Chapter 251 The Waters of Life

Aella teleported them to the far west, north of where the world tree was. The tree could be seen from here, like a massive cloud on the horizon, stretching out over the land. The mountains that had protected it when it was small were dwarfed by its massive size now. Aella turned away from the tree, directing Josephine's attention towards a huge floating iceberg. When Aella had seen it last, it had been frozen to the coast, but it floated freely now, only contained by the narrow river that connected the body of water it floated in with the ocean to the south.

"That's perfect!" gasped Josephine, rubbing her belly unconsciously as she gazed out over the water at the iceberg. "Let's get closer, so we can see it better!"

Aella watched in amazement as Josephine started walking across the surface of the water. She hadn't known Josephine could walk on the water like that! Floating beside her, as she made her way slowly, Aella tried to think if she got any special abilities with her other powers. The flight of course, from the air, and she guessed she could walk up the side of sheer cliffs, if she wanted, but there hadn't been any fire anywhere, that she could walk on it. Not that she had wanted to at the time, anyways.

"Ice is wonderful because it has so much to teach us," said Josephine, as they reached the iceberg. "This ice, for example, is the leftover remains from a much larger piece of ice. You can tell just by looking at its shape. The sides over here are sloped, where the sun has melted it and the water has dripped away. Over here, the side is much steeper, even though it has the same melt formation as the other. The fact that it is much steeper, tells me it was probably attached to something, at some time, so the ice was protected longer from the sun."

Aella looked at it for a few moments, as Josephine pointed out a few more details as they drew closer.

"This ice is also in layers, meaning it formed over a period of time. Do you see the lines running side to side? That is where snow fell and froze, then more fell on top of it, forming another layer. As the weight of the snow built up, it compressed the lower snow and made it into a layer of ice."

"The darker lines, are they where the sun melted it some?" asked Aella, pointing to some thin lines that were obvious here and there.

"It could be, or it could be dust or smoke that were trapped under a fresh layer of snow. The wonderful thing about old ice formations, is they keep a wealth of information about what has happened in the past. This line here is very dark, making me think there had been a fire, or a volcano somewhere, that shot out a layer of smoke and ash. We have another line here, that's not as dark, but similar enough to make me think it happened again. If you count the layers, you can almost tell how many years passed between the events."

Aella flew up, counting the dark bands on the steepest section of the ice, and saw with some surprise, that the volcano had erupted every couple of years, for almost the past hundred years. In fact, based on what she was seeing, it was time for another eruption…

"I imagine the eruption that is due, is actually the one you halted just last year," said Josephine with a smirk.

"That's amazing! I had no idea you could learn so much just from looking at a pile of ice," said Aella, shaking her head.

"That's not all! Sometimes creatures can get trapped in water that is freezing, and be frozen in time. If you look hard enough, sometimes you can find very old creatures, that don't exist anymore, frozen in ice for us to see what they looked like."

"How do you know that?" asked Aella, frowning at Josephine.

"Not everything I know about it is something I've found or seen. Some of it is what I was told by previous water heroes, and others is what the water itself has told me."

"Ah," Aella nodded in understanding. She had learned a lot from her elements themselves, so this wasn't new to her.

"Some ice is colored, like here, where it looks like there had been a lot of runoff with mud and dirt in it. Other places, the ice has a pinkish color because there are so many little things growing in it, that are frozen now."

"So, you can see where the sun melted a lot and where it didn't!" exclaimed Aella, squinting at the ice to see what Josephine was telling her.

"That's right!" grinned the water hero. "Let's see, that pretty much covers ice and snow, for enough anyway. Let's talk about where water goes and comes from."

"Oh, I thought it came from underground," said Aella with a scrunched brow.

"But how does it get there?" asked Josephine, raising an eyebrow.

"Water falls from the sky and soaks into the ground?" asked Aella, thinking about what she knew of earth.

"True, but then, how does water get into the sky?"

"Oh, well, the wind picks it up from the big body of waters and carries it around as clouds!" exclaimed Aella proudly, thinking of what she knew of the air.

"That's right. Have you ever thought about the fact that water never goes away? It is reused every day?" asked Josephine, nodding.

Aella opened her mouth to say that animals drank water, but then she thought about all of the urinating they did and shut it back. The earth absorbed that urine and filtered out the water, leaving the minerals in the dirt for plants.

"It's like a circle," said Aella finally, turning to look out over the water. "The air picks it up and drops it somewhere else, only for the earth to carry it back to the big bodies of water."

"That's right!" clapped Josephine, turning to waddle back to shore. "Do you understand how important water is?"

"Well, there couldn't be life without it," said Aella thinking about the animals she had to move to the new city, and the crops that had been planted since then, needing so much water. "The same could be said about air and earth, too."

"That's true. Even fire is important in that we couldn't survive if it was always cold. Just like there's all different types of rocks on the ground, there are different types of water. It's always water, but depending on the temperature, and the particles in the air, the water can have different colors and textures. It can change itself, and everything around it, based on its quantity and movement. Yet it is always the same water."

Aella tilted her head to think about that, as they finally reached the shore. There was so much contradiction in that one bit of information, she wasn't sure she could follow it.

"It's different and yet the same?" she asked finally.

"Exactly," beamed Josephine. "The only thing left, is to go underwater, to see if you can understand the movement of water."

"I've been underwater," said Aella, thoughtfully. "There are rivers down there, where the cold and warm currents move. The fish and other creatures use those rivers to get where they are going, and to move food around. I saw strange plants, I think they were plants, waving in the currents."

"That's right," nodded Josephine with a smile. "You have to be careful, though. If I give you this ability, I have to make sure you understand what you control. You will be able to move water, if it will let you, and everything has water inside of it."

"Of course, everything has water," chuckled Aella. "Otherwise, why would we have to drink so much?"

"I don't think you understand," said Josephine, rubbing her belly again as she looked out over the water. "What happens when you stab someone?"

Aella tilted her head to the side and looked at the woman beside her. "They bleed."

"And what do you think that blood is made of?"

Aella nodded. "It's water, isn't it?"

"Yes… I think it's time."

"For me to get the water powers?" asked Aella, excitement and concern flowing through her. She was sure the realm wouldn't let her die, but having another element at her control both terrified and excited her.

"No, time for…" Josephine broke off, taking a deep breath and breathing it out slowly.

There was a sudden rush of water from between Josephine's legs, and Aella quickly jumped back to keep from being sprayed. The realization of what it was time for suddenly hit her and her eyes went wide.

"We have to get you back now!" cried Aella, rushing to teleport them back.

"No, this is part of… your test," panted Josephine. "This baby will be your final test… You need to help me… give birth… oh!"

Aella grabbed Josephine, before her legs gave out and eased her to the ground. What in the world was this woman thinking?! How was this tied to her getting water powers??