Academy of Elements: Earth

Chapter 24: Farm of Famine

Birds awake me, a symphony of trills and chirps, emerald leaves brush against each other. I sit up, the crackling of the fire greeting me along with the shimmering lake. The scent of smoke dances with the smell of roasting turkey, thin slices cut along a thin slab of stone over top of the fire.

"Are you making bacon?" I ask.

"Brennen said he was craving it." Ella smiles rolling her eyes.

Noticing Aira beside her I move to the fire, sitting on a round stone.

"How are you feeling?" I question, studying her face, colour slowly seeping back into it despite the tire in her eyes.

"Alright, just drained." She sighs a hand hanging over the fire.

"Makes sense," Nora says from beside me. "That was pretty impressive, even for one you six."

"I drew on my powers to quickly." Aira rolls her eyes. I raise my brow towards her, knowing that she, like the rest of the Gifted Six, was constantly pulling in Magic Essence. "I stopped drawing it in over the break..."

I nod in understanding, I too had stopped drawing on it as much. Thinking back on it, in 1st year I had to physically and mentally draw in power, taking time before even using it, year two it had been like moving a muscle, and now it was practically as easy as breathing.

Standing up, I stretch lightly, a knot formed in my back from an uncomfortable sleep. It wasn't that Haley's shelter wasn't good, quite the contrary, but it turned out I had been lucky enough to sleep atop a small rock. Walking to the lake I wash my face in it quickly, the frigid water waking me up.

Denen wakes within twenty minutes and we have our slabs of turkey bacon, Haley covering all of our tracks with dirt. Though unlikely, we couldn't risk Death Hunters following us to Johns house.

So, as the sun rises into the sky, we start our trek. We'd have climb over a fairly small mountain to where it would be straight downhill to a small town where we would then take a portal into a Mirror Realm.

Vibrant moss covers everything like a blanket, the tree's swaying in a warm breeze as we make our way over the mountain. Sweat soon coats my brow, the summer heat scorching as I break from the tree's into a meadow atop the hill. Wildflowers blossom from the jade grass, theirs pedals purple and pink.

"I'm hungry." Haley groans.

"Let's stop for lunch." I sigh sitting down in the grass. A butterfly flutters past me, landing on Nora's knee. She smiles faintly as she studies the yellow-winged creature, it's delicate features so very nimble. It flies away as Nora shifts to nibble some turkey bacon handing me some.

We stay in the meadow for about thirty minutes until finally the sun ducks behind some clouds and we take the opportunity of shade to start moving again. As we cress the mountain I look down into a small valley, a river running through it. A small town sits there, cars moving along old roads that look as if they haven't been paved in years. Outside of that green fields stretch out, filled with moving cotton balls, the city worth of sheep probably triple the population in the small village.

"Cute." Aira smiles.

The descent down the mountain turns out to be much easier, a cool breeze filling the forest as we, and by the time we reach flat land, joining onto a dirt road, the sun has begun to fall through the sky. As it does, however, it sings, sweat covering my brow once again as the heat burns the world.

I draw on my power, dropping the temperature of my hand and pressing it to my forehead.

We pass a sign that reads: Otira and enter into the miniature town.