Episode 4 + 2 - Human
550 Words
So we made it to the poor house.
I panted with hands on knees outside. Chest burning. Legs shaking. Not from distance. From lack.
Ayla laughed at me saying I only ran a little and I was all exhausted.
It wasn't the run. Elementos don't tire from motion. We tire from using the land. Today the land gave nothing. No air to fill my lungs. No earth to steady my legs. I ran as a human would - oxygen burning, muscles screaming, heart hammering against ribs. Powerless feels like drowning on dry ground.
We stood side by side. Water pooled at our feet.
We looked a bit at the rainstorm outside through the open door. She finally closed it. We sighed. The sound hit the walls and died.
She said now in her usual self, bright, "thought you wouldn't show again."
Me still feeling unusually weak, wondering what went wrong with me. I said before I knew it, absent-minded, "me too."
Ayla mother showed behind them with her usual straight face, "hot porridge?"
We exchanged glances. Ayla's, convincing. Mine, undecided.
Minutes later, I was seated at a wooden dining table with them. Eating.
I shrugged the heavy cloak off my shoulders because the heat inside pressed down.
The necklace stayed hidden under cloth. If they saw it pulse, if they saw the stone glow, questions would follow.
I faked a cough a bit amidst taking up a spoon of food and it splashed on my cloth.
Ayla offered to get me a napkin but I said I'd get it myself so she told me where to.
"Second door. Left of the hearth," she said, "But you look worse than the rain."
I didn't answer. My hands were still trembling.
Not from cold. From absence.
I needed space.
Along the way I searched for a mirror. The house was small. Walls pressed close on every side. The air felt thick. I found one. Cracked glass. Dark corners. I looked weak. Hollow-eyed. Skin too pale. Something was off. Not the rain. Not the run. Something deeper. Something fundamental.
I unbuttoned my inner clasps to see the necklace. The chain slipped free. Heavier than it should be. I lifted it to the light.
My gaze deepened at the necklace reflection and I asked, "What are you?" The stone pulsed once. Dull. Not power. Warning.
Later, I joined them again. Ayla's mother wouldn't stop giving me scrutinizing looks. Eyes sharp. Measuring. Calculating.
Like she could sense something was off. She watched my hands. My posture. The way I held the spoon like it might shatter.
Especially when I misstepped and fell on my hands. My balance betrayed me. No wind to catch my fall.
She caught my wrist before I hit the floor. Her grip was firm. Her frown, firmer. Her silence was loudest.
The rain showed no sign of stopping so I had to spend the night and was given a bathroom. Heat pressed against my ribs.
I had just taken a night bath moved to a wall mirror casually. Water dripped from my hair onto bare skin. I looked casually then I saw it. My heart hammering like I'd explode. It can't be. I gazed astounded at my reflection. My shoulder. My right shoulder.
The sigil is missing. It's gone. I'm human.
- Writer
