The Elementalists

DAEMON

   It takes less than ten minutes for us to arrive in the town, and about five more minutes for us to arrive at the entrance to the tunnels. I have to kick down the door that leads into the small shack, which only takes about a minute, and then I step away from the entrance and hold my hand out towards it.

"Who's first?" I ask, motioning towards the stairs that lead down from the floor of the shack into the abandoned tunnels underneath the town.

"We need light," Robin says, "so I suppose I'll go first and—"

"No," Mark interrupts, "I'll go first. I'm the Fire Elementalist, after all." He snaps his fingers, and a small flame appears for a few seconds before it sputters and dies out. Robin laughs, and Mark argues, "No, wait, I've got this!" He creates another small flame, and this time it doesn't die out. "See, I did it!" he yells, punching the air with his fist. The sudden movement causes the flame to go out, and Robin laughs even harder.

"Mark, just let me do it," she says. Mark huffs and crosses his arms, mumbling, "Fine," while Robin creates a small blue flame in the palm of her hand.

I nod in the direction of the stairs, and Robin walks into the shack and begins to descend into the darkness of the tunnels. I look over at Mark and Jamal; they both hesitate before following her, with Mark in front of Jamal. I take a last glance behind us before following behind them.

I almost trip over Jamal, who has stopped on the stairs to wait for me. He mumbles sorry as I curse him, and we begin to descend the stairs once more. Robin changes the flame's color from blue to an almost-white yellow, so that we can see better.

"How far down does this staircase go?" Jamal asks without turning around to look at me. I thank him silently for that since I don't want to trip over him again.

"I think this would be considered a stairwell," I reply. "Also, it goes pretty far down; it leads all the way down into the abandoned tunnels under the city. Not many people know that these tunnels exist; they were created as a place for Elementalists to hide a long time ago, but, unlike the tree house, anybody can come down here."

"Agh!" I hear Robin cry out.

I push Jamal out of the way, almost falling down in the process. "What?!" I ask, panicking. "Robin what happened?!"

I think of all of the things that could go wrong—Robin falling down the stairs and breaking her neck, Time jumping out of nowhere with a knife, Mark trying to create a fire in the palm of his hand and accidently catching Robin on fire...

I realize Robin's talking and snap out of my thoughts. "...to push my bangs out of my face and forgot that I had fire in my hand," I manage to catch. "If Mark hadn't grabbed my arm I probably would've set my hair on fire... I should really trim my bangs."

I sigh in relief and at her stupidity. I notice that her bangs hang over her eyes, and I ask, "Robin, how long has it been since the government men came to your school?"

Robin stops walking and thinks it over. "I don't know," she admits. "I think about a week and half. Maybe two weeks, maybe one. So somewhere between one and two weeks, I guess."

Jamal looks at her and asks, "How can you even see?"

Robin shrugs. "It's just hair," she replies. She points at Mark with her free hand and adds, "It's a surprise you and Mark can see, too. You both have hair that would be covering your eyes, but it's covering your glasses instead."

"That's why I don't have bangs," I say, giving Jamal and Mark a nudge on the shoulder to get them walking again. "They grow out too fast, and have to be cut too much."