Power Revealed (The Elementers) (2 page)

Oh, just get it over with.

It’s a tree. I’m not talking to it.

Why not? You’re talking to yourself right now. Why not include the tree in the conversation?

Justin wickedly chuckled.
Fine, I’ll do it.
Taking a deep breath, he whispered a hello. He waited almost a minute, but nothing happened.

See, it was nothing.

Oh, come on. A little louder than that. How could it hear through the bark?

Fine!

The absurdity of the whole situation finally came flooding out and overcame his embarrassment. Sarcasm erupted. “Hello, tree. How are you doing? I’m Justin. I don’t normally talk to trees, but I’ve had a rough month and I’m clearly losing my mind. Do you normally talk to people? Or do you usually just talk to squirrels, birds, and the occasional dog to ask it not to pee on you?” After that little outburst, Justin was done. “See I knew you couldn’t talk. Goodbye!” Justin began to let go of the tree when—

“Goodbye? I haven’t even had a chance to say ‘hello’,” came a voice from the tree.

Justin took a step away from the tree, tripped over a rock, and fell backward. The force of landing on his back snapped his head against the ground. Lying on the earth, he gently touched the back of his head expecting a massive bruise, but it didn’t feel too bad. The thick layer of moss and pine needles must have softened the collision.  Pushing himself up on his elbows, he stared for a long moment in shock at the tree. “Did you talk to me?” Justin asked.

“Yes. I said hello. We haven’t met before. What’s your name?” the voice asked.

Justin frowned. “How can you not remember me? We met just a few hours ago.” The tree had been all he’d been able to think about for the last few hours, but it didn’t even remember him. “I know you must be really old, but do all trees have such a short memory?”

“Trees? Why would you think I’m a tree?”

“Uh, you’re brown and green and covered in bark and pine needles. What else could you be?”

“Was today the first time you’ve ever talked to a tree?”

“Yes.”

“Did I give you my name when we spoke earlier?”

“Man. I thought
I
was losing my mind. You don’t even remember your name?” Justin said.

“Humor me. What name did I give you?”

“Katie.”

“Oh, Katie is in so much trouble. Toying with a new Tree Elementer and making him think he was talking to a tree instead of through a tree. What’s your name?”

“Justin.”

“Justin. I can assure you, you’re not losing your mind. My name is Anya Cruz and I am definitely not a tree. Nor is Katie, though she is in trouble for confusing you. We’re Tree Elementers, like you.”

“Tree Elementers? What are Tree Elementers?”

“Tree Elementers can access the powers of the trees,” Anya explained.

“The power of the tr—” Justin thought he heard someone. He froze and listened carefully. A few seconds later he heard a twig snap in the direction of the road.

“I’ve gotta go. Someone’s coming,” Justin whispered. “How can I find you again?”

“We’re Tree Elementers. Link up through a tree and call. I’ll hear you,” Anya said.

Justin quickly, but quietly, moved away from the direction where the sound had originated. He circled back through the trees toward the path and ran home.

***

Raven lounged in her backyard burrowing her feet in the moist soil, drinking in the musty smell of the garden. Her mother didn’t like it when Raven disturbed the landscaping, but she was gone on another business trip and Raven needed the peacefulness the garden gave her. She tried to forget about the rude comments the new kid made to her today. Granted, it must have seemed weird for her to accuse him of talking to a tree. Clearly, he wasn’t talking to a tree. Normal people didn’t do that.

But Raven wasn’t normal. So it didn’t seem strange for her to think he was talking to a tree. But unless she wanted people to suspect anything about her, she couldn’t go around asking people if they were talking to plants, even if they looked like they were doing so.

As her thoughts continued to plague her, she felt a strange vibration against her feet. She sat up straight. This didn’t feel normal. Even for an Earth Elementer, like her. She glanced back toward her house then leaned forward to place her hands on the soil.

“Who’s there?” Raven asked.

No one answered.

“Can you hear me?” she said.

Still no answer. She dug her hands into the soil and closed her eyes. Concentrating, she tried to determine the location of the energy source. In her mind she traced the strange energy pattern back to the park across from her high school. That was weird. Why would an Earth Elementer be here in Bellingham? Why weren’t they answering? Why the unusual energy vibration? She had to know.

Raven walked quickly into the house, called to Marcela, their cook and housekeeper, saying she’d be back soon, wiped off her hands and feet, and slipped on some shoes. Jumping onto her bike, she rode as fast as she could, arriving at the park in a few minutes. She biked up the path till it became too steep and dropped her bike in the bushes. Raven didn’t normally do things impulsively. Her father had always taught her to analyze, plan, and then act. But it was lonely being the only Earth Elementer nearby. If another Earth Elementer was in town, she wanted to meet them. Since they weren’t responding to her calls, she wanted to find them before they left.

Hearing footsteps, she froze and scanned the forest. Walking in the park alone, at night, definitely didn’t qualify as a ‘good plan’. Her heart pounded in her chest and she knew that had little to do with the bike ride. She jumped as a small animal skittered in the bushes behind her. Nervously laughing at herself, she looked around, listened, and heard steps moving away from her. Raven walked down the path toward the sound trying to remain quiet. She saw something. A figure moved quickly through the trees toward the path below her. She broke into a run. As she rounded a corner, she caught a clear sight of the person before they disappeared around the next bend in the path.

It was the new kid.

Who was he? What was he doing here? Raven wanted to follow him, but she needed a plan first. As she biked home, Raven decided she’d go to school early the next morning to talk to Mr. Hamilton about the new kid.

Chapter 3

Raven walked down the deserted hallway the next morning, toward David Hamilton’s science classroom. As she entered the classroom, her science teacher looked up from the assignments he was grading and slid his glasses up to rest on his unruly, dirty blonde hair. He sat up straight, stretching out his long, lanky body. “Raven, what are you doing here so early?”

Raven walked past the blackboard that displayed an intricate drawing of a food web. Posters explaining various scientific principles covered almost every square inch of wall space in the classroom. The room was a reflection of her teacher. Mr. Hamilton lived and breathed science and almost nothing else. Raven sat on top of one of the student desks. “I need to talk to you about the new kid. There’s something strange about him.”

Mr. Hamilton gave her a look of reproof. “Raven, everyone is different. Just like in nature, the biodiversity gives an ecosystem its strength.”

“He’s different all right. But not the normal kind of different. He’s different in the—” She looked through the window in the door to the hallway to make sure no one would overhear. Even then she lowered her voice. “I think he’s different in the Elementer sort of way. But extra different in that I suspect he’s an Earth and a Tree Elementer.”

Mr. Hamilton put his pen down. “It’s possible he’s an Elementer. But I seriously doubt he’s a Double Elementer. There hasn’t been one of those for over a hundred years.”

“I know the history. You taught it to me. But yesterday, during our class, I’m sure I caught him Tree Talking. I felt the energy increase while looking around. I assumed it was you, but was surprised you’d be using your powers during class so I walked toward the energy source to see if anything was wrong. I found the new kid holding a conversation with a tree.”

“What did you do?”

“I asked him if he was Tree Talking, but he just denied it and was really rude. But even stranger, last night, I was outside in my back yard and I sensed an Earth Elementer nearby. I tried to Talk to them, but they wouldn’t respond. So I followed the link to the park across from school, and what did I find? No one—except the new kid quickly running away. The coincidence is too high. He must be both. But why is he hiding it?”

“Raven, the Elementer Council would know if there were any modern Double Elementers. He might be an Elementer and simply didn’t admit it because he didn’t know anything about you. Did you tell him that you’re an Earth Elementer?”

Raven looked at him like he was crazy. “No. I don’t go around telling total strangers that I can use the earth as a cell phone.”

Mr. Hamilton chuckled. “Justin probably felt the same. I’ll change the lesson plan today to have the class go outside again. Do you think you can find a way to determine if he’s an Earth Elementer?”

“Sure.” Raven seemed to be satisfied. “Thanks, Mr. H.”

Chapter 4

Ms. Chalmers, Justin’s English teacher, was far more interested in books than she was in her students. Her short, stubby legs paced back and forth at the front of the room while she glared at the students. “Justin?!” Ms. Chalmers’s shrill voice caused everyone to jump.

The guy sitting behind Justin kicked Justin’s chair. Justin’s chin slipped off his hand where it had been resting when he nodded off. Disoriented, he quickly looked up at the teacher.

“Justin, are you listening?” she demanded impatiently.

“Allegory,” the same guy whispered in Justin’s direction.

Unsure of what he had missed, he repeated the words hoping that would satisfy the teacher. “Allegory?”

“Correct,” the teacher scowled. She seemed irritated that he had answered correctly, but at least she turned her attention back to the class. Justin turned around and whispered a thanks to the guy behind him, but Ms. Chalmers’s monologue suddenly stopped. Justin could feel her eyes burning into the back of his head. He turned around to face her. She gave him an irritated look and continued her boring explanation of grammar.

Justin hadn’t slept at all last night. After talking with Anya yesterday evening, he was pretty sure he wasn’t going crazy. But if his conversation with her wasn’t imagined, he needed to know how he could talk through trees. He had spent the night coming up with questions he wanted to ask her. He also tried to come up with his own answers, but every explanation he came up with seemed just as strange as the next. The only thing that kept him from going out in the middle of the night to call Anya from the tree in his backyard was that she was likely asleep. He figured the same basic rules applied for both phone calling and tree calling—if that’s what they called it. Calling at three in the morning would probably irritate her. Until he knew her better, he thought it best to wait until he was sure she was awake.

By morning, he had decided what he would do. During lunch time, he would find a secluded patch of trees in the forested park across from the school and try to contact Anya. He didn’t want to wait that long, but he figured that was his earliest opportunity. Skipping classes after just starting at a new school would cause more problems with his dad than he cared to face.

The bell rang a couple of minutes later, ending English class. Justin grabbed his backpack and turned to head out the door. The guy who had whispered the answer to him earlier stood nearby. He was tall, with dirty blond hair, and blue eyes. But the rest of his facial features and his skin tone definitely suggested some Asian ancestry. “Hi, I’m Lewis.”

“Hi. Thanks again for the help.” Justin looked toward the door wanting to make his way to the forest beside the school as quickly as possible.

“No problem. Ms. Chalmers can put us all to sleep.” Lewis swung his backpack over his shoulder. “So where are you from?”