by D. Levesque
“Makes sense,” she says with a thoughtful look, gazing up at me. “How did you want to do it?”
Turning so that I am facing her knee to knee, I say, “Hold out whatever hand you normally use to call up your Water Elemental, and call it up.”
Leeha holds out her right hand and her Water Elemental is there. “Now, hold out your left hand, and I want you to repeat after me,” I tell her, putting out my right hand and saying, “Fire.” A Fire Elemental appears in the palm of my hand, but instead of a globe, it is man-shaped. It turns to me and nods. What the fuck? I nod back to it automatically.
I glance over at Leeha and she is staring at the Fire Elemental in surprise. She looks down at hers and says, “Change yourself into a woman-shaped one,” and just as before, it changes into a shapely Water Elemental. Leeha looks back up, sees me looking at her, and blushes. “I wanted mine to look cute too!” she says defensively.
“That’s fine,” I tell her with a laugh. “Now, repeat after me. Fire.”
Leeha holds out her left hand and says, “Fire,” and she gets it right on the first go. But nothing happens. “Try again, but say it in your head this time,” I tell her. She squints her eyes at her open left palm, but again, nothing happens.
Leeha sighs and says, “I guess it was too much to think it would work.”
I can tell she is disappointed. I can’t blame her. Though, if others ever hear the words for all the other Elementals in my language, we might have more than one Elemental Summoner running around. Not sure I am keen on that.
Nodding, I say, “We tried. I figured God would not allow it, but we had to test it. Sorry,” I say, patting Leeha’s leg as she is pouting at me. Turning to face Marken again, I see that he is waiting eagerly. “So, fire?”
Nodding, he says, “Yes, please!” his eyes riveted to me.
“Very well. So just like your sister did, put out your dominant hand.” I look at Lahana for confirmation that that is what they do when they first start learning magic. She nods her head approvingly. Once Marken has his right palm out, I start teaching him to say Fire. I make sure to enunciate the word slowly, but I say it four times, each time faster than the last, until the last time, where I say it in a normal voice. “Got it?”
He nods and takes a deep breath, staring only at his open palm. Then, with a very thick accent, Marken utters, “Fire.”
Suddenly Marken grabs his right wrist as if he’s in pain, and he starts screaming. I look down at his hand and see that it’s blistering. Shit, that must fucking hurt! The skin is bubbling and blistering, but it’s not breaking. Maxil rushes over with a piece of wood and puts it into his son’s mouth.
“Bite on this,” he tells him quickly.
“Shit,” Lahana says, slapping her forehead twice, “I forgot about this part!”
“Yeah, so did I,” Maxil says, looking embarrassed as he pats his son’s back, as he is still hunched over in pain.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask worriedly. I am on my knees at this point, ready to go offer aid.
“When someone comes into their power, it bursts through their dominant hand. It’s actually quite painful. Most parents know their children have gotten the gifts because they wake up from their child’s screams,” Lahana says, blushing now. “I had not thought about it ‘til it started happening,” she says worriedly, looking at her son.
“How long does it last for?” I ask her, looking at Marken, concerned now as his whole hand is bubbling, not just the palm.
“When I went through it, as mine was Fire as well, it was pretty fast. I am not sure what is going on,” she says, turning to look at me quickly.
“Can we heal his hand?” I ask.
“Heal it?” Lahana asks me, perplexed.
“Doesn’t magic heal? There isn’t any healing magic here?” I ask her.
Lahana shakes her head and says, “That is an art we lost so long ago that it’s nothing more than a myth now. The best I can do with my Fire Elemental is cauterize a wound. But true healing? No one has that ability, Alex. And right now, I dearly wish I did,” she says, looking back down at her son, with tears in her eyes.
“Marken,” I bark to him. He looks at me with pain-filled eyes, the stick still in his mouth. “I need you to say Fire again. To make it go away.”
He shakes his head no violently.
“Marken! It’s causing you nothing but pain.” Again, he shakes his head.
Shit, I need to do something! He won’t listen, and I can’t make him. He needs that Fire Elemental to come out somehow, but it’s not making it through the skin of his palm. Think Alex. What can you do? Nothing! Since I have no fucking clue how magic works! Fuck it.
“Fire,” I say, with my right palm out. When my little Fire Elemental is in my hands and looking up at me, I point to Marken and ask it, “Can you do anything to help him? I got him to try to call up a Fire Elemental, and now it’s not able to break through his palm. All it’s doing is burning his hand. Please, is there anything you can do, if you even understand me?”
The little Elemental looks over at Marken and then looks back up at me and nods. Then it’s gone. When I look over at Marken, it’s floating over his palm. Marken’s eyes widen in fear.
“It’s all right, Marken! It’s mine!” I yell at him. He looks over at me, and there is near panic in his eyes. “I asked it to help you. Let it, all right?” Marken doesn’t react right away, but finally he nods.
My Fire Elemental slowly sinks towards Marken’s hand, and I can see that he wants to snatch his hand away. I am sure he is expecting more pain, but somehow he manages to keeps it there. My Elemental lands on his palm, and Marken flinches and closes his eyes. But then he opens them wide in surprise.
Then, my Elemental spreads across his palm until finally, it’s surrounding his entire hand, but Marken isn’t crying out in pain. If anything, the pain in his eyes is gradually fading away. Slowly, with shaky hands, Marken reaches up and pulls the stick away from his mouth. As he does, I can see the teeth marks on it.
“How?” he asks, looking at me in surprise.
“The pain is gone?” I ask him hesitantly.
“Yes,” he answers, taking a deep, shaky breath. “I thought when it was about to land on my hand that it would burn me, but it didn’t. And now, the pain in my hand is gone somehow. Ow!” Marken screams suddenly.
We all look down at his palm, and my Elemental leaves his hand and floats away. Instead, what is in the middle of his palm makes us all stare in amazement.
Marken has tears running down his face, but he is grinning at the same time. He looks at me and says, “It worked!”
Without warning, his eyes roll into his head and he falls back, his own Fire Elemental fading. His father, thank God, is there to catch him. Lahana is there as well. I am about to rush over to help him, but Leeha puts her hand on my arm.
“My brother is good,” she says, and there are tears of joy in her eyes. “This happens to everyone who is given the magic ability. Once the pain subsides and the Elemental comes through, we all pass out.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“So what happens now?” I ask, looking over to the area where Marken is sleeping.
Once he passed out, Maxil lifted him and brought him over to the normally curtained side of the tent. Lahana had pulled out a sleeping mat of some sort and placed it down, and Maxil had gently placed his son on it, making sure his hand was hanging over the side. Lahana had then pulled the curtain down, hiding him from us. But I still saw his hand. And it was an issue. Marken’s hand looked burned and blistered, like he had placed his palm into a vat of oil.
Maxil takes a sip of his coffee. It seems even the Elves out here have it! Lahana had opened a wooden cover that was over a hole in the ground and reached in, bringing out a clay pot and offering it to me. I had looked at it oddly ‘til she laughed and said it was milk. However, when I put it into my coffee, it was more like cream; it was thick! I take a sip, and enjoy its rich, bold taste.
“Then it was my pleasure. Though, I am worried about Marken’s hand. From the way it looks, it will be disfigured. On my world, I would know what to do, or at least what ointments and such to use to ease the pain, or at least I’d be able to bring him to a doctor to help him,” I say with a sigh that is partly guilt-ridden. I do feel responsible since I did this to him by offering him magic.
“You are not responsible for this, Alex,” Lahana says, looking at me crossly. I look back at her, and can’t get over how hot she is, even for an older Elf. If this is what Leeha will look like as she ages? Fucking hell, I am a lucky man.
“My mother is right,” Leeha says from next to me, her head leaning on my arm. “What you did for him is nothing short of a miracle. He knew going in there might be risks. He will need to learn to live with his hand being like that. What he gained, I am sure he would say, was worth it.”
“I just wish I could do something about it,” I tell her with a sigh.
“And what is a dock tour?” Leeha asks me.
“On my world we have these people, who, while they don’t use magic to heal, they can use science. We call them doctors in my language. There are lotions, creams, and ointments we have that would help him. Sometimes if a burn is severe, we would, well, do other things,” I say, deciding not to get into skin graphs and such.
“We do have some creams, but they are expensive and only available in the human cities,” Maxil says bitterly. “But they would never use them on us ‘animals’ or even allow us to buy any.”
“So these myths of yours about healing? Do they say how it was done?” I ask Leeha, Maxil, and Lahana. “I assume they used magic? But what Elemental?”
“We aren’t sure. We do know the stories talk about magic being used, but that’s all. Not which one, or how,” Lahana says, once again looking over at the sleeping area where Marken is. Turning back to me, she asks, “Are you hungry?”
“I am good—” I start to say, but then my stomach decides to call me a liar.
“Ah,” Lahana says with a light laugh. “Let us make you supper, and we can eat.”
Once the meal was done, it had already gotten dark outside. Leeha and I are lying down on the opposite side of the yurt, as I am calling it. Her parents are on the other side, with Marken. He moans in pain every now and then, but he never wakes up. I feel so fucking shitty for him. I know we are all adults, and he agreed to do this, but still. I just caused someone major pain.
Leeha is already asleep next to me, snoring lightly. She keeps telling me she doesn’t snore but when I tell her that her snoring is quite cute, she looks at me all offended, and I can’t help but laugh at her. I sit up slowly, so as not to wake her up, and I lean against a pole that is part of the structure of the yurt.
So they used to have the power to heal with magic, but they lost it. Not just the Elves, but from what it sounds like, all of Boromour. But which Elemental would it be? Fire? I mean, Lahana says she can cauterize a wound with it, but that’s not healing. What can you do with Water? Air. Or even Mind? How the fuck would Earth even get involved in healing if it’s all about plants and dirt? The last thing you want in an open wound is dirt.
I bring up my right hand and think Fire. When the Elemental is in my hand, I tell it to tone down its flame and not be so bright. I don’t want to wake Leeha.
I hold the Fire Elemental up to my face and say quietly in English, “Man, I wish you could talk,” with a sigh.
The Elemental is in its man-shape again. I have noticed I don’t need to ask it to transform anymore. I look at it and it points to its head and then points at me. I stare at it oddly and try to figure out what the fuck it is asking. I knew it! These things are more than just tools for magic; they can understand us!
“You understand me?” I whisper to it excitedly.
It nods to me, and again, it points to its head and then to me. What is it asking? Its head and me? No, wait, its head and my head? I bring my face closer until I am almost touching it. It reaches out and touches my forehead.
Suddenly I feel intense pain and heat in my head, but before I can react, the pain goes away.
You have connected with your Fire Elemental.
“I am sorry about the pain,” says a voice in my head. It sounds female and I almost hear a crackling in the background, like there’s a fire raging.
“Huh?” I say out loud.
“We can converse mind to mind. You do not need to speak out loud,” it says, looking down at Leeha. “So we do not wake her.”
“How?” I whisper.
“Just think of your words, as if you are talking to me,” says the female voice.
“Hello?” I say tentatively, using a pathway that ‘til now I didn’t know existed. Holy fuck, this is so cool! When I spoke, I could actually tell that my inner voice was going somewhere. I also realize she is speaking back to me in English!
“Hello,” she says again, waving to me from my palm.
“Fucking hell, who are you?” I ask her, stunned.
“I am your Fire Elemental,” she says, giggling, and even putting up a hand to her fiery face.
“Do you have a name?” I ask her.
“Fire Elemental,” she asks me, confused.
“That’s it?” I ask her with a raised eyebrow. “Fire Elemental? So are you the same Fire Elemental as Leeha’s mom has?” I ask, pointing across the room.
The Fire Elemental looks over that way and shakes her head. “No. Different. Also, Fire Elemental,” she says, after turning back to me.
“So if you are different, shouldn’t you have a different name?” I ask her.
“Never had a name. I am new. Different, than hers,” she says, pointing back across the room at Lahana.
“Different? How? You said that twice now. And how come you look like a male, but your voice is female?” I ask her, disoriented at hearing a female voice come from a male body.
Suddenly she transforms into a female-shaped body. “Because when I was created, you had the shape of a male in your mind,” she tells me. “As for being different. I feel stronger than the one in her,” again pointing to Lahana. “My power is somehow more primal?” she says, but that last part comes out sounding confused and unsure.
“Can her Fire Elemental also speak?” I ask her.
“Yes. Though she does not understand the language we are speaking, so communication would be impossible,” she says, nodding.
“But wait. I am speaking to you in English. How are you able to understand English?” I ask her.
She cocks her head sideways at me and says, “I do not know what this English is, but I am speaking the language of magic.”
Holy fucking hell! I was right! English is a magical language. But how did it get on Earth? Man, I would kill for a wiki with answers right now.
“So, primal how?” I ask her, remembering something else she said.
“I am not sure,” she says, shrugging her tiny fiery shoulders.
“We need to give you a name,” I say out loud. Leeha stirs but doesn’t wake up. “Oops. Not used to talking in my head,” I tell her sheepishly.
“What name do you wish to give me?” she asks me.
“I,” but then I pause, trying to think of names. I was about to say I have no clue. But I am sure I can come up with something that is related to fire. Then it hits me, and I grin down at her.
“What?” she says nervously.
“Bridget,” I tell her.
“Bridget?” she says hesitantly.
I nod to her with a smile on my face. “On my world, there was a Goddess of Fire named Bridget. I think she was either Irish or Scottish. I can’t reme
mber. It was in a book I was reading before I got transported here. I never finished the book.”
Congratulations. You have named your Fire Elemental, Bridget.
Congratulations. Achievement! Naming something for no reason!
You have received 1 Heavenly Token.
Heavenly Tokens: 6 of 200.
How the hell did I get a Heavenly Token for naming a Fire Elemental but not for giving Marken access to an Elemental?
You have received 2 Heavenly Tokens.
Heavenly Tokens: 8 of 200.
What the fuck! Did he just forget and is now giving it to me? Wow, my God needs to figure out this shit system if he wants to bring this to another world, I think with a frown.
You have lost 1 Heavenly Token.
Heavenly Tokens: 7 of 200.
Whoa, whoa! I am sorry, I shout in my head.
You have received 1 Heavenly Token.
Heavenly Tokens: 8 of 200.
Point taken. Don’t piss off my God. Though, thanks for that.
I look down at my Fire Elemental Bridget, who is looking up at me patiently. “Sorry, I was getting things from my God.”
“I know,” she says casually.
“What?” I say to her in surprise.
“I know as I am connected to you and your magical connections. I can see what you see. Hear what you hear,” Bridget says.
“Then can you explain why I am getting them?” I ask her.
“Of course,” she says.
“What?” I ask her, surprised again. “Why?”
“Because God is testing you,” she says.
“Is that what he said?” I ask her slowly.
“He doesn’t know I am connected to you this way and can see what he is doing,” she says. Suddenly, her flame flares and then darkens again.
“Oops. He does now,” she says, irked.
“Oh,” I tell her, disappointed.
“But he is telling me to tell you,” and her voice changes to the voice of the God I spoke to on the porch after I died. The voice of the old man. “Stop worrying and enjoy this world. As for my plans for you, as I said, one day I will need someone to watch over a world for me. Think of this as the interview.”
