Chapter 13: The Animals

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134, 135, 136, 137... Segun counted the steps around his route on the battlements of the city turned fort on the edge of the Balar Republic border. The counting kept his heart beat in line and kept his senses sharp.

The earth controllers had reinforced the city’s walls with smooth boulders and fire hardened clay. The organic architecture was beautifully imperfect. Watching the creation process of an Elementi building was an awe-inspiring and humbling experience.

The Elementi builders were trained to provide shelter and a place to sleep for those less fortunate than themselves. Warriors like Segun were trained to use their elements to exact pain and suffering upon others.

Segun envied the builders for having control over the earth element instead of the water element. Water was only useful to a farmer, a warrior, or a highborn. Since he was born into a middle-class family, his fate had been sealed from the beginning.

Segun's route overlapped with the other three warriors for only a few minutes at a time, leaving little time for conversation. His brothko would reprimand him for being a half a minute off schedule, he always rubbed it in his face that his fathko had given him the family heirloom timestone. His life was filled with routine boredom, punctuated by moments of intense fear.

The warriors inside the fort’s walls were dueling, going over battle plans, or resting. He could taste the fear in the air. The civilians who were too stubborn or too stupid to leave the city on the new front lines of the Animalian conflict were trying to go about regular daily life.

The Animalians had been sighted not too far from the city, leaving only two destinations, and Segun's fort presented the better target.

Segun dwelled on the looming threat that had hung over his head as soon as they had identified his element. His brothko would tell him he should at least try not to be so paranoid. He wished he had been assigned to guarding the back gate with his brothko.

In an instant, the sounds of animals and insects on the savanna ceased. The silence grew oppressive. He deviated from his patrol route and walked closer to the gong. The polished copper gong hung suspended from a pole off the side of the north guard tower.

Not even the wind seemed inclined to disturb the silence, it’s usual whistle, a low hum. Stomach acid burned at the back of Segun‘s throat. He cleared his throat and spat on the ground, unsuccessfully trying to rid himself of the awful sensation.

Segun became acutely aware of the water inside the spiked flask hanging over his shoulder. He had unconsciously reached out to the flask with his blue elemental dust.

The sand came alive with movement as the Animalian army reared their ugly head. Their armor was the same color as the yellow grass and sand, making it hard to count how many soldiers they were up against.

They had grass attached to their headdress and armor to hide their approach. They raised their shields above their hands and huddled together. As they advanced, the wall of shields would be almost impossible to pierce.

Segun’s hand steadied the flask at his side as he closed the distance between him and the gong. The air vibrated as he rang the gong again and again. His fellow warriors abandoned what they had been doing, and they readied themselves for battle.

The civilians screamed, rushing to arm themselves or hide. Doors and windows slammed shut and locked. Everyone rushed to barricade their homes and businesses.

Segun could feel the rumbling sound of stone moving against the earth as the stone controllers shut the gate.

Water and wind controllers scrambled onto the battlements.

Segun's commander stepped onto the battlements. His eyes hardened as he shouted orders to his men. “Clear the moat! Send a message to the others! Ready yourself for battle!”

Silver elemental dust sprang from the fingers of the wind controllers. The dust swirled around the fort faster and faster until the low whistle wind transformed into a howling cry. They blew the empty moat paved with flat stones clean and sent a dust cloud into the air.

Bronze elemental dust mingled with silver as an earth controller pulled the dust clouds into the form of words to send a message to the nearby forts and military bases. “Animalians attacking, numbers unknown. Send reinforcements.”

The reply came back in the clouds from the nearest fort. “Coordinated attack. No available reinforcements.”

Earth controllers and wind controllers worked together to twist and contort the dust cloud into a storm of great magnitude.

The first platoon of Animalians plunged into chaos in the mad scramble to stand upright in the face of the sudden storm. The air around the city became toxic and stifling, poison to anyone that dared to breathe it.

Amel motioned him over, shouting to be heard, “We are going to surprise the Animalians with a bath!”

“Creator knows they need one.” Segun smiled despite his fear.

As one, the water controllers sent blue elemental dust into the ground and made a dragging motion with their hands. Together they could move lakes. But more specifically, they could empty the underground reservoir filled for this purpose.

The ground rumbled, and four columns of the purest water sprung up from the ground. It crashed into the moat. The water settled the storm in the blink of an eye and sent a wave of enormous proportions crashing towards the second platoon of Animalians.

It washed away the first and second platoons, but the third platoon had heavy jugs around their waists. Sun-baked fields transformed into fields of mud, slowing the progress of the Animalians even further.

Segun watched the wind controllers reach out, feeling the elemental dust in the air and the space in between. The storm began once again, howling against the stone fort. One person could only control a certain quantity of their element. It took an entire army to do what they did with the elements of the planet.

An explosive sound shook the city to its core. Debris sent Segun and the other warriors hurtling off the battlements and into the courtyard. The wind fell, and the storm ceased.

Segun gathered his elemental dust around him and created a series of cushions of water to break his fall. He hit the ground and hissed in pain.

The guard tower on the south wall groaned, but did not fall.

Segun’s heartbeat pounded in his ears as he tried to roll from his back onto his knees.

Explosives are a Mineralite invention! Have we been betrayed?

Elementi warriors poured out of the newly opened hole like angry bees defending their nest.

Another explosive wreaked the city, but the Elementi were ready for it this time. The stone controllers stopped the debris from raining down on the warriors inside the city.

But they failed to support the wall. The west wall crumbled and tore away the last support for the southern guard tower, sending it careening towards the ground.

The falling tower crushed both Animalian and Elementi warriors.

Dawning horror blossomed in Segun’s mind and dulled the throbbing pain in his leg. His brothko was guarding the south gate.

The smell of burnt stone and scorched earth assaulted Segun’s senses, feeding his nagging fear. His eyes stung, but he refused to shed a single tear. If anyone could survive, it would be his brothko.

Segun legs collapsed underneath him at the sight of a bloodied timestone. His family's heirloom throw from the explosion and rubble that once was the south gate.

“No, no, no. You promised me we would survive this, that we would return home as heroes and that we would brag to majka about our brave exploits. What am I supposed to do now?”

He could almost see the furrowed brow that hide the fury of a fire controller staring him down. His brothko would have told him to pull himself together and finish the battle.

Segun stood in a slow, painful motion. “It is not the time for mourning. I shall make our family proud, brothko, and avenge your death.”

Speaking those words was like swallowing glass; sharp, agonizing and impossible to believe.

From the rubble, several spirits and shadows were released. Segun knew his brothko would be a spirit and not a shadow; he had never darkened his soul.

“May the Creator of All guide your soul to Zephyr, the promised land.” Segun whispered the blessing, and the spirits melted through the wall to begin their journey. The Creator would give his brothko all the honors he had earned.

A strike team composed of six Ursid and two Silverious had entered the gaping hole in the south side of the fort.

The Silverious were the clan of zealots, worshiping their false god Tzin with destruction and death. They wore the skin of a nimr jaguar.

The Ursid wore long metal claws and stood a head taller than the Silverious. If he let them get inside, there would be no hope for the other warriors.

Huddled in a darkened corner, Segun listened as the Animalians conversed in their language and waited for the perfect moment to strike. In these times of war, most Elementi had picked up the language.

Segun knew they had sniffed him out when the conversation stopped in mid-sentence. He closed his eyes and allowed every speck of elemental dust he held within his body to seek water.

“Kill the Elementi spying on us.” The Silverious leader ordered.

The water around Segun existed as an extension of himself. He unclipped the spiked flask at his side and his elemental dust sent it hurtling towards the nearest Animalian.

A cry of pain was the only response Segun received from the Ursid as she crumpled over in pain.

The flask changed direction with a subtle motion of his hands and spun towards the face of another Ursid.

This Ursid had no time to react to the appearance of the spiked flask and was knocked off his feet. He was only stunned. It would take more than that to kill an Animalian.

Segun no longer had the element of surprise on his side.

The third Ursid ran towards Segun with a growl, metal claws outreached.

Segun pulled the flask back towards himself and sent it towards the face of his attacker.

Forced to abandon his attack, the Ursid dodged Segun’s spinning flask.

The flask embedded itself into one of the stone walls and refused to come loose. He could pull the flask free no matter how hard he concentrated on the water inside.

The remaining three Ursid drew closer and closer. Their war masks contorted into a sneering expression.

He waited until the last second as the Ursid were just about to close in for the kill and sent his elemental dust into the flash, forcing it to burst, sending iron nails and bits of bone from the flask flying like shrapnel.

Blood seeped out of his shoulder wound. It felt like an iron nail, but it could have well been a piece of bone. He doubted he would live to find out which.

The two Silverious hissed. He was sure they were more angry that they had not foreseen this kind of desperation than by the slaughter of the Ursid. They unsheathed their obsidian blades from their wooden scabbards.

The cries of battle resounded through the savanna that surrounded the fort.

The water controllers on the battlements whipped the water in the moat around, trying desperately to force the water into a useful shape, but there simply weren’t enough water controllers left.

Fires burned and earth moved, and the Animalians made shadow and spirits of men as they fell in defense of their way of life.

Segun shut out all external and internal stimuli. His elemental dust plunged deep into the earth. He did not feel the pain in his shoulder, nor the gouge in his leg. An unearthly calm expression rippled over Segun’s face as he stood with a grace he should not possess.

The Silverious hesitated for a second, but only a second. They swung their obsidian blades at his head.

Behind them, the water in the moat smoothed, and a column of water poured to the fort. Tendrils of water grasped the Silverious and dragged them down into the moat. The harder they struggled, the faster they drowned.

Segun shook uncontrollably. His time had come to an end in the realm of the living. He had pushed himself beyond the limits of his elemental ability. He had expanded his control over too far of a quantity of water. It was impossible to let go now. He was about to join his brothko in his journey.

Will I be a spirit or a shadow?