Battle of the Elements
Chapter 9 Bridgette

I felt the power surging in my veins, pumping my blood. I felt my eyes grow brighter – almost florescent – as I always did when I used extreme lengths of power. I sensed my usual small dress being replaced by a giant, red and orange, flowing dress made from different pieces of material.

Abby had stopped laughing now. The sphere of shimmering black air around her had protected her from Melanie and Jake when they attacked her. They had come at her with swords when the air had stared to shimmer and turn black. When they had struck the air around her, it had acted like a wall and sent a bolt of lightning through them, making them scream before they collapse to the ground. I drew the line at that.

I raised my hands over my head slowly before clasping them together. I felt my whole body freeze for a mere second before the flames around me were sucked high into the air. I heard a screech of a giant bird overhead and gave a small smile.

Titania

Bridgette was no longer in flames. Those flames had been sent into the air above her and transformed into something giant, something magnificent, something…something of pure power.

A giant bird made from flame flew majestically above her. It let out an ear-piercing screech and the word popped into my mind in an instant: Phoenix.

Abby froze. There was fear in her eyes as she tried desperately to keep that fear out of her voice, “You can’t get to me. This force field covers any way you can get in. it is the best air magic there is.”

Bridgette’s eyes flickered to me with a smile, “If you knew anything about magic, you would know that what you have there, is actually one of the easiest forms of air magic. Also, the colour of the air is a dead giveaway that it isn’t air magic at all.”

“How would you know?!” she spat.

“Because I know a lot of air elementals and have witnessed many force fields. Enough to know that what you are doing is a cheap knockoff. You also have one weakness. Your force field can’t go underground. Usually, that wouldn’t matter. But today, I have an earth elemental with me, so in basic language, you’re a dead bitch.” Her smile grew wider and she winked at me. I knew what I had to do.

I slammed my hands to the ground, felt the earth beneath my fingertips, the rumbling of the soil beneath me. A hole opened up beneath Bridgette. I felt her slip into the earth. I felt her full trust in me, her whole life in my hands as I manipulated the earth to manoeuvre her towards Abby.

I ignored Abby’s screams as they told me to stop. I ignored Alex’s groaning, telling me he could wake up any moment and catch me doing magic. All I could think about was Bridgette’s body down in the ground, without air. What happens to a fire when oxygen is cut off? Don’t answer that.

I didn’t relax until I felt Bridgette’s body leave the earth. I felt nauseous but nothing too severe as I took deep, long breaths.

Bridgette

Abby’s eyes were filled with terror as I rose from the ground. My smile wasn’t there anymore. I didn’t want to hurt a girl unless I needed to. “Give it up Abby.”

She didn’t say anything. Instead, she lunged at me, scraping her nails across my face. I felt a sharp sting but other than that, it didn’t hurt. I shook my head, “You give me no choice then. I’m sorry.” And that was all I said before the phoenix dove into the ground and appeared inside the force field. Nothing can get in or out of force fields. Abby witnessed that first hand as she desperately pounded on the black shimmering air, trying to escape the flames. I stood inside the sphere as the flames writhed inside it. I bit my lip as Abby’s screams cut off suddenly. The force field dissipated along with my fire. I felt the energy being sucked from my body, leaving me collapsed on the floor. I had used so much power. I had bent fires to get Alex and Harrison out of the house. I had thrown more fireballs than I could count, I had summoned my beast – the phoenix.

I glimpsed Titania running towards me, but it was too late, I had already slipped into darkness…

Alex

All I could remember was being behind Titania, seeing a red haired girl in the yard. Then, Bridgette threw a fireball and it all went into chaos. The house had gone up before I had a chance to move. Then, smoke filled the room and I saw Bridgette yelling at Harrison, pointing away. Then, Harrison left and Bridgette came into the house. My lungs were burning, longing for air. Sharp pains rattled my skull as she hauled me out of the house. Just as we had neared the door, the aching in my lungs and head consumed me and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I woke under the cover of trees and night sky. I saw the glow of a small fire. I sat up slowly, wincing in pain. Titania was sitting legs-crossed on the ground by the fire. Dane was leaning against a tree away from the fire, fiddling with a stick; he looked up suddenly, his eyes fell on me and a grin settled on his face. “Hey, you’re up!” he said.

“Guess so. What happened?” I asked, rubbing my hand over the back of my neck.

“Most of what I can remember is Bridgette hurling fire at some teenage psycho. Melanie and Jake were teaming up on some teleporting kid and I was fighting a guy who kept putting up force fields. After that, I have no idea. The guy upped his anti and when I hit the force field, I got electrocuted and knocked out cold. Not sure what happened after that.” He shrugged.

Bridgette’s voice sounded through the trees as she waltzed into the small camp, “I took them out. Titania tended to your burns and cuts. Mar and Hank left around two hours ago. I told them to have your room at the hotel, and walked them to the town, got your horses and supplies. We’re leaving at dawn. We already have our next mission.”

“What is it?”

“A palace has a nuisance we have been asked to take care of. They’ll tell us the rest when we get there.”

“Ok.” I said, not really caring about it all that much.

“Hmm.” Bridgette looked at me with a smug face.

“What?” I groaned.

“So, I guess you’re ok with me being on the team then?”

I paused, “I guess. You saved my life… so…consider it my thanks.”

Bridgette shrugged and flashed a tired smile before sitting down by the fire next to a still and silent Titania.

Melanie, Jake and Harrison came through the trees, talking amongst themselves as they each led two horses – two of which weren’t ours. The tied the horses to trees. Harrison had a large smile on his face – too large, he was hiding something. I shifted in my seat – which turned out to be a thin sheet mar had recovered from the clothes line – hoping that, what he was hiding wasn’t as bad as my imagination seemed to think.

I was about to ask him when Titania’s hollow voice drifted from the fire, “Harrison, what’s on your mind?”

Harrison hesitated and scratched the back of his neck nervously, “Nothing. Why do you ask?”

“You’ve been far too talkative lately – since the battle in fact – and your expressions are far too…exuberant. I haven’t known you for very long but you cannot fool me, you are acting out of character. So, will you tell me what’s wrong?”

Harrison paused, it seemed everyone had gone quiet. He sighed, “I just… I think I know why she – you know, Abby – did what she did.”

Bridgette’s voice rung out through the air, not bothering to hide her disgust, “You agree with her?”

“I never said that,” his voice was tense, as if she was threatening to punch him, “I just… her father was sent to war when she was young and never came back,” his voice broke at the end, then he cleared his throat and continued as if it had never happened, “I just… I know that can take something from you. A piece of her was lost when her father died.

“Then, a few years later, her brother and mother died in an explosion caused by the very war that took her father. That would have broken her into pieces, and with no one to pick those pieces up, she was lost. She thought that, since that war was still happening, those children weren’t safe. So she put them to sleep. She was trying – in her messed up, psychotic way – to keep them safe. She was trying to save those children from ending up like her brother.”

The woods fell dead silent.

Then, I asked the question I had been wanting to ask for a while, “What happened to the children?”

Dane smiled at me gently, “They were returned home when she died. They’re parents came for them after we gave them the directions to the cave. They’re safe now, and unharmed.”

I felt relief flood my body at the news. We had completed our mission – our first mission. And even though we would have to face a new horror in the morning, we could rest tonight. Sleep with the victory of the day.