Chapter 4 - Am I making the right choices?

I yawned loudly and pushed myself out of bed. It was a Saturday, and I finally thought I had gotten over the whole human and plant thing. Me and Seth hadn't talked to each other for over a week. Something in my heart told me that I was doing the wrong thing, but I was trusting my head, and hopefully I would forget the whole thing soon. But I was wrong. I changed into a jacket and blue jeans and walked downstairs.

I wasn't hungry so I skipped breakfast and switched the tv on. I started watching some nature program about the world and how we were spoiling it, when a letter came through the door. I got up from the sofa and walked to the door. I gasped in horror as I recognized the familiar handwriting of Seth's on the cover. I opened it with trembling hands, and walked slowly back to the living room.

Hi Sen,

I hope you're enjoying your life, because I'm certainly not.

I think I should tell you who is destroying my home, though it seems your selfish heart will not care about the life of thousands of fay,

They're creatures with eyeballs rolled into the back of their heads, and blue veins strewn across their faces. They have sharp claws and grey clammy skin, and although they are small they can do a huge amount of damage.

It's like walking with the dead, Sen. And I am pleading now, for your gifts could save my family and my friends. It's my sister. She's only twelve years old, and she's in that war. Raging fires and winds blow the flames higher, and we can't stop them.

The goblins have stolen the boy with the power of wind as well. And they're torturing him and the fire girl to destroy their own city.

Watch the CD. And if your heart is truly what I believe it to be, then meet me by the tree we were on seven days ago.

Seth

I swallowed and took a deep breath. I could do this. I couldn't keep the truth from myself for ever. And I couldn't live with myself with the knowledge of killing thousands of fay. Seth was in my life now. No more pushing him away.

I slid the CD out from the letter and inserted it into the DVD player in the tv. I sat back and watched the screen light up-

I forgot to turn the volume down, and the sound of war made an ugly echo around the room. I didn't turn it down because it was only a ten second clip. I almost screamed when I saw what must be the goblins. They were bony creatures, with their spines and shoulder bones sticking out and stretching their wrinkly skin. Their eyes were just white with bright red veins in zigzag patterns across the surface. Their bald heads and skinny bodies were so disturbing, and that was before I saw one open it's mouth and scream a high pitched, piercing, torturous scream through sharp metal teeth. They looked indestructible. I saw small pale people use swords to try and defend their world. They we're all highly skilled but seemed useless because there wasn't enough of them and the goblins were to strong.

"MMMUUUMMMMMMMMYYY!" I heard a cry from the stairs. I jumped and spun around to see my little sister on the stairs, tears streaming down her red face. I switched the tv off and ran to her.

"Shhh, Louise! Hey I'm sorry," I picked her up but she wasn't used to me being nice. I always teased her.

"Put me down! You hate me!" Louise yelled. I put a finger to her lips and held her tight. I needed to start not being horrible to everyone. Starting with her, and then I would go to Seth.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I'll tell you a story, ok? Just, please don't wake mum up. That CD was very important," I pleaded her. After a few seconds she nodded and I carried her downstairs, and laid her on the sofa. I took the disk out of the DVD player and kneeled down in front of my little sister.

"Tell me a happy story," Louise demanded me. I sighed and then an idea came to me. I took a deep breath and began.

"There once was a little girl, and she was following a white butterfly through the forest. Then when she got to the middle there was a gathering of fairies, with silver wings and flowers in their hair. They were around a tree, a big oak tree. And the tree was speaking to them, telling them that he was going to give one lucky fairy a special gift. And for some reason the tree got confused and sent the gift to the little girl instead. She had the power to control water and fire and wind. The fairies were distraught because they wanted the gift and a human wasn't supposed to have it. They sent her back to the human world and she forgot all about the day. But then, one night, some evil witches and trolls came to their land and started to destroy the trees and castles there. The fairies did what they could, but soon the trolls would take over their land. So they had to call on the girl with the water power and she managed to drown all the trolls and witches with the water, and the fairies were forever grateful. So they let her stay in their land for as long as she wanted. The end," I smiled at Louise and she smiled back. We were friends now, I hoped. I put Peppa Pig on the tv and left the house with a note to my mum, telling her I'd be back soon.

"Seth?" I called through the trees. the wind blew my hair forwards and around my face so I reached towards my wrist for a hair and. But then realised I didn't pick one up before I left. A noise made me jump.

"Here," Seth said from behind me passing me a band. I was grateful and tied my long hair back in a high ponytail.

"You've got to stop popping out of nowhere," I told him sternly. He just jumped down from the branch. I swear he would have smiled at that remark a week ago. "So when do we start," I asked him.

"You're so eager. You're different," Seth stared at me, wide eyed. His eyes changed colour right in front of mine, from a dark blue to a bright green. It reminded me of when I first met him. His eyes were that shade of green.

"I've decided that if didn't help, the guilt would never go away. I have to train. And fast," I replied to him honestly. He gave me a tiny smile, but his sadness was obvious. His family was in danger, and his whole worldly might disappear. But I had a question. "How did the goblins even get into your land? I mean, we would have seen them. Where do they live? In the forest?" I asked him. He raised his eyebrows.

"They are invisible to humans. You can see them because you're part fay. That's why there are some unexplainable murders in the world, it's because the goblins have got tired of doing nothing and like to kill a few people once in a while. They don't actually need to eat."

"At all?" I wondered aloud. Seth nodded at me and then turned me around and led me east through the bushes and the plants. I followed him to a very small pond where some fish were swimming around silently, minding their own business. Then, Seth thought for a moment.

"No, that was a stupid idea," he said to himself aloud. I straightened up.

"What?" I asked him, watching the fish swim around in the water freely. I wanted to know what he had to say, even if it wasn't that good an idea.

"I can teach you how to control the water, but I was trying to find something for you to make with the water. Something that could be a weapon."

"And?" I said.

"Well, I was thinking, fireballs. But you could use water and you could throw them to put out the fires and knock the goblins out if you threw them hard enough," Seth said almost asking me if it was a good idea.

"That's a fine idea. But I'm not sure if I'll be able to do anything amazing today," I told him. He seemed to perk up a bit. We crouched down next to the water.

"The boy with the gift of wind, his names Aaron. He told me that this is how you control your element. He said find an object and then focus on it and picture that thing doing what you want the water to do. So look at the details and the way it's fixed together, and picture it getting bigger or smaller, or moving around. Go on, pick something," Seth taught me, gazing around for something I could use as well.

I picked a clock-dandelion and let Seth hold it in front of me. I looked at the soft white texture and and the tiny brown seeds dotted around the stem. Then I pictured it getting bigger, and bigger, until it was the size of a football. I kept staring, and making the dandelion bigger. The white fur moved with the wind, and some of the seeds began to fly off in different directions.

"Sen?" Seth's voice distracted me and I lost my concentration. The seeds fell back to the stem and the plant was soon the same size as a small orange. I huffed.

"What? I might have been getting somewhere then. I almost had it," I shot him an annoyed glare. But it didn't do half as much damage to him as he did to me with his glares.

"You've been staring at that thing for more than ten minutes and nothing has happened. Maybe you should try something else," he replied sternly. My hands balled into fists and I turned back around, snatching the dandelion off him and twiddling it between my fingers.

"No, this will work. It's got to work," I focused on the plant again. Half an hour passed of continuous concentration, but still nothing. Maybe I was doing it wrong. I turned to Seth. "Ok then, give me another idea. This obviously isn't working," I sighed and looked at my watch. I had left at ten in the morning and already it was 12:00 noon. I waited for Seth to speak, surely he had more than one idea of how I could control my element!

"Well, I can't exactly change the idea, but I can mix some potion, and it could help. Unless you want to carry on as you are," Seth asked me. I was already shaking my head.

"No more potions. Who knows what that stuff could do to me, if I'm only part fay, maybe it's stronger or something. Anyway, I won't have potions in the battle," I replied. I had had enough of potions in my life, and as far as I was concerned, I didn't like them.

"Well actually, you could have them in battle. If I made enough, anyway you could at least give it a try. It's not going to hurt you," he answered to me and began taking a moss bag off of his shoulder. I gave in to him and watched how he made the potion.

He took three test tubes out of the bag and then a bigger test tube and balanced it on a test tube rack. The next events were a blur of his hands, using a pipette to put drops of one liquid into the bigger test tube, and mixing the three colour mixtures together. Finally he put everything back into his bag apart from the bigger test tube, and took some kind of bottled spray from his bag.

"Am I going to have to drink that?" I asked Seth, pointing at the grey liquid. It looked disgusting, but there didn't look like there was much of it. Seth ignored me and sprayed the bottle of mist over the test tube. It was amazing, the grey liquid changed colour and soon it looked exactly like water. He passed me the tube.

"There you go. It will help you to focus," Seth told me. He put all his equipment back in the moss bag and slung it back over his shoulder. I stared at him in awe.

"You're amazing! How did you do that?" I asked him, my dark brown eyes wide. He looked down and shrugged.

"It's not amazing. I'm the lowest species of fay, all I do is mix the potions and ship them off to the queen at the other side of the land. Unfortunately for us, the queen decided that she would make her castle out of ice, so she won't last very long when the goblins get round to her," Seth told me sternly, but his voice was tinged with sadness. I decided to act bold.

"If the goblins get to her. Which they won't because you will have trained me to control water and be strong against the pull I feel in the forests by then," my eyes turned misty. "I would like to go and see the queens part of the land, it must be beautiful if everything's in ice and snow," I say to him. He put a hand over his mouth in terror. I inched back, snapping out of my dreamlike state. "What?"

"Only the highest rank of the fay can go there," he replied harshly. I wanted to know more, and Seth read my mind. "There are summer and winter, and only an average of eight winter fay are born every 100 years. The rest of our population are summer, and stay in our 3/4 of land. Nobody goes in winter, nobody comes out. It's a bit confusing with the ranks-" he explained.

"No, tell me. I'm sure I can understand. I could tell by his facial expressions that this, in particular, was not a subject he usually spoke about. But I put on my innocent face, and waited. Seth did a mix of sighing and huffing and rolled his eyes.

"Ok, well there are ranks inside ranks. Overall, winter fay are higher, and summer fay are lower. This has been debated in my land, but we think the only reason why the winter fay are classed higher is because that's where the queen lives, in her ice castle," he frowned in disgust. "It's not like she actually does anything but sit in a chair and tell people what to do," then Seth gasped at himself and covered his mouth with his hands, like he didn't believe what he had just said. "I never said that!" he told me angrily, and I could tell he was trying to look tough. But his eyes told me that he was more scared. She must be a strict ruler, I thought to myself.

"Ok, Ok!" I held my hands up in surrender. "I got you. Tell me about the ranks." Seth shrunk back to his spot and his hands were placed on his lap. I frowned, confused.l, and slightly angry. "You've got to stop doing that," I muttered under my breath. Unfortunately he heard.

"What? What am I doing?" Seth replied. I stared at him. He really didn't know what I was on about. I sighed in my head. Somebody had got tell him.

"Every time somebody asks you a question that you don't like talking about you go all small and innocent, and it makes me feel like I'm torturing you for answers," I said sternly. He turned his head slightly in awe-obviously wasn't aware of this. I raised my eyebrows. "You really didn't know that?" I asked. He huffed and picked a daisy from the grass.

"Look, can we stop talking about me and try and focus on what I brought you down here for? Trying to create a water-ball, remember?" he held the daiat in front of my face and I layed back down. This was so boring.

"But what about the rank-" Seth put a finger on my lips.

"No more questions today. We have to get on with this! You do know that it could be only a month before the-... they get to winter." I shivered.

"You can do this, Sen," I told myself quietly. So quietly that it was only myself that could hear.

So it was back to gazing at flowers. The daisies' petals looked so smooth and pure. Like the snow would be in the winter this year, and for the fay. That's another question I needed to ask, whether they had Autumn and spring, not just summer and winter. I really wanted to go to the fay-world. I needed to stop calling it that. It had to have a name.

The middle of the daisy was little spots of pollen which were golden and shined in the sun. At least I didn't have hay fever. The stem of the plant was beautiful too, and when you held it to the light you could see the texture and the stripes of the surface.

And that's when I had it. After two hours of staring an getting distracted, I finally had it. It was when I was getting frustrated actually, when it worked. I was in the expansion process when I heard Seth gasp. I inched around ever so slightly to the pond, and almost gasped myself. A single, tiny drop of water wound it's way from the water and began to get bigger. I tried harder than I had all day and watched as in my mind, the daisy got bigger, and in real life, the water drop got bigger. It was as big as the palm of my hand when I could stop focusing on the plant.

"That's a miracle. You've got it on your first day," Seth complimented me. I smiled warmly and reached out my hand to the drop. I didn't get very far when the drop came towards me, floated through the air and into my hand. It felt weightless. I was memorized by the jelly-like clear liquid I was holding.

"Hey Seth, feel this... It's fantastic," I asked him. But he shook his head.

"I can't. If I touch it it will disappear. Remember, I don't have the same powers as you." I gazed at the water in my hand. It wasn't making my hand wet, and I was just watching the clear liquid like a cat to a piece of cheese. It was after a few minutes when I had decided what to do with it.

"I think I'm going to try chucking it at something, and watch the impact. For all we know, this could just knock someone back a few inches. And I know I need to put out the fires, but the goblins still have a good chance of winning if I don't join in the fight. Maybe I could rescue the other elemental fay who have been taken... Anyway, what shall I throw this at?" I asked Seth. We both looked around, but there was nothing that seemed right. Then Seth stared at my eyes and past them, and into my heart.

"Throw it at me. I'm the only thing even remotely like goblin. Then you can see the impact," he started. My free hand flew to my mouth.

"No! I'm not throwing stuff at you! What if you hurt yourself?" I gasped at him in horror. After all he'd done for me, I wasn't going to injure him! He shook his head.

"I'll be fine, really. Just imagine I'm that Chloe girl in your class, and it Will come naturally."

"You realise I am doing this for you. I don't want to have a natural instinct to hurt people, and I mean innocent people. The goblins are better dead, then God can tell them off and chuck them into hell. If you actually believe in that stuff," I added. But Seth was paying no attention to what I was saying. Instead he was standing like a target about five meters away to my left.

"I want to you chuck it at me," Seth said. I raised my eyebrows.

"Oh really. Well I don't want to so there," I snapped and turned my back on him. I heard him chuckle and imagined him smiling.

"You're so stubborn. But you don't know how funny you are when you get angry," he replied, still stiffling a laugh. I spun around in annoyance and used my hands to spin the ball of water fast in my hands. Then I threw it, and it hit him right in the face. He doubled over and landed on the floor. It took me a few seconds to realise what I'd potentially done.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, are you Ok?" I ran to his side. He was coughing loudly and struggled to sit up. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"It's not that... bad... I think..." he tried to act tough. I could tell it hurt more than he was showing.

"Stop trying to be the big guy, tell me how much it really hurts," I replied playfully. He glared at me out of the corner of his eye, then closed it again.

"Can you get me some of the purple stuff from my bag?" he asked me. I slid the bag off his shoulder and started rummaging around for the right liquid. There was only one purple bottle, and I handed it to him.

He poured a few drops of the liquid into his mouth and swallowed. I waited for something to happen, but he just sighed and sat up.

"What just happened?" I asked him, eyes wide with curiosity. He put the bottle back in his bag.

"It's a healing elixir. I'm fine now, but can we try with a fire next time?" and then we both stood up. "Also, I think I have the key to how you take control over the water. It's anger. That's what you used to get the original drop and how your threw it at me," he worked out. I glanced at my watch and gasped. I'd been here more than four hours! Mum would be getting worried! I had to go right now!

"I'm sorry Seth but I have to go. My mum will be getting really worried, and I did leave note saying I'd be back soon. Thanks for everything," I jumped up and started walking. But then I stopped, ran back and hugged him. "You're a great friend," I whispered. He nodded and I let go. "I'll see you here same time on Monday."

I continued walking back through the trees. But then I had an idea and called out to him.

"By the way, Chloe has a crush on you!" I heard the all-to-familiar chuckle from back in the trees and groaned. I definitely was dreading school more than usual.