Chapter Three - Together We Make The Elements

“See, easy,” I said as he walked over and guided me –by the arm- to where a group of teenagers were standing.

“Hey everyone, I’m back. And I brought company,” Echo said in a sing song voice, everyone turned around, looking at him. They then all looked at me with penetrating eyes; it made me nervous with all of them staring at me like that. “Okay well everyone this is Hunter. Hunter this is Everyone, Nate, Tye, Persephone, Cassandra, Jet and of course you already know me,” Echo introduced me to everyone who in turn waved at me, some just nodded their heads in recognition.

I studied them all making sure I took in every detail of the group. Nate was a tall stocky boy with dark brown hair and eyes that resembled melting dark chocolate. The very opposite to Tye, who I’m guessing was Lydia’s age, maybe a year or two older, he had sandy blonde hair with bright emerald green eyes, a very small build overall. As for Jet he had the same round face and build as Echo, but other than that they didn’t look alike at all, his hair so dark that it was almost black, his eyes looked like a dark lake, as to oppose Echo’s crystal eyes.

I could tell just by looking at Persephone that she was a lovely, nice person. She had long hair that looked golden even in the moonlight, she had the kindest brown eyes that sparkled as she looked at me, her smile was warm and welcoming, and she was around the same size as me. Cassandra reminded me of Acythia, she had dark caramel brown hair streaked with a lighter brown, her eyes hazel, but what reminded me of Acythia was the way she looked at me, she looked at me as if she was superior, as if she knew everything and I knew nothing, but yet despite all this she still looked kind.

We sat out there for a while talking, it took Acythia a few hours before she realised I wasn’t in my room. Lydia knew I wasn’t in there she had talked to me a few times through a mind link, the three of us are close but Lydia and I are so much closer. So she always knows when

I’ve moved, when I’m somewhere different, she wants to be where ever I’am. She looks up to me, more than she does Acythia, so it wasn’t too long before Lydia came out with us.

But once Acythia had figured out I wasn’t in my room she started looking for me around the house, then she had enough common sense to look outside, she sat down with Lydia silently and didn’t say anything.

“Hey you said you trained so how about you and I go head on, hand-to-hand?” Echo asked the question and I started to get excited, I hadn’t gone against anyone other than Acythia and Lydia, plus it was starting to get dark.

“Sure you’re on, I want to see how good you actually are,” I answered a big smiling making its way onto my face. The others moved back to give us some room for our spar.

“Okay on three,” and Jet counted us in “and three, good luck.”

I looked up at Echo who was looking at me intensely, waiting to see what I’d do. I relaxed my muscles to make it look like I wasn’t ready and waited, testing his patience; he obviously had a good one. But after a bit he got tired of waiting for me, he shifted his body weight as he readied his attack.

In a burst of speed, he launched himself forward and I automatically tensed waiting for the next part. As he came in closer I quickly moved out of his range and kicked the back of his knees, watching him fall to the ground and hearing a lot of gasps coming from the others. I could feel a small smile of smugness creep onto my face.

Before he could get up I threw a few piercing punches into his arms hoping it would make it harder for him to punch, but to my amazement when I punched it hurt my hand, instead of doing anything to him. I jumped out of the way as he flipped back up, hoping to hit me as he did so, once up he threw his arms out in front of himself a few times loosening his arm after being punched directly in the muscle.

I didn’t even know what he had done until he landed it, he kicked me in the ribs making me wince, and I had probably earned a few broken ribs. He then quickly threw a balled up fist into my stomach, making all the air leave my body for a moment, leaving me gasping.

After catching my breath, and before he could land anything else I jumped back out of his reach. My ribs still ached but they slowly mended back together as I used my heal, but I still let out a whimper.

“You now are allowed to use skills against each other,” we both heard Jet yell out and we both looked up at each other. Crap. What am I meant to do with Heal? It’s useless in a fight like this. Unless….

There was a quick flash and I couldn’t see a thing for a second, then I used my heal skill, and everything came back into view. I had just enough time to dodge his punch to my right arm, and kicked him in the stomach; knocking the breath out of him with an ‘ooff’ and making him lose his balance, resulting in him falling over on his back with a loud thump.

I went over and sat on his stomach, “So ready to admit defeat?” I asked laughing.

“Nope,” He answered simply, he quickly grabbed my ankle and in a quick flourish of movement he had me on the ground and jumping back out of my reach. I jumped up and with a few very quick steps made it right in front of him before kicking him in the stomach, again, making him fall over backwards on to his butt. I flittered over to him with a speed spell and kicked him lightly on the chest, but I could still hear the air leave him once again.

“Hunter wins. Ah thank you for that, I think you put my younger brother in his place,” Jet announced my win and I helped Echo up as Jet and I laughed.

“Good match, I must admit you’re a good fighter. It’ll be good to have someone like you on our team. Quick question, how did you get such powerful punches and kicks? It’s different, I’ve never seen anything like it” I smiled as soon as he asked the question – as he asked I healed his bruises and scratches and the obvious strain in his core muscle, before a quick repair on my own body. I knew what I did was unique, and that it made all of the attacks better, it also increased my speed and anything to do with needing energy.

“Okay it’s simple once you know how to do it but, I put the energy form my skill into my attacks. It makes my speed, balance, coordination and those sorts of things better. It’s something I found out when I was little, the first time you do it you need to have a strong emotion, you need to be very angry, or sad or happy, something strong. You need to focus that feeling on your skill; you need to make it stronger. Then it gets harder, you need to put all that extra energy into whatever your about to do. Whether it’s attacking, or getting attacked, or even running, you can use it for anything you want. After you do it a few times you just need to focus your extra energy, you automatically gain the extra energy. But probably the most important two things you need to do is use your instincts and trust yourself and the people you’re fighting with when you do this, if you don’t you can do the wrong thing and do something you could regret, so no matter what, even if it sounds stupid you have to do it,” I finished my explanation and I felt everyone’s piercing eyes on me.

After the fight we all talked about our skill powers, and skills- when it came to fighting, our strengths. We stayed out there talking for hours; it had been dark for about 2 hours before we went back inside.

We went inside and I made dinner with Persephone and Acythia – who I was still not talking to. The three of us made pizza for everyone, when we were done we put all the pizzas on the table for everyone to help themselves. Once we finished dinner we talked and all slowly made our way to bed – but still we took our sweet time. Echo and I were the last ones to go to sleep.

“Hey Echo I’m going with you guys, I’ll come out at 2 and I’m ready to leave. If Lydia wants to come she’ll know I’m leaving and will come out. Otherwise she will let me leave and keep in contact,” then we left the living room like everyone else to ‘sleep.’

About four hours later I walked down the stairs quietly, but when I got there I couldn’t find anyone, though I knew that Acythia and Lydia were probably sleeping. They hadn’t really talked to me since dinner, and I didn’t really want them to.

I got out side and found the others in a wide circle with Jet and Nate in the middle – Echo was throwing a watery light from his hand toward them so they could see better. They were training in hand to hand combat, and they were good. Jet flipped Nate on to his back, who then tripped Jet up by his ankle.

“Oh hey Hunter, come over here, we’re training,” it was Echo who called out to me as he walked over to me, and I walked closer to where they all were. He reached me in only a matter of seconds and threw an arm around my shoulder, and as we walked over to the others he kept his arm around my shoulder.

“Okay, cool, hey you’re really good at hand-to-hand,” I greeted everyone, complementing Jet and Nate, and they thanked me with a nod of their head. I heard a shuffle of small of feet and looked behind us to find Lydia watching me intensely. She had a bag with her and she slowly made her way over to us and stopped next to me.

“I’m coming with you. I know you’re leaving, and there’s no point in telling me to go back. Because I will win,” Lydia said forcefully, and when I looked up at the others all they did was nod.

“I wouldn’t dream of it, but you need to be careful and you can’t do anything to endanger you or anyone else, because if you do I will send you back,” I answered sternly so that she knew I was being serious. We had finished packing everything up, making sure that we had everything and heard loud noises coming from the house.

I looked at Lydia and she nodded, telling me that it was Acythia coming outside. I looked to the door and heard the door close and watched as Acythia ran up with two bags in her hand.

“I’m coming as well, plus you guys forgot some stuff,” Acythia explained and Nate took the bags and put them in the carriage with the rest of the stuff.