Jacob stammered as he was assaulted with the realization of what had been going on for the past few hours.
"I saw your face in the!- but it's my face!- and you!- me...in the box! In the dirt! And I!...wha-what's going on!?"
"Chillax, sit down. Wait, you wanna put in some clothes first? Or you wanna chill in a towel?" Thomas answered. Jacob stood blank-faced and clueless for a moment.
"Get some clothes on." Thomas ordered him to be decent. Jacob obliged and came back wearing the clothes that were provided in the bathroom, and sat in a char opposite where Thomas was sitting. Thomas resumed the conversation.
"Where were we? Right, what's going on...uh what do you wanna know? Honestly, I don't really know where to start."
"Who are you?"
"Who am I?...Hold on, I gotta explain a lot more before I get there. Uhhh, this is gonna sound like such garbage to you right now. So you know the four elements, right?"
"Ya mean like fire, water, earth, wind?"
"Pretty much, well, each of these need to be governed. They aren't governed here, on Earth. That is done on a separate plane. A place where the four are more separated into lands. The two energies, Fire and Storm, and the two substances, Water and Earth.-"
"Dude, I-...what does that have to do with me talking to a myself in a chair after I woke up in a box in a field?...in the snow."
"Most straight forward answer I can give is you were conscripted into a war, but right now you need to get back up to speed. Seriously, just listen-"
"Taha, right, m'kay, so a while ago I didn't care what's up 'cuz I was too tired to think. Now I'm awake and, dude, what, what is this really? I mean really, you can't expect me to take this fantasy whatever. What's up?"
"'Kay, dude, I know this sounds fake, but try explaining why you're all the sudden ripped, and why am I you?" Jacob sat and thought for a while. There was no rational explanation for these two facts.
"Geez, I don't know...but what does that have to do with the elements?...a war? I- what do you mean?" the door of the apartment opened and a girl with a streak of white hair on the side of her scalp walked in carrying a large sack of fast food.
Jacob! Nice to meet you, I'm Alice."
"Uh, hi, Alice...what's buried? Wait! No...I'm-can we slow down "I'm a sentinel, both of you-"
"Alice, he has no idea what's happened, and definitely no clue of what a sentinel is."
"Oh..." Alice realized she was confusing Jacob only further ever since she opened the door. Jacob was looking at both of them blankly, he saw the bag of Carl's Jr. in Alice's hand and immediately felt a hunger as if he hadn't eaten in days.
"I bet you are!" Alice replied and opened the bag "Guac' burger?"
"Freak yeah." Jacob answered with an open hand. Alice distributed the food, in a tense silence. Once Jacob had a taste he had no care about sentinels, wars, the elements or anything. Eating was bliss. Once Jacob had finished the hamburger, which he did quickly, he sat thinking, more rationally, about the war Thomas mentioned.
"Okay so about this...war. What's it all about?" Thomas started where he left off.
"So back to the four lands, kingdoms, well, never mind, they're kingdoms. Let's keep it simple for now. So these four kingdoms govern so things are kept in order, and everything keeps ticking.. There have been wars in the past, but right now there hasn't been any battles or combat, but the Fire Kingdom has walled themselves in. They aren't speaking to anyone. We sent messengers, but they never came back. Everyone is building armies and defenses on the other side. So what we are doing on this side is developing a special forces team, so to speak."
"Hold on, why is the Fire Kingdom even doing this?" Jacob interrupted for a question.
"Honestly it's just in their nature. Fire always wants to claim all it can. If you were to psych-test any of us, we'd be told we all have some mental disorder. Fire craves anything it can get, really passionate about anything they do.. Storms are impulsive, normally can't predict what's going on in their head, and, like Fire, are passionate about what they do. Sometimes they act before they think. You kinda saw that when I came in and assumed you already knew everything, sorry. Stone and Metal are very passive. They let a lot of things just happen, but they think a lot, really calculated. Water can be peaceful or go nuts, depends what's going on around them. The closer one of us is tied to our element, the more it affects their head." Alice answered Jacob's question, which lead to another question.
"So if it's in their nature then...isn't that pretty messed up? To just be chillin' with a bunch of people who just wanna go to war all the time?"
"Of course there have been measures taken, inflammability treaties, permanent defenses. It's a necessary evil. Living things need heat, so we can't just snuff fire out, but can't enslave them either or there will be more rebellion than there is. They do have their own kingdom, in equal size as the other nations, but we all have to do things so they don't burn us. I'm just glad I'm not an ember. They're practically oppressed just so they aren't such a great threat." Alice answered again, which lead to another question.
"Inflamability treaties? Wait, do I want to know?"
"Yeah you do, the kingdoms, practically write the laws of the world. A lot of it doesn't make sense when ya try to think about it but most materials used to be flammable." Thomas began to answer.
"Whaaat!?"
"Yeah, pretty crazy, but there's other a lot of other laws and- nevermind, back to the war. Fire just boxed themselves in. We know they aren't up to any good so we're getting ready. One other thing about the other side is that a person there isn't really human. They look it, talk it, and everything, but they are bound to their element. If they cross into another land they, like, thirst for their own element, and get overwhelmed by the one they walked into. This is where we come in. A more human body like what Alice and I now have, you more so, can cross lands, because it's made of all of them. Alice is what ya call a sentinel. She has been watching Earth on this side firsthand for decades, ya following me? This is where it get even weirder."
"...Sure" Jacob still felt like he was being told a fairytale but was going on with it because nothing made sense.
"Alice wasn't born on earth. She crossed from the other side like I did. Our bodies are elementally bound, just like a person on the other side, but if we live on this side and become more balanced, we can cross the borders of the other lands. Thing is, we're still affected by crossing borders, just, we can handle it now. A body like yours can cross without a problem, although yeah, your body is different now. That is because you're now able to be bound to storms. Your element is Storm, and not just a portion like Alice."
"Which portion are you?" Jacob asked Alice.
"Lighting, hence the white." Alice touched her scalp where the white streak of hair grew. "Funny things happen when you get closer to your element.
"So what are you?" Jacob turned the question to Thomas.
"Unearthly metals. Long story short, not all things are accepted." Thomas answered.
"What are unearthly metals?" Jacob asked.
"This one, called Blaque." Thomas took a perfectly smooth black metal rod from his pocket. "It's an interesting one. There's that and another that is really reactive and, well, as soon and you have some it explodes. Anyway, where were we?
"Who you are."
"Right, um...what do remember happening just before you were in the field in the snow?"
"I was...feels like a dream, I was taking fritz back to his house. I saw some headlights. Everything spun, then...I was in the box...did I, did I die?"
"Yeah, not really another way to say it, yeah. So the reason why you died was because to get a person with a elementally bound human body, ya need a human body. So what's happening is we're building a force, called the legion, to go past the walls the Fire Kingdom put up and either negotiate or, start the first battle and be able to get out. Now, ya can't just take a human body and make it a bound human body. Ya gotta take the soul, or spirit, essence, or whatever ya wanna call it, of a elementally bound person, like Alice." Thomas paused for a moment in hope that Jacob understood what he said and put the pieces together. Jacob broke the silence.
"So you are...who?" Thomas didn't have the will to tell Jacob what had happened straight to his face. Alice answered the question bluntly.
"When you died, you were on the other side for five years. You don't remember this because, like Thomas said, the essence of an elementally bound person is in your body now, and you are now in an elementally bound body, who is Thomas."
"WHAT!? BULL! There ain't no way- No! That's just- that just ain't right. I'm dreaming! I'm gonna go to sleep, and wake up, and be back home, and out of this psycho dream." Jacob shouted as he got up and walked to a bedroom and put himself face down in a bed. He was completely wide awake, and hardly able to keep his eyes shut. Alice and Thomas came into the room. Thomas attempted to reassure Jacob.
"Dude, I know this is way messed-" Jacob interrupted him with his face pressed into a pillow.
"Messed up is right! Freak! This can't be real."
"Yeah it's really-"
"'Kay, if I am some other dude in my body, why don't I just remember being that dude?" Jacob rolled over by now. Alice took a turn to explain.
"Your body is holding on to what you remembered as Jacob."
"What I remembered as Jacob, as if I- I am Jacob! Jacob Tyler Moran! But everybody calls me Jake. Why...are you sure I am this other guy? Who am I if I'm not me?" Alice and Thomas answered in unison
"We don't know." Jacob stared at both of them skeptically for a short time, then spoke.
"Seriously?" Alice continued to explain.
"It's for your safety. All legionaries are important people. The Fire Kingdom thinks some are more valuable than others and would reward sentinels for handing them over."
"Fire Kingdom and all these elements...so wait wait, so what, are sentinels and legionaries like magicians or something? Ha, lemme see a trick." Thomas took the smooth black metal rod out again. He held it in his in his open palm.
"I've only had a few years practice at this." Jacob rolled his eyes. Thomas looked at the rod intently. The rod suddenly burst into a radical, pointed, blossom-like shape. A few points of the blossom pricked his hand and Thomas dropped it on the floor and looked at his hand where there were a small number of bloody pinpricks showing up.
"Gah, yeah I knew somethin' like that was gonna happen." Jacob stared at the black blossom in amazement. He couldn't think of anything that could change shape so radically as fast as it did. Alice put out a hand and let lightning dance between her fingers. The light was nearly blinding. She held out her other hand and a small bolt jumped between them with a flash and an ear-ringing clap.
"Ya know, you should really warn someone before ya make it crack like that." Thomas said with a hand on one ear while blinking his eyes.
"Sorry, he wanted proof." Alice apologized. Jacob also commented while holding his ringing ears and blinking.
"I was pretty convinced that I was dreaming when I saw his black magic steel, but I never had my ears ringing with pain in a dream before." Alice apologized again.
"I'm sorry, I was just making a point." Thomas had a retort for Alice.
"You were having too much fun just to make a point. So, Jake, what are ya thinkin'?"
"I really don't know. This is way too weird for reality, but way to real for a dream."
"I saw your face in the!- but it's my face!- and you!- me...in the box! In the dirt! And I!...wha-what's going on!?"
"Chillax, sit down. Wait, you wanna put in some clothes first? Or you wanna chill in a towel?" Thomas answered. Jacob stood blank-faced and clueless for a moment.
"Get some clothes on." Thomas ordered him to be decent. Jacob obliged and came back wearing the clothes that were provided in the bathroom, and sat in a char opposite where Thomas was sitting. Thomas resumed the conversation.
"Where were we? Right, what's going on...uh what do you wanna know? Honestly, I don't really know where to start."
"Who are you?"
"Who am I?...Hold on, I gotta explain a lot more before I get there. Uhhh, this is gonna sound like such garbage to you right now. So you know the four elements, right?"
"Ya mean like fire, water, earth, wind?"
"Pretty much, well, each of these need to be governed. They aren't governed here, on Earth. That is done on a separate plane. A place where the four are more separated into lands. The two energies, Fire and Storm, and the two substances, Water and Earth.-"
"Dude, I-...what does that have to do with me talking to a myself in a chair after I woke up in a box in a field?...in the snow."
"Most straight forward answer I can give is you were conscripted into a war, but right now you need to get back up to speed. Seriously, just listen-"
"Taha, right, m'kay, so a while ago I didn't care what's up 'cuz I was too tired to think. Now I'm awake and, dude, what, what is this really? I mean really, you can't expect me to take this fantasy whatever. What's up?"
"'Kay, dude, I know this sounds fake, but try explaining why you're all the sudden ripped, and why am I you?" Jacob sat and thought for a while. There was no rational explanation for these two facts.
"Geez, I don't know...but what does that have to do with the elements?...a war? I- what do you mean?" the door of the apartment opened and a girl with a streak of white hair on the side of her scalp walked in carrying a large sack of fast food.
Jacob! Nice to meet you, I'm Alice."
"Uh, hi, Alice...what's buried? Wait! No...I'm-can we slow down "I'm a sentinel, both of you-"
"Alice, he has no idea what's happened, and definitely no clue of what a sentinel is."
"Oh..." Alice realized she was confusing Jacob only further ever since she opened the door. Jacob was looking at both of them blankly, he saw the bag of Carl's Jr. in Alice's hand and immediately felt a hunger as if he hadn't eaten in days.
"I bet you are!" Alice replied and opened the bag "Guac' burger?"
"Freak yeah." Jacob answered with an open hand. Alice distributed the food, in a tense silence. Once Jacob had a taste he had no care about sentinels, wars, the elements or anything. Eating was bliss. Once Jacob had finished the hamburger, which he did quickly, he sat thinking, more rationally, about the war Thomas mentioned.
"Okay so about this...war. What's it all about?" Thomas started where he left off.
"So back to the four lands, kingdoms, well, never mind, they're kingdoms. Let's keep it simple for now. So these four kingdoms govern so things are kept in order, and everything keeps ticking.. There have been wars in the past, but right now there hasn't been any battles or combat, but the Fire Kingdom has walled themselves in. They aren't speaking to anyone. We sent messengers, but they never came back. Everyone is building armies and defenses on the other side. So what we are doing on this side is developing a special forces team, so to speak."
"Hold on, why is the Fire Kingdom even doing this?" Jacob interrupted for a question.
"Honestly it's just in their nature. Fire always wants to claim all it can. If you were to psych-test any of us, we'd be told we all have some mental disorder. Fire craves anything it can get, really passionate about anything they do.. Storms are impulsive, normally can't predict what's going on in their head, and, like Fire, are passionate about what they do. Sometimes they act before they think. You kinda saw that when I came in and assumed you already knew everything, sorry. Stone and Metal are very passive. They let a lot of things just happen, but they think a lot, really calculated. Water can be peaceful or go nuts, depends what's going on around them. The closer one of us is tied to our element, the more it affects their head." Alice answered Jacob's question, which lead to another question.
"So if it's in their nature then...isn't that pretty messed up? To just be chillin' with a bunch of people who just wanna go to war all the time?"
"Of course there have been measures taken, inflammability treaties, permanent defenses. It's a necessary evil. Living things need heat, so we can't just snuff fire out, but can't enslave them either or there will be more rebellion than there is. They do have their own kingdom, in equal size as the other nations, but we all have to do things so they don't burn us. I'm just glad I'm not an ember. They're practically oppressed just so they aren't such a great threat." Alice answered again, which lead to another question.
"Inflamability treaties? Wait, do I want to know?"
"Yeah you do, the kingdoms, practically write the laws of the world. A lot of it doesn't make sense when ya try to think about it but most materials used to be flammable." Thomas began to answer.
"Whaaat!?"
"Yeah, pretty crazy, but there's other a lot of other laws and- nevermind, back to the war. Fire just boxed themselves in. We know they aren't up to any good so we're getting ready. One other thing about the other side is that a person there isn't really human. They look it, talk it, and everything, but they are bound to their element. If they cross into another land they, like, thirst for their own element, and get overwhelmed by the one they walked into. This is where we come in. A more human body like what Alice and I now have, you more so, can cross lands, because it's made of all of them. Alice is what ya call a sentinel. She has been watching Earth on this side firsthand for decades, ya following me? This is where it get even weirder."
"...Sure" Jacob still felt like he was being told a fairytale but was going on with it because nothing made sense.
"Alice wasn't born on earth. She crossed from the other side like I did. Our bodies are elementally bound, just like a person on the other side, but if we live on this side and become more balanced, we can cross the borders of the other lands. Thing is, we're still affected by crossing borders, just, we can handle it now. A body like yours can cross without a problem, although yeah, your body is different now. That is because you're now able to be bound to storms. Your element is Storm, and not just a portion like Alice."
"Which portion are you?" Jacob asked Alice.
"Lighting, hence the white." Alice touched her scalp where the white streak of hair grew. "Funny things happen when you get closer to your element.
"So what are you?" Jacob turned the question to Thomas.
"Unearthly metals. Long story short, not all things are accepted." Thomas answered.
"What are unearthly metals?" Jacob asked.
"This one, called Blaque." Thomas took a perfectly smooth black metal rod from his pocket. "It's an interesting one. There's that and another that is really reactive and, well, as soon and you have some it explodes. Anyway, where were we?
"Who you are."
"Right, um...what do remember happening just before you were in the field in the snow?"
"I was...feels like a dream, I was taking fritz back to his house. I saw some headlights. Everything spun, then...I was in the box...did I, did I die?"
"Yeah, not really another way to say it, yeah. So the reason why you died was because to get a person with a elementally bound human body, ya need a human body. So what's happening is we're building a force, called the legion, to go past the walls the Fire Kingdom put up and either negotiate or, start the first battle and be able to get out. Now, ya can't just take a human body and make it a bound human body. Ya gotta take the soul, or spirit, essence, or whatever ya wanna call it, of a elementally bound person, like Alice." Thomas paused for a moment in hope that Jacob understood what he said and put the pieces together. Jacob broke the silence.
"So you are...who?" Thomas didn't have the will to tell Jacob what had happened straight to his face. Alice answered the question bluntly.
"When you died, you were on the other side for five years. You don't remember this because, like Thomas said, the essence of an elementally bound person is in your body now, and you are now in an elementally bound body, who is Thomas."
"WHAT!? BULL! There ain't no way- No! That's just- that just ain't right. I'm dreaming! I'm gonna go to sleep, and wake up, and be back home, and out of this psycho dream." Jacob shouted as he got up and walked to a bedroom and put himself face down in a bed. He was completely wide awake, and hardly able to keep his eyes shut. Alice and Thomas came into the room. Thomas attempted to reassure Jacob.
"Dude, I know this is way messed-" Jacob interrupted him with his face pressed into a pillow.
"Messed up is right! Freak! This can't be real."
"Yeah it's really-"
"'Kay, if I am some other dude in my body, why don't I just remember being that dude?" Jacob rolled over by now. Alice took a turn to explain.
"Your body is holding on to what you remembered as Jacob."
"What I remembered as Jacob, as if I- I am Jacob! Jacob Tyler Moran! But everybody calls me Jake. Why...are you sure I am this other guy? Who am I if I'm not me?" Alice and Thomas answered in unison
"We don't know." Jacob stared at both of them skeptically for a short time, then spoke.
"Seriously?" Alice continued to explain.
"It's for your safety. All legionaries are important people. The Fire Kingdom thinks some are more valuable than others and would reward sentinels for handing them over."
"Fire Kingdom and all these elements...so wait wait, so what, are sentinels and legionaries like magicians or something? Ha, lemme see a trick." Thomas took the smooth black metal rod out again. He held it in his in his open palm.
"I've only had a few years practice at this." Jacob rolled his eyes. Thomas looked at the rod intently. The rod suddenly burst into a radical, pointed, blossom-like shape. A few points of the blossom pricked his hand and Thomas dropped it on the floor and looked at his hand where there were a small number of bloody pinpricks showing up.
"Gah, yeah I knew somethin' like that was gonna happen." Jacob stared at the black blossom in amazement. He couldn't think of anything that could change shape so radically as fast as it did. Alice put out a hand and let lightning dance between her fingers. The light was nearly blinding. She held out her other hand and a small bolt jumped between them with a flash and an ear-ringing clap.
"Ya know, you should really warn someone before ya make it crack like that." Thomas said with a hand on one ear while blinking his eyes.
"Sorry, he wanted proof." Alice apologized. Jacob also commented while holding his ringing ears and blinking.
"I was pretty convinced that I was dreaming when I saw his black magic steel, but I never had my ears ringing with pain in a dream before." Alice apologized again.
"I'm sorry, I was just making a point." Thomas had a retort for Alice.
"You were having too much fun just to make a point. So, Jake, what are ya thinkin'?"
"I really don't know. This is way too weird for reality, but way to real for a dream."
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