Seasons Within Box Set

by Lele Iturrioz

  “It’s to be expected.” Edan placed a warm blanket on Gaia’s shoulders. It’s not like it was cold but for some reason he needed to feel she was protected. “She always treated the camp as a spa. I don’t think she ever quite understood what was going on, not until yesterday.”

  “Edan…” Afraid of bringing up the topic, Gaia whispered lower than usual. “What happened with Azazel?”

  “He left.” Edan lifted his arms in shock after seeing that Gaia had laid down on the trunk placing her head in his lap. Any other day, she wouldn’t dare to do that, but after surviving that fight, worrying about what Edan would think about her using his legs as a pillow seemed stupid. “I don’t know when he escaped, but he’s very much alive.”

  “Why did Priyam follow him and stab herself?”

  “Because Azazel is a Domino.” Wanting to make her feel better, Edan lowered his hands and played with Gaia’s hair. Getting tired of the show, Willow took her bag of seeds, stood up and left to go to her room. “He uses his element to control people’s wills.”

  “I didn’t know that was possible,” she whispered against his hand.

  “There are lots of things you still need to learn.” He caressed Gaia’s forehead. She wondered if he was aware of what he was doing.

  Gaia closed her eyes and thought of the battle, how Azazel stood in front of her and yet did nothing. She remembered how she felt anger and hate towards Him but sitting there, calm and less worried about Priyam dying, she realized that of all the things she felt that night, she never felt threatened. I should have, after all, He was there to kill me. “Edan… Why didn’t he kill me? I was right there and he just… stared at me.”

  There was a long silence. The Six remained quiet, looking at Edan as if they were searching for his permission. “I don’t know,” he finally said.

  “Princeza! It started,” Veter said pointing at the view.

  “What started?”

  “Spring, Princeza. Spring.”

  Gaia lifted her head from Edan’s lap and saw them: dozens of colorful flowers growing from the grass and the trees. She stood up with Hunter’s help and walked towards the small flowers. The air smelled fresh with a hint of perfume. There were more birds than usual and the sky seemed brighter. It was then that she saw it, a beautiful marigold flower blooming in the middle of the field. Pratt… She smiled knowing he survived the blast.

  Donovan sat down next to Edan. “You need to tell her about Him,” he whispered.

  “No.” He stared at Gaia playing alongside Veter, Hunter and Priyam with some flowers. “Not yet.”

  “What are we going to do now?” Gaia asked Edan, oblivious to his previous talk with Donovan.

  “Earth isn’t safe anymore. As soon as your shoulder and Priyam’s wound get better, we will set way towards Terra.”

  “Terra?” Priyam got excited. “What does it look like?”

  “We don’t know. It’s been almost twelve years since we left.” Shui smiled. “But what we do remember was beautiful.”

  Terra… Gaia thought and was hit by a warm, strong and overpowering sensation.

  Suddenly, a strong current of wind hit Gaia, making her hair float around her face. “Veter? What are you doing?”

  “It’s not me, Princeza” he said with a bright smile.

  The wind surrounded Gaia and she began to levitate from the floor. Different types of flowers and petals flew around her, slowly, like dancing. “What is happening?”

  “Don’t be afraid,” said Edan. “It’s your Eighteenth Spring.”

  A sensation of peace and pure comfort invaded Gaia. She felt how all the pain on her muscles and cuts slipped away, how the bright sun made her skin feel warm but the fresh breeze cooled her down, like it happens on a perfect day on the beach. The feeling was incredible.

  A few animals arrived at the scene, paying their respects to their future queen. Small balls of light came out of the grass, the trees, plants and the flowers. The small balls of light floated to the sky making it look like they were all surrounded by stars.

  Priyam touched one of the balls of light and it dissolved around her finger. “They are so warm. It’s beautiful!”

  As the balls flew higher and higher, Gaia’s bright red hair lifted up on the air and a golden Triskele mark appeared on the back of her neck.

  The mark of the queen, the beginning of the journey to her Resurgence.

  Gently, Gaia’s body returned to the ground and her hair fell like a waterfall on her shoulders. Priyam and the rest ran towards Gaia.

  Shui was the first to hug her. “Happy birthday, Gaia.”

  Priyam cut in, “How about that, you little Goku! Celebrating your real birthday for the first time.” Priyam hugged her best friend. “I wish I could fly around shiny stuff on my birthday too.”

  “That was rad,” Floyd cheered next to Gaia.

  “Princeza!” Two big arms lifted Gaia from the ground into a big bear hug. “I’m so proud of you,” smiled Veter.

  “There, there, papa bear,” Donovan patted Veter’s back and everyone laughed.

  Excited and in company of everyone she loved, Gaia turned around and saw Edan’s smiling face. ‘Happy birthday, Red’ he mouthed and Gaia smiled back.

  It was March twenty-first and she knew she needed to hold on for twelve more months to be able to survive. Not just for her, but all the ones she loved and for that, she was willing to do anything in her power to ensure their safety. She had mastered fire and earth had already come out. She’d just turned her Eighteen Spring and received the mark of the queen. In no time, she would be ready to defend her friends, her family, her world.

  After all, she was Mother Nature.

  * * *

  Back at the second camp, Azazel stood on the edge of the huge crater Gaia made with her supernova. He looked around and everything in his eye’s reach was burnt and dead. “My king… I was only able to find one surviving Draak, the rest of the creatures died in the blast,” said Jinn.

  “Good,” Azazel hissed.

  Jinn couldn’t understand why his king appeared to be pleased with the results after such a major loss.

  “She’s getting stronger than I thought she would,” Azazel leered at the field of ashes, his teeth showing underneath his thin curled lips. “Such anger, such power.”

  “Should we do something about it?” asked Jinn.

  “We’ve already done our part.” He took Molly’s Lalaloopsy doll and placed it on top of a burnt tree, which was already bursting with new green plants growing from the ashes. “Now, we’ll let Nature take its course.”

  SPRING, Book 2

  Seasons Within, book II

  FBI Anti-Piracy Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Advertencia Anti-piratería del FBI: La reproducción o distribución no autorizada de una obra protegida por derechos de autor es ilegal. La infracción criminal de los derechos de autor, incluyendo la infracción sin lucro monetario, es investigada por el FBI y es castigable con pena de hasta cinco años en prisión federal y una multa de $250,000.

  SPRING

  First Edition

  Copyright © 2017 Alejandra González Iturrioz

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from the author.

  This story is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All other characters and all incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

  Cover design by Ibet Sakoda

  Cover illustration by Joanna Haber

  Earth Symbol by Donovan De León

  www.l
eleiturrioz.com

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9983098-6-6

  To:

  My badass beta readers!

  Eva Martín

  Paola Pavón

  Adriana González Márquez

  Ignacio Villalobos (Aka – Tidus/Clon)

  Moonstrand

  “The Forest of Color”

  Chapter 1

  First Flowers

  GAIA TOOK ANOTHER STEP, and her foot stumbled. “Watch it,” gasped Edan with a hoarse voice as he took her hand and curled it around his forearm for a better grip. Gaia’s fingers tingled against his skin. She could feel the three scars from the runes he had burnt on his arm.

  “Don’t let go,” he whispered.

  It wasn’t in Gaia’s character to let Edan treat her like a delicate princess, but she allowed it that time, after all, it was really hard walking around with a blindfold.

  “Use your other senses,” Gaia could hear Donovan’s voice chanting inside her mind.

  After the big attack on the second camp and the start of their nomad days towards Terra, Edan decided to have Hunter train Priyam and Gaia on the art of tracking and sensing danger. With the help of Donovan to translate Hunter’s sign language, of course.

  At first, it was terrible. They smashed against many trees, got their arms, legs, and faces cut by branches, tripped on rocks, and fell into ditches. Donovan made so much fun of the fact that Gaia managed to survive Azazel but would end up being killed by a branch, that Edan asked Veter to baby-proof the forest until they could sense better… or sense anything at all.

  A few weeks passed, and Gaia was there, walking around with a blindfold trying her best to know what was happening around her.

  Gaia took a big whiff. This time, she was able to detect the fresh smell of cut grass, the mix of flowers that gave a sweet fragrance. She could hear the movement of the clean, crystalline water and the birds chirping on the trees swaying back and forth with the gentle wind.

  Then, she had a feeling… she’d been there before.

  I know this place, she took another whiff. Ahh, that smell! But where? WHERE!? Gaia shook her body and gave little jumps on the soft grass.

  Confused by her actions, Edan leaned closer to her ear. “What on earth are you doing?” he asked without losing his grip.

  “Shut up; I’m concentrating.” Gaia heard Edan chuckle. It took her entire willpower to resist glaring at him but she was trying to sense the place, and she was going to achieve it.

  OK, OK… I can do this, Mother freaking Nature… Think G, think. A small current of wind grazed Gaia’s hair. Her skin shivered as goosebumps crawled down her neck. Truckee...? she thought for a second. Yeah sure, they just saved you from there but why not!? Let’s bring G back to the most dangerous place on the planet… oh, but I miss Truckee… Damn it! They’re right; I’m terrible at this. Out of guesses, Gaia quivered, her patience wearing thin. “Are we there yet?”

  “Almost there!” She could hear the excitement in Priyam’s voice.

  “I still don’t see the reason for the blindfold, Priy.”

  “And ruin the surprise? Never!” Priyam placed her hand on Gaia´s shoulders to stop her. “Besides, we are here.”

  Edan removed the blindfold. Sunlight assaulted Gaia’s eyes, blinding her. She blinked several times. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw it… The new camp.

  There was a river surrounded by flowers, a section of forest, the training grounds, the bungalows resting on top of a hill, and in the middle was the First Tree full of different types of flowers. It had pink flowers that looked like Juliet roses, purple sakuras, white peonies and golden tulips.

  “No way!” Gaia gasped beyond thrilled. “It’s just like the first camp!”

  “Made on purpose,” Hunter signaled before untying his brown leather wrist gauntlets.

  “What? How?”

  “Perks of controlling nature, Moja Princeza.” Veter placed a few bags next to Willow’s bungalow. They were on the move, and there was no place for extra luggage.

  Floyd pushed his weapons on top of the wooden table. “After the third camp, we realized how bloody terrible you are at learning new landscapes.”

  “After the fifth camp, we concluded that you will never improve,” Pink added while juggling a black cassette tape between her fingers.

  Icarus shook his head. “Absolutely never, ever,” said Donovan.

  “Not a bad thing,” Priyam jumped in to save her best friend. “Apparently not all Mother Natures come with a GPS.”

  “It’s not my fault. We change camps every two days.”

  “And on that note, we decided to build the only place you managed to learn.” Priyam leaned closer to Gaia. “It was Edan’s idea. The blindfold was mine.”

  “Of course it was,” Gaia mumbled under her breath, still feeling butterflies in her stomach at the idea of Edan thinking of how to make things easier for her. “Thank you. All of you.”

  Willow placed her wooden box next to the weapons Pink was cleaning. “Thank us by being on time to class.”

  “Couldn’t you at least make the camp without bugs this time?” Synthia whined while trying to get a ladybug away from her now unevenly colored hair.

  “Also, this is yours.” Edan took out a twenty-four-inch Japanese sword with a white and turquoise handle and a matching cover and handed it to Gaia. “Try not to kill everyone with it.”

  “Ahh! A mini Katana!” Gaia couldn’t believe it. She was about to reach for it when Floyd took the sword away from Edan’s hands.

  “Mini Katana?” Floyd yelped, repulsed by Gaia’s utter lack of knowledge in the art of armory. “It’s a Wakizashi!” Floyd hugged the sword, refusing to let her have it. “Edan, she’s not ready for it.”

  Edan stretched his hand to take back the sword. “She is. You are her teacher after all.” Unable to stop his leader’s decisions, plus having received such a cool compliment, Floyd gave the sword back to Edan.

  “It does look like a mini Katana,” Veter whispered to Donovan, who nodded while on the verge of laughing.

  “Meh… It looks OK,” Priyam said dragging her words with apathy as she opened her bag.

  “Don’t pay too much attention to her, Edan,” Gaia inspected the craftsmanship of her sword. “She’s been moody when it comes to weapons ever since Floyd forbade her to work with knives.”

  “I’m ‘moody’ for obvious reasons.” Priyam took some junk food out of her bag and opened the BBQ chips.

  Veter cackled from across the table with enough force to be heard throughout the valley. “You stabbed him in the leg, little Prisum,” he pointed out as he passed Pink the rest of the weapons she needed to clean.

  Pink couldn’t lift the sword Veter was passing her, she was laughing so hysterically. Tears rolled down her cheeks; tears that made her eyes look even bluer than they already were. “Best training day ever, mate.”

  “I didn’t stab him in the leg. I accidentally stabbed him in the leg,” Priyam corrected the Viking man. “Big difference.”

  “You know, Priyam,” Floyd rested his wounded leg on a big log next to where Hunter was sitting. “Being accidentally stabbed by someone feels the exact same way as ‘just’ being stabbed by someone,” he grunted setting off another round of uncontrollable laughter.

  “And here I was, thinking you were used to it by now,” Priyam teased the twin as she finished eating a BBQ chip.

  “You lassie, are as cold as a snowflake,” stated Floyd with a grin on his face.

  Unmindful of her surroundings and concentrating on her surprise gift, Gaia kept inspecting the Wakizashi. It was beautiful.

  Not too long, not too short. Its weight was minimal, and the color was gorgeous. Hanging from the handle was a white lotus flower. Gaia passed her finger over the flower. The lotus petals tickled her skin.

  She took the cover from the sword, and the blade made a swishing sound. “It’s stunning," she mumbled while her gray eyes traced the thin silvery edge. Nearest to the handle, there was
the phrase ‘IGNIS’ engraved on the blade. Gaia ran her hand over the letters.

  “It means Fire,” explained Edan. “I engraved it. That way you can make it burn. It will never melt no matter how hot. Give it a go.”

  Testing it out, Gaia turned her hand on fire. The flame crawled from her palm to her fingers to the handle and down the shiny blade. “Incredible.” She turned it off before facing Edan. “You made it?”

  “Yes, he did,” Donovan passed his hand over Edan’s shoulders. “It took him over a month.”

  Edan shrugged his shoulders trying not to look annoyed with all the unwanted attention.

  Over a month? Gaia did the math. That was before my Eighteenth Spring. She couldn’t help to wonder why on earth Edan was working on something so special for her when he couldn’t stand being near her.

  “Wait… you’re a chemistry teacher who so happens to also be the leader of this bunch of ETs, a fire wielder, great cook, and…blacksmith?” Priyam asked as she rummaged through the pile of armaments. “Are you also an oracle?”

  “Everyone from Emberdale learns how to forge their own weapons,” Shui clarified as her delicate hands helped to sort Willow’s seeds.

  Captivated, Gaia stared at the small red ring on Shui’s left pinky. She remembered that a week ago, she caught Veter cutting a red ribbon and curling one of the pieces around Shui’s finger, shaping it into a delicate ring. Then, Shui took the rest of the ribbon and did the same on Veter’s left pinky.

  “What’s that about?” Gaia asked Donovan in a whisper.

  “The matching symbol,” he explained back then. “There’s a legend that says that red ribbons connect matches. Always connected by fate, never to break apart. Some Asian cultures still have the same belief. Once the match is complete, the couple exchanges rings.”