The Elements

Chapter 2

It was nearly dark outside as Joseph walked briskly towards the warehouse. He checked his phone every other second: he couldn't be late—that would only upset him. And Cale couldn't be upset otherwise who knows what would happen?

Joseph turned the corner to the silent pathway through the weed-filled fields. There were several dead crops here amongst the creeping plants, but any wheat that was once grown here was long given up on. It only added to the atmosphere of feeling totally isolated.

He pushed the door open gently into the wide space with a quiet creak. It didn't look like anyone was here yet, but he could never be too sure. Cale was one for hiding from him. He looked around, but couldn't see anything or even hear anything. Sometimes it was easy to hear breathing seeing as the building echoed so much, but that evening, there was nothing. Just the distant rush of cars.

All of a sudden, there was a knife at his neck and a warm breath on his ear. Automatically, he lowered his density, darting through the knife's blade and whipped around to face his attacker with a ball of ice cold water floating between his hands as he'd been taught. He immediately relaxed as he realised who it was.

"Jasper, why can't you just greet me normally?"

Jasper shrugged, his old face creased with the wrinkle lines of a smile. "I just like to know what you do." He gestured towards Joseph's water ball. "I like that."

Joseph smirked. "You taught me how to use it. I might as well." He pushed his hands together and the water ball disappeared without a drop left in sight. He glanced around suspiciously. "There's no-one else here to jump out at me, is there?"

Jasper shook his head. "Cale's not here today. He has business to attend to. Which means that we have the place to ourselves."

"Brilliant!" Joseph responded sarcastically.

Jasper only smirked before wandering closer to the centre of the room. Joseph felt uncomfortable in the silence, so spewed the first thing he was thinking of.

"How's Seline?"

Jasper didn't turn to face him, but his tone was serious enough to cause Joseph's niggling panic to settle in again. "I haven't seen her recently."

"She's not hurt is she? I swear if she's hurt I'll kill him."

Jasper shook his head as he stood a few metres from Joseph in the middle of the warehouse's space. "She won't be hurt, Joseph. Cale's not that stupid. He wants you too much."

Joseph realised how tensed he was as his breathing deepened. He tried to calm himself: Jasper's first lesson was to use an enemy's anger and frustration against him and with Jasper's fighting skills, Joseph didn't want to be a victim to that rule.

"Anyway we're here now. We should do something."

Joseph felt too unstable to speak, so he just nodded, biting his lip. Jasper noticed it immediately.

"Don't worry about it, laddie. She'll be safe so long as you do what he wants."

"I don't want to be his lapdog." Joseph's voice was only a whisper.

Jasper walked slowly up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "If I could help, I would. But I think it's better for both of us as well as your sister if we just do what Cale wants. The last thing I want is for him to hurt you or your family."

Joseph nodded sadly. Jasper smiled sympathetically before striding back over to his original position.

"Now then, how's the water whip coming?"

Joseph shook his head and focussed himself—he'd need to if he wanted to do anything useful. "It's fine, I think. Can't we do something else? We've been doing this for ages."

"Patience is a value, Joseph. And if you have any chance of mastering your element, you should do as I tell you."

Joseph sighed angrily, and Jasper folded his arms. "A temper tantrum isn't going to get you anywhere. Stop complaining and focus!"

In a fit of rage, Joseph opened his facing palms out, creating a large ball of water between them. He stretched it out into a long whip and, keeping his left hand hovering the base of it centimetres from his palm, pushed his right hand towards Jasper, sending the whipping water straight at him. It cracked into him, and just as it touched Jasper's arm, Joseph sent the ice shooting from his left hand, freezing the water in an extending sheen of ice from Joseph's hand onto Jasper.

For a second, Jasper looked shocked, but then broke into a smile, ignoring the ice covering half his chest and arm.

"Brilliant. You practiced?"

Joseph smirked. "Nope." He enjoyed the awe of other people when they thought he was naturally gifted, even though he had in fact practiced for hours in the dark the previous night.

However, Jasper saw straight through him. "Don't lie to me. It only makes me lose respect for you."

Joseph pouted with irritation as Jasper continued. "Now seeing as you have actually worked on that and it's pretty good, we can move onto the next thing if you want to."

"Depends," Josep considered, running water over the ice to melt it off of Jasper before lowering his hands. "Will you stop being mean?"

Jasper chuckled. "Oh, am I being mean to you? I'm so sorry," he said sarcastically. "If being 'mean' to you is the only way to make you learn without your snarky remarks then that's the way that I'm going to teach, and there's nothing you can do about it except pay attention. Stop having hissy fits and perhaps I'll lay off you."

Joseph said nothing for fear of saying the wrong thing. He had to bite his lip not to laugh in response like he usually did when someone went off on him.

"Do we understand each other now?" Jasper finished.

"Sure." Joseph shrugged as he responded, trying to stay casual and not get worked up. That was the last thing he needed to do.

"So as I was saying before we divulged, we should move onto the next thing. Okay, so it's a little bit trickier than that. Well, it's a lot trickier, but when you've mastered it, it'll be a lot easier to get away, even with your density control. What you're trying to do, is build your own ice bridge."

There was a pause. "Build my own what?"

"What you have to do is create a path of ice in front of you as you're running or walking or whatever. This means that you can escape to new heights when you're trying to defeat an enemy and it can also be useful when getting over a drop of a large expanse of water."

"Couldn't I just jump?"

Jasper's expression turned impatient, and Joseph mimed zipping up his lips as he realised he was getting into the danger zone.

"Just learn it."

"How do I even begin?"

Jasper walked over and stood next to him as he demonstrated what Joseph was trying to achieve. "You want to focus your powers on the space a metre in front of you," he explained as he extended his arms in front of him. "To get it started, you have to freeze the first one or two metres in front of you for you to start running, but after that, the ice rays will almost fill it in for you."

Joseph sent a spurt of ice onto the floor as he tried to get his head around what he was trying to do. "Won't I just slide over?"

"It does take time to get your balance, but being the water element means that you'll get it quickly."

"Do I have to provide my own ice skates?"

A smile tugged at Jasper's lips but he shook it away. "No. As I said, you'll just kind of... do it."

Joseph rubbed his hands together excitedly, before extending them in front of him. Jasper stood back to watch his student, as Nathan's ice rays froze over a metre of the floor, rising slightly as it continued growing.

"Run! Get on it!" Jasper shouted encouragingly.

Joseph started running onto his ice, bracing himself for falling off and bruising his butt like he had done several times before. However surprisingly, he stayed on his feet as he built up speed, skating over the smooth ice path.

"Keep freezing in front of you!" Jasper yelled over the skidding sounds of the ice under Joseph's feet. The path kept leading upwards, until Joseph was half way towards the ceiling. However just as he became arrogant, he forgot to update the path in front of him, and skated straight off the end of the three metre high path, crashing onto the floor. It all happened too suddenly for him to raise his density as he hit the floor painfully. Joseph groaned and rested his head on the floor as his brain slammed in his skull.

Jasper didn't seem especially worried as he sauntered his way over. "That was good for a first attempt. Just don't be yourself when you're doing it."

"Gee, thanks." Joseph retorted sarcastically as he pulled himself to his feet again, rubbing the back of his head. He could already feel bruises forming.

Jasper took a step backwards, and waited whilst Joseph stretched out his sore back, before speaking again.

"Try again. Just remember: focussing is the key to success."

* * *

"We're back!" Ashley shouted as Cai closed the door behind them.

Evelyn felt his hand return to the small of her back as she watched Ashley wander into the kitchen. Summer was just about settling in—earlier than it had done for the past few years as it was only the beginning of May. The hot weather meant that Evelyn could resume her natural state of wearing as few clothes as possible. This had resulted in her micro-shorts being worn most days and a multitude of tight strapless tops, leaving her tanned shoulders and waist free to the gentle breezes.

Evelyn heard the mumble of conversation from the kitchen: clearly Ashley had found Gina, so Evelyn started towards the living room. She already knew Cai was following her from the footsteps behind her, however as she passed the kitchen, his breath disappeared.

Evelyn checked around the living room for children. It had been a month since they'd returned home, but Evelyn still didn't like the children. They were needy and always wanted something. She wasn't used to that. In fact, it just made her glad that she was an only child.

Evelyn kicked her flat shoes off into the corner of the room and threw her bag after it, landing with a soft thud on the carpet. She then wandered over to the sofa and jumped down on it, stretching herself across its expanse. Just as she sighed and relaxed herself, Cai appeared at the door again, smiling at her.

"Hey, you" he said quietly, before dawdling his way over to her. She smiled as he shuffled her against the back of the sofa and lay down next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. He rested his head on his other hand and kissed the top of her head, looking down at her affectionately.

Evelyn bit her lip. She was nervous as to his reaction: he was always so protective of her but she didn't want him to be angry or tell her she couldn't go.

Cai picked up on her anxiety instantly. He frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong..." Evelyn trailed off, sitting up properly. Cai's arm moved down to her leg, but he didn't move his body, leaving Evelyn sat against the back of the sofa looking at him. "But... I need to talk to you."

He shuffled nervously. "OWhat have I done? Was it something I said? I knew it." He turned away and Evelyn looked at him, confused.

"What?"

His eyes were brimming with sadness when he turned back to face her. "You're breaking up with me."

There were a few seconds of silence before Evelyn smiled, pushing him affectionately. "What are you talking about? I'm not dumping you."

Cai suddenly relaxed, shrinking down into the sofa by several inches. "Oh," he blushed as he realised his mistake.

Evelyn giggled. "Why would I want to give you up?" She leaned down to kiss him gently, and he returned it. His lips were soft as roses, as usual. She wondered what his secret was; getting a little self-conscious that hers weren't as soft as his. Cai smiled slightly under her lips and she broke off from him. "What?" she asked, smirking a little in suspicion.

"I was going to ask you the same question. You seem panicky."

Evelyn smiled. "No I'm fine. Cai..." she paused to take a deep breath. "I'd just like your opinion on something, if that's okay."

Cai nodded, but narrowed his eyes curiously.

"Well," Evelyn tried to calm her nerves. What if he said no? "I'm going back to school."

Cai's face dropped a little. "Why?"

"Because I want to learn! I know we have to go and get things and save people and whatever, but I really can't miss out on my education, especially if I want to get a decent job when I'm older, and I can't turn into my mum, and for that to happen I have to go back to school." She paused to study him for a second. "Do you understand?"

There was a silence for a second or two, before Cai nodded slowly. "I understand. That doesn't mean I think it's a good idea."

Evelyn frowned. She knew this would happen. "But why does it matter so much to you?!"

He sat up a little bit. "Because we have things to do, and we need you to help. We have to go and get my brother, and Ashley's brother and Joseph's sisters. And we can't do that without you because you're part of our team, and if you're not in the same physical condition as us, you might fall behind and if something happened to you... Well... I don't know what I'd do." He looked genuinely sad. But he was still calm. At least that was something.

Evelyn sighed. "I know you want me to train. And I will! I'm always there. It's just... I have to think about the future as well, Cai. You're 19, you already have the qualifications you need, and the plan you want and you are capable of going and getting the job you want. But I don't have that. And I need to have it, Cai. I cannot become my mother."

Cai stood up unexpectedly, silently sliding off the sofa and onto his feet. "I get it," he said coldly. "Do what you think is best, Evelyn." He smiled weakly, before he walked out, leaving her stunned and disheartened in the living room.