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I watched as the world went from the ocean it had been, with a cluster of earth in the center, to a place of continents Once reat, ele--were n, the eleave ave its spark so that life could once again flare into existence This life, however, was tiny, embryonic It stirred aroundit Soon, however, it thrived, and developed, ever evolving until the embryo developed into aand growing
Eventually the seas could no longer contain itsfor more space on land There it thrived, as well, and soon both earth and water contained a plethora of beings so a in their variety and splendor that I was happy merely to observe and study
The land creatures were the et the develops and had thoughts beyond its next meal or shelter I rejoiced at h their dreah their very own eyes They were so coent But despite their potential, I knew that fire was in their veins--along with earth, air, and water--and that it was in fire’s nature to flare up and destroy
When that first human felt my presence in her mind and asked me what I was, I was as shocked as she was I went deeper and felt her connection to her progenitors: the elements We were not the same; where I was elemental, she was in touch with the ele ht her to use her connection to the elements to manipulate her world She could create fire with a touch, shield herself from harm with the air, call to water so that she never remained thirsty, even create shelter out of the barest environment for herself and her fae her shape, until she sith me as a porpoise
The part of me that was still Jane True nearly shat itself at these revelations Are we all really just hu a different species be lies?
I also realized so the young hue herself into a porpoise, and back Is she that old?
Others were born like that first eleirl, the one Jane True knew as Blondie It wasn’t a coh that I was able to manipulate them to help them find each other Some, however, lived so far away that I had to teach the in their dreams, so they never learned of my existence But I still loved them, as a parent loves a child, which is why the first one to be murdered hurt so much
He was only a boy The first ti family, his father called his were more common after that Some of my children were able to create places for theods, but uided the survivors and the exiles together, creating safe havens where they could live together in peace
I blamed fire for the other huotten that fire lived in their veins, as well
I’d also forgotten that while I was one of the last of the ancient elements left on earth, I wasn’t the last
It started out as a whisper in the drea life, they were shielded fro, they were more open And while I never searched theirwhispers would sometimes intrude upon me
Their dreams revealed some anted more power More ie upon those who had cast them out, or hurt theether, practicing their ics not to make their lives better and easier, but so they could use their power as a weapon
Soon enough, this attracted the attention of one of Fire’s only surviving children He was young--hardly older than humanity--and Fire hadthat could survive itself
On his own, Fire’s progeny could do little He was just a whisper of flale iven the right conditions, he knew he’d found the perfect kindling in my children
He whispered to them of an artifact: a child of earth who had laid down to rest in its parent’s bosom, and had died there Reabsorbed, its corpse had added to the power that now fed my little elele horn, like that of a bull," Fire’s child whispered "With which you can ination You can becouided by the flame that led them, like a will-o-the-wisp, to their dooic was unleashed…
Suddenly the ain, watching everything unfold from the creature’s viewpoint behind one of its children’s eyes
I watched as a young woth of her forearm Her tattooed forear in , and here, as well?
My friend was obviouslyvehemently with both her free hand and the horn Around reeer
One of the angry-faced beings--a young man, who looked very siinal They were up in each other’s faces, while panic shot through our host’s syste his panicthe scene a whole other level of experience