Chapter One: The Beginning

My name is Riku or should I say R.J.? Oh, I don't know, but I'm writing this to make sure it's all real. I guess I should start at the beginning.
My friends: Chris-Blond hair, blue eyes, and 5'8 not bad looking, but not that great either- he was kind of snobbish, Joy-Sandy blond hair, about 5'1, honey brown eyes, nice figure, but not like a cheerleaders; she was the type of person you could tell all your problems to, wasn't afraid to have fun her way (I would have preferred her to be my girlfriend, but she cant date till she's 16-she's 15 now- she says that she only sees me as a friend any way), Zach- Brown hair, brown eyes and fat, Rachel-cherry blond hair, hazel eyes, slim figure, about 5'5, and Joy's best friend, and I were walking through the woods near my house on a snow day; it was also my 16th B-day, some would call it coincidence, but I call it fate.
Well, we found a path that was on a pretty steep hill, so I challenged Joy to a race.
"I'll bet you can't catch me!" I said.
"We'll see about that!" She replied, and we started to race down the hill with everybody chasing after us. I wasn't paying any attention, when all of a sudden, I hit something.
"WWWWWAAAAAAAHHHH!" BAM! Moan.
"R.J.! You OK?" Asked Chris.
"Yah, I'm fine, but my sleds totaled. What did I hit and land on?" I asked in between agonizing movements to get up.
"Whatever it is it must of hurt."
"No DUH Beasley (Zach)! Uuugh, it feels like stone and-and there's something on here."
"Yah and there's some more over here!" Said Joy
"Let me see," said Rachel.
We cleared off all of the snow and all- in -all it was about 2 yards straight in diameter.
"It looks like a giant ritual circle," said Joy.
"Yah, and the markings on this are really strange, too," said RJ.
"Part of it got broken off from your collision," said Joy.
"WOW! I wonder what this is used for!" Exclaimed Rachel in wonder.
"Come on Chris, Beasly! Come take a look at this!" I shouted.
They all got on it and then the symbols started to glow. There was a flash of light and-- "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Bam! "Uhg...what happened? Joy, Chris, Beasly, Rachel! Where are you guys?" I called. It was dark where I landed, so I couldn't see a thing.
"We're all right here," responded Joy.
"Joy is that you? Are you OK?" I questioned.
"Yeah, but where are we?" She asked.
"I can't see anything!" Said Rachel. (That is so like me!)
"I think I see a light up ahead," I said.
We made our way towards the light and stumbled out of the cave. Then, everyone gasped. I turned around and everybody was looking at me and then started to inspect them selves. Each of us had changed and had animal attributes. Joy had red hair, red pointed ears with some black on the tips and a red tale with white on the end, just like a fox and her eyes were green with a tint of gold as well. Her clothes had changed too, she was now wearing a Black tank-top with fire around the edges, her pants were loose black leather and a black cape with a dragon and a white tiger fighting on it and her shoes were leather boots but not the heavy type (not high-heel) and also on each hand were black silk fingerless gloves up to her elbows with leather on the palms and golden metal guards up just as far, on the right one was a tiger and on the left one was a dragon. Rachel had wings growing from her back, her hands now had nails that kind of looked like talons, and her hair was now long and brown and her eyes looked sharp and keen, like a hawk (she's part hawk). Her clothes had also changed, she was now wearing a loose white shirt, black leather pants (like Meg in Phantom of the Opera at the end) and black leather boots (like Joy's) going up to her knees. Then, there was Chris. He had gray hair and a tail, ears like Joy have, except his ears weren't as big and his eyes were that of a wolf. He was wearing a gray guy's kimono with a silver breastplate in the front with lightning on it and no shoes. Then, last, there was Beasly, and right off the bat you could tell that he was a gorilla. His whole body had changed! He was totally ripped now! His muscles were huge! All he had on was brown pants. Now the thing that really got me was that I couldn't see myself (me: no, really?), but I could tell that I had on a white guy's kimono and a silver breast plate with a yin-yang symbol on it and wooden Japanese- styled shoes. Everyone else said I kind of looked like Inuyasha with short hair. (He has long white hair, gold eyes, and ears on the top of his head) After a minute of silence, I suddenly realized a change in the smell of the air and there was a far off noise. The others seemed to notice it, too.
"Someone's coming. We'd better hide," I said.
With that, we all went and hid. Rachel and Beasly hid up in different trees, Chris and I in the bushes, and Joy behind a tree. Then, out of the thicket, a girl with codger ears, tail, long, blond hair in a high ponytail, and golden eyes came out. Then, I don't know what came over me, but it was like someone else had control and the last thing I remember is jumping out of the bushes growling and then- blank.
A few hours later I came around. It took me a while to get my bearings, but once I did I realized that I was bound, gagged, and surrounded by guards. Then, the same girl from earlier and an old man that looked a lot like her. Once they noticed that I was awake, they took away the cloth in my mouth. I know it was stupid to ask, but I had to:
"What happened?"
"Don't play dumb!" Said codger-girl.
"Honestly! I don't know what's going on anymore. Actually, I can't remember anything from the time I jumped out of the bushes."
She then looked at me as if she wanted to make sure I was telling the truth.
"I believe him," said the old man that looked like the girl.
"Who are you? And more importantly, what did I do to end up like this?" I asked incredulously.
"You tried to kill me!" Replied the girl, still pissed off.
"I did what?"
"Yah, and the only reason that we were able to tie you up was because of the fox girl."
"Who? OH! You must mean Joy," I said, confused for a moment.
"Yah, she jumped on your back to get you to stop and you said 'If you wanted me that much you should have just said so.' Then, she got mad and her hand got covered in fire; she jumped off your back and turned you around and punched you in the face while calling you a hentai (Pervert). You then flew into a tree and got knocked out."
I just stared in shock.
"It doesn't surprise me that you can't remember anything. Don't worry, I'll explain everything, but first, we must eat," said the old man.
"Grandpa! You would let this mad man eat with the villagers?"
"Don't worry, I'll explain everything soon enough," said the old man mysteriously.
So we went and found the others and got something to eat. Joy and Rachel kept throwing me death glares. Kraden was the old man's name, it turned out, and he explained that a long time ago, six of the keepers of the balance of nature had disappeared here and the cave we came out of was where they had disappeared. He also said that they would come whenever there was an imbalance and they always appeared where they disappeared. "Which is why I have been sending Kit every day to check out the cave. The world here has fallen and needs to be reset. "
"I thought you said that there were six – Wait, R.J., remember how your sled hit the stone and ruined the one of the marks?" said Joy
I nodded.
"Well maybe when that happened you got two powers and instead of one of them finding another body or make a fresh one it just went to live inside you!" She exclaimed with excitement at figuring it out first.
I just stared at her. Kraden nodded his head.
"That could very well be the reason because it was said that light and darkness (he's light and dark, btw) were basically the same person just two different bodies, but they could also fuse together. They were the most powerful of them all, but only when they were actually working together. And I'm sure the rest of you have figured out your elements." Said Kraden.
Everyone nodded.
"I have fire obviously," said Joy with a smirk on her face, obviously proud.
"And I'm ice," stated Rachel with a smirk as well.
"I'm earth most likely," said Beasly.
"And I'm thunder, since for some weird, stupid reason there is no lightning," said Chris
"Very good, and you each got another name as well, Joy yours is Mina, Rachel yours is Julia, Zach yours is Raiden, Chris is Kaine, and R.J. your Riku," said Kraden.
"OK, so we have powers, but how do we use them?" I asked
"With practice. DUH!" Said Julia
"Yes, and we'll train you, but now, we need to get some sleep. Kit would you please show them to their new rooms," said Kraden
"Yes grandfather," replied Kit.
And so we went to our rooms and got ready for bed. After a few hours of tossing and turning, I went and sat on the roof of my one-room hut and just stared at the moon. After a while, I noticed Mina's scent in the air.
"Couldn't sleep either, huh?" She asked.
"Nope, there are just so many things that have happened and that I want to know, but I guess I shouldn't worry about it," I said, feeling pretty lame telling her this.
"It's OK. We're all little freaked out about all of this. We're just all reacting differently," she replied.
"You seem to taking it fine, not scared at all," I replied still feeling lame that the girl I liked was doing better than me.
"That's because I've always wanted an adventure. And I've always been a loner at heart. All I need is some company and I'm fine, but I think that's why I'm fire, you can get close but you can't touch. You can be close to me, be one of my best friends and I won't confide in you. I wouldn't like it for others to get messed up in my business; it's annoying because they give me their opinion when all I'm asking for is to just be there for me to lean on," she shook her head. "We all have our problems and short comings, we just need to learn to accept them. "
I stared at her. As she looked at the moon, its light tumbling around her making her look like she had described her self as, untouchable and it made me think about the time her mom had been in the hospital, she still acted as if nothing was wrong, just not quite as happy, but she never did talk to any of us and from what she's said probably not anyone in her family either. Then, she looked at me.
"I was meaning to ask you, would you proffer it if I called you Riku? Or not?"
"Sure, why not? Well, see you in the morning."
"OK, night. And just so you know, you can talk to me about anything," Mina said with a small smile.
"Thanks, you too."
She nodded, and with that we both went to bed.

For the next few months we worked on training our bodies to handle our newfound power. This left us feeling tired and very easily frustrated.
"This training will allow you to control your elemental energy," said Kraden
Kaine was pissed that he couldn't use his power; he kept saying that training was a waste of time. Everyone was starting to get fed up with him. I even heard Mina, Julia, and Kit saying that they would tie him to a tree and gag him and let him get him self out since he says he's so powerful. Mina also would go off alone and come back hours later. I always wanted to ask her what she was doing, but never could find a chance.
Kit became fast friends with Julia and Mina. You hardly saw one of them alone anymore.
It finally came time to try out our powers.
"Finally! Now let me show you all how it's done," said Kaine as he went to the front.
"Fine then Kaine, stand on your symbol and start concentrating on making a ball of electricity," said Kraden.
So he went and stood and started to concentrate. The girls started laughing after a few minutes because his face started to turn red from concentrating, but when he finally got something, it shot out in all directions and we all had to duck so that we wouldn't be hit.
"See, I told you, it was easy," said Kaine.
"Yes, but you have no control," stated Kraden
"Only, because you wouldn't let me practice!" Shouted Kaine, and with that he stomped off.
Next, was Raiden. He didn't have as much trouble as Kaine, but he still couldn't keep it up for long. Then, there was Julia; hers was a lot like Raiden's. Then, it was Mina's turn and it didn't take her long at all to get a fire ball as big as a basketball.
"Very good, Mina! I see your practices have paid off," said Kraden with a smile.
"Yes, they've helped a lot," replied Mina.
"What practices?" Asked Julia.
"On an episode of Avatar, Aang was learning how to fire bend and the person teaching him told him the first he needed to learn was control; so he gave Aang a leaf that was burning in the middle and told him to keep it burning as long as he could without burning the edges, but Aang was rash and thought that he didn't need training and because of that he burnt Katara's hands. So, because I didn't want that happening to any of you, I asked Kraden if I could try the leaf trick with my powers since we already know that I can create it."
We all nodded our heads in understanding at what she had done. Now it was my turn.
"So, what exactly should I do?" I asked Kraden.
"Stand in the middle of the circle and concentrate on your energy and try to give it a form," he replied.
Sounds easy, right? Not so much. I got to the point where I could give light a form, but then I felt this surge of pure energy that was colder then swallowing a whole carton of ice cream. I opened my eyes to see if anything had changed and there in front of me was an orb of dark energy. Upon opening my eyes I lost concentration and the orb disappeared.
"This is interesting, you already have some control of your dark energy. Well, that's all for today. You're free to do as you wish."
This was something we had all wanted for a long time. So, for the rest of the day we spent our time talking and practicing with our powers. Then, there was a far off shriek.
"What was that?" I asked
"Sounded like a little girl. We should go check it out," said Julia.
"Yah! Lets hurry!" Said Mina.
We all bolted in the direction of the scream. It didn't take us long to find what we were looking for. There in the clearing stood what looked like a cross between a tiger and a gorilla standing over an unconscious child. At first it hadn't noticed us, but that didn't take long. This thing was fast and in no time at all it was in front of us before we could even move. It raised a paw and knocked me straight across the clearing without any trouble. I now had a gash across my face that was definately going to leave a scar.
"The only way to beat this thing is if we use our powers! Let's use what Kraden has taught us," I said.
'Now things are going to get interesting,' I thought. But the thing was that we could all give our powers a physical form, but we didn't know how to attack. It wasn't too hard for Mina, having the most practice with her power and Kaine not being to hard to conjure and shoot even though he didn't have that much control was able to get a hit or two, along with Raiden. Even Julia got a hit or two in, but she was mainly taunting it, making it heavily distracted. I was the only one having a hard time. I couldn't stay hidden long enough to gather the energy I needed. Luckily, thanks to Julia's taunting and a shot from Mina I finally got the time I needed. I gathered as much energy as I could, aimed it at the beast, and released it. The shock not only destroyed the beast but knocked me down as well.
"Snap! Now I guess it would not be a good idea to be on your bad side!" Said Mina, clearly amazed.
"That was my power?" I stated in shock.
"That was amazing," said Raiden
Then, there were noises off in the woods. We got ready for another fight, but we picked up the villagers scent.
"What happened here?" Asked one of them
"Yah, it looks like a war was fought here," said another.
"Basically, here's Jessica. She's just unconscious," said Mina (She got along with children well, so she was followed by most of the kids when ever they had the chance) and she handed the girl to the villagers.
"Keepers are you alright!" Asked Kraden as he came into the clearing.
"We'll survive," I said.
"We were going to tell you that the barrier had a crack in it, but you guys were nowhere to be found. I thought we had talked about this. It's dangerous out here," said Kit ranting like a worried sister.
"Yah, we kind of realized that. Now, let me ask the question that's on everyone's mind: what the hell was that thing?" Said Julia.
"That was a driger; they get through the barrier sometimes. Lets return to the village," said Kraden.
On the way back I learned that I could use my light energy to heal people, so I tried it out on the little girl. I channeled it through her, healing her completely. This day marked the day we all really tried our hardest to harness our power because we all knew that there were more powerful things out there then the driger. Even Kaine tried harder and didn't complain near as much. We learned at the end of our training eight months later that to reach our true potential that we would have to travel to our home nations and be trained by the native shaman. There was a land for each of us: Pyron, the land of fire, Tundria the land of ice, Thundria the land of thunder, Gia the land of earth, Lumos the land of light, and Umbra the land of shadow. Kraden also said that there were others; he didnt know how many, for all he knew there could be just one or fifty, but to keep a look out. By my 17th B-day we had all changed. I had grown taller, as had Kain; Raiden looked more like a man than a boy now; Julia's hair went to her butt, but she wore it in a braid, so no one could tell that she was a she at first glance, and Minas hair had also grown out to her butt, but she kept it in a braid also and behind her cape. Kit was our guide and so we set out for Pyron the land of fire. As a parting gift we were all given cloaks; mine was white and black with long sleeves, Mina's was black with fire on the edges with no sleeves, Julia's was just a dark blue cape and hood, Kaine's was like mine only gray, and Kit's was like Julia's only it was pink, and Beasly got a brown one like Kaine's and I.