Inferno : Elements Series Book One

Gwen

I’m almost at the corridor when I sense Garret behind me and I slip into the nearest room. It’s a large open room with a huge window that takes up most of one wall. There’s no glass in it so I go over and sit down on the edge, dangling my feet out of the window and staring out at the view. I hear the door open and someone quietly shuffles in.

“Um, hi, Gwen.” I turn and see Garret standing nervously in front of the closed door. I stand up and face him, placing my hands on my hips and arching an eyebrow at him. He looks uncomfortable and I decide to put him out of his misery.

“Hello, Garret.”

He smiles shyly at me and relaxes a little bit.

“I’m sorry about that. I could see that you were completely taken by surprise. They should never have ambushed you like that.”

“No,” I reply. “They definitely shouldn’t have. I barely trust any of you as it is, shit like that certainly doesn’t help.”

There are people outside the door and I know Derek, Hank and Jasper have figured out that I’m in here talking to Garret.

“We have eavesdroppers.”

“Don’t let it worry you, they probably can’t hear anything,” he’s lying. We both know they can hear just fine. “Gwen, with the trees in the other room, how did you do it?”

I’m momentarily surprised by his question and then I remember that he’s the plant guy. Of course he’ll be interested.

“I located all the seeds that I could. Some were ancient,” I say distractedly. “Speaking of plants! Don’t let anyone destroy them. Some are probably extinct in our time. Anyway, I located them and then fed them all some of my magic and energy. I also took water out of the air and soil and moved it to each individual seed. After that it was up to them. Whether they grew or remained dormant was their decision.”

He looks a little shocked, then his face split’s into a huge grin.

“That-wow! Gwen that’s incredible!” he says. I find myself smiling with him. His excitement is contagious. “Well, it’s pretty clear that I will definitely be able to train you. Or maybe you can train me!”

“I guess so.”

I’ve calmed down a bit now, Garret is easy to talk to but I’m still pretty mad. I look out of the window again and think. Do I want to go back? I can’t trust them not to try and ambush me again. I don’t even trust that Derek didn’t know that Jasper had planned an attack like that or even that it wasn’t supposed to be like that. It’s all ridiculous. What sort of person just arranges for a group of people to attack someone they don’t know? I hear Garret cough quietly, one of those little fake coughs to grab someone’s attention, and I turn to look at him again. He hasn’t moved, respecting my space. I appreciate it and remember my apartment.

“Thank you for my apartment. It’s incredible. The lilies, the door, the curtains, the bed, the walls; the list is endless. It’s amazing.”

He beams at me, a grin that lights up his whole face.

“You are most welcome. I had a lot of fun putting it together,” he says and then, seeming to remember something important, continues. “I’m going to need your help getting those warriors free from your plants. I’m not sure how you did it, so I’m not all that sure how to reverse it.”

I think I’d rather leave them where they are but I nod to him and follow him out the door anyway, my earlier bad mood returning when I see Derek, Hank and Jasper waiting in the hallway. I just keep walking, following Garret back to the huge arena where my forest is. The rational part of my brain thinks that they didn’t do anything wrong, it’s only natural to want to test someone’s strengths and weaknesses, but that’s only about 2% of my brain. The other 98% just can’t wrap itself around how they could ever think that just attacking someone is perfectly fine. My head begins to cloud as I walk and the closer I get to the door the more lightheaded I begin to feel and the stronger the smell of fire and smoke becomes. As I re-enter the room I see why. The woman I trapped inside the tree is trying to burn her way out and I’m not lightheaded at all, I can feel the trees energy and right now it’s practically screaming at me.

“Stop!”

The word is out of my mouth before I can stop it and without even realising I begin to run towards the tree.

“Stop burning it! Can’t you feel it dying?!” I have to stop the flames and heal the bark; the energy coming from this tree is going to tear my soul in half. I extinguish the flames and for good measure, I pin the girls hand to the bark.

“Stop trying to kill it! I can get you out but stop trying to burn the tree. Why can’t you feel it dying?!”

She stops moving, a look of shock on her face and I let her go, fully prepared to pounce on her should she try to set it on fire again.

Garret is by my side, trying to calm me down again I think, but I can’t register his words just yet. All I can think of are the trees and the vines and the damage that these savages are doing to them. Don’t they understand that they’re alive? And I startle myself out of my own thoughts. How do I know that they’re alive? I’ve never been able to sense trees before, let alone feel them dying. I turn to Garret and cut him off mid-sentence. I have no idea what he was trying to say but it just doesn’t matter right now.

“Garret, I can feel them. Why can I feel them? Can you feel them? Is this another weird thing that is going to make all of you look at me like I’m some sort of freak?”

He looks a little shocked by my outburst but he composes himself and answers my question.

“I can feel them, but only so much as to know that they’re alive. That’s the extent that we can feel them, but you sound very afraid. What is it that you feel?”

What is it that I feel? Life? Energy? I just don’t know how to explain it. I feel my face scrunch up in concentration trying to figure it out when I feel Garret shyly peek into my thoughts.

“I’m so sorry if I’m intruding but it seems like you might find it easier to show me from here.”

Yes, I definitely find this easier. I focus my mind on the trees, bringing their lives to the forefront of my thoughts once more and register surprise and joy in Garret’s.

“Gwen, this is amazing. You can really feel it. I can feel it too but not like you can. I know that it’s alive and I can feel its energy, to an extent, but you can see everything. You know how badly damaged it is, just by connecting to its energy. This is absolutely magnificent!”

I wince as the guy hanging from the ceiling tries to cut his way free with a knife that he must have had concealed and Garret comes to my rescue, sensing the plants distress in my mind.

“Stop. Gwen can get you free but don’t harm the plants. She’s connected to them and feels everything you do.”

“What!” Hank and Jasper say in unison. It would be funny under other circumstances. I begin wondering why Derek hasn’t said anything, which is when I register the fact that he’s been in my head this whole time. I’ve just been too distracted to notice. He shrugs and gives me a shy smile. I don’t mind, it saves me explaining all this to him later when he’s undoubtedly going to interrogate me.

“Um, Gwen?” says a small voice behind me and I realise it is the girl in the tree. “Sorry, you’re clearly working through something here. My name is Anya. I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but could you please get me out of this tree?”

She doesn’t sound like I expected her to at all. She’s about my age and when she isn’t running at me with a sword and screaming a battle cry she seems to be quite small and shy. Right, she’s stuck in a tree.

“You’ll need to hang in there for just a bit longer. I have to heal the burns and make the tree healthy again before I can ask it to let you out.”

“Sorry,” says Jasper. “Did you just say that you have to ask the tree to let her out? It’s a tree, it isn’t going to respond.”

As if I didn’t think badly enough of him already?

“This tree is a living organism. It has needs and energy and a life. For people who seem to be so connected to the elements and the Earth I am genuinely surprised by how little a connection you actually have.”

“What would you know about being an elemental? As far as I know you’ve only known we existed for a week!” It’s the guy hanging from the ceiling. I can’t blame him for being moody. I can blame him for being a dick though.

“Just because she is new to this life does not mean that she is any less connected to it than any of us,” says Garret. “A fact she seems to have stated loudly and clearly when she trusted her abilities and defended herself during your callous and completely unwarranted attack, Howard.”

I’m really beginning to like Garret.

“We can stand here all day and talk about it but I, for one, would really like to see how Gwen gets you guys out,” says Derek.

I take that as my cue and step towards the tree; I have no idea what sort of tree it is but it’s huge and beautiful. I place my palm flat against its charred bark and a shudder runs through me as I recognise its pain. I feel that now familiar energy surge through my veins and watch as the tree becomes whole again. I smile, feeling its energy return to normal and step back.

“You can let her go now,” I say. "I am safe. Thank you for protecting me."

I don’t know why I spoke to the tree, I don’t think it was necessary but the bark begins to shift anyway and, within a few moments, Anya is standing in front of me. Relief floods her face as she steps away. She says a shy thank you to me and walks over to stand by Derek; they seem to know each other. Maybe they’ve trained together?

“Hey, how about getting the rest of us out?” It’s the guy hanging from the ceiling, Howard. I find his attitude to be quite lacking. He is about ten feet off the ground, not far enough up to seriously hurt an Elemental should he fall flat on his face.

“Let him go,” I say to the vine and listen to the satisfying THUMP! as he hits the ground and I hear Derek stifle a laugh. Next I walk over and kneel by the two Warriors who are restrained on the floor. I place my palms on the vines and they begin to slide away, allowing them to wriggle free and walk away warily. The vines reach up momentarily, caressing my face or wrapping around my hands as though they are holding them, before lowering themselves back to the ground. Everyone is looking at the plants a bit nervously and I smile to myself. Serves them right.

“Great,” says Howard. “Do you have any idea how much of a bitch it’s going to be to clear these trees out of the arena?! You seriously overreacted! You weren’t in any danger, we weren’t going to kill you, you idiot!”

“Howard, don’t be so rude,” says Anya. “She didn’t know that she wasn’t in any danger. That was the point of this little exercise that you put together. You wanted to see how she would react instinctively. You got what you wanted, you’re just mad that she beat you up.”

Anya is quiet, yet forceful. I think she would be a real force to be reckoned with, but I quite like her.

“She can speak for herself, Anya. She has a mouth, let her explain this on her own.”

He looks back at me and for the first time since I got here I have absolutely no desire to respond to someone and I don’t think I need to. I turn away from him and walk into the centre of my little plant explosion.

“Hey! Don’t you dare walk away, I’m talking to you.”

“Actually,” somehow I manage to maintain a blank expression. “You were talking to Anya, who doesn’t deserve your attitude.”

I sit down in the middle of the forest, flowers blooming all around me, where a small meadow seems to have grown and look at everyone, waiting to see what’s going to happen next. Derek comes to sit in the meadow too, followed by Garret and the others. Apparently they’re a bit apprehensive because they stand on the opposite side from me.

“So, some morning,” says Jasper. Derek and Anya come to sit beside me while the other girl, Melinda, Howard and the second guy, Nathan, stay standing beside Jasper. I have no idea what I’m expected to say or do so I just sit and wait, as awkward as I’ve ever been. Anya takes pity on me, I think, and starts to talk.

“I think we should probably apologise,” she says. “This exercise clearly got out of hand. I certainly wasn’t aware that we would be doing this to someone who had no idea they were to be involved in any sort of test.”

I think about what she’s said. It seemed even Jasper was surprised by the way his trainees came at me, so I wonder who was in charge of setting it up.

“Why did you all decide to attack me? My trust in you people is flimsy at best, did you honestly think jumping me would be a good idea, or did you just not give a shit about anything other than what you wanted to see?”

Anya flinches, making me feel slightly guilty as I hear the barely concealed rage still in my voice, but I make no move to mask it.

“I was asked to put together a training exercise. If I had known I was going to be testing an inexperienced and emotional little girl, I would have arranged for a teddy bear picnic. Next time-“

“Don’t you even finish that sentence Howard,” growls Jasper. “I told you to set up a basic scenario, you decided to attack her full on with three of my best trainees, yourself and weapons. You were stupid and you completely disregarded what I asked of you.”

I’m shocked that Jasper has come to my defence, but nowhere near as shocked as Howard.

“I think you should all leave,” says Hank.

I look to Anya. She’s the only other person I’ve met who I’ve actually liked, which is saying something considering she was swinging a sword at me not twenty minutes ago. Without her sword I see that she is small and petite with a pixie like appearance and bright green eyes, similar to mine. Her hair is jet black and cut into a stylish pixie cut.

“Anya should stay,” says Derek. “I think it would be good for Gwen to have someone around who hasn’t pissed her off.”

“Thank you,” I speak to his mind, I know he’s still in mine which is what prompted him to speak out on Anya’s behalf. Hank nods and the others leave. Howard slams the door on the way out.

I take a moment to inspect the new markings on my forearms. There are intricate, living vines that are growing and flourishing within my skin. I watch as new leaves unfurl and new flower buds bloom.

I turn to Garret and gesture towards my arms.

“Do you know what this is?”

“May I?” he asks. I nod and he stands, moving closer and sitting down to my right. He looks at the vines, running his fingers over the leaves and I feel him using some sort of energy to inspect them, but he just comes away looking puzzled.

“Are they hurting you?”

“No,” I reply immediately. “It’s like the water that’s around my wrists. It feels like it was always meant to be there, like it was some sort of missing puzzle piece that’s fallen into place.”

I turn to look at the others. Anya is looking, seemingly transfixed, at the water pattern. She sees me looking at her and blushes.

“I’m sorry. I’m a water user and I’m just completely stunned. It’s beautiful,” she looks to Hank and Jasper. “Do either of you know anything about these?”

“No,” replies Hank. Damn. I was hoping for some answers. “We have someone looking into it though. We have records going back almost three thousand years and each refuge has their own records as well, some going back much farther. We’re searching for anything connected to you at all, actually.”

I wander what sorts of things they have in their records.

“It’s full of birth, death, ability and historical records. It’s our history. There’s a lot of information, which is why you are so perplexing. We can’t find any mention of you or your family in any of them,” says Derek.

That’s news to me.

“Nothing at all?”

“Nothing.”

So, according to their mystical records, I don’t exist. Fantastic.

“So,” says Jasper, interrupting my thoughts. “If you’re up for it maybe we can get on with what were supposed to be talking about this morning?”

I’m a lot calmer sitting in the meadow so I motion for him to continue and lean back on my hands, listening.

“The point of the exercise I wanted to put together was to see how you would react if attacked. Hank and Derek said that you had some experience in combat. Can I ask what that experience might be?”

“Combat,” I say, testing the word and its connotations. “No, I don’t have any experience in combat. When you say it like that you make it sound like I regularly run into battle screaming war cries. I take martial arts classes for fun a few days a week with my trainer.”

He looks surprised.

“You fight for fun? You don’t do it for self-defence or competition?”

What am I supposed to say to that? I shrug in response. I really do only do it because I enjoy it.

“I’ve trained with a few different martial arts, but kick-boxing and judo were the best.”

He’s shaking his head at me.

“It’s not her only experience,” says Derek. “The convenience store she works at was held up last month. Three huge men, two guns, a large knife and they had already stabbed her in the ribs. She crossed them off without a hitch. She didn’t even have any abilities at that point; in fact, it was the robbery that triggered them in the first place.”

They all turn to look at me with the same expression of disbelief on their face, but I don’t feel like talking to them about any of that. It’s in the past and no, I’m not traumatized, so there is no need to keep bringing it up and acting like it’s the most shocking event in Earths’ history. I’m not the first person to be stabbed or held at gunpoint and, unfortunately, I’m not going to be the last either.

“Have you worked out whatever this training program is that you want me to participate in?” I say to get them back on track. I just want to go back to my amazing apartment and float around the lake in my room for a while, or maybe go explore the river. I’m tired of their shenanigans and just want to be left alone to think for a while.

“Sure,” says Hank. “Well, we now know that you will also be training with Garret, which means that we have to try and work up a schedule that allows you to train with everyone. So, I’m thinking we do a different thing each day. Say, four to six hours of training each day, with each day focusing on a different ability?” He looks to Jasper and Garret to see if this sounds okay.

“We should dedicate this arena to her training, that way we don’t have to destroy this beautiful garden that she’s created,” says Garret.

“That will work,” replies Jasper. “This arena, for the most part, is unused. My trainees use it every now and then but they’ll just have to use their regular arena or train outside.”

“It’s settled then. Meet here at about ten am Monday to Saturday and you can have Sundays off,” confirms Hank.

“We’ll need to modify the place a bit. Add a lake, open up one of the walls to get some air flow and add a few other things so that she can train with every element in here.”

“Sounds good to me,” I say, getting up to leave.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“Well, we sorted out a training schedule and you said that Sunday would be a day off. It’s Sunday, so I’m going to go and have that day off.”