Chapter Two

It had been four hours. How long did it take to find Dawn's tool kit?!

"Emmet!" Dawn hollered, then remained in her semi-official wheelchair, more or less, now positioned outside their tent, the flap that was the opening brushing across her arms. She had almost retained her own tent and demanded that Emmet remained elsewhere, but when he recognized her strain when moving, thanks to having her body pounded by the impact, he proposed that they stay in the same tent. She swayed and allowed it.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," he grumbled. Now that she was handicapped, though it fortunately was not permanent, Emmet had to do nearly all the strenuous labor while Dawn supervised from the sidelines and helped as much as possible. Albeit she could have ameliorated the work load by bossing less and sweating more. The days on Wentef grew as hot as 112 degrees, but by night, it took every shred of fabric to keep the two survivors from refrigerating, though the atmosphere thickened their growing weakness.

The planet itself held a substantial and immense stupor that made keeping one's eyelids open problematic. The air, although clear like that of most planets, carried a tint of yellow, or lime green, which seemed daunting the longer you resided on the unfamiliar planet.

"What?" Emmet stipulated, sweat beaded on his forehead. The planet appeared to navigate itself close to the sun, yet one was nowhere in sight, whether clouds or some sort of acid exhaust blocked it from breaking through to the planet's shell.

Dawn tilted her head in interest, wondering at the quantity of vocation that had already been accomplished in the past few hours. "Well, it seems that you have already established the basic elements to rebuilding the engines. Did you find my tools?"

Answering her question, Emmet held up a large, rusty, gray box with a look that said 'Right here, your majesty.'

With a roll of her eyes, Dawn obtained it from him and spun the dial on the lock to the correct combination, then clicked the bolt off, allowing it to fall to the dirt ground. While fishing through her paraphernalia, Emmet once again scoped out the region of the land where the Jawbreaker had hurtled, and where they were stranded until the engines were revamped and ready to go. The only trees in sight were those that survived the extreme temperatures, and they rested off miles away where a remote forest stood, shabby and slight, yet it seeped out an essence of something sinister. Being two young adults, Emmet only seventeen, dangerous adventures were not feasible, and they hadn't the provisions nor the flexible time to get into a tribulation.

"Take these." Dawn distributed a miniature mallet, three coils, a handful of bolts, and a screwdriver, then sent him back to the ship where the blown engine now sat, wedged into the ground, immovable. Subsequently, Dawn directed him as to where the objects fit into the engine, like pieces of a puzzle, but this puzzle happened to be a time bomb waiting to happen at the first sign of a loose wire. Then she would hand him more, and so this cycle continued until they ceased their working at the sight of the darkening sky. They could not risk a fire, for fear of the hovering Jawbreaker and in case any of the general public were to spot the conflagration.

"What about food? Water?" Emmet reminded her, now exasperated from the long day.

"Hungry? Here." Dawn tossed him an aluminum foil container, and when he caught it, he unfastened the top to reveal a course, bland fodder.

"What is this?" he questioned skeptically, eying the repugnant rations.

"Dried food: healthy and filling. Probably more so than any other food. It's not half bad, I've lived off of it for years. Take it or leave it." After a moment's hesitation, Emmet downed the chow and threw the drained bag onto the ground, then surveyed the black sky where no stars shined.

"Tell me about the Council," beseeched Emmet as he laid back on his bunk, his hands under his head, eyes shut.

Dawn sighed then spoke slowly. "The Element Council consists of 11 members who control the rudiments of the universe. You know, earth, fire, water, air; the elements. Of course, there are many other kinds of elements. People who carry the traits of having power over any sort of element are rare, and once they are detected, they are inducted into the Council. There they are trained to manipulate those abilities for the greater good by the more developed members. There is a corrupt section to the powers, when the supremacy overwhelms the host and converts him or her into something terrifying." She shook her head in odium.

"So are the, um, bad guys fighting against you all?"

"There has been a feud, yes, for centuries. With the powers comes elongated age, and with every year, powers grow stronger. Appearance, however is not effected. Take me, for example." Dawn gestured at herself, now sitting on the ground, her back leaning against her divan. "How old do I look?"

Emmet considered this, then answered, "Seventeen."

Without missing a beat, Dawn grinned widely, something that Emmet had thought unfeasible. "Well, thanks, but no. I am twenty-one."

"No, really?" he said while sitting up. "Do you have powers?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to tell me what they are?"

"No." His face fell with her answer, but she smiled smugly. "I am going to show you."

Dawn spread her hands out over the earth and Emmet studied her movements, glancing up at her face briefly to find her concentrating intently on the ground under her hands. The crease on her forehead disappeared and sparkling bits of light shone from her hands, like golden glitter as small as dust. It fell out of her fingers and slowly filtered through the motionless air to land on the ground, where it vanished.

"That's… wow, that's remarkable! What is it?" he muttered in total astonishment.

Like a childish adolescent, Dawn tittered and replied, "I have dominion over light." Her voice rang with authority and force. The light broke off from her fingertips and she held one palm up in front of Emmet's face, and from there, a ball of light balanced. "I can either summon it from nothing, from the sun, from any source of energy, really." The light dimmed and her countenance fell, leaving her hand empty in the air and, with a cheerless sigh, she let her hand drop.

"Unfortunately," she continued. "Because I am untrained, or at least new at learning the ways of controlling and increasing the power, I am very limited in time, size, and strength."

"I thought you had been to see the Council before. Wouldn't that mean that they have started educating you?"

"Oh, that." She looked into the distance outside of their tent seeing as the flap remained open until they were keen to go to bed. "See, because there are so few members of the Council, there is a limit to how many powers there are; moreover, there is no one to instruct me in the ways of my potential because I am the first to gain the power of light. Sure, the fire wielders and the weather charmers have tried their best to help me, but unfortunately, I am on my own as far as gathering statistics for myself.

"Recently, I voyaged to a distant land, never before heard of, and collected a considerable amount of data. Also, lately, there have been requests for me to do odd jobs. Mostly assassinations, missions to dispose of a shifty character, or a dodgy soldier gone mad; but I would only accomplish shady business and draw closer to the ominous side of the Council if I agreed to do any of these things."

"How did the gift of light come to you? How old were you? Did it effect your life radically?" Emmet shot each question with more zeal than the previous.

"Good God, Emmet, do you ever shut up?" she cried, rubbing her temples with her scratched fingers. "A, the 'gift of light,' as you put it, was technically always with me. It took a little push to get it out of me, though. B, when it really truly came to me, I was 13. That is when it usually happens. And C, having power over light kind of changes your life, so yes, radical things did happen. One of those was being kicked out. I was 15 when that happened."

"Who kicked you out?" Emmet whispered, afraid that he should not ask any more questions.

Dawn sighed, a very tired sound, like all her energy had just left on that gush of air. "It was really Lackdem, and he did not have a hard time convincing my mother that I was dangerous and that there would be soldiers coming to take me away." She closed her eyes tightly, afraid that tears would escape. "It was my brother, Miles, that stood up for me," she spoke softly, her face relaxing. "He took me away from there, risking his own life, then brought me to the Council. How he knew about it, I'll never comprehend, but I appreciate it more than you know.

"Now, my whole mission to life is finding out as much about Miles as I can."

"Where is he?"

There was a pause, and when Dawn finally spoke, it was strained to an extreme. "A loyal warrior of the Council's reported that his ship went missing nearly four years ago."

Emmet was too weary to respond, but instead murmured, "I'm sorry, Dawn," then fell asleep.

Still awake even though she herself was drained of all vigor, Dawn stole a glance at Emmet. Now that she was seeing straight, he came across not as an annoyance, but as an ally, someone who may not be the brightest, but who actually listens. Dawn smiled and shook her head, then turned on her side, finding the feat harder than normal because of her disability, then tentively allowed the planet's sleeping specialty to overtake her.