Jett's POV
Jett's vision started to clear and he lurched forward, losing his balance and falling over as he almost bashed his head on the wall in front of him. He blinked the last of the darkness out of his eyes, looking up to see Umber standing a foot or two away.
"Can you see?" She asked, leaning down to be at eye level with him and waving a hand in front of his face.
"I said you could teach me about the black stuff or whatever," Jett said, ignoring the question and pushing her hand out of the way, "NOT kidnap me and bring me to a secluded area in the middle of nowhere!"
Umber shrugged, "Your sibling would have gotten in the way," then flipped a spirit stone through her fingers and held it out to him, "go back if you want to, I won't stop you."
Jett didn't take it. He knew the spirit stone would teleport him back, but he was too curious to just leave.
Umber grinned, "Didn't think you'd want to," then tucked the stone away into her cloak, conveniently where Jett wouldn't be able to get it on his own.
"Where are we?" Jett asked, getting up from where he had been sitting and looking around. As Umber stood up as well, he realized that she was half an inch or so taller than him.
"An old temple in the Golden Wasteland." Umber walked ahead, fingering a large spear half-submerged in the sand to their right. "I think there was a battle here of some sort." She turned around to face him, "Can you do something with your shadows?"
"What?"
"Black energy thing?"
"Oh, that." Jett leaned down and dragged his hand through the shadows at the base of a wall, collecting them in his fingertips, he stood up and held them out to Umber.
She smiled a bit, "You're getting good at that," and reached out to touch the shadows. Before Jett could pull his hand away, her fingers grazed them and a ray of dark purple light seemed to be sucked out of her hand, being absorbed into the pulsing mass of energy.
Umber grabbed her chest, a pained expression on her face, then fell over and passed out as she hit the ground.
Jett's eyes widened, his face paling, "Umber?"
He crouched down and leaned her against a pole, "Stupid stupid stupid. Ugh, Jett why are you so stupid?!"
He dragged both of his hands down his face, tipping his head back to face the ceiling. He was only now realizing what his surroundings looked like. Large stone pillars stretched up to support the ceiling high above, and a sliver of green-tinted light came from a large door behind them, accompanied by a gust of wind that picked up the loose grains of sand from the floor and tossed them into the air. Jett had never been in a place before that had such an imposing air to it, it was almost like the place was observing him, judging him.
Jett jumped as Umber gasped loudly beside him, opening her eyes and sitting bolt upright, "What just happened?" She narrowed her eyes at him, "What did you do to me?"
Jett shot a glare at her, "It was an accident! I was going to tell you not to touch the. . . shadows or whatever, but you didn't really give me a chance."
"Oh, my bad." Umber gave him a skeptical look and stood up, wobbling a bit, "Ugh, my head hurts a ton. Thanks a lot, Jett."
Jett rolled his eyes, "Sorry, whatever. Will you live?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Are there any other side effects I should know about?" Umber smiled a bit at his sarcasm, surprising Jett.
"Oh, you don't have light magic anymore. Sorry about that."
Umber tilted her head to the side, contemplating this for a moment, "Oh. . . Well, I suppose I wasn't very good at it anyway."
Jett scoffed, "Lucky. One of the other Elders also lost their magic because of me, I'm pretty sure they were good at it too."
"I see," Umber stared into space, lost in thought. It didn't seem like she was listening to him anymore.
"So are you going to tell me why you know so much about shadows?"
Umber held up a hand, shushing him "Not right now." she closed her eyes, concentrating. They waited in silence for a couple of minutes, then Umber snapped her fingers, and to Jett's surprise, shadows started to wind their way around her hand like smoke. She opened her eyes, a smile crossing her face, "Alright, you can talk now."
Jett opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, "How are you doing that?" he was more wary than surprised.
"I have a. . . friend. One that knows a lot about things like this."
Jett raised an eyebrow at her, "Suspicious, but whatever."
"Do you want to learn about this magic or not?"
"I do,"
"Then let's do that, yes?"
"One thing first. Did this friend of yours know that if you touch shadows, you lose your light magic and all that?"
Umber paused, "If they did, they didn't tell me."
Jett frowned at this, "Okay then. Uh, what are you going to teach me?"
"Do you know how to shape your shadows into something yet?"
"No? I mean I don't know real-"
"I'll take that as a no. Watch carefully, but do keep in mind this is my first time as well." Umber curled the shadows into one hand, then grabbed it with the other and pulled, stretching it and forming the ends into serrated points.
Jett copied her actions, albeit with more caution, and managed to form his own arrow, "That was actually pretty easy,"
"Good for you, can you throw it?"
"What?"
"You heard me."
Jett gripped the arrow tightly, his knuckles turning white, "I'm not really sure that's safe."
Umber looked him dead in the eyes, "Don't do it then."
Jett sighed heavily, "Where am I throwing it?"
Umber shrugged, she seemed to be getting grumpier by the minute, "You choose,"
Jett drew back his arm, aiming for a fairly big shield stuck in the ground a few feet in front of him, and let go of the arrow. It flew past and into the sand to his right, dissolving as it hit the ground.
"Try again," Umber said from behind him.
"Maybe say please?" Jett responded, slightly irritated. He made another arrow held it up to his face, looking down to the point, and aimed it slightly below the center of the shield. He threw it again and it hit the bottom of the shield, bouncing off and disappearing like the first one.
"Why don't you try something closer?" Umber tapped a different shield behind him, the sound of her nails against the metal resounding through the temple. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, "Please."
Jett turned around, aiming for the shield she had motioned to. The arrow flew from his hand and sunk into the bottom half of the shield with a loud clang that made Jett's ears ring.
"I hit it!" Jett grinned, looking at Umber, who looked slightly impressed for once.
"Good job,"
"What are we doing next? Was that it?"
Umber shrugged again, "I don't know, that's all that my friend told me."
Jett paused, then remembered what Umber had told him earlier, "Oh my stars, I forgot, you have a headache - we can stop now,"
Umber looked up, as if surprised that he remembered, "Ah, thank you. Are you free again sometime soon?"
"I'm free pretty much all day every day, so yeah"
"How does the same time next week sound?"
"That's good," Jett grinned again, he had finally learned something since he had met the Elders, and all on his own too!
"Here," Umber tossed him the spirit stone that she had offered earlier.
"What about you? How are you going to get back to. . . Wherever you live?"
Umber shrugged, smiling but not answering, "I'll see you around, Jett."
Roko's POV
"Why are all these rooms so dark?" Roko thought, wandering through the halls of the bunker, "It's like the sconces by the doors don't even make any light at all. . . " He turned around a corner into the wing of the fort with the Elders' rooms. He looked up as something made a noise in front of him, noticing someone in the hall as well, standing in front of a door.
"Hello?"
"Roko! Hello!" Sol's voice echoed around the corridor, and he jumped away from the door, as if he wasn't supposed to be there.
Roko put on a fake smile, he really didn't feel like getting asked about his mood at the moment, "Oh, hey! What are you doing here?"
Sol shrugged, "Nothing really, just bored I guess," but when Roko looked out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Sol blew out the torches in front of the door he was standing by. Whose room was it again? One of the new Elders? Roko had forgotten their name.
"Me too," Roko sighed, "it's like nothing ever changes around here."
Sol, laughed, "I don't know if that's true! Have you had any luck with your light magic?"
"Not yet," Roko's smile was getting faker and faker.
Sol smiled sympathetically, patting Roko on the shoulder, "I'm sure someone will find a way to get it back! I'm assuming Ararona hasn't figured out why you lost it yet?"
Roko averted his eyes, he knew exactly why he'd lost it, but Jett had really seemed like he didn't want anybody to know, "Yeah,"
Suddenly someone came running towards them, "Sol, come outside and see what Veton and Elvira are doing!" Ereven called down the hall, laughing.
Sol's expression turned slightly fearful, and he started running down the hall after Ereven "What did they do?" He paused, looking back, "I'll catch you later, Roko!" Then continued running after Ereven.
Roko dropped his smile, "Typical. . ." Everyone always forgot about him. He doubted they would even care if he fell in a hole and broke both legs and arms. He'd probably get a half-hearted apology and then they would leave to go do their fancy Elder stuff he never got invited to, though he suspected he would if he actually had spirit talents like the rest of them.
Roko continued down the hall, pausing every so often to look inside a room for something to do. He sighed, walking out of a room filled with flat stones stacked in piles. What was this building even used for before the Elders started staying in it?
Someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind, Roko stiffened and turned around, seeing a shimmering blue spirit behind him. He let out a shriek and ran back into the room, slamming the door in their face.
"No, wait-" a heavily accented voice came through the door, then a sigh. They stuck their hand through the door, "I'm a spirit, kid, this doesn't really do anything."
"Please don't kill me, and go away!" Roko called back.
The spirit stuck their head through the door at this, "What? I'm not going to kill you, why would you think that!"
"I don't know, you seemed very murder-y to me," Roko looked at them from behind a stack of rocks. His fear was fading quickly, being replaced by curiosity. The spirit passed completely through the door.
"Oh, sorry about that!" They looked around the room, spotting Roko behind a pile of rocks, "There you are! I'm Faera!" They held out a hand to him.
Roko took it warily, standing up, "Uh, hi. I'm Roko."
Faera clapped her hands excitedly, "Oh good! That means I'm talking to the right person!"
"What?" Roko laughed nervously.
"You're the Prairie Elder, right?"
Roko cleared his throat, "One, how do you know about that? Two, I don't know who you are really so technically I should be running away from you right now. And three, I don't know if Elder is the right word, I haven't really done anything to deserve that title."
Faera started walking out of the room, Roko following her at a distance, wondering if he should run for it, "I don't think that's true! And I'm really not here to kill you, I doubt I could anyway." She looked back at him over her shoulder, grinning, "But, y'know, in a way, I'm a Prairie Elder too."
Roko stopped walking, they were out in the hall now, "Woah woah woah, back up, what?"
"I used to be an Elder of sorts, years ago."
"Just you, or . . .?"
Faera laughed, "No of course not! There were almost as many Elders as you nave now! We didn't call ourselves Elders though, we more thought of ourselves as. . ." She paused, "No never mind, that's not important."
"Mhm ok, have I ever met any of your friends?"
"Yeah! Emmeline came to visit one of your friends a couple of days ago!"
"No one told me,"
Faera frowned, "They didn't? Well, they need to pay more attention to someone as talented as you, Roko."
"No no, I really wasn't lying before when I said I hadn't done anything to deserve being an Elder. I literally have no spirit talents."
Faera grinned again, "Yes you do, you just don't know what they are yet!"
"And you do?"
"As a matter of fact, I do to a certain degree."
Roko's eyes widened, "Really? Can you show me?"
"Of course," Faera winked at him, then jumped forwards, shrinking and twisting into herself until an ebony-colored puma sat in her place.
Roko blinked, "Wow,"
The puma tilted its head at him, looking pleased, then with another twist Faera stood before him again, grinning and slightly breathless, "It's been a while since I did that!"
"Why has it been a while?"
Faera's smile faltered, "I was just. . . busy I guess. Anyways, you ready to learn how to turn into something?"
Roko looked at her excitedly, "Yes!"
Faera bounced on the balls of her feet, "Alright! So the first thing you're going to do is imagine being that animal,"
Roko shrugged, "Okay, what next?"
"Close your eyes,"
"Why?"
"Best not to be looking the first time you turn into something, can make you a bit sick if you know what I mean!"
"Okay,"
"Next, imagine what you see,"
"Floor?"
"Maybe image where the animal lives? Now think of what they would hear, and feel."
"Taste too?"
"Let's skip that one, yeah?"
"Alright,"
They waited in silence, Roko imagining his scene, then he felt a squeezing sensation, it felt like being smushed through a hole far too small for him. Then, when he opened his eyes, he was a very small crab, looking up at Faera's very excited face.
"You did it!" Faera pumped her fist, doing a little dance, "On your first try, too!"
Roko barely had time to register what Faera was saying before he was laying on the floor as a Sky Child again. "Ow ow ow ow," he winced, putting a hand to his rib cage, "You didn't mention anything about broken bones-"
Faera sucked in a breath, her eyes widening, "Somve a'tan, I forgot about that, I swear you'll get used to it."
"I'll get used to my bones breaking?"
"No! Sorry I didn't mean for it to sound like that, I meant that it won't really . . . happen again? Like if it's your first time doing something like running or flying, you're usually pretty sore after, but after a while you-"
"I get it," Roko sighed, wincing again as he pushed himself up, "It was still interesting though, I'll have to try again when I'm not in pain,"
"Oh, of course! I'll be seeing you, then?"
Roko grinned, "Yeah, see you!" Then walked off down the hall to find Ararona.
A/N Haha I can only write dialogue apparently
Anyways I hope you enjoyed!