Nature's Comeback

6- Powers exposed

The kids looked at Avan with an astonished look.

"We...re...were you the one who di...did this?" Rewa stuttered, as she pointed towards the large hole in the ground.

Before Avan could open his mouth, Sameera interjected, "What nonsense are you sprouting out?" She bit her lips, trying to come up with a believable lie.

"Weren't you all talking about the innumerable disasters? The ground may have opened up because of one. It just turned out to be helpful for us instead of creating a problem. Yeah that's what happened," Sameera finished while wiping the sweat on her forehead with her saree's end.

Avan looked at Sameera with unasked questions in his eyes. He didn't understand why the lady was trying to help him.

Sameera gestured to him with a slight shake of head to not show out his powers. However, Avan had different plans.

He walked towards all sides of the balcony, putting his head out to see if there was any tree that could help.

"Ayaan take Avan away from the balcony," Payal yelled from downstairs. Ever since the dreaded day when Avan had fallen out of her arms, she never liked Avan being near the railings/edges.

"What are you doing? You will fall," Ayaan shouted at his brother in concern, while pulling him a little backwards.

"There aren't any trees attached to the building, but I was trying to see if any of the nearby trees could extend their branch till here," Avan explained, by trying to look out again.

"What?" Almost all of them had their mouths open from shock as they heard Avan's statement.

"Then that means Ayaan wasn't lying about Avan saving him," Jhanvi, an eleven year old, mumbled in realization.

Sarah stomped towards Avan and turned him by his shoulders. "Hey! Tell me truthfully, are you an element?"

"I don't know what A...li...alimint means," Avan answered in a scared tone, fearing Sarah's towering figure.

"Get off him," Ayaan screamed, before pushing Sarah away.

He hugged his brother protectively. It didn't matter that Sarah was taller and stronger than him, he wouldn't let anyone harm his brother.

"Ayaan, Sarah wasn't trying to hurt Avan. You know right, this is just her way of talking," Rewa spoke in the gentlest voice possible, before turning towards Sarah who had fallen down, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah yeah," Sarah responded while looking at her bruised elbow. This was the second time she had fallen down today.

"So, are you an elemental or not?" Sarah asked with a huff, not bothering to stand up again.

"I don't know," Avan replied in a low voice.

"Elements like fire, air...wait you spoke about trees, right? So you must be an Earth element," Rewa explained.

Seeing that Avan still had a confused look on his face, Sarah simplified the question, "Do you control the trees, plants, soil, rock etc? You know the things connected to the earth element."

"I don't control them," Avan answered, making the kids sigh as their newly founded hope was crushed. However, the next sentence Avan spoke gave birth to a new hope again.

"I don't control them. However, they are my friends and they always listen to my requests," Avan blurted out innocently.

While the kids were happy, Sameera's heart started beating faster with dread.

"Stop lying, kid. Come on, everyone knows that kids at this age have imaginary friends. Don't tell me you all believe his words," Sameera snorted, before rushing towards Avan.

"Please shut up. You might end up being a lab rat. Don't let anyone know about your powers," Sameera pleaded Avan, in a low voice.

"Lab rat?" Ayaan asked out loud. Having been standing near Avan, he heard everything and his question destroyed all the efforts Sameera had made.

Sarah stood up from her lazy position, and moved Sameera away from the Avan and Ayaan.

"What are you talking about? Why would anyone do that to him? Do you know something that we don't?" Sarah fired out question after question, as her body tensed with Sameera's claims.

"This world is cruel. They wouldn't care that he saved people, they would just see him as an experiment. You all should know better, since your parents are researchers.

"Once they find out that there is a person who is different from the rest, what do you think will happen?" Sameera questioned back, in a knowing tone.

"Aunty, you are wrong. My Mom never performed experiments on me. She is also a re...re..sar..char," Avan said, trying to prove Sameera wrong.

"True, she didn't do any experiments on you. But neither did she let your powers known to the public. Despite being a researcher herself , she too didn't trust her fellow researchers," Sameera responded.

Sameera was shocked as the innocent kid suddenly started glaring at her.

"I promise that no one else will know about Avan's power. And our parents wouldn't harm a person who saved us. So Avan please start looking for trees again," Manav, a thirteen year old, requested.

"Avan don't," Sameera pleaded.

"I will feel bad if they hurt me after I helped them. But I will feel so much more bad if they all die," Avan spoke, having his smile back on his face.

He had understood that Sameera was just trying to protect him and that warmed his heart. However, he couldn't stay still when he had the power to protect.

"Avan, Avan, I am the only tree here whose branches would reach the balcony upon extending. But I am not that strong. I can only take 3-4 children," a long but slim tree called out.

Avan nodded and relayed the information to others.

"We will have to take turns," Rewa concluded.

They were trying to decide whom to send first, when loud shouts from downstairs caught their attention. They looked down to see their parents pointing towards something. They didn't need to be curious for more time as they smelled smoke.

The building was caught on fire. And the fire was rushing towards their direction at full speed.

"Let's hurry," Sarah said while urging Avan to call out the tree.

"Let the small kids go first. We will go in the second round," Rewa suggested.

"We won't survive until then," Manav yelled in panic.

Many of them started coughing due to the smoke. Few kids even started losing consciousness as the smoke increased.

The elder kids and Sameera picked up the five and six year olds, as they started to back away at the other corner of the balcony as one side of it had caught on fire.

Sameera tried to use her powers to wave off the fire or at least decrease the smoke. However, nothing worked out. Having just gotten her powers today, she had no idea on how to operate them.

'Looks like I wasn't meant to be free for more than a day,' Sameera thought as she saw the fire closing up on them.

The adults weren't safe either as the hole in the ground was close to filling up.

The water with current was about to kill the adults while the fire was ought to kill their kids.