The Elemental Trials

Two

Skye
I stood face to face with him, the man I had literally just pick pocketed, right in the middle of this stinking alleyway. This had never happened before; all the thoughts about what to do were zooming through my head. I had tried to run, which didn't seem to work. The guy was just as fast as me despite being practically double my height, it was almost as though he teleported at the speed he must've gone at. The thought of fighting him sprung up in my mind, but I almost immediately shut that down. There were far too many problems with that, like the fact that I would most definitely get my ass handed to me, and also the fact that the man looked a tad bit too nice for me to want to hit him hard. Instead, I took a single step back, staring him dead in the eye. He said that he was a friend, but I was sure I'd never seen him before. And he wanted to talk to me, which was more than peculiar. Maybe he was with the police, and had been informed about a pickpocket going around these streets. That was not a nice thought. "Are you gonna try arrest me?" The words left my mouth before I had even realised it. The man, Alex, as I remembered him saying, looked a tad bit surprised, before he let out a quiet chuckle "No, although you giving me my wallet back would definitely be appreciated." "Not a wallet mate." I said on reflex. I had a habit of calling out people on the slightest mistake, I could never help myself. "What would you call it?" He asked with a curious expression, a slightly amused smile on his face. "I don't know, a pouch or something. Why the hell are you still carrying one of them around anyway, you ought to get something modern." "Duly noted. Now may I please have it back?" He said, holding out his hand for the pouch of coins. I weighed the pouch in my palm slightly, hearing the coins jingle inside. There was definitely a lot in there, but in order to hear what this guy had to say I'd have to give him it. Plus, he'd caught me anyway. I tossed it into his hand and he caught it, slipping it into the inside pocket of his cloak "Thank you." He said with a smile, to which I scoffed at. "Now, tell me what you want." I demanded, watching him with an impatient look as I crossed my arms. "I want to offer you the chance to-" He started to speak but was cut off by a slight gasp coming from the entrance to the alleyway. Lilian stood there, looking between Alex and I, before she rushed to my side and attempted to slide me behind her, clearly ready to get me away from him. "It's fine" I said to her with a dismissive wave of my hand, staying where I was "He's not gonna get the police...I think." Lilian didn't look convinced, she watched Alex with a cautious gaze "She'll give you it back okay, just let us leave without a fuss." Alex looked somewhat surprised by Lilian's appearance, but he simply cleared his throat and flashed her a quick smile "She already gave me it. Trust me, I'm not a threat to her or you. Now, like I said, I'm here because-" Yet again Lilian cut him off by spinning around to face me, huddling close so Alex couldn't hear "This is shady..." She whispered, sparing a glance back at him "We should make a run for it". "It won't work, he's too fast. Didn't you see him chase me?" I questioned, flashing her a puzzled glance. She had been nearby when I swiped the pouch, it shouldn't have been difficult to witness. "I saw him take off after you straight away, but you were both so quick and there were so many people...I had hoped you managed to escape" Lilian said quietly to me, and I could tell she was still on edge about the situation. "Well basically...he's very fast. We probably wouldn't be able to get away. I think we should hear him out, he seems like he has something important to say." I said to her, taking my own glance at Alex who was still stood standing patiently, clearly waiting for us to go back to talking to him. Lilian gave a small nod and turned back to Alex, standing side by side with me now since the alley was more than wide enough "Alright." She said to him, her voice taking on a slightly challenging tone "You have a minute to say what you want. Go." Alex paused for a second at Lilian suddenly taking charge, but I could tell he wasn't going to waste his opportunity "Right, okay. Basically you, Skye, are special." He began, but one sentence in and I couldn't help but ask a question "How the hell do you know my name?" I asked blatantly, narrowing my eyes at him. "That would take far too long to explain, and apparently I only have a minute." Alex said, and I could tell he was growing impatient, as well as a little irritated since he'd been interrupted so much "Anyway. You're special, always have been, and I want to give you the chance to-" "There you are!" A young American voice shouted, this time from the entrance to the alley at Alex's side "We've been looking for you everywhere" I heard Alex mutter an "Oh for the love of god", but my focus was on whoever it was that had spoken. I looked past the older man, to see two young boys standing in the entrance. One loomed over the other and was stood patiently behind him, taking in the appearance of me and Lilian and happily eating a sandwich he must've bought from one of the nearby shops. He was good looking, strikingly so, even with his terribly styled hair, and he looked roughly around my age. I stared at him for a long while, and Lilian could obviously tell the sort of thoughts I was having, as she used her elbow to give me a quick jab in the rib and snap me out of my thoughts. This is when the shorter boy came into view, and it seemed to be that he was exactly the opposite of the first one, with his weird dark blue hair and fairly ragged clothes. He was holding a fish supper, and even from the distance he was at I could smell it's beautiful aroma drifting across the alleyway to me. It'd been so long since I had one, my mouth was starting to water as I had to practically tear my gaze away from it. While I was observing the pair, Alex had turned and spoken to them "I told you two to go and get food then meet me by the stall" "You weren't at the stall so we came looking. Why'd you run off anyway? Did you find who we were looking for?" The blue haired boy spoke some more, his eyes darting in my direction a single time. "Yes actually, she's right here." Alex said, motioning to me like my being there wasn't obvious to the kid. "You never mentioned her being a girl" The boy said, clearly surprised in hearing this information. "You never asked. Now, I haven't exactly had the chance to explain myself to her yet, so if you two are staying then keep quiet." Alex said to the both of them, to which the taller boy gave a nod despite not having spoken a word the whole time. Alex turned back to me as the two boys walked further into the alley, giving me an apologetic smile for the interruption "Apologies. This is Marcus by the way-" he motioned to the blue haired kid "-and the other is Luke. Now, what was I saying." "Something about offering her a chance." Lilian chimed in, to which Alex gave a nod and pointed at her "That's right, give you the chance. You have a gift Skye, a powerful one, and I want to teach you how to use it. There's an island, one that we'll train on should you choose to join us. You'll learn everything you need to know and with my help you'll be able to master your abilities." I stared at Alex once he was done talking, trying to process exactly what it was he just said. What he said about abilities rang true straight away, but regardless everything else he was saying sounded pretty crazy. "How long would I be on this island?" I asked Alex, figuring I might as well humour his idea regardless of whether or not I believed it. "It would be...a decent while. A year or two most likely, maybe more depending on how much training you need. But that's just a rough estimate" Alex said, like he was cautious this information would throw me off. "When do I have to make a decision?" I asked, already starting to consider this as a possible option. I'd known I was special for a while, it's how I managed to move so quickly, and subtly. Lilian knew I was weirdly good at what I did, but she didn't think much of it. I knew what it really was though, that feeling. Every time my hand slips into a purse or I brush past someone to lift their wallet out their back pocket I feel it. That strange tingling feeling, right on my fingertips. It wasn't exactly a tingle, that made it sound weird. It was like a light wind barely brushing against my skin, noticeable but hardly impactful. The wallets, Lilian once described them as practically floating into my hand - she didn't realise that that was exactly it. There had been plenty of times where the object I was taking had started to move long before I touched it, and it was such a split second thing that it could hardly be noticed. But I noticed. The tingly feeling helped with that, but I never brought it up to Lilian. I thought I may be imagining it all, but at the same time I knew I wasn't. There was something about it, something that didn't seem normal. But I continued to use it to my advantage, and I never looked back. "You...don't need to make one immediately, but we're on a tight schedule. There's another person we need to find, we can't waste much time" Alex said, to which I gave a small nod. "One last question." I said, looking at him alone, although I could feel the other three watching us "You'd have to take me and only me right?" "That's right." Alex replied, nodding his head "You're the only one with this power, Skye. You're unique." I took another second to look at the ground in thought, before I raised my gaze again "Okay, I've made a decision." I said, watching as the others, Marcus Luke and Lilian, almost seemed to lean closer to hear what I had to say, while Alex simply waited patiently for me. "I'm not going." I stated, giving Alex a somewhat apologetic look as I shrugged my shoulders slightly. I could tell that took each and every one of them by surprise. Alex's eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly like he had something to say, before it closed again. It was clear he was unsure what to say, and was considering his words carefully. Marcus physically recoiled in surprise, turning to exchange a glance with Luke before looking at Alex to see what he was going to do. Lilian was by far the most shocked though, and let out an audible "What the fuck?!" That surprised me. For the amount of crap Lilian had been through in her life she swore surprisingly little. I looked at her with my stunned expression, to which she looked right back with a pissed one. "Why the hell not?" She demanded, stomping her foot for effect, which surprisingly made me flinch a tad bit. I considered myself a hard ass, I refused to take crap from anybody and I never backed down from speaking my mind. But if there was one person who could scare me it was Lilian. Normally, the girl was way more reserved than me. She preferred to keep quiet, never liked getting up close and personal if she could help it, and hardly ever lost her temper. Which meant that whenever she so much as raised her voice, I knew she was not in the mood to mess around. She was unnervingly intimidating when she wanted to be. "I don't want to leave" I told her calmly, which felt weird since it had always been her who was the level headed one "I'm not going to run off to some island without you and leave you stuck here." I thought that would make her relax a little, but it appeared to have the exact opposite effect. "Now is not the time to be bloody noble Skye! This is a good opportunity to get the hell away from this place, you are not giving it up!" She was livid now and took a step towards me, which might have made me back up had her words not sparked something in me. "I'm not being noble, I'm standing by what I want!" I shouted at her, taking a step towards her to get up in her face "Why would I want to be isolated with three complete strangers rather than stay here with you?" "Because you'll regret it if you don't! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You and I both know that you're special, and now you're getting the chance to find out exactly what you can do. I won't ever get that chance Skye, so there's no way I'm letting my wellbeing get in the way of your future." She said, and as soon as she did I was struck with what I can only assume was guilt, or maybe sympathy. I turned to look at Alex who had been silently observing my argument with Lilian, which actually made me somewhat irritated. This argument was meant to be private, but instead we had three spectators watching us. I knew I was being irrational though, I couldn't exactly ask them to leave the alleyway while we have our fight. "Is there any chance we can take her with us? She won't get in the way of training, she'll just-" "I'm sorry Skye, she can't come." Alex said solemnly, flashing me a sympathetic look before glancing at Lilian, who didn't seem the least bit bothered about hearing this. "Will I ever see her again?" I asked instead, biting the inside of my lip slightly. It was a thing I did when I started to get nervous, which was rare for me, and right now I was seriously worried I'd have to leave Lilian forever. "Yes." Alex answered, giving a small nod of his head "Once a fortnight. We'll leave the island for a day and you can come back and spend it with her." That made me feel somewhat relieved, but it still left me with the thirteen out of fourteen days I'd have to go without her. Before I got the chance to speak again, Lilian grabbed my shoulders and spun me around to face her "Listen to me Skye. Our house is a shit hole, my parents hardly have time for me let alone you. Don't keep yourself tied down to us. Think of all the things you could do, there's nothing here for you anymore. You can't live the rest of your life pick pocketing pedestrians - if you won't do it for yourself do it for me. Okay?" I looked into her eyes for a second, and in one look I knew I was done arguing. There was no way I was countering all her points, deep down I knew she was right. So instead, I grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug. She was taller than me so I had to rest my head on her shoulder, but I felt her arms wrap around me as she hugged me back. Then my eyes began to water. I hated myself for it, but I knew there was nothing I could do. It started as small trickles running down my cheeks, then before I knew it I was full on sobbing against her. She only tightened her grip on me, pulling me closer as she let out a small exhale "You'll be alright without me. You've never really needed me anyway." She said quietly to me, which only made me cry harder. "I've always needed you, I'd be long dead if I didn't have you with me." I said shakily, gripping her torso tightly. We remained there for a good minute or two, until my tears finally stopped. I let go of her and wiped my eyes, and she pulled back to give me a soft smile, one I tried my very best to return. I looked back over at Alex, who now wore a softer expression as he looked back at me. The two boys were still there too, with Luke still standing relaxed and quiet while Marcus looked fairly uncomfortable, unsure whether he should look my way or not. "What, you never seen a girl cry?" I said to him, a tad bit more hostile than I had meant it to be. "Only on tv." He stated truthfully, to which I rolled my still tearful eyes. "Are you sticking by your choice?" Alex asked me quietly, to which I gave a small shake of my head "No...I'm coming with you. As long as you can promise to teach me about what it is I can do." "That is one thing I can assure you of. I'll teach you everything I know." He said with a small smile "Do you want to go back home for anything before we leave?" I thought about it for a second, but I really didn't have much back at Lilian's place. Nothing sentimental at least. "Nah. There's nothing there I want to take with me. You'll have clothes for me though, right?" "We'll go clothes shopping in London, right after we pick up our last person." Alex said, before he glanced toward the exit to the alleyway "We'll let you two say your goodbyes, come get us when you're ready." And with that he turned and heading out the alley, motioning for Luke and Marcus to follow him, which they did. I turned back to Lilian, who didn't hesitate to give me another hug. "I'm gonna miss you..." I told her, trying my best not to get upset again. "I'll miss you too...but you're strong, you'll do great. And once a fortnight you'll get to come back here and tell me everything you've been up to, so it's not like we won't see each other." "Yeah, you're right. Stay safe, okay?" I said quietly to her, before slowly pulling away from the hug. "Always." She replied, flashing me a small smile. I felt the tears brimming up in my eyes again and took a step back away from Lilian "Well I better get going. Thank you for everything Lili...I love ya." "Love you too S. Have fun. Goodbye." She said quietly, giving me a small nod before she headed out the alley through the way she came in. I gave her a tiny wave as she left, and as soon as she was out of sight my bottom lip began to tremble and I placed a hand over my mouth to stop myself from crying out. I took a deep breath, as well as a second to gather my thoughts, before I turned and headed out after Alex and the others.