A/N: Hello readers! Here's a kind of short chapter three, please comment and vote! Thanks!
Chapter Three:
~Time Lapse~
Linlea Peaks are the awesomest place I’ve ever been to. They were for a few days, anyway. Ren taught Avani, Douglas, Reed, and I all about the history of the Elementals and our powers. Just learning about that was much more interesting than any class I’d ever taken in my life, although, to be honest, I didn’t pay attention in any classes after Elementary School. But the reason for that was because they were so incredibly boring, so I can still compare.
So, yes, Elemental History lessons were a great time. But then things got weird. Ren would barely have any time to teach us, and when he did, he was always very flustered and it didn’t last very long. Random older (around eighteen year old) Elementals could be found smattered around the Peaks making sure that nobody crossed some certain point in the mountains. Sometimes, in the dining hall, we Elementals could hear bellowing coming from a room above us, followed by a higher pitched retort. At first, I thought nothing of it; it reminded me of when a teacher would leave a classroom I was in and through the door I could hear them and Ms. Beecher or Mrs. Doeringer arguing about ‘what to do with me’. But judging by the way the others were whispering amongst themselves and exchanging worried glances, there was obviously something going horribly wrong.
Today, I found out why.
After eating breakfast in the dining hall with my new Salamander friends, Zia and Aiden, and an Undine named Nori; Ren slams a door at the far end of the room open and clears his throat.
“Gnomes, Salamanders, Undines, and Sylphs, I am here to inform you that a terrible thing has happened to your species.” Whispers fill the room up like my cat does a litterbox. “SILENCE!” Everyone shuts up. “I have recently been informed that any Elemental over the age of eighteen, has disappeared, not including myself and the other Originals, of course.” This time, shouting begins. “SHUT UP ALREADY!” We do. “Now, as you all should know, there is a fifth Elemental; the Quintessence.” I don’t. “They obviously don’t reside here, but they still exist. If you don’t know, the Quintessence are invisible beings with properties beyond our wildest imaginations. None of us know any single thing about them, other than the King of course; expect that they are for sure the cause of the disappearance, which is what the King has just informed me of. I cannot give any details about anything, mostly because I don’t know any. The only thing I do know is that we need eight Elementals to go on a quest to find the Quintessence and destroy them. I will be assessing your abilities this week and I will then choose a male and a female of each species to save our species.” I’m confused by why he would trust sixteen to eighteen year old Elementals living in Linlea Peaks to go on the quest, but then I remember that we’re the only age of Elementals who can do anything about this, other than the Originals, who I assume will help out in some way. They better.
“Why can’t you do it?!” a Salamander boy yells, clearly agreeing with my thoughts.
“Oh, I will be helping. I have to find the other Originals, we will be accompanying you in a way, but we won’t be at your side.” The Originals… Oh, I remember those from history lessons! They’re the first four Elementals ever to live, they’re immortal, too. Ren is one of them.
“That is it. Remember, everyone, stay inside of the mountains, we don’t know what would happen if you left. Please go on with your day in the normal fashion,” Ren concludes. He leaves through the same door he entered, leaving all of us utterly shell-shocked.
“Oh god… What’s gonna happen to us?!” Nori troubles.
“I don’t even know,” Aiden answers, “how is it even possible for anyone to kill the Quintessence?! They’re freaking invisible!”
“Yeah, and no one even knows what they even are!” Zia adds.
“Well… Why can’t the King just do something magical and zap them outta existence?” I ask. “Also, who’s the King?”
“Um…” Aiden looks at Nori, who shrugs. “I don’t really know. I mean, either of the answers. Like, I don’t see why the King couldn’t do it himself, but then again, nobody knows who the King is.”
“So why can’t we just break into rest of the castle? Go and talk to him or whatever,” I suggest.
“Well there are a few things wrong with that idea,” starts Nori. “First, he might kill us on spot. Also, he’s the King of the freaking Elementals, he’s not gonna listen to any of us, especially you Ember.”
I’m about to interject something about how amazing I am, but I stop myself. Something about the situation makes it seem wrong to…well…say things I usually say. “Yeah, okay…” I think for a second, and then came up with an idea that could save the entire Elemental race, plus kill the Quintessence, plus let me find out who the King was!
“I should go on the quest!” The approval I expect never comes.
“Oh come on Ember,” Zia complains, “you don’t even know how to control fire!”
“Irrelevant.”
“That is not irrelevant! You don’t know the first thing about your powers, definitely not how to defeat a presumably undefeatable race!”
“Okay, okay, that may be true, but the other seven will know all of that stuff. I can just help by…being myself.”
“Nope, not gonna work,” plainly states Aiden.
“Oh, you will all be proven wrong when I leave the Peaks with the other seven. Then we’ll see who was more reasonable,” I say. “I’m gonna go talk to Ren right now…”
Nori scoffs. “Okay, have fun with that.
Oh, I will.
……
“No,” Ren blatantly indicates during Elemental History the next day.
“Really?! Why not?”
“Well, first of all, you can’t control your Element—”
“Everyone keeps bringing that one up…”
“Yeah, there’s a reason for that. I don’t wanna hear anything more about it, Ember. I’ll be choosing the most seasoned residents to do it, not someone who only came here less than a week ago.”
“I feel like that’s considered as some kind of discrimination.”
“Well, it might be, but that’s just how it’s gonna be.”
“Not fair!”
“Sucks!”
Sadly, Ren gets called down somewhere and I can’t argue with him anymore.
That won’t be the end of it, though. I will go on that quest, no matter what
YOU ARE READING
Flickering Flames
FantasyEmber was just having a normal day in the school counselor’s office- But her day is soon altered by not only her counselor quitting her job, but by two men appearing out of air coming to take her away. Ember is taken to the Linlea Peaks, where all E...
