Nature's Sign

Chapter 5

I walk through the crowds of people with my head down. Mother Nature periodically sends me on errands in the city.

On city days, I wear my normal everyday clothes, but I wear a specially made windbreaker with a hood. I duck through the crowd and into an alley.

I look at my bag, and check what I have so far. In the bag is a box of gears, screws, and other mechanical things, next to the box is a new sketchbook, a box of pencils, and a box of chicken from the last Publix in existence.

I check the list I made last night. Everything on it is in my bag, so I fold up the list and slip it in my pocket. I head out of the alley and go towards home.

Then I feel my left wrist warm up. I immediately think about my mark. Another Elemental? I think as I look down at my wrist and I see a hand on it.

"Let go of me! What are you doing?" I say, jerking my hand away, making my hood falls down.

The person is wearing a hood and doesn't look up. I start walking away, quickly. I reach another alley and pull up the sleeve of my jacket. My Elemental mark is warm to the touch and glowing.

"Another Elemental is within a mile of me?" I say to myself.

The mark starts glowing brighter and brighter.

"Hey, you."

I look up with a start and I cover my mark. At the alley opening, stands the person in the hood that grabbed my wrist.

"What do you want?" I ask.

I notice a faint red glow coming out of the stranger's sleeve.

"Who are you?" I ask, trying to make out the face underneath the hood.

"Come with me," The stranger says.

I assume it's a man.

"Why would I follow you? I don't even know you," I say.

He leaves the alley.

"Hey! Wait! Who are you?" I ask after him, going to the alley opening.

A hand flies to my hand.

"Stop talking, and follow me," The stranger says, removing his hand from my mouth.

I follow carefully behind him, mainly because I'm curious about the light in his sleeve. We stop in front of an abandoned boarded-up building, in a part of town nobody ventures into. The stranger goes in the alley and opens a door on the side of the building.

"After you," He says.

"No, after you, I insist," I say.

He shrugs and walks in. I follow and the door closes behind us. The room is dark and dusty. In the middle is a table with two chairs and a single lightbulb above it. There is so much clutter in the room, I can't tell what anything is.

The stranger takes off his hood and says, "Sorry if I frightened you, I can't take my hood off out there."

I stare at his face. He has messy brown hair and brown eyes. I have a feeling I know him, then it hits me.

"Johnathan?" I ask.

"Yes?" He says, turning around, "Wait, how do you know my name, we've never meet before."

I pull my drawing of Father Earth's Elemental out of my bag and I hand it to Johnathan. He stares at it.

"Why do you have a drawing of me? Have we meet and I just don't remember?" He asks.

I shake my head.

"Turn it over," I say.

Johnathan turns the paper over and sees Father Earth's symbol. Father Earth's symbol is a left facing hook with a circle coming out of the middle of the right side. Johnathan's eyes go wide.