Elemental - The Rainvir Chronicles

1

Winter, and the leaves have fallen, the ground turned to frost. The grass bluish-green with a tint of gray swayed back and forth in correspondence with the direction of the raging wind. The trees followed, sometimes slapping the windows of residences whilst making a loud plack that anyone could hear inside the home. Charles Rydner closed his eyes again, trying to force himself back to sleep. It didn't work. He propped himself up against the wall on his bed, and let out a soft yawn. Reaching towards his nightstand, he grabbed his digital clock and glanced at it. Six forty-seven, Charles thought, slightly annoyed that he only got five unfulfilling hours of sleep. Whatever, I'll just get up. Waste of time to lie in bed anyways, he thought. He walked across his room, trampling over his unwashed laundry at some times, but made it to the hallway without alerting his parents. Charles made sure to go down the stairs slowly and in a fashion where every step wouldn't release a creak. After going down successfully, he opened the refrigerator to find a gallon of milk, some cheese, apples, oranges, and a whole lot of raw meat. He took out the milk and twisted the cap open. He gulped down the milk— and after feeling satisfied— put back the gallon into the refrigerator and closed it.

Today was a rather chilly day. A couple of degrees lower than yesterday's temperature. Charles had gotten used to it as it was regular for snow in Ardrington, so it didn't bother him that much. He looked outside the screen door and into the backyard, where the grass was covered in frost collected from yesterday night's cold front. There still wasn't snow, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Charles could still go for a morning nature walk.

He grabbed his backpack, two bottles of water, a stick of granola bar, and an apple if he every got hungry on his hike. He also hoped his parents wouldn't find out about his routinely walks in the morning either. Charles grabbed the down coat that he had gotten on his sixteenth birthday, and zipped it up to the top of his lip. He slung his backpack behind his back and clipped the two ends of the strap together, doing so very quietly. Walking out the door, a huge breeze hit him in the face, immediately waking him up from his mid-sleep.

"It sure is hell out here," he said to himself, and closed the door behind him. The whole block was empty, and he had the whole street to himself, and maybe even the whole city. Along his walk to the woods, no automobiles passed him or his field of view. He reminded himself that he was just early for the job.

The entrance into the woods was no easy task, as it wasn't made for people to traverse in. There were no trails, signs— nothing. But he remembered the route in, and the route out very clearly in his brain, every single part of the forest— that he knew— was memorized. Charles took every step very carefully and made sure he didn't trip on any roots of a tree or stones on the ground. He enjoyed the scenery, as he had for the hundreds of walks he had been on. While spotting for a decent place to shield himself from the wind, he caught sight of a large tree that had grown it's rooting out of the ground. Charles walked over to the tree, and it was then when he had noticed something strange. There was a carving of some sort on the tree, a character that looked mysteriously strange. He lifted his hand and stroked it with his finger, stroke by stroke, trying to ascertain the tool used to carve the symbol. At the second he finished the stroke, a striking pain went through his heart. Am I having a heart attack? he thought. He began to panic. The pain in his chest starting getting tougher to endure. It kept getting tighter and tighter, and felt like his lungs were about to close— then the world around him went pitch black.