Daughter of the Sky, Son of the Earth

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Earth

It felt weird having the air blowing around me. My mind felt as if I had only slept for a couple of hours, but my body told me otherwise as I tried to move.

It had been two hours since I woke up. Two hours since I had gasped for breath and looked into Aileen’s concerned gaze. Her warm eyes scanned me for any sign of injury but there was nothing. My eyes slowly traveled to the ground where I saw smaller-sized rocks all around me.

My hearing hadn’t returned by then, but I could see Aileen saying something. I looked at her questioningly and she stopped as if realizing I could not hear. She got to her feet and walked out of the room before returning with a notebook and a marker.

She wrote on the wrinkled, white pages before turning the notebook to face me so that I could read what it said.

I am Aileen, do you remember me?

Weakly, I had nodded my head and she let out a sigh of relief. She turned to the next page and wrote quickly before showing me once again.

How are you feeling?

I tried to answer with my mouth, but a low creaking sound escaped my lips instead. I could not hear it, but I could feel it in my dry throat. Aileen’s eyes had widened, and I saw her quickly yell out.

A moment later, Aileen’s partner came into the room carrying a bottle of water and she handed it to me with a warm smile. I gave her a thankful look before grabbing the bottle weakly. I tried to sit up, but I needed Aileen’s help to do so.

Once I was resting against the sidearm of the couch, I opened the water bottle and started to drink. Instantly, I felt the cold liquid run down my throat and trailing down all the way into my stomach. It was discomforting but at least I felt much better after.

“Do you think his hearing will come back?” The girl next to Aileen asked as she looked at me with concern from the corner of her eyes.

Aileen nodded her head, “yeah, it’s not permanent. His senses have heightened, it’s only normal that he takes a while to return to his old self again.”

My chuckle caught their attention and Aileen blushed slightly when she realized I had been able to hear.

“Were you hearing everything we said?” Alex asked slowly.

I nodded my head, my neck felt sore, but I was able to tolerate it.

“Can you speak? How are you feeling?” Aileen asked as she stood in front of me with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

“I feel like a train has run over me,” I said in a raspy voice.

Aileen smirked slightly and nodded her head as if she could understand what I meant. She walked out of the room for a moment before coming back with a chair and placing it in front of me.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and I came here to answer them. And don’t worry, the worst is over,” Aileen assured me.

The girl next to her chuckled slightly and Aileen turned to give her a slight glare. “Don’t mind Alex, she hasn’t been sleeping very well and she’s a bit cranky.”

The girl, Alex, rolled her eyes before walking towards the single couch a couple of feet away. I didn’t say anything as a small silence fell over us. After what I had dreamt, I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. I knew dreams could sometimes be just effects of imagination, but this felt real somehow. Especially after all the pain, I had been through that night.

“I don’t know where to start, so I guess I will get to the point. Mason, you’re an Elemental. An Elemental is a son or daughter of the old Greek Gods who was conceived for a reason, normally, to help the gods defeat an enemy they would otherwise not be able to defeat. Each of us has the ability to control one of the four elements: earth, wind, water, or fire. When we turn seventeen, our powers flourish, and we go through a process called transformation. For each of us, it’s different, but painful, nonetheless. While you had to cough up dirt and be encrusted in a cocoon of stone, I was burnt alive. It’s like a demonstration of what our powers can do,” she explained softly and slowly as if I were about to bolt up from my seat and run the other way.

Maybe, if I had been a normal person, I would have. But I always knew there was something different about me, I just never imagined it would be this big of a difference. Maybe this was the reason why I wanted to leave the orphanage as soon as I turned seventeen. Like an instinct inside of me, that told me to find others like me.

Turning back to Aileen, I could see her eyeing me closely, waiting for me to say something or blurt out she was crazy.

“So that means you two are Elementals?” I asked as I looked from Aileen to Alex.

Alex quickly shook her head and chuckled. “No, no, no. I can assure you I’m a normal human. I’m just here helping Aileen on a mission,” Alex said with a smile.

My eyes widened as I stared at her. She was either very brave or very stupid for coming along to help Aileen. From what I understood, we had been born to fight off some kind of threat and I doubted it was anything small and cuddly.

“Alex is like a sister to me. We’ve known each other since we were very little, and I could not abandon her. You see, our orphanage was attacked by monsters and a lot of people weren’t able to make it out. But we did, and since then, we decided to stick together, for all of our safeties,” Aileen said, and I could hear a slight sadness in her voice. It was obvious that was something difficult for her to talk about.

“So, all of us come from orphanages?” I asked with a raised eyebrow, trying to change the subject.

Aileen nodded her head and said, “apparently, that has seemed to be the case.”

“And why did we have to grow up in different places? Wouldn’t it have been easier to have all the Elementals in the same place?” I asked with a chuckle.

Aileen smiled and nodded before turning to look at me again. “Easier, definitely. But much more dangerous. As Elementals, we give off this… I guess you can call it an aura, that attracts monsters like magnets. Especially when we use our powers. So, imagine the kind of energy we would have set off if the four of us had transformed in the same place. It would have been a miracle we were alive.”

“Four of us? There are only four of us?” I asked in disbelief.

Alex and Aileen shared a confused look before turning back to me. “Yes, is there something wrong with that?” Alex asked slowly.

Shaking my head, I tried to keep my expression neutral. “No, I just thought there’d be more of us since you mentioned we were going to help the gods in a battle.”

“You mean you expected the Elementals to be some sort of army?” Aileen asked slowly and I nodded my head. A smile appeared on her face, and she chuckled as she shook her head. “Well, I’m sorry to break it to you, but our army is one composed of four people. That’s it. Elementals have existed before, that’s true, but that was a long time ago. More than a couple of centuries back. And there have always been only four existing at the same time.”

I didn’t say anything as I tried to process everything. Somehow, I felt more nervous now that I knew there were only four of us. When I had thought there was an army, I felt relieved because at least a great weight wouldn’t fall on my shoulders, but now, 25% of the weight was on my shoulders.

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you how to use your powers and how to fight with swords or any weapon you prefer. I’m sure there must be one lying around here,” Aileen said as she looked around the house.

“I thought you said we couldn’t use our powers,” I said with wide eyes.

“We can’t in any place that isn’t cloaked or protected from monsters, but this place is,” she said as she got to her feet.

“Really?” Alex asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, I found out a couple of days ago. I didn’t want to say anything until Mason was awake so that we could discuss everything at once,” Aileen said with a shrug as she made her way towards the fireplace.

A few words echoed in my mind as my eyes widened.  “Hold on, a couple of days? How long have you been here?” I asked quickly.

I noticed Alex stiffen on the couch as she looked at Aileen who was now reaching for a couple of swords that were hanging on the wall over the fireplace.

“Mason, you were out for four days,” Alex explained slowly as she turned towards me.

My eyes went wide as I felt my blood run cold. Days? That couldn’t be possible. It felt as if I had only been out for a couple of hours. How could I have been unconscious for so long?

“When Elementals go through their transformation, their bodies and minds are pushed to the limit by their powers. It takes a couple of days to recover and one to seven days to wake up. You’ll be weak for a day or two more before feeling like your old self again,” Aileen said as she walked towards me, holding a small sword in her hand.

“Since when have you come here, Mason?” She asked as she stood in front of me, eyeing me closely.

I gulped and shook my head. I was still trying to make sense of everything, and my mind was responding slower. “I don’t know. Ever since I could walk, I guess,” I said with a shrug.

Aileen nodded her head and walked to sit on the chair she had occupied before. “Okay, and do you know what this place is? Or who it belongs to?”

I shook my head and looked at her closely. “No, do you?”

Aileen sighed and nodded slightly, “yes. This is Apollo’s cabin. Your father. God of many things, from the arts to prophecy and archery. Apparently, he built this place to keep his oracle here.”

“Oracle? What’s that?” Alex interrupted, echoing the question in my mind.

“An oracle is like a creature or a person that can channel prophecies, they know the answers to any question you may have, and they know the outcomes of everything and anything. Apollo kept his Oracle, Delphi, here. I saw her the day I went upstairs, and she was the one who told me this place was protected and who it belonged to,” Aileen explained, and I stiffened.

I had a feeling she was referring to the stone statue that was in a room upstairs. Once, while I had been exploring the cabin, I had come across it, and it creeped me out. It was like I could feel her eyes on my back every time I moved. It scared me and I decided to cover her with a blanket instead. I had almost forgotten all about her until now.

“Great, so then I guess we could ask her more. About where to go next or how to find the threat you’re facing,” Alex said with a smile, but Aileen shook her head.

“It isn’t that simple. I tried asking her, believe me, but she didn’t tell me. She said she had to hold back certain things in order for them to happen like they were supposed to. Besides, even if we wanted to bother her until she told us, we can’t. She’s long gone now. She told me her powers had begun to fade and she was barely holding on until I got here so that she could talk to me,” Aileen whispered with a frown, and I nodded my head.

I opened my mouth to say something when a loud growl echoed around the room.

My eyes widened as my face paled and both Aileen and Alex stared back at me with shocked expressions on their faces. Slowly, Alex burst out laughing and shook her head while Aileen smiled and got to her feet. “Come on, Mason. You’re hungry and we can make something in the kitchen,” she said as she handed me her hand to help me stand up.

Weakly and with shaky legs, I got to my feet as Alex rushed towards the kitchen while I placed my arms around Aileen as I let some of my weight fall on her shoulders. She was strong, I could feel it in the way she stood straight and held onto me firmly.

We didn’t say anything as she began leading me towards the kitchen one step at a time.