The Harmony Saga

~ 2 ~-2

Cam nodded. “Cool. I see it. Let me guess, Logan Mallory was the one who abandoned you.” He said it with a touch of disgust in his voice, and Owen suspected a rivalry between the two of them.

“Yeah,” Owen said, bemused. “How did you know?”

“Logan’s not exactly my favorite person,” Cam said conspiratorially. “He thinks that just because he comes from a long line of Water balancers that he’s better than everyone else.” Cam shook his head. “He’s one of the only people who would walk away from you while showing you around because of your element. Recruitment’s kind of a big deal here, you don’t give up on a newbie.”

“Unless you’re Logan, apparently,” Owen said, rolling his eyes. Then he smiled. “Well, I’m glad to be rid of him then. It was so weird though, I think he thought I was a Water guy at first.”

“That can happen. If you balance with Water and you’re strong enough, you can have almost equal control over your two elements.” Cam paused for a moment. “It is strange, though. You look almost more like Water than Fire. A lot of Fire kids have curly hair.”

“You’ve got curly hair,” Owen pointed out.

“Yeah, I’m weird though. I’m a fifth-generation camper here, and a lot of my ancestors are Fire-people. All three of my brothers were in your cabin, but they aged out and now they work here.” Cam rubbed his hand over his head, self-conscious of his short haircut. “My mom’s an Earth balancer though, I got it from her. And we all balance with Water.”

“Why don’t you balance with Fire?” Owen asked. He was pretty proud of himself for making the connection until he saw Cam’s expression.

“Actually, Fire and Earth are exclusive. That means you can’t balance one with the other, ever.” Cam stopped when he saw Owen’s furrowed brow. “I’m sorry, you only just got here, you would have no way of knowing that. Here, it’s like all the elements form a square. Earth and Fire are across from each other, so they never touch.” Cam arranged Owen’s pointer fingers and thumbs into a rectangle, like Owen was taking a picture. Then he pointed to the spots where Owen’s fingers met. “See, if this is Fire, it doesn’t touch Earth, across from it.” Then he pointed to the base of each of Owen’s thumbs, the other corners of the rectangle. “But Fire touches both Air and Water, the other two elements. Make sense?”

Owen couldn’t stop staring at his fingers. “Yes! I totally get it now.” After another moment of looking at the rectangle, trying to memorize it, he put his hands down. “What else is there to this place besides the cabins?” he asked.

Cam smiled, and Owen started to get excited again. He had the feeling that he and Cam would be very good friends. “Follow me,” Cam said.

Logan paced in the hallway of the house, waiting for Brian Percival to finish talking with Owen’s father. He had to tell the director about Owen and his Fire capabilities. But he also had to stop fuming about how Owen had fooled him at first. Brian Percival would be getting an earful of that as well.

Logan thought back to when Owen had first arrived. He’s a fiery one, isn’t he, Logan? the director had said. Logan sighed angrily. He had so hoped that the director was wrong, but as usual, he wasn’t. Brian Percival had known about Owen’s abilities right from the start, but Logan had been taken in by Owen’s cold hands.

Why had that been the case? Sure, Owen’s hands had been slightly warmer than Logan’s, but even Logan’s fellow Water-people had variations in temperature. They were still human, after all. But Owen’s hands had been Water-person cold. Fire-people who balanced with Water could have cold hands, he supposed, but they never did. And, Logan thought, growing steadily angrier again, Owen looked like he was a Water-person. Logan couldn’t be blamed for thinking that’s what he was. But Brian Percival shouldn’t have told Logan to be his guide. The director knew how Logan felt about opposite elements mixing. Balancing was one thing, but it made sense to stick with people who had the same dominant element, the same values. In Logan’s experience, there were few Fire-people worth spending time with. They were too different from him.

The door to the study finally opened, and the director led Owen’s father out. “I think that Camp Harmony is going to be a good fit for your son, Sam. I look forwards to Owen’s time here. Perhaps it will be as eventful as yours,” Brian Percival was saying. When he spotted Logan in the hall, he grinned, his multicolored eyes twinkling. He hadn’t noticed Logan’s state. Or perhaps he had and was amused by Logan’s reaction. Either way, he bid Owen’s father farewell and ushered the glaring Logan into the study.

As soon as the door was shut, Logan burst out with, “How could you have done this to me?”

Brian Percival looked at Logan down his nose, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “And what exactly have I done to provoke your ire, Mr. Mallory?”

Logan glared at the camp director. “You knew he was a Fire-person,” he huffed.

“Owen?” Brian Percival mused. Logan rolled his eyes and sighed, eliciting a chuckle from the director. “Yes, I knew he had Fire abilities. I thought sending you to be his guide would serve the both of you well.”

“You could have sent anyone from the Fire Cabin!” Logan struggled to keep his voice below a shout. “Margot could have done it, or Diana, or even Greg!”

Brian waited for Logan to calm before he said quietly, “I had rather you two would…ah…balance each other out.”

At the mention of balancing, Logan began to glower even further. “He doesn’t look like a Fire-person. He doesn’t look like he belongs to any of the elements, really.”

Brian Percival began nodding to himself, a half-smile creeping across his lips. “Ah. I see. You feel tricked, yes? You believed he was a Water-person like yourself. Interesting…”

Logan, who had just managed to sit down and stop pacing, sprang back up. “Yes! His hands, they were freezing, and if he was dominant in Fire he should have been warm.”

“You know that not all Fire-people have warm hands, just as not all Water-people are cold. Many Earth balancers have warm bodies as well,” Brian Percival explained patiently. Logan gritted his teeth. His ingrained ideas about balancers were often at odds with Mr. Percival’s.

“But don’t you think…” Logan trailed off as it became apparent that his argument was going to be ignored. Brian Percival kept muttering “Curious,” under his breath. Logan sighed and left. Angry as he was, he knew better than to interrupt the director when he got to thinking.

Logan had been working closely with Brian Percival since he’d arrived at camp at age thirteen. He’d heard the prophecy when he was younger, and like most campers his age, he’d hoped it would be about him. So when Mr. Percival took a liking to him, his imagination raced into overdrive, imagining what it would be like to be the Chosen One. Even his father had been proud, telling Logan that it was a big responsibility to be the Master of the Elements and Brian Percival didn’t choose his fellows lightly. After five years at camp, Logan had done all he could to impress his mentor. But there were some lines he couldn’t bring himself to cross, lest he risk retribution from his father. And being tricked into befriending a Fire boy was not something he would approve of.

Logan stalked out of the house, intending to head back to his cabin, maybe find some of his fellows. He couldn’t believe he had missed the testing the canoe equipment for this. Canoeing was his favorite activity, probably because he got to race his cabin-mates across the lake with his powers. And he always won.

Happy thoughts of canoeing in mind, Logan was very nearly distracted from thinking about Owen. His new content mood was shattered when he saw Owen sitting on the Earth cabin steps with another boy. Logan groaned when he saw the telltale curly hair that did not match the classic Earth body. The misfit Keaton of all people would bring someone of an exclusive element to the steps of his cabin. Logan believed the cabins were a sacred space reserved for those of that dominant element alone.

“So is this the only camp out there for people like us?” Owen was asking Cam.

Cam shook his head. “Nah, Camp Harmony is just for the Southwest region of the United States. But we’re the best camp because we’ve got Mr. Percival. He’s…” Cam trailed off when he caught sight of Logan over Owen’s shoulder. “Hi, Logan.” He ducked his head.

Owen rolled his eyes before standing and facing Logan. The Water boy’s height intimidated Owen, but he couldn’t let it show. He felt like he could take Logan in a fight, anyway. “What do you want?” he asked aggressively. Logan turned his glare into a smirk, angering Owen further. “Look, Logan, I may have only just gotten here, but I’m already sick of your attitude. Tell us what you want or get lost.”

Cam stood up too, looming behind Owen. Logan knew he was about as dangerous as a teddy bear, but his sheer size still made Logan’s smirk slip. “I’m just going to the lake,” Logan said coolly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were in charge of the road here.” Logan pushed past Owen, making sure to nudge him square in the chest. Owen stumbled backwards into Cam. He made to lunge for Logan, though for what purpose was unclear. A tackle to the gravel path would hurt them both, but Owen wasn’t thinking clearly.

Lucky for Logan, Cam placed a hand on Owen’s shoulder, keeping him in place. “Come on, Owen. Let’s go see the Fire Arena.”

Owen tried to shrug off the hand and take a step forwards, but he felt rooted to the ground. He glanced down and saw that the earth had indeed risen around his shoes, pinning him in place. Owen frowned. “You already showed me the–”

“Come on.” Cam yanked him away from Logan, and Owen had no choice but to follow as the ground released his feet. Logan let out a secret sigh of relief as he watched them go down the dirt path behind the girls’ Fire cabin.

Owen followed Cam to the Fire Arena. They had already seen it, but he figured he might as well see it again. He would probably be spending a lot of time there, being a Fire camper. And he supposed the Arena itself was pretty cool. There was a shallow pool of water in the middle for the campers to balance with. Cam had been unfortunately brief on the details of the gladiator-style fights that went down since only Fire campers were allowed to watch them, but from what Cam’s brothers had told him it seemed pretty awesome and more than a little dangerous.

Owen was about to ask Cam about some sort of fight strategy when Cam turned and stopped Owen in his tracks. “Look, I know it’s not my place, seeing how we just met and all, but I think you should try and stay away from Logan.” Cam stopped talking abruptly and twisted his fingers together, making the joints crackle. Owen wrinkled his nose.