10. elemental

The sun was only several minutes away from setting, hanging low in the horizon as if it were reluctant to say goodbye.

After the discussion with Al that both answered her questions and also confused her brain into further knots and twists, with her stomach full from Catori's breakfast, Nyx slept. She slept in the tiny bed in Caspian and Catori's cottage, the blankets pulled up over the soft bridge of her nose. When the sun finally broke out amongst the clouds later that afternoon, the light it poured through the window over her bed was enough to wake her from her midday slumber.

Nonetheless, as she groaned and sat up with her aching body, she still saw flurries of snow drifting down from the sky. Seeing as it was sunny and relatively dry outside besides the packed snow on the ground, she knew it must have been coming from Eira. That wicked ice fae had been sending blizzards and cold all winter, which made Nyx realize why that winter had been particularly harsh in comparison to others.

"You've awoken just in time," a gently thundering voice interrupted her from her half-asleep gaze out the window. In the doorway stood Caspian, his wide navy wings nearly touching either side of the threshold. "Come, we are about to perform our ritual," he urged, waving his dark hand towards himself.

"Ritual?" Nyx echoed, remembering the evening before when Catori had mentioned that there was a spot behind the woods where they would "perform."

"Just come with me," Caspian calmly answered, a small, unreadable smile resting on his wide lips as he turned and walked away.

Hesitating for only a second, Nyx felt unsure due to the fact that she had no idea if a ritual meant sacrificing her human body to some Fae gods or something else prompting of her death, but she stood up and quickly slipped on her boots anyways, nearly tripping over herself as she jogged after Caspian who was already outside.

Her untied boots crunched in the snow as she chased after the fae who was already nearing a small dirt trail starting at the treeline behind the cottage and disappearing through the forest floor. "W-wait," Nyx choked out right as Caspian began making his way down the trail.

A few other fae with differing shades of grey and silver wings walked past the girl, talking and chuckling as they also began walking down the trail. She watched as Caspian stopped and turned to face her, a questioning look on his smooth face.

She wasn't quite sure how to voice her apprehensions, so of course they stumbled out in a rather awkward, "You people aren't gonna...y'know...eat me or anything, right?"

There was a moment of silence between them, of her absurd question leaving her lips and entering Caspian's brain, bringing a both shocked and amused look to his glowing sea blue eyes. A tight smile restrained his need to burst out laughing. "No worries, I promise you. We usually stick to pork and fish."

The fae turned around, shaking his head and continuing his journey down the snowy trail as a few deep chuckles emanated from his throat.

Nyx's face heated in embarrassment, but she did have a right to a question like that one, after all. She knew nothing of these creatures' ways; there was no room to be overly trusting. But, buttoning the neck of her cloak, she began stomping her way through the trail with half-melted snow covering it.

The trail was only about a fourth of a mile long until it led to an opening in the trees. Caspian, a few feet ahead, entered the opening first and then turned and waited for the girl with a discreet smile. As the blonde neared up beside him through the opening, she looked around in amazement.

There in the middle of the forest was a large circle of grassy land (she assumed that Al used her fire to melt the snow), and at the perimeter of the circle were high stalks of bamboo that towered nearly the height of the trees, with lighted torches of fire at their tops. Caspian and Nyx were obviously late to the party, because every single other fae was already there. The earth fae were scattered around with the wind fae, Erlin in the middle of them talking to a particular earth fae with red roses growing behind her ears.

In the middle of the circle was Alastair and Catori discussing something quietly, and Nyx could have sworn she saw her name mouthed by Catori's lips right as the tan fae's dark brown eyes landed on her. Alastair turned soon after, and those flaming eyes locked onto Nyx's again, seemingly paralyzing her where she stood next to Caspian.

"Look who decided to finally wake up," Catori greeted Nyx with a bright smile. Her long black hair was braided in a fishtail resting at the top of her bum, and she wore a different deerskin outfit that still consisted of a top band covering her bosom and a lower band serving as a short skirt. The blue horizontal line infinitely painted underneath her eyes looked darker than usual.

"Has she been feeling well?" Alastair suddenly asked, her question directed at Catori.

"Yes," Catori answered the fae who was taller than her.

Nyx's cheeks blushed at the way the two talked about her either as if she was a child or as if she wasn't standing only a few feet in front of them. Alastair nodded before turning her crimson eyes back to the blonde. The fire fae wore her usual leather tights that pronounced the muscles in her long and slender legs, but tonight she wore a dark red, nearly maroon long-sleeved blouse that tucked into her pants at her mid-waist. It looked like more of a man's outfit, but Nyx couldn't imagine a man wearing it as elegantly as she.

"Alright, let's get started, shall we?" Caspian clapped his hands together as he neared Al, a smugness crossing his face.

"Why, I've never seen someone so excited to lose!" Al exclaimed, her slightly pointed teeth grinning widely towards Caspian—the first grin Nyx had ever seen from the leader. Her teeth were like ivory, straight as a line and sharpened at the ends. Something about her entire face lit up when she smiled, her eyes burning amber hues.

All of the fae stopped talking and began moving around, the earth fae all coming together to Nyx's left. She watched as they all kneeled to the ground in spaced out rows, resting their hands at their laps. Abitha was sitting in the very front of the earth fae with her curly brown hair braided, besides a few loose curls shaping her face, donning a beautiful flower crown wielded of intertwining twigs and soft pink flowers.

Erlin waved goodbye to the younger earth fae girl with red roses in her hair, turning to stomp over to Nyx with red cheeks. "Hey, you're supposed to sit down!" Erlin whispered to her as he jogged towards her, a stray feather falling from his ratted wings.

When he finally reached her, he yanked on her arm, pulling her down to the ground with him. "Ow!" she exclaimed, instinctively matching his whisper tone. "Why do I have to sit down?"

"Because," he breathed as he sat down right beside her, panting even though he only ran a few yards. "They're going to perform."

"What the bloody hell do you people mean by perform?!" Nyx exclaimed rather loudly, to which Erlin immediately shushed her.

Al, who was standing at the center of the circle with Caspian, turned towards the girl when she heard her loud voice. The girl did not see her, though, because Erlin was sitting nearly in her lap and whispering something in her ear. Al expected the little prepubescent fae to develop a crush on her, but she hadn't expected him to go from that rosy earth fae to the human girl so quickly.

"It's a ritual thing," Erlin whispered into the girl's ear. "Just watch!"

Nyx huffed and leaned away from him, bringing her legs up and crossing them. She watched in the corner of her eye as Erlin mimicked her, crossing his chubby legs as much as he could.

Catori sat down in the grass a few feet to Nyx and Erlin's right, and then across the circle all the air fae gathered, sitting down with their legs crossed. Aerwyn sat at the front of them the same way Abitha sat in front of her earth fae, his long white beard pooling at his knees.

"What is happen—"

"Sh!" Erlin cut the girl off. "And they say I don't know how to shut up."

Nyx didn't have time to give a snappy remark, for all of a sudden there was a loud beating sound that filled her ears and shook the ground below her. She gasped, grabbing onto Erlin's puffy arm as her other hand grabbed the grass below. Then came another loud beat to which she gasped, but Erlin nudged her soon after. She looked over to him, and he pointed towards the earth fae.

As soon as she followed where his finger was pointing, she saw all the earth fae raise their hands in sync before slapping their palms down onto the ground, their upper bodies leaning over until their foreheads nearly touched the space between their hands on the ground. When their palms met the grassy earth, a yellow light suddenly glowed from the soil their hands touched, and simultaneously came the loud beat that Nyx had heard. It came from deep within the earth, vibrating against the girl's hand that was resting in the grass.

The earth fae all rose up again before they came back down, and this time when their hands slapped against the earth, pink flowers sprouted up from between their fingers. Their arms rose and fell again, sending another deep vibration and causing more flowers to sprout from the earth below, soft yellow light glowing wherever the flowers grew.

"Woah," Nyx breathed, her golden brown eyes wide as both her and Erlin watched the group of earth fae in awe.

The earth fae started picking up their pace, bringing about a sort of rhythm to their beats. More tiny pink flowers began to grow from the ground, the soft yellow glow of their magic brightening as the sun finally set and brought dusk upon them.

Bum... bum-bum. Bum... bum-bum. Bum... bum-bum. More flowers grew from the earth as the fae perpetuated the beating, their pink sprouts spreading and inching closer to where Erlin and Nyx sat.

Then, from across the circle, the air fae began to hum in unison in layers of deep and high voices, their hums filling the girl's ears and making them tingle. Then came a soft breeze that rustled the tops of the trees surrounding the circle, blowing the girl's golden locks back. Even in the cold, the breeze felt nice and refreshing on Nyx's face. The wind began to softly whistle in sync with the air fae's hums, and the sounds started to come together rhythmically.

When a shrill, wafting tune came from the girl's right, she snapped her head towards the sound to see Catori raising a wooden flute to her lips. The flute had blue lines and triangles painted along it, a strip of leather strands hanging from below it. She blew into the mouthpiece of the flute, her fingers flicking up and down over the carved holes as she played a rhythm that matched the tone of everyone else's sounds. The flute's voice was rich and silvery, aspirated as she played it with talent and ease.

Nyx's eyes turned to Al and Caspian who stood facing each other in the center of the circle. They were squinting their eyes at each other and raising their chins, and Nyx had the assumption that they were about to start some kind of duel.

"This never gets old," Erlin said as he watched the air fae across from them, his elven ears twitching.

Nyx watched the earth fae as they beat the ground, and the pink flowers they had been sprouting with their magic had now etched all the way to Erlin, and with a few more beats they started to grow all around Nyx. Her eyes lit up as she watched the soil glow golden beneath the pink flowers that swayed in the breeze that the air fae brought about. The flowers had also reached the air fae, having grown in a circular strip that was going to close right where Catori sat.

The girl was enamored by all of it—the drumming, the humming, the soft breeze, Catori's flute. But as she turned and looked to Erlin, she saw sadness hiding somewhere in his brown eyes that reflected the golden glow of the flowers around them. "Are you going to do something, too?" Nyx asked over all the sounds, leaning closer so the fae could hear her.

His ears twitched as he looked up at the girl. "Me? No," he laughed sheepishly, looking down and playing mindlessly with a magical pink flower. "I don't have anything to show," he mumbled, the tips of his ears drooping.

Nyx sewed her eyebrows together. "You're a shifter fae, aren't you?" she spoke slowly, unsure of what exactly a shifter fae was capable of. "Perhaps you could...turn into a mockingbird and sing for us?"

Erlin only shook his head, keeping his eyes trained on the ground. "I-I'm not very good at shifting. It takes shifter fae about ten years after they're born to master their craft, but they say I'm a late bloomer." He tried to keep his voice happy and unbothered, but Nyx could hear and feel the disappointment in his voice.

"How old are you?" she questioned. Catori had explained to her the night before that fae don't age the same way humans do, that they can live forever if they are never killed.

"Fourteen," he answered dully, but the sadness in his eyes quickly dissipated when a bright glow of light before them distracted him. "Look!" he exclaimed, pointing his finger forward.

Nyx turned to look ahead of her, and she was amazed at what she saw. Caspian and Alastair were circling each other slowly, like two alpha lions in a den preparing to fight to the death. The only thing that showed otherwise was the goofy smiles on their faces, which made them look more like two child best friends about to play pretend swords.

The thing that amazed the girl was that both of them were fueling their powers from their hands as they circled one another. Caspian had two swirling spheres of water levitating in his palms, sounding like a trickling waterfall as the water swirled into itself, completely defying the human world's idea of physics and matter and elements.

Then there was Al across from him, spheres of fire whirling in her palms. The fire was bright and brilliant, casting an orange glow and lighting the entire circumference of the forest clearing. While it was awesome, it was also horribly frightening. The fire in her hands did not crackle the way a docile, harmless flame crackled. No, the fire in Al's hands roared, even though it was only two small spheres.

Bum bum ba-bum-ba-bum. The earth fae began to beat the ground with the palms of their hands faster, the golden light beneath the flowers beginning to glow brighter. Catori played her flute harder, and the air fae's hums began to deepen.

"Are you ready?" Caspian asked Al over the music, both of them bending forwards slightly as if preparing to jump.

"Always, old man," Al told him, clapping her hands together which made sparks fly around her before she went back to holding the spheres of fire in her palms.

"On the count of three!" Caspian exclaimed, and they both bent down further.

"One!" Al yelled, her dark lips twisting up into a smile as her red eyes beamed.

"Two!" Caspian echoed.

In sync, they both yelled, "Three!" and then jumped up, a single flap of both of their wings sending an intense rush of air over everyone else below as the two lifted into the sky.

Nyx's lips fell open in awe as she watched the fae propel themselves into the air before dipping backwards away from each other, twirling around to face each other and the space between them.

"Al always fires first," Erlin whispered to Nyx, and as if Al had heard the fae boy's words, she suddenly sent a huge stream of fire in the air towards Caspian, lighting up the entire night sky as a gigantic wave of flames shot from her hands and aimed towards the man.

Nyx's eyes widened in fright as the fire whipped closer to Caspian, but the water fae dipped his wings forward and dodged the flame, raising his hands and sending an epic wave of water to the fire fae from below.

Al's fire disappeared as she dodged the water which then fell from the sky and onto Nyx's cheek. Because of how high the two were in the air, the water had halfway evaporated and was only tiny droplets by the time it hit Nyx's skin.

Nyx watched as Alastair flew up even farther into the air, Caspian chasing after her and sending spurts of water her way, but Alastair was too fast for the water to even touch her toes.

The earth and air fae continued their pounding music even while they craned their heads to the sky and watched the two fight with excitement.

Then, right when Al was so high up that Nyx couldn't differentiate the fae's dark clothes against the dark night sky, Caspian, who was below the other fae, sent a fast stream of shooting water her way that reflected the moonlight.

Al stopped suddenly, spreading her wings out magnificently wide to allow her to hover in the sky. Right as the stream of water was about to reach her, fire roared from her palms at lightning speed until it met Caspian's stream of water. At first, when the water and fire met, it bounced off another and rolled backwards, but after a few seconds of both the fae straining to push their individual elements further towards another, Al's fire began to seep into Caspian's water. A large cloud of steam erupted around them as her fire began to boil the water coming from Caspian's hands, and the water fae let out a loud hiss before he released his stream of water. The water that fell down on Nyx's cheek was warm because of Alastair's flames.

It looked at first as if Caspian was free-falling in the sky, but when he began to plummet near the earth below, he spread out his elegant wings and let himself drift down slowly towards the earth, landing elegantly back in the center of the circle. He stood up slowly, staring down at his palms that were steaming from how hot they were.

Al came back down soon after, landing beside the water fae obnoxiously close and causing him to stumble. A large, victorious grin was on her face as she patted Caspian's back, the music dying down as all the fae began to clap and cheer for her.

"Maybe next time, lad!" she exclaimed between her laughs.

Caspian only shook his head and smiled, although it was obvious his hands were hurting him. "Where are some ice fae when you need them?!" He wrung his hands in the air, trying to catch a cool breeze to ease the heat on his skin. "I'm going to go bury these in some snow." He turned to Al and rolled his eyes. "Good job, you jackass."

With that, he jumped into the air and flapped his wings, flying fat overhead to go find a good patch of snow to put his hands in. Catori stood up from where she sat, tucking her flute into her side satchel. "I swear it, the day that Caspian defeats you will be the best day of his entire life," she spoke to Al who laughed loudly at her comment and mumbled jovially about how that day will never come.

Erlin scurried off over to the earth fae who were standing up and following the air fae back down the trail to go home since the show was over, leaving Nyx sitting there by herself.

Realizing it was just her, Catori, and Alastair there, she quickly stood up and wiped the back of her olive green dress, remembering that she needed to change into the ones that Al got for her—well, stole for her, rather. But, glancing down to her hands which were covered in dirt, she knew that she desperately needed to take a bath.

"C-Catori?"

Catori immediately turned away from Al and whatever conversation they were having to look over at Nyx, and the questioning look on her face sort of reminded her of the way her mother would look at her when she called her name. "Yes?" the fae asked with a smile on her face.

"Um," Nyx began, glancing down at her bare ankles that were scuffed with mud. "I-I need a bath." She felt like somewhat of a child, especially under Al's stare as she chuckled at the girl.

But Catori only kindly smiled, nearing the girl and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Of course, dear. Let's go get you a fresh change of clothes, and then I'll lead you to the bathing pond."

Nyx smiled in gratitude and followed Catori's leading hand on her shoulder, walking down the trail that was much darker now that the sun was completely gone.

Al stood there alone in the circle, hands stuffed into her pockets as she watched Catori and the girl walk down the path, head tilted and pointed ears twitching desperately to hear if Nyx was saying anything complimentary about her victorious performance.

Realizing she cared not what the girl thought, she rolled her eyes and inhaled deeply, jumping up and flying through the sky back to her tree cabin where she would hide until their next performance.