The Fifth Element

Prologue

  A whispering breeze of air swept the water, creating ripples to form across the surface of the lake. The lake reflected the dark sky. A cold drop splashed on a shaggy man's gray hair. He flicked the thin drop of water away. He was standing on the shores of a lake, watching a few kids play. He was paying special attention to one small girl.

  She was shorter than the other children, but still looked like their age-like a 4-year-old. While the rest of the children were tossing sticks into the bonfire nearby, the little girl was holding a stick from the bonfire. For some reason, the stick wasn't burning down to her. The flame stayed on the edge. She was squatting right by the water so that the water would splash on the tip of her flip-flops.

  The man was wondering what she was doing. Why would you carry a stick with a flame on the end? Sadly, no adult was supervising her.

  She was digging a hole with her empty hand. The hole was never as deep as you thought it would be, because the water kept splashing more mud and dirt into the hole. Finally, the hole was as she pleased for it to be. She jabbed the stick into the hole violently-the flames still sparking-and quickly buried the hole so that the stick would stay upright.

  She wiped her hands clean and resentfully got up. The man still spectated her behind the trees in the woods nearby. She twirled around and left, leaving a whoosh of air to flow on the flame. Time seemed to pause at that moment.

  That was when the man said to himself, incoherently, "There she is. The keeper of the fifth element."