Quattour - Uno gradu propius

Quattuor - Uno gradu propius

(One Step Closer)

“Your home is beautiful Vee,” I complimented as I lightly brushed my fingers over the grand cobble stone. “Is it only you that lives here?”

“No,” She replied leading us into the sitting room where we sat on a tree branch that had soft cotton for cushions. “My parents are both on the air gifted council for Pryst Mountain, although, they are hardly ever here because of it.”

“Even if it's only the three of you, this place is still incredible.” Blaze commented and I noticed that he didn't say it in a sarcastic manner or was he rude. In fact, he sounded like a respectful man! Was it only me he was so rude towards?

“Oh, excuse my manners,” Vee said suddenly standing. “You all must be famished, may I get you some food?”

But she didn't even wait to hear our responses before she zoomed upwards towards what I assume to be the kitchen. Not even a minute later, she flew back down to us and handed each of us a tray containing a pitcher of water, sandwiches and soup.

My stomach instantly started growling when the delicious scent made it's way into my nostrils. I haven't eaten a decent meal since I got here.

“Thank you so much Vee,” I said sincerely to her before taking a big bite out of my sandwich. I had no idea what it was but it was darn good!

“It's the least I can do for you, your majesty,” She said bowing her head.

“It's ok for you to call me Tai,” I gave her smile. “Peri and Blaze-well...Peri calls me Tai all the time.”

Blaze snorted obnoxiously but he took a bite of his sandwich instead of remarking.

“You three are more than welcome to spend the night if you want,” Vee said as she floated to her feet. “I have two guest rooms that you can stay in.”

“We don't want to intrude,” Peri said frowning slightly.

“It's no problem at all, when your done eating I can show you to the guest rooms are.”

But we'd already finished our tray of food and I don't know about Peri and Blaze but I was still hungry. Judging by their ravenous expressions, I would say that they still were as well.

“Maybe some more food then we'll head to bed,” Vee chuckled as her gray as danced in amusement.

...

“Ah, being clean never felt so good.” Peri said as she flopped onto her side of the bed. She shaked her still wet head, making water fly everywhere.

“Hey,” I said shielding myself from the drops. “At least braid your hair so it doesn't drip everywhere.”

“It's too short to braid.” She said running her fingers through her short, sunny curls. I guess that was true, Peri's hair was only about an inch long.

“I'm done in the bath by the way.” She said playing with the belt of the lovely robes that Vee had set out for each of us.

Peri and I shared a room while Blaze took the other for himself. Vee has to be one of the most hospitable person that I've ever met. We are complete strangers to her yet she gave us food, clothes and a place to spend the night. It's rare to find people like that in reality or Aralia.

I gathered my clean clothes and made my way into the bathroom. But I stood frozen in my tracks when I caught sight of my reflection.

I looked absolutely horrendous! I was wearing the same over sized shirt and basketball shorts since the first time I came here. My long black curls were knotted and frizzy, as if I'd been electrocuted. Dirt and grime covered my face and clothes. How did that Alvez guy even find me attractive? He must've been desperate.

"Gosh, no wonder Blaze insults me 24/7," I muttered to myself before turning on the hot water in the pond-like bath. I swear this bathtub is bigger than my actual bathroom back at home.
.
.
.

Home.

I've been in Aralia for about three days now. But it felt like so much longer. I wonder what happened to my body. When that Alyza lady sent me here, I saw my body lying against some boxes unmoving. Could someone have found my body? They might've thought I was dead! My parents must be worried sick about me! What if I go back to reality and find out that I've been buried because they had thought that I was dead?

"Calm down Tai, that wouldn't happen," I reassured myself as I stepped into the warm relaxing water. This felt absolutely amazing!

I quickly scrubbed all of the dirt and grime off of my body before I laid back and relaxed in the beautiful bath. Who knows when I'll be able to have another one.

About fifteen minutes later, i finally decided to get out of the bath; only because the water was getting cold.

Peri was already asleep by the time I got back into the bedroom. I quickly braided my hair and crawled over to my side of the bed before slipping into a dreamless reverie.

...

"Thank you so much!" Peri's melodic voice said waking me.

My eyes slowly opened and I blinked rapidly as I tried to clear my vision. Peri sat next to me on the bed, holding out a tray of food and clean clothes.

"Vee sent these for you," She said handing them to me.

I unrolled to clothes to see a pair of silver pants made of a stretchy material and a soft white cotton shirt. She was kind enough to even add in a pair of slip-on shoes and undergarments.

"Where is she?" I asked stuffing a piece of the soft, fluffy bread into my mouth.

"She said that she will be outside and that we can join her when we are done getting dressed and eating breakfast."

"I think I'm going to take another bath before I go outside. It was very lovely." I admitted.

"I'm way ahead of you on that one!"

...

"Don't you think that this is too form fitting?" I asked Peri as we made our way to Vee's back terrace.

"I think it fits you perfectly," Peri said spinning me to observe. “Who knew you were so voluptuous!”

My face immediately turned scarlet and I unconsciously placed my hand on my backside. “Stop it Peri you’re embarrassing me!”

“But it’s true,” She giggled. “With your wearing those baggy clothes, you could have never tell!”

I had been called “curvy” before, but it was only by my aunt at a party one time; and I knew she only said it to avoid telling me that I looked like a whale in my Christmas dress.

“I-It, just makes me uncomfortable ok,” I said letting my hair fall into my face.

She frowned at me but thankfully decided to leave it alone; sensing that it was a “touchy” subject.

“Vee’s home really is extravagant,” I complimented as we neared the door to the back terrace.

“Everything’s extravagant if you come from a high ranking family,” Peri said pushing open the door. But we were astonished at what we saw.

Winds were whipping our hair all around us and the scorching heat of fire could be felt. Vee and Blaze were engaged in a heated battle!

“Hey, what’s going on you two?” Peri said running towards them. “Why are you fighting?”

Vee was at least 10ft in the air, sending harsh wind slices down to Blaze, and it looked like he was having a hard time blocking them. At least until Peri’s interruption became apparent to Vee, making her lose focus, and Blaze knocked her out of the sky with a powerful fire blast.

“BLAZE! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?” Peri shouted at him.

“Calm down sis, we were just engaged in a friendly battle.” He smirked while offering a hand to a scowling Vee. “Which I won!”

Friendly? He nearly set her on fire!

“No fair, if Peri hadn’t interrupted, I would’ve gotten you.” She brushed away his hand and tried to stand on her own, but a painful looking burn was scarred on her alabaster skin.

“Stay still Vee I’ll heal you,” Peri said resting her hands on the burn and the familiar light green glow emitted from her hands before the burn was completely gone.

“I must admit Vee, you surprised me,” Blaze admitted. “I wouldn’t have expected someone your age to be as strong as you are.”

“It’s because I practice everyday,” She said. “It’s mainly me here all the time so I have lots of time to practice with my gift.”

“If you keep it up, you’ll definitely be a powerful Air Gifted,” Blaze complimented.

“Thanks,” She smiled before looking over at me and grin widened even more. “Tai you look beautiful, those clothes look wonderful on you.”
Please don’t bring that up while I’m in front of Blaze. “Thanks.” I gave her a tight closed lipped smile.

I watched as Blaze’s burnt orange eyes flicker over to me and he continuously eyed me from head to toe. I was so shocked and embarrassed that I didn’t even make a comment on it, that is until his eyes locked with mine and he realized what he was doing.

“SHUT UP!” He barked out before storming off, setting the grass beneath his feet on fire.

“I DIDN’T EVEN SAY ANYTHING YOU PRICK!” I angrily shouted after him. The nerve of that guy. What is his problem?

“BLAZE COME BACK HERE RIGHT NOW AND APOLOGIZE TO TAI!
Peri shouted while running after his form.

“Why do I feel like this happens a lot?” Vee asked me amused as we slowly walked back towards the house.

“You have no idea” I mumbled.

...

“You want me to accompany you?” Vee asked shocked as we sat in her sitting room.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want you,” I quickly added before she felt as if we were forcing her. “It’s just that we need an Air Gifted and you’re really powerful and really nice and since you said that you were always here by yourself I figured that you wouldn’t mind coming with us and exploring the world and-”

“I would love to!” She said excitedly before flying up to retrieve something.

“Are you sure?” I called after her. “We don’t want to force you,”

“She already agreed idiot, are you trying to get to change her mind?” Blaze growled at me.

“Will you shut up?” I rolled my eyes at him.

“Are you kidding?” She said while furiously scribbling on a piece of paper. “Of course I’ll go with you! Like you said, it’s only me here most of the time and now I have the opportunity to travel with three new friends!”

“Thank you Vee, you have no idea how much this means to us,” I said sincerely. “But I have to warn you, this isn’t just some petty criminal that we’re trying to stop, we’re talking about Izeel, the most ruthless man known to Aralia.”

“I know,” She said as her silver streaked eyes shone with determination. “He has done so much harm to this world and feel as if it is my destiny to help you stop him. It’s the least I can do for my home world.”

She neatly rolled up the little paper she was writing on before tying it and resting it onto a table. “This is a letter to my family so they know where I went. Not like they’ll care anyway. They probably won’t even notice that I’m gone.”

My heart tugged as I sympathized with her. I know what it’s like to not have your family care about you. Even when my parents were together, my father rarely spoke to me. Tessa was always the over-achiever in the family and accomplished every goal she planned with grace; and for that, she was always my father’s favorite child.

Similarly, my brother Tevin is so mischievous and devious that my parents always had to keep their eyes on him, leaving them with no time to check on my well-being. Even now, I hadn’t spoken to my father in nearly two months but he always sends me money. I wonder if he even knew what had happened to me?

“You may have felt that you didn’t have a family before,” Peri said rubbing Vee’s shoulder reassuringly. “But I promise you that you have one now.”

Vee’s eyes lit up with glee before she gave Peri a huge hug. “Come on you guys, get in on the love!”

Peri and Vee tugged Blaze and I in the hug and I was shocked when he didn’t respond immaturely to touching me.

“I’ll go pack my things and resources for us to have,” Vee said before zooming up above her.

“One step closer Tai,” Peri grinned as she stood beside me.

One step closer.

...

“Whoa check out this carriage!” Vee excitedly said as she flew up onto the seat. “What do you use for fuel?”

Blaze lit his fit a flame and shot a blast of fire into the engine, making the carriage “come to life”.

“Well that’s convenient,” She grinned. “As long as Blaze is around, we’ll never run out of fuel.”

It was a long and tiresome journey down Pryst Mountain. Blaze was able to get us to the top but he couldn’t get us down, but thankfully, we have a very generous Air Gifted friend who was able to assist us. Though it tired her out immensely to carry three people at one time, Vee used her winds to gently float us, and herself, down the mountain. I knew she was absolutely exhausted but she wouldn’t admit it to us. I’m surprised she can still float!

“Come on Tai, what are you waiting for?” She smiled as she offered me a hand.

A grateful smile etched itself on my face as I took her hand. I felt the air lift beneath me and I gently landed next to her in the carriage.

“Vee, please don’t overexert yourself” I frowned.

“I’ll be fine, it’s you who needs to relax.” She said nonchalantly. But I could see the tiny beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

“What’s the next stop?” Blaze asked folding his tan arms.

“Well,” Vee started. “There is a place called the Ironvale Canyon. Powerful Earth gifted are known to live there.”

“Well then I guess that’s the next stop.” Peri said. “Set the course Blaze!”

He took control of the carriage and we set off While he at Peri sat at the front conversing, Vee sat at the rear, solemnly looking back at her home.

“You’re going to miss it there aren’t you?” I asked as I gently sat next to her.

“I think it’s just because it’s the only place I’ve ever known, I’ve lived there all my life.”

“You’ll go back one day,” I softly smiled at her.

“Thanks Tai,” She smiled. “I just hope when I come back, my parents will actually miss me.”

“I’m sure they will,” I wrapped my arm around her.

But I realized wasn’t just talking about Vee, I was also referring to myself. I hope that if I do ever return to reality, my family would’ve actually missed me.M