The Power of Four

Chapter 8 - Aspen

I woke up to the smell of meat. Smoked deer, to be exact. I rubbed my eyes, looking up, and I hit my head on some hardened mud. "Yeow." I muttered, brushing some river sediments off my face.

"Oh, look who decided to grace us with her presence." Ash's voice startled me and I looked up to find her and Raine eating their smoked meat. I nodded slightly in their direction before climbing out of the shelter and staring at it.

"Who made this?" I asked, and Raine put her hand up slowly after a long pause.

"Me. I thought that the mud...would...um...hold it together better. Not that your old shelter was bad! But..." Raine trailed off and I snorted. Not because of Raine's timidness, mind you, but because I was too stupid to think of that.

"The shelter held up better than my old one. Good idea, Raine." I said, taking a piece of deer Ash handed me. Raine made a happy noise and grinned at me.

"So, Aspen, while you were asleep, Raine and I did some training together. Raine tried waking you up, but I guess you're a heavy sleeper." Ash said with a mouthful of deer, looking up at me.

"No wonder my hair was wet." I glared playfully at Raine, who shrugged sheepishly. I took a bite of deer, chewed, and swallowed.

"Hey, so Aspen, we were wondering if you would be willing to practice something with us?" Raine asked me, momentarily looking up from her meal. I gulped, should I? The last time my powers activated, I caused an earthquake. What would my new friends think of me if I caused an earthquake? Would I scare them away, too?

As if reading my thoughts, Ash said, "When Raine and I were practicing, I swear I almost boiled the entire river with my fire. I guess that means we need practice?" Ash sighed, and the look on her face was telling me that she really wasn't too much of a fan of her power right now. Raine then nodded at Ash's statement, her face showing both enthusiasm and fright.

We finished our food and then prepared to train. Ash and Raine waded into the river, Ash for safety, Raine for power purposes. I stayed on the river bank, my feet firmly planted in the muddy shore.

"Make a barrier wall thing and crash it into the others on three," Ash instructed, and I prepared, You got this, Aspen. Another part of my brain chortled, You BETTER!

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Ash struggling to tame a huge fireball, and Raine attempting to pull out more water from the stream. I took a deep breath and felt for the core of the earth. I touched it, and energy surged through me. Opening my eyes, I stared into the water and saw my eyes glowing again. Don't be scared, it's okay. I then reached into the core and PULLED. Vines erupted from all around us, rising like monsters from below. Flowers and leaves swirled around us and more vines burst from where I stood.

"Er...so what are we supposed to do?" I asked, struggling to hold all the vines at once.

"Smash all of them together." Raine said, her voice strained and beads of sweat running down her face. Cool... Wait, what?!

"Aspen, get ready in three, two, one." Ash gritted out, and then she tossed her fireball into the air. A millisecond after, Raine threw her ball of water directly at the fireball.

"Go, Aspen!" Ash shouted and I threw a ball of vines, moss, leaves, sticks, and flowers toward the fire and water. I shielded my face, preparing for the sizzle of evaporation and the smell of burnt vegetation. However, millions of small sparkling shards exploded into the air, glowing with a blue, green, and orange light.

"Holy mother of trees..." I trailed off, staring at the shards winking in the sunlight.

As the lights and colors faded, they were replaced by a light tinted purple, which then vanished a second later, but I could have sworn I saw another silhouette of a girl in the midst of the purple.

"I know. Ash and I just figured this out a few minutes ago. We think that when the elements are combined, they form some kind of awesome...magic?" Raine said, ending awkwardly and looking at the shards again.

"Scorching sunspots, I didn't know it would be this awesome with Aspen's magic in there, too." Ash gazed in awe, her eyes glittered, and she turned to us.

"This is an amazing discovery, but how exactly does this help us?" I asked, squinting at the shards. "Should we collect them or something?"

"Maybe, this could be useful." Raine muttered, quickly gathering the magical splinters and ignoring my question.

"I guess that this could be helpful when we are destroying evil and such." Ash responded.

"What evil? I know the air elemental is missing, but that doesn't exactly mean that she's kidnapped." I questioned, scooping up some dirt and studying the contents. The wet mud glooped in my hands and I looked up, feeling the gaze of Raine and Ash on me.

"With good and awesomeness, there's evil and tyranny." Raine offered quietly, staring into the sunset.

"Also, the words that we heard, I'm assuming they're a prophecy, told us to keep 'evil in check'" Ash added.

"'Til the final hour'" I finished.

"How do you guys remember?" Raine asked in wonder, "I can't even remember a line of it!"

"That last line just stuck. The whole thing is ominous, but that one especially. Also the part about death and destruction." Ash answered, shrugging.

"So what are we supposed to do? Is it wrong that I really want to see what happens with our powers when we find the air girl?" Raine said.

"How are we going to find the air girl?" Ash asked, and I could see impatience in her eyes.

"Go to the cave where fire sleeps." I cited, turning to the others.

"I just remember something about a forest and a fountain," Raine added, trying her best to be helpful.

"True. But I think that to find the air girl, we have to get to the fire first." I turned to look at Ash, who was picking absentmindedly at her nails. She looked up, clearly not paying attention.

"Wha?" Ash muttered and Raine let out an almost inaudible sigh. Great forest spirits, Ash... I mentally groaned and Ash offered a half sheepish smile before patting Elm's back.

"Does that mean we have to go to three places to find the air girl?" Raine asked, "Plus, the prophecy was kinda vague on where to go."

"That's true." Ash cut in and I nodded. "But there's also a line that says, And then within the forest deep. Maybe the cave is in a forest? Think, what geographical places have fire in them?"

"Mt. Magma." Raine offered, and I snapped my fingers. Why didn't I think of that?

"Well I'm glad you guys know your geography. Again, I wasn't taught about this world. So I guess being isolated really isn't what it's cut out to be." Ash sighed, flopping on the ground to lay on her back, watching the clouds in the sky.

"You also don't know how to hug. That's very concerning." I said, laying down next to her. Not wanting to be left out, Raine laid on her back, too.

"We should probably be heading to Mt. Magma, shouldn't we?" I asked after a while of breathing and watching the clouds.

"We should." Ash laughed and got up, patting Elm's back. "Come on. I'll scout ahead and you guys can walk behind."

"No. That's not happening." I snorted, and Raine nodded in agreement.

"Let's just get moving." Ash suggested and we headed for the ancient kingdom.