The Elementals

Terra

Tide is blind, Terra thought. That or she’s just stupid. How could someone who was so smart in battle be so dumb when it came to people? Tide didn’t see how much it got on Coal’s nerves to have any other competition around. Coal had almost murdered Steel for crying out loud and he didn’t even like Tide. Well, not like Coal did anyway.

He’s a moron too, Terra thought. She could barely watch the whole thing play out. Tide refused to admit she liked Coal, though it was so obvious, and Coal wasn’t the talk-about-his-feelings type of guy. And then in waltzes Caelum, who was the exact opposite. He was perfectly fine complementing Tide every which way, and hardly ever argued with her. That just made Coal insanely jealous, and Tide, being oblivious in all social aspects, just ignored it. It was the perfect, stupidly tragic, ever so cliché love triangle.

One of them is going down, Terra euphemized grimly as she watched Coal stare daggers at Caelum as he helped Tide up after she tripped. That was another thing. Tide couldn’t walk for more than five minutes without stumbling and then falling flat on her face. It was beyond funny now, it was constant entertainment. Caelum said something and Tide giggled. Terra almost expected smoke to start pouring out of Coal’s ears any second.

She had tried hinting to Tide, because it really wasn’t any of her business to state anything directly, but Tide was completely blind to it all. Terra sighed. Tide really was pretty, and likeable. Although she didn’t really care what she looked like, it’s as if that made her prettier. Tide had piercing, slightly scary when she was mad, navy blue eyes that were framed by sun-streaked blond hair with dark tones that could quite possibly be mud, since she was always falling. She was funny, if not a little sarcastic, but she stood up for what she wanted, when she wasn’t being stubborn of course. She really didn’t like dealing with feelings. It was like she was allergic, Terra snickered to herself.

    “What’s so funny?” Steel asked next to her.

    “Tide’s allergic to feelings.” She giggled.

Steel cracked a smile, something Terra hadn’t seen in days. “Who do you think is going to snap first?”

    “Definitely Coal,” Terra said. “He’s started glowing already.” It was true. Coal’s fists were clenched, red with heat. He had this murderous look on his face, not frowning per say, but Terra had a feeling if she talked to him right now, he would go all human-torch on her.

    “My money’s on Caelum,” Steel said. “Nobody is that perfect. Something’s wrong with him.” Terra considered this. Caelum did seem pretty great. He got along easily with everyone and didn’t argue much. Two impossible things for Coal to even try to do.

    “Yeah, but if they get in a fight-“ Terra started.

    “Which they will,” Steel nodded.

    “Coal doesn’t stand a chance.” They both said at the same time.

There really wasn’t much of a contest. Gravity kind of ruled out everything else. Coal was a great fighter, especially when Tide was concerned, but there wasn’t any doubt what the outcome would be. Caelum was gravity itself. Kind of hard to beat. Coal only had about a one in a million chance, if he stood a chance at all. Still, he could get in a lucky hit, maybe, but Caelum was bound to win. Terra felt like the rope in a game of tug-of-war. She got along with Caelum a whole lot better than Coal, but she felt a sort of dog-like loyalty to Coal’s side because he was here first. Terra wanted to say something, because when Caelum and Coal eventually did duke it out the results would be catastrophic, but then again, it really wasn’t any of her business. Terra was hoping Tide would take the hint and fix it before they caused World War III.

It was almost comical. Tide and Coal were such opposites. Literally and figuratively. To contrast to Tide’s blonde hair and easy going features, Coal had jet-black hair, a hard jawline, and dark colored eyes. He always stood in a tall, opposing, rather terrifying, stance that just radiated solidarity. At least, that’s the way he was around Terra and everyone else in the world except for Tide. She didn’t understand that the way Coal acted with her was weird and his Darth Maul impression was normal, not the other way around.

Terra had seen it. He was like some strange turtle. When Tide was around, he would actually act semi-social with other people, when she wasn’t he just crawled back into his dark, solemn shell, without speaking to anyone if he didn’t feel like it. Not to mention the fact that Tide seemed like a relatively reasonable, level-headed person, while Coal would literally jump off a cliff without thinking twice if she did it first. Oh, he would argue of course, but Terra had no doubt that wherever Tide went, Coal would, grudgingly, follow.

Opposites attract, Terra thought, then paused as she considered Caelum. He was a lot like Tide. Blond hair, tall, light colored eyes blah, blah. He understood that to get Tide to like you, you have to be sarcastic, yet still always agree with her at the same time. Caelum was now mastered in this art. Coal was still figuring out the whole agree with her the entire time thing. She sighed. It was right in front of Tide’s face. Coal hated Caelum, and Caelum hated Coal, because they both liked Tide. It was circular, and just so, so stupid.

Terra glanced back at Rian and realized she could see all this drama and she had just gotten here. Terra wasn’t sure about Rian. At the facility, she had listened to Terra talking, and Terra had enjoyed that. But there was ache in Terra’s heart every time she looked at her. Terra wondered what it felt like. To know it’s over, all over. To know you are going to die. You had to be certain of that when you gave away your powers. It was sort of like writing a will, but much more serious and world-depending-on-your-choice-like. Terra didn’t want anyone to feel like that, especially not Breeze. She was so fragile, so small, and trusting…except-

Terra looked down as she walked. Except Breeze never talked about her past. Nothing about what happened before they met at their last orphanage. Terra wanted to know but didn’t at the same time. It must have been horrible for someone as open as Breeze to shut the memory out and not tell people. Terra sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time and kept walking.