Disclaimer: I don't own anything you'll recognize. A/N: Sorry for the wait (once again). I hope you'll like this chapter though. Thanks a lot to Anna for betaing it. And to all the reviewers. Now, enjoy!

Naia

Chapter Fourteen

Harry came back to consciousness a few seconds later when icy water fell on him.

He jumped on his feet, ready to curse the one responsible for this to Hell. Seeing his face, the masters laughed.

"Harris, Harris, Harris. Need I remind you what happened last time you curse someone."

This calmed the dark haired wizard immediately. He remembered it too well

Flashback

The inspectors were not gone for two hours that all the masters were gathered in Harry's dorm, grinning like mad, their hands hiding something in their backs.

Frowning at them suspiciously, he got up from his desk.

"Well Harris , you surely remember our little deal a week ago, don't you?"

With dread, Harry took a few steps backward. He looked around, trying to find an exit, to no avail.

"Don't even try it Harris. Now, look at the lovely gift we brought you!"

They uncovered what they had been hiding behind their backs, which nearly gave Harry a heart attack.

It was a long, shining, pink dress, plus a black wig, some make-up and jewels.

"No!"

"Oh yes!" replied Assim.

Half an hour later, Harry found himself dressed up. He glared angrily at the masters who were laughing their heads off.

"Harris, y-y-you really look l-like a GIRL!" stuttered Yana.

"You're quite the looker Harris, or should I say Hasra?" joked Imir.

The shut-up-or-die glare Harry cast them sent them in hysterics.

Fuming, he headed for the kitchen, trying to block the laughter coming from the dorm. Revenge was a dish best served cold. Not used to walk with a dress, he tripped of a piece of material, landing on his behind, in a less than gracious way. As he got up, his wig was leaning on his left ear and as he tried to put it back, he messed his make-up. The only thing he was now grateful was that there wasn't a mirror nearby and that the corridors were empty.

The week was pure Hell. Fortunately the servants and cooks took pity to him and stopped mocking him. The students, of course, didn't let this opportunity pass and enjoyed taunting him.

End of the flashback

He shuddered a bit at the thought.

"Alright, alright"

"Well, I'm proud to tell you that you're now a full first class Elemental master," said Amber, pride visible on her face. "You should pack now, you will probably receive a message from Pharaoh tomorrow."

Harry nodded, as the facts started to sink in. He was a master!! He wanted to jump and yell, but managed to keep a straight face.

"Thank you, thank you a lot." Before the masters could answer, he had left the room, bolting to his dorm to prepare everything. Then he went to the soldiers' quarters where they celebrated his success.

The next morning, a messenger arrived at Karkana, bearer of Pharaoh's orders.

It wasn't really detailed, it just summoned Harry to the capital. Once everything was fixed on Sheitan, Harry turned to the masters. He hugged them, thanking them again.

"It was a pleasure, Harris," said Kenet. "Good luck."

"Thank you."

He hugged Amber a little longer than the others.

"I'll miss you Amber."

"Me too. Come back in two weeks, don't forget."

"I won't. See you then."

After bidding farewell to Izmal and the others he followed the messenger to Pharaoh's town.

The journey took them two days and was uneventful and boring. They finally reached the capital and Harry was immediately brought to the palace. At the entrance, some young boys, waiting for them, indicated that they would take care of their horses. Despite the fact that he was quite reluctant at leaving his stallion there, Harry didn't have the choice.

He was led through an endless succession of corridors and rooms, each more magnificent than the former. He now fully understood what Egypt had been at its pinnacle.

Finally he stopped before the doors of the audiences' room. Raising his hand, he focused and pictured the clothes fitting an Elemental master. Focusing on his inner energy he did as Odyeus had showed him. He knew it would drain him quite a lot, but he couldn't see the pharaoh dressed in travelling clothes. He closed his eyes and felt a small tingling in the air. Opening his eyes he saw it had worked. Silver-white clothes, outlined with the color corresponding to their element were the outfit of masters. Apprentices were dressed in brown, Novices in beige. Harry wore a loin cloth, a sleeveless tunic both outlined with the four colors (light blue and brown, grey and red), a simple black belt and on his right shoulder the sign of the Elementals: the fours entwined.

An herald introduced him.

"Elemental master Harris!"

Harry entered the huge room as silence downed on it. He could see that he had arrived in the middle of a public audience as courtiers were in the room. Their attention was currently fixed on him and he could understand it, a bit. He was barely fifteen and a half and already a master, which implied that he was powerful. Moreover he was a stranger so they didn't know what to make of him. Their weariness was to be expected.

He walked down the room stopping before the Egypt's throne and bowing to Pharaoh. Silence, only broken by a few whispers was still on the room.

The Pharaoh was a tall man, nicely built-up, in his mid-thirties, who must have fought earlier in his life (his scars on his arms were proof of this). He nodded to Harry, motioning to one of his scribes to approach. He spoke with him in hushed whispers before reporting his attention on the courtiers. The scribe walked to Harry and silently signaled for him to follow him through a door on one of the sides of the room.

Wordlessly, Harry followed and stepped in a small office.

"The pharaoh will come here once he's done with this audience," explained the scribe before leaving, not waiting for Harry's answer.

Shrugging, the young wizard sat on one of the chairs and waited for Egypt's ruler.

Half an hour later, as Harry had grown quite tired of counting the creaks in the ceiling and the number of hieroglyphs on the walls, the door opened.

A tired looking pharaoh, followed by his scribes entered. He sat at his desk, in front of Harry, and signaled for his little shadows to leave them alone. They obeyed, but Harry saw that some were quite reluctant, so, as they closed the door, he discreetly took out his wand (concealing it from Pharaoh's eyes) and muttered a quick silencing charm.

"Would you mind if we dropped the formalities? You must not be familiar with them and truth to be told we don't have the time."

Seeing Harry's agreement, the pharaoh starting to explain the situation.

To sum up, he was facing a deep problem with the Southern regions, in particular in Nub. At the start it had been little troubles: small attacks on caravans, little raids. Nothing the army couldn't handle. But for a month it had gone worse and worse. A man which had taken the pseudonym of Seth was rising there. From what the Pharaoh had gathered so far, he was a Rogue Fire Elemental which hadn't been schooled at Karkana but had trained his powers himself. His control over fire made him really dangerous. In a country where water was often spare, a fire was a deadly thing. He had started several fire, destroying the symbols of Pharaoh's power. A few days ago, reports had told that some mercenaries had joined him. How he had been able to pay them, that remained unknown but the number of attacks had increased and he had managed to recruit other Elementals. Two days ago, the agent posted there hadn't reported and there had been no news from him since then.

"I see, but what I don't understand is why I'm here?"

Pharaoh looked at him with a grave expression.

"It's simple. I sent some troops there. None came back. Each of them included two Elemental masters. Either they were killed or they passed to the enemy. They were water and earth masters. Troops alone are destined to fail as they would be defenseless before the Elemental. When Kemal sent me a message, two days after his arrival at Karkana, he told me about you and your, should I say, unusual abilities as well as situation. He suggested also that you might be able to help Egypt with this predicament.

Harry knew he would help the Pharaoh, he had already promised to do so. But he was a little scared of changing history. For once in his life he wished he had paid more attention in his History of Magic's classes.

He took a deep breath.

"Alright. How can I help your Majesty?"

~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~

Foolish, foolish, foolish !

This was the thought that went through Harry's mind as he dodged a ball of Fire.

I could have stayed at Karkana for the whole time before leaving, doing nothing but train and relax, but no, no, no, no, no, I had to come here! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

He thought back to the chain of events that had ended with him here, in the middle of Nub, dodging fireballs and other various attacks from the three Elemental masters still standing.

Flashback

As soon as he had agreed to help, Pharaoh had given a series of orders and a day later, Harry jumped to Nub through the Fire portal. An other master had gave him a detailed picture of the place he would end in.

Once there, he had gone to the troops' headquarters, carrying all the papers scribes had given him before his departure. The leader was a bit reluctant to admit his situation and the powers Pharaoh had given him. But in the end, when he saw that Harry knew at least the basis of fighting he cooperated. He just took Harry several duels to convinced him.

Things went a little easier then. The soldiers had already reduced the possible space where the rogue Elementals base could be. To find the precise place, Harry could have used his powers but it would have drained and tired him, should it have taken a long time to do which it probably would have taken, seeing as the Elemental had probably raised wards around his base. Instead, Harry found a better way to gain this piece of information. As he realized, one animal was omnipresent there: the snakes.

And for once, Harry had been glad to be able to talk with them. They agreed to help him right away. The Elemental had been destroying their living places and they didn't take it very well. A day after Harry knew where was the Elemental, but also, how many men he had, what they could do, what sort of weapons they had as well as a simple map of the base.

Happy with the quick progresses, Harry planned the action of the troops with Dozlan, the leader and some other officers. Finally a day later, they had come up with a plan which might work. Immediately they left. The masters combined their powers to create a giant Portal which allowed the troops to end in the region where their enemy where stationed. They couldn't approach too much through the Portal. It created some disturbances in the elements which could be felt by masters. It took them three days to encircled the camp. Walking through the forest. Ant it wasn't a pleasant trip: the heat, the humidity, the stinging bugs of all sorts and other friendly beast weren't helping them.

Once they were arrived they readied for the attack and Harry committed his first mistake: he volunteered for being part of the small group which would be taking care of the Elementals. His second and last one was to let the Earth master, who had volunteered too, take the lead and set off the traps and alarms around the quarters of the Elemental masters. Harry had wanted to rip the man's head. They had been obvious but he had been so sure of himself that he had walked straight into them In a few minutes half of their group was down. Harry then sent the remaining to fight with regular soldiers as they would be defenseless before the masters. They obeyed, some a little reluctantly but they complied.

That's why he was trying to avoid being fried on the spot

End of the Flashback

He dodged a new attack.

He's starting to get seriously on my nerves!

He didn't have time to reflect on this any longer: taking advantage of this temporary lack of focus, the Elemental had thrown some balls again.

He certainly lacks variety.

Before he could react, he felt a sudden pain in the back. Whirling on his feet, he threw the unfortunate earth master, who had thought sending him sharp rocks in the back would be appropriate, in the air. The man crashed in a tree, meters away, with a painful cry, before hitting the ground.

One down, still two to go. There were three masters, four novices and three apprentices. The novices and apprentices were fighting with the mercenaries as they didn't seem to be able to perform complex element-manipulations.

A bolt of fire flew by him, burning his arms slightly. Harry winced and gritted his teeth.

This is war!

Harry dodged again some fire spikes, rolled on the ground and sent his own elements into play.

Now, I'll show him what a true master can do

He first decided to take care of the annoying air master which was trying to blow him away for a few minutes. He wasn't very powerful, but persistent. Something which was starting to get to his nerves.

While dodging he gathered a fireball. Two could play this game.

As the Air master was about to throw a new attack, he throw the ball, timing his act.

The results were spectacular.

As the master launched his attack, the fireball met the air and then. Well the man should have known that using air against fire wasn't a very good idea in the first place.

Now, time to beat the crap out of pyro-man

Harry faced the remaining master, the leader. He was fairly tall, probably in his mid-thirties. He was wrapped in blood-red material and had died his hair red.

Talk about being obsessed!

They circled around each other, evaluating the other, trying to find a flaw, a weakness. None of them had spoken since the beginning of the attack. Suddenly, the master stopped and looked at Harry.

"Who am I facing?"

"Harris and you, what's your real name, beside this lovely nickname of yours?"

"Ifer."

Then, not letting any time for Harry to answer or react, flames surrounded him, getting higher and higher, bigger and bigger. Harry's eyes widened as he recognized the attack, the Hell wave.

"Stop, are you mad! You're going to kill us all!"

The other only smiled at him, with a crazy glint in his eyes.

Harry's mind was racing, trying to find a way to stop it. The Hell wave was one of the most powerful fire attack. The master had to gather his element, and as much energy as possible. When the energy of fire had reach its peak, he unleashed it. The power acted as a shock wave, but was consisted of pure fire. Depending of the power gathered and the strength of the master, it could destroy everything from a twenty-meter range to a twenty-kilometer range.

Harry sighed, there was only one way to counteract this, but this was going to hurt!

Using his air element, he started to weave a dome shield around them. Suddenly as he finished it, he saw the flames around the master enter him. Bracing himself, he waited for the wave.

He didn't have to wait long: the master raised his arms and with a cry brought them down, freeing his power. Harry snorted.

What a comedian!

But he quickly focused back on his shield. He had to contain this wave.

As soon as it reached the shield, it ignited. Gritting his teeth, Harry maintained his dome, it wasn't a traditional dome-shield, more like a web. The fire followed the lines and soon the dome was completely on fire. Biting his low lip, Harry started to draw back to him the lines, absorbing back the air energy, but at the same time having to take in the fire. It hurt as the power wasn't his and was fighting him.

Slowly, little by little, the web of air was reabsorbed. As the last line disappeared he turned to the fire master who was panting. This attack used a lot of energy and drained its perpetrator. On the other hand, Harry knew that once he'd overcome the pain, he'd have more energy at his disposal than he'd ever had. His whole body was shaking under the pressure.

Falling on one knee, he put a hand on the ground and released a bit of energy in it, while using his earth element.

Ifer's feet started to sink in the ground. When he was plunged in it down to his thighs, Harry stopped and with his water element created binds to tie him and prevent him from using his own element.

He looked around, while dusting himself distractedly. Now he only wanted one thing: a bed. He had never felt that tired, and he had had opportunities.

Tying the two other masters, he headed for the other parts of the camp, where the fights had took place. As he approached of it, he saw many bodies, mercenaries, Pharaoh's soldiers, some dead, some injured, some just knocked up. He cast a few healing charms as he passed by some injured. To those beyond his abilities, he cast a small charm plunging them in a stasis. Finally he reached the center of the base and searched for Dozlan. He finally spotted him, standing near a large tent, talking with his officers. Walking up to them, he suddenly saw a fallen man, dressed in red, rise up and gather something that looked like a weak fire attack. But even with little power this could kill if sent with caution. Harry saw him aim carefully and throw it to Dozlan.

"GET DOWN!"

His yell startled the troops' leaders who looked at him, bewildered.

Shit!

He quickly reach to his own Fire element and visualize a wall before Dozlan and the others. Despite his growing exhaustion, it worked and minutes later, the novice was down and tied and Harry was leaning on the nearest thing, which happened to be a tree, panting. He knew he shouldn't have done that, he was going to pay it during the next days, but he couldn't have let Dozlan being fried

Still trying to catch his breath, he saw him approached, followed by his lieutenants.

"How did it go?"

"Fairly well, our losses are less than expected, probably due to the distraction provided by that dome of fire during the fight. What was it? It was all over your area."

By this time, the other Elementals had joined them, to make their report to Dozlan. They stood a little behind him, waiting for Harry's answer, curious to know what it had been too.

"Well, it was the only way to counteract his attack, glad to know it helped."

"What attack?" blurted the Air master. He must have sensed my shield, thought Harry.

"Hell wave."

Three jaws hit the floor.

"H-Hell wa-wave?" stuttered Jeal, the water master

"Yes."

Harry was too tired to elaborate.

"Could I lay down a bit Dozlan, I'm exhausted."

"Go on Harris"

Harry entered the closest tent and fell on the mat which apparently was a soldier's bed. Sighing contently, he rapidly fell asleep.

~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~

"Harris, wake up, Harris!"

Groaning, Harry stirred, turning towards the one shaking him.

"What?"

"We have to return. The others need you for the Portal."

"Alright, give me a minute and I'm here."

To travel alone, an Elemental only needed control over his element. Anything touching him or anybody holding him would follow him. But to transport troops they couldn't do that, it was far too slow and strenuous. So they used an other method: it required a master from each element. They had to combine their poser to create a sort of rip in the elements. The tricky part was that all of them had to visualize exactly the same place or the ones using the Portal would end splinted between the different places visualized. Harry, being able to manipulate all four was able to open one alone, but it took him more time and more energy.

He hurried to the masters' side, taking his place between Jeal and Farid the earth master. They had already done this before to come here and easily opened it.

Before dusk, the group was back, all the injured were being healed, the deceased were going to be mummified, then buried, orders of Pharaoh.

After reporting to Dozlan, Harry gathered his things, packed them, equipped Sheitan, dressed himself in his master's outfit and used one of his element to travel back to the capital.

He went up to the palace where guards stopped him at the entrance and he had to wait for someone to confirm the fact that he was allowed to enter.

A young scribe came after about fifteen minutes. He talked quickly with the guards and motioned to him to enter. After leaving Sheitan in the stables, Harry was led to the same office as last time and told to wait.

An hour later, the Pharaoh, still followed by his scribes entered. For the next hour Harry was debriefed, which he did with amusement, seeing the scribe wrote furiously. Finally the Pharaoh dismissed them.

"Finally!" he sighed, looking worn out. "I have to thank you a lot Harris, for what you did."

"There's no need. Majesty, excuse me for asking, but could I know what is bothering you?"

Harry couldn't believe he had asked that!

"Well, maybe you should know. There had been a rise of caravans' attacks and despite the spread of troops, the bandits didn't stop."

"Is it the Cheetahs?"

"No, It's the work of several groups. A lot of them had started to appear recently."

Frowning, Harry looked sharply at the man before him. He had an idea, but he didn't know if he was open-minded enough to accept it.

"Your Majesty?"

"Harris?"

"I may have a solution, but."

"Do tell."

"Well what's better to catch bandits than some bandits?"

This gained the Egypt's rulers attention.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Well, let's say that if you were able to enlist some bandits in your own forces, you might be able to reduce the number of attacks as they'd be more capable of anticipating the others' moves and actions."

"It's quite a good idea, quite unorthodox, sure, likely to shock a lot of people, but a good idea." He went on as Harry was about to speak. "The problem is that I don't know any group of bandits. You wouldn't know one, by chance?"

His face was straight, but Harry could see amusement through his eyes.

"I might happen to know some, it depends of you."

"Well, if I was to make a deal with them?"

"What sort of deal?"

"Complete amnesty in exchange of their services as a sort of shadow police, escort or my personal bodyguards."

Harry thought carefully about it.

"Are you ready to write this down?"

"Give me the papyrus behind you."

Ten minutes later, Harry left with a roll of papyrus preciously hid in his tunic.

It took him three days to reach the Cheetahs base. He nearly got lost, but using his air element to spot a higher amount of elemental energy.

He put down the illusion-wall and stepped in the bandits' camp, only to be barely spiked with a score of arrows.

"Eh! Calm down!"

"Harris! Come in! Relax guys, it's Harris!"

The others put down their bows and other weapons and greeted the young wizard.

"No more arrows?

Sizrian laughed as he led him back to their headquarters

"So, what's bringing you here?"

"Well, two things."

"Alright. What are they?"

"First, could you teach me the basis of ani-speaking?"

"Agreed, and the second?"

"What would you say if I told you that I'm carrying a papyrus from Pharaoh himself, in which he grants you full amnesty and offer you a job as escort, shadow police or personal bodyguards, a group which will only have to answer to him."

A big silence followed this declaration.

"I would say that you're down-right mad," finally said the Cheetah's leader.

Grinning, Harry pulled off the papyrus Pharaoh had given him and handed it wordlessly to Sizrian who was now starring open-mouthed at him.

Slowly, he opened it and read it, reread it, re-re-re-read it.

"Could you leave us alone for a moment, Harris?" he finally said, looking cautiously at him.

Nodding, the raven-haired teen got up and walked out the room. For the following hours, he took care of Sheitan, then stayed with him.

As dusk started to come, Sizrian approached him.

"Harris?"

"Yes?"

"You can stay here for a bit if you still want to learn ani-speaking."

"Thank you. And about."

"I, with my comrades will think about it."

"As you wish. I must leave in three days."

"It'll leave us enough time to learn the basis. We'll work every afternoon."

"No problem."

"Now we've had that settled, what happened about this little revenge of yours?"

Harry launched himself in a detailed explanation of what had happened and soon , laughter could be heard thorough the building, something which scared the others bandits to their core: when Sizrian started to laugh like that, it only meant one thing: run and hide!

~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~'*'~

The following three days passed at an excruciatingly slow rate, at least from the bandits' point of view: for Sizrian and Harry, this went like a blur. Perhaps this was due to the fact that they kept pranking everyone that crossed their paths. After one day, most of the inhabitants of the headquarter were careful to avoid them.

Between pranks and his learning of ani-speaking, Harry was busy. He had made quick progress and could now had small talks with animals such as 'I Harry. You?'

Finally to the bandits' relief, it was time for him to go.

"I was happy to have you there Harry, it's shame that you have to leave so soon."

From his companions' looks, his short stay was definitively enough.

"Thanks a lot, and don't forget to use what I gave you?"

"Oh! Don't worry, I will find good use to your stuff."

Seeing the crazy twinkle in their leader's life, the bandits wanted to bang their heads to the nearest wall.

After more good byes, Harry left and headed back to Karkana.

He arrived at dusk.

Amber was waiting for him.

"Right on time"

"As usual," seeing Ambers expression, he corrected himself, "alright, for once. Better?"

"Come on, we don't have much time."

She led him in the school, taking him to an empty room which looked like it hadn't been used for quite a long time. Despite the dust, Harry could see the shape of the star on the floor. Amber approached it and kneeled beside it, putting a hand on one of its branches.

Immediately the shape started to shine brightly.

"Well, Harry, I believe time to say good bye have come."

"Yes, thank you a lot for everything, Amber."

"You're welcome."

She embraced him, hugging him tightly. Then she pulled away, looking sharply at him.

"You've got a lot of potential Harry, don't waste it."

"I won't, I promise."

After a last hug, they parted and Harry mounted Sheitan before guiding his stallion inside the star.

"Good bye Harry."

Harry waved a last time as he felt a now familiar twinge in his palm and fell into the colourful twirl.

This time I wonder where I'll land

*********************************

Well I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks again to all who reviewed!

Naia