Elemental Powers: Fire and Water

The Realm of Thoughts

Ash landed on the magma ground. This place was different. Fire globes hung from the ceiling, lava vines creeped across the walls, it's golden glimmer highlighting the path to a small cave.

GAH. ANOTHER CORRIDOR.

Before Ash could think any more, he spotted Amber laughing at something that was right above him, and five seconds later, he was flattened by Leo.

Ash swore into the lava rock.

After Ash dusted himself off and Amber stopped giggling, they set off down hallway. As he approached, he heard a soft murmur in the cave at the far end.

Uh oh. Guards.

"Are you okay with this?" Amber wrapped fire chains around Leo's neck and ankles.

"It hurts a little... but okay, I guess." He muttered, flicking his tail. Amber snorted and moved on. "Come on, open up." She barked at the guards.

"Oh! General Amber!" Ash noticed that the Solarflare was trembling slightly. "What are you going to do with that dragon?"

"He didn't die in the lava. I TOLD you. Anyway, I'm probably going to chain him upside down on the wall or something." She glanced at the makeshift chains. "Do you have the... ah... metal ones?"

Hearing Ash let out a small noise of protest, she hissed, "What? I'm not placing that on him."

Ash coughed, "Yeah. I really don't want Marsh and spirit Fry kicking me into next week." As the guard came back with the metal bands.

"Thanks." She muttered gruffly and dragged Leo into the room. Ash sensed that part of her was enjoying torturing the Earthbound. "Okay. Time to see them." He muttered to himself and slid into the room and the guards took their places again.

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"Hello?"

This was not the dramatic entrance he imagined of.

He thought of banging down the gates, leaving the guards behind, and walking slowly into the room, one foot in front of another as the corpses of the guards collapsed, dead. While in reality, he was just strolling into the cave. Strolling. Yes, strolling.

Amber shifted her wings, scowling as Blackberry glared at her. "What's up with the total lack of reaction?"

"What's up with the metal?" Windstorm sniped back, his claws curling around the cage bars, the loud sounds causing the guards to stick their head in and yell, "SHUT UP!"

Coral had raised her head and was staring blankly at a wall. Ash exchanged glances with Winter who grimaced and made a face like: she's in her own world.

Well, Ash thought, they won't be so silent like this. Where's the planning to escape? Or have they given up? Please don't tell me they've given up.

While Ash was stuck in his own world, Blackberry kept thinking of ways to get them out of there. She also noticed the discomfort the Earthbound was in, shifting his cavernous wings and flicking his tail back and forth.

Hang on. Could I use that?

She made eye contact with Leo and the look he gave her told her that he would go along with whatever she said.

"I think you should dump him in the lava pool once more."

The Earthbound almost yelped, although he cut himself off.

Amber raised her eyebrows. "The last time I did that he didn't like combust or something. Why would I do that again?"

Behind her Leo was staring at Blackberry with a : Why are you doing this to me? look. She wiped the guilt off her face and continued, "So the Solarflares think that their getting somewhere? Isn't it like almost a tradition to kill a Solarflare if they failed at a task?"

These simple words hit Amber, hard. Her claws scraped against the stone, thinking hard. Blackberry took a deep breath and dived into the realm of thoughts.

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It was a whole new world. Blackberry loved the thought of escaping reality, drifting through the marshes of thought and understanding minds. The mind was a really complex thing, and even she, who probably was like 200 and something now, was still learning new things of this bright dimension.

Through the hurricane of Leo's thoughts, she picked out 'betrayer', 'annoyed', and strangely, 'nibble'. Plucking a large haze of words, she strung them into a neat line and tossed them up to the fiery sky. As she shifted to human form, gripped the makeshift rope and began pulling herself up, phrases spewed from all sides, supposedly supporting her up.

Nibble her tail? What in the SUNS is up with this dragon?

Blackberry grunted and pushed herself up, away from the torrent of letters and immediately landed on a small rocky island. Some of her thoughts slipped out and down, down, down...

Well, I am glad to be out of that Earthbound's dark and very troubled mind.

the rocky land was the space between the different thoughts.She briefly glanced through Coral's which was mostly full of MY BROTHER MY BROTHER MY BROTHER MY BROTHER, Windstorm's: Almost there...

Winter's brain was full of: free... freedom... away from the-

A particularly dark tornado of words was turning, dancing in the air and though the sky. Every cascade of words of a different mind had a different tone, with Windstorm being the lightest and Leo being the darkest (so far). This one... this one was the epitome of the deep dark, as black as her scales...

She knew one thing.

Amber could not be trusted.

But curiosity took advantage of her and her subconscious once again dived into yet another mind.

Ash. I'm doing all this for Ash. I can't get killed before I-

I love him... but does he reciprocate my feelings? I wish-

I wish there was a way to make him like-

This Earthbound is per-

Is what? Blackberry thought. As an answer to her question, a small space opened up in the seemingly endless thoughts. She tried pushing herself towards it, but something was holding her back, she couldn't think, she couldn't move, the only thing that was working now was instinct.

And instinct pressed her escape option.

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Her mind violently threw her out of the realm of thought and she landed back in dreary reality. Amber and Ash were conversing in low voices and Winter was staring at the earth dragon like he just realised that he had visitors.

Blackberry strained her ears hearing snippets of conversation, but couldn't pluck anything out.

Then without a backward glance, the two Solarflares and the Earthbound left the cave, and the guards shut the gates again, leaving the other four to sit on the warm, scale-scorching magma.