The Elemental Warriors: Chapter 5

## Chapter 5- Sky

The
rest of that day was a blur.  None of the
weird stuff happened. The seventh graders didn’t beat me and Ember up.  Which was weird, because nothing weird
happening for 8 hours was weirder than… well, you get the idea.

All the day had been besides
homeroom and lunch was a bunch of waiting, mad dashes to lockers, and detention
slips.  Tiring, but boring.  So naturally, focusing on the *tiring* part, I went to bed at eight, and
was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Instantly, I was transported
into a dream.  This was a weird dream,
though what else was new?  I was floating
through space, unable to breathe or talk.
But just as I was running out of air, I noticed that I was zooming
towards a black hole.  I panicked for a
second, but then I told myself, *Relax,*
it’s just a dream. *Interesting.*
Usually I lost the rational part of myself during dreams, but it was there.

I was sucked through the black
hole and transported… somewhere.  It
looked the same as when I was in outer space, except there was a sea of green
below me, and now I could breathe… wait.
I was falling into a forest.  I
forced myself into skydiver position, spread-eagle and all.  I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for
impact, but it never came.  I looked down
and opened my eyes.  I was floating a
foot off the ground.  I touched a knee to
the Earth, or whatever bizarre version of it this was, but the rest of my body
was still floating.  I touched the other
knee to the ground, made my back vertical, and-tada! – I was kneeling.  I stood up and brushed myself off.

“Oookay,” I said, surprised that
I could talk and that this did not at all feel like a dream.  I looked around, and noticed Coral, Sage, and
Ember on the ground around me.  I also
noticed a clearing with four tree stumps, a huge log, and, in the middle, an
inviting-looking campfire.  Not knowing
what else to do, I walked over there, surprised at how not tired I felt.

All my friends followed me after
getting up.  As we sat down on the four
stools, Sage asked, “So, do you think this is a dream?”  I replied, “It feels like it isn’t, but what
else could it be?” Coral and Ember nodded their heads in agreement.  Sage said, “Well,I don’t really-“

“I see you have found your way here,” a
voice boomed from above us.  We didn’t
even flinch (except for me; I muttered some things that started with *tu mama)*; that was how weird our week
had been.  (I realize we keep using the
word weird; sorry about that)  A figure
descended into the clearing onto the log in front of our stump-circle.

Her appearance is hard to describe, but
I’ll try my best.  Her skin was black-
and *black* black, not brown black,
blacker than coal.  Her hair was-
surprise- also pitch black, but floating in the air like it had been flapping
in the wind but had suddenly been turned to stone.  Her dress was midnight blue and dotted with
diamonds that sparkled like stars in the night sky.  Her eyes were kind and dark green, like a
gentle forest at twilight.

Then she started to talk.

“I believe you have been asking very many questions
since you opened your schedules a week ago.
I am here to answer those questions, and to train you so you can protect
this world.

“My name is Luna, Queen of the Night.”  Luna faltered for a little bit for some reason
but moved on.  “You four-Sky Viento, Coral
Dormien, Sage Messenger, and Ember Miles“-I just want to add a note that I
think it’s hilarious that Sage shares a last name with the author of the best
book series in the world (or at least in my opinion), Keeper of the Lost Cities-“are
the Elemental Warriors, protectors of nature, and regular humans with special
abilities to match the elements that no one else alive has dreamed of.  You four were picked to be pulled together by
the strings of destiny when your predecessors died in combat, six years
ago.”  Luna bowed her head in memory.

“How did they-“ Ember began to interject,
but Luna shushed her, and continued talking.
“Now, this world is nearly destroyed.
Temperatures are rapidly rising.
Land is being cut away, and animals are dying because of it.  Clean water is scarce to much too many
people.  And too many greenhouse gases
are being emitted by automobiles and factories.
Your job is to restore the Earth, and to kill the monsters who are
tricking humans into doing these dastardly things.

“You all have several abilities bestowed on
you. You can all control your element, but you all also have another
ability.  Sky, you can become
invisible.  Coral, you can make solid
objects out of water.  Sage, you can talk
to animals.  And finally, Ember can
control the temperature of virtually anything.

“Your task today is simply to find out a
way to all collaborate on one thing. Your challenges will get harder as you
grow in skill, but today it is simply that.”
We looked at each other.  Game on!

We all got to work quickly, Sage making (as
she liked to call it) a hill-house, which was basically just a lump of dirt
that could be covered with moss.  It was
hollowed out, and a doorway and windows were put in.  Hill-houses varied in size, Sage said she
imagined, but this one seemed like the perfect size for a family of
chipmunks.  While Sage was building,
Coral was making a freshwater spring in the middle of the first floor, and a
nice tiny creek running out of the house from it.  Ember was working to make a heating and
cooling system.

Meanwhile, I was invisible, playing pranks
on everyone else and annoying them because I had nothing else to do.  (Pro tip: Don’t try and make a Fire Warrior
mad.  They have a short fuse and a
built-in flamethrower.)

When the hill-house was finished, Coral
shouted, “Hey, I think this is done!” and we all crowded around it.  Sage tried to coax in a family of chipmunks
(just as I suspected).  It looked like
they were skeptical at first, but they eventually moved in.  Sage crouched down and asked the apparent
dad, “So, what do you think?”  As the
chipmunks chattered their reply, I thought, *Oh*
man, I will never get used to my best friend talking to animals.

When the chipmunks finished chattering,
Sage turned around and said, “Okay, so Ember, the A/C system was a little unneccessary, which I guess makes sense, because…
well, they’re chipmunks.  Coral,
the spring was perfect.  They think you
should try to connect all the springs through the creek if we make more
hill-houses.  And they also want a door,
which I guess is my department since I’m the only one with a solid element.”

Luna came over to the hill-house and
smiled.   “Excellent work, Warriors.  I see you have learned to help animals with your
abilities.  Tomorrow you will use them as
tools.  But we are done today.”

Then her face grew serious. “This is my
final word to you: Under no circumstances can you ever tell anyone that you are
a Warrior, or about your special abilities at all.  Should you, the results would be
terrible.  The world would unravel.

“Just know that being an Elemental Warrior
is not something to brag about to your friends at school.  Now good night, Elemental Warriors…”

Luna snapped her fingers, and the world
faded away into my bedroom.