bluefiremastar

[bluefiremastar]

Blue Fire - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A Normal Tree

Massachusetts USA July 22 2037

"Hey Ella!" called Jack while running across the grassy field. The sun shined above his head, floating slowly across the light blue sky. The bark of the trees around him were the purest of brown and leaves the darkest of green. A house stood not too far away with a wide, pointy roof and many square windows. Jack laughed with excitement as he ran, the ball in front of his feet bouncing.

"What? What?" asked Ella, filled with curiosity.

"Look at this, I wanna show you something!" Jack said, he kicked the ball in between two trees,

and ran off towards the woods, leaving the ball behind.

"Like where you go all day?" asked Ella, running off after Jack and abandoning the soccer game

they had been playing. Jack was often gone during the day and he didn’t go to Ella’s school, he had never told Ella where he went. Jack ignored the question and ran up to a tree that was particularly larger than the rest, with branches that looked much stronger. Jack went behind it and

Ella's curiosity urged her to follow. Behind the tree there was nothing. It was just a normal tree.

"What's this?" asked Ella, her curiosity let down. "It's just a tree."

"A tree is right, but it's the best tree," Jack said back with a devious grin.

"What are you talking about? It's a normal, regular tree!" exclaimed Ella, a bit confused.

"Would a normal, regular tree do this?" Jack tapped the side of the tree twice, then paused, then

tapped again and a latch opened up from the tree. Inside the latch was a number keypad. Jack

typed in many numbers, 81726. Jack entered the numbers, and a rather thick root -as thick as a

school desk- was opened up from the ground. Ella peered inside it and saw only a black abyss.

"Ready for the ride of your life?" asked Jack with a sneaky smile. "Because your about to find

the coolest hang out spot ever." Jack gave Ella a shove, and she fell into the darkness.

The ground was rough, but it slowly lightened up to an iron sort of touch. Ella couldn't see anything, it was too dark. She heard Jack calling that he was coming down. Of course he was.

The tunnel, or tube, or slide, or whatever it was, was high enough for Ella to sit up if she weren't going so fast. But that didn't help the fact that Jack was about to slam down into her. Jack hit her hard, it didn't hurt but it was quite annoying. Jack's weight made them fall even faster, and before Ella knew it, they were out of the tunnel in a lighted, open space. Jack landed on top of her and she groaned as she pushed him off of her and stood up with a little laugh. Ella looked around herself, an amazed expression on her face.

It was an immense metropolis-like area, filled with buildings, shops, parks, it almost looked normal. The only abnormal thing was that it was all inside a massive cave, and there was a beautiful palace carved into the left side of the city. The palace was made of many different minerals and ores. But the strange thing was that the people going in and out of it, they were… kids?

Ella looked over to a park, there were no adults in sight. The shops were run by kids, the houses had

kids entering and exiting them, the park had kids going on walks and chatting with friends. All

kids. How was that possible? Her whole life Ella had been told that children couldn't survive on

their own. It seemed like they were wrong. Why did this surprise Ella so much? Maybe it was the

giant electrical sun attached to the top of the cave lighting most of the city, or maybe it was the

giant palace. This would have all been taken over and controlled by adults by now, shouldn't it

have? Jack smiled as he got up.

"You said this was a hang out spot, not a freaking city!" exclaimed Ella.

"I wanted to get your hopes down," said Jack casually. "This is where I go every day, my parents

still think I go to school, and I do, just a better one. It's called Powis!"

"Why didn't you show me this sooner?" asked Ella, a mixture of annoyance and awe in her voice.

"Because I found out about it at the very end of last summer, but we can only show people this

place during the summer, that way people won't arrive in the middle of the school year. So I

didn’t have time to tell you about it before the school year started.” Jack was talking too fast. It

made Ella so confused. "It's also easier because everybody is prepared when newcomers come

in."

"How come there are so many people here? How'd they all get here?" asked Ella her head spinning.

"Many generations of kids each year, every year more kids come and orphans found on the

streets come here from all around Massachusetts. Ella, this is a civilization of children all living

in peace! You need to keep this a secret from everyone, if an adult finds this, they find other

adults, and so is the start of a destruction of this paradise. I showed you this because you deserve

it, but don't ruin it." Jack grew serious. Ella nodded, but something was strange about this place,

something Jack wasn't telling her.

"Tell me," said Ella. She was good at manipulating, and she'd always had the skill of telling what

people mean when saying things. She knew when people were lying, or keeping secrets.

"Fine. This city has… a secret…"

"And it is?" Ella pushed.

"It wouldn't be a secret if I told you…" Jack said slowly, almost pleading Ella to let it go. Ella

raised an eyebrow.

"Fine, fine. You won’t believe me, but kids in Powis are… Special. They teach us ways to harness power inside of us and have… well, elemental superpowers. ” Jack admitted. Ella paused,

as if she wasn't sure if this was a joke or not.

"Are you serious?" she asked with an unsure smirk.

"Yes…?" Jack said carefully.

"Explain."

"Well, there's this science thing where if you train your mind and body to do the right things, and

depending on the things you do, the different element powers you get. There are nine." Jack took a breath.

"Actually? I don't know… thats pretty far fetched," said Ella hesitantly.

"It's true, I'm not lying," Jack said, then he changed the uncomfortable subject, "anyways, let me

show you around, there are some pretty cool kids around here, school starts soon so everyone

will probably be here hanging out." Ella regarded Jack for a moment but then nodded.

"Alright," she sighed. Jack grinned and grabbed his friend's arm, pulling her down the large hill

they were on. He brought her up to a small stand, with a girl surrounded by jars and other strange

things. Ella shook her head in awe. Where was she? An alien planet?

“Hey! Arili!" Jack called. The girl looked up and smiled.

"Hi Jack," she said.

"Arili, this is Ella," said Jack. " Ella, this is Arili." Ella waved at the girl and smiled, Arili re￾turned the gesture.

"She goes to school here too," Jack then grew nervous. "She's learning the powers."

"You told her?" Asked Arili. Jack nodded -Ella moaned.

"Quit the dumb joke!" cried Ella, though something inside of her still told her that it wasn’t a

joke.

"It's no joke," Arili reprimanded.

"Then prove i-" Ella was cut off as a spear of ice shot up from the ground in front of her.

"Convinced already?" Arili asked. Jack gaped.

"Someone had to do it.” Arili shrugged. Ella's jaw hung open wide. The ice was smooth, and blue

and inches from her face. Smaller spikes stuck out of the large jagged one, and it was about as

tall as a large adult. Arili made a fist, diminishing the ice.

"… Okay then… I guess we'll be off…" Jack said slowly. Ella's eyes were still wide, but she followed Jack as he parted from Arili.

"Does she scare you?" asked Jack. Ella nodded. "Me too."