In Your Element
"Huh."
There was no other word to describe it. Maybe "hot damn," or "by (insert deity here), what in the name of (insert deity here) are you?" But "huh" was a good single word. And Faylee had learnt three things in her life on Terminus – never bring gods into a conversation, always draw your blade first, and never leave loot behind. So while avoiding point one was easy, and she did have her blade out from her last robbery, point three was…iffy. Because the thing before her didn't seem to have any loot on him/her/it, and even if it did, she wasn't sure it was worth the risk.
"Hi," she said.
The thing stared at her.
"Got a name?"
The thing stared at her.
"You talk at all?"
The thing stared at her.
"Stop staring at me."
The thing stared at her.
"Oh, bollocks."
And yet the thing remained. It looked like an elemental. It possibly was an elemental she thought, but while she'd seen water elementals before, she'd never seen them take on so hulking and muscular a shape. Apart from its glowing blue-green eyes, its face was featureless. Apart from the brass bracers on its wrists, its body was featureless.
Huh.
There was that word again. But it was the brass bracers that Faylee was drawn to. Partly because they were shiny, and might fetch a nice price. But mainly because they reminded her of shackles. She would know. Her life of thievery had put her in them often enough.
"You a prisoner?" she asked the creature. "Or summoned?"
The thing tilted its head to one side.
"I mean, I don't know if there's a summoner around here," Faylee said, glad to be getting somewhere. "Unless it was that guy I robbed."
She gestured towards the fleeing traveller, wearing nothing but his underwear. She'd stolen everything he owned, but she'd let him keep his undergarments. There was no reason to steal his dignity after all.
"Pretty piece of gold that got me," the thief said, looking back at the elemental. "Numbskull was travelling alone."
The thing pointed to her.
"Am I alone? Yeah, but I'm a thief. A rogue. That's how I roll."
The thing tilted its head again.
"And you? I see you're alone."
The thing just stood there. Lack of legs notwithstanding.
Faylee sighed. She'd heard rumours of elementals crawling up from the depths of Terminus. But by all accounts those elementals were actually intelligent, and obeyed no master but themselves. This thing however, appeared to be bereft of any higher function. If she had to guess, it had been summoned.
But by whom? By what?
Possibly not even on this plane, she thought. She'd heard stories of other worlds, other races, other magic users. Maybe a mage somewhere had tried to summon this creature, but it ended up in another world. Maybe that mage had been torn to shreds by his or her foes, wondering where his or her elemental was.
Maybe I should stop wasting time.
Sighing, Faylee sheathed her dagger. The bracers could be ignored, as could this brute. Even as it tilted its head to its side again.
"Yeah, I'm off," the thief said, turning around. "More foes to slay, more loot to find, more-"
And she stopped. Stopped as the thing wrapped a watery arm around her neck. Stopped as it dragged her towards it. Stopped as a strained whisper came from its non-existent mouth.
"Looooot…" it hissed. "Want loooot…"
Faylee blinked. Faced with such intelligence, such threat, such basic need for gold and glory, she could say one thing. One simple word…
"Huh."
A/N
I've heard it said in regards to Pantheon that it's the creators of EverQuest seeking to make EverQuest again. Can't really comment on that. But the notion of elementals becoming playable and coming up from the ground did spark the idea for this crossover.