The Elementalist

Chapter Two - Are Shadows Ghost?

The next day, I woke to Penny gently shaking my shoulder.
"Ruby has called a family meeting." She whispered. When she realized what she said she corrected herself. "A team meeting."

I yawned and nodded "Alright. I'll be down in ten minutes." I said as I sat up.

Penny nodded and started to leave. But paused at the hatch.
"I was wondering, do you want to hangout sometime? I could show you around the property or we can go into town. There's actually a new tour company in town. They take us all over the island in a plane, isn't that so cool?" Penny asked smiling widely.

I smiled at her. "I'd actually like that a lot. I enjoy flying. Maybe our brothers will come with us. Make this a great bonding experience." I said as I dug through my suitcase looking for something to wear.

Penny smiled, nodded and left my room.

I quickly got dressed in a pair of shorts, a tan shirt and a green army jacket.

I climbed down the hatch and grabbed my hairbrush from the bathroom and ran down the stairs and into the kitchen while brushing my long hair.

"Hey guys." I said smiling at everyone. I sat at the long table, the only peice of furniture in the house.

Out of the right seats only two are empty. One between Penny and Keni, and one between Copper and Royale. Mom sat at one end of the table and Ruby sat at the other.
"Where's Keanu?" I asked sitting between Penny and Keni.

"Here, I'm here." Keanu said entering the kitchen while struggling to pull his black shirt over his head. He took the seat between Copper and Royale.

"So what's the meeting about?" Keanu asked pouring himself a cup of coffee.

Ruby cleared her throat before speaking. "I know you just got here, so today you guys can just relax, I just want to go over our to-do list and hopefully assign jobs." She said motioning to the stack of papers in front of her.
"Here, scrap paper in case you want to take notes. We are going to talk about a lot." She added putting a small stack of papers in the middle of the table.
Keanu, Keni and I all grabbed a few pieces and a pen. Mom just opened her small black notebook.
"Damn I need one of those." I muttered shaking my head at the papers.
Penny chuckled and Ruby playfully rolled her eyes before continuing to talk.
"Okay so first, you all need to meet the animals. Learn about how they live, learn to feed the big and small animals, clean the habitats, see where we keep the feed, how to water them and keep them cook. How to handle physical therapy." Ruby said reading off a list slowly, giving us time to copy what she said.

"I'd rather show you all around at once, but I have to show your mom the vet records for all one hundred and ninety animals." Ruby said sighing.
"Give or take." Keanu joked.

Copper laughed "Nope. She's serious. There's one hundred and ninety animals, within the mammals, reptiles, rodents and even the fish."

Mom chuckled "Okay so today let's just meet the animals, make notes on them, but I don't want you three to feed them. Mistakes could get someone killed or even kill one of the animals. So let your teammate handle the food.

"Teammate?" I asked confused.

Mom smiled "Penny actually suggested that. So I'll let her explain."

Penny blushed as all five eyes (minus mom and Ruby) turned towards her. "Okay so, Royale, Copper and I have lived here forever, so we know what to do and how to do it. So I suggested that the three of us be paired with the three of you. And we will be your teammate and show you around. It could be like a three month internship. For the first month, Kailani and I, or team one could feed the big animals. Team two, Copper and Keanu can feed the small animals. While team three, Royale and Keni can water the animals. At the end of the first month, you will know everything there is to know about your job and then we can switch to another job. And then switch again at the end second month. By the end of the third month you will essentially know everything there is to know about the job. Thus ending your mentorship." Penny explained slowly enough for everyone to process her words.