Chapter Ten: Numb with Wonder

"Okay kids, everyone out!" The van's doors swung open with a faint creak, and was soon clogged up with pushing kids. Just in time, I was seriously going to lose it if I have to hear one more conversation between Brook and Sabrina about their 'awesome new water talents', plus I would've probably wrecked the whole car too. On the bright side, Stephen's aura didn't make me wanna puke anymore, which means that I can actually focus on what Mrs. Raq is teaching us instead of attempting keeping down my breakfast tomorrow. I'm gonna have to ask Natalie for more of those mint thingies, they seem to help with the annoying aura thing.

"Um, Jasmine, you alright? You look a bit, er, green," Natalie asked, concern lacing her voice as she caught up with me after getting out of the stuffy van.

I gulped, just realizing that I was carsick after the insanely long three hour ride. Oh goody.

"I'm fine Natalie. Besides, aren't life elementals SUPPOSED to be green?" I cracked a feeble smile while she rolled her eyes at my lighthearted tone.

"I'm serious Jasmine," she insisted, pulling me upright, "We're supposed to look presentable, that's hard enough to do in our everyday school clothes. Now, do I need to go get your aunt or what?" I quickly shook my head, wincing inwardly when that kinda made the nausea worse. The last thing I needed right now was more humiliating public attention as my aunt fussed over her, "pretty flower darling." I'm not kidding, she still calls me that. Supporting me against her shoulder, Natalie led me towards a tall, glassy professional looking building.

My head cleared a bit when the smell of freshly bloomed gardenias drifted in the air of a huge lobby we entered. There were people milling about idly in the room, both humans and elementals (the birthmarks kinda give it away). Light brown leather couches were arranged in a square formation around a fake fireplace, and a bookshelf bursting with all sorts of health magazines was placed next to the window. A large crystal chandelier threw cozy yellow light around the place, and I spied a gurgling pumice waterfall occupying a corner with tall smooth bamboo plants behind it. And of course, pot after pot of beautiful white gardenias were scattered miscellaneously around the tables. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed the plants noticeably grew while I was near them. Hmm, I'm pretty sure life elemental thing.
"Where are we?" I asked Natalie, able to stand again without the world spinning.

"Gardenia Inn," she answered as we followed the group to an elevator. Huh, sounds normal enough. What were we going to do, spend the night here? I snorted at the ridiculousness of that idea.

Ding! Between the two available elevators, we managed to squeeze everybody in. As always, I got squished up against Stephen's shoulder, and altogether he looked pretty awkward. This was becoming routine now, so I wasn't very surprised when I was shoved in right next to, and almost onto, him. Natalie got pushed onto me, and her wild blonde hair honestly was making me very uncomfortable as it kept on brushing across my face. Plus there was an odd smell, kinda like a campfire -ish kind of smell. I glanced at Natalie, and noticed for the first time that her honey golden-brown eyes were actually glowing, and if I squinted I could almost see a reddish flame in the center of her pupil.

"Fire elemental?" I guessed, my eyes drawn to a small, dark orange birth mark vaguely shaped like a flame, and staring at her hair, which was now not just floating, but sparking a bit too. Oh goshies, if she bursts into flames, I would be toast. Literally. Stephen would be okay(probably, I mean, I'm between him and the magical flame hair, so...), but plants plus fire, well, lets just say not a good combination. She nodded, and all of a sudden seemed to realize what was happening to her hair. Frantically she grabbed her hair and tried to put out the little candle flames, but her desperateness made the flames grow bigger. Even Stephen looked worried now, and hugged the wall(not literally, but it looked like it) to put as much distance between him and the flames. I think the slight burning smell would have set off the fire alarms and scorched me alive if not for Sabrina. Suddenly, a steady jet of cold water shot out of Sabrina's hand and squirted onto Natalie's truly flaming hair, quickly dousing the miniature flames. Unfortunately, after quenching the fires the stream of water went right through Natalie's tangled hair and you guessed it, straight onto my shirt and all over my skort, not to mention on my arms.

"Great, just great," I muttered as the water seeped through my clothes and onto my skin. To make things worse, it was freezing water. Add that to the effective air conditioning in the elevator, and soon I was shivering like crazy, which didn't exactly improve Stephen's situation, for now instead of just a girl being shoved up right next to him, it's a cold, wet, quaking girl pushed against his side.

"Oh my gosh, Jasmine, I'm so sorry!" Sabrina said, horrified at the state of my clothes.

I was about to say its okay, but then somebody said gruffly, "Kids, no magic yet in here, got it?"

"Aw man, I was gonna get the water out," Sabrina complained, in the middle of making some sort of pulling hand gesture, but one glare from the person stopped her short immediately.

"Sorry," Natalie whispered to me, and struggled to get her apparently magical hair under control. Okay, so Sabrina and Brook can shoot water outta their hands, Natalie has magical hair, but what about me? All I did was make a little spark explode, and I wasn't exactly sure HOW I did it. Plus make the gardenias go crazy, but I don't have any cool stuff like flaming hair or shooting water out of my hands. Sigh.

Ding! The wide metal doors slid smoothly open, and I got pulled out in the flood of people pouring outside.

"Woah," I muttered as I noticed my surroundings. The room had a low ceiling, and the walls seemed to be just, well, dirt. A touch of my hand confirmed that. Multicolored, different scented candles were lit up around the room on the floor giving off gentle flickering light and lovely aroma. A candle next to me was giving off a fresh fruity scent, kinda like grapes, oranges, peaches, and cherries, and I found myself inhaling deeply. But what really astonished me was the door. Door is an understatement, it was more like a huge gate to a palace.

The wide double doors were completely incased with silver, and bronze handles gleamed at the sides. On the left side were gigantic round solid gold plates, like the ones on the life book, but much much larger and a whole lot fancier. The leaf symbol was pure jade, the veins outlined with tiny emeralds. A single large peridot was hammered on the next plate, surrounded by chips of polished quartz and tiger eye. Amethysts made up the next picture, I'm guessing it was three gusts of wind judging by the sweeping lines of purple amethyst. The last gold plate had an aquamarine stone carefully carved into a single water droplet, and clear blue sapphires outlined the droplet.

The right side was the same, except the symbols were different. Starting from the bottom, I saw a golden plate with layers of gems. The bottom layer was glittering ruby, the second layer was some kind of bright orange stone, and the layer at the very top was brilliant yellow topaz. Altogether they showed a flame that actually seemed to flicker if you stared at it for long enough. The upper plate showed millions of tiny sparkling diamonds arranged into a perfect snowflake, and more were placed around the edge of the plate. Next was chunk after chunk of dark purple amethyst forming a cloud, and glowing neon yellow crystals made up the single lightning bolt coming out of the storm cloud. At the very top next to the leaf plate was-oh goshies. My brain kept my eyes glued to the symbol, as if it wanted me to see and observe it. Pure black onyx stones made a large skull with empty eyes, and outlining the shape were round spheres of obsidian. Death. Everyone else was gaping too, and I had a sudden urge to step closer to the silver doors, to make sure they were real.

"This. Is. Amazing," Sabrina breathed, her deep, navy blue eyes drawn to the water drop. I nodded mutely, still gawking at the magnificence of the doors.

"Hey, I think we're going in!" Natalie exclaimed with excitement as a tall woman with flowing blonde hair stepped up to the doors with a long, intricately carved bronze key in her hand. Inserting the key into a large gaping keyhole, the doors swung slowly and dramatically open. My body felt as if it was going to collapse from pure wonder, while my eyes drank in the amazing sight greedily.

Like the doors, the word room was a complete understatement, this place made Greystone Middle School look like a wardrobe. Stepping into the room, I noticed that it was the same shape as the entrance room before, roundish, and also composed of tightly packed soil. At the very back of the 'room' (I really can't think of anything else to call it, okay? Sue me.), a raised marble platform proudly supported a long, cherry wood table with seven grandly carved chairs of the same set. Closer inspection revealed that the chairs had soft, maroon velvet seats, the backs of the chairs had a large jewel of different kinds in the middle, and the center chair was a whole lot fancier and it was raised a bit higher than the other chairs. What knocked the air out of my lungs were the tall pillars. All of them were awesome, but the last one held me in a trance. The jade pillar was barely visible through the massive ivy vines creeping around and around the pillar like cobwebs on a wall. Unnaturally big morning glory plants grew over the tangled ivy, and produced insanely big multicolored flowers which strangely gave off a sweet, almost fruity smell that perfumed the air around the pillar. The very top boasted a huge, octagonal gold plaque exactly like the one on the door, with the bejeweled leaf. Natalie's sight was reduced to a flaming orange pillar with a glowing flame symbol, Sabrina had eyes only for one with flickering, liquid blue light like the bottom of a pool, and even Stephen's face was alight with astonishment as he gazed at an onyx pillar wrought with bright silver veins and a silver skull hanging over the top. Personally I don't get what was so great about the death pillar, although I do admit the skull was very finely detailed.

I subconsciously found myself taking steps towards the life pillar, and once I reached it, my hand hesitantly touched a single leaf to make sure it was all real. I didn't know how this moment could heap more wonders on my eyes, but it did. For when my finger came in contact with the numerous plants around the pillar, there was a small sigh, and suddenly the greenery flourished. Leaves were growing fuller, flower after flower had color flushed into the petals, and the vines wound themselves tighter.
"This is awesome," I muttered, and proceeded to enslave the morning glories to grow themselves into all sorts of animals. Lets see, a bear, a bunny, another bunny, a cat, yet another bunny, and I was struggling to make a horse when I noticed the silence in the air. Now, let me tell you, when I say silence, I mean, complete utter silence.

Turning around, I realized everybody was staring at me, including my recently made friends. Ugh, how many times in a day do I have get an overdose of public attention? As quickly as it started, the awkward silence was broken by whispers on the account of the adults, and the sound of running feet from Sabrina, Natalie, and Brook. Even though I was grateful the silence was gone, what replaced it wasn't really much of a bargain.

"You think she's the one?"
"She might be, let's wait for the Council Members,"
"Remember the prophecy?"
"She doesn't look like much, surely not enough to defeat him..."
"And what about the part of the prophecy about a girl and a boy bound as companions?"
"Well, she is a life elemental..."
"There hasn't been a therugist in years, not after Sylvia-"

At the mention of my mom's name, I shut off all my hearing, but it was too late. I vaguely sensed Sabrina saying something to me, but by then I was already sinking down, and I knew my body that was left behind would have a blank, vacant expression. A cool, slowly spready darkness spread all over me and pulled me gently away from the waking world. I felt my spirit falling deep down and suddenly floating, and I wanted to go back to the real world, away from the dreams, but I couldn't. All I could do was part my lips in a silent scream as the blackness closed around me.