Elementalists (completed)

Chapter 1

Three years ago, a toaster killed my brother.

It exploded and started a fire. My brother was trapped inside the house. Me and my dad were at the grocery store.

We needed bread.

Sometimes life has a cruel sense of irony.

But that was three years ago. Now I'm twelve.

The coming age. The age I get something I've wanted my entire life, the thing I've waited for.

My element.

My Shinju.

.   .   .

I stand behind the curtains, taking deep breaths, feeling my stomach tighten with nerves and my heart quicken.

"Welcome friends, to the twelfth birthday of Blitz Ann Boardel!" A handsome, tan man with a small beard and twinkling green eyes says from the stage. My father.

There is a couple small claps and someone coughs as I walk onto the stage and over to my dad, trying not to look at the audience. I didn't want a crowd. I wanted it to be a small event, maybe in our backyard, but Dad insisted. He said he wanted such a special day to be shared with everyone.

Ugh. Parents.

He turns to me, smiling, his clear green eyes wet.

"Here." He says, holding out the Shinju.

My Shinju.

I look from his eyes to the legendary pearl and gasp slightly as I see it. A tiny, perfectly round orb, swirling with several different colors is resting on the little purple pillow that my father holds in his hands. It is the size of a small pearl, but ten times prettier. I stay frozen in my spot for a minute, hypnotized by it's beauty.

This is it. This is the Shinju. This is the pearl me and all the other kids of my city have tried to picture until the day of our coming age. I am transfixed as I look at it. I see oranges and reds, dark blues and a light blues, greens and browns of all different shades and a yellow so vivid it seems to radiate power, all swirling around, lightly blanketed with a foggy white. It's so beautiful, but looks so fragile. I look back up at my father and he grins at me encouragingly.

I give him a weak smile and look back at the the pearl. This is the most important moment of my life. This could decide my future. This will decide my future.

Please be earth, please be earth, I think as I take a deep breath and reach out, letting the tip of my finger lightly rest on the top of the perfectly smooth sphere. I feel the cool pearl seep through my finger. It feels good and for some reason wakes me up.

Slowly, the colors spin faster and faster until it is spinning so fast I can't tell green from red, blue from orange, when suddenly it stops. All the other colors are gone, replaced by a calm, black color. I hold my breath.

This is the moment. This is when I get my element. Fire, water, lightning, earth, wind, ice, or metal.

I stare at the Shinju, not breathing, my eyes wide, when a small color starts to spread from my finger over the entire stone, sparking and crackling. I feel a power shoot up my arm to my body from my finger.

Yellow. Lightning. I'm an eel.

I watch in amazement as the sparking, vivid yellow covers the entire pearl, feeling a sadness hidden under my sudden electric enthusiasm.

I look up at Dad. He was earth. I thought I would have earth too.

I wanted earth, it would mean I would get to stay with him, but now I have to go to the place all the lightning elementalists stay. Dendo City.