Children of the Planet Book 1 - Chapter 2: Em

Chapter 2: Em

    Isaac slowly twirled the pencil around his fingers as his teacher droned on.

“Now, I’m sure you all know most of the facts I’m going to tell you, but just in case nobody has listened since 1^st grade, I’ll go over it anyway. First of all, Em is the energy that we use to power alchemy. Every person has their own amount of Em, even if that amount isn’t enough to use alchemy. Alchemy, as you all know, is the name commonly given to elemental manipulation. Here in North America, we have Water and Wind alchemists. Oh, yes, and Mister Isaac, our very own Ice alchemist. Now, on that note, why don’t we take a quick look at geography. Of the seven continents, six are home to the great nations. The Ice nation, ruled by our sovereign King Washington the IX, is in North America. The Steam nation, ruled by King George and Queen Mary is in Europe. Asia holds the Lightning nation, ruled by Emperor Sasuke. South America is home to the Wood nation, ruled by their Council of Three. The Sand Nation is ruled by Nero, the God-King of Africa. And finally, Australia is the domain of President Maxwell of the Lava nation. Now back to alchemy. There are four primary elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Any two of these elements can be combined to create one of the six combined elements…”

    “Ha!” Mei thought as she looked down at the form in front of her. “This is ridiculous.”

She scribbled her name, birthdate, and the current date, August 9^th 2018, on the paper. Had it really been eighteen years? If she had been born in Australia, she would’ve been able to vote this year. Mei looked down at the test in front of her.

    “What are the six combined elements?” The paper read.

    “Obiviously the six elements are Ice, Steam, Lightning, Wood, Sand, and Lava. Water and wind form ice, water and fire form steam, water and earth form wood, earth and wind form sand, and earth and fire from lava.” Mei could create lightning on her own because she had been born with the ability to use both Fire and Wind alchemy, but her parents had to use their alchemy in conjunction in order to create lightning. The same went for any alchemists of two different elements.” She quickly sketched her answer on the paper, and moved on to the next painfully easy question.

    “The only exception” Isaac’s teacher said, “Is Antarctica. Antarctica has become the home of many people who were born minimal amounts of Em, though there is no real form of leadership there right now. Antarctica has no primary element, but the people there have been able to absorb Em from the world around them and channel it into pure energy. More on that next semester. Now, a quick biology note. Generally if a person from one continent has a child with a person from another continent who uses a different element than them, the child will not have any Em. For example, if a fire alchemist from Europe were to have a child with an earth user from South America, the child born will most likely have very little Em, but there is a chance that a child will be born with Em who will be able to use one of its parents’ elements. However, if the fire alchemist were to marry a water user from South America, the child would almost certainly have Em and an element, as water is also an element from Europe, and vice-versa. Well, that’s all for today. I expect to see you all tomorrow for the tests.

    Carinthia and Elena stood shamefaced as their nurse impatiently tapped her foot, her tall menacing frame constantly demanding one thing, “What did I tell you two about sneaking out at night? I would expect as much from a peasant brat like Elena, but you Carinthia? I think Elena is having a poor influence on you.”
    “No! She’s my best friend! Look, it was my fault, okay! I…”
    “Is something the matter?” A voice from behind them asked.   

Both Carinthia and Elena turned around to see a tall middle aged woman, her messy blonde hair draping over the shoulders of her nightgown.

    “These two were…” The nurse began, but the woman cut her off.

    “I would like to hear from my daughter if it’s quite alright with you Margaret.” She said.

    “Mom, I took Elena out with me and we played at the fountain.” Carinthia mumbled, her head down.

    “Oh, that’s all? With the fuss Margaret was raising, I thought you had burned your bed or something.”

The girls couldn’t help but giggle at this comment.

     “Well, you need your sleep. If you want to play, you can play during the day. Good night ladies.”

With that, Carinthia’s mother returned to her room, after a quick smile and a subtle glare at Margaret. The girls returned to their rooms, tucked themselves into bed, and quickly fell asleep.

    Ajani trudged across the desert, each step more difficult than the last as the wind battered his body. He had tried to move it past him, but tired quickly and had to stop. The sand swirled around his body as he took step after step. He didn’t know where he was going, he just needed to go somewhere. He stopped when he heard a scuffling noise behind him. He turned his head to see if something was following him, but he saw only sand dunes. He kept walking, but after a few moments, he heard the scuffling sound again. He decided to keep walking and pretend he didn’t notice. Then, in a swift movement, he swung his staff around, sending a blast of air behind him. When the sand cleared, there was still nothing. Then, he saw a shadow looming in front of him. He turned around, and a giant scorpion was staring him right in the eye. Ajani leapt back, throwing a blast of sand at the monster as he went. Not having put much effort into the attack, it merely passed over the scorpion, and it shook its head. Then, it ran at Ajani, its pincers grabbing for him. As it snapped at him with its right pincer, Ajani ducked and swung his staff at its front-most right leg. With a crack, the staff hit its joint square on and the leg collapsed. With a screech, the scorpion batted him away with its left pincer.

As Ajani recovered, he heard a whoosh of air, and barely rolled out of the way as the scorpion’s pincer landed right where his head was a moment ago. He stood up and knocked the next strike aside with his staff. As the scorpions third strike sped towards him, He ran toward it and jumped on its back. The scorpion reached back with its pincers to try and grab him, but Ajani merely knocked the attacks away. Then, with a sharp movement of his hand, he shot a spear of sand up from the ground into the body of the scorpion. It screeched and writhed in pain as Ajani continued to stab it. Finally, Ajani pulled up a pillar of stone from deep below the earth. It came up underneath the scorpion so quickly that it snapped its body in half, its head and upper body bent at an awkward angle against the rock. Panting, Ajani jumped down from the beast and continued his journey. He strained his eyes for something, anything that could serve as shelter, and saw a black speck in the distance. Deeming it better than nothing, he began to walk in its direction.

    Annie woke up the next morning and winced in pain as she immediately noticed the bruise on her cheek from the day before. She used the restroom, threw some clothes on, grabbed her belt, and went outside. Time for work. As she walked down the block, she noticed a group of people up ahead. She went up to see the commotion was. They were gathered around a stand where a man was giving the most recent news. They didn’t have too many TVs in Australia, but there were stations dotted around the Lava nation where journalists and the like would receive news, and then would send people out to tell the various towns and cities.

    “The Steam nation is investigating a group of young people called the ‘Children of the Planet’. Please report to the nearest news station if you have information on any myths or stories related to them, or relating to the use of combined elements.”

    ‘I wonder what that’s about…’ Annie thought to herself.

Her thought was cut short when she was roughly grabbed by the shoulders and shoved to the ground. She turned and looked to see Tom glaring down at her; he had 6 other men behind him.

    “Well, long time no see Ms. Black.” He said with a chuckle. Then he punched her in the face.

    “Well, that’s familiar.” Annie said, spitting blood out. She rolled back, drawing her baton as she did so and threw a fireball at the thug who was running at her from behind Tom. The fireball hit a wall of earth the thug had barely raised in time, and the crowd around her ran in panic. She swung the baton at the wall, and as she did, she manipulated it so that it lengthened, allowing it to hit the wall from where she stood, shattering it. Then, before the thug could recover, she formed a whip with the baton and slashed the thug across the forehead, leaving a bloody gash and leaving him unconscious. Then, swinging the whip around her head, she called up several chunks of stone and hurled them at the group of Tom’s thugs with a crack of her whip. A few rocks hit one of the thugs in the head, knocking him out, but the other four and Tom dodged them and rushed her. She ducked a swing from one thug, and slammed her baton into his gut, knocking the wind out of him. She swung around and kicked him in the head, turned the kick into a backflip, and leapt over another thug who was charging her. He continued to charge, and she whipped her baton out, wrapping it around his neck and breaking it. The thug she had kicked was recovering, and she quickly threw a slab of stone at his legs and broke his knees. As he screamed in pain, Annie was grabbed from behind in a strong bear hug, trapping her arms. She struggled to break free, but couldn’t get out of the grip. She shot her head back, but only hit the man’s chest. Tom walked up to her and punched her in the gut, causing her to cough up a mouthful of blood.

    “You took out three of my men Annie. I’m going to have to teach you a lesson. Oh, that’s right, I also need to repay you for humiliating me in front of my boys yesterday.” Tom said to her.

Annie could only manage a groan. Tom raised his fist to punch her in the face, but she ducked her head down just enough so that the blow missed her and hit the man that was holding her. His grip weakened and she slipped out. She gathered a shell of rock around her hands, and punched the man in the side, breaking several of his ribs and knocking him a few meters away. She then turned and shot the two shells at the remaining two thugs, hitting them in their heads, bashing in the face of one, and splitting the skull of another. She then swung her baton around and smacked Tom, who was sneaking up behind her, upside the head. He fell to the ground, and she placed a boot on his chest, keeping him still.

    “Well Tom, looks like you lose again.” She said with a smile. “But you know what, I have an offer for you. Instead of killing you, I think I’ll let you take me to your boss.”

    “What?” Tom asked, surprised and confused.

    “I said take me to your leader you…”

    “I heard you. But, why?”

    “You aren’t exactly on a need to know basis. So, you going to take me, or am I going to smash your face in?”

    “Ok, ok, fine.”

    “And no funny business, I beat up you and six of your boyfriends. Now that I think about it, there actually isn’t anything you can do to me anyway.”

With that, Annie lifted her foot and allowed Tom to sit up. He got to feet and began shamefully stumbling down the street. Annie followed him, keeping a close eye on his every movement. As she did, her plan formed…