Ashes

Part Nine

"Elementals are the changelings who receives the gift of controlling one of the four elements" explained Crystal and grabbed a small pebble from the ground and said "Earth", "Water" continued Crystal and poured out some of the water she had in her water bottle. "Wind and Fire" said Crystal and finished explaining the four elements like as if I was a child. "We had a girl in camp earlier who could control the water around us, but she mysteriously disappeared a few months ago?" added Crystal.

"So, you say there are four people like me, that can control the elements?" I asked and hoped for a clarification, but she didn't. "I only know that Prune wants to find four teens that can control them" replied Crystal and grabbed my hand to walk with me around the camp.

Crystal and I didn't talk much, I mean what is there to talk about? We just walked around camp and watched as the teens helped the youngest kids and it almost seemed like a summer camp to me? It all seemed like a very happy and safe place for people, until we walked past a little kid that was hidden away and locked up in a little cage.

"What happened to him?" I asked and pointed out the little kid that was locked up, "He's a danger to us all" she simply replied and started walking away from the area.

"Hey, are you ok?" I asked the little boy and got closer to his cage, even reaching my arm out to help him.

The little boy started crawling over to me and reached his hand out from between the cell bars, "Are you ok?" I asked once again but was abruptly stopped by Crystal who walked in front of me and grabbed a nearby towel to push his arm back in his cell.

"What are you doing to that poor kid!" I yelled and felt my blood rush to my head and my hands started going boiling warm.

"I said he's a danger to us! His ability is to steal others!" she explained frustrated and angry as she grabbed my wrist to drag me away from the prison cell, but she yanked her hand away from my wrist upon touching it.

"Jesus you're hot!" she yelped and waved her hand around the air to cool it down. Crystal later waved for me to follow her as I tried calming myself down. "I'll take you to your friends now" mumbled Crystal and continued to walk down the dirt path between different tents and cottages.

"Hey Cassie!" yelled Harry from one of the tents down the road, "Hey, how's everyone doing?" I asked as I ran to him and the rest of my group and sat down in one of the chairs Crystal had given us. "We're ok" replied Rubie and kept quiet for the most part when Crystal checked in on us.

"Everyone has been informed of our rules?" asked Crystal and checked in on us before she left to check in on the rest of the teens in camp, but nobody replied.

"I don't like her" said Rubie, leaned back and crossed her arms, "Same" said James as well and started looking around, looking at the unusual amount of guards that the camp had.

"How hasn't this camp been discovered yet? How are everyone so comfortable being here?" asked Rubie semi-annoyed and scared? "I don't know?" I replied and looked around, watching as the eldest of teens glared at us.

"What did you and Crystal talk about?" asked Harry and crossed his arms as he leaned against one of the poles holding a makeshift pavilion made from planks and a tarpaulin. "She told me that I was an elemental" I simply replied and forgot that they didn't know what that was.

"What's an elemental?" asked Sam and crawled out of one of the tents we had gotten, "I am one of four teens that can control the four elements" I explained in a simple way, a way so Sam and the others would understand.

"Yeah, I heard about a girl with the ability to control water, so sad to hear about how she was slaughtered" replied Janice and began to animate her tattoos to show off to the kids and teens that glared at us.

I looked at Rubie and she looked at the ground. "I think I want to leave this place" I uttered without even thinking clearly? "Yeah, I'm in!" replied Rubie, "Me too" said James and grabbed some of the essentials we had gotten from Crystal and her people.

"Wait? We're going?" asked Sam almost in shock and grabbed Rubie's hand, "We're going, you Harry and Janice will stay here" replied Rubie as she let go of his hand and nudged him to walk over to Harry. "Are you guys seriously leaving?" asked Janice and carefully placed back her animated tattoo, "Yes, we are" replied Rubie as she stuffed a small backpack with a few water bottles and some crackers we got as a welcoming gift.

Janice looked at Harry in hopes of him saying something, but he didn't have anything to say. He was just disappointed, not in himself but disappointed at his friends and own his brother.

"Why are you guys leaving?" asked Sam still in shock as we all threw our backpacks over our shoulders and were ready to leave. "We don't like it here" I replied and tried to be as nice as I possibly could, before Rubie and James grabbed me, and we started walking towards the entrance.

We walked past a few tents with people staring at us and commenting on what we did? We got as far as past Crystal's hut in the middle of camp, where she walked out of her hut and asked, "Where are you three going?".

No one answered. We simply just walked away, knowing she would send guards go grab us, but Rubie and James didn't care.

"I said, where are you three going?" she asked again as a bunch of her soldiers gathered around us, leaving their posts to stop us from leaving.

"We're leaving this place!" yelled Rubie in response as she turned around to face her, "Leave? Why would you guys want to leave?" asked Crystal and slowly got closer and closer to us. "We don't feel safe..." replied James and stumbled mid-sentence.

"What about you Cassie? What do you think?" asked Crystal and started going in circles around us like a viper. "How have you guys not been attacked yet?" I asked as I wanted answers, to somehow maybe keep Harry and the rest of the group together.

"Just like you guys, we have people with incredible abilities" replied Crystal anonymously as she didn't really reply to what I asked? "What do you mean?" asked Rubie and quenched her fist to the point where you could hear her Ruby-covered hands crunch.

"We have a guy that can control what people see and don't" explained Crystal and slowly started getting closer to us, but Rubie didn't want anything to do with Crystal and her explanations.

"Cassie, light them up!" yelled Rubie as she charged towards Crystal with an incredible speed and began fighting her. James began to look around and used his telekinesis to throw sand around to cover himself, me on the other hand struggled to keep Crystal's soldiers away from me because I didn't want to hurt them!

"Cassie!" yelled Harry from out of nowhere and blasted two of Crystal's soldiers right in front of me and kept his hands aimed in front of him to protect me. Janice came too shortly after and started swinging a large sword around that she animated from her back.

I looked around the large group of soldiers and teens, but as I tried to look for Sam, I slowly stared seeing the shadows move around us? The shadows we're hauntingly large and scared most of us! shortly after the shadows moved around, came a large cloud of smoke which covered us all.

I looked around the cloud of smoke and saw only the faint silhouette of Harry, still standing in front of me and protecting me while the grunts of Rubie swinging and missing Crystal kept on going in the background.

"Everyone stop!" yelled Crystal and we all froze? She used her ability on us!

The cloud of smoke disappeared, revealing the girl who created it and one other person I hadn't seen in a while.