Elemental Writings

VIII

Written by BMathieson

I asked James, "So, what's it like being an air elemental, you can do anything, can't you?"
James smiled and replied, "Oh, it's great Ben, I can fly, I can see everything around me for miles. I can go anywhere with air, all the way up to the sky. I control the other elements, forming them, giving them powers they don't usually have."
I commented, "Great, but just so you know, the Earth doesn't feel comfortable when you do that."
He responded, "I'll keep that in mind."

We walked a bit further before James continued, "There's a teensy little downside though. I can't touch. Being an air elemental is a mixed blessing, you can interact with the world in so many ways, but never can you touch it, or can people touch you. You can never feel the water running through your fingers, the roughness of sandpaper, the grit of the dirt, the softness of a lamb's wool, the pain of a wound. The only thing you feel is wind rushing through your whole body. They used to have technology to help us touch, I used it when it came out, and for one glorious year I thought I could live a normal life. Then the scientists recalled the technology, and it stopped being produced. I still have my old touching machine, but it doesn't work anymore, only sometimes. I hope one day I can find something to power my machine again, so I can feel."

That was so sad. I couldn't imagine not being able to touch, never feeling anything. All elementals had problems though, I could never leave the planet like the other space tourists. Fire and water had the struggle of never being able to touch each other without mutual destruction. Still, the air elemental had a worse struggle. The Nickle didn't have any problems like that, it was not a true elemental. I told him, "I'm so sorry, I truly am."

James smiled, "No matter, it helps me escape from everything."
He paused before continuing, "I took a survey of the area, it's a hunting range, a large one, divided into four equal sections. This is the forest section, on the opposite side is the wind section, to the east there's a fire section and right next to us there's a water section. Above us there's a giant roof, I can't fly through it."
I asked, "Are there any doors, any exits?"
James laughed, "Of course there's no exits, why would they want us to escape? We've just got to find the hunters and kill them, my plan is we can muster up a resistance and get out of here before they kill us."

I encouraged, "Okay, let's find some Earth elementals over here, there's bound to be loads!"
James sighed, "Well, the problem with that is there are no more Earth elementals in this forest, only you, and I'm the only air elemental left in the arena, my hope is that we can get some water and fire elementals to help us."
I thought about everyone else in the arena. They could have killed my brother, my sister, my father, my best friend, all of them Earth elementals. If all those closest people to me were dead, then I was going to fight back. I exclaimed, "Let's follow the river to the water."