The Fifth Element

I pressed my shirt against the gash carved across Henry’s chest, in hopes that it might stop bleeding, but the steady trickle of crimson was not being halted in any shape or form. If someone had told me that in two weeks I would be on a mountain ledge, wearing only my bra, with a dragon that I had landed all by myself, trying to give first aid to a dying boy I would have smiled politely and backed away slowly.

By this point, in my attempt to stop the blood flow, I had come to the conclusion that the slash across his chest was no ordinary cut, go figure. I was nothing close to a doctor, but I did know that blood wasn’t supposed to be coming out this fast.

He had said Danny had done this to him, right? What was Danny exactly? What kind of monster had I inadvertently created? Should a monster that could inflict this sort of wounds be allowed to live? Then, I watched more life seep out of Henry’s face and wondered if I could do it again? Could I make another? I mean I hadn’t known what I had been doing the first time, but if I focused hard enough, I was sure I could do it again.

“Yeesh, that doesn’t look too good,” a woman’s voice said, from somewhere on the ledge behind me.

Honestly, what was up with people sneaking up on me from behind? It would be nice if they came at me from the front every once in a while. Was that too much to ask for?

I spotted a decent sized rock close to my feet and picked it up. It wouldn’t be much defense, but it was better than nothing. I jumped to my feet and turned to face my company.

The person I came face to face with was maybe the last person I had expected to see, Vivian, Miss B, the only person who had kept me alive at one point, one of the big four. She was standing only a couple of feet away. Again, I was taken aback by how tall she was. She was wearing a white tank top, or what use to be a white tank top and a pair of leather pants and boots. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled into a neat bun, and her tanned skin was dabbled with sweat. She held in her had a leather bag which she promptly dropped on the ground.

I let the rock fall from my hands with a loud clatter. I sank to my knees in defeat; there was absolutely no way I could defeat her. I instead returned my attention to my patient and began applying pressure to his wound.

“How were you able to find me?” I said quietly, not bothering to look in her general direction.

“Nice to see you too, Violet. Not sure why you aren’t at the school, or why your tattoo is gone, or how Henry ended up like this, but you are going to answer them after I treat him,” she said.

“How did you find me?” I repeated

I heard Miss B let out a long sigh,” I didn’t find you, I found him and Nessie,” she pointed to Henry. “I knew that someone who landed a dragon that sloppy wasn’t Henry, or if it was him he wasn’t alright. I see now that I was right about both.”

I watched as she then retrieved a role of white cloth from a bag on her hip, and begin wrapping her hands with it. The clean white cloth looked out of place with her dirty clothes. Without looking up from her task, she asked, “Why did you give up so easily when I showed up? Surely you don’t want to go back to the school, which you know I’m going to take you back to probably .”

I bowed my head, “What chance did I have against you. You are part of the Big Four,” I replied.

I felt a rock slam into my side hard, knocking the air out of me. I went skidding across the ground, and nearly fell off the edge of the ledge, but managed to catch myself at the last second.

“What the hell was that for!?” I yelled, climbing to my feet. Judging by the pain I was experiencing on my right side, I had at least a couple of bruised ribs, and that was if I was lucky. “I surrendered.” I half gasped half cried, because talking and breathing now hurt. I spat out some dust that had invaded my mouth.

Miss B smirked at me, “Yeah I know, that’s for landing this dragon so freaking high up on the mountain and making me climb all this way!“Miss B said, before walking over to where Henry’s battered body lay.

Nessie, Henry’s dragon, hissed at her, when she was almost to him and took a protective stance over her master.

“Nessie,” she cooed, to the agitated dragon. Nessie tilted her head slightly and closed her mouth. Her nostrils flared as she took in Miss B’s scent. The dragon narrowed her cat-like eyes, but slowly she backed away, just enough for Vivian to kneel beside her master.

Miss B began rummaging through the same bag she had taken the strips of white cloth from. She pulled from it, a clear glass bottle filled with clear blue pills, and held it up to the last remaining sunlight, before setting it beside her.

In the mean time, I struggled to stay on my feet, for fear she would slam me with another boulder if I gave in to the pain. Who else reacted this badly to people quitting?

“You’re Henry’s teacher, aren’t you?” I blurted out.

Miss B paused for a second, a bottle in one hand. “Yes, one of them before I became part of the Big Four, how did you figure that one out?”

“He yelled at me one time from wanting to give up. But he didn’t get quite as angry as you.”

Miss B laughed, “I don’t normally; a person only has so much patience after traveling across an entire forest after my dragon decided to get the shakes.”

“So, do you think you can save him?” I ventured, watching Miss B remove Henry’s ruined shirt, and then pour something over the exposed wound. The wound began smoking the instant the liquid made contact.

“I’m doing my best, but there is only so much you can do for a goblin wound. It’s all up to him now, and his will to survive.”

“But Danny caused that,” I said, just a little bit confused by her words.

“Yeah, that kid Danny, your pet goblin.... And you didn’t know that you turned him into a goblin,” She said, taking my silence as I didn’t know what the heck she was talking about, which I didn’t.

“Great, not only do you have very dangerous magic, but absolutely no idea how to control it. But what had I expected?” she added, her tone growing increasingly frustrated.

I felt my own frustration with the whole situation begin to build and build until finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Well maybe if someone taught me how to use my powers, I wouldn’t be such a threat to society.” I quipped.

" I never said you were a threat to society, just that you didn’t know how to use your powers, which I could’ve taught you if you hadn’t called your goblin to yourself and made a jail break.” Miss B replied almost calmly.

“You know what, I’m glad he did! Hey! I got a good idea, why don’t you just kill me. I’d rather be dead, before Greta wipes my memories, and makes me think I’m her adoptive daughter again!”

Miss B gave me a sharp look, which instantly made me want to take back the part about me wanting her to kill me. I was sure death at her hands, wouldn’t be painless or quick. She seemed like the torturing type. She was the lady had smacked me with a boulder for surrendering to her, for crying out loud!

“She could do that to you?” she questioned me.

“Yeah,” I said slowly, “Didn’t you know that?”

“No to the fact that she could do that, or no to the fact she could do it on you?” I asked

Miss B turned her back on me and began working on Henry again, “I knew she had the ability to alter memories slightly but not to that extent .”

I blinked, “Wait, so that wasn’t the school head’s plane and they aren’t working for her?”

Miss B shook her head, “None of the school heads’ knew about it to my knowledge, at least Hampton didn’t know. Greta just follows the orders of the magic council and makes sure the school runs smoothly. At least that’s what I believed.”

“Wait, had I just heard that right?” I couldn’t tell, my brains were going bonkers.

Without turning around, “Close your mouth, you’ll catch flies.”

Miss B began applying a clean bandage to Henry’s chest,

I felt a shiver course through my body, as I recalled that time in Greta’s office when I had felt those powers. “What type of special elemental is Greta?” I asked.

Miss B was silent before she answered me. “She’s the sixth element, mind, and matter. As you know from personal experience, her abilities include altering others thoughts and creating portals through time.”

“So she is the one that brought the Kraken that was trying to kidnap me !?”

“What Kraken that was a fire bomb that accidentally went off... Oh, that witch! I’m starting to remember! We were going to start investigating the incident and when we called her up to trial she....” Vivian looked over at me sharply, “You’re going to have to come to the magic council to report this!”

I nodded, “But I will only bring one condition. You admit to accidentally killing Lacy, publically!”