The Other Side

Although environmental spellcraft or 'elemental sorcery' as most of the population referred to it as had long been replaced by the combination of human science and modern Elvish potions...there was still something almost sacred about interacting with the fundamental elements of nature. 

For those born with the natural gift to communicate with nature, environmental spellcraft was as instinctive as breathing. In fact, it wasn't above the ordinary to find those with this particular talent to spend their lives in complete isolation in places of serene natural beauty...such as in the middle of a forest, a hidden Island...etc. Being one of the Elves gifted with elemental magic myself, I could completely understand why most of my peers isolated themselves.

Once you learnt how to be in constant communication with nature...conversations with other elves, even other humans seemed almost pointless...as harsh as that sounded. Nature was eternal...an immortal, omniscient...omnipotent being that deserved respect. Compared to the sporadic and volatile nature of the Elves and Humans alike...nature was a breath of fresh air, quite literally. 

The gift of elemental communication wasn't passed down through generations, but rather Gaia...Mother Earth chose who she deemed worthy to speak with her. I was honoured to have been chosen as one of these individuals. 

To find another elemental was pretty exciting, especially as we were often looked down upon in both Elvish and Human Society and classified as 'hippies', ' tree huggers' and 'weirdos' thanks to our natural love of isolation and our intense connection to the environment around us. I had met Tony in my final year of university where I was...at my parents request ,studying business management to one day take over the family shop with my siblings.

I hated university...with it's thick stone walls and filtered air, as far away from the natural energy I craved as I could be. The only reason I had gone to the human university, was because my parents insisted that it would not only benefit me, but that it would benefit our family business as well. Elves by their nature were incredibly clever and creative...yet we didn't quite has a grasp on human society and their strange economics, hence my forced study.

On one particular afternoon when the events of the day had all gotten a little much I had ditched my last class and instead headed to the portal between the Elvish lands and the Human world. The energetic doorway was located near the southern most dam of the sprawling grounds of the school and I had found myself just sitting by the resoivor, looking out over the glass like surface of the sapphire water as it glittered like diamonds in the brilliant sunlight.

It was only as I had started truly settling into my abilities and communicating with the elementals around me did he arrive...a little breathless and ashen faced. Silently sitting down beside me, he had said nothing for several moments before turning to me and questioning as to why he could hear me communicating with the very fundamental aspects of nature around us.

Flash forward half a year and here we were, sitting in the exact same spot...just two elves attending a human university thanks to our families wishes. Tony was in much the same situation as I was, his parents had pressured him into attending university to specialise in Agriculture to ensure that their family farm would be the most effective it could be...especially for future generations.

It was during these studies and his eavesdropping on my conversations with nature that he had realised that he was startling similar to me. From them on we had formed an interesting friendship... and considering we were both natural loners, this made our freindship all the more stranger.

I was trying to convince him to take up elemental sorcery as a hobby. Even though it wasn't practiced professionally in the Elvish lands anymore, that did not mean that nature suddenly quitened...in fact it was easier to communicate with the elements now that not everyone was trying to...regardless of whether they were blessed with the ability or not.

After I had demonstrated the way in which he could use his elemental ability to help his family's agricultural business...he had bregrudgingly asked me to help him develop his ability. Which was why we were both seated down near the energy portal on a warm yet slightly windy afternoon, one night away from the Summer Equinox...a perfect time to begin to develop inter elemental communication thanks to the naturally high environmental energy.

Although us elemental sorcers could communicate with all the elements, we always had a certain affinity over one in particular. For me, I found the air the easiest to deal with...which was fortunate considering it was around me all the time. It did make it harder to be in places with heavily filtered or conditioned air like the stuffy rooms of the university...yet it meant that all I had to do was to escape to somewhere outside or at least with free flowing air to feel like myself again. I had a niggling feeling that Tony wasn't so lucky.

You see, I could hear the way the trees called to him...the way the grass beneath us subtly swayed towards Tony like he was the sun. With his olive shaded skin, dark mocha eyes and straw coloured hair that buzzed around his head like a halo...he looked a little like the sun in the right lighting anyways.

Teaching him to use his element was going to be interesting to say the least...especially when the air whispered so highly of his potential. Perhaps...perhaps univerisity wasn't such a waste of time afterall, I had met a fellow elemental who was not scared of his own talents and that was something in itself. There was a reason elemental sorcery could only be practiced as a hobby now...and that was partly due to the fact that Elves and Humans alike were so ridiculously suspicious of anyone with a ability that could not be visiblly seen all the time. Society was a suspicious bunch but at least the elements were always steady, predictable...dependable.