The Elementals | Book 1. The Cliffs of Immensi

Chapter 2

Omar woke with a start.

Why does my bed feel harder than usual? But then again, my bed always feels hard.

Omar swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Suddenly, he was on an incline and was sliding down.

What's happening?

He groped around with his hands, arms, and feet, but there was nothing to grab onto. Suddenly, he was falling. Omar screamed. He couldn't see anything, hear anything, or feel anything, except for the wind. He was terrified.

It had seemed like an eternity to him, although it had only been a couple of seconds, before he hit the ground. The breath came out of his lungs in an explosive "WHOOF".

Omar lay on the ground, desperately trying to suck air back into his empty lungs. He heard somebody laugh. "Freaky blind boy climbed up onto the orphanage roof in his sleep again!"

Omar sighed. At least they didn't know how he actually got there. This was bad enough.

"He didn't even notice that he was on the roof!" Came the voice again. It was followed by wheezing laughter.

"I'm blind! How was I supposed to see that I was on the roof?" Omar exclaimed.

Please, just stop annoying me.

"Maybe, since you like to climb roofs, we'll just make you clean the chimneys every day." The other boy was obviously having fun. Omar could hear it in his voice.

I don't want to clean the chimneys. Please don't make me clean the chimneys. But he can't make me clean the chimneys. Can he?

Just as the boy, Beneguay, was about to make another statement, the teacher, Ms. Silveski, walked outside. Omar smiled contentedly. He knew Ms. Silveski always supported his side of the argument in one of these daily, tiring disputes.

Ms. Silveski called out. "Beneguay! Just because Omar is blind you don't have the right to tease him about it!" She frowned, towering over Beneguay. Omar smiled. Things were looking good for him.

But Beneguay didn't notice. He didn't care, either. He simply put his hands on his hips. "I don't go by Beneguay."

What procrastination.

Ms. Silveski gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine. Ben. But I won't tell you again! Don't. Tease. Omar."

Ben snorted. "What are you going to do about it?"

"If I catch you teasing Omar again, then you won't get dessert for a month!!" Ms. Silveski told him. And with that, Ben finally gave up.

"Okay." He gave a long sigh. Ben basically depended on dessert to live. Teasing Omar wasn't enough reason for him to give up dessert.

Omar stifled his laughter. That's so ridiculous! He'll stop teasing me just for dessert! Sometimes, I'm glad that he loves dessert so much, even if it rarely leaves any left for the rest of us.

Omar wished he could look gratefully at Ms. Silveski, but he knew he couldn't. "Thank you, Ms. Silveski." Was what he said instead.

Ms. Silveski nodded. Right after she performed the action, she realized that Omar couldn't have seen it. She hurriedly adjusted her reaction. "You're welcome, Omar."

Omar got to his feet, brushed the dirt off his knees, and went back inside the school. Several people standing in the doorway jumped with surprise as Omar strode across the hall, quickly and making almost no sound at all, traveling the full length in merely a few seconds.