before brushing some loose sand off of his jeans and letting his hands
fall back to his sides. “Believe me now?” he asked with a lopsided grin.
****
Over the course of the next hour and a half, Brooke learned
that Blake was not as unique an individual as she’d first thought. His ability
was, quite literally, in his blood. For as far back as his family could trace,
the mother of the family always gave birth to five children: quadruplet boys
and, later, one girl. The first-born boy was born with the ability to control
water; the other three were born with the ability to control air, earth, and
fire respectively. It was the sister who would eventually birth the next
generation.
At one point, Brooke had asked how their family had come to
possess powers like that. It sounded convoluted to her, like trying to puzzle
out the idea behind the chicken and the egg. And Blake admitted he didn’t have
an answer.
“We weren’t always the only family with these powers,”
Blake explained. “Rumor has it that there used to be dozens of families like
ours. But over the centuries they’ve died out, and so far as we know we’re the
last ones.”
“So you don’t know your own origin story?” Brooke asked,
surprised. “That sounds sort of messed up.”
Blake shrugged and leaned back on the beach, resting his
palms on the sand behind him to hold himself up. “There are lots of theories
that have cropped up over the years,” he said. “But all we know for sure is
that by the time of our earliest official record, our ancestors already had
these powers.”
Intrigued, Brooke shifted to better face him. “Tell me some
of the theories.”
“All right,” Blake said, pausing a moment before a slight
grin curved his lips again. “Apparently my great-grandmother had decided that
our ancestors were actually born from the elements themselves. For whatever
reason, each of the four basic elements came together and gave birth to a human
who had complete mastery of that element. She said she suspected that Mother
Nature was angry at man, and these elementals were supposed to somehow remind
the people of their time to respect the world around them.
“And according to her theory, there was one spot of
overlapped space where each of the four elements had gathered. It was from that
spot that the fifth sibling—the female—was born. And since each of the elements
had equal influence over the space that had created her, she was not able to be
a representative of any one element. But neither could they allow any one being
to control all of the elements, so
Mother Nature intervened one final time and gave the female a different power.
A different purpose. She was to protect and nurture the other four, and to
ensure that there would always, from that day forward, be four elementals to
fight for the planet.”
It was so much like one of the old Greek mythology stories
Brooke remembered reading back in high school that she couldn’t help but smile.
In a strange way, it was exactly what she’d expected. But she was still left
with one new question. “Okay, but I’m still confused. I get the ‘ensuring a
future generation’ thing, from what you already said, but how is your little
sister supposed to ‘protect and nurture’? And what if she just doesn’t want
kids?”
Blake stared for a beat before shrugging. “Then we’re the
last generation, I guess. As for your other question, she has a power, too. She
can’t manipulate any of the elements, but she can heal herself and others.”
“Heal?” Brooke repeated in disbelief. She couldn’t quite
wrap her brain around that one. Though how someone being able to heal someone
else seemed more unbelievable than someone being able to turn into water, she
wasn’t sure. And then another, much more disturbing, thought popped into her
head. Even as she chastised herself for watching one too many episodes of The Walking Dead , she asked, “So, can
she … bring people back from the
fall back to his sides. “Believe me now?” he asked with a lopsided grin.
****
Over the course of the next hour and a half, Brooke learned
that Blake was not as unique an individual as she’d first thought. His ability
was, quite literally, in his blood. For as far back as his family could trace,
the mother of the family always gave birth to five children: quadruplet boys
and, later, one girl. The first-born boy was born with the ability to control
water; the other three were born with the ability to control air, earth, and
fire respectively. It was the sister who would eventually birth the next
generation.
At one point, Brooke had asked how their family had come to
possess powers like that. It sounded convoluted to her, like trying to puzzle
out the idea behind the chicken and the egg. And Blake admitted he didn’t have
an answer.
“We weren’t always the only family with these powers,”
Blake explained. “Rumor has it that there used to be dozens of families like
ours. But over the centuries they’ve died out, and so far as we know we’re the
last ones.”
“So you don’t know your own origin story?” Brooke asked,
surprised. “That sounds sort of messed up.”
Blake shrugged and leaned back on the beach, resting his
palms on the sand behind him to hold himself up. “There are lots of theories
that have cropped up over the years,” he said. “But all we know for sure is
that by the time of our earliest official record, our ancestors already had
these powers.”
Intrigued, Brooke shifted to better face him. “Tell me some
of the theories.”
“All right,” Blake said, pausing a moment before a slight
grin curved his lips again. “Apparently my great-grandmother had decided that
our ancestors were actually born from the elements themselves. For whatever
reason, each of the four basic elements came together and gave birth to a human
who had complete mastery of that element. She said she suspected that Mother
Nature was angry at man, and these elementals were supposed to somehow remind
the people of their time to respect the world around them.
“And according to her theory, there was one spot of
overlapped space where each of the four elements had gathered. It was from that
spot that the fifth sibling—the female—was born. And since each of the elements
had equal influence over the space that had created her, she was not able to be
a representative of any one element. But neither could they allow any one being
to control all of the elements, so
Mother Nature intervened one final time and gave the female a different power.
A different purpose. She was to protect and nurture the other four, and to
ensure that there would always, from that day forward, be four elementals to
fight for the planet.”
It was so much like one of the old Greek mythology stories
Brooke remembered reading back in high school that she couldn’t help but smile.
In a strange way, it was exactly what she’d expected. But she was still left
with one new question. “Okay, but I’m still confused. I get the ‘ensuring a
future generation’ thing, from what you already said, but how is your little
sister supposed to ‘protect and nurture’? And what if she just doesn’t want
kids?”
Blake stared for a beat before shrugging. “Then we’re the
last generation, I guess. As for your other question, she has a power, too. She
can’t manipulate any of the elements, but she can heal herself and others.”
“Heal?” Brooke repeated in disbelief. She couldn’t quite
wrap her brain around that one. Though how someone being able to heal someone
else seemed more unbelievable than someone being able to turn into water, she
wasn’t sure. And then another, much more disturbing, thought popped into her
head. Even as she chastised herself for watching one too many episodes of The Walking Dead , she asked, “So, can
she … bring people back from the
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