Earth

Earth Elemental

Shauna Granger

Copyright 2011 by Shauna Granger

Smashwords Edition

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places and incidents either are the product of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales
is entirely coincidental.

Published by Shauna Granger

Copyright © 2011 by Shauna Granger

Cover art by Claudia Mckinney

This ebook is licensed for your
personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given
away to other people. If you would like to share this book with
another person, please purchase an additional copy for each
recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or
it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to
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the hard work of this author.

For John.

My best friend.

My love.

Chapter 1

I was always the kind of girl who believed in
magic, no matter what. I never listened when the other kids said
Santa wasn't real and I clapped as hard as I could every time Peter
Pan asked me to. When all the other kids stopped seeing faeries in
the flowers or believing in the things that hide under your bed, I
kept my faith quietly.

On a cold day like today I was happy I hadn’t
forgotten that magic was real. It was freezing outside and the
heaters in the minivan weren’t great. I clapped my hands together,
rubbing them frantically until I felt the spark of heat erupt
between my palms. I pulled my hands apart slowly, my fingers
pulling as if through taffy as the ball of heat began to glow a
faint orange, steam already lifting from it. I concentrated on the
ball of heat as the interior of the van quickly started to get
warmer.

I am an Earth Elemental; my magic speaks to
the dirt, plants and animals. I’ve always been able to tap into the
other three elements so I can try little experiments like these
without draining too much energy. My mother told me that I was born
in the middle of an earthquake. The labor was hot and fast, the
hospital shaking the entire time, but as soon as I cried for the
first time the quake subsided.

My vision went soft and fuzzy as I
concentrated on the ball of warmth floating between my hands.
"Hey!" Jodi said as she opened the door of my mom’s crappy minivan.
The ball of heat and energy disappeared with an audible pop when I
jumped. I felt my ears plug with the sudden backlash of magic. I
tried not to get angry with myself for forgetting my surroundings;
the spell had warmed the interior of the minivan sufficiently so I
was happy for that. Jodi and our friend Steven looked disgruntled
as they climbed inside, their breaths coming out in white clouds
from the October morning.

Maybe it’s the six to seven months of perfect
weather southern California affords us that once the thermometer
hits fifty eight or lower we become the world’s biggest babies.
Usually I enjoyed the cold and wet, but this month had brought with
it a sudden and strange change in the weather. It should still be
relatively warm outside.

Jodi settled into the front passenger seat
while Steven climbed in back. He reached between us and switched
the radio from CD to FM, cutting off my Godsmack CD. "Oh help
yourself, I wasn’t listening to that anyway," I said.

"I know," he said flashing me a smile and
fell back into his seat. I rolled my eyes but knew it wasn’t worth
the argument. Putting the van into gear I drove us over to the high
school.

The warning bell shrilled overhead as we
entered the hall. We all broke up as soon as first period started.
Jodi was off to Chemistry Advance Placement, desperately trying to
hold on to her B- while Steven and I headed for Home Economics, our
easy A+ of the semester. I saw a shadow cross her face as Jodi
continued down the walkway when we started to turn into our class
and I shook my head. "I don’t get why she didn’t just take regular
Chem. with us and get a damn A."

"Oh honey, you know she revels in trying to
do something better than you," Steven said dismissively as we
walked into the warm Home Ec room and found our seats at the back
table. My mind started to drift off as soon as Mrs. Price started
fussing over the ingredients in today's oatmeal raisin cookies.
Ugh, two things that
shouldn’t
be in cookies.

I let Steven do most of the work since I was
so easily distracted today. I stood by with a wooden spoon and
stirred each time Steven said to. I knew the reason I couldn’t keep
my focus was because I was hardly sleeping. Every night this week I
had the same very vivid nightmare that I couldn’t get past it
the next day. I was in a forest composed of mostly shrubbery and
thin, tall trees, no bigger around than two hands. The forest floor
was covered in fallen leaves and twigs. All the animals had gone
silent and it was the middle of the night with a full moon
somewhere overhead, the only light that illuminated the hidden
floor beneath my running feet.

I was running for my life. The bushes and
branches were tearing at the skin of my arms and catching on my
jeans. I ran harder than I ever thought I could. Fire seared my
lungs. The cramps in my sides were only moments from crippling me
but I had to keep going. Whatever it was behind me was still coming
and I needed to get to safety, wherever that was.

The bell rang startling me for the second
time that day. I nearly dropped the whisk I was holding, going
bright red in the face at how close I'd come to yelping in
fright.

"Dude, what is
with
you?" Steven
whispered in a hiss as he passed me my backpack.

"Sorry, I'm kinda tired. Not been sleeping
too well this week."

"What else is new?" He smirked at me.

"Yeah, right. C'mon let's catch Fae before
French and make sure she's ok." Fae was our personal nickname for
Jodi; it was short for Faery, one of the creatures of Air, her
element. Jodi had been born in her grandparent’s basement in the
middle of a tornado. They had thought about naming her Dorothy for
the first week of her life, thank God they changed their minds. We
were already waiting for Jodi by the time she made her way out of
the class, books clutched to her chest, eyes downcast and having
lost some of the little color she had.

"Hey Fae, how was class?" I reached out and
took Jodi's hand, interlacing our fingers as we walked, opening the
channel between us and started pumping comfort into her; she
afforded me a soft smile. I had inherited my great-grandmother’s
empathetic gifts that helped me ease people’s pain. I often
wondered how many other people in my family had magical abilities.
It might reveal just how many I possess.

"Thanks," she whispered. "Hey Flamer, you
finish last night’s homework for French?" She asked Steve, changing
the subject.

"Damnit! For the last time, it’s Pyro, not
Flamer." As angry as he tried to be, Steven always sounded more
like he was whining than anything else.

"It’s not Flamer but it's definitely not
Pyro. It’s Drake and that's
final
." I had very little
patience when I only had three hours sleep. I felt the magic
rippling out of me and watched Steven’s face contort, glaring at me
indignantly but his anger was fading under my power.

"Aw c'mon Terra!” Steven whined. Terra was my
name because I was Earth, mother and the North.

"No,” I said flatly. “It’s disrespectful to
what we do."

"Ugh. But Drake? That’s so normal," he
whined. “It’s a totally normal name.”

"Maybe if you did your homework you'd
appreciate it more,
Drake
." I pulled Jodi along with me,
directing us to French class before we were late.

"What do you mean?" Steven asked as he
hurried to catch up with us.

"Drake is another word for Dragon, dumbass,"
Jodi explained as we stepped into the classroom. Steven was Fire,
south. And dragons, though outside our circles were commonly
believed to be mythical creatures, were familiars to the Fire
element. When Steven’s mother was eight months pregnant with him
she was trapped in a house fire. She managed to escape on her own,
the fire never touching her; she always said it was Steven who
protected her because as soon as she made it outside her water
broke.

"Oh." His mouth formed a perfect 'O' as he
slid into his seat behind me. Jodi took the chair in front of me in
the row closest to the door.

We had decided to give each other names that
were saved only for us to better embrace our roles in our elements,
almost like alter egos. It became easier to put yourself in a
different frame of mind when performing our magics. Kind of like
how people behave better in their Sunday best than when in torn
jeans and sneakers.

Most of French passed in another unexciting
blur until Steven slid his hand forward on his desk and I felt the
very tips of his fingers press against my left shoulder blade.
I slid my left hand forward as well, touching Jodi and
inviting her into the channel. 

Are we still casting tonight?
Steven’s thoughts filtered into our minds as if he had whispered
them into our ears. We developed this ability early on when we
started working magic together as a group. I wasn’t sure how it
happened but I had a feeling it had to do with me being an Empath
and the three of us being so closely linked together, like triplets
separated at birth.

No, I checked the lunar cycle and
Saturday will be marginally better and I'll take any extra help we
can get.
I replied while watching Madame
Beaumont write today’s verb conjugation on the white board at the
front of the class.

Did you finish the spell?
Jodi's
thoughts always sounded yellow to me. I didn’t know if that was
because it was a power color for her element or if it was just my
imagination.

Yeah, it's kinda long, but Angel magic
always takes a little longer with the extra prayers we
need.

Angel? So no elemental magic?
Steven’s red thoughts spiked a bright orange. Being brought up
Catholic and discovering you had magical powers tended to wage war
with your moral center. Magic mixing with angels seemed like a
hedonistic concept to a good little altar boy. Most people don’t
understand angels just like they don’t understand magic; there was
nothing unnatural about either and most people don’t realize how
eager most angels are to help us, all you have to do is ask.

Well, we're asking for help... it felt
more appropriate. Fae, the answer is "Où est l'ambassade
américaine?"
They always forgot to keep their ears open when
we communicated like this. We broke the channel and Jodi answered
the teacher quickly, who looked a little disappointed that she
hadn’t caught someone not paying attention.

We were casting this weekend, calling on our
guardian angels to help us watch over our friend Tracy who was in a
very abusive relationship. It was as difficult to watch as an
after-school special. Her boyfriend, Nick, was careful to only ever
bruise her stomach and back. I was tired of absorbing her pain
through our English and History classes and decided to do
something about it whether she liked it or not.

After French, Jodi and I stopped at my locker
to trade out books. Just as Steven passed us he let his hand brush
my forearm,
Mike,
was all he had time to say. I closed my
eyes and sighed, shaking my head behind my locker door.

"What?" Jodi furrowed her brow at me, knowing
she'd been left out of the channel.

"Mike," I hissed through my teeth, my jaw
clenching.

"Hey Shay! You left this in my car last
night," Mike was nothing more than a grin, stretch over his face so
wide there wasn’t room for any other features. He held out my
jacket, looking like a puppy pleased at having fetched the
right stick.

"Oh... um... thanks," I said weakly.

Last night?
Bright yellow thoughts
burst into my mind.

"I was wondering what you were doing
tonight?" Mike asked hesitantly.

"Why, don’t you have a game?" I asked as I
tossed my jacket into my locker. I watched his freckled cheeks grow
a faint pink.

"Yeah, well I just wanted to know if you were
going... ‘cause I thought you could wear my away jersey." Pink
became red as he held out the jersey to me and I didn’t
automatically reach for it. "It... if... um... if you wear a jersey
you get in free you know..." He trailed off lamely.

"Oh, yeah, I know, I just don’t know if I'm
going tonight or not."