Element Restraint

Chapter 24: Acantha

Erik makes me practice for a few hours. Afterward, I am exhausted. I finally feel like I am complete when I fall asleep. The fear in me has shrunk. I feel as if something has been unlocked in me. Something has been banging on the door, asking for the key to it. Now that it is out, I do not think I can ever tuck it away again.

When nightfall comes, I am ready. I step into the jet confident.

Paxon sits in the pilot seat flipping switches and pressing buttons.

"Are you ready?" Amora asks me. I nod my head to her.

She drops down next to Galen who is whiter at the face than usual.

"What is wrong?" Amora asks him.

"He is kind of afraid of heights." Erik answers in the seat behind us. 

"I thought you grew up in the Air Realm," I say. "You know, the floating island."

"Doesn't mean I sat at the edge of the island and looked off into space." Galen's voice comes out shaky and quiet. The opposite of his usual humorous loud tone. 

"Not so high and mighty now." Rawr japes. Galen does not answer him.

Amora puts her arm around him and closes the shade to the window beside the seat he sits in.

"Everyone ready back there?" Paxon calls.

"Yes!" Rawr answers for us all.

Paxon grins and grips the steering controls. As the jet takes off, I hold my breath. Let's just hope Paxon really studied in class.

I think the only one who is not nervous besides Paxon when we take off is Rawr. We all shoot back in our seats as we zoom into the air.

I feel as we begin to spin in the air, and flip upside down. I jerk back in place when we land right side up.

"Did I also mention I was top of my class when I was being trained to be a pilot?" Paxon tells us.

"Are you kidding me?" Galen says looking green. He gags and puts his hand to his mouth.

"You knew!" I shove Rawr with my shoulder.

"Back at the academy I was in training for a soldier, and him a pilot." Rawr answers.

Another piece of information he has kept from me, leaving me to find out later.

I hear a hum in my brain as we fly to the Air Realm. The closer we get, the quieter everyone becomes. I look behind me every once in a while to check on Erik.

He looks down at his fingers, peeling away at what skin is left around his stubby fingernails. It is the only sign of his nerves I can find. I do not know him that well, but I do know that he is a very hard person to read. You have to look through a magnifying glass every time you talk to him. He always stands so still with a blank face and dark eyes.

"Why do you keep staring at him?" Rawr whispers to me. I turn and look at Rawr's face.

"What?"

"It seems like every five minutes you turn to look at him." Rawr raises his eyebrows at me as if he has caught me trying to hide something. But I am not hiding anything.

"And why can I not look at him?" I ask him. I am careful to keep my voice down so Erik does not hear.

"Depends on why you are looking." A devious smirk comes to Rawr's face. "Is it because you find him rather handsome?"

"Or maybe it is because his sister whom I care about very much is in danger. Maybe I keep checking to see how he is doing because I can somewhat relate to what it is like to think you lost a sibling." I reply angrily, raising my voice a little.