Chapter 12- Awakening

The last day. It would be the last day the four warriors would know anyone but themselves. Anna awoke in the early morning to find that the aether coursing through her had made for a change in paths. Instead of flowing the same as it did the night before south towards the town it was leading her east towards the river. She knew of the roads that lead right to the waters, but also of many that would take her down shortcuts and make the travel much quicker. Still not knowing how her time stop ability worked she sighed and packed up her bag. It would take nearly a whole day to even get half way to the river, but somehow she didn't feel like it would be too tiring. She examined her 'new' tunic once more. The threads had really been changed by some force of aether. She didn't question it. In fact she actually liked the new weight of her tunic. It made her feel like she had to really try to get good at moving again. Like the rush of getting the prison ball free from its bowl, this new feeling made Anna want to expend her energy as fast as she could. Test the reflexes of the law of water to see how quick it would replenish her. A test of nature.

The evening previous the other three children had started off on the road towards the city. They made it about two miles before the cover of night began to creep upon them. Emelia had done almost all the lifting and pulling of the cart. Even with the boys offering their help she declined. It would seem like she would have needed the help, but the cart with all the items in it didn't feel any heavier than perhaps a down pillow or a pile of leaves. It was a great feeling for Emelia to experience this power she had always hoped to have. More so for a fighting advantage over her brother to push him around, but this was nice too.

Charles had been expanding his knowledge of the natural language at an extreme pace. It was so much so that he insisted that when it was only the three of them they spoke solely in the language. "Practice will make perfect" he would say. The other two nodded in agreement and began the practice till it was common place. In fact Charles became so fluent that he started to write in his new journal the different rules for speaking it. Rules that applied not only to the grammatical structure of the words they spoke, but also the names of living things and how they would interact with the language.

For example one could simply say 'rock' in the language and it could mean a great deal of rocks. It could be this rock, or that rock, or perhaps a rock a hundred miles away. Just like in English they were all 'rock' but the relative place of it made no difference. However when speaking the word but meaning a specific rock the word would be morphed to include the location. For instance 'that rock' and 'this rock here' would be completely different words. Still one word, but changed.

It was rules like this and the ones that pertained to situational events that Charles recorded. When the three children would come across something they didn't know the name of they didn't have to speak to it to find what it was. The language had become unspoken between them and the earth. When inquiring about new things they simply thought to know and nature would tell them. So this continued about the journey through the evening and the night time.

A rule that wasn't written but Charles also observed was that because of its purity no one could call false accusations while speaking it. It was a language of truth, a light in the way of humans. Emelia had tried to make a joke at Jack when he failed to construct the tent but her words fell flat. She found that she couldn't produce the words even though she knew what they ought to be. She reverted to English for such an occasion and Charles scolded her for it.

"You know we haven't spoken like that since we left." he said in English, "Just because you detest your brother doesn't mean you can mock him. Now," switching to the Language of Nature, "Help gather more supplies would you please?"

Emelia stuck her tongue out at Charles and went about feeling the pulse of the Earth for things that they could gather for the next day. Fire wood was the least of their needs as they didn't really need any. The dinner that Laura had packed them was full of things that didn't require heating. Bread, small slices of veggies. A jar containing a fruit mix that had been coated in sugar to make it juicy and sauce like. There were also small rounds of cheese sealed in wax, as well as bottles of juice.

After the nights supplies of food ran out they'd need to rely on the land to eat. They also only had one change of clothes. Caroline had packed them with 'play clothes' and Laura had sent Charles with a set of casual clothes and a straw hat to keep his face out of the sun. They would be nice to change into tomorrow, but they'd need the nectars from some of the local plants to wash them. A thorny plant that grew all over the land contained a sap type nectar that was quite good at removing stains. It wasn't too sticky when you combined it with water, and it left the clothes with a fresh scent.

There was a huge patch of the thorn like plant growing a few meters off closer to the city. Emelia made her way away from camp to go fetch them. She wasn't worried about the thorns one bit. She could simply ask the plant for its nectar in exchange for its safety in the ground. A simple bargain. Emelia had brought with her a small vile that had contained some butter to spread on the bread for dinner. Since it was now empty she figured it would serve well as a vile to hold washing nectar.

Thorned plants all swayed back and forth in the gentle night breeze. Emelia could barely feel it, but the plants seemed to move in rhythm with its flow. She knelt down to the plant and asked it, "I would like some of the nectar you hold so dear. May I have it?" The language of nature was quite powerful even for those who were not awakened. The thorny plant stopped swaying in the breeze. It's thorns all glistened in the moonlight. The danger of them clearly visible. No toxins were present, but they were barbed on the end to hold tight to whatever decided to try harming them. A need to survive things that weren't humans.

She asked again this time feeling quite frustrated that the plant simply responded by not swaying in the breeze. Putting her hand on the ground she said finally, "My final time. Please give me your nectar." And with that there was a row of earthen spikes that rose from the ground. Emelia was at first taken aback by the feeling of aether, but soon it became the same as the feeling of her connection with the earth. The thorned plants all began swaying once more, and stopping for a second time. One of the plants lowered its bloom and opened. A white fluid was coating the pedals on the inside.

Emelia put the vile near one of the pedals and it dripped into it. Filling to the near top the plant stopped the flow and close its bloom once again for the night. "Thank you" she spoke to the plant. Already quite surprised by the aether running in her veins the voice of the plant returning her thanks made her second guess if she'd heard anything. 'You are a true warrior' it said. 'We shall tell the guardian of the shadow forest that it's warrior is coming'. With that the thorny plants went back to swaying in the breeze.

Back at camp Jack and Charles had been going about deciding when they wanted to veer off and make for the river. The city was only a mile away, but they could follow its borders till they came to the east gates and then make towards the river. It would mean they'd travel farther north than they'd hope, but still it would make easy for when they wanted Anna to find them.

"If we go a mile east, then another mile north that'll put us right in line between these mountains and this village where that girl came from. She's already all the way over here just outside the city." Jack started, "South has been her course till she stopped for what I guess is a rest. She hasn't moved since then so she must be sleeping."

"Like we should be," Emelia interjected as she returned. "I found that nectar you had asked for. It wasn't too hard to get, but how I got it was a complete oddity." The focus had shifted from the map to Emelia. She recounted her activity with the plants and now this new feeling she had in her veins. "It's like there's all kinds of life in me. I put my hand on the ground and these spikes came out." She tried but with no success.

Charles took out his journal and took down Emelia's recount. He was puzzled about the whole ordeal, but didn't bother investigating it. She was right, it was late and they were all tired. Even though Emelia had pulled the cart most of the way the two boys had also been tired.

"We'll need to go north first towards the city to drop off this cart. If we go too far East there won't be anyone to see it." Charles said to the siblings. The nodded in the affirmative.

"Plus we don't want to hinder that girls travel towards us. The sooner she finds us the better." Jack had started rolling up the map. He put it in the cart next to the old book that they had also brought. The camp had been mostly set up. Since there was only one tent they decided that it would be used in case it rained. It was set up and they could all fit in there. Not comfortably like they'd hope, but if it started to rain they could cram inside it. Luckily it was a clear night, and not too cool.

The fire glowed on in the night. There was the sounds of the nocturnal bugs. An owl had awoken and hooted to see if anyone was listening. It was quite peaceful to all three of the children. Charles had no problem sleeping with noise in the background. He had always had an open window in his room. If anything the noise had made him calm down and fall asleep quicker.

A mindset that couldn't be shared with his best friend. Jack had rolled back and forth so many times that his covers had gone askew and his pillow was bunched up. Even looking up into the sky couldn't keep him distracted from the noise long enough to fall asleep. On his last roll the slowly burning embers caught his eye. They looked like an endless abyss. He had never thought that something could be interesting when it was just practical. Embers were embers. These on the other hand seemed like they were calling out to him. They wanted to be part of him.

Jack had always been bored with things that he found no interest. He wanted action, adventure, the feeling of adrenaline flowing through his body. The thrill of the hunt, the power behind the anger that he felt when he unleashed it. These embers were none of those. They were just there. Orange and black, glowing in the otherwise dark night. Moonlight surrounded them, but even so the landscape held it's dark colour. A small flame began to grow inside the coals, and it grew. Slower and then quickly it became life. It was beautiful. Jack reached out to touch it and found that it was completely cool.

The other two children had been so asleep they didn't notice any of this. Even Emelia with her tuned senses to the surroundings. It was Jack and the flame. His hand could feel the aether in the flame. He tried to hold it but couldn't. "Come here you." He said to the flame that evaded his every attempt. Retracting his hand the flame turned from orange, to red, to blue, then to pure white. Inside there was the image of the sapphire gem.

When the flame returned to its orange colour Jack asked for the image again, and to his surprise the flame listened. The aether for the law of fire was flowing in him. He looked into the white flame and saw that the sapphire gem was in the hands of someone. A man with a strong jaw. Then as if he was reading from the book they were carrying the words the king said. They were so clear that they rang in the back of Jacks mind. Then after the king was done speaking he dropped the sapphire and it disappeared.

Jack had yelled, "No! Don't lose that now!" And the flame flickered then roared into an inferno. The orange cylinder of heat over took Jacks mind and caused him to seal his lips. His body convulsed in the power of the fire. Try as he could to absorb it he couldn't and his palms burned with radiating heat. He placed them on the ground only to find that he was scorching the dirt below him.

"No, no, no. Make it stop," he started to himself, "Make it stop. Get this under control Jack. You can do it, just don't try so hard." He closed his eyes and thought of everything he could to get this radiating heat under control. Roland, his mother, Charles, his friends at school, and even some of the people at the market. Anything to get his mind off the burning in the palms. It wasn't till he thought of the strong will of his sister that the burning began to subside.

"Emelia... She's so strong. She'd never falter under this." and with that the flames in his body subsided, and the aether began to flow through him in constant pulses. His own heart beat kept a rhythm of energy. "This must be what she was talking about. It feels like my body's on fire." Finally he saw that the fire in the coals had gone out and it was just a pile of dark embers. He knew he should learn from what the embers did. With that he too finally fell asleep.

The next morning when he was the last to wake Jack recounted the events from last night. Amazed that neither of the other two had heard him yell or scorch the ground was an oddity. Emelia gave him a light punch to the shoulder when she yelped.

"Jack, you skin is like a hot frying pan!"

"It is? I didn't even notice." He replied. It was true that his skin did feel like the surface of something heated over an open flame. Although he had controlled the flow of the element he couldn't control the flow of the aether in his body. "What should I do?" Questioned by the events of the night Charles looked through the book they had.

"There's no mention of a fire like skin, but there is mention of this thing called 'aether'. Perhaps that's to blame?" He showed the book to Jack and then flipped to a different page. "It says that fire is the most volatile of the four elements. You'll have to release all your extra aether somehow. It's like a stockpile that you've been holding onto."

Jack laughed at the resolution, but then made a face of puzzlement. "How do you propose I do that?" he looked around the camp. There were no sources of fire to be had. Even the night before they had used matches to start the fire in the camp. "Can one of you start a fire? I think if I focus on that it'll drain all this extra 'eater' out of me."

The mispronunciation made Charles cringe. "Aether" he corrected making sure that he sounded out the word so Jack would say it correctly the next time.

"Whatever. This fire inside me." A small pile of sticks was set up and Emelia set light to a match. Jack had kept his eyes closed till the sticks were on fire as to not burn his sister. When the sticks were lit and the match was out they told Jack to open his eyes.

In front of him were only about four small pencil sized sticks, and one of them had the little flame on it. Jack stared at the flame and nothing happened. "Say something" Emelia told him, and he did so.

"Blaze fire, blaze." And the aether in Jacks veins intensified. The pain was the same as last night. The flame on the sticks however incinerated them and began to burn solely on its own. It was still orange and there was just a triangular flame.

Charles saw what was happening and spoke encouragement to Jack, "Keep it up! The flame is on its own. Don't stop what you're doing."

"It's hurting me! It feels like my whole body is about to explode!" Jack yelled back at his friend.

"Then explode the flame! Instead of you exploding make that flame do the work for you." His sister had told him the exact thing he needed to do.

Like someone turning up the gas on a switch the flame started to grow larger and larger until it was nearly a foot high. Starting as a little flickering flame it was now a large pillar of fire. Two feet high, three feet high. The flame got taller and taller. Then stopping it started to rotate. Faster and faster it spun. The heat that radiated from it was so intense that Charles and Emelia had to step back farther from where they were.

"It's working! I can feel the heat leaving me!" Jack was so excited that when he focused harder on the flame it began to glow blue. The spinning cylinder of fire had gone completely blue and then as white hot as it could. Leaves and surrounding branches started to smoke from the invisible heat. Like blowing out a candle the pillar had gone. Jack put his hands on the ground and started taking in deep breaths. "How does my skin feel now?"

Emelia had been the brave one to test his question. To the relief of her palm his skin was the same as it had always been. A bland temperature of humans. "It worked all right. How do you feel?"

"Like I just swam a marathon and there was cake at the end." Charles and Emelia both laughed and Jack joined in. They rolled on the ground in enjoyment of the morning.

Breakfast was a short ordeal since this mystery with Jack had consumed the time it took for the sun to finish rising. Charles recorded everything in his new journal and they packed up the cart. Emelia took her place at the front of the cart to pull it, Jack and Charles walking beside her.

"We'll drop the cart a few meters from the east gate. There's a path that connects the two gates and we'll just leave it at the intersection." Emelia said as she started to walk at a brisk pace.

"Exactly," Charles began. "Then we'll back track a little and make east for the river." He pulled the map open from the cart and looked to see that Anna hadn't even moved from last night. She was surely still resting or something.

The three made it to the outskirts of the city where they had begun to develop housing districts. They looked much different from the houses that they lived in. These were long one level houses that must have had six or so rooms in them. Not counting the kitchen and the living rooms they had many living spaces to accommodate large families.

They left the cart near the intersection of the south and east roads leading to the city gates. Taking the map, book and the camping supplies out of it they repacked what they could and made off for the east. The camping supplies were repacked in a way that Emelia could strap it to her back and carry everything. Charles backpack had held the old story book, his new journal, some other texts, and the map sticking out the top. Jack had nothing to carry, and this was just fine with him.

A few hours down the path from the east gate they stopped and looked at the map. Anna had been on the move. "Finally" they all said one after another.

"I say that since she's following our path nearly to the step if we make to the south we can venture towards this town. There must be people living there, and until then we can eat what we find on the land." Charles idea would have been a good one if he knew that there were no people in that town. The one Anna had come from. Abandoned before their time.

Time passed on through the day and soon it was near evening again. They had skipped lunch to keep what little food they had in reserves. Jack had managed to catch a rabbit in a snare, and Emelia had found some berries in a patch just off to the river side of camp. They made a quick fire, this time with matches and Jack having no trouble being near it. Roasting the rabbit made the whole area smell quite enticing. Worried about large animals Emelia felt out with her aether and found that there was nothing more than a family of squirrels and a few moles that had been burrowing beneath them.

They ate dinner till they were full when Emelia felt something she hadn't ever felt before. A coolness in the air that was unnatural, and the air turned thick. "Who or what goes there" she spoke in the language of nature, but there was no response. Emelia got up and flowed the aether into her hands and touched the ground. She spoke the same again but still no response.

"I'm not sure who you people think you are, or what you're talking about but it's all a load of rubbish." The voice rang out to Jack and Charles.

Together they shouted, "Don't attack her!" Anna couldn't understand what they shouted, but clearly it was something that the girl could understand. The aether in Emelia's veins started to return to its normal flow, and she picked up her hands.

"She's speaking English." Charles said to the sister.

Emelia looked to where the sound came from. In English she spoke, "By request of the warrior of earth, tell us who you are."

All at once Anna came out from hiding. A tree had concealed her completely from the three. It was unreal how it could have been accomplished, but it wasn't questioned.

"By your request, the warrior of water is whom you speak." Anna replied in English. There was a thump as she dropped her pack and took a whiff of the roasted rabbit. "I see you are all eating well. Perhaps you could spare a bite?" She started to walk towards them, but she was stopped by Emelia.

The two girls were quite different. Anna who had been nearly six years older than Emelia stood inches taller, looking down on Jack's sister. Her short hair had grown out a considerable length since cutting it. Tattered clothes from traveling were what she wore, a contrast to the clean pristine clothing Emelia wore.

While the standoff was happening Charles had gotten out the map and unrolled it. He spoke Nature to the map to confirm that this was indeed the girl they were waiting for. The map confirmed it by flashing the light of his symbol, then Jack's, Emelia's and finally Anna's.

"She's one of us," he started in the language of nature, but then changed to English and repeated it so that Anna would understand. "Oh bother this is going to be a nuisance. Could you come here please Anna." He spoke to her like she had been one of her friends.

Emelia let Anna pass, noticing the chain wrapped around her waist. She spoke the true name of the chain and all at once it was removed from Anna.

"Give that back!" She yelled, but it was no use. Emelia had already transmuted it into dust.

Charles was waiting for Anna with his hand out palm side down. "Please..." He said with distain in his voice for the slowness she walked.

"Tell her to give me back my chain," Anna said to him, "Then I'll do this silly whatever you want to do." Charles put his hand down.

He spoke Nature to Emelia, "Retransmute the chain for her. This is getting out of hand." Emelia did so and Anna went to retrieve it when she was stopped by her aether.

"She has it too doesn't she," Anna started as she looked at Charles in the eye. He had his hand out and his palm down.

"Just do as I am," he asked in English. Anna did and Charles started the exchange. "Good fortune has surely found you, Warrior of Water." Just as what had happened with Emelia and Jack the symbols appeared to Anna and she replied with the return.

"Fortune has surely found me, may it find you as well." To her surprise it was the same language that the three had been speaking when she arrived. She instantly switched back to English, "What was that? How did I just learn that?"

Charles looked at her, "For someone who gained her aether before any of us you sure seem to lack a lot of knowledge." He said in English. It had become almost a pain to speak in it now that he and the siblings had been accelerated to learning the fluidity of the language. "I am the only one left to be awakened. I'm not sure why, but to answer you previous question yes. She has it too," he said as he pointed to Jack. "And him."

Emelia walked over with Anna's chain and dropped it on the ground. Anna bent down to get it for her own protection. She rewrapped it around her waist. Walking over to her pack she had dropped to the ground earlier she said, "I've brought you all traveling clothes."

She opened the pack and tossed them the spare three sets of clothing. A green, red, and light blue tunic out on the ground. Emelia dusted off the green one and examined it.

"You can't be serious? This is far too big for me to wear. Besides I like this outfit better." She said as she folded up the tunic Anna had brought.

Frustrated at the adolescents response Anna took her chain and put water aether into it. The chain glowed blue then was coated in ice. She swirled it around in the air before it fell to the ground. "I didn't break out of a jail and take those from someone who betrayed me for you to say you don't like it. Now, change into those tomorrow and we'll be off. You three also need some kind of weapon to defend yourselves."

Jack looked at Charles and said in Nature, "Like a chain link is any good of a weapon." Anna had understood him. In his ignorance Jack had forgotten that Anna could now understand the language of nature. She snapped her chain like she did the day of the market.

Feeling the words flow to her lips she tried to speak nature to Jack in protest, but found that she could not bear false against him. She reverted to English saying, "And you're unequipped. So who would win?" she snapped the chain again.

All this time they were distracted by each other, Emelia had ducked off to the side of camp and put on the tunic. To her surprise it did fit better than she thought it would. One the she noticed was the accelerated growth she had started. She had started to fill out, and this did not please her. 'Well that's just great' she thought to herself. When she returned with the tunic on the boys were surprised to see how well it fit.

"It's not too bad guys. Quite light actually. I hate to say, but it's like I'm wearing air." She did a spin to see if the hem would flow out, but it didn't. She frowned and wished it would. Aether flowed in her body and the tunic was turned into a short dress. Another four inches or so was added to the end and it was enough to flow out during a twirl.

Jack and Charles debated about which tunic they each got. Taking only a second to realize the coincidence of the colours Jack took the red one and Charles the light blue. The girls turned away as they changed. They both fit the same, and they were easy to move in.

"There. Now that we're all in the same fashion era perhaps we can learn a little bit about each other?" Anna had taken a seat near the fire and helped herself to some rabbit.

The night carried on with the four of them all sharing experiences thus far. Anna had dialed her story back a considerable amount. Some secrecy was needed. Her reason for being arrested, the magic from the mystics, her attempt at getting the meteor, and even the fact she was an abandoned child. All other things she had made mention of. Her time in Elandza, selling in the market, seeing Charles and Jack, and even escaping the storm.

It wasn't till she was pulling on her memories that she noticed that Charles and his friend had looked quite a bit older than they should have been. She wasn't sure herself how much she had grown, but these two had seemed to experience an accelerated growth.

Emelia and Jack shared most of the story that Roland had told them. Anna was quite amused that such a story could be told over the course of many nights before bed. Charles gave an account of his night charting the stars and the resulting map. Then all three made due telling the story of the storm and the repairs in tandem. How they had learned about her, and saw her on the map. Her story did prove true.

Owls began to hoot, and the insects of the night started up the nightly chorus. Anna had been so used to sleeping alone that the thought of sleeping near three people made her uneasy. It would be fine since they were less likely to get attacked by anything since they were all part of a group.

On the map, rolled up in Charles backpack the four round dots that had been markers for the warriors had flashed. Then four new symbols all appeared that matched the colours of the warriors, but not the shape. The weapons of the four warriors had revealed themselves.

End of Part 1

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