The Stone Of Fire

Chapter Seven - Iliana

I flew out of the portal and crashed onto the ground.

That experience was the worst ever. Standing up, I was wobbly. I felt a hand grab onto my elbow, and I jumped, almost pulling away. I looked over and saw that it was Jayden. He was steadying me. I relaxed slightly, and brushed off some dirt from my clothes. There was really no point, considering that everything about me was mud-caked. My head suddenly whipped around as I heard something from the portal that resembled a tornado ripping apart a house. Jayden yanked me to the side so swiftly that I almost fell. Aridessa burst out of the portal and landed on her feet, like a cat. With a wave of his hand, Jayden made the portal disappear. My head was swimming with dizziness. As if he read my mind, Jayden produced a small leaf.

"Eat this," he said. "It will help with the dizziness."

"What is it?"

"Just trust me."

Hesitantly, I took the small leaf from his outstretched hand and placed it in my mouth. I almost started gagging. It tasted horrible! Really grainy and soft, like peas. If anything, the closest thing I could compare it to is a rotten runny egg. But this was worse, way worse. My body felt like it was going to burst into flames – and not the kind of flames that I was invincible to. Then, almost immediately, the horrid taste dissipated, and I was faced with the taste of warm honey, and a bit of mint. I knew the two flavours shouldn't go good together, but they did.

"What was that?" I asked Jayden. He smiled.

"Did you like it? The Earthen grow a lot of it on their island. It's the easiest potion to find and grow. It helps to restore power to the mind."

I stared at him like he grew an extra head. "I don't mean to sound rude, but I did not understand most of what you just said."

"You'll learn in due time. Your Instructor should be here soon to show you around."

"Instructor?"

"Every new Elemental Dealer is issued an Instructor to teach them spells and show them our way of life."

"Please explain further," I begged. "I want to learn a bit more before the Instructor comes along."

He sighed. "An Elemental Dealer is a person who was born with extraordinary powers to control fire, water, air, and earth. You know the stick I was using? It's actually a caduceus, or wand of Mercury."

"It's Latin. But why Mercury?"

"The dirt and stones from the planet Mercury are what most caduceus is made of. The stone at the top is from the planet, and most of the power inside is made of the gas."

"Oh, wow. What are Earthens?"

"Earthens are the Elemental Dealers who control the earth."

I nodded. Then, I heard a voice. "Sorry I'm late. I had... stuff to take care of."

A young girl was talking to Jayden. She had a long braid down her back. The dress she wore was brown. It had a bunch of those fake diamonds plastered in a design over the front of the dress. The neckline was straight across, and the dress fell to her knees. The skirt part of the dress was blown out a bit. The girl's skin was tinted a light green. Her eyes were the darkest shade of emerald green. On her shoulder, there was a tattoo of a rose. The vines curled around the girl's slender arm and disappeared. The rose was so red, it looked real.

The tattoo kind of shocked me. The girl couldn't be older than thirteen. How did she get a tattoo? Before I knew what was happening, I blurted out the question.

"You're so young, how did you get a tattoo?"

Her face wrinkled in disgust at the word tattoo. "It's not a tattoo. It's a real rose. I guess you could say it's a natural tattoo. All Instructors do it to show their elements, but the tattoo has to associate with their name."