A/N- For the Fairies and Elves contest
The earth grated, sending stone dust tumbling on my head. Fissures of light sealed themselves off as the tremors that preceded a quake reverberated through stone. With each tremor, I felt a ripple of magic.
My own body began to tremble in response. I felt the human hatred, their hardness of heart, seep through the ground and settle on me. Small trickles of joy lightened the burden, but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. The weight pushed me down, sapping my strength as it settled. Humans hated us for causing the tremors. They hated us for doing the very thing that kept the Earth alive. The joy was from those select few who understood our task, but they were the minority.
I knew this tremor was caused by Earth spirits. Quakes were almost always caused by us, now; either in a group or individually. Human emotions would always collect by the fault-lines, in the waters, or on elements of air that would stay by human’s side. Human jealousy, guilt and sadness was lead to the Elementals. It would weigh us down, until we could hold no more. Once we were overburdened, we had to free ourselves. Earth spirits used quakes, water spirits used storms and air spirits used tornadoes. Fire spirits—nobody wanted to see them angered. They had only rampaged a handful of times before, and it had never ended well.
Quakes used to be the simple shifting of Earth. Now, they were the only way Earth spirits could continue to support humanity. The same was true for all cataclysms of Nature. If only humans would acknowledge Elementals, help us by letting their hearts soften, we wouldn’t have to resort to such drastic measures to balance ourselves.
My mind throbbed at the thought of humanity. Gnomes, my brethren, had once walked among humans. As had dark elves, just like all Nature spirits. Dark elves had once been revered for our ability to bestow creativity. Now, when we took up residence in human homes, the occupants would call us Boogiemen. That was only if they could sense us. Most humans were dull to our presence.
A new ripple of magic joined the ones I had felt with the tremors. This would be a quake for many Earth spirits to dispel the weight settled on them. I was slow to get up; my already burdened frame would not respond to my commands quickly. The only reason for several Earth spirits to cause a quake was so humans would have less damage to their cities. For it wasn’t only Elementals that held human emotion; the Earth would as well. Quakes helped her as much as they did us. More Earth spirits simply spread out the damage, minimizing it at the same time. Minimizing the reaction was one of the many ways we helped ease the number of deaths. It was one of the small compassions we gave humans— a reward for those who lightened our burden.
Dark elves, like all Elementals, knew that humans who died when we caused cataclysms would simply be reborn. Their deaths temporarily lightened the load Elementals needed to carry. That was the only reason we caused human deaths to begin with. Elementals had to make sure we survived first, or else the Earth would not survive.
I soon reached the edge of the tectonic plates. I could feel the human hardness deep in the sinews of the Earth. It was heart-wrenching how close the fissure was to the surface. Even with all the ways to minimize effect, this quake would still cause many deaths.
Magic began to hum in the air and rock. A final warning to those on the surface. I reached with my mind to the hatred and jealousy in the Earth, then, blackness.
I awoke sometime later, feeling much lighter. The quake had passed; all the emotions in the ground had been exploded into fragments too small to matter. The only emotion that trickled down was sadness. Sadness from the deaths we had caused. I had to let it flow off me. If I took it upon myself, I would only become weighed down again. I still felt a tear go down my cheek.
Standing, I melded my body with the rock and began walking to another tectonic plate. Earth spirits that had been involved in this quake were now going other places, to help ease the burden there. That was how Earth spirits, all Elementals, worked: we would cause cataclysm to lighten ourselves, only to move somewhere else to retake emotional burdens, just so the already burdened Elementals had less weight to bear. It was the only way the Earth could survive.
I felt great sorrow for humans as I walked. But they had been warned, and simply hadn’t listened.
And now, we were poised to teach them the error of their ways.
.
