Discovering Elements

A Large Solution (Izak)

I sat down, tears steaming, and my face burning. A squeaky noise alerted me to another presence, almost mouse-like. I looked up to find a rat in mid-transformation into a person.

"You look like you could use help." A short girl walked closer to me, closer to a midget than any normal height. Her brown eyes and hair and welcoming hues to it, almost inviting.

"I just broke up, and everyone person I depended on I just left" She smiled towards me, her pink lips opening to straight teeth.

"If it's my understanding, their elementals too. What went wrong?" I looked at her and launched into another stream of tears. I expected her to leave, but she bent down and laid beside me. She took her hand and put it on my back, trying to comfort me. I then felt her hand grow larger, and soon I was sitting on a large palm. She brought me to her shoulder and let me crawl off her hand. I looked down to a dizzying height, around 50 feet.

"Is this your element, size?" She nodded and I wiped the tears off my face. She shrunk back to size and I was on the ground again.

"What's your name?" I felt the words leave my lips before I said them, amazement shocking my brain into idiocracy.

"My name is Mona, but you can call me Minnie"

"Okay, so Minnie it is. Do you have somewhere we can go? It's not exactly safe out in the open..."

"I have a cabin not too far away, maybe like 1 mile that direction". She pointed in the opposite direction I came from.

"What were you doing out this far anyways?"

"Gathering some food. Girl's gotta eat" I let a short laugh out before we started moving again, and we engaged in some small talk.

"So, how did you get like this? I mean, living like this?" She just smiled and started walking faster.

"Seriously, I'm curious."

"You want to know? My parents were elementals too, or at least one of them was. They kept me until my element showed itself, and then dropped me off with my grandma, who was a hermit. She raised me until I was 12, but then she died of old age. Now I live on my own, scavenging the forest for food and supplies." I watched her expression change with every twist in her story, obviously each one holding an emotional weight for her.

"I'm sorry to hear that, have you met any other elementals? Have your parents come back?"

"I have met other elementals, yes, but none were nice. I scared them away, so I mostly don't have to deal with anyone here."

"You never told me about your parents."

"Not much to say. They showed up when my grandma died, but beyond that I haven't seen them. They left before I could even talk to them." After that brief intrusion on her personal life, I felt she needed silence so we walked in silence the rest of the way.

*****

We arrived at the cabin in about 15 minutes, more or less. It was a quaint house with several windows, made of logs, but sturdily built. She opened the door to let me in and pulled a little capsule out of her pocket. She put the capsule on the counter and dumped out its contents. It looked like some kind of colorful powder, but soon afterward she made them grow in size. What had looked like a powder was actually a basket of fruits, vegetables, and berries. I marveled at her display of expertise for a short time before heading to explore the fairly large house. I found several bedrooms, a bathroom with working water, a living room, and I returned to the kitchen. She was preparing food on the counter.

"Can you light the stove? The matches are over there," She pointed to a cabinet "Sorry you need to use them, the stove is gas but kinda doesn't light with the handles" Instead of grabbing the matches, I just shot a little bit of flame at the stove after lighting the gas.

"I don't need matches, my element is fire" She nodded her head instead of acting surprised like the reaction I was expecting. She tossed the food on a pan and placed it on the stove.

"Did you already know what my element was?"

"You know how I can also morph into a mouse? Well one ability of a mouse is its nose. You smelled like ashes and smoke. So either that was your element or you just lit a house on fire"

While she talked, she cooked. I watched as she cooked, her hands quickly grabbing ingredients and putting them in. Within minutes, the entire meal was finished.

"How did you do that? Cook the food so quickly?"

"Mouse-like instincts."

"Right, sorry I forgot."

She quickly stuck the food on plates and placed them on the table. We ate, but she ate around five plates of food. I was about to ask her how she was able to eat so much when I realized she probably also had the metabolism of a mouse. Every blessing has a curse I guess. She went up to get changed for bed after dinner, so I sat at the table thinking of my friends. I heard a knock at the door so I got up to see who it was. I opened the door to a girl around six who was carrying a package. I was about to yell up to ask Minnie if she knew the kid when the little girl kicked me in the shin. Hard. Like a metal boot. I went down, making a large thump.

"What did you do with Mona?" The little girl then had a knife at my throat, ready to slice it.

"I'll let you go if you tell me where Mona is!" Just then Minnie came down, screaming at her to stop.

"Are you Alexis?" I laid on the ground listening to the conversation.

"Are you my sister Minnie?"

"Yea, did our parents leave you?"

"Yes they did. Are you going to be my parent now?"

"Yep. Come on, let's go get you a meal"