A Lumen Ripple | An Elemental Story

Chapter 32 - Warring Wades

The Mineral River ran through Elementopia rather peacefully that afternoon. The mood juxtaposed the Aquatecture exam site completely; peaceful, tranquil, serene. The river passed under bridges, roads curved and weaved with it, uncompromising. One could say the river ruled over all.

The afternoon flows were nice and warm, inviting for anyone to go and have a dip - not that they could anyway, as the Elementopia government prohibited swimming in the river years ago.

But a lone satchel didn't care about breaking those rules. It preferred risking breaking the law to flow in the warm waters, careless and free. Except it wasn't.

The river began to defy physics itself, diverging into a small stream and carrying the satchel along with it.

Except that was no stream...

That was a water person.

The stream began to slosh itself into being, and out walked a fatigued Wade, climbing through the minerals and sand to get back onto a road nearby. 

He walked an evidently tired walk, stumbling out hunched over. His satchel slung itself over his watery body, and out flowed his shirt, fitting itself onto his body perfectly. He preened himself to look appealing enough to get by, straightening his shirt and slicking his hair.

Last night was rough for both him and Ember, but he had no idea what it did to her. To him, that day felt like a whole wad of nothing.

He slowly reached a hand into his bag, taking his phone out and looking at it.

4:30 pm

He let out a heaping exhale, putting it back into his satchel and grabbing out his notebook.

Thankfully, the first working week in Elementopia neared its conclusion. Only 30 minutes and EBID stood between him and the weekend.

He looked it over, and the notes were lucrative. Considering how rough the night before was, he was lucky he could muster the courage to work that day. Alas, he did. He felt he had to.

Reaching the road, he strolled along in a pedestrian-like fashion, EBID ho.

-----

Following a lengthy walk back, Wade arrived at the embrace of EBID HQ. The thought of the worker's week ending was all he could think about. What to do on that weekend remained uncertain, but anything was better than the week he'd had.

To his curiosity, the EBID HQ was eerily quiet. A bit too quiet - perhaps it was quitting time already. He looked up and read a clock in passing by;

5:00 pm

He let out a subtle chuckle in relief as he headed through, over to Groucho's office with citation notes in hand.

He strolled through, passing by Mutrick's office. Wade felt an air of tension as he walked past it as if the office itself were animate. For whatever reason, the door was wide open, but Wade really didn't want to know why. After all, no boss could have received the same amount of disrespect over a week that Wade had toward Mutrick.

He let out a shrug, walking past it confidently through to Groucho's office.

Wade arrived, knocking on the closed door.

"Come in," Groucho called out.

Wade slowly opened it, looking about as he entered. The room was as silent as the hallways before, giving Wade a rather odd feeling as he took a seat across from Groucho.

Without a word needing to be spoken, Wade reached into his satchel. He pulled out his notebook, gently placing it on the desk.

"How were those jobs I sent you on today?" Groucho asked.