The Elements Book One: Gilly

Chapter 2: The Test

"I'm still not sure this is a good idea." Evret muttered as we surveyed the building Abraham had told us about.

I raised an eyebrow. "I've been monitoring for activity for the past hour. Nothing. And with Patrik and Andy scouting the building I'm comfortable that it won't be a hazard either. The pitch darkness isn't ideal, but it's doable."

"And what's Dave doing?" He asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Keeping an eye out for Abraham. Literally, the only one not being useful is you. Big surprise."

"I'm useful!" He protested, though we both knew it was a rather empty protest. "Just because I don't see the need in putting in effort where it's not required doesn't make me useless. What could I do here, anyways?"

"We're in Alaska. There's water basically everywhere. You can't use that for something?" I pointed out.

"Yeah, I could, but I can also just summon whatever I need."

"Coulda fooled me, you never do."

"I've got warmongers like you to take care of situations where I'd need to."

"Warmonger? I'm just trying to keep Andy and your useless butt safe!"

"Not the rest of me?"

"That was inclusive terminology."

"That's anatomically impossible, I'll have you know."

"You know what else is anatomically impossible? Dissolving yourself into water to reform yourself in a different body of water somewhere else."

"You're just jealous."

"I'm sure I could, I'd just be limited to wherever the Eternal Flame for the Olympics was. You other three have plenty to choose from."

"You mean other four."

"Sure, if one of you'd actually get around to teaching Patrik how to do it. I mean, it's only been like four hundred years or so."

"Isn't training your job?"

"Thanks to all of you lazy bums, yeah. However, since I lack that little ability, I can't exactly teach it to him, can I?"

Evret rolled his eyes. "It's probably a different method from what I use, it's a different state of matter."

I resisted the mighty urge to smack him, instead pointing out, "I never said it had to be you that taught him. Though I suppose it does tie into the fact that you still remain incredibly useless overall."

If he had a suitable reply to that, I didn't hear it because Dave sent us all a signal letting us know that Abraham was nearby.

I glanced over at Evret. "Now's your chance to prove me wrong."

I then ran off, not giving Evret a chance to respond. Once I had picked out where Abraham would be coming from, I concealed myself nearby. He'd proven that he could sense us enough to tune into mental conversations by chance, but I still needed more proof. All of us can sense each other with varying degrees of accuracy, but we always know when another is close by. Obviously, depending on telepathic fortitude the accuracy can be somewhat lacking. All I was checking with this was whether or not he could pick up on my presence.

As I focused, I heard the sounds of the others settling into their places around the building. I wasn't quite sure what they all had in mind, though I had told them that attacking was out of the question. We had decided that since he could obviously hear us, we wouldn't be in communication until after this was finished.

A faint rustling drew my attention to a patch of brush right as Abraham emerged. I resisted the urge to hold my breath as he neared my hiding place, knowing that the subsequent inhale when I eventually ran out of air would give away my position.