The Elementals

The Bitter Taste Of Freedom

Surprisingly enough, it’s the lack of the noise that wakes me up. I pull off the stuffy helmet gratefully and see everyone else stirring sleepily as well.

    “Are we here?” I ask Oh’Rian impatiently, my mild claustrophobia getting to me. “Can I get out?”

Oh’Rian shakes her head. “If by “here”, you mean the harbor, then yes, we are in fact here.”

I nudge everybody on the way out, though the jolt of the door sliding open should do the trick. Jumping down to the ground, I breathe in. I instantly love it. I can hear the waves from the ocean lapping at the shore and smell the salt in the air.

    “Sleep well princess?” Caelum hops down next to me.

    “Fine. Great, actually.” I say, though I’m not sure if it was the rest, or the close proximity to the water. Not even that nickname can bother me.

    “There’s a secret tunnel around here somewhere…” Oh’Rian mutters, pacing around. “I know there is.”

There wasn’t.

After a while of lazing around -which I did appreciate, but not for five hours- it’s almost dusk. I walk up to Oh’Rian. “We need food.” She looks up at me, and the impatient frustration in her eyes makes me reconsider my tone. “I mean, we’re hungry. We can come back tomorrow morning.”

    “Fine.” She agrees after a pause where I was pretty sure she’d go rabid on me. “There’s a burger place in the center of town.”

I cheer silently on the inside. “Come on people!” I shout to the others and they look up eagerly. “We’re getting some chow, then coming back tomorrow. Sound good?” I see nods of agreement. I look at Oh’Rian. “Lead the way.”

She starts striding to the street. We follow her like ducks. When we finally reach the restaurant, it occurs to me that we look like a mismatched band of Goth kids, ninjas, mimes, and small little chess pieces.

    “Umm, should we wait here?” I ask Oh’Rian and she nods.

    “They know me.” She walks through the door and the rest of us shrink back into the alleys in between the buildings.

I’m close to following after her and the amazing smells wafting from the kitchen window we’re conveniently sitting under, when Oh’Rian appears around the corner, holding a tray stacked with every kind of American junky fast food there is on the planet.

    “Dibs on the cheeseburger,” I say, rushing forward, followed by a stampede of six hungry orphans.

I snatch the hot foiled deliciousness and a box of fries while the others fight over the shrimp and duck into an alleyway for some quiet. I take a second to breathe in the scent of warm, cooked, meat. I’m in heaven. The fries are too hot, and burn my mouth, but I still scarf them down. The hamburger is gone just as fast.

    “You weren’t kidding when you said you wanted junk food.” Oh’Rian says, an amused smile on her face, appearing in front of me.

    “Nope,” I move over so she can sit down next to me. Something scratches my hand. I pull back my sleeve and see a tag with a complex black and electric blue logo on it. It looks like a couple of intertwining Greek letters. “Who puts a tag on someone’s sleeve?” I ask out loud.

    “Is that rhetorical?” Oh’Rian laughs but then she looks at the symbol and her eyes widen. She jumps to her feet, smacking her forehead. “That’s where it is!”

    “Where what is?” I ask, standing up more slowly. She doesn’t answer and races off. “Okay,” I mutter and step out of the alley. “Stella, you’re in charge.” I say and she nods as I dash after Oh’Rian.