Chapter 8
Saturday morning, I woke up excited. I was going to train with Mason and Bryce today. They were taking me to a river hidden in the woods one town over. It was about a two-hour hike from the road, so we would eat a picnic lunch at the river. I was ready to be around nature and learn more about my water and earth gifts. Carter suggested I try to communicate with the animals on my way there. Mason pulled up in front of my dorm in his silver Mercedes E-Class. It amazed me that these guys had such expensive cars. I could see Bryce in the front passenger seat and waved at them both. I opened the back door and slid in. The seats were a soft gray leather that I could curl up on and sleep for days. “Hi, guys!” I greeted them.
“Hey, Bre!” they said at the same time.
“Okay, I have a personal question for you if you don’t mind,” I said.
“Sure. We will tell you just about anything, especially if it is something embarrassing about Chase!” Bryce teased.
“How do you guys have such a nice house and cars? I never see you work,” I questioned.
Bryce laughed and said, “Like I told you before, we can live up to three hundred-plus years. That gives you time to accumulate wealth.”
“How old are you?” I asked.
“We are all between nineteen and twenty-one,” Bryce answered. “Our parents fund us for the most part right now. I’m not sure about the others, but my parents are around one hundred. They were smart with their money and I benefited from it. Most Elementals are very wealthy.”
“Yeah, my parents are about eighty,” Mason said.
“Oh. Wow, it is really weird to think about a twenty-year-old having one-hundred-year-old parents. Guess that is something else I need to get used to.”
As we drove to the next town, we chatted about school and my life before college. They told me about some of their missions fighting demons. I shivered at the thought of them fighting demons. “That is terrifying. I can’t believe you do that. How do you kill a demon?” I asked.
“There are several ways to do it. The most effective way is to chop its head off, but to do that you have to be close and have a sword. We don’t carry swords with us on a regular basis, but if we are out hunting them, we always have them. You can also use your gift to kill them. I can use rocks and boulders to knock them out or injure them enough to kill them. Harrison can build a fireball big enough to kill them if he has enough time to build it before they are on him. Chase can use air to slam them into things hard enough to kill them, or at least knock them out to then cut their heads off. It is very difficult to kill a demon, they are very resilient. If you ever encounter one, run,” Bryce explained.
“Not a problem. Demon equals Bre heading in the opposite direction as quickly as possible,” I said.
We arrived at the pull-off for the hike to the river and parked the car. We gathered our lunch and water, then put it in a backpack that Bryce carried. As we began the walk, I tried to concentrate on the animals around me and speak to them. A cute little rabbit was just off the path and I spoke to it. A little further down the trail, I spotted a deer and we had a short conversation. It was amazing that I was able to do that. I finally felt hope again. How could I be in such a dark place when I had light all around me? I sent a little message in my mind to Callie. I love you, Callie. I am so sorry you died because of me. I wish you were here to experience this with me. I am finally able to start enjoying life again. I know you would want that for me. You always wanted good things for me. I also wish you could meet my new friends. First of all, they are hot! Secondly, they are really nice and are helping me with my crazy. You would love them and how they take care of me. I miss you so much it hurts, but I will do my best to make you proud and live the life you should have had.
“Bre, are you okay?” Mason asked.
“Yes, I was just thinking of Callie and how she would love this. You guys would have loved her and she would have loved you. I just miss her,” I responded.
Mason slowed down to walk beside me, “I’m so sorry about your friend.”
“Thank you. Being around you guys these last few days has made me feel so much better. I cut myself off from everyone after she died and being around you guys has made me see that I can’t live like that anymore. You guys make me happy. The other day was the first time I had laughed in months. I feel better when I am with you, lighter,” I said.
Bryce also slowed down to walk beside me and put his arm around my shoulders. “Well, you know I love having you around. You are my sole source of entertainment now. You are the only one who can douse Harrison with water and not get hit. You are also the only one that Chase has let near him except for us, and we were kids when we became friends. Speaking of which, I saw him stand in front of you when you called Harrison ‘Harry’. Seems he has come around.”
“We spoke right before dinner last night and we now understand each other. He is a great guy with a big heart underneath all of that grouchiness,” I said.
Bryce busted out laughing, “By the way, I love your nickname for him. Oscar the Grouchy Elemental! Ingenious!” We continued to talk as we made our way to the river. When we finally arrived, we rested and took a drink of water. I was excited to work with Mason. I hadn’t had much time with him these past couple of days. Wow, to think it had only been a few days since I met the guys and now I couldn’t imagine my life without them. I just hoped I never had to.
After resting a little while, Mason walked up to me and held his hand out for me to take. “Let’s get started, pretty girl.”
Blushing, I took his hand and walked over to the river with him. His hand felt nice in mine. I looked up at him and saw him smiling down at me. I couldn’t help but smile back, and his ice-blue eyes darkened a little when he looked at me. He ran the other hand through his hair and released my hand. “Let’s get started. Remember when you moved the water in the glass the other day? Well, this will be the same except on a much bigger scale.” He looked at the river and his eyes started to glow blue. The river water lifted up and swirled in a tornado form about fifty feet wide. It moved faster and faster until it looked like it could take out a tree and anything else that got in its way. He then slowed it down and eased it back into the river where it came from.
“Wow! Mason, that was amazing. How can you control that much water?” I asked.
“It doesn’t make a difference how much there is. It’s about willing it to do what you want. It feels the same when I control ten ounces of water or 1,000 gallons,” Mason replied. I thought about that for a minute.
“I guess I am thinking about it wrong. I think that handling a lot of water would be heavy, whereas moving a glass of water would be light, so it would be easier,” I said.
“You can’t think about it like that. You are not actually lifting the water with your body, you are doing it with your mind. Heavy or light doesn’t make a difference when it is mental. You made a tree’s branches longer to entrap those guys and made a small plant grow. Did you use more energy for the tree?” he asked.
“No, I guess I didn’t. I never would have thought about it like that. Thank you, Mason. I’ll see what I can do,” I said nervously. “We probably should have brought some towels just in case.” Mason and Bryce both chuckled at my remark. “I’m actually serious. Well, here goes nothing.” I walked over to the river, trying to feel its energy. I didn’t feel anything, but continued to concentrate on it. Nothing. “The water doesn’t feel like the plants and animals do. I can’t feel the energy or essence of the water, because it is not alive like they are,” I said, frustrated.
Mason walked over to me and said, “Close your eyes. Concentrate on the trees and plants around you. Feel the energy they give off. Let it surround you.” I did. “Now, find the energy of the animals around us, feel the energy they give off. Air and water are not alive like plants and animals, but they give life. They are the essence of life, so they have an energy. Now, concentrate on everything around you. Do you feel the air, trees, plants, animals, water?”
I tried to block everything out except his voice. He was so close to me that I could feel his breath on my ear. Tingles ran down my arm and I swayed into him and his hypnotic voice. Concentrate, Bre! I steeled myself to focus on the task and not how close he was. Finally, I started to feel everything around me. I could feel the large oak to my right and the pine tree behind me; the oak felt old and weathered and the pine felt new and fresh. I expanded to areas beyond them and felt a bird, a blue jay, I think, with her four hungry babies. There was a chipmunk scurrying around a few yards away. I then concentrated on the area where the water should be and it was like a void. I didn’t feel anything from it. I tried to relax and think about what Mason said about it being life-giving. I thought about how the water, the trees and plants, the air, and the earth itself were all connected. Slowly, I started to feel something in the river; it felt like light, flowing clouds of sparkles. Crazy, I know, but that was apparently how water felt to me. It felt so light, like cotton candy, and I could pick it all up with one hand. Mason gasped beside me and Bryce said, “Holy shit, Bre!” I opened my eyes to see that the entire river as far as the eye could see had been lifted up into the air. There were fish flopping around on the empty riverbed below and I began to panic.
“Relax. It’s okay. Close your eyes again and relax. Continue to feel the connection to the water and start to lower it back down. You can do this, just breathe,” Mason instructed. I tried to relax, but I was worried about the fish. I didn’t want them to die. Okay, I can do this. I thought about the sparkly cotton candy water and raised my hand toward it. I thought about it lowering back into the riverbed slowly. I thought about how light it was and how I wanted to softly lower it back down. I had never concentrated so hard in my life. “You did it!” I heard Mason shout. I opened my eyes to see the river back to the way it was. Mason turned to me and hugged me tight. “You did great! I can’t believe you lifted the entire river into the air! I have never seen anything like it. You are amazing, Bre!”
“Thank you, but I thought you said that it didn’t matter how much there was, that it was a mind thing?” I asked.
“Yes, well, there are limits to what most Elementals can do, but not you apparently,” he said.
“Well, that doesn’t scare the shit out of me at all, Mason,” I said sarcastically. “You told me I could lift any amount of water I wanted to and I did. Now you tell me that it’s not normal to be able to do that.”
“Not really. Most Water Elementals can control large amounts of water, but not an entire river. This river is at least fifty yards wide and over one hundred miles long. I have no idea how much of it you picked up, but it was as far as I could see,” Mason replied excitedly.
“Bre, it doesn’t matter how much you lifted, you controlled it, and that is huge progress. You may be more powerful that any Elemental we have ever met, but you are figuring all of this out very quickly. You can do this,” Bryce said encouragingly.
“But I don’t want to be the most powerful Elemental. I can barely make it through a day without something crazy happening. Now that I know what I can do and how powerful I am, I know my crazy will shoot through the roof!” I said.
“Don’t worry. We will be here with you to help you. You are not alone in this. We will do everything we can to figure out why you are so powerful and how you can possess all five gifts. You are not getting rid of us,” Mason said, looking at me with the most hopeful ice-blue eyes. I couldn’t help but believe him when he looked at me that way.
Bryce walked up and put his arm around my shoulders. “Yep, you are stuck with us. We need someone around to keep Chase in line!” We sat down to eat lunch and relaxed a little. I still needed to train with Bryce and I was nervous.
“So Bryce, what are we going to work on? Please don’t tell me that I will be growing trees bigger. I’m afraid I might make it reach a mile in the air and take out a plane!” I kind of jokingly said.
“Wouldn’t that be crazy? You are flying in a plane and look out the window to see a tree as you go by. Ha! I would love to see peoples’ reactions to that!” Bryce said while laughing.
“I’m serious. It scares me that I might hurt someone, specifically one of you. I already lost my best friend. I can’t lose you guys,” I said solemnly.
“Don’t worry. We are tough and we will teach you to control your gifts. Just trust us,” Mason said. I was still worried that I would hurt or even kill one of them, but the best way to avoid that was to train. I had to do this.