by Jae Vogel
“I hope they have a good story ready if they encounter the Highway Patrol,” Dion said as he turned back to Lilly. “Are you parked on the other side of the mall? Come with me, I can give you a ride over there now that my van has all four tires.”
Lilly walked to the van with him.
Dion reached down and picked up the jack, which he tossed in the back of the van as he opened the door. The driver’s door was unlocked, as the thieves had used a coat hanger (left inside) to pull open the lock and ruffle through the inside. They didn’t find much beside the jack, but the tire was their intent anyway. He unlocked the passenger door for Lilly and helped her inside.
She didn’t know what to say. The day had begun with her watching him do small tricks with a pool of water and ended with Dion causing the earth to move around a speeding car. If ever she needed physical proof of his abilities, this was it. She quietly sat down in her seat and waited for him to start the van.
Nevertheless, it wouldn’t start. Dion swore and looked at the gas gauge in the van. “Idiots siphoned off my gas too. If I had known, I would have made them fill my tank. Looks like I’ll need a ride from you tonight.”
They walked across the huge parking lot under the stars. The arc lamps illuminated it, but not all of them were on tonight.
Lilly realized she was very much in love with Dion, but lacked the words to tell him. All she could think about was going on the next adventure with him. Be close to him. Didn’t he say he had to obtain three more elemental powers before he could work the fifth one? She wanted to be with him every step of the way.
“So what about your van?” she asked him on the drive back. “It’s going to be left out there all night? Aren’t you worried someone might try that again?”
“I left an elemental guarding it,” he said. “Anyone tries to mess with my van tonight will encounter an eight foot giant standing next to them. It’s just a golem and doesn’t have any violent tendencies, but he will be able to scare the pants off most people. It should suffice. When I get home, I’ll have my uncle and aunt call a tow service and we’ll meet them out there when they arrive. Alternatively, maybe I’ll just borrow a gas can and go out there myself. No reason to make this more involved than it has to be.”
“I’d like to meet them,” Lilly said. “You aunt and uncle, that is.”
“You will. They should still be up.”
Dion directed her to one of the many subdivisions, which lined the area, and they were soon in the driveway of his aunt and uncle’s house.
It was another modes split-level house, a style popular in recent years which had replace the ranch style castles which sprang up everywhere until ten years ago when people became tired of the same basic dwelling.
New developers began to build new models and soon houses were taking on the characteristics of their owners. Some houses were in a perpetual state of construction and addition, as the owner would always find some new project to initiate before concluding an existing one. Some houses had yards free of any traces of crabgrass while others had entire gardens growing out front. It was before the zoning laws standardized the way everything could be built. Most of them had their own water system and pumped it from the underground water table. This was all about to change with the coming of progress and shopping centers. Even cable TV had yet to reach this area and most houses were adorned with a virtual forest of antennas of all shapes, sizes and rotational controls.
Dion’s uncle met him at the door.
Lilly was surprised at how much he resembled his nephew. He graciously invited her inside and told them both to sit on the couch while he went to fetch his wife.
“I’ll get some coffee brewing,” he said. “You two look as if you could use some.”
“Do you think they’ll believe what we have to tell them?” Lilly asked Dion.
“They’re family,” he reminded her. “My uncle is the element worker and his wife understands.”
“Oh, honey,” Lilly heard a very feminine voice cry out and she looked up to see a tall woman with long red hair enter the room, “Are you okay? Your uncle told me you had a bad time at the mall today. Is everything alright?”
“I’m fine Aunt Taliea,” he told her. “At least I met the Earth Grandmaster today. You should see what I can do now.”
He turned to Lilly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce you to them. This is my Aunt Taliea and her husband, my father’s brother, Uncle Rich.”
They all hugged, shook hands and sat back down again. Dion and Lilly stayed on the couch while his aunt and uncle sat across from them in chairs. It was an ordinary house, so far as Lilly could tell; the only difference was that there was no TV in the living room. She hadn’t even heard one when she entered the house.
First, Lilly phoned her parents to let them know where she was. She was careful to give them the phone number where she could be reached. Her mother was a little perturbed she had gone somewhere without checking with her first, but Lilly casually reminded her she was eighteen and should be trusted to make her own decisions. Her mother made her promise to be home by midnight.
“She acts like I’m still in the sixth grade,” Lilly said after hanging up the phone.
Dion spent an hour or more telling them what had happened during the day. His aunt put her hand to her mouth several times when they talked about the ghouls and the animated plastic bull, but she stayed silent through most of the story. When they had finished the story, his aunt and uncle stayed quiet for a while.
“Well,” his uncle finally spoke. “I’m glad you got your full earth elemental abilities. You are an earth elemental master now. Just be careful with what you can do. I’ve known Athena West a long time and I’m sure she wouldn’t have bestowed them on you unless she felt you were worthy.”
“What do you plan on doing next?” his aunt asked him.
Lilly could see the concern in her face.
“I have to go back there tomorrow,” he told her.
“Go back? After what happened today?”
“I need to see the next elemental grandmaster. The one who is the grandmaster of the air elementals.”
“But why?” his aunt cried out. “Isn’t having the ability of one enough. Your Uncle Rich is an air worker and he’s never felt the need to try and obtain grandmaster status.”
“I know, but I have to do this. I need all four of the elemental master abilities.”
“All four?” his uncle said. “Why?”
“Because I will need them in order to obtain the fifth elemental mastership. And I want that because I learned today what I always suspected; my parents are being held captive inside that place. It’s up to me to get them out. I can only do that if I have all of the elemental powers… including the fifth one.”
“I don’t think I’ve heard of someone working the fifth element in hundreds of years,” his uncle said. “It’s the most dangerous one there is. Can’t you find another way to get them out?”
“No, the builders are in the middle of the mall in that clock tower. I think they’ve imprisoned my parents in there. They kidnapped them in hopes it would stop me from acquiring all the elemental powers. Well, they’ve given me a reason to obtain them all.”
His aunt and uncle were quiet. They realized Dion had determined his path and there was nothing they could do to prevent it.
“One more thing,” Dion said to them.
“What?” his uncle asked.
“I need to borrow the gas can. Lilly is going to run me back to the van with it after we stop at the gas station before it closes. The thieves who tried to steal my tire also drained my gas before they left. I didn’t learn about it until we tried to start the van.”
His uncle smiled.
“Well, that went pretty well,” Lilly told Dion as she drove him back to the mall. They’d managed to find one gas station still open in time to fill up the gas can. “But really, I don’t see why you bother with a van.”
“Why?” he asked her as they pulled
up to a red light.
“Anyone who can summon the power of the earth should be able to travel anywhere he wants and do what he wants. I can’t imagine what you’ll be able to do when you get those other abilities.”
“Just you wait and see,” he told her. Then Dion leaned over the seat, kissed Lilly on the lips, and held it.
The light turned green, but the car didn’t move until another car pulled up behind them and honked them forward.
It wasn’t long before they reached their destination. Lilly got out of her car and helped Dion pour the gas in the van, then returned the can to the trunk of her car.
“It’s late,” Dion told her as he wrapped his arms around her. “You need to go home.”
“What time should I be here tomorrow?” Lilly asked.
“Let’s get here nice and early at nine in the morning.”
They kissed one final time.
Soon, each was on their way home, with plans in the making for the next Elemental Grandmaster.
- THE END -
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