Recently
on Fires of the sky, the main group who had participated in the Elemental
Challenges has finally returned to Arkon’s Magic! But… to the rest of the
students’ surprise, several students have not appeared in the group, and they
knew that something tragic must have happened to them all. As a vow, Matt
decides it is best for them to do their own thing, because messing around all
throughout the first two years did nothing but cause them to lose more friends
in a very traumatic way. One thing to note now is that… after 365 days, things
have changed. We will have to see what is up by reading onward to Fires of the
Sky – Junior Year!
Episode 261 – Return of El Monte, Day 365
“No one really knew what happened
that day – the day when Santiago had disappeared. It has been two years since
he had disappeared, and I have never got to know him really. It had also been
just one year… since that day,”
Jeanette held a calendar filled with images of floral landscape in her hands.
She gleamed at the first day of October, splattered with red marks in an
imperfect circle. “This is the day when Matt returned, but he has never been
the same,” Her nose began to rush with a burning sensation and she knew what
was going to happen next. A droplet came down her eyes, one from each side.
“You may be here in my life, Matt, but I am still searching for… you,” she said, trying to mark an ‘X’ on
the 365th day.
~~~
Back when Matthew and his friends
had returned from the Eternal Nothingness, many of the El Monte students were
sent aback from what they were seeing. Van and Maggie both had clothes dusted
in an extreme amount of diluted brown. Winny and Jon had scars all over their
bare skin, knowingly they had just gone through an overgrown fleet of battles.
Shirley was in the strangest pain of all. Her mind went blank, but her body
still moved in an uncomfortable instability. She murmured words that nobody
could understand, and it was due to a traumatic experience of losing a friend
such as Emmy.
In front of the students were Alex
and Yessenia who could barely stand perfectly on two feet. Matt and Jaime’s
expressions were filled with despair and gruesome dislike for their
antagonists. Nix had already disappeared into Matt’s spirit for that matter. In
an awkward silence, every El Monte student decided it was best for them to
return home and take a rest. It was great to be back home, at least for those
such as Christine, Stanley, and Guadalupe, but others such as Jeanette, Amy,
and Thuy were worried sick for the next coming days.
Jen had marked her calendar, waiting
for the 365th day, whatever that may be. When Earth began to revolve
around the sun again, time worked its way back to October 2008 when it formerly
froze in a state of zero-dimensional existence. In a sense, these students had
to repeat their whole sophomore year, but it did not matter especially when
they were absent from school by being in Elsiya and in Arkon’s Magic.
You would think that because of this
reunion and restoration, everyone would be joyous. This was not the case for El
Monte. Instead, almost every student, except in pairs, had walked their own
path. Some had changed, and some others were left in the darkness, still
confused about what went on that
night. Throughout the whole educational sophomore year, not many students had
conversed with each other nor have they participated in afterschool activities.
Why would most of them be affected by a small group who left to the Elemental
Challenges?
~~~
“Honey, it is time to eat dinner,”
Jaime’s mother called from downstairs. “Put those dumbbells down and get
started on your food before it gets cold!”
Jaime had been blasting loud rock
music on his radio. He had two dumbbells, each one consisting of 40 pounds. He
then jumped onto a rail that he had created at the tip of his doorway. “One…
two… three…” He said as he frantically pulled himself up. His voice deepened
within each number and effort.
The radio had changed into breaking
news about a nearby forest fire, but he still felt apathetic. All he focused on
was number ‘twenty-five’ on his pull-up session. Peter had called his
cellphone, but Jaime rushed downstairs before he could notice.
“There you are, two minutes late for
dinner. You know, we save a lot more money if we didn’t have to use the
microwave.”
Instead of heading into the kitchen,
he headed for the doorway. He had white earphones covering both sides of his
ear and his own mother could listen to the hard rock blasting out from each
side. Jaime had already worn blue shorts that represented El Monte’s school
colors. His plain white shirt seemed much tighter on him than usual and he
placed speakers down onto his feet. “See you later, mom! Going out for a run!”
As the door propped open, his mother
and father watched in dissatisfaction. To them, he had become nobody but a
hermit who had done his own activities in his bedroom such as dumbbell training
and protein research.
~~~
In the mountainous hills nearby El
Monte, Alex had splashed a large amount of water, half of what looked like a
tsunami but he felt no energy loss from his body. It seemed as though he was
able to practice and control his ability to manipulate river water without
effort. Shirley had jumped onto his shoulders so she could double-jump into the
air. She made a spin and cold air had brushed off of her body.
She turned herself into a frozen ice
particle that released energy of absolute zero against the trees to preserve
them away from the flames. In an instant, the hills had been safe and sound.
Shirley jumped back down and Alex had tripped over a tree branch.
“AUGH! S-Shirley, you didn’t freeze
everything!”
“Heh, wimp! Didn’t think I need to,”
Shirley answered him. Alex had his hair slightly spiked in the front and he
received a new pair of glasses. Recently, he had been diagnosed with a more
disadvantaged vision diagnosed by his optometrist. Whereas for Shirley, she had
a more fashionable purplish outfit that was labeled with pink polka-dots. She
even had a matching hat with the color of purple shading. Oh yeah, she left her
hair twice as longer than before.
The two students gave a sigh of
grief together, and then they laughed at the same time. Their pair had become
closer in the past year because they were one of the few who resented change in
their own personality.
Shirley took off her purple sweater.
“Aw, it looks like my sweater got burnt. You know what? I’ll just ask Maggie
Amy to help me make a new one in an instant.”
“Are you using them already?!”
“Hey, they don’t mind. Like us, they
learned to adapt to the advantages of these powers. With Amy growing cotton
from her Arkonic field while Maggie can use the same webbing technique but on
knitting, I think it will be cool!”
“But you already use me for money,
what else is there?” Alex complained as Shirley ignored him.
The two of them became serious of
the matter with an increase amount of ‘forest fires’, as what the neighboring
cities called it even for the hills. Immediately, these flames would disperse
before even the fire trucks arrive, and that is due to Shirley and Alex’s
anonymous assistance. Even after a year, these students continue to keep their
powers a secret.
The
strange question now is: what could be causing these forest fires? Neither
Shirley nor Alex believes it could be him,
as there is no reason to start something at a hill. Still, it is a possibility.
“I’m tired. Come on, Alex. Let’s go
get some healthy soup at the new Souplantation restaurant in San Gabriel! We’re
going to bus it there and the bill is on you.”
“Augh… fine,” Alex said without any
resentment.
~~~
In Arkon’s Magic, Van was seen
nearby the beach, next to Mariel’s grave. Another grave was beside hers – a
more recent stone built by Danny and Joey. With many more students entering the
world of elemental powers, the island had become lively. Setting a grave around
Jenny’s Arkonic home would be frightening to her, knowing that Jenny was one
the elemental user of demonic powers.
“Are we done now?” Maggie asked
rudely. However, she did have her reasons. The two girls had prayed for Jenny
every day since the past year and Maggie felt it was time for Van to move on
without having to forget.
Van stood up with a slight disturbed
expression due to Maggie’s disrespect. She turned around and walked past by
Maggie in order to grab William who happened to be eating berries from Amy’s
garden.
“Wah- ah, ah, aiy! I-I wasn’t done
eating,” William frowned while watching one piece of raspberry fall to the
floor.
Maggie watched the two of them. Even
with her impatience with Van’s prayers for Jenny, she understood what Van was
going through. Maggie was more worried than annoyed that Van had been too
connected with Jenny even after her disappearance on Earth.
Ever wondered what happened to her
parents along with Venus’s? Throughout the year, along with Mariel and Erica’s
parents, these parents have been reporting to the police on missing children. The
homeowner of Santi’s old house had report a complaint on the lack of housing
payment as well. These issues are currently being investigated and on some
days, El Monte High School even goes through excess surveillance.
It is reasonable to assume that
other schools from the same district are having this issue as well. It is true,
actually. The whole district is slowly being exposed to these elemental powers
that were meant to be a secret, but it is on the stage of investigation.
~~~
It has been hours since Jen marked
the ‘X’ on the 365th day. During this time at Stan’s house, a boy
had knocked on the door while wearing a fedora hat over his head.
An older woman opened the door. “Oh,
you must be Stanley’s friend! I recognize you. If you’re looking for him, he’s
not home at the moment. He said something about seeing some girl but he didn’t
want to talk to me about her. Are they dating? Do you know?”
The boy suddenly walked off, leaving
Stan’s mother in confusion.
~~~
Somewhere at a far-off distance, Jen
had been running away from a dragon two times the size of her. She ran down the
narrow riverbed, jumping downward into a darker spring. Each step she took, a splash
of water could be heard as it was leveled by an inch from the floor.
“Stan, if you’re out there, please
find me!” She hid in a small hole that was caved in by large boulders. The
dragon could not claw its way in.
Meanwhile, Stan had been busy slashing
away ten other dragons that were of the same size as the dragon that followed
Jen. He changed his zweihander into a riot spear. He was able to manipulate
element types that could be advantageous over certain dragons of color. He was
also able to create a shield that can pummel through the ground so that dragons
below him could slip.
Jen was basically at an underground
spring nearby him. It was a rather beautiful sight at the spring, not until
Stan’s shield constantly ruptured the floor. Jen was breathing heavily in fear
as she wanted to cry. She could do nothing but shiver, waiting for the dragon
to make its way into the cave that was breaking open.
One of the dragon’s talon barely
slashed across Stan’s left shoulder and all of his weapons vanished due to the
astonishing attack. Even the shield had vanished and the dragon outside of
Jen’s new cave had become quiet.
Stan watched as the remaining two
dragons in front of him raise their arms in order to slash Stan across his
whole body. He closed his eyes.
“Even after going through the 26th
fictional world, I guess this map was a level too far ahead from the ones we’ve
been through…”
The dragons were suddenly cut in
half as they vanished by the digicell effect. Stan was surprised at what he saw
in front of him.
From below, Jen stopped shaking. Now
that the underground spring is safe and sound, the dragon was also gone since
there was no growling emitting from his fiery beak. Jen slowly crawled forward
and suddenly a large claw reached for her again. The angry dragon had tried to
trick her and it began biting into the boulders. Jen began to scream again,
hiding as furthest away as she could.
“Ahhh!!! G-Go away, please!” She
screamed.
The dragon suddenly yelped and it
made a shriek. Falling to the ground, the debris flew into the cave and Jen had
been dusted. Her face was slightly darker now in dirt. She coughed and then
waited for the sound of the dragon’s fall to lower in volume. She slowly heard
footsteps coming closer to the boulders.
“Stan! You did it!!” She said, not
being able to see the outside world.
She
watched a hand enter the cave as it stopped, waiting for her to accept his
offer. Jen proudly grabbed onto the hand as he helped pull her out of the cave.
Jen rubbed her eyes with her other hand and then said, “Thanks for the help-…”
Jen made a sudden pause. She was
utterly surprised at what she was seeing. In front of her was not Stan. It was
a boy who had a few cut marks on his face from the dragons that Stan had
missed. The sleeves on his shirt were slightly torn by the dragons’ talons. A
fedora hat was on the ground.
Jen and the boy stood face-to-face.
“Matt,” she said.
~~~
- Preview to the next episode! -
Matt:
On the next episode of Fires of the Sky…
Shirley:
We’re finally back! It has been 365 days since we were all more active with
each other again.
Alex:
Hm… I don’t really sense any difference. We’re all still doing our own thing.
Shirley: Erm, I guess you’re right. It’s making me a little
uncomfortable. For now, we have to take care of more important business.
Alex:
That’s right! Shirley, take out your flashcards. Tell them what we have in
store!
Shirley:
Well, you guys already know that Alex and I have been protecting the school
without anyone really knowing. But now… Winny is bothered by something
realistic.
Alex:
Remember when the plot used to have drama in the realistic part of school?
Academics and all… Well now, Winny is facing that very same problem.
Shirley:
I don’t get it though. What could it be?
Alex:
We’ll have to see in the next episode! Come on, Matt! Do the usual preview!
Matt:
F-Fine… Next time on episode 262, The Upper and Lower Hierarchy!
Alex:
How long is he going to be like this?
Shirley:
Sh, let’s not question that for now.
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