Battle of the Elements
Chapter 26 Jake

We made our way through the thick of trees, Melanie was leaning close to me the whole way – she knew she couldn’t take on a hunting group of werewolves if they attacked her.

We came to an opening in the trees.

There was a river running through the clearing. On top of the river were small boats. By the river bank were little houses made from mud and wood, each with a small fire around three meters away from the entrance.

“Jake!” a shriek sounded from one of the houses. A girl came running out of the house, I recognised her immediately.

“Mona!” I cried as she jumped into my arms. She was heavier then I remembered, she had grown a lot in the year and a half that I had been away.

I set her down to take a good look at her. She had grown a little since I had seen her last, she was taller. Her brown hair was out and went down to her shoulders, her light-brown eyes were wide and alive, and her skin was slightly darker than mine.

I saw my mum leave the house in the corner of my eye, her eyes lit up as soon as she saw him. I smiled at her as she walked to us and embraced me. She was frail and tired, but beautiful and strong at the same time.

Almost every person in the village stopped and looked at us. I felt my features turn serious when I saw a man step out of the same house my mother and sister had been in.

He was tall, broad and stronger than I was. His sharp edges were grim as he saw me. He made a face as if he had tasted something sour and I did the same.

“Aldo.” I muttered.

“Jake.” He said as he neared me, “If it isn’t our beloved leader.”

“Are you still jealous of my power over the pack?”

He scoffed and smirked, “You haven’t been here for a year and a half now Pup. You left this pack to me.”

“I don’t remember saying you have permanent leadership, we all know who the alpha is Aldo.”

That must’ve struck a chord with him, because the next thing I know he was yelling, “That’s it! I challenge you!”

I felt my mother shake her head and my sister tense up.

I smiled at them as they moved away.

Aldo lunged at me, transforming in mid-air.

I felt the buzzing take over my body in a matter of seconds. Just as I had transformed, he collided into me at full force.

We wrestled to the ground, his teeth sinking into my back, throat and jaw. I dug my claws into his eyes, receiving a yelp in return. He slammed his head into my side, I barrelled off him at the impact. I lunged at him, taking shoving him into the river.

I held him under the water, waiting, waiting, BAM! His face shot out of the water, no longer in wolf form. I felt the sense of triumph running through my vines one again.

Aldo looked at me with a fiery hate as my mother pulled him out of the water. I never liked him, I didn’t know what my mother saw in him.

I felt a hand on my back, I looked to them. Melanie was looking shy as she held my fur. She looked over to the people around us, they were all looking at her with hate. I felt sorry for her, it was my fault she was in this position.

“What happened?” an old voice said from behind me.

I turned to the owner of the voice. An old woman was looking at Titania – who was being held by Shane. She nodded to Shane, “Come, we can cure her in my home.”

Shane left with her, taking Titania with him.

I heard the sound of a fist hitting skin and saw Brian on the floor with a dazed expression on his face. Bridgette stood above him, the look on her face was practically setting the air alight with anger.

Shane

The old woman led us into one of the houses. The lighting was dim and it smelled of something wet. On the floor was a large blanket and some pillows, some bowls and jars of plants and herbs, – Titania would know exactly which one was which when she woke up – and some large bowls of water.

I set Titania down on the blanket carefully, watching the woman as she worked around the room. “I’m Morrie, the pack’s healer.” She said.

I nodded, vaguely interested.

She sprinkled some kind of dust onto Titania. She frowned, then, after a moment she looked at me and smiled, “Ah, she has a youngling.”

I smiled at the expression ‘youngling’. It sounded sort of cuter than saying ‘she’s pregnant’, I decided to say ‘youngling’ instead from now on.

Morrie frowned again, “Are you a Black magi?” she said, I could hear a slight distaste in the words, but I couldn’t blame her – I hated the Black Magi too, and I was one of them!

I nodded.

She returned the nod, but her frown didn’t go away.

I realised that something could’ve been wrong – something with the baby. “Everything ok?”

She looked up, as if just remembering I was there, “Um, sort of. I just can’t place the magic in her body.”

Now I had a puzzled expression, “What?”

She gave a pathetic smile, “Usually, I can detect different kinds of magic in someone’s body – that’s what healers are trained to do as well as using the land to our advantage – and know what kind of magic a person possesses.”

I nodded, I didn’t see the issue. Titania was an earth elemental, you could tell just by watching her fight, it was obvious. “She’s an earth elemental.”

Morrie nodded, as if to say ‘I know that but…’ she looked down at Titania, “I can sense her connections to the earth, these herbs are practically reaching for her. But there’s something else there, something I can’t quite place.”

I frowned, “I still don’t understand. I can’t sense anything else.”

She smiled at Titania, “It’s there, and it’s just hidden. It’s as if it’s lurking in the depths of her, ready to take over her body at any moment.”

“It’s that powerful?”

“It could force her earth element magic to be pushed out completely. I have only once felt power like this, and that was when I visited Isabelle the light elemental.”

I felt my stomach drop, “There hasn’t been a light elemental for hundreds of years. How… how old are you?”

She gave a mischievous look, “Nature can prolong whatever –or whoever – it wants.” She said with a shrug. “Either way,” she said, the look of mischief disappearing off her face, “there has only ever been two light elementals. And I have never experienced this much power in one body before.”

“Is the child…?” I couldn’t ask the next question, if Titania’s power would kill the child, I didn’t want to know.

“The child should be fine. Now, why don’t we wake her up?” She said as she dipped a cloth in a clear liquid and dabbed it on Titania’s wound. She looked up to me, “She should wake up in a few minutes. After she wakes up, get her some water and some food, and she should be fine. Our pack members coat their claws and teeth in kyceon, they fight all the time, so I do this daily.”

I smiled a thanks at her before she left the house.

Titania

The doctors had gathered us into a large group and herded us into some kind of giant dungeon. The walls were stone brick and there were different stalls – kind of like horse stables, only without any gates – only separated by a small, half wall on each side. The grounds were covered in hay and straw. People were sweating and looking around nervously.

I looked up at Shane, who was eyeing the crowd lazily. “What’s going on?”

Shane sighed softly, “We’re fighting.”

I shivered at the word ‘fighting’. Odds were, there were much more powerful and experienced sorcerers here than me. “Fighting who?”

“Each other. Using magic. In the arena. We do it every now and again. When the doctors aren’t satisfied with the results of the torture, they make us fight each other. They make us use our full strength to beat each other.”

I felt fear rush through my body at the thought of fighting one of the people in the labs. I shivered in terror as I realised, I could have to fight Shane – he would beat me for sure. “Do we have to kill our opponents?”

“Well, we don’t exactly let them go with a simple tap on the shoulder when they’ve had enough. Some get killed, some just end up in the emergency area. It depends on the fighter.”

“Do we fight in pairs?” I felt a shimmer of hope at the thought, another person would make it a lot easier.

“Sometimes.” He said with a nod.

“I hope I get paired with you.” I said.

He gave a slight laugh, “No. No you don’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m top dog here. I have the most power, so everyone’s going to want to beat me. Everyone’s going to try and get a fight in with me.”

“Do you think you’ll win?”

He shrugged, glancing at me, “Depends on who I’m fighting.”

Ii didn’t have time to say anything before a large door opened to our sides – I hadn’t even realised it was there – and four of the sorcerers were shoved through it. Cheers exploded outside the door. The doors shut, but you could still hear the faint sound of cheers through the door.

People went back to talking, I could see a few people eyeing Shane with evil eyes – he was right, they would try to beat him, but I thought he would win.

The sounds of cheers stopped suddenly and Shane grabbed my arm, “Don’t look.” He said quickly.

The doors opened to reveal two people carrying something. I gasped as I realised it was a bloody body, limp and probably dead. Shane pulled me close to him and covered my eyes with his hand. “I told you not to look.”

He took his hand off my eyes after the people had passed. Two men entered the room through the door, both had blood covering them from head to toe and wide grins on their faces.

Shane mumbled something to me, “These events are what some people in here look forward to. It’s the highlight of their life. You have to remember, some people were placed in here for a good reason, and others…not so much.”

I nodded slightly.

The men gave Shane the evil eye. One of them – a man with a nose that looked like a squashed lemon – shot a wink at me. I felt my cheeks turn red from different emotions at once: anger, disgust, embarrassment.

The door opened again. Out came two people in white coats. They gestured for Shane and me. In a matter of moments, I felt hands shoving me towards the door, some pushing gently, others just propelling me to the door. I felt Shane grip my arms behind me as we eventually just walked out the door.

The sun burned with a brightness that was too much for my eyes. The roars from the crowd overwhelmed my ears. My eyes adjusted to the light of the sun and I took in the surroundings of the arena.

The grounds were a mixture of rock, dirt and sand. A wall made of some kind of force field was set up between the arena and thousands of rows of seats that went up in a steep hill. Each seat was filled with a person – some even had two.

I felt my heart beat quicken, swallowing, willing my lunch to stay down.

Two people came through the door behind us. A woman - brown hair, dark eyes, evil grin – and a man – bald, green eyes, neutral expression, he was tall and broad, he looked stronger than any man I had ever seen.

The crowd – somehow – cheered louder. The woman thrusted her fist into the air with a smile. The crowd gave a wave of hoots and whistles in response.

I felt the girl’s magic from where I was standing, that pull I had when I met Bridget-

I balled my hands into fists. Now I knew where that mark had come from. They burned it onto her just like they almost did with me, but they stopped because of… something I did. It identified her as an elemental. The burn mark of a flame, they branded her. Like cattle! I felt a wave of disgust hit me and that was enough.

I felt the pins and needles come and go as I transformed into my natural form. I felt my fingers shaking with magic. I felt it pulsing through me. I looked to the girl, she had changed into her natural form too – a blue shirt and white pants. Her hair was in a bun and she looked paler than she did before, her roots of her hair were now white.

I felt Shane relax beside me and let go of my arm. I balled my hands into fists, ready to release anything at any moment as we walked out into the middle of the arena.

A hoot of a horn that was almost swallowed by the noise of the crowd gave us the ‘go’.

The man lunged onto me. I relaxed my fist and flew my arm up into the air. A giant tree came rocketing out of the ground, smashing into the man just as he was in arm’s length. I heard him scream as he went sky-rocketing into the air. I twisted my arm down, sending the tree falling to the ground. I heard the disturbing ‘crack’ of a bone breaking as the tree landed on top of him.

For a moment, I saw fear cross the girl’s face, but it left almost as quickly as it had come. She didn’t take the same approach as the man, instead she stood there and clapped her hands slowly. I felt a cold breeze appear out of nowhere. She raised her hands above her head and brought them down quickly. In a moment, a huge blizzard started. But it didn’t go outside the arena, the crowd was still cheering – not shivering – as if it wasn’t there. She was an ice elemental. Shane waved his arm, a streak of darkness came out of the blizzard and into his hand as if it was solid, it melted into a sword as he held it. I was astonished, a Black Magi can only have one power. How can he turn darkness into weapons and control shadows at the same time?

I didn’t have time to think about it, because in a flash, a giant icicle slammed into me from behind. I ducked as she sent tiny spikes of ice darting towards me, one of them just scraping my arm.

I raised both of my hands into the air and a giant root came barrelling out of the ground, wrapping around the girl. She struggled and I looked away as Shane walked towards her and gave her a large bang on the head with the handle of his sword, knocking her out. The blizzard stopped and all that was left was me and him. But the crowd didn’t stop cheering.

I shrugged, “What now?”

Shane had a look on his face that gave me chills, “They didn’t see it.”

“What?” I said.

“The crowd. They paid to see us rip each other apart. But since the girl made a blizzard, they didn’t see it.”

“What are you saying?”

He looked me dead in the eye and I felt myself turn cold at his deadly glare, “We have to fight.”