Original Elements (book 1)

Chapter 1: Run!

IT was dark and the oak trees looked ominous in the shadows, with the moon as the guide home or way out. "Run Ella, run Carla" cried a voice. Ella's hair was golden like the sun in the summer days, her eyes were blue like the pure sea and her skin looked fair and delicate like paper. She ran. The forest seemed never ending, she ran through the bushes of thorns leaving scars and scratches on her skin, her legs ached as she ran through the the forest. The branches felt like a cage about to shut her in a dark cell of a dungeon. After every step her heart seemed as if it were beating faster, tears were running down her cheeks, she looked back to see if the person that had cried was there. But when she looked back nobody was there the voices in her head chanted, "You're alone, nobody wants you." She kept running, not daring to look back another time, when she looked to her right and saw a pair of amber eyes looking start at her. The moon was out and wolves were coming out to play. Her thoughts were racing, when she saw a clearing she sprinted, hoping that whatever those eyes belonged to it didn't follow her, but she couldn't be more wrong. She was at the clearing but it was the edge of a water fall. You could hear the sound of the water rushing onto the sharp rocks, when she turned around the amber eyes had her cornered. They belonged to a wolf, that was a least three times her size. More wolves came out of the shadows, their fur, black as coal. Ella had two choses, jump or be eaten alive . Her mind was losing control over her body, and without considering the options she jumped into the cold water and the moment her body touched the water everything went black.
    "Wake up! Wake up," said a voice. As Ella opened her eyes the light blinded her, when she realised where she was and that what had just happened was a memory. "Come on sleepy head, if you don't your going to miss breakfast and Liam's waiting for you." When Ella got out of bed she was covered in sweat, every night for seven years she had had that dream but this time it was so much more real, it was so vivid as if she were reliving those moments in time. As she put on the rags they called cloths, she went to the dining hall only to await the shouting of Mother Grim. Mother Grim was a fat old women, who hated children, its not sure why she has on orphanage but most people think its because of the money and food. "Did you just ask for more. Dear girl, don't be a greedy pig, you should be glad you have food on you're plate. When Ella went up to get her food Mother Grim looked at Ella as if she were a vulture scooping its prey before the kill, "Have trouble sleeping." Ella didn't respond but as she was walking to her seat Mother Grim grabbed Ella's arm and she feel to the cold stone ground, "I asked you a question." Mother Grim said as she spat in Ella's face. "There was no problem at all." Ella replied as she walked away. When she sat down at the table in the far corner to eat the watery porridge where Liam was waiting for her he was a tall boy, with black hair like the night sky with no stars and had grey eyes like the sky on a cloudy day, he had a condition that turned his left eye red came and said, "Happy birthday Ella, so how does it feel being fourteen," he looked at her wrest that had a red hand mark, "and how's your wrest."
    "Oh, I cant believe you remembered Liam that it was birthday and my wrest's fine." Ella replied, quickly. He took out a Polaroid photo from his pocket and handed it to Ella. It was the photo they had taken last year on his fourteenth birthday, "I love it and your birthday isn't that far away now." She took a spoonful of the porridge and spat it out. It was disgusting.
    Suddenly the giant oak door flung open and a maiden was running to Mother Grim, the echoing of foot steps rung for minutes. The maiden whispered something in Mother Grim's ear. "Liam Rider, someone is here to see you, go to my office now. The rest of you start you chores now." Ella climbed up the unsteady ladder to start cleaning Mother Grim's office window, and that's when she saw it. The adoption papers, it felt like she had been empaled and her life was being torn apart.. Liam couldn't leave not now, she would be all alone. She fell off the ladder, and ran through the stone corridors of the orphanage were even more confusing, she could hear the echoing off her foot steps, through the halls. When she saw Liam, she froze, when their eyes meet she snapped back into reality, and ran into his arms. He was cold but warm at the same time, tears of sorrow ran down her cheeks. "Please don't leave, I need you." Liam looked down at her and said, "Ella, I promise that that we will meet again in this world or the next." Ella was confused, "How do you know?"
"I just know." A cold hand was placed on her shoulder and a cold voice said, "Get back to your chores, this is no excuse to slack off." Ella pulled away form Liam's arms and as he was going out into the world the door slammed dividing the two forever.
    Ella couldn't focus. Her thoughts were racing through her head like they were on a marathon. How could blame her, the only person close to family was torn away from her like a page from a book. Suddenly, the door swung open and Mother Grim was pointing her finger straight at her. "You really are a brat, you haven't finished your chores so you're going to stay her and you will have no supper. Do you understand Ella." Ella nodded and the moment the doors shut she cried into her pillow, how are some people so inconsiderate. When all the children had gone to their rooms the girls room was buzzing with gossip about Ella and Liam. Ella sat on the window ceil staring out at the glowing moon. When the maidens had left and all the girls were asleep it was at least midnight, it was magic hour, when time and space collide and disappear at the same time. Ella gazed into the distance, then a stone fell from the ceiling, the sound echoed, then it was a shower of rocks.
    Suddenly, a shock went through the ground. The windows fell apart and shattered into a million pieces. "What's going on!" A girl shouted. Then a maiden ran in and yelled, "Earthquake!" The screaming and cries of fear surfaced and seconds later the whole room was echoing with fear. "Everyone be quiet, we still have time. Now everyone go outside onto the street, that is the safest option." All the children evacuated the building , but when Ella was leaving a candle fell onto the wood and started a fire, it was out of control.
    The fire consumed everything in its path, nothing escaped it's grasp. Ella frantically searched to make sure nobody was trapped, when she was head fo the door, the ceiling feel trapping her inside the burning building. The fire was consuming one piece of wood after another, it was like Chinese whispers the further it gets from the source the further the truth is.All of a sudden a wooden plank fell on Ella's legs crushing them, she screamed in agonising pain, "Help!" The fire was getting closer, the smoke blinding her, sh blacked out. When Ella's eyes opened, smocked was everywhere, she was suffocating in the smoke. Then someone jumped through the whole in ceiling, the person was in a black cloak. "Help! Help!" Ella mumbled not knowing if the person would hear her. The person walked towards her and pushed the wood off her legs and said, "Can you walk?" Ella couldn't even talk its like all the oxygen from the room had gone and so had her words. Then the cloak cover the person's face fell, and Ella saw the face of boy, he was older than she was. When he picked her up he whispered, "You're going to be okay, Ella. Chris create a portal." Before she could ask how she knew her she had blacked out.
    When Ella awoke she was in a wooden room and she could hear the crackling of the blazing fire in the small fireplace. Blocking the glow of the flame was the silhouette of the boy. Ella got out of bed and when she got to out she saw that she was wearing a giant t-shirt of a boy and her legs weren't broken or bruised how was that possible. "Where are all my things." The boy pointed at the chair on the far end of the room. Her legs were weak so it took her a while to get her things. She got dressed and walked towards the fire and stood next to the boy. "Who are you, and how did you know where I was, and how do you know my name?" The boy looked at Ella and she saw a tall boy with dark brown hair and blue eyes that looked like the sky itself. Ella's heart fluttered like a butterfly, she didn't know what this emotion was, he was stranger, but it felt like they had might before. "I'm Alber, but should know that." Ella looked puzzled, she'd never meet this boy before but it felt like she had, "To answer your question, I'm the master of nature so I can sense and see when someone is in danger because of it. The reason I know your name is because we know each other, don't you remember." Ella now though that this guy was crazy, what was he talking about, master of nature. "Are you okay, cause I think you need to go to a hospital." Alber looked surprise, then to break the tension another boy came in. "Okay, Al, now that you two are introduced and all reunited, we can go see our father Mr Iqce. Oh right my name's Chris Ranger." He had hazel coloured hair, with dark blue eyes like the deepest oceans, he looked a lot older then Al though.
"I'm not going anywhere with you two, you're crazy, I don't know you." Alber looked at his brother like he was trying to say 'Yeah, I know we have a problem.' Chris took a deep breath, "So you're telling me you don't know who we are, what do you remember about your childhood."
"Not much, its mostly a big blank, all I remember was me running through this dense forest seven years ago." Chris sat done and said sarcastically, "Great we have a girl who's memory's been wipe. Just great. Now what are we going to tell father." Ella was even more puzzled than before, it's like two where speaking in a different language. "What do you mean by my memory being whipped that's impossible."
"Says the girl that got her memory whipped."Chris said sarcastically, Ella wanted to punch this guy in the stomach, she hated that he was so sarcastic.
Al interrupted, "Do you remember how your legs were crushed under the wood, your legs were broken, I healed them," an orb of green light was created in his hand, Ella was amazed it was like she was seeing a shooting star. "How is this even possible."
"We told you, magic." Chris said.
"So magic's real, but I don't have magic so why have you taken me." Chris looked like he was about to scream in frustration, "When you turn fourteen your powers are activate, you just have to unlock them."
Ella mumbled under her breath, "So I have magic and when I was younger I knew you two, does that mean you know how my parents are." Al looked at Chris as if there was one big secret she wasn't aware of. "We never meet at your home we would meet her at Tidelle, our home but we never figured out how you got here since you can't create teleportation portals." Ella sighed in sadness, how was she, she had no idea how she was. "Does your father know?"
"Let's ask him." Chris's said with a smile on his face. He opened the door and what's she saw was a beautiful forest of every shade of green, a crystal clear stream pacing through and crystal going across the stream. Al held his hand out, she took his hand and they jumped across the crystals, after every step, the crystal lit up and a melody played, it was beautiful, no wonder she would have loved it here.