The Elementals

~*~ Chapter Seven ~*~

~*~ Chapter Seven ~*~

     To be safe, our fathers decided it would be best if we stayed home from school the next day. Also, early that morning Gale, Aqua and Amber were escorted home by my parents. They said after the incident the night before they didn't want to take any chances. I didn't argue. One less day of human school was fine with me.

     "Don't you think they won't believe it's a coincidence that all four new kids are missing on the same day?" asked my brother Aaron at the breakfast table the next morning.

     "Humans don't analize things like we do." chimed in my other brother, Xander.

     "Now don't be prejustice, Xander. You'll never know until you try." said my mother, flipping a pancake. Due to our "good behavior on the battlefield", we were aloud to pick what we had for breakfast.

     "Sissy gets lots of trying." said Aaron, pointing his fork in my face.

     "Yeah, but that doesn't mean she likes it. She's a shut in!" Xander said. Even my mother laughed.

     "I'm right here you know!" I scoffed.

     "Not for long," my father walked in the front door, "you, Gale, Amber and Aqua are going patroling."

     "Who's our chaperone?" I asked him. Being the younger generation of Elementals, we were always followed on our patrols by an older matriarch.

     "No one." he said. I was shocked.

     "Really?" after shock faded, excitement set in.

     "Really, just be safe." he said. Clearly the he had no say in the decision.

     I ran upstairs to text my friends.

     Sent to Gale, Amber, Aqua: Guess what?!?!

     Aqua: What?

     Amber, Gale: Sup???

     Lily: We get to patrol ALONE!!

     Gale: ?!?!?!

     Amber: Yay!!!

     Aqua: Let's meet in the woods behind my place.

     Gale, Amber, Lily: Okay.

     Fifteen minutes later, Aqua and I were in the woods behind her house.

     "My mom told me that we might get to parol alone after the insident last night, but I thought she was bluffing." she said, spinning a small dollop of water from her koi pond through the air.

     "Yeah." I replied, fascinated by the water. I always found Aqua hard to talk to.

     Just then, two familiar howls rose from the mountains in the distance.

     "Guess they don't know how to read." said Aqua, clearly irritated.

     "Guess so." with that we lept from the log we were sitting on and bounded into the woods on all fours.

     When we had finished about half of our patrol route Amber's mother had mapped for us, we took a break.

     Lunch? Gale asked in his thoughts.

     I'm always up for food, said Amber.

     We went our separate ways tempararily and came back to a small field, each of us carrying a kill.

     "Nothing says 'yum' like some fresh meat." Aqua said, sticking her tongue out. As long as I can remember she's been a vegetarian. She brought back a small bag of edible herbs and nuts I had helped her find in the woods. Being an Earth Elemental, I could dicipher what was safe to eat and what wasn't more clearly than others.

     To enhance flavor, we stayed wolves while eatting. Also, it was healthier than eatting raw meat when being a human. I looked up at Aqua, her dark skin and hair seeming lighter under the October sun.

     She caught me staring and said, "What?"

     I barked.

     "I don't get you, Lil, but I still love you." she said, throwing me a handful of nuts.

     This is like the world's creepiest petting zoo, thought Amber.

     That's one way to think about it, Gale said, rolling in the grass like a pup would do.

     Or you could say that we're divine creatures made to pretect what is pure in this world, I thought.

     That's not as fun! Aqua thought once she had shifted back into her Water Elemental wolf, Gale, what are you doing?

     Getting eagle blood off my wings, he thought.

     Isn't it a little bit wrong that you have wings and you kill other things with wings? asked Amber.

     No, I call it cheating, he said.

     How so? I asked.

     Because I can fly farther up than them and catch them from above, he said, barking with self acknowledgement.

     As we got up to finish our patrol, I was watching my friends. Amber's body being completely engulfed in harmless flames, Aqua's ruff crashing against the rest of her body like a constant wave against the sandy beach and her feet leaving puddles on the ground where she stepped, and Gale, moving so swiftly and effortlessly with his wings folded neatly on each side of him.

     In the coming days, I would never be more thankful for having them by my side.