The Elemental Trials

One

Marcus
I wasn't sure what to think at first. Of course, I should've been on edge at a complete stranger approaching me in the middle of the street during the night, but he just seemed so...unthreatening. For a few long seconds I simply stared at him, his words echoing through my head as I tried to analyse what they meant. Alexander Wright: the name didn't seem the slightest bit familiar, and neither did the man's face. Maybe he had some sort of relationship with my parents. I studied him some more. He definitely didn't seem like the type who would hang around with my mother or father, but the thought wasn't entirely impossible. "What do you want?" I asked him, trying my best to sound calm. His expression changed almost instantly now that he had my attention. He turned slightly serious, so that I was aware that I should listen carefully to what to had to say, but he didn't completely manage to disguise his excitement. "You might not be aware of it right now, but you're special. In ways you don't currently know or understand. But I want to give you the chance to embrace the gift you have, and learn all you can about it. I'll take you to a place where you can hone your skills in private, away from civilisation and anyone that could get in the way" Alex said, looking me straight in the eye throughout his entire monologue to try and gauge my reaction. I imagine my expression was one of pure confusion, though at the time my mind was racing far too fast for me to care. There were many questions I wanted to ask, but I went with the first one that came to mind. "Special how?" I asked Alex with a furrowed brow. "You have special powers." He replied bluntly "You probably haven't experienced them yet since you're still young, but they're there. And I want to help you bring them out." I stopped to consider all this for a while. There was no way it was true. It didn't make the slightest bit of sense. Maybe this man was insane, and I had to get away from him as fast as possible. But he did know my name. And to be fair to him, he didn't seem like he was very insane. Ultimately I decided to try and get as much information as I could from him. "Prove it." I said firmly, crossing my arms and watching him to see if I had caught him out. Alex didn't hesitate for a second. He held out his right hand so I could see it clearly, then, without even second guessing himself, set his hand alight with flame. Even in the rain the flame burned brightly, and although there was no skin on it, looking closely would reveal that there was a faint outline of Alex's hand under the burning ember. My mouth fell open as I stared at the hand with wide eyes. Almost as fast as he had created the flame, Alex extinguished it again, leaving his regular hand without the slightest hint of any sort of burn. "O-okay." I stammered, still taken aback "Maybe I believe you." Alex grinned slightly at my response, clearly proud of himself that he managed to strike such awe in me "Good. Now, I won't ask you to make your decision on whether or not you want to come with me based on the one trick I just showed you, so if you have any questions I'll answer them to the best of my ability." I nodded at this, and began thinking about what I wanted to ask next. "The place you mentioned, away from civilisation. Where is it?" I questioned, looking at Alex. "It's an unmarked island, relatively far off the coast and definitely unlikely to have any tourists or visitors - since there's an active volcano on it." This piqued my interest, and I sat up slightly, blinking "Did you say active? Like, about to erupt active?" Alex let out a small chuckle, then nodded his head to confirm his previous statement "If anyone were to examine it they would say it was most definitely ready to erupt, but I've managed to keep it contained with my powers, so it's completely impossible for it to do so. Plus it's not that big, and wouldn't do too much damage if it did go off. Oh, and we'll be using it for training purposes by the way, if you decide to come with me." I paused for a second, trying to decipher some hidden meaning to that last bit. In finding none, I asked "You mean we'll actually be training inside a volcano? With lava, and rocks, and all that stuff?" In receiving another nod from Alex, I couldn't help but let out a short laugh "Maybe you are insane." "Everything will make sense eventually, but you'll have to agree to come with me if you want to find it all out." Alex said, slightly glad that I was getting into the conversation. I looked down in thought for a bit. There was no doubt it'd be far better than the state I was in now, but training inside a volcano did sound a tad bit extreme. The whole away from civilisation in order to train powers thing sounded pretty badass to me, so that was a plus. Eventually I decided that I would play along and see how it went. It wasn't like anyone would miss me here, plus Alex seemed well off, I'm sure he'd offer me a place to sleep, eat and wash somewhere on the island. "Alright. I'll tag along." I said finally, much to Alex's appreciation "So it'll be just the two of us on this island?" Alex paused for a second, as though only now realising he had missed out some sort of key piece of information, which of course he had. "Oh. Uh. That's actually something I didn't bring up. There will be three others with us the entire time, all around your age. That shouldn't be a problem, right?" "Nope. No problem at all." I said, forcing my lips to form some sort of a smile. Yes. Yes it was a problem. Three other people. Three of them. Getting along with Alex probably would've been bad enough, but now I have to try and stay on an island with three others? And they're my age as well. Kids my age are the worst kind of kids. They're all mean, and judgemental, and constantly trying to convince themselves that they're cooler than they are. Except me, of course. I'm exactly as cool as I think I am. But they all suck. And worst of all, they all think I suck. But, I had told Alex I would go; I'd made my mind up and couldn't change it now. "Great. Well, we better get going then." Alex said, beginning to make his way down the street. "Wait, we're going right now?" I asked, my voice sounding slightly more nervous than I would've liked. "Well there's nothing holding us back. Is there?" He questioned, an eyebrow raised quizzically. "I-...I guess not." I answered with a shrug of my shoulders. "Alright then. Off we go." Alex said, flashing me a small smile before turning around and continuing to walk, his hand motioning for me to follow. I pushed myself to my feet and hurried after him, my soaked blue hair swaying in front of my eyes "Where to first?" Alex glanced down at me by his side, then looked back at the street in front of us "Montana. To meet the first of your new peers. Or teammates. Whatever you want to consider them." I gave a small nod, secretly imagining what this person would be like. In realising that Alex would probably be okay with my questions, I decided to ask about them. "So who are they?" I prodded, looking at Alex. "Luke Ternol." He said without even turning to me. In receiving no further information on the matter, I asked "And who is he? What's he like?" Alex paused, keeping his mouth shut for a few seconds. I had started to think he wasn't going to say anything at all, until he spoke. "I don't know." He said simply. I looked over at him, hoping his expression would reveal some secret meaning to this, but all I saw was the same smile he had been wearing ever since he first spoke. "What'd you mean you don't know?" I asked, my face contorted in confusion. "I don't know." Alex repeated "I've never met him, so I have no clue. All I know is his name, where we'll find him, and the power he holds." I looked at him again, trying to find any hint of humour on his face that would tell me he was joking. There wasn't any. "How could that possibly be all you know?" I exclaimed, a dumbfounded expression on my face. "Lets not get into how I know on your first day. Trust me, you'll find out eventually. But I'm sure he's nice." Alex said, somehow trying to reassure me through this. "Nice. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure he's nice." I said, letting out a small sigh "How are we even getting to Montana anyway?" "We'll ride the subway to the airport, then we'll get a plane over." Alex explained, continuing to walk down the street. "You can afford that?" I asked, a hint of curiosity in my voice. Alex let out a small chuckle, glancing down at me "Money isn't a problem for me. Actually, it's hardly even important to me. So yeah, I can afford it." I gave a small nod, looking down at my feet. I hoped the journey wouldn't be too long, hoped this Luke guy would be nice, and hoped Alex was telling the truth, which meant my life would actually be worth something. I was hoping for a lot.