Elementals Chapter 4: Celestial Tides (OPEN)

(Hdgfkfmdjcnd I'm tired of waiting)
(I need a way into the air temple. Any suggestions?)

(Maybe he’s going hiking? And he sees the temple in the distance?)

(Your idea was the first one and I'm impatient so yes)

Earl let out a sigh of relief, flopping down by the base of a tree. "Getting back dow is going to be a pain…" He panted. Looking around for the first time since he had gotten up to the top of the mountain, everything seeing small. The plains in the distance, the other parts of the small mountain, and the temple. "Wait, temple?" Earl squinted at the structure from afar. "What…?" He felt a strong urge to leave the mountain and get to said temple quickly. "But why? What is it? And I just got up the mountain! Conscience, have you no mercy?" He sighed.

(Yeah sorry dude these things take a while ^^;)

Ignis and Kali kept walking in hopes to find the others. For a moment Ignis stopped and looked behind him, but continued walking. He snapped his fingers and a ball of fire floated around them. A small blue flame dancing around. His mind focused and silent. His expression serious.
"Walk along fire's heat, upon daylight you will meet. Walk too close to the flame, forever burned never the same. There's a child who danced inside, engulfed in fire day and night. Once he stepped outside the fire…let there be light"
It was a common story told to the people in the village. No one knew what it meant, nor did they care. It was thought to just be a child's tale. The way Ignis spoke it, felt more like a memory than a children's tale.

(Hey, is this modern-ish? I probably should have asked this before but I forgot hdfdkfdnj)

(Yes. It is in modern time.)

(Alright, thanks)
Frown becoming deeper, Earl grabbed his skis off his pack and placed them on his feet. "Well, no time like the present, like I always say." Stretching his arms, he studied the structure. "Still don't know why I need to go there…but the Conscience says so, so I'm going!" He said, pushing himself up and inching towards the large incline that would send him racing down to a cliff, or a rocky hill, a sudden drop…this could actually be a bad idea. "Oh well."

After what seemed like an eternity, Alister found his voice.
"You… you think the seal is through there?"
His sister merely nodded. A few seconds passed before she said, "Where are Kali and Ignis?"
Alister could only shrug. He then found the courage to ask the questions that had been nagging at him as they rested.
"Are you alright? How are you not dead?"
She put a hand to her chest as if searching for something inside. "I don't know. I can feel it, sort of. Circling. Heh. It's just staying there, it doesn't come out when I breathe out or anything. It's not doing anything either. Just staying there, circling."
He didn't like the way she spoke. She sounded so tired as if the gas was doing something, and how she was starting to sound like the voice. Air? He put his hand with hers on her chest. He felt something there as a well, a wisp of something foreign moving throughout her bloodstream, yet doing no harm. He took his hand away.
Noel glanced at her brother. He looked like he had aged ten years, but then, he was always told that he was mature for his age. For a long time, even now, he was the only person she could look up to. When she was younger, he had always seemed so strong, willing to do anything to protect her. He was still and fearful whenever he was the target of their father's wrath, but the moment she was caught in the crossfire, he didn't care what happened to him. Anything to keep her safe. After a while though, it had gotten tiring, especially when her naive image of him crumbled when she found him cutting in the bathroom and crying into his pillow. Lately, it seemed their roles had switched, in a way. It was an interesting change, but she hated seeing him in pain just as he did her, perhaps even more so. What he did in that dark, basement-like place scared her a little as well. She couldn't remember a time when his emotions had been so… powerful.
He stared at Evan's soft sleeping face, looking like he was about to cry again. She put her arm around him in an attempt to comfort him.
"He'll be okay. You've done all you could."
Maybe it was the wrong thing to say because she saw his eyes glitter with tears. "But if it wasn't for me, he wouldn't be like this in the first place."
"Hey, don't blame yourself. None of us knew what was going on until it was too late."
He sighed. Combed his fingers through Evan's hair.
"What did… what did Air mean? 'The girl must carry my burden, the boy must manage it'?"
She sighed too. "I'm too tired to think about it."
"Yeah… me too."

Ignis and Kali wandered for a while before eventually stopping. Ignis sat down, "For what feels like weeks of walking. This is getting us nowhere."

The altar would be near them now, the wisps of smoke still drifting on, the smell of incense just on the edge of their noses.

Earl started zoning out. Blacking out. He would be at one part of the mountain, then the next.
"Am I dying? Or sleepy?" He wondered to himself.
The urge was growing stronger to reach the temple was growing stronger. Stronger.
Stronger.
Then, he blacked out again.
When he came to, he was at the bottom of the mountain, clueless as to what happened.
"Huh?"

Ignis smiles for a moment, "You know…" He lifted his finger and rays of flame appear around them "Even though Darkness rejected you, I'm surprised she recognized you as her own."

"N-nothing." Ignis rubs his head, "I guess I'm just tired. Don't mind my ramblings.."

"You're not a child of Darkness." Ignis spoke softly and seemed more relaxed, "Like adopted. From which ancestor you're from I'm not sure. Darkness died before humans were created. So there were no elementals for darkness for billions of years. Her power must've found something in you. Something special."

(In a void parallel to our hero's dimension, Ignatius walks towards Air with spite, "Enough of your games! They may contain our essence, but you must NOT interfere!!")

(The person stood fidgeting, bouncing their leg as Ignatius approached. They were whole now, in the void, their appearance seeming to be a combination of Alister and Noel’s features. Olive, freckled skin, glowing gray eyes and a spiky white braid hanging loosely around their shoulder. Astra.)
(”You understand nothing,” they murmured. “This is not one of my games, for once. It is precisely because they contain my essence that I am doing this. But I won’t be doing it for much longer. Mist may linger, but it is gone soon enough.”)

("Tell me your plans. Or I swear I will lock you somewhere worse than this eternal astral hell!" Ignatius looked back in Ignis direction before quickly turning to Astra, "I must not let any harm come to my descedant, nor any of you monsters. Allister and Noel are not you, so they must also be protected")

Ignis smiled and held Kali gently, "Whatever the reason, I'm glad to have met an elemental like you."

(”Why would I want harm to come to them?” The air of solemnity they had before was now replaced with annoyance. “I just want them to leave. But my children can only leave once their purpose here has been fufilled.”)
(Astra had been gazing at Alister, Noel, and Evan, now sleeping at the edge of the forest, and they now turned their gaze to Ignatius and sighed, cracking a mischievous grin. “Oh, Iggy, are you getting paranoid again? And yet you don’t even mention the sound elemental. Clearly he has no need to be protected.” Then they sighed, seeming to go solemn again.)

(This thread might be dead or may be redeemed. However, I must apologize to everyone in participation for my absence. I hope to never repeat this in the foreseeable future!)