Forgotten Earth

Chapter 5

"Gaia!" Mira cried. She bent down next to her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," Gaia protested, pushing herself up.

"You are not fine!" Mira exclaimed. She pushed Gaia's braid away and looked at the back of Gaia's neck. She sucked in a breath. "Gaia, what happened?" she breathed.

"I don't know," Gaia snapped, then jerked out of Mira's reach. She felt a little bad when she saw the hurt in Mira's eyes.

"I can help-"

Gaia shook her head rapidly. She just wanted to be with the people she loved, not have some random stranger fussing over her.

But they were gone.

"Where did they go?" she whispered, looking over the valley again.

"I have a theory," Mira said gently. Gaia spun around, hope surging through her. Mira shook her head. "Not about where they went. I'm pretty sure your memories were buried and replaced."

"Replaced?"

"Yes! I know you. And you seem to think you had a family who were farmers. I know you didn't. You just disappeared two weeks ago, and now I find you without Besnik and the mark on your neck. And you don't remember me, or him."

"So you're telling me that my parents never existed??"

Mira's eyes widened. "Yes," she said softly.

Gaia choked back a sob. She didn't know how to process everything Mira was telling her. Her parents didn't exist - had never existed, she apparently knew Mira, and someone named Besnik.

"Who's Besnik?"

Mira closed her eyes, as if the words upset her. "Your familiar. A wolf." She shook her head. "You were inseparable."

"I had a familiar?"

"Have," Mira corrected. "You would've felt it if he died." She sighed. "I can't imagine what it would be like to be taken from Brooke," she added, seemingly talking to herself.

Gaia's head was spinning. There was so much going on, so much new information. She wasn't sure she even believed Mira. It was all so far-fetched. But she couldn't deny that the evidence was pointing in Mira's direction. The farm wasn't there. And there had been so many unexplained feelings, like she had done those things before. Maybe she had.

"How did I know you?" Gaia asked.

A faint smile appeared on Mira's face. "We first met when we were eight. The academy had just found you, the first torr menya in decades. It was the first day of class, and you seemed so... alone. We introduced ourselves, and have been friends ever since." She smiled.

"Torr menya?" The words seemed familiar to Gaia, and more than just the feeling she had been having over the past few days. Then it hit her. Basira had said those words when she was calling out to Gaia from her porch!

"I forgot you no longer know what that means." Mira paused. "The Elementals have a language, passed down from the first. Torr means earth, and menya means child, or Elemental. You're a menya a'ka torr, or child of the earth."

"I'm... an Elemental?"

Mira nodded. "It's how we were able to find you. Basira told us she had met a menya a'ka torr named Gaia in Fidoan, and we asked around for you until we got here. The group of soldiers in the market told us you were heading this direction."

"So the ground shaking was me?"

Mira nodded. She took a shuddering breath. "I missed you."

Gaia looked at the ground awkwardly. She didn't know Mira, even if she had at one point. She glanced over the hill again at the empty valley.

"Will you come with us back to the Elemental academy?" Mira asked.

Gaia thought for a minute. She didn't want to go with complete strangers, but it wasn't like she had anywhere else to go. "Ok," she agreed.

Mira let out a relieved breath. "Thank you." She smiled. "C'mon."

Gaia hesitantly followed Mira down the hill and back into the marketplace. Mira led her to a pair of people huddled together near a covered wagon with horses. One of them had bright red hair, and the other had almost white blond hair. Gaia recognized them as the group she had noticed before. Before she had gone up the hill and learned her memories were false.

One of them, a red haired boy who looked a year or two older than Gaia, looked up as they approached. His face broke into a grin. "You found her!" he called. The other boy looked up too.

Mira grinned back. "Yes, I found Gaia, but her memories have been replaced." Her grin faded.

The two of them stared back at her, then looked at Gaia. She squirmed under their gazes.

"So you don't remember me?" the red-haired boy asked. Gaia shook her head. He frowned.

Mira opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a loud squawk from behind the wagon. She grinned as a black and white penguin about halfway up Gaia's thigh came running towards Mira.

"Hi Brooke!" Mira exclaimed happily, and picked up the penguin, who squawked and shook her feathers in delight. The blond boy looked up as a falcon swooped in to land on the top of the wagon. Those must be their familiars, Gaia thought.

"Is Alder inside?" Mira asked the red haired boy, gesturing inside the wagon. He nodded. "Then let's go."