Elemental Writings

VII

Written by thedoctorscat

Ben breathed out a sigh of relief. Finally another Elemental. He had been trapped in the forrest for who knows how long, time non-existent in The Grounds.
There were animals, of course, but being Earth and not Life made it just a tiny bit difficult to communicate with them. Life Elementals had weak communication towards the plants, and Earths towards animals, but none to the extreme of the other.
"Hey."
"Hey."
Silence.
"Umm..."
"Yeah."
Silence.
"We're not to good at conversations, are we?"
"Not at all."
He held out his hand. "Lets start over. I'm James."
"Ben," he replied, grasping him now solidified hand. "Cool trick."
"You have no idea how annoying the element of air is."
"Oh?" Ben found this strange. Air or wind was always his favourite element, despite Earths dislike of it. To him, if you controlled air, you controlled all the element.
Slicing through, breaking and carrying water.
Eroding, destroying, moving the earth.
Stopping, holding back, pushing forward, killing life.
Blowing out, making stronger and larger fire.
But most of all, you could control yourself, and others. You could suffocate an enemy. You could change an arrows direction with a wave of your hand. You could FLY.
"Yeah, not quite a convenience here."
"Why not."
"The Nickle."
"Oh."
The Nickle was The Hunter's failed attempts of their own Elemental. It was supposed to control a single, official earth element- nickel.
But things went bad.
The Nickle was uncontrollable. It would screech and attack at any sign of nickel. And it began to manipulate the air.
Not like air Elementals though. It used it almost as a hypnotic device. It tricked the scientists into letting it go.
Worldwide chaos spread as it did too. No one could catch it, and no one could stop it.
This happened nineteen years ago, two years before Ben was born. At that point, the vast majority of the population accepted Elementals. Until they found out the Nickle couldn't manipulate them.
The scientists collected a large group of Elementals, sent them after the Nickle. Many died in the process, particularly airs, as the Nickle didn't like sharing his power. But eventually, they managed to trap it. They captured it, brought it back, expecting to be praised, to be rewarded.
Instead, they were captured, removed of their freedom because they were "freaks of nature" and "unnatural."
The scientists became Hunters, the Nickle became a tracking device and killing Elementals became a game.
And this is how Ben got there.
"Well, now you have an Earth to help," he said, smiling what he hoped was warmly.
James smiled back. "I guess two elements are better than one."