Forgotten

Chapter Twenty

I was filling my cup with water when Kia entered. She glanced at me and exclaimed, “You look like a zombie; and a sweaty one at that.”

“Thanks for the ego boost,” I replied sarcastically, before gulping down my water. It felt amazing after sweating out ninety eight percent of any water I had in my body. I even poured a little on my head.

She laughed softly. “I’m guessing Jason is teaching you how to use earth element?” I nodded and continued to drink my water. “You stink by the way; it’s really gross.”

“Whatever,” I said, finally coming up for air. I started to refill my empty cup. “Hey do you mind telling me some things about anything I did before that might help me feel connected to earth? If that even made sense… I want to keep working on it right now, but Jason refused to let me. He said I needed to rest my body, but that I could try some mental stuff.”

Kia nodded hesitantly. “Sure, now?”

“I was hoping so.” The top of the water leveled with the edge of the cup so I raised it to my lips. I was so thirsty it was astounding. Apparently pushing dirt was a really good workout.

“Okay, well when you get done swimming in that water, I’d love to help.” I rolled my eyes and ignored her.

“Okay so do you have any ideas as to what we should try?” Jason asked once we were back outside, after a thirty minute break. I’d probably downed at least five gallons of water before fleeing to the bathroom. Now we were by the fence again, slathered in sunscreen and wearing hats to shield us from the sun. I was probably burnt to a crisp from earlier.

Kia thought for a minute, chewing softly on her lip. Her hands, previously placed on her hips, flew up in excitement. “Oh I know! Do you think sledding would help? It has to do with earth and water so it should be twice as good, right?”

“Uh, where are we going to find snow? In the summer? In Colorado?” I gestured up at the smoldering sun.

She grinned anyways. “I’ll go get Drake; Jason start making a hill.” She ran off too quickly for either of us to respond.

“How am I supposed to make a sleigh riding hill that can’t be seen over the fence?” He asked lowly. I shrugged, not sure if he had been speaking to me or himself. Then his face lit up. “I know!”

He didn’t tell me what his plan was so I couldn’t tell him all the faults in it. He simply raised his arms and huge trees sprouted from the ground, curling and unfolding towards the sky. Within minutes, the trees towered above us, looking like they’d been there for years.

I shook my head, groaning, “What was that?”

“What’s wrong with it?” He seemed earnestly confused which was surprising. What wasn’t normal about trees that took less than a half an hour to grow sixty feet in the air?

“It takes lifetimes for trees to get that big,” I replied, frowning. “The neighbors will definitely be suspicious.”

His mouth fell open. “Lifetimes for a tree to grow? What is wrong with this place?”

“I’m guessing in Astoria it takes seconds?” I asked, plucking an apple from one of the huge trees. And nibbling on it.

“A day without any help. I didn’t know how slow they grew here…” He looked guilty, but brushed it off and sat down against one of the trees, grabbing his own apple.  He didn’t even put the trees back in the ground.

I sat down next to him. “You’re not going to make the trees go back to wherever they came from?” They did make good apples.

“No, that would kill them!” He exclaimed, looking horrified and deeply offended.