Chapter 17: Air, Water, Earth, Fire, or Void

"Come with me to the meeting room." We followed Damon to a large room with an even larger table in the middle. He shut the door quickly and stood next to me as he said quietly, "So, what element do you possess?"

"Element? What do you mean element?"

"Are you able to control air, water, earth, fire, or void? Every shifter can control one element."

"I didn't even know I could do that, so I don't know."

"Well, then we are going to need to test you and Royce to see which one you both possess. We will do that at sunrise when Royce wakes up. Now, what true forms did your parents have? This will determine what forms you are strongest in."

"My parents didn't have true forms."

"I have only heard of a few instances where a child was born without a true form, and that was over a hundred years ago."

"I don't come from this world. In my world, true forms don't exist. One morning I was taking Royce to eat, and we just suddenly ended up in the woods surrounded by wild wolfs."

"Hmm, interesting. So, what form or forms do you transform into the most?"

"My blue phoenix and a wolf when I am trying not to get attention."

"And are those the ones you fight in the most as well?"

"Well, when I am fighting, I tend to transform into many forms. I transform into the form that best suits each situation; if I need to get away fast, I turn into my phoenix. If I need to bite hard, I turn into either a wolf or crocodile. If I need to slip away or stay unnoticed, I transform into something small like a mouse or a bug like an ant."

"I have never heard of a shifter that fought with your style… interesting…"

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Damon, Alfie, and I discussed more about my true form until sunrise when Damon brought us to Royce for tests on which element we possess. By the time we had gotten Royce and gone to a large training room in the Alpha Tree, I looked down and noticed that my stomach has once again grown visibly in hours. I know looked four months pregnant with a gigantic egg-shaped belly.

Damon had a servant fetch me some clothes that I could be tested in since this skirt wasn't suitable, and it was starting to become tight with my growing belly. The clothes brought to me were stretchy pants and a shirt that resembled a crop t-shirt. I slipped them on from behind a hanging sheet of animal skins. When I came out, I was prepared for a physical test, but to my surprise I saw four objects placed on the ground. One object was a small stone about the size of my palm, the next was a bowl of water, then came a small torch lit on fire, and lastly there was a leaf.

I walked to sit in front of the objects and Damon started giving me and Royce our instructions, "First I want you to imagine picking this stone up and throwing it at the wall. Close your eyes with your hands hovering over the stone." We complied and hovered our hands about five inches from the rock. "Good, now close your eyes and imagine the rock floating up to your hand and throwing it at the wall." We both closed our eyes, but as we tried as hard as we could, we couldn't move the rock even a millimeter. "Okay, so it seems neither of you have earth moving powers. Now let's try the water. I have some water here, I want you to do the same thing as with the stone, but instead of throwing it, bring it to your mouth to drink it." Royce and I both hovered our hands over the water and imagined it floating into our mouths. We tried for a few minutes but neither of us could raise the water. "Hmm, let's try the fire next. I want you to hover your hands over the flame and imagine it growing into a bigger fire." Simultaneously we hovered our hands over and nothing happened once again after many minutes of trying our hardest. I felt like we were doing something wrong. "Well, that is interesting. I placed these down in order of most common for a shifter to have, to least common. It seems you two must have either air or void powers. Let's try air first. This one has only been recorded once in history and we have had thousands of shifters since the beginning of time. This leaf is light and can float in the air. I want you both to hover over the leaf and blow it into the air." As we put our hands over the leaf, it started to shake. I thought harder about it floating and slapping Damon's face, when suddenly it did just that. It made an audible slapping noise as it hit Damon's left cheek. "Well Alyssa, I hope that was an accident." I started to chuckle as I covered my mouth with my hand. "So, it looks like Alyssa possess' air, which means… Royce, why don't you imagine a void under the rock causing it to disappear and reappear in your other hand?" Royce did just that. He put his left hand over the rock and a black hole came out of nowhere and sucked the rock into it. The rock was gone for a second before another black hole showed up above his right hand and the rock fell out. Everybody's jaws nearly dropped to the floor the moment that rock vanished from thin air. "Royce, you are the first recorded shifter who possess' void."

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Nothing registered with me about Royce possessing void and being the only one known to do it. Honestly, the whole 'element' thing didn't really register to begin with. I came from a world where there was no such thing as powers; there were no true forms or super speed, there was no elemental powers or glowing eyes. Everything I had learned in the other world, was slowly being blown up and debunked.

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After we finished registering Royce's newfound powers, Royce, Alfie, and I went out of the gigantic tree for a walk around the city. As we were leaving the wall around the tree, I noticed Doc was sitting on the ground. "Doc, what are you doing out here?" I said, surprisingly with compassion.

"Waiting for you." He said matter-of-factly. "They took your other mate inside early this morning. She was putting up quit a fight. Care to explain what that was about?"

"I will explain that once we get back to the village. We probably shouldn't explain it here." Alfie butted in before I could even answer. It made sense since there could be one of Delilah's mates nearby listening.

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We started walking back to the house and I could feel Doc following close behind us. When Alfie, Royce, and I started walking in the door, Doc started to lay in his spot outside the door. The nights were still fairly cold still and I felt terrible to allowing him to sleep in the cold like that. "Doc, just come in. you can sleep in the children's room and Royce can just sleep in ours."

Alfie looked at me wide-eyed as he whipped his head around to look at me. 'If you are not going to mate with him, you shouldn't even let him in our house.'

'Alfie, it's freezing outside at night, I would know since I was on the top branches of the Alpha Tree most of the night last night.' Doc remained standing in the doorway as me and Alfie discussed his sleeping arrangements in your minds.

'Alyssa, in my world, a female doesn't let a male into her shelter unless she intends to mate with him. And besides, the temperature at night isn't even that cold.'

'Yeah, and guess what, I am not from your world.'

'But you are living in my world now. You can't just be in my world and continue to live like you are still in yours.'

Alfie's words were like a dagger through my heart. I had been trying to adapt to the culture here, but I just couldn't accept some concepts. I understood that their world was much less evolved than mine in some ways like technology, but I am not accepting the fact that if I have a man in my house that I need to sleep with him or I will be looked down upon or judged. What are people going to do if he stays in my home without me mating with him? They cannot force me to mate with someone if I don't want to. And if Doc would be sleeping in a completely different room than us, why was Alfie so worried about him even being in the house? He was fine with him sleeping outside our door and cave entrance to hear my screams and moans during sex, but not to sleep in the warmth for a night? I was not about to put up with being pushed around and forced to do something that I don't want to do. It might be my pregnancy hormones talking, but I didn't care, I was pissed. "Then you can sleep outside with him." I finally said out loud as I stared down Alfie. I could hear his heart skip a beat as if it wanted to stop at my words. I knew I struck a chord in his heart, but I had to stand my ground now. I can't let his walk all over me and tell me what I should and shouldn't do.

Alfie stared at me for a few more seconds as I could see his entire body want to give out beneath him. His head flopped down to face the ground and his shoulders sagged. He lugged his body to the door and slowly closed it without looking back at me. Right then I wanted to call his name and tell him to come back in to sleep with me, but I couldn't bring my mouth to open.

I tucked Royce into bed and nearly had to crawl to the middle of the bed near the fire in the main room. The room seemed to get twice as big without Alfie in it. I could feel my baby kick inside me as to tell me I was okay, but I didn't feel okay; I felt cold and empty.

I curled myself into a ball as tight as I could. It was much colder at night without Alfie's warm tail to cover me. Even the fire only about a foot away didn't keep me warm enough. I couldn't keep the tears in my eyes any longer. I silently let my tears fall from my right to left side of my face, and finally to the ground below me. Why was I so stupid? Alfie didn't deserve me; he deserved a much better female than me. I was worthless. I had no redeeming qualities to me except the fact that I am a shifter, and that wasn't even something I chose.

Every time I shut my eyes, I saw Alfie walking out of the door and wondering if he would ever even return. I knew I wasn't going to be getting any sleep, so I stood up and grabbed some warmer clothes. If I was going to be up all night, I might as well train my air abilities. I walked out of the house and past Alfie and Doc who were sitting against the house silently looking into the darkness in front of them. "At least one of you stay here and make sure Royce is ok." I said as I continued walking towards the mountain side on the far end of the city.

I could hear heavy footsteps behind me, and I knew it was Alfie. I ignored him and just continued walking until I reached the base of the mountain. I quickly took my clothes off to prevent destroying them and turned into my phoenix true form as I grabbed my clothes and flew to the peak of the mountain. I turned back and quickly got dressed once again. I knew it would take Alfie awhile to climb up the towering mountainside so I knew I could be alone for at least a little bit.

I started to create a small whirlwind in front of me. The breeze felt exhilarating against my body, no matter how cold it was. I continued to widen the whirlwind until I was surrounded by it. I started to close my eyes with how content this feeling made me. I felt like I was finally in my element; excuse the pun. My feet slowly started to lift off of the ground until I could barely feel it under the tips of my toes. I could feel my eyes start to glow, but I kept my eye lids shut. I could feel all of the stress, the anger, the sadness, the worry, even the exhaustion evicting my body. I felt completely cleansed.

I could hear Alfie grunting as he was making the last few climbs up to the peak of the mountain where I continued to stay in my comfort zone. As he raised his head above the last rock, I could hear his heart beat out of his chest. I wasn't sure if he was scared or excited, but I was hoping it was the latter. Even though sometimes I get mad at him for things he says, I still love him more than anything. This man has only been in my life for a few months, but the feelings I felt for him were completely immeasurable.

As he stood on the peak of the mountain staring at me in the eye of the whirlwind I created, I swung part of the whirlwind around his body and pulled him inside the eye of it with me. I continued to keep my eyes closed, but it was as if I could see everything around me using the wind currents around me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and brought him closer to me. His heart started to beat even faster until I finally brought his face close enough to mine to where our lips finally met. As we kissed, his heart quickly started to slow back down to its normal rhythm, and he grabbed my lower back to pull me closer to his body. I slowly started to shrink the tornado around us until it was completely gone and lowered my feet back to the ground. My eyes slowly started to dim until they returned to my normal silver grey color. I was extremely mad at Alfie before for not listening to what I had to say, but now that I blew my stress and anger away with the wind, I felt much better.

I realized how much this man has done for me over these last few months while I was using my abilities. Alfie has done nothing but think about me and my safety and it was time I think about his. He deserved to have a strong mate who could protect herself and her children, and if she needed to, him. He didn't deserve to worry about me and Royce and our unborn baby all the time while forgetting about himself. It was time I start stepping up and helping him for a change.