Gathering Water (12 page)

“She is so far out of your league, Cash, it’s not even funny.” Dove slapped him on the shoulder.

“Oh, I know that. But if she ever feels like slumming it, I’ll be here,” Cash grinned.

We said our good byes, and rode back to the house, following the pizza guy to the door when we got there. I went to bed that night with a belly full of stuffed-crust pizza after practicing a little Bending in the shower, then in my room. I decided to do what Llewellyn thought about doing to Anise, and spend at least a little while each evening doing everything by Bending. Cash was so far ahead of me, and I wanted to catch up. The only way to do that was more practice.

December 11
th
, 1968

Dear Journal,

After months of preparation, we’ve finally gotten the summons from the Elfennol to present Anise. She is out celebrating with L. I am worried, as I always am. This meeting with them is important. Anise, as future matriarch of our family, will need to work closely with the Elfennol against the Clades, as I have done. If they do not find her suitable, it will make her job as leader so much more difficult. It is so hard to earn the respect of these creatures. I am glad that they’ve given me enough warning so that I have plenty of time to instruct Anise in how to behave properly in their presence. Luckily they are also testing the younger Neale son, so some of the pressure will be taken off of my daughter. L, of course, has already been presented to them. I wonder which of them will end up taking their fathers place.

Three weeks had passed since my first lesson with Uncle Connor. Three weeks of daily lessons, between Connor and Luke. I’d only had lessons with Cash twice a week since that first one. They were always the best since we got to mock battle each other. His Shielding still wasn’t as good as mine, which drove him crazy, but I was still lacking the finesse that he had while Bending. My nightly “no hands” approach to my training was helping a lot, but Cash had been doing it for a lot longer than I had so I couldn’t expect to be able to match him after only a few weeks.

Even though I wanted to.

I also had a lot more power than he did. Not that I’m bragging, but it’s way more difficult to control so much. So I used that as an excuse to make me feel better about not beating him in that area yet.

I’d had a lesson with Luke earlier and I’d finally gotten the guts to Temper Air again the week before. We’d been working more on the other elements, practicing how much energy I needed to use to be effective. I’d Gathered a big store of Fire, and was practicing Tempering while walking to the beach.

Fire made everything so beautiful. Everything in nature has an energy to it, a wonderfully strange and beautiful energy. It was nighttime, and I could see the glowing swirls around me as I walked to the beach where I was supposed to be meeting Cash and Dove for a beach party. They had guilted me into going, though I really wasn’t interested in meeting people.

It was supposed to be down the beach quite a ways, and I had declined a ride from the boys since I wanted the beach walk to prepare myself for the small crowd. New people didn’t really like me too much, and I had no reason to think that these would be any different, even if they were friends of Cash and Dove.

I could just see the crowd of light in the distance, signifying that I was getting closer to the party. I was pretty relaxed, and was passively Gathering, as Uncle Connor had called it, from my surroundings. I could see the glow of power coming off of me and feel the ocean beside me rumbling with energy.

Suddenly I noticed another light on the horizon, approaching quickly from my left. I stopped and stared. It had to be a dolphin or other sea creature, since to my left was nothing but the Atlantic. It kept coming towards me, not stopping until it was fairly close, close enough for me to realize that the glow was different from the aura of other animals. It was incredibly bright, but it wasn’t just that. It seemed vibrant yet hungry, but mostly just wrong. It didn’t strike me to be afraid, not yet at least. I was too intrigued to be afraid.

I let the Temper fade a bit, since I’d been burning a lot of Fire to enjoy the colors, and walked a few steps closer to the shoreline to try to get a better look at what was approaching. With the Temper down, and the glowing softer, I was able to make out the figure a little better.

It was human shaped.

It was coming towards me, and very suddenly a horrible sense of foreboding came over me. My uncle’s advice came back to me about trusting my instincts. Was I looking at a Clade? The figure was only about fifty feet away from me at this point, and I decided I really didn’t want to wait around and find out.

I turned around and started running towards the party, my bare feet sinking into the sand with every step. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the beach, and if you have, I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to run on the sand, but it is hard and slow if you aren’t closer to the water.

The past few weeks I’d pieced together that the Clades weren’t supposed to be able to get this close to land, knew that the Elfennol were supposed to help with guarding our borders, but knowing that didn’t make me feel any better. Because if it wasn’t a Clade, then there was definitely something after me. Something that was quickly closing the gap between us, and at its speed it would cut me off from the party in a matter of seconds.

I wasn’t going to make it to the party; I wasn’t going to have any help. With my heart pounding in my ears, I swerved towards the water even though it brought me closer to my pursuer. The ocean was the biggest source of power near me, and I didn’t have time to think of an alternative; I was going to have to wing it.

Something hit my Shields, and I immediately reinforced them with the energy I already had. As soon as my feet started hitting the wet sand I came to an abrupt stop, forcing my Shield outwards as large as I could make it, hitting my assailant and making him fly through the air. The tide was swirling around my ankles, the coolness of the water reminding me to Gather. I took everything that I could, sensing with my Fire Temper that my attacker was coming towards me with a huge store of his own energy.

I didn’t notice that the sand beneath me was suddenly dry, or that it was moving beneath my feet, and I didn’t notice the wind swirling around me. I was too focused on the feeling of drinking up the world. That’s how it felt, like my body was drinking up everything. I’d never felt more powerful, but the feeling was short lived because soon an onslaught of intense energy battered at my Shields. I couldn’t put enough power in them before my enemy drained it down by sheer force. I had no choice but to bring my Shield in closer to myself, since it was stronger that way, but I hated doing it because it meant that whoever was attacking me could get closer.

He did. I was pretty certain that he was a Clade, even though I never thought to ask what one looked like. It wouldn’t have mattered, since the man standing before me looked completely normal. Not overly beautiful, not ugly, the only thing that stood out about him was he was physically trim; he looked like a soldier. But my Fire-Tempered sight showed that he had mass of inky-bright energy crackling around him.

He walked towards me and as he got closer I had to keep pulling my Shield smaller and smaller, until it barely hugged the outside of my skin. I could feel the pressure from his magic bearing down on me, forcing me to my knees, then my hands, my fingers digging into the sand beneath them. I barely understood what was happening, other than I was in deep doo doo.

My Shields were taking up my energy too fast, and I refused to go down passively. I Bent the Earth beneath his feet, and tried pushing him back with Water and Air. Though he did seem to stumble, all I really accomplished was making him laugh at me. It didn’t stop his assault against me.

I was getting desperate, my Well emptying quickly, and the elements nearby were offering less and less energy since I’d Gathered so much of it already. It was when my Shield finally failed me that I felt it, felt the moon shining on my back and the earth rotating on its axis and the tides pulling in the distance. I didn’t know what it meant that I could feel those things. I wasn’t even thinking, not really. When you’re in a situation like that you run on instinct. I Gathered from these things, things that weren’t any element as I understood them. As I Gathered I stood upright with my arms outstretched, because even though the Clade was still attacking me, even though he was ripping my clothes and bruising my skin with his piercing current, all I could feel was this warmth rushing through my body, feel the strength empowering me.

I felt like a god of legend, or a force of nature, and I needed to hurt this person who tried to destroy me. Who dared to try and kill me. Swirling around me was this power that I’d collected. It was my fear, and my anger at the Clade who had so nearly defeated me. I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know how to use this power to end his existence, though he obviously didn’t know this. His eyes widened in wonder right before he was battered down my accumulation of energy. I wouldn’t let up and kept beating him until, at last, my push of energy forced him to fly so far eastwards that I couldn’t see or hear his splash.

As soon as the threat was gone, I somehow released the new energy I’d Gathered, unable to store it, and sank down to my knees in exhaustion.

Thump-Thump. Thump-thump. Twenty heartbeats later and I felt the gentle caress of water start filling in around me. I’d Gathered so much of the surrounding elements that I had created a small crater in the sand, and sucked enough water to make the sand dry.

Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump. Fifty heartbeats later the water was up tickling my thighs, salt water stinging them and my hands for some reason, but I couldn’t muster the energy to stand up.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

I saw someone splashing towards me, then gingerly picking me up and cradling me out of the water and to dry land. It took me a few moments to recognize Cash, on his cell phone, with wide eyes darting around. I was still up in the air though, and caught the whiff of citrus and seawater and realized that Dover was the one who scooped me up.

“You can put me down,” I mumbled at him.

“No I can’t. You’re going into shock, honey. Cash is calling his dad right now,” Dove said to me.

Being carried wasn’t so bad, especially since I was suddenly freezing cold. I rested my head against his neck, letting myself be comforted by his warmth and smell.

Cash got off the phone, taking a break from scanning the horizon and looked at me with worried eyes.

“Cash, I think I saw a Clade…”

“You most definitely saw a Clade, Della. My dad is on his way right now, okay? You’re gonna be all right. Dove, I can take her now.”

“No, you can’t. She’s bleeding pretty badly, Cash. You know my abilities will only work if I’m touching her. We might need to call my parents.”

So, that was the sticky feeling on my skin, and the reason why the salt water stung my legs. I didn’t really hurt though, but I guess that could be chalked up to shock.

“Shit. Della, you need to do something for me, okay? I need you to Temper Water.” Cash looked anxious, so I did what he told me, Gathering a little water and then Tempering it. I immediately stopped though, after letting out a whimper that caused Dove to hold me tighter to him. I wish he hadn’t, since the sudden onslaught of pain made my turn my head and vomit. Water worked on your blood, making your nerve endings more sensitive. It also, apparently, takes you out of the comfortable numbness that shock allows you. I didn’t realize how beat up I was until every bruise and cut got magnified a million times.

“Della, I know it makes it hurt more,” he started, “but it will help stop the bleeding faster, all right? We’re right here, but you need to do this. Just try to block the pain, okay?” Cash sounded so reasonable for such an unreasonable person that I tried it again.

Ignoring the pain wasn’t possible though, so I tried to focus on the other sensations: of the air brushing my cheek, the feel of Dove’s rippled arm muscles holding me up, and his scratchy cheek on my forehead. We started walking away from the ocean and towards the street, and even though I knew Dove was being gentle, the pain was still nearly unbearable, so I tried talking to distract myself from it.

“How did you know?” I croaked out, hoping they understood my question.

“I sense nature, Della. I don’t have to Temper, the way you guys do, to see it around me. It’s constant. I could see you Gathering, could see you fighting. It was beautiful. Terrible, once I understood what I was seeing. You scared the crap out of me, Della. When your light went out I thought… Well, it wasn’t a good thought,” Dove answered me, his voice straining. I could feel his heartbeat reverberating through my own body with my water-Tempered senses.

Cash was waiting for us on the sidewalk, eyes still darting around. I realized that he was probably checking the area for more threats, and noticed that his stance was strong and protective. When my uncle’s car pulled up just a moment later, Cash opened the car door to let Dove and me in, which Dove managed beautifully without relinquishing his hold on me.

I tuned out the male rumbling in the car, since keeping up the Temper was taking all of my remaining focus. I wanted desperately to fall asleep, to stop feeling the pain that was throbbing through my body. I clung to Dove, clung to his warmth, since my pain seemed much less where we were touching.

After what seemed like the longest car ride of my life, we pulled into the driveway. Dove passed me to my uncle when he opened the car door, causing my over sensitized body to flare up in pain and I cried out. I realized that Dove had been using his abilities to warm me somehow, because outside of his arms I couldn’t stop shivering. The shivering jarred my body, which made me hurt even more. I’d thought that people were supposed to pass out when they were in so much pain. Why couldn’t I have that release?

My uncle carried my whimpering self inside to the living room and put me down on the couch. I tried to protest, as I was covered in blood, but Aunt Ellis hushed me before I could open my mouth, and covered me with a blanket.