand landing on the earthen sides that circled them.
Punching the wall, a large tunnel opened up ahead where a shaft of light peeked down.
Immediately Emerie raced off, desperate to find the light as the darkness reminded her too much of her nightmares.
She let out a gasp of relief as the sunlight poured down on her from an unknown source.
Her bag was starting to get annoying so she let it drop to the ground, panting.
“Far out where are we?” she snapped, her brother and Uncle running up next to her.
“They’ll hear you!” Darryl said, wrapping his arms around his sister and snatched up her bag off the ground. “Quickly Dex! Where’s the next portal?”
“Several miles from here,” Dexter said, leaning against the earthen wall for support, the sunlight only making him sweat further. “If I use the ground to push us forward, they’ll detect us.”
“Wait what’s going on?” Emerie demanded, smacking her brother into letting her go.
“No time,” Darryl said, extending his arm.
Water shot out from the trees above and it circled the trio.
The water shot out along the tunnel which Dexter created with his extended right arm.
His left was closing up the tunnel that led from their house.
“Get onto the river,” Darryl ordered.
“No.”
“We don’t have enough time; Emerie get –”
Another explosion disturbed the trio, causing the ground to break and the atmosphere to thicken with unbearable heat.
Fire appeared from nowhere, surrounding them hungrily.
“We’ve found them!” a voice shouted gleefully from above.
“Go!” Dexter and Darryl said, literally shoving the girl onto the river of water.
Immediately she zipped down at an incredible speed, unable to keep up with her surroundings as the sunlight faded.
“Light! Give me some light!” she shouted desperately.
Wait her phone! Her bag! She always kept spare shoes in there in case the ones she currently wore got dirty; in this case she was in bare feet.
She twisted around yet the direction never changed as she continued to zip off along the river of water.
“Give me my bag Darryl or I’ll scream like the bitch I can be!” she hollered.
Something slammed into her face, causing her to almost fall if the water hadn’t been holding her tightly.
She jerked around, hastily opening her bag when the water stopped and she flew out of it, skidding across the dusty earth.
“You bastards,” she snarled, picking herself up and felt several grazes on her elbows.
Ignoring the slight sting, she pulled out her phone and was triumphant to find a pair of converse and flats inside.
Quickly shoving on the flats, she braced herself as her uncle and Darryl rammed into her back, causing the trio to fly forwards.
“I’m going to get you guys for this!” she yelled.
A sudden bright light engulfed them and soon all they could hear was silence along with Emerie’s scream piercing it, wrecking their eardrums.
It seemed like ages before the light disappeared but suddenly they were falling.
“DEXTER!” Darryl shouted, summoning up water from wherever he could feel plantation.
Dexter didn’t reply, forcing his eyelids open as they shot forward yet they remained parallel and soaring above the ground by several feet ;barely two metres above it!
Dexter waved his arm and roots shot up from nowhere, slamming the two siblings into a thick net made purely of roots.
Dirt stained Emerie’s face as she groaned with pain from the impact, landing on her knees on . . . grass.
The roots slid back into the ground like snakes, as though they hadn’t been there at all.
“Where the hell are we?” she snapped.
He rolled his brilliant . . . blue eyes.
She let out a gasp, stumbling backwards and let out a scream. “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!”
“Oh shut up Emerie,” Darryl snapped, picking himself up.
He raked a hand through his black hair and suddenly it rippled.
Emerie’s jaw dropped as she watched her brother’s hair ripple into the colour of -
“Your hair is blue!” she screeched. “You’re not my brother! Who the hell are you?!”
“Language,” Dexter snapped, pulling himself to his feet. “Jesus! You’re so loud! Emerie we’re safe!”
“Not until I get some answers!” she shouted. “I want answers before I scream until your eyes pop!”
She tilted her head back, mouth wide open and ready to scream when they tried to make a move.
“Who are you?” she shouted.
“I’m your brother!” Darryl shouted back.
He looked around and sighed with relief when he realised that they were alone in a clearing in a forest that he knew too well; Travelling Trees.
Which only meant one thing; they were in the Earth Kingdom.
“Jesus please Emerie calm down and you’ll get your answers!” Darryl shouted, arms shooting up.
Water dropped down from the clouds above and wrapped around Emerie’s thin arms and legs.
“Let go of me you freak!” she shrieked, lashing out with her small blade. “Let go of me – I’ll call the police!”
“Emerie what the hell is wrong with you? I’ll turn my appearance back to the way you know me then!” Darryl shouted, storming up to his younger, naïve sister. “God! Look we’re safe! We’re in Akorin!”
She stopped thrashing in the cool water’s bonds and instead grew limp, bottom lip quivering.
“No,” she whispered desperately, tears blurring her vision. “Kill me. Kill me now. I don’t want to do it! I don’t want to make the choice! I don’t want the choice!”
“What are you talking about?” Darryl demanded, shaking his sister by the shoulders. “Please just listen Em! Emerie we’re safe! We’re in Akorin! I know you have a lot of questions but . . .” He trailed off, noticing something wet falling from her eyes.
Tears.
“Oh dear God come on Em,” he whined, jerking his sister’s face up.
He let out a gasp at the sight of her eyes.
They were colours, flashing back from black to an Elemental colour.
No . . . the Elemental’s colours were green, orange, blue and silver. Emerie’s original colour was black . . . and it flashed two other colours that he had rarely seen.
Violet and gold.
“It can’t be,” he whispered, shaking his head.
You knew that it was true all along Darryl, he thought to himself.
“Yeah I did,” he said aloud, turning around to face his uncle. “Dexter. Can you find the nearest village? We need to give Emerie some time to rest.”
Dexter nodded, brown hair rippling back to a brilliant moss green colour along with his matching eyes.
Dexter stomped on the ground with a foot and a small round hole formed in the ground which gave out from under his feet.
He disappeared into the clearing’s ground and walked through the Earth to find the nearest village.
Darryl smiled dryly, shaking his head at his uncle’s antics.
A frown replaced the sweet smile on his handsome face. His poor sister . . . what was happening to her?
“I want mum, I want dad,” she whispered, eyes still flashing seven colours. “I want the cemetery. Take me back Darryl. You love me. I’m your sister. You love me like a sister. Take me back!”
She thrashed again, eyes wild.
And suddenly . . . her hair started changing.
They flashed the numerous colours that sparked in her eyes, almost in sync with the bursting colours.
“Emerie,” Darryl said softly, wrapping his sister in a hug. “Sleep.”
He cast an illusion through his sister’s mind, waiting for her to drift off to sleep.
Emerie slumped in her brother’s arm, breathing slowing down.
Her hair stopped changing and returned to its normal ebony black colour.
He let out a sigh, sitting down and cradled his baby sister in his arms. “What am I going to do?”
*
Dexter came back five minutes later with reinforcements.
Earth Elementals helped support the sixteen year old girl back to their village, including her belongings. They wore normal human clothes with at least a speck of green which represented which Element they were.
Dexter muttered words to himself, glancing at his niece every now and then.
“When are we going to tell her?” Darryl asked quietly to his uncle. “She’s going to ask a lot of questions Dex; you know that. We’ve been hiding this from her for too long. Eleven years too long. It’s time we take her back to her real family.”
Dexter inhaled sharply. “Her parents specifically said to keep her safe and hidden.”
“No that’s a foolish mistake,” Darryl growled.
“No the foolish mistake was me listening to you about bringing the poor girl to the hidden City!” he hissed. “Of Akorin! Do you know how risky it was?! We can’t rely on the Elder Magic Orb to continue to protect us! Humans have grown in technology, more are advanced and soon they’ll be able to match our strengths; including all three races combined! It was stupid to reveal her to this place, not to mention that we could almost have led the humans to the hidden city!”
Darryl looked away, summoning water from the blades of grass around his feet.
They curled up on his hands like gloves as he clenched his fists, watching them turn into ice gloves.
“She needs to be protected and we can’t hide all this from her anymore,” Darryl said darkly. “She needs to know.”
Dexter looked away from his nephew. “One problem; do we know?”
*
Emerie felt a migraine in her head and groaned in annoyance.
“Em? Em you’re awake!”
Her eyes shot open and she sat bolt upright, scampering backwards in the bed and rumpled the sheets
Hold up; bed?! Sheets?!
She looked around carefully, inspecting the room she was in.
The bed was neat and comfortable which she probably slept on the whole time. It was cosy and a tray of cold food was left on a bedside table by the bed. What was going on?
“All I remember is . . .”
She trailed off, narrowing her eyes at Darryl.
“You freak! You did something to me!” she said, panicking.
Her black eyes widened involuntarily, flashing a bright blue for a second.
“Where am I?” she asked, pleadingly. “Please Darryl I want answers!”
“Then shut up and listen,” he joked weakly, sitting down next to her. “Ask away one at a time Emerie.”
She quietened down, twiddling her thumbs together. “Where am I? Where are we?”
Darryl smiled dryly. “You sure you want to know that?”
She nodded eagerly, confused. Where was she? Where could she possibly be?
"We’re in the Hidden City of the combined three races; Akorin.”