The Flesh Elementalist

by Outspan Foster

  What other elements were there?

  Fire. He could burn his wounds closed. But he'd still be a limping mess with a completely shattered arm. There'd be no means of escape if he couldn't carry Yemiri on his back.

  Lightning and air were out of the question. What could he do with those? He didn't know anything about those. Maybe Yemiri could if she had a Tesseract. She was smart and paid attention to her mother's lessons.

  Then his conversation with the old man came to him. The element for Zack was obvious. If it worked, it could potentially solve his problem too.

  "The only thing you can rely on is your own flesh," he repeated.

  Not knowing how to choose his element, Zack just shouted into the endless white void. "I choose my element! I choose flesh."

  The blue boxes shimmered and disappeared along with the white world in a blink. Zack had expected to feel a rush of power overflowing through him, to heal his body and make him new.

  Instead, he was still lying in a pool of his own blood, his body torn apart in the deep tunnels. The Tesseract hadn't solved his problem of dying. And yet, the sliver of power sat in his belly. It was undeniable.

  The power called on him, feeding him instructions, a feeling stronger than any instinct he had ever felt. With the small well of power inside of him combined with his unwillingness to die, he crawled to the trollbear. The monster breathed out slowly, the pick deep in its skull twitching slightly. It was still alive, about as much as Zack.

  He wanted to chuckle, but it would hurt too much. Zack and the trollbear were too damned stubborn to die. He felt a strange kinship with the beast, and he placed his hand on the monster's face.

  The power in his stomach rushed through his right arm and connected with the trollbear. Suddenly, he felt like he was inhabiting two bodies at once. A lifetime of memories from the trollbear rushed through him in a single instant. Ice. Darkness. Light. Safe light. Humans. Four of them. Kill four but two injured my stomach.

  And just as quickly as the feeling came, it disappeared. Zack opened his eyes and saw the trollbear was no longer breathing. Its body wasn't just lifeless. Something about it seemed hollow.

  He looked down at his left arm that had been shattered and realized the power he had felt earlier was felt all over his body. For some reason, he felt hungry. Zack had never felt hungrier in his life.

  The closest meat to him was the trollbear, and with more energy than he realized he had, he unhitched his pick from the trollbear's eye. Zack used it to cut into the trollbear's meat and began eating it raw, the steam from its bodyheat rising to his face.

  Never had Zack tasted meat so good before in his life. It didn't just taste good, it felt good. The trollbear meat more than nourished him, it gave him power. The more he ate, the hungrier he became.

  He didn't know how long he kept eating without stopping in the chamber of the deep tunnel, but when he finished, Zack looked at his left hand in awe. It was completely healed. The bones had set in place and the wounds on his ribs were closed. He didn't feel cold either, even with his torso exposed to the open air. The cold was still there, but it seemed like a trifling thing.

  Zack found himself standing up, looking down at the trollbear in wonder. He flexed his fingers and picked up his ax. Zack felt new, fresh, like he had been reborn.

  3

  Climbing back through the tight tunnels toward the surface was much easier than Zack had ever done before. He was no longer exhausted, given an energy and power that still felt foreign to him. Somehow, he had absorbed the natural healing ability and a little of the innate strength from the trollbear.

  He couldn't heal at an unnatural rate on his own. Only by eating the trollbear's meat was he able to heal at a miraculous rate. Zack had taken a few bites from the reindeer meat to see if it gave him the same rush of power as the trollbear. It did help heal a little of the last of his wounds, but nowhere near as close as the trollbear's had.

  Zack had skinned both the reindeer and the trollbear, and made a makeshift carry-bag of them, tying them to his ankle with his own satchel through the narrow passageways that led from the deep tunnels. He never would have had the strength to do so before, but now he did.

  It felt good.

  Zack felt like he could do anything. Walking to Bergen from the Demon's Prospect with Yemiri on his back seemed like a simple thing to him now. He hadn't just gained the trollbear's strength and recovery abilities, Zack had also gained its immunity to cold.

  The wind rushing from the entrance of the tunnels pasted across his face, and it felt like nothing to him, just texture. Even with his goggles off, the cold didn't give him frostbite or freeze his eyes over. With this kind of strength and power, he could protect Yemiri in any situation from now on. He might even have the strength to drag the old man on a homemade sled. They did owe it to him to try.

  Along with the powers came a hunger. Even after eating all the meat his body used to heal and his stomach could take, Zach was still hungry. It wasn't the normal hunger he felt after a hard day's work, the kind that told him it was time to replenish his strength.

  No. This hunger was endless and deep, a primal thing that lurked in his stomach, almost a beast on its own.

  The scent of the bloodstains on him even excited him a little, and Zack found that very off-putting. As he climbed back upward to the surface, he couldn't help the images of his own teeth sinking into the beartroll's meat flash through his mind. Occasionally, he imagined his hands clenched around Denn or Rissa's neck as he squeezed out their last breaths.

  Yemiri. Just think about protecting Yemiri, he reminded himself. That's all that mattered. They'd make their escape to Bergen, find a ship, and sail to the Farland. It didn't matter if they didn't have what the old man had referred to as money. He'd make them understand with his newfound strength.

  Finally, he broke through the surface, the night air blanketing across his face. Before, it would have caused him to shrug his shoulder and tighten his furs around him closer to keep the warmth in his body close. But now, it felt good. The cold had woken him up.

  "I must have been down there longer than I thought," Zack realized, looking at the aurora stream above him, a river of opalescence across the night sky.

  He dragged the remaining meat of the trollbear and the dead reindeer behind him toward the slaves' huddle of igloos. His breath steamed from his mouth, as if his lungs were made of fire, and it felt good. Nothing would stand in his way to freedom. That's all that mattered.

  A few of the other slaves were standing outside his igloo. They looked worried. One of them was crying. He recognized one as One-Eyed Megg.

  His heart skipped a beat, and he dropped the holds of his satchel, leaving the meat behind as he rushed to Megg. She gave him a sour frown, shaking her head.

  "Where were you, lad?" She asked, anger and disappointment in her voice. "You were supposed to protect the girl."

  Zack felt like he had been punched in the gut. He looked from the entrance of his igloo to Megg. A thick trail line led from his igloo all the way to the steps leading up and out from the Demon's Prospect.

  He grabbed Megg by the cuff of her furs and raged, "Where is she?!"

  Megg looked away, shame on her face. Zack rushed inside the igloo. They didn't have a lot, but everything was out of place. The sitting leathers were in disarray, the cooking pot kicked over, its fires dead in the icy floor. There was no Yemiri to be found.

  Only the old man sat in the corner, his face grim. All the power Zack had felt just a moment before rushed out of him like wind from his lungs. He collapsed to his knees and looked to the old man. "What happened? Where is she?"

  Even as he asked the questions, he knew what the answer was. The old man was incredibly calm in the chaos of Zack's broken home. He spoke evenly and measured, "Rissa took her."

  Zack shook his head, the strength coming back to his legs as rage began to take over. "Rissa? Not Denn?"

  The old man nodded.

  Zack stomped ov
er to the old man, lifted in him the scruff of his furs, and pinned him against the wall of the igloo so hard that snow shook off from their ceiling. "And you didn't do anything? You let them take her? You said you'd protect her!"

  The old one's face was a dispassionate make. He seemed completely indifferent to Zack's rage and grief.

  Something struck Zack's face and he found himself on the floor of his igloo. The old man stood above him, offering a sad smile and a hand. The rage that had boiled in Zack had cooled to a simmer. What was he doing? He had just threatened the only other person he could call his friend besides Yemiri.

  Zack knew it was the hunger. It took over his anger, stoking it high and hot the way Yemiri had with their cooking fire. Zack took his friend's hand and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

  The old man nodded appreciatively. "You did mean what you said and I understand your anger. But before you run off into the cold after poor little Yemiri, I suggest you listen to what I have to say."

  Zack stood up, his grip on his pick tightening. He had never felt so weak in his life, so damn ineffective. The only thing that kept him going in the world was to protect Yemiri and take her to the Farland. After a second, he managed to ask, "What happened?"

  The old man sighed, pulling out a small wooden stick with a hole in it. The end of it began to smoke, and the scent of the smoke wafted through Zack's nose. Its smell was oaky and calmed Zack even more. The old one said, "You were right about Denn. The old galumph came here for Yemiri as soon as you went to the deep tunnels. Luckily, I was able to get word to the miners to get Rissa."

  Zack shook his head. "Why didn't you stop Denn?"

  The old man frowned. "Do I look like I can stop a seven foot behemoth?"

  Zack realized how stupid that sounded. Before gaining the powers of the trollbear, even he would have had a difficult time taking on the big man.

  "Continue," he said.

  "Well, Rissa came right quick," the old man explained. "She screamed at the man about damaging her goods, but the big man didn't seem to care. He said he wasn't going to hurt her, just...Well, you know."

  Zack wanted to scream, to hunt down Rissa and Denn and feel their blood on his hands. The scent from the old man's smoke calmed him, swaying his thoughts from violence. He decided to keep listening.

  The old man continued, "That was when I told Rissa Yemiri was more valuable untouched."

  Zack's head shot up. "What do you mean by that?"

  The old man nodded. "Remember how I told you Bergen's Adjutant is looking for new harem candidates? Well, give Yemiri more food and she'll be the prettiest girl in Demon's Prospect, if not Bergen itself."

  Zack had to agree with that. He had never noticed how pretty she was until recently. But they had promised when they were younger not to marry until he somehow found a way to free them of their situation. He didn't love her because she was pretty, but because she was everything he wasn't -- smart, elegant, and kind. In many ways, he needed her more than she did him.

  "What does that have to do with Yemiri?" Asked Zack.

  "I suggested that Rissa could sell Yemiri to Adjutant Lagrand as a slave for his harem candidacy," the old man explained. "I know it sounds rough to your ears. But she's seventeen, and the Adjutant can't legally introduce her into his harem until she is legally eighteen. Rissa's greed knows no bounds, so she made Denn back off, taking Yemiri away from the Demon's Prospect. As long as she is a harem candidate, she will be safe from all kinds of harm and will even be fed and clothed like a real lady."

  "In a way," the old man added with a wolfish grin from his smoking stick. "I protected her better than you ever could have. You have your muscles, and I have...other things."

  Zack shook his head, trying to take in all the unbelievable amount of news. Yemiri was gone. But apparently she was safe. Zack breathed a sigh of relief. The image of Denn hunched over the frail Yemiri angered Zack, but he tamed it with the thought of Yemiri safe inside Bergen.

  He said, "I need to save her."

  The old one breathed out smoke from his nose, calming Zack's thoughts to climb the steps up and out of the Demon's Prospect toward Bergen. He sighed. "You could go attempt to play hero. Your grandfather Nehemiah tried that once, but he failed, causing both him, his child, and his grandchild to grow up as slaves. We are all free to do what we want, even those who call themselves slaves. But there are consequences to every action. Have you thought about yours?"

  "What do you mean?"

  The old one chuckled. "You're slave and you look like one, and not a very good one at that. Your furs are half ripped off and soaked in blood, and you have a fever-mad rage about you that stinks something more primal than your body can probably handle. Did you find more than what you were looking for in the deep tunnels?"

  Zack nodded and quickly told him about his encounter with the trollbear and the Tesseract. The old man listened to all of it quietly, never once interrupting.

  After a moment of silence the old one said, "You've become an Elementalist. Luckily for you, there is no one in Demon's Prospect that knows more about Elementalists and Tesseracts than I do. So, this is what I offer you since you can't read the screens because you were too stupid to listen to Yemiri's lessons. I offer you knowledge about your powers and a potential solution to your problems. After that, you're free to do what you want."

  Zack took the words in. He wanted nothing more than to seek out everyone involved in taking away his friend and kill them with his bare hands, but the old man's words were tempting. He knew nothing about being an Elementalist, and he didn't know when he'd get another chance to learn about it again.

  Finally, he bowed his head slightly in respect and said, "Please, old one. Teach me."

  The old one smiled.

  4

  "Elementalist are limited by three things," the old man explained. "First, is the element itself. If you are a fire Elementalist and have no source of fire near you, then you are going to be clearly outmatched by an ice Elementalist who is standing in the middle of a snowbank. Luckily, by gaining a Tesseract, you are able to store a little bit of your element inside you, able to access it until it runs out. Given time, your core elemental reserves will replenish."

  Zack listened carefully. It was the old man's third time explaining the concepts. They were too foreign and he didn't have Yemiri there to simplify things for him in a way he could understand. Thankfully, the old man was patient.

  The old man continued, "The second limitation is sanity. Each Tesseract grants one sanity point. Your status screens should have showed that but you were too stupid to listen to Yemiri's instructions on letters."

  Zach couldn't fault him there. He asked, "What does sanity have to do with anything?"

  "The powers Elementalists wield are alien to mortal bodies. In the element's raw form, mortals would die from the corruption or go completely insane. The Tesseract keeps these powers and sanity in check. The more Tesseracts you own, the more you can stretch your powers. But if you stretch your powers beyond what your Tesseract and mind can allow, you will succumb to the primal urges of your element."

  "You're saying Elementalist can gain more Tesseracts?"

  The old man nodded. "More on that later. Just pay attention to this part. This is critical. You could technically use as much of your element's power if you want, as long as you have enough of the element. However, your body and mind can only take so much. You are only a mortal. Primal urges can be expressed differently depending on the element and person, although there are tendencies. Ice Elementalists turn colder and more apathetic. Fire Elementalists are quicker to anger. The more they succumb to their urges, they gain more power, but it is more difficult for them to control their own sanity."

  Zack finally got what the old man was saying. "So, the more Tesseracts you have, the more you can safely access your element?"