Ruin.

Past, Meet Present.

Chapter Seven: Reality Check::

Still fuming over her failure to do anything with her newly acquired abilities, Ari had stomped around the house all month, snapping at anything that moved. Sterling had taken cover in his room. Rat was keeping his distance as well, staying outside for the majority of each day, only venturing into the house when he ate.

Ari herself had been practicing day and night for over three weeks. Even with all the time, the sweat and tears, she had barely managed to get a wisp of smoke, a ripple in still water.

Wanting to clear her head, Ari decided to go explore deeper into the woods, thinking that maybe it would distract her.

She headed outside, finding the stocky guard from the incident that first week standing just outside. In the daylight, he was a nice looking guy. Dark auburn hair framed a strong facial structure. The man had sharp blue eyes, the color of the night sky at twilight. He also had a light dusting of freckles across his nose and cheeks, lending a friendly, approachable quality to the otherwise intimidating face.

Setting her wandering thoughts firmly back on track, she turned to face him. “Charlie, I need you to watch Sterling for me.”

He nodded and moved toward the house, stopping on the porch to look back. “Ari, do you need an escort?”

She patted the weapons on her body and whistled for Rat, who bounced up under her feet almost instantaneously. Smiling at the slight blush growing on the guard’s face, she shook her head and turned away.

The guard, Charlie, had his eyes glued on Ari’s swaying backside for a minute at least, unable to wrench them away from the mesmerizing sight. Finally, he turned his head away and headed inside to find his charge. 

Ari reached the tree line and stepped into the cool shade of the massive pines, feeling calmer just by entering the woods. She moved farther into the trees wondering if this strange affinity with the place was because of her being an Elemental.

Ari shook her head, throwing her hair into a messy pony tail. She kept walking, slowly letting her mind drift until she hardly thought farther than which direction she should go next.

Wanting to be alone, she motioned Rat back toward the house before following a deer trail. Fighting her way through briars and brambles, she hardly felt the scratches and tears to her arms and face. It felt as though someone was leading her somewhere, and her feet wouldn’t fight against the tug.

She emerged from the last of the bushes and tripped on a rock hidden under a small mountain of leave, falling hard. Her head cracked against a log and everything went fuzzy. Instead of getting clearer after a moment, everything went dark.

Hands felt along her body, gently probing. Heat sparked from the fingertips, making her feel deliciously warm. Almost without thinking, she sighed and pushed herself into the hands.

Wait.

Her bleary eyes cracked open and connected with dark grey ones. Immediately, Ari pushed herself up into a sitting position. She was rewarded with searing pain shooting through her, originating somewhere above her left eyebrow.

“You might want to lie down for a minute.”  The voice that, presumably, belonged to the gorgeous storm-cloud grey eyes chuckled. “You’ve got a pretty nasty cut.” Dark and deliciously smooth, the voice sent a current of electrical energy from her head, which he was lightly touching, to her toes, and back. Refusing to seem weak, and studiously ignoring the confusing feelings he brought out in her traitorous body, Ari shot to her feet. Pulling out a small dagger, she put her back to a tree and assessed him as her head spun.

The man was tall and lean, hard and muscular. Bright blonde hair fell down over his eyes, obscuring but not completely covering his piercing eyes, the exact color of the blade in her clenched fist. He wore modern clothing, simple in design. Black jeans hugged his legs, and a short sleeved light blue V-neck tee-shirt was clinging to his chest. The look was completely with dark grey tennis shoes.

The boy in question moved, drawing her attention back to the moment, the potential danger. His hands rose, turning toward her in a motion of surrender. “I’m not going to –.” His voice cut off and his eyes widened, staring over her shoulder.

Before Ari had a chance to turn and see what had caused his reaction, a blur rocketed past her and attached itself to the boy’s leg. He fell and yelled, pleading with her, in between shouts, to call the monster off.

Ari, usually so calm and unruffled, panicked at the sight before her. Refusing to even think of why, she rushed into action, hardly noticing the bright spark off to her left.

She jumped into the fray, pulling on Rat’s fur and ordering him to release the leg clamped between his jaws. Finally managing to pull the dog away, she sat him down a few feet back and set him the task of watching the man he had attacked while she caught her breath.

The boy watched the dog warily, not twitching even a single muscle lest the beast renew its attack and pull his leg clean off his body.

After a few tense minutes, hoping the dog would stay put, he turned his eyes to the girl standing above him and studied her.

He thought that she was small, maybe standing as tall as his chest. He noticed that her waist looked tiny enough for his hands to meet when wrapped around it, not that he would ever get the chance to find out. She had black hair that swung in a thick, messy ponytail to her knees. The girl’s eyes were penetrating, a dark, foresty green. She had her hand around a dark grey blade, holding it like she knew how to use it. She was tense, yet calm, completely at home with her surroundings.

He wanted to study the beautiful, dangerous creature before him until the sun died and the world froze, but his eyes had other plans. They were drawn, again, over her shoulder, to a small fire.

She must have seen it out of the corner of her eye, or maybe felt the heat on her back, because she spun around and stared right at it, wide eyed and immobile. The monstrous dog turned to look at his mistress, and the boy took the opportunity to escape.

Ari hardly even registered it when the boy she had cornered ran into the woods, disappearing in a matter of seconds into the thick foliage. She was rooted firmly to the spot by the dancing flames.

Shaking out of her momentary paralysis, she began to run. Even as she escaped, Rat on her heels, her mind raced back to another fire. A fire that the authorities had said was unexplainable.