Elemental Fate Chapter 3A Chapter by PockythiefEverything is going according to plan...or is it?Elemental Fate Chapter 3 We didn't have to wait long for Mika to start talking and completely prove me wrong. She took one look at Chise and gave an excited cry. "So it's true! Megumi just came to see me and she bumped into Hana who overheard Masaki talking to his fiancee Ayako who took care of Sanosuke's arm and he told her the whole story!" She spoke really fast as if her life depended on sharing this piece of information. Chise was the first to speak up with what she must have thought would lighten the mood. "Well, I guess gossip here gets around faster than scandals in the Shikigami council..." This got a quiet snicker out of Kane but the joke was lost on the rest of us. Mika blushed profusely and quickly left, shutting the door. My father cleared his throat again and attempted to act as if there had been no interruption. "As I had said, there is no need for concern just yet. Chise's captor may be looking for her but he will not find her, at least not right away. There is a barrier of sorts around this property and nothing with evil intent may pass. However, it is not indestructible. If he is determined enough he could eventual break through it." "So what do we do?" I asked. "We indeed. We will work on your combat skill and Elemental ability. We will see how well you can perform under pressure. Do not think we will go easy on you simply because you have no training; your enemy will not care if you are a novice." My father looked so serious I didn't even bother to argue. "We may want to check for two Elements." Chise commented in an offhand way but got stares from the rest of us. Kane, however, nodded in agreement. "That would indeed fit the pattern." When neither of them elaborated, my father decided to move on. "We will need to start as soon as we can. I expect you to be at the storage shed at first daylight." He then stood up indicating that the meeting was over. I managed to get out a "Yes father" before he left the room and was on his way to meet with the village elders. My mother smiled in her pleasant way. "My I did not think that would take as long as it did. All of you must be hungry. Shall we head to the kitchen? The others will want to meet you Chise." We made our way down the hallway where the two largest bedrooms were. The first room had very little, a desk and two small beds, but it also had some personal items like a (bladed staff) mounted on the wall and a red scroll with an ink brush on the desk; this room belonged to Hiroshi and Kane. The second room belonged to my parents. I can't really describe their room because I've never been in it. Invading your parents bedroom was not really encouraged around here. As we entered the kitchen three people looked up. The kitchen was large with a table against the wall, a fire pit, a sink to wash dishes, and a large dining table so everyone would be able to sit together though it rarely happened. Mika gave us an embarrassed smile as we walked in. She looked a lot like mother. Her light brown hair was held up in a bun but had a little of my messy hair with the loose strands that had fallen down and she had given up trying to control them. Mika usually wore dresses like the rest of the female population but she was just as comfortable wearing a pair of pants; father only allowed her to wear them while doing chores though. Haru sat across from Mika. He and I were about a year apart but we could have passed for twins as we sometimes did when we were young. He may come off sometimes as calm or impassive but he was usually my partner in crime when I got in trouble. Haru's Shikigami partner Nishant was absent at the moment because he usually slept while the sun was up. Mika's Shikigami, Amara, sat to the right of Mika and she was a little....different; Kane kept referring to her style as "Goth". She was practically covered in black from her long baggy pants to her short black hair which had a long strip of bangs that went from her right temple to in front of her left ear;the front half of her bangs were pure white. I got a growing sense of trouble when I noticed the way she was looking over at Chise; like a cat who had noticed a bird within reach and was figuring out when the best time to pounce was. Considering how my last encounter with a cat went, I chose to sit on the other side of Haru. Mother was bustling around the kitchen, getting tea ready when Amara finally spoke up. Honestly, I was surprised she held back for so long. "Well well well....roll out the red carpet. we have a Phoenix in our midst and a celebrity at that." She grinned over at Chise, waiting for her reaction. Chise looked down at her nails completely unaffected. "I may be a Phoenix but that doesn't make me a celebrity." Amara scoffed. "Normally I would agree with you but your past actions tell a different story. Especially since you--" "Amara!" Kane's voice called out sharply cutting off the rest of her sentence. "That shall not be discussed here. You seem rather intent on make an enemy out of an ally." "In case you forgot, she hasn't exactly had a good track record when it comes to partners. Kieran is after her this time and now she has Kazuyuki involved in this mess. I'm surprised you don't have a problem with this." Kane's eyes narrowed slightly. "Kazuyuki has been briefed on the situation at hand and the plans on how to attend to it have already been discussed. It's not our place to get involved unless we are asked." "What he's kindly saying, is mind your own damn business youngling. If you keep nipping the legs of others, eventually you'll get a nice wack on the nose, kitty cat." Chise retorted back at Amara who bristled. "How typical of a Phoenix, you walk in a room and you automatically think you're better than everyone else. You may be Kazuyuki's partner, but he matters more to us than he does to you. If anything happens to him, you'll answer to me." Amara literally hissed at Chise. "Enough, both of you." Kane called out again before Chise had a chance to speak. "Amara I am highly disappointed in your behavior. Forgive me but if you persist down this path I am afraid you deserve to be called a youngling. As for you Chise, have more restraint when speaking your mind. You are after all the newcomer in this household." Both women bowed their heads slightly in apology just as mother set the tray of tea down and smiled around the room. "It's always interesting when Shikigami meet each other in this realm." I know I wasn't the only one who stared at her nonplussed. I'm pretty sure I'd never seen two Shikigami have a verbal brawl like that. There was an awkward silence in the room which was ended by Nishant's timely entrance. Nishant only shows a limited range of emotions but he had to be just a little bit confused about why he was getting such a warm welcome. Nishant was easily the tallest person in the room. He was dark skinned, bald, and had lean muscles. Nishant's outfit looked like it belonged to a priest. There were elaborate layers of cloth of black, purple, and lined with gold. His left arm was always free from its sleeve and there were weird tattoos that traveled up his arm towards his chest and we suspected that they were all over his body. Funny thing about those tattoos, they never stayed the same. You couldn't catch them changing either; Haru and I tried for three months and finally gave up. We ate dinner with very little conversation until Hiroshi spoke up. "If you're going to train with father tomorrow morning you'd best get to bed early." Haru grinned happy for the change in subject. "Oh yeah. I was asked to help with your Elemental training too." "You? Help? That's a new concept." I replied with a laugh. "Oi!" Haru lunged forward, put his arm around my neck and proceeded to make my messy hair worse. I fought back by going for the ticklish spot on his side just below the rib cage. Mika rolled her eyes. "Are you two ever going to grow up?" Haru made an attempt to respond but all that came out was laughter as I sent both of us to the ground and I quickly turned the hold on him. Hiroshi, Kane, and Chise laughed while Mika and Amara had exasperated smiles trying and failing to hide their amusement. Mother set her cup down. "Boys, what have I said about fighting in the house?" She asked sternly. I released Haru's head and we both sat up. We looked at each other and then answered her in unison. "'I do not care where you fight in this house but if you damage my kitchen, Gaea will get to decide your punishment.'" She smiled and picked up her cup again. "Good. As long as you remember that." Since I've never been punished by Gaea, our mother's Shikigami partner and I felt that it wasn't the time to find out, I decided it was wise to call it quits. I also couldn't argue Hiroshi's point about going to bed early so Chise and I excused ourselves out of the kitchen through a door opposite to the one we had come through. That side of the house had the other three bedrooms. The closest was Haru's, then Mika's, and finally mine. By that point the sun had been down for a while and the hallway was dark, so Chise lit the candles as we went; it definitely helps to have a fire-based Shikigami as your partner. I slid my door open and led Chise inside. Like the other rooms I had two beds, a desk, and there was also a handmade "bookshelf". We use scrolls here but father use to travel to some of the other countries and brought back books for me; they were the only source I had to how the other countries operated. Chise took a quick look around even picked up one of my books. I sat down on my bed and realized that this was the first time it was just the two of us. I looked around the room trying to find something to say but Chise spoke up first. "It must be strange to see Shikigami bickering like...well... humans." She said as she gently replaced the book back on its shelf and walked over to her own bed. I laughed slightly as I fell backwards onto mine. "Actually there's less restraint when we fight." I looked over at her. "Thanks to all that mess I barely know anything about you." "No, you don't. Get some sleep." She tossed a pillow at me. I rolled my eyes as I caught the pillow. I turned on my side and called out "yes mom" as I tried to get comfortable only to get another pillow to the back of my head. It took a lot to resist the urge to throw it back and start a pillow fight but I knew that kind of fight would last a while and could result in property damage before it was over. An hour later I was still awake and glared at the shadow that floated back and forth over my head like it had been for the last half hour. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and sat up. "Chise, could you please stop doing that? I can't sleep." Chise paused, still six feet above the ground looking like she was resting on an invisible bed. She rolled over to look down at me. "No, you can't sleep because of all those thoughts hopping around your head like little bunnies." She then floated over to sit on my desk. "Your mind is too focused on Kieran and about the future. Those are things you can't control right now." I stared at her. "How did you-?" "Know what you're thinking? It would be hard for Shikigami to work with their partners without being connected mentally. It only works with our partners unless we really focus on another person. It's a terrible intrusion to go into someone else's mind so it's only done when absolutely necessary. You're able to contact me too though it's limited to communication only." She paused slightly. "No it's not because we're better than humans. If you must know it was part of the agreement between our people, so obviously no one really remembers." "Okay, it's way too strange how you respond when I didn't say anything out loud. How does this mental communications thing work?" I asked, suddenly not tired at all. "It's called Mindspeak. As long as we're in the same dimensions we'll be able to communicate with each other regardless of the distance. Pretty cool, huh?" "Uh...I don't know what the temperature has to do with anything but it definitely sounds like it's useful." I replied. I was expecting it but it still felt unsettling to hear someone else speaking in my own head. I shuddered slightly. "If you did that to a random person they'd think they were going mad." Chise smiled. "I'm sure it's been done before. Anyway, once you've gotten used to it it'll come naturally but first the basics which are easy to explain but not to do. Think about what you want to say. Got that part? Good. Now you have to picture me in your mind as accurately as you can." I closed my eyes trying to see Chise in my head, from her red hair down to her bare feet. I nodded my head when I felt certain that I had the second step done. "Now, send your message to that image in your mind." Chise sat and waited but didn't seem surprised when it didn't work on the first try. Let's just say that that it took a while before I was able to do the Mindspeak. (You tried to leave out the best part. You know Kazu, the part were it looked like you were holding your breath part of the time. I could have sworn your face turned blue.) Although it's nice to see Chise taking an interest in my writings I really wish she wouldn't put her side comments in here... Happy with my success I fell back down onto my pillow and sleep followed pretty quickly after that. It felt like only fifteen minutes later when I was woken up by a mild throbbing in my head. I rushed out of my bed and hit into my closet door, a painful but effective method because the door still opened, and threw my clothes on. I was outside in two minutes but I hesitated as I saw the two water barrels outside by the kitchen door and had an idea. I finally made it over to the supply shed where Chise and my father were waiting for me. I could already see the grin on Chise's face and started to grin back until I saw the look on my father's face. I cleared my throat as I felt some of the remaining drops of cold water travel down my neck. "Sorry I'm late father." He sighed. "No matter. I have already been informed as to the reason why you are late. I will allow it this time but I expect better attendance in the future." "Yes sir" I replied feeling like I had just signed a verbal contract. I looked up at the large shed. It was at least a third the size of the house and about seven or eight foot tall. Chise looked over at me, still grinning. I rolled my eyes My father went to the shed door and unlocked it. "Do you know why I have told you to stay away from this shed?" He opened the door and stepped aside allowing Chise and I to see inside. There was no need to answer him and he knew it. Why? Because inside was the largest collection of weapons I had ever seen. I slowly walked closer the shed and stared in awe. Each weapon was uniquely different though I got the feeling that they had all seen battle before. "If you are feeling uneasy, that is natural. You were born in a time of peace and these kinds of weapons do not belong. I will allow you to choose one of them, all that I ask is that it be returned to this collection when you no longer needed it." He waited for me to nod my head before he motioned for me to enter the room. I walked inside and looked around not even sure where to start. There were short swords, long swords, spears as tall as Nishant, daggers, a javelin, and there was even a set of weapons used in Svet Strana. I turned back to my father. "How in the world did you manage to get a pair of guns?" My father grinned at me. "That is a long tale to tell. It will have to wait until there is time to do it justice." Thinking that there was more to my father than I had realized I went back to the task of picking a weapon. I walked over to the right corner of the shed and my attention locked on to a pair of twin blades in cherry red scabbards. The hilts almost appeared to be made of silver and wrappings were black. I gently lifted one of them off the wall were they hung horizontally and pulled out the blade. The main body was straight but tapered to a point at the tip. I moved the sword around slightly to get a feel for it. My father looked thoughtful. "Interesting. From what I understand, those were used by our founder during the war. Your grandfather repaired them when he was still alive because the wrappings were falling apart and the blade needed to be changed to a more durable steel. Are they your choice?" I nodded and replaced the sword in its sheath and got down the second sword. I walked out of the shed and handed them to my father. I waited as he set them aside and locked the shed with a key from his jacket pocket. "It is too soon for you to be trained with these just yet. The first thing you must learn is how to fight if you happen to find yourself unarmed for any reason." He bent down to take one of the swords and tied a cord around the hilt and scabbard to keep it shut. "Your first lesson starts now and ends when I say. Your task is to defend or attack with no other weapon than yourself. Your opponents will not be as limited. Your goal is to lay a single hit on me." He raised the sword. "Now come at me, in any way you can." © 2016 Pockythief
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1 Review Added on September 14, 2015 Last Updated on February 2, 2016 AuthorPockythiefLake Orion, MIAboutI love to read, watch anime and hang out with my friends. I've only shared my writing with my friends and hope to get the opinions of other to help improve my writing. more..Writing
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