Meridias

  Elunduil looked over to the theater. A movie of his choice? He wasn’t sure if there was anything he was interested in watching. “Well let’s see if there’s anything interesting,” he said echoing his thoughts and they walked over towards the booth to see what was playing. He looked over the movies showing but didn’t really see anything that piqued his interest. “Can’t decide?” Alicia teased. Elunduil nodded. “Nothing catches my eye,” he replied. Alicia chuckled.

  “What about me?” she said playfully. Elunduil didn’t respond and felt his cheeks flush. Alicia laughed. “Just kidding. I just wanted to see your reaction!” Elunduil groaned. He looked over the movies one more time. “Here, you pick one. I can’t make up my mind,” he said. Alicia nodded and they went up to the booth to get their tickets.

  They then went inside the theater and Alicia asked him if he wanted any popcorn. He decided he was a bit hungry so they went to the concession stand to get some. Elunduil insisted that he at least pay for this much and after some back and forth Alicia gave in. They got their tub of buttered popcorn and went towards the hallway that led to the many viewing areas. They gave their tickets to a man who told them where their viewing area was. They thanked him and he nodded in return.

  They quickly found and went into the viewing area. There was a large projector screen at the front of the room and dozens of rows of seats. There were about half a dozen other people here which was to be expected for this time of day. Many people would still be working right now. Elunduil and Alicia went towards the middle of the room and found a couple of good seats near the middle of the row. All they had to do was wait for the movie to start. “So… what is this one about?” Elunduil asked trying to strike up some kind of conversation. Alicia chuckled. “Well it’s about a guy who calls himself a doctor, but isn’t really a doctor and travels through time and space in a police box,” she said. Elunduil was intrigued. He rubbed his chin. That British guy from a few days ago had been hanging around a police box. He never did get the guy’s name.

  The movie started soon thereafter and Elunduil was taken aback when he saw the same man on screen that he’d seen a few days ago. What where the odds that he’d run into the actor of this movie? He found himself on the edge of the seat as this time-traveling man ran around trying to prevent aliens from taking over the earth. The man had some clever tricks up his sleeve that eventually culminated in thwarting the alien’s master plan as well as ejecting them into some deep part of space. The end credits began to roll and Elunduil was a little sad that it was over already. “That was pretty good,” he said. Alicia nodded.

  “That British guy though! I saw him in Meridias a few days ago when I was… uh, looking for you. He called himself the Explorer. He had the same laser pointer!” she said excitedly.

  “Wait, you met him too?” Elunduil asked. Alicia nodded.

  As they walked to the exit of the theater Elunduil and Alicia speculated as to what the actor was doing in town. Maybe he’d heard about Meridias and wanted to check it out? Though it was kind of strange that he also had the police box but they laughed that detail away. There was no way he could travel through time like in the movie.

  They exited the theater and Alicia sent her dad a text that the movie was over. She then asked Elunduil what he’d been doing the last few days while she’d been absent. He told her about sensing magic and being able to use his aura now. He also mentioned how Cerra seemed to be training harder than ever and how Angurvadel had taken them to talk to Life. She was surprised to hear that his aura wasn’t like what she could use but also wasn’t the same as an aura wielders aura. “How did Life phrase it? Like a shadow cast on an autumn day.” Elunduil mused. Alicia chuckled. “It’s all because you merged with Ark right?” she asked. Elunduil nodded suddenly feeling sullen.

  Their conversation trailed off and Alicia seemed to be fidgeting. “So… what did you think?” she asked casually. Elunduil wasn’t quite sure what she was referring to and said,

  “About what?” Alicia looked down.

  “Well this is what you imagined for a first… date, right?” She looked timidly at the ground. Elunduil found himself at a loss for words. This had been a date then… It was obvious from the start but her message hadn’t been clear about what she was up to. “Er… yeah,” Elunduil muttered feeling self-conscious. He had a feeling Alicia was building up to something. “D-don’t get me wrong this is an apology for that past few days but… It’s also a test.” Alicia’s face was red. Elunduil felt his heart pounding in his chest. “Maria said some things and, well I thought if this went well then maybe… we could do it again sometime.” Alicia looked up to Elunduil whose mind was racing. He hadn’t expected this. “I… yeah, sure. Why not?”

  Alicia flashed Elundul a radiant smile. They stared at each other for several moments before something caught Elunduil’s attention. “Looks like your dad’s here,” he said. Alicia followed his gaze and saw the blue SUV that her father drove. “I probably shouldn’t keep him waiting,” she said and looked back to Elunduil. “So, um, I guess this is goodbye. Next time you pick the place that we go to!” She turned and hurried away towards her ride. She paused when she reached the car and waved to Elunduil who waved back. After she got into the car and left Elunduil breathed a sigh of relief. He felt like his heart had been about to burst. Well time to go home. He paused and realized that he didn’t have a way of calling home. Oh well. It’s not like he couldn’t walk. He shrugged and walked towards the street and began his trek home.

  ***

  Night began to fall on the camp as Joel and the others wrapped up basic repairs on the tents as well as salvaging the equipment that had been knocked away in the attack. Lucas and Jerome had several broken ribs and still hadn’t woken up causing some concern. James was keeping his eye on them in the hastily repaired barracks tent. Joel sat at the top of the dune on the edge of camp watching the bright blue wisps that had appeared in Desert Blue’s wake. He assumed that they had something to do with the elemental, given they were the same color but wasn’t sure what they were doing. They just appeared to be hovering around aimlessly and a part of him wanted to go down and touch one. Ashblade had told him and the others that no one was to come into contact with the wisps, so here Joel sat.

  The sound of footsteps approaching caught his attention and he turned away from the light show to see who was here. “Hey, Ash,” Joel said somberly. Ashblade furrowed his brow.

  “Ashblade!” he chastised. Joel turned back to the wisps. “I’d like to have a word with you,” Ashblade said. “Once again you were reckless beyond belief, but I may have been dead had you not distracted the skeletal dragon long enough for that… Desert Blue guy to take care of it.” Ashblade walked up next to Joel and joined him in watching the wisps. “So, thank you, Joel.” Joel nodded. “Your welcome!” he replied. “You know both times I saved you, you looked like you were frozen in fear. Why was that?” Joel’s question drove a stake into Ashblade’s heart. He grimaced and his eyes wandered across the horizon.

  He quickly thought of what he would tell Joel. A half-truth, like a sliver of grass amidst a rocky crag. “I’ve seen strange things in this world.” Ashblade began to say. “We fought against the Krel and the Antlions before, and I was like a furious storm that had no fear but…” Ashblade trailed off. He looked over to Joel who held an enthralled expression on his face. “Well if you remember from before the Antlions swarmed us when I first came here. It was a bloody, gruesome battle without end, and we did eventually have to relocate our camp… We traveled to the end of the desert and found a town of… elves living at the edge of a forest.” Joel almost jumped to his feet. “Wait! There’s elves? If there’s elves then that must mean… that there’s magic!” Joel dramatically emphasized the word magic. Ashblade wasn’t surprised by Joel’s logic. Elves were pretty much synonymous with magic in fantasy.

  “Yeah we found magic. When The General heard about it he ordered us to find any means necessary to obtain the elves knowledge
. Only problem was they weren’t keen to give it and eventually negotiations broke down.” Ashblade drew a deep breath. “So we tried to take it by force. We didn’t have much luck. They were extremely skilled and our guns didn’t seem to pierce their armor. So we trained to use swords and such. We trained until we could fight on equal footing with the elves. They never tried to drive us away. Probably because they were few in number, but also because they didn’t wish to slaughter us.” Ashblade paused to consider his next words. How much should he say?

  Ashblade figured he didn’t need to tell Joel about the human girl they’d captured. “We got trapped in this world. Betrayed by two of our own. Those two didn’t believe that fighting the elves was right and fled to the Elvin town to help them ward us off. Our leader had us construct a weapon to wipe the elves out. It was supposed to intimidate them into giving us the secrets of magic but… well our leader began to lose sight of our original purpose.” Ashblade sighed and shook his head. Alex Jericho had been a fine soldier, but the isolation from their world and his desire to help out The General caused him to become twisted. Ashblade was only a soldier and followed his orders without question. “We did eventually manage to break the deadlock and captured a few elves, but they didn’t break. Luckily the weapon was ready to fire and so we began to charge it up. That was when the elves launched an offensive to stop us. I was not among those sent to the main battlefield. I was tasked with defending our weapon, and I failed.”

  The memories of that day came rushing back to him. A young teen standing back from a group of elves who were fighting with Ashblade’s comrades. He’d assumed he would be an easy target to capture but when they approached him the boy had almost calmly lifted his hand up, and an inferno of fire erupted around Ashblade and the men with him. He had jumped away through a gap in the flames as the raging fires closed. His armor had been singed but more importantly his men vanished in the flames never to be seen again.

  He’d stared at the teen in disbelief. Never before had he faced against something so innocently menacing as some kid who’d murdered three grown men in an instant without any sign of remorse. He’d crossed blades with the teen but there wasn’t anything behind his attack. His body had shaken with the fear of facing the same fate as his comrades. The stray bolt of magic that had almost hit him was the final straw. He’d cast his sword aside and fled, hoping that the teen would lose interest in him.

  It was only later that he’d realized he’d lost his will to fight. The fear of death paralyzed him each time he faced something that could kill him. “Anyway,” he said shaking away his memories. “Like I said I failed. I saw magic first hand and it killed my comrades. I barely managed to escape the magic myself, but terror gripped my heart. It hasn’t let go since that day. I’m afraid of dying like that. I can no longer fight in a battle to the death like I used to.” Ashblade looked over to Joel as he finished his speech. He hadn’t intended to tell him so much but he found it easy to talk to Joel about what had happened. “Was it an elf?” Joel asked. Ashblade hesitated. Should he tell Joel the truth?

  “… No. He was a human. A boy probably around your age. He didn’t look fazed that he’d killed three people.” Joel eyes were wide and he looked down. Ashblade expected that Joel would be mortified or at the very least disturbed. He did not expect to hear him speak with glee. “Ha ha! Magic is real! Oh, ho, ho, ho! The things I could do if I could figure out how to use it!”

  Ashblade would’ve been dumbfounded if he didn’t already know Joel had a few screws loose. Joel’s mad laughter paused for a moment as he realized something and turned to Ashblade. “Wait a minute this guy, what did he act like?” Joel asked. Ashblade shrugged. “I guess he was… calm? Unusually so for someone that age.” Joel mulled over Ashblade’s words for a moment. “Well… one of my friends is like that,” he muttered. Ashblade was intrigued. He hadn’t heard Joel bring up his friends before. “Really? If he could use magic how would he act?” he asked. Joel thought for a moment.

  “Well if it was a battle then… he’d probably slaughter everything in his path. He wouldn’t mess around though. He’d tear through everything as quickly as possible.” Joel’s response didn’t give Ashblade too much more insight into Elunduil’s character. “Is he crazy like you?” he asked. Joel laughed boisterously for several moments.

  “Nope, not at all! He never shows any emotion and likes to vanish into thin air!” Ashblade waited while Joel’s laughter died down. “He can be scary though. Something about the way he attacks when he’s trying to hit me just makes me want to run away.”

  Ashblade grunted. The fact that Elunduil wasn’t crazy was more worrying. How could a regular teen stay so calm? “What happened to the people you left when you fled?” Joel suddenly asked catching Ashblade off guard. “Them? Well they probably surrendered to the elves. None of us really wanted to slaughter them to begin with so…” Joel nodded.

  “Why not go back to them then?” he asked. Ashblade shook his head.

  “No, I’m a deserter. I changed my name to Ashblade because of my cowardice. Besides I’m sure they would stand against us.” Despite his serious tone there was a hint of longing in his voice. Joel looked over to the wisps as they began to wander away. “What was your name before?” he asked. Ashblade clenched a fist.

  “Stormblade,” he said in a whisper. Joel made an interested ‘huh’ and looked back to the camp. “Well I’m all excited now that I know there’s magic here! I’m going to go try and fix some stuff!” Ashblade put a hand on Joel’s shoulder before he ran off.

  “Look, most of what I said is confidential, so this stays between us.” Joel nodded and bounded towards the camp as Ashblade’s gaze followed him. He’d said more than he’d intended to. Why though? It would’ve been easier had he not said anything. It had just… felt so natural. As if he’d wanted to confide in the boy. As Ashblade mulled things over he began to realize that he trusted Joel. He’d saved his life twice thus far without hesitation, and even when he’d told him that he’d lost his will to fight he hadn’t looked at him any differently. It had been a long time since he’d trusted anyone. He felt reaffirmed that he could possibly use Joel against The General. However he’d have to wait and see how things played out once The General brought Elunduil in for interrogation. Either Joel would rage and try to go on a murder spree or… he could cooperate. No, he had to cooperate. Ashblade needed someone that The General thought was under his thumb. With that thought Ashblade turned and walked down the dune towards the camp as the last rays of sunlight faded beneath the horizon.

  ***

  Here he was again, floating in a strange place with various worlds. Elunduil looked about. The flat world of perpetual dawn was close. He could make out the cracks in the earth from where he was. He wondered what triggered these dreams. They seemed to happen whenever he was about to face some sort of trial but… Well this time it felt different. The last thing he remembered was getting home and his mom commenting that she could’ve given him a ride home before he went to bed. He felt the presence approach, no it appeared. Actually it had always appeared it was just that he hadn’t realized it until now. “Ah, you finally noticed? Good then we are ready for the next step.” The presence’s voice resonated through his being. He noticed that it didn’t seem overwhelming this time. “Your mind is awakening more as time passes,” the presence said. Awakening to what? Before Elunduil could ask the presence answered. “You will understand in time. Restoring yourself and using Destiny’s End was the first step. It is no coincidence that it shares the same hue as your ‘aura’.”

  Elunduil was about to ask what the presence meant but he suddenly found himself tossed about by a turbulent gale. He panicked at first and whipped his head about as he looked for the source. No, wait this had to be the element he was learning. He calmed himself and let the wind turn him about. “Good. You must be the calm at the eye of the storm. Now take the knowledge of air!”

  A gentle voice sings across the land,

  It
flows into every precipice and every crack,

  Through the twists and turns of the earth, and through the branches of every tree.

  Its caress is playful, soft, and pure,

  It can change at any moment and be a fierce, screaming voice.

  Tongues of lightning crackle because of it,

  Clouds flee from its rage.

  It speaks without words,

  The harmony within the storm, the hurricane without discretion

  A presence that can be felt but not seen.

  Many a creature rise from the earth and dream of flight.

  It is a whimsical laugh, a raging storm,

  A boon that carries life to the creatures of the land and sky.

  It is the shield that keeps the sun from scorching the earth,

  The eternal wanderer that never rests.

  It is Air

  Elunduil took a deep breath. Again the words were familiar. It felt as if something was returning to him. He knew what he needed to do. He raised his arms up to his chest, palms upturned. He was the storm. He controlled the fury and at a thought he could blow away his foes, or gently touch his friends. His arms still outstretched, he beckoned to the wind around him and it came. It surrounded him, enveloped him in its embrace. It teased and poked at him. He closed his eyes. He saw a grassy field gently waving in the cool breeze. He saw a bolt of lightning flash in the stormy skies. He saw a man filling a balloon with air. He saw the clouds twisting and turning in a cyclone that tore its way through an abandoned town. He saw his world covered by an invisible veil that shielded the planet from the Sun. This was Air.