Monachi: Masters of Water and Fire (4 page)

You can give human beings wings
So that they may fly so high
by cutting them off the bird that soars
in the clear blue sky.

“You know, this reminds me of how we
would walk and talk around the elementary
school yard during recess,” Tess recalled.

I nodded affirming. Except back then we
didn’t have powers. Or did we?
“I can tell you a riddle to pass the time like
we used to,” Tess expressed, trying to lighten up
the mood.
“Okay, what is it?” I enquired, accepting
the challenge.
“Okay;

Riddle#1
So there were two best friends. They go to a
restaurant and order the exact same thing;
Duck Soup. After finishing his meal, one of
them goes to the roof, and jumps off. Why did
he do that?”

I knew this riddle from somewhere! I knew
the answer. “He thought that since he was eating
Duck Soup, he could fly,” I answered.

Riddle #2
A king is in his round castle. He has a personal
clown, maid and cook. One day the king is
murdered. The cook said he was busy cooking
breakfast for the king. The maid said she was
busy sweeping corners. The clown said he was
busy making up jokes for the king. Who did it?”

I thought about it for a bit. “Did the clown
do it?” I answered uneasily.
“Nope,” she replied.
“It has to be the butler, the butler always
does it!” I yelled, confident in my answer.
“It was the maid. There are no corners in a
round castle!” Tess revealed.
After about 10 minutes of silence we heard
sirens behind us. We turned around just in time
to see a cop coming towards us through the trees.
It was a female cop who yelled, “Please just listen
to what we have to say, we don’t want to hurt
you.”
Grabbing my hand, Tess
frowned
and
answered back, “I wish we could say the same.”
She turned to me and said, “Get ready to run!” I
knew her plan already and I didn’t approve; but
it was the only way. Tess let go of my hand and
set her own hair on fire.
“Stop, drop and roll!” I yelled.
Tess did exactly that; creating a fire. She got
up, shook her head, and put her hair out.
We grabbed each other’s hands and began
running, as the forest burst into flames behind us.
The fire began traveling towards us, faster and
hotter! I wanted to look behind, but we had to
keep running.

We ran for hours. Tess even timed it. We
began running at about 2:37 in the afternoon and
stopped at 8:28 in the morning. When we reached
the edge of the woods, we looked behind us. I
didn’t see any fire. “How long have we been
running from a fire that is no longer behind us?” I
uttered, catching my breath. We turned around
and headed forward.

After walking for a while longer we found
an archery shop. “If we get a bow and some
arrows we can defend ourselves!” Tess squealed.
Tess loved shooting a bow.

“How do you plan on getting one?” I
asked.
“With your help” she said while pulling me
into the shop. She
whispered
to me, “Ok, so
here’s the plan…”
I thought to myself,
Uh-oh…another plan
.
“…
you
use a water ball to drown the guy for a bit.
I’ll grab a bow, and a set of arrows, and then we’ll
dash out of there!” she declared; proud of her
plan.
“Isn’t that illegal?” I asked.
“We’re running away from the cops
already, c’mon let’s just do it!” she nudged me.
I gave in.
We walked into the shop. The guy at the
counter was young. Why did I have to drown
someone young? I decided that I wouldn’t do it
until the very last second. I started to talk to him.
“Hey, my name is Maddy. What’s your name?” I
asked.
“My name is Bill,” he answered with a
smile.
“Hey, we’re kind of lost, do you mind
telling us where we are?”
“Sure, you’re in the great state of North
Dakota; Bismarck, to be exact.”
Tess
was
finished
getting
what
she
wanted, and was now behind me. “I’m so sorry
about this,” I told him. I put my hand up, and
created a water ball. Surrounding his head, the
water ball started drowning him. Tess dashed out
of the shop. Watching him faint, I let the water
ball go. I left the shop and caught up with Tess
outside.
“You are crazy! What you made me do in
there was insane!” I yelled at her. She ignored me.
Sometimes Tess can really get on my nerves. But
nevertheless she is my friend.
After Tess un-wrapped the bow she looked
back towards the shop. “Be right back, stay here,”
she whispered to me.
She came back out five minutes later with a
back pack. She put the bow and arrows in the
back pack, threw it over her shoulder and said
“Okay, now we can go.”
After walking for about ten minutes we
heard sirens around us. “Crap, they found us
already!” I said. We were suddenly surrounded
by a bunch of cop cars.
“Act natural,” Tess said simply.
A cop got out of one of the cars. It was the
same woman that Tess almost burned to death in
the forest. “Stay where you are!” she said, pulling
out her gun.
“What do you want from us?” I asked,
feeling sweat running down my face.
“We just want you to come with us, back to
Washington D.C.,” she pronounced.
“What? So we can be killed and dissected?
No way!”
“No, we won’t hurt you. I promise.”
I looked at her, noting every detail. She had
long blonde hair that went down three fourths of
her back. She was wearing a black turtle neck,
with
long
black
leggings.
Tess
then
asked,
“What’s your name?”
She glared at us for a moment and then
said, “Addie Xconveret.”
“Well Addie, swear on your life that we
won’t get hurt.”
“I swear on my life.”
Tess and I looked at each other. We had
come such a long way from Washington D.C. We
shrugged. Tess nodded; which was something
that was very uncharacteristic of her. Giving in to
the enemy was very unlike her. If she had a plan,
I’m sure I wouldn’t be happy about it.
Tess
dropped her backpack. She was really serious. So
I too, gave in.
We climbed into the
cop car. We were
cramped in the back seat. Tess
gestured me;
somehow, someway I read her mind.
She was thinking, “
When I say absurd, burst
out some water.
”
Then
I heard a voice
that sounded like
Briana’s. It said
good luck.
Tess sat quietly. It had been about thirty
minutes since I got the mind message. Randomly,
she said “So how impossible would it be for a
person to escape a cop car?” She scooted closer to
me, almost sitting on my lap.
“Very impossible, it’s never been done,”
Addie replied.
Tess was sitting on me now. “Oh really,
that’s
absurd!
” Tess said. She lifted a hand and set
Addie’s seat on fire. I burst out some water and
Tess took in a deep breath. In no time, the car set
on intense fire.
Addie slammed on the brakes, coming to a
halt. Tess melted the door handle and stepped
out of the water shield as she kicked the door
open and jumped out. I turned my water powers
off. Tess was soaking wet but, strangely, I was
perfectly dry.
While cops got out of their cars to help
Addie, Tess jumped into the driver’s seat of one
of cars. Following her
lead, I
went into the
passenger seat.
She started the ignition. “Do you even
know how to drive a car?” I asked her in a panic,
because some of the cops began to notice.
“Nope, and I don’t plan on learning
today,” she exclaimed. I turned on the sirens. She
stomped her foot on the gas pedal and started
screeching away.

This story is to give you a little background
on Tess and I.
Yeah, I know it seems a little out of place to
tell you now, but I really think you should know
before we go on.
You see, Tess and I have known each other
since first grade. We’ve had our fights at times
but we always got over it. I’d trust Tess with my
life…most of the time.
One time she almost killed us both.
It was in fifth grade. I went over to her
house and we were in her backyard. It was all
going well until we saw
the thing
.
It was a rattlesnake.
It started wrapping around my leg, and
Tess screamed, but she didn’t leave. She took it
by the tail, (a very stupid thing to do) pulled it off
my leg and threw it over her fence. After that, we
both ran into her house.
She saved my life and almost killed herself.
She gained my trust that day.
She blushes and leaves the room every time
I tell that story, and says it isn’t true. But it is.
She saved my life even thoughshe didn’t
think it was that heroic. She says, “
If your best
friend was in trouble, you would do anything to save
her, wouldn’t you?
”
I don’t care if people call her crazy. She’s
my best friend, and if I needed her, I believe that
she would be there for me.

She started driving like a maniac. “Are you
crazy? You’re going to kill us both!” I yelled.
Tess
kept on driving but yelled back,
“Don’t try to talk to a driver who has no idea
what they’re doing!” She ran a red light, almost
crashing into another car. After that episode, we
put on our seat belts.
After about five minutes of
crazy driving
, I
had an odd feeling. Tess was still driving at 90
mph, so I figured I was getting motion sickness.
After about five more minutes, I saw that
we were heading into the middle of nowhere.
Tess started getting drowsy and started to slow
way down. We hadn’t slept since we were in the
van. All of a sudden she fell asleep at the wheel. I
freaked! Yelling at Tess, I took off my seat belt,
reached over
and shook her but she didn’t
respond. We were headed straight towards a tree!
Panicked, I honked the horn, thinking that might
wake her up, but no. So I jumped out of the car
and fell into a pile of bushes.
Tess woke up screaming, turned the wheel
sharp to the right, and slammed on the brakes
just seconds before impact.
Painfully, I
crawled out of the bushes,
brushing off all the twigs and berries from my
body and hair and ran over to the tree where the
car had stopped. I looked inside. I didn’t see her.
“Tess! Tess answer me. Where are you?” I yelled,
starting to cry. I
heard a grunt coming from
somewhere under all of the debris.
I swung open the passenger door and saw
Tess lying on the floor. I pulled her out. She
looked fine, apart from her twisted left arm.
“Tess, you’re alive!”
I cried out giving her a hug. Dazed and
confused, she had no strength to hug me back,
but I understood; I didn’t have much either. I was
just happy to be alive.
I
suggested that we needed to put her
twisted arm back into place, so she bit into a piece
of wood that I picked off the ground next to her,
as I snapped her arm back into place.
“Hmm… should I apply ice or heat?” Tess
said weakly, making a joke.
I laughed.
She set her right hand on fire and held it
over her left arm for about a minute. Then blew
her hand out.
She got up with a struggle.
We had no idea where we were or where
we were heading.
I closed my eyes: