The Elementals : The Dawn of Darkness

Chapter 41 - Calm After the Storm

"Come on! You can do it! Run! Run you lanky son of a–"

"Nick!"

"What?" I said innocently, twitching an eyebrow in Sheira's general direction. "What have I done now?"

She rolled her eyes magnificently. She shook her head and reverted her full attention back to the track. No small feat considering she was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet like a jack in the box. She suddenly jabbed me hard in the ribs.

"Look! Look!"

A beautiful blue blur was streaking at full tilt towards the finish line and the crowd was going nuts. Leela, the designated MC, was screaming into her microphone, all lack of bias thrown off a cliff as she cheered on her cabin mate.

"Come on Chip!" Oh, I wasn't going to be effectively mute tomorrow morning but I couldn't care less. "Yes! Yes! YES!"

The crowd exploded with noise that would have rivalled the Olympic stadium. Sheira whooped loudly, jumping up onto my shoulders and cheering in my ear. Bright red explosions raced up into the sky above the Fire seats. Blue, green and yellow sparks filled the sky until the air above the tournament stadium was alive with colour.

"Shouldn't you be rooting for your own guy?" I yelled over the racket, as Sheira jumped into a hug.

She stepped back, laughing. Her smile lit up her face like a ray of sunshine. "Oh its all a bit of fun. Besides," she shrugged, "I think we deserve it."

Understatement of the century. I propped myself up against the barrier that separated the bottom of the stands from the track. Chip circled the track in a victory lap, waving and mock bowing to the crowds, oblivious to the beating August sunshine under the enormous canopy that stretched out like a massive red sail.

It was weird to think that only a few weeks ago we'd been in the middle of the fight for our lives, battling monsters and slicing through hordes of who would very much like to see our heads mounted on a spike. But here we were, cheering on our friends in the summer tournament. Like nothing had ever happened.

But it had happened, and all of us were certainly feeling the effects of the fallout.

Ms Harper damn near killed us. When she'd caught up to us by the smouldering ruins of Dunloch Castle I will unashamedly admit that I made peace with my maker and prepared to step into the great beyond. All I can say is thank god for my mother pulling the friendship card or else my remains would have been carted out of Scotland in a bucket.

The old Harpy and I were still on uneasy footing. When she and Mum were hugging it out I was this close to bringing up the teeny, weeny, insignificant fact that the old bat had left my Mum and two little siblings to rot in a dungeon. I'd apparently been stewing over it for a few days after the fact as Shadow had to point out that I was in a mood.

Mum had repeatedly told me just to let it go, that the Harpy was just looking out for the welfare of those under her care. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was still pissed off at her for that but I will admit, mainly because Sheira talked me round to it, that the old biddy did have her moments.

After we got back to good old London town we realised that our old flat was under police investigation, because, you know, we were officially labelled as missing for the better portion of two weeks. That was a fun twenty-four hours when we had to come up with an explanation for the cops, but I think (With only a tiny bit of memory alteration) that they sort of believed us now.

But with that came another problem, and this time it was a biggie. With the flat under investigation and the fact that our human scum of a landlord has all the charm and empathy of a maggot, we were, once again, homeless. But that, ladies and gentlemen, is when Ms Harper came through.