Fiery Magic

Chapter 5: Ignus

          Huh? Huh? Huh? HUH!  Even in my mind, that was the only thing I could muster up when I was hearing what they were saying. How could I be able to actually do this? I stared at my hands. How? "Come on, Ignus let's go. It's time for you to meet someone," Carter, or V apparently, squeezed my arm the way she did earlier and we walked forward, out of the car. I was still a little uneasy about her, though. Uneasy about this whole thing. I had a small tingle in my gut like something was very wrong here. There must be something wrong with these people I had to escape...

"Who?" I asked trying to sound nice. She smiled and gave me a look like it was someone I would be excited to see. I looked at the building that stretched in front of us. Behind a grand glass wall housed a lavishly furnished living room. I looked down at my feet and almost jumped back. Instead of the normal grass and dirt, I expected to see, thin, foggy clouds engulfed my ankles. V giggled. "H-how are we s-standing?" I threw my eyes at her. 

"It's a gift from Naomi. She gave us each our own base that was safe from regular humans. Cae's is in the clouds, mine is deep in the Amazon Jungle, Mare is at Atlantis (which is why it sunk by the way), and yours is on the edge of the magma chamber under Yellowstone."

"Yellowstone? Can I see that next time we get the chance?"

"Yeah, of course, you can."

"Ignus, you ready for this?" Cae called from the left of us. He was standing in front of a large bird bath that held a flurry of more clouds instead of water. "Depends on what it is," I approached him.

"Naomi, qui vocat vos!" he made a few strange noises that sounded Latin. The clouds swirled up into a tornado. What was going on? The top of the spinning mass stretched out into a human form. In no time, a face was visible, then a neck, then the entire body. A woman stood in the middle of a mini-tornado. "Hello," a warm voice washed over us. I accidentally stumbled back again.  A person just came from clouds! "Ignus, this is Mother Nature," Mae raised an arm like she was showing her off.

"Mother Nature?"

"You can call me Naomi," she put her hand out for me to shake. In the single moment that I touched it, it was like I was in every part of the Earth at the same time. I saw images of waterfalls, tornadoes, forests... I released her fingers. "What?" I whispered to myself. That word seemed to be easiest to roll off my tongue for the last, what was it? Five minutes? "Whoah, you okay, Iggy?" V caught my arm. Apparently, I had almost collapsed again. "Don't worry, most people faint the first time they meet me. You, however, have not because you have already met me at one time in your life." Naomi's voice sounded like the quiet, soft force of a thousand waterfalls. There was no way that this was real. "I'm meeting Mother Nature right now?" it seemed like a dumb question, but there was no way it was actually real. Carter, or V, laughed, "Yes, Ignus, you are meeting Mother Nature."

     "Have I troubled you too much? Did we throw too much information at you too quickly?" Naomi looked down at me. I wanted to shout, "Ya THINK?" but I couldn't do that. She was being too nice. I weakly said, "No, it's okay."

"Okay, then... let's take a tour of the practicing facilities Caelum has here!" Naomi looked to Cae. He bowed. "Alright let's go! Bye, Naomi, see you at dinner!" he started to show the way into the big building. The cloud image of Mother Nature disappeared. I suddenly realized I was behind everyone as they started walking inside. I took a small step backward, toward the car. In a moment of fear and impulse, I turned and dashed. I threw the car door open but it was too loud. V heard me, and I tried to get the car going. Cae had left the keys and I turned them. "Okay..." I tried to start driving, or at least flying, the car away but I had never done something like that before. 

         "Ignus!" V was starting to run toward my vehicle as I was pulling away in a wobbly fashion. Vines were growing up toward the car and a pounding of wind had started to bang against the back. I hit the gas as hard as possible but I couldn't seem to move. "Come on!" I felt guilty for trying to run away but I just for some reason wouldn't stop. In my wave of uncontrollable fear, I had to get back to my normal life at that boarding school, even though it was horrible there. Suddenly, the wind died down, and the vines disappeared.

     I was shot forward and I stopped the car in further fear that I would careen out of control. Why were they not fighting against me anymore? Something felt even more wrong. I turned around.