by D. Levesque
“But you’re human,” Lahana says, confused.
“Yes, but I am not a human from Boromour,” I say softly, deciding to be honest with them both.
I am close enough to Lahana and Maxil that I doubt the other Elves can hear me. Lahana looks at me skeptically, and Maxil looks at me with open disbelief. He even rolls his eyes, openly. Well, better to be thought of as nuts than as dangerous, right?
Lahana turns back towards the hut, and Maxil motions us in. Leeha motions for me to follow her dad. Marken is about to come in as well, but Leeha puts a hand out on his chest and stops him.
“What?” he says, irritated.
“This is for the adults. Piss off,” she tells him.
“But I live here!” he says with a glare.
“Marken, this is a private conversation between Mom, Dad, and I.”
“And a human!” he growls at her.
“Exactly. Which is why you aren’t going to be here because if you piss Alex off, he is liable to shoot some of those swords through that head of yours,” she tells Marken.
Suddenly Marken looks over at me quickly, as I had stopped walking when I heard Marken. He licks his lips nervously and says, “Fine. But if—,”
“If what? Are you going to take him on?” Leeha says with a raised eyebrow.
“Fucking hell,” he says, and storms out in anger.
“Was that wise?” I ask Leeha when she turns back around.
“My brother is always trying to prove himself, as he is not a magic-user. So he tries to pick fights. Most times, he wins them, especially if they aren’t against magic. I had to remind him of that, that’s all,” she says with a grin. “What happened earlier when you used the word fuck in your language?”
“So,” I tell her awkwardly. “When you accomplish things, do you get something that says in your head you achieved it?”
“What? No,” she snorts. “Wait, are you saying you do?” she now says in open-mouthed astonishment.
“Yeah. I was hoping it was something about this world, but anyhow, we can talk about that later. We should get in there. Your parents are glaring at us,” I tell her, pointing into the hut.
We are standing at the doorway and the room is larger than I expected. I figure it’s about twenty feet across. There are curtained-off areas, but right now the curtains are pulled back and tied off to make the place seem larger. In the middle of the room is a small fire pit, and up in the ceiling, a hole for the smoke to escape.
“Right,” Leeha says, blushing.
She turns around and heads into the room and sits on the other side of the firepit from where her parents are sitting. I come up behind her and sit with her. One thing I miss from Earth is chairs. I mean, there were chairs in Lomar, but they were hard, and made of wood with no cushions. Making myself as comfortable as I can on the ground, I look up, and both parents are glaring at me.
“Leeha, what is the meaning of this,” Lahana asks her daughter, but it’s in a different language than the Elvish we had been speaking outside. It almost sounds like the words Leeha had been singing when I first met her. So Elder Elvish? I guess she thought by speaking another language I would not understand her.
“Don’t bother, Mother,” Leeha says with a laugh. “Alex can understand you.”
“What?” Lahana says in shock, switching back to Elvish.
“I told you he was different. He knows all languages. Ask him a question if you don’t believe me,” Lahana tells her with a grin.
Lahana looks at me suspiciously but finally asks, “Why are you with my daughter?” and I can tell it’s in Elder Elvish.
Bowing to Lahana at the waist, I say, in the same Elder Elvish language, “My intentions are nothing but honorable.”
“No human has ever spoken our Elder tongue before!” Lahana says in shock.
“I don’t believe you speak all languages,” Maxil says, and it’s in a harsh guttural language.
I answer him back in the same language, “I am sorry that you do not believe me,” and I nod to him in respect.
He stares at me in surprise. But then I get a surprise, although thank God I don’t show it.
You have learned a new language. Dwarven.
Holy shit! There are dwarves here too? But, wait. Leeha said that there were the monster races. Hold on! Why did I not get that message when speaking in Prithgarian or Elvish, or Elder Elvish, for that matter?
Turning to her, I ask her, “There are Dwarves here? I thought you said there were Elves, Felinis, Rabinis, Dragonis, Mer, and the other monster races like Orcs, Lizardis, and such? You never mentioned Dwarves.”
With a sad face, Leeha says, “That is because they were killed off ages ago by the humans. We Elves try to keep their memory alive, so we learn their language, or some do. My family is one of them.”
Fucking hell, we humans killed off an entire race? I sigh as I am not shocked anymore at what we can do as a species. “Are there other races that are gone?”
“Many. The story went that when the five Gods created this world, they brought with them 100 species—all equal. But as the Gods gave power to the species, some become corrupted with it,” Lahana says, answering for her daughter.
“And let me guess, those mostly corrupted were humans?” I ask her bitterly.
Lahana nods and bows her head towards me.
“Some species tried to temper the human’s lust for power, but many were betrayed,” Lahana continues emotionally. “The worst of those were the Dwarves, the Gnomes, and we Elves. We barely, as a race, escaped. The Dwarves and Gnomes were not so lucky. Thereafter, humans went on a crusade of clearing the world of anyone but themselves. As the years went on, we Elves became powerful again and even lived in harmony with humans once more, for well over two thousand years. That is, until less than a thousand years ago, when a human became The Elemental Summoner. Little did we know the depth of his greed or his animosity towards us Elves. He destroyed us as a race. Cast us into despair and even marked us as animals,” Lahana says with such bitterness that I can’t help but want to get up and comfort her.
Maxil is the one to continue as Lahana cries, and Leeha goes over to hug her and comfort her. I can see that even she has tears in her eyes.
“For us, it’s still very raw. The humans marked us Elves as nothing better than animals. They eventually looked at other races the same way, but it started with us. At those they didn’t wipe out. As you can imagine, we have no love for you humans. Most humans do not know this history.”
“As history is written by the victor,” I tell him, with anger in my voice.
“Correct. Yet you, a human, feel anger for this. For what has befallen us,” Maxil says, his head tilted.
I sigh and say, “As I said earlier, I am not of this world. My God brought me to this world after, shall we say, an incident in which I died when I wasn’t meant to. I am truly sorry that your people have suffered at humans’ hands, more than you can know. But you must understand, I am nothing like the humans in this world.”
“And how are you different?” Lahana says, wiping tears from her eyes. The question isn’t asked angrily, but sorrowfully.
“Easy. I love your daughter,” I tell her with a soft smile.
“What?” she exclaims in disbelief.
“I love your daughter. Leeha has told me that on Boromour the humans will not do anything with an Elf as it’s the same as fornicating with an animal? Am I correct?”
Lahana only nods but says nothing. I look at Leeha and see she has a big grin on her face. She moves away from her mother and jumps into my arms while I am sitting down, causing me to fly backwards as she plants a great big kiss on my lips. I put my hands around her waist and pull her to me.
“You think they got the message?” I ask Leeha after she pulls away from the kiss.
“You know you need to tell them, right?” she whispers. I sigh, but I have to agree. I need to tell them that I am the Elemental Summoner. I get up with Leeha in my arms and I see that La
hana and Maxil are looking at me in astonishment.
“But, that isn’t the only thing,” I say, nervous about their reaction. I honestly hope they don’t try to kill me outright when they find out that there is yet again a human who is the Elemental Summoner.
“I am also, thanks to my God, an Elemental Summoner,” I say to them.
Chapter Twenty
The look of horror on the faces of Leeha’s parents makes me cringe inside. I was expecting an explosive reaction, so I had Earth cast with my palm on the ground to hide it, and an Earth Shield ready to cast if need be.
“We are doomed,” Lahana says softly, still looking at me in horror.
“No, Mother, we are not. Alex might be our savior,” Leeha says to her mother enthusiastically.
“How?” Lahana asks, focusing on her daughter.
“Because Alex is not from this world, and he hates what has happened, and is still happening, to the races because of the humans,” Leeha tells her mother.
“You mentioned that several times,” Maxil says. “That you aren’t from this world? Then where are you from?” he asks me, skeptically.
Going with what I had told Leeha, as Earth seems to be a magical term here, I nod and tell him, “I am from a place called Terra.”
“And how did you end up here?” Lahana asks, now the skeptical one.
“I died,” I tell her with a sigh.
“You don’t look dead,” she says with a snort of mistrust.
“That is because it seems that it wasn’t my time to die. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. When I found myself standing, actually sitting in my case, in front of my God, he gave me two choices. Put my soul in the body of the person who was meant to die and become that person for the rest of my life, without remembering who I was before. Or come to this world, where there was magic. On my world, we do not have magic,” I explain. “My God also said he would be giving me tools to survive this world. I didn’t expect it to be the ability to use all five Elementals,” I say with a scowl.
“A world without magic?” Maxil says incredulously.
Nodding, I tell him, “I mean, we had stories of Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Fairies, and other things. But to us, they were exactly that. Stories. Our world had technology instead. Things like the steam engine and airplanes.” I pause. Some words don’t have a translation in Elvish, which makes sense. Though it got the first part of airplane, but not the second?
“Steam what?” Lahana asks, confused at the word engine.
“That is what I am trying to say, Mother. The language on Alex’s world is a language of magic somehow. Watch this,” Leeha says. She holds out her hand, and suddenly the Water Elemental appears in the palm of her hand, as it always does. A water globe. Then, she looks at it and says in English, “Make yourself smaller,” and it does. Her parents both gasp in surprise.
Turning to me, Leeha asks, “What is the word for bigger?”
“Bigger,” I tell her.
“Again?” she says, focusing on my lips.
“Bigger,” I say slowly, making sure to enunciate the word.
Nodding, she looks at her palm once more and says, “Make yourself bigger.” The Water Elemental in her hand gets bigger. Again she utters the phrase, and the Water Elemental in the palm of her hand is now twice as large as it was when she started.
“How is that possible!” Lahana cries in amazement.
“We aren’t sure,” I tell her. “When my God put me here, I have a feeling he did it on purpose. You mentioned the five Gods? Can you tell me about them?”
Lahana shakes herself, nods, and begins slowly. “There are the five Gods. Those who rule over the Elementals of Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and Mind. They are the ones who choose who has the gift or not. They are also the ones who control everything, from the weather to the erosion of rock. They are in everything, including us, even those who do not have the gift.”
“Are they called that? Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Mind?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
“That is correct,” Lahana says.
Seriously? How original is that? Then again, my God is called God, so I can’t really say anything. But, if what God said is true about his Angels pretending to be Gods here on his behalf, does it mean more, or am I just reading too much into it? My thoughts are interrupted by Leeha.
“Also, Alex’s language seems to be able to do things with magic that we never thought of,” she tells her parents proudly.
“How so?” Lahana asks cautiously.
“Wait, before you say anything, Leeha, I have a question. You said that the Elves had kept the history of your people? Is there any mention of another Elemental Summoner using new spells?”
“You mean, switching from Water to Fire?” she asks me, confused by my question.
“No, like your Water Sword, or such. I assume everyone has the same magic spells? I mean, your Water Arrow with the ability to pull whatever you hit towards you is amazing. But does it mention these Summoners having new amazing spells that make them stronger?” I ask.
Leeha looks over at her father and asks, “Father? You are the one who knows more of the history than Mom or me?”
Maxil sits and ponders that question before answering. “While what Leeha is doing is different, it’s not a new spell. She is still using the base spell of the Water Arrow. The stories and histories do not mention any new and amazing spells that would make them even more powerful. What makes them powerful is the ability to utilize all five Elementals. Why?” he asks, looking my way with a curious expression.
“Because, as Leeha was about to tell her mother, I can,” I tell them. Lifting one of my hands, I call up Water, and then I think Water Bullets.
Water Bullet spell used. 10 points of water used.
Suddenly six water bullets are floating over my hand. I tell the Water Elemental to get rid of five of them, and somehow they merge back into the palm of my hand in a smaller globe form and I am left with one floating bullet. I then make a gun with my hand, with one finger sticking out and my thumb pointing up. I point at a patch of dirt on the ground a little away from me on the left, and I ‘shoot’ it. Suddenly there is a small clap of thunder, and the ground sprays up in a geyser of dirt from the impact.
Lahana and Maxil both jump to their feet and back up about four feet from the firepit where we are sitting.
“What the Gods was that!” Maxil is the first one to find his ability to speak again, holding Lahana in his arms. I look over and see some fear in her eyes.
“That is what I call Water Bullets,” I tell them. “Your daughter knows how to do them now as well. They are not limited to just Water, either. I am one hundred percent sure you will be able to use them with your own Fire ability,” I say, looking at Lahana with a soft smile.
“Wait,” Lahana says slowly. “Leeha knows that spell? And how did you go from six of those things to one?”
“Ah, that was me. I figured shooting six of them would be too much, so I asked my Elemental to take five of them away,” I say with a silly smile.
“What?” blurts out Leeha in surprise.
“Well, remember how I asked if Elementals were alive?” I ask her. She nods, so I go on. “So, I thought I would ask it to remove them. It seemed natural. I thought about the stories on my world about how Summoners would control or talk to their Elementals. I mean, it might be wishful thinking on my part, but I feel a connection with my Elementals, almost like they are waiting for a command. Like this. I wanted to try this from the start.” I hold my palm up and think, Water.
Once the globe is in my hand, I say, “Hey, buddy. Can you change shape? Can you change into a small water guy?” I ask it. I’m not sure how, but I get a feeling of yes, and the water globe turns into a small man-shaped water Elemental, with features and everything. It’s a tiny me. “Maybe not of me,” I tell it with a chuckle. It changes to look like Maxil, and again, I say, “No, use your own imagination.” Then it changes again, and it’s no one I know.
&nbs
p; “See?” I say, holding it up. Maxil and Lahana are both looking at me in wonder. Turning to Leeha, I see the same expression on her face.
“How is that possible!” yells Leeha in surprise.
“I don’t know. No one ever thought of talking to their Elementals?” I ask around, and everyone is shaking their heads.
“What language was that you were speaking, Alex?” Lahana asks me. “It felt powerful and resonated somehow.”
“Ah, that would be English, the language from my world, or one of the languages. Like here, my world has many different languages.”
“Do you think it was your language that did that?” Leeha asks me, unsure.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you try it in your language? Call up your Water Elemental and ask it to change shape. I just asked mine to change into a man-shaped one. As you saw, it tried my features and then your father’s, but I told it to use its own imagination,” I say with a laugh.
Leeha looks uncertain as she looks at her parents. They just look right back at her, looking uncertain as well. Nodding as if coming to a decision, she holds her hand out, and suddenly there is a Water Elemental globe rotating slowly in her hand.
She takes a deep breath and says, “Change shape into a woman-shaped one.” But then she blurts out, “But don’t look like anyone here.”
The Water Elemental in her hand doesn’t do anything. Leeha looks at me with a pout and says, “Guess that didn’t work.”
“All right, try repeating after me word for word while focusing on your Water Elemental. Change shape into a woman-shaped one that does not look like anyone here,” I tell her, and she repeats all the words exactly as I say them, slowly.
Suddenly the ball in her hand distorts and then it changes into a female-shaped Water Elemental, just like the one in my hand had. Leeha is staring at it in wonder and awe. I look over and see both her parents staring at her with the same expression that she is giving the new Water Elemental.
“Did you want to try, Lahana?” I ask her with a smile.
“What?” she says, her eyes flicking to me from her daughter in surprise.
