The Chosen Four; Water (Book 1)

Chapter 3

"I think you guys should see what was down there," I said after we shared a moment of awkward tension.
"Why?" Arian asked.
"It-- it's hard to explain, but I feel like there's something down there waiting for us." I say.
"Then let's go," Flare said.

Petal looks down at the hole, "Are you sure? It could be dangerous," She cares too much about us. I've already jumped back down, motioning for them to follow me. Flare jumps down after me, stumbling as she lands and crashed into a pillar. Petal grabs onto the edge and lowers herself as far down as she can before dropping the rest of the way. Arian looks down at us and takes a step back. "I'll catch you if you jump," I call to her, holding my arms out. She accidentally placed her foot over the edge and fell, screaming. I caught her and she blushed.

I put her down and dropped my bag off of my shoulders. I opened a compartment and felt around for a flashlight, my hand wrapping around a metal cylinder. I took the thing out of the compartment, seeing it was a flashlight. I slung my bag back over my shoulder and turned on the flashlight.

Pointing it to the shadows, I saw a painting of a creature. It was like a giant, spider, demon, thing. It had claws, four deadly looking fangs, and terrifying, black eyes. I walked over to the picture and ran my fingers over it, something pricking me when I brushed over the fangs. I quickly pulled my hand back, yelping at the sudden pain.

"Greetings, Madame Aqua," A warm voice called.
"Who said that and how do you know my name?" I asked.
"You hallucinatin', Sis?" Flare said, coming up behind me.
"No, I just-- Ugh, lemme show you," I grabbed her wrist and put her hand to the wall, dragging it lightly across the fangs of the picture.
"Ow," She yelped as she took back her hand. "I take it back, I hear a voice."
"So you just did this and--" Arian finger started bleeding. "Wow. Okay."

Petal poked the painting, and stepped back, "Voice, okay then." Four spaces on the wall slid open. A white, woven anklet embedded with sapphire shards floated towards me. "Put it on," the voice told me. And I did. The sapphires shone brightly for a moment, then the light died down.

I looked over at the girls. Flare lifted her hair up, revealing a white choker dotted with ruby shards. Petal looked away, letting us see the little emerald earrings she put in. Arian lifted her hand up, showing a bracelet with white crystals here and there.
I lifted a bit of the anklet up, seeing the word water tattooed into my skin.

"Your element, Madame. Keep your power a secret,"

"Aqua, your bangs are dyed blue." Flare says.
"Well, why do you have red tips?" I ask.
"We seem to have had our hair changed to our elements or something." Arian said softly.

I had blue bangs, Flare had red tips, Arian had a streak of white through her bangs, and Petal had a random streak of green. "We should probably be going back now," Petal said as she looked at the sky. We all agreed before helping each other out of the hole and racing each other home.

When we dan through the doors, laughing, the headmistress spotted us. Uh-Oh. "Girls, what happened to your hair?!" She asked. Thank god for Arian's creative thinking, or we would've needed to tell the truth! "I'm sorry, I persuaded them to dye their hair with me. Don't worry, we used flowers," she said. Mistress sighed and told us to go play in our room until dinnertime.

"The story Petal tells us is true; it's us." I said on the way up the stairs.

The question is, will we be able to keep the secret for long?