Elias was dreaming of home. He was standing in his room staring at his bedroom mirror, but there was no reflection, not of him, not even of the room behind him. That oddity would normally be enough to give him pause, but he could just now smell bacon in the air, combined with the earthy scent of fresh coffee. He could hear his father humming along to some song from the old country. While his mom cooked for most of the week, Sunday breakfast was his dads responsibility, and it was always a production. Elias ignored the fact that he had no reflection and headed to the kitchen in hopes that he could steal a strip of bacon before anyone else woke up. There was his father standing over the stove. He was about to call out to him before he was ripped away from the dream.

“Elias come on.” Brent said, shaking him awake. “We’re heading out soon.”

“Wha?” Elias was confused for a few moments as he met Brent's blue eyes. Then he saw the cave and the forest outside; memories returned to him. He looked around to find Becca and Alicia. They were off to one side of the cave talking in soft whispers.

“The rain, it stopped,” Elias said after realizing that the ever-present sound of rushing wind and water was gone.

“Nah, it's still drizzling a little, but not much. I figure we start walking,” Brent said. He offered Elias a hand, which he took, and he pulled him up to his feet. The two walked over to Becca and Alicia.

“So, what's our plan?” Elias asked the group.

Becca shrugged and looked at Brent. “We pick a direction, the sun rises in the east, so…” Brent paused and looked outside to the forest. The sun was up, and he could see the shadows formed by the trees.

“That's probably southish,” he said pointing to the cave wall to the right of us.

“So, we just walk, what about water and food.” Elias asked, his throat was dry, and hunger was starting to set in.

“It's still drizzling, we can just drink your…. water spheres,” Alicia said, not really sounding sure how to describe what Elias did.

“There’s another thing, Last night when I got up to, you know. I heard some animals roaring, screeching, and crashing around, they sounded large.” Brent said.

“Bears?” Becca offered.

“Could be. What I'm saying is now we know that they're some big animals, so we need a gameplan.”

“Why didn't you tell us this last night? What if something attacked us while we were asleep?” Elias didn't like not knowing things.

“And if something did attack; what were you going to do about it? If it was a bear, Brent is the one who could take care of it. I can dodge around it and until we find something dangerous for Becca to throw, she can't contribute much. No one would be able to fall asleep if he told us.” Alicia said. Elias would love to refute her words and argue that ignorance was more dangerous, but the fire of hypocrisy was burning his ankle.

“Fine then,” Elias said. He reached down and pulled a four-inch folding knife out of his ankle strap. It was the only thing he had to defend himself with and he was loathed to give it up. The others watched in confusion before Elias flipped open the blade. It was a regular pocketknife with a wooden hilt strapped to his ankle with leather. He offered it to Becca and said. “Can you throw this?”

She took the knife by the hilt. The blade was razor sharp, with confidence she threw it straight up and caught it not even remotely considered that she could cut herself.

“Yeah, this can work.” She said with a small smile.

Everyone’s eyes were locked on the shiny blade.

“Why the hell do you have a knife? And why didn't you tell us? Why didn’t they take it.” Alicia asked,

“Well, I didn't think it would be necessary, now I know that they are dangerous animals. As for why I have it, do you people remember where I live?”

“Do you bring that to school?” Brent asked.

“Yeah, but I stash it as soon as we get there.”

“Still, you should have told us.” Alicia didn't relent, she still sounded angry.

“I'm telling you now.”

“You better not be holding anything out on us,” Alicia stepped towards him and Elias stared down at her, unimpressed by her anger.

“Babe it's fine, we have it now. Just in case, does anyone else have anything that can help us that they haven't revealed yet.” Brent did throw an accusatory gaze at Elias before looking at everyone else.

No one answered.

“Good, then let's move out, Elias you're in the middle with Becca, I'll take the front and Alisa walks behind. We leave in 5 minutes. Before that we should discuss our abilities and what we’ve learned, let's start with Becca.”

Becca nodded and spoke, “Ok, so for me it only works before I throw something. But it's not just that, I can change how fast it's moving an instant after it leaves my hand. It's like I channel power into it and the power changes its speed. I wouldn't put much into the rocks, but this knife practically drinks it.”

Brent rubbed his chin, “Ok so more power more speed which makes it deadlier, good.”

Alicia spoke next, “For me it's like a dial on an oven, I can set it to off or really low. Once I turn it up high then I feel lighter, and my balance becomes perfect. My reaction time feels instant. It's like I can tell my body what to do and it responds. I’m not stronger, just lighter and more agile. I could probably sprint faster than an Olympian if I really turned it up.”

“Alright so you can flank and distract.” Brent mumbled.

Everyone flicked a glance at Elias so he started, “It's several parts, I can sense water around me if I focus. It's decently easy to pull it towards me and form a ball.” as he explained he reached a hand out to the cave entrance and droplets of water began to drift towards him. Once it created a sphere an inch a cross, stopped.

“The problem is I can command it to gather, but after that I can't do anything, if I try too hard then I just lose control.”

Elias tried to split the ball into two. The surface of the sphere ripped then he lost control, and it splattered onto the floor.

“Why don't you try asking the water instead of commanding it.” Becca suggested.

Elias gave her a raised eyebrow, she blushed and said, “I read a lot of books ok, would it hurt to try.”

Elias was about to disregard her suggestion, but this was magic, and forcing it to bend to his will didn't work all night.

“Ask the water huh,” Elias mumbled to himself. Elias started gathering water from outside into a small sphere.

‘Ok, so could you split into two please,’ Elias thought to the ball of water. Nothing happened.

‘How about a star? No. Ok teardrop?’ Elias closed his eyes and went through all the shapes he knew.

“Diamond, trapezoidal prism, dodecahedron, taurus, ellipsoid.” He brought the shapes into his mind one after the other. He opened his eyes to see the still floating orb.

‘Hmm. What about a Klein bottle, maybe you don't like 3 dimensions.’ At this point he wasn't even trying anymore, convinced that asking the water wasn't the answer.

Energy left him and slowly the water morphed into the vague shape of a tiny Klien bottle.

“Ha, I knew I was right.” Becca said smugly.

Becca examined the liquid Klein bottle floating above Elias’s palm.

“What exactly did you do, try to repeat that,” Becca seemed happy for him.

Elias shrugged, “Nothing, I just tried asking to turn into different shapes. Nothing worked so I jokingly wondered if it didn’t like 3d shapes thought about a Klein bottle.”

“Oh, so you didn't ask, but suggested a shape.” Becca was growing even more excited.

“I guess,” Elias wondered about suggestions. Brent and Alicia watched silently, most likely not wanting to disrupt Elias. Him learning his ability would increase their chance of survival.

He gathered some more water from outside and thought about what he could suggest the water to do. He tried to give the water the suggestion to splash against the wall, but nothing happened. Then he thought about the Klein bottle, he chose it because it was interesting. Smiling at the thought he imagined splashing Alicia the face.

Immediately energy left him, and the orb of water launched itself towards Alicia's face. No one expected it to move so fast, especially Alicia. It splashed against her face, she sputtered and spat out water. Then she met Elias’s eyes, furious.

Becca stifled a smile and Elias tried to act innocent.

“I think I figured it out. My apologies. That was an accident.” He tried to sound sincere but failed. Alicia clenched her fist, took a deep breath, and let it go.

“How does it work?” Brent asked, he wasn't amused, but he didn’t look like he was about to punch Elias.

“It's a bit weird. It will do what I suggest so long as there is some kind of emotion behind it. I didn’t really care about the shape, so it didn't morph. But I thought the Klein bottle was interesting, so it followed the thought. Same thing with the splash. The wall wasn't an interesting target but.”

“It's like the water is a primitive part of you. You just need to give it the motivation.” Becca suggested. It made sense to him. Motivate the water not, command or suggest.

‘How would I motivate myself?’

Elias gathered more water. One thing he didn't want was for anyone to think he was dead weight. ‘What's a good way to show off?’ He thought as he watched the ball. Then I came to him. The water lengthened into a six-inch spike, froze then launched itself at the wall. It drew a large amount of power from him. It slammed against the wall with a loud crash and shattered hundreds of shards.

Stunned silence reigned as they watched the shards fall to the floor. It wasn't fast enough to crack the wall, but a flesh and blood person could be killed. Elias reeled from both success and the drain that caused. Of everything he had done that was by far the costliest.

“I can do that maybe ten more times. I feel a little empty, like whatever we use to fuel the abilities was drained.” Elias said to their stunned faces. Then he turned his attention to Becca.

“We need to talk more, I'm sure you have more ideas.” Elias said to Becca. She nodded enthusiastically. Brent was grinning and Alicia looked, Displeased? Upset? Elias wasn't sure. Whatever it was, he didn't care.

“Ok. This is good. Try doing it one more time.” Brent said.

Elias repeated the same process. He gathered water, just to make sure he imagined the Klein bottle and it morphed into it easily. Then he launched another ice spike. He reeled again from the massive draw in power. He decided to completely drain himself to see what happens.

“Yeah, I'm tapped. Before I was hallowed, now it’s like a fucking void.” Just to make sure Elias tried to gather water again but nothing happened.

“Can you still function?” Becca asked.

“Yeah, you know that feeling when you haven't eaten for a while, it's like that but it's all over. Annoying, but I can still function.”

Brent nodded and started to explain his own abilities, “As for my abilities, it's pretty simple. I can throttle the power like Becca, at max I can maybe do 5 or 6 strikes, before I'm empty.”

“How much power did you use when you showed me,” Elias asked.

“Around a quarter, maybe a little less.” Brent said, sounding a bit smug.

Elias wasn't sure if anything could survive even a single strike, let alone max power, which was absurdly powerful.

At his lack of a response Brent continued, “Alright then. Now we know a few things. If we were completely empty, we can still function. We just lose access to our abilities until we recharge. Here’s the plan: we wait until Elias is topped up and we head out. If we’re attacked. Becca, only go for a vulnerable spot like the eyes and make it count. Elias, you don't have Becca’s aim so only fire the ice spike if the situation is desperate or if no one is in the path. I'll face anything we meet head on while Alicia works as a distraction.”

Elias didn't exactly have anything better to add so after a 10-minute wait and awkwardly feeding everyone orbs of weather, they headed into the forest in what was approximately south. Brent seemed to install himself as the leader. Elias didn't really care, all that mattered was getting to safety, who was he to argue if Brent wanted to be a meat shield. The fact that Brent could probably turn his head into mist added to his acquiescence.

Over an hour of walking passed and the light drizzle stopped completely. This was a concern for Elias, but it didn’t really take long before he realized he could pull moisture from the air. It cost more energy and took longer, but it wasn't really different from drawing in rain. It was even easier to draw water from the wet ground, though everyone agreed not to drink it. He even realized he could draw the moisture out his clothes which was a godsend for everyone.

Their group was silent, worried about making any sound that would attract predators. The sun started to rise and slowly the forest dried. They looked rather worse for wear. Becca's white dress and blouse was a mess of stains. Brent's cargo shorts and T-shirt actually blended in with the forest, being a dark green. Somehow Alicia’s jeans and red sweater was relatively clean. Elias’s own ensemble of black jeans and gray hoodie was just as stained but not as noticeable, such was the benefit of dark colors.

“How long do you think this is going to take?” Becca asked brent.

“I don't know hours, days. The best idea I have is to go straight until we find a river or something, then follow it down stream.” Brent responded.

The forest was quiet except for the sound of wind and the occasional squeak of a bird. He had to do something other than just follow Brent and keep an eye out. Brent suggested that they keep their tanks at maximum at all times, but boredom was starting to win out. So, Elias practiced but minimized the power draw. He walked with a six-inch-wide orb of water floating above his palm. It didn't cost much just to hold it.

“Figure anything else out?” Becca asked.

“Sorta.” Elias spit the orb into five smaller orbs, and they began rotating in a circle.

“Oh, that's interesting,” She exclaimed. He combined them into a single orb again.

“It's weird I can split them into smaller orbs, but they have to spiral around each other. Just splitting them isn't interesting enough.”

“What about boiling?” She suggested.

“Tried that, but nothing worked. I'm not sure what motivation I need to get it to boil. Freezing is easy enough, but I can't melt it. I haven't found any other shape than a Klien bottle to turn it into.”

She shrugged, “Your powers are pretty inconsistent,”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Elias nodded in agreement, “Tell me about it, What about you?”

“Oh, I figured out I can curve its path. I can add spin as easily as velocity. I'm pretty sure I can dump my entire energy pool into a single throw, and it would be near the speed of sound. But the more power I add the more difficult it becomes to aim. It's odd.”

“That's kinda crazy. Though I guess most of our abilities are potentially deadly.” Brent said from in front of them.

That made Elias worry, their abilities seemed powerful but what exactly were they supposed to be facing. There’s no chance the powers were random.

Over two hours of monotonous walking passed with Elias constantly practicing different applications of his abilities. He stopped thinking about normal shapes and the ideas became more abstract. Finally, another shape settled it was flat and circular like a spiral galaxy. Slowly the edges stretched further.

‘It almost looks like a throwing star,’ Elias thought. Immediately the shape shifted into the star in his mind. The center became perfectly circular, and the edges turned sharp as four fan-like blades spiraled into existence. Elias knew it was a waste of energy, but he could help himself. He froze the shape, but didn’t launch it like an ice spike. The ice throwing star landed in his hand.

“Hey Becca, wanna try throwing this.” She turned to look at the throwing star and her eyes widened.

“Uhhh, yeah.” She said eagerly.

He gave it to her; she hooked her middle finger through the hole in the center then threw it. It whistled through the air as it spun. The ice throwing star sliced cleanly through a hanging branch and disappeared off into the distance.

“Very nice, too bad that takes so much energy. Is it better than stone?” Elias asked.

“Yeah, but not by much, steel is still king though.”

“Have you actually used this on someone,” she asked. She had tied the leather strap to her leg and held the knife in her hand at all times.

Elias laughed, “No, the threat is usually enough since most muggers are cowards.”

“I wish you could make a bunch of them for me to throw but that seems like a waste of power of we don’t know something is going to attack.”

“Too bad you can't just make them come back to you. Are weaponized boomerangs a thing.” Elias said in gest.

Brent answered, “They were originally weapons, though, the first discovered were not returning. There are other throwing weapons used throughout history that are more effective. I suppose you would be just as effective with a gun. Depending on how your abilities work exactly.”

Becca’s eyes were dancing with the possibilities. Elias thought it would be amusing to see her ending lives with a boomerang.

“Shhhh,” Brent hushed.

Everyone stopped and stared at him. “Water, flowing water. Let's go, double time people.” Then he stomped off to the right.

“Yes sir,” Elias muttered under his breath. Brent was taking this whole leadership thing too seriously by Elias’s estimation.

Ten minutes later they reached a small stream, about three feet wide and not even deep ankle, slowly flowing towards what Elias estimated to be southeast.

“Ok this is good, it could lead to a bigger stream and that surely would lead to civilization.” Brent said confidently.

He turned to everyone else and noticed their tired expressions, “How about a break.”

Elias immediately dropped to the ground and winced from the gravel on his rear end. He was not exactly in shape, so the long walk was tiring. He stared at the stream and ideas started to form.

“You should try with the water.” Becca suggested.

“My thoughts exactly.”

He got up, took a few steps, then sat at the edge of the stream. Commanding the water to do anything was a waste of time. It was somehow more efficient to just throw out ideas and see what sticks. While the magic was interesting it was rather counterintuitive to how his mind worked.

‘What can I do?’ Elias wondered. He commanded the water to come to him and it gathered in a much larger sphere almost a foot across. With an actual source of water, it was considerably easier and cheaper than summoning it form atmospheric moisture. Then with a thought it turned into a large Kline bottle. Then the vague shape of a four-pointed throwing star. He imagined freezing this much water would be costly.

‘How strange.’ Elais thought. It had no real logic or consistency. ‘Should I travel with a gourd or something?’

There was a wash of energy next to him as Becca started to practice. She skipped stones against the water. Her brows furrowed as she practiced something. After a dozen rocks, she walked around to gather more. Then repeated the process. Brent was practicing with Alicia, he tried to strike her, but her speed and maneuverability were too great. She ducked, weaved, and even did a spectacular pirouette to dodge a sweeping kick from Brent. A frustrated grunt rose from Becca as she skipped her last rock and started gathering more. She was picking up smooth flat stones.

He looked around and spotted a couple of decent stones a few feet to his left, just out of reach. His legs were sore, and he loathed to get up.

‘I wonder if I can…’ Before he even completed the thought a tendril of water a little more than an inch across snaked out of the sphere. As it lengthened the sphere shrank in size. Eventually it reached the rock, wrapped itself around it like a tentacle and brought it over. Once the tentacle recombined with the orb and the rock floated in the center.

‘It's like an octopus.’ Elias mused, keeping that though in his mind more tentacles snaked out, each one heading to a smooth stone. It wasn't draining since all they were caring for were small stones. He realized that the maximum he could control was eight, but as he summoned more the orb shrank faster which limited how long he could make them. Soon enough eight stones were being cradled inside the orb.

“That is cool. How did you figure that one out?” Becca asked, as she watched Elias gather stones.

“I was too lazy to get up.” Elias said, almost embarrassed about how unimpressive the idea was.

A single tentacle snaked out carrying all the stones over to Becca who was only a few feet away.

It dropped the eight stones in her hand.

“The power of laziness is impressive,” She mumbled, then started practicing.

‘Maybe she was working on ricochets,’ Elias mused but quickly lost interest.

Elias practiced for some time making even larger spheres of water. His max was around 4 feet in diameter. The drain of keeping the orb up was too much. It increased exponentially. Elias held nearly 250 gallons of water aloft, He had seconds before he ran out of power. With a grin he moved it slightly above his head even though it was a difficult task.

“You’re not going to,” Becca didn’t finish before he ran out power and orb came crashing down. The weight of the water flattened Elias to the ground and soaked him to the bone. Fortunately, it didn’t fall far enough to do any real damage. Elias giggled childishly.

“Fastest shower in the world.” Elias said then whipped his head back and forth like a dog.

“You’re an idiot” Becca said rolling her eyes, she was trying to hold back a laugh. After waiting a few minutes to recharge some of his power he pulled the water from his clothing and hair. Quite a bit of grime and dirt went with it.

He continued experimenting. What he could lift was also directly tied to his energy source. He could rip a tree branch off easily but lifting a boulder was too draining to do for more than a handful of seconds. He could theoretically lift himself, but the drain was too much. He had to have a large enough sphere and enough power. Holding it together and the effort to lift something was incredibly taxing.

“Hey Becca, can I try something on you?” Elias asked.

“Ok,” she said a bit suspiciously.

Eight tentacles snaked around her. She flinched but calmed down. She had no fear, just curiosity and no small amount of excitement.

“OK, try to break out.” She flexed her arms. As soon as she started fighting the drain increased significantly. After 5 seconds Elias was almost half empty, he lifted her a few feet into the air, the drain increased exponentially, so immediately, he put her down.

He removed the tentacles before he lost control and doused her with water.

“Ok, so I can hold someone down for around 10 seconds and lift them for maybe three. Less if they’re stronger and heavier I presume.”

She shivered, “That was unpleasant, but extremely useful. Don't ever do it again unless I need saving.”

Elias nodded and said sincerely, “I won’t and thanks for your help. This would have taken me a lot longer without your suggestions.”

She gave him a pretty smile and went back to practicing.

After around ten minutes of waiting for his energy to recover, he decided to stretch his legs.

Alicia noticed, “You shouldn't go off on your own.”

“I'm not going to go far. If something attacks, I'll scream and I'm sure you all will come rescue me. Besides, I have business to take care of in private.” The area around the river wasn't very dense with trees and since the steam flowed almost perfectly straight all he needed to follow the tree’s shadows.

“Fine, just don't do it in the river. And stay close, it shouldn't take more than a minute for you to walk back,” Brent said.

Elias rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Yes captain,” Then walked to the other side of the stream.

Elias walked for a little over a minute before finding a tree and relieving himself. He breathed in the morning air. He wasn't as petrified as before, since he had a way to defend himself, so he decided to walk a little more before carefully noting the position of the sun. A minute later he felt something a little further east, a tiny almost imperceptible warmth. He walked for a minute more before reaching a large open clearing.

It was massive, almost a five hundred feet across completely barren of trees; the only plant was dense short grass.

‘This would be a great spot to rest.’ Elias thought. As he entered the clearing. It was then that he noticed it wasn't actually empty. There was a tree in the center. Elias approached and realized it wasn't a tree; it was a wooden sculpture. It had the shape of a woman as he reached within a hundred feet of it, he could see the profile of a face and bust. Even from a side profile it looked impressively detailed. He wanted to get close to see it full on. The hair was made of vines and leaves grew out of its body in random places.

“Damn, whoever sculpted you is a true artist.” Elias said aloud, admiring the sculptures curves.

Elias couldn't have predicted what would happen next. A massive wave of power erupted from the sculpture. He always felt when the others used their abilities, the warm rush was like a soothing wind. This was a CAT 5 hurricane. It was hundreds. No. thousands of times more powerful than anything he had felt. He got ready to run but then the head of the statue snapped towards him, he nearly fainted as he realized it was alive. The waves of power continued to rise in strength and Elias was too stunned to move.

Fear, fear beyond anything Elias and ever experienced in his life rippled through him. The statue? Creature? Took a step toward him and he could see her full on. Again, he thought she just looked like an impressive wooden sculpture in the shape of a woman but with no actual sex organs.

It stepped towards him again and his spine tensed. It took another step, almost mechanical in its precision.

‘Run, run, run.’ He screamed in his mind. But his feet wouldn't listen, he was frozen. Elias thought it was some kind of magic before he realized that was wrong. He finally understood what deer in the headlights meant. This was true fear, animal fear. He was an insect that this creature could squash at any moment. No matter how much he screamed at himself to run, his feet remained glued to the ground. As it got close the waves of power became more intense to the point where it felt a physical force.

Finally, the creature was a foot in front of him. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think. It raised its left hand, and its index finger touched his forehead. A wave of power rippled over him then settled on his mind and after a minute it faded. Then the hand grabbed his face and twisted his head to the right, then left. Elias’s spine quivered with fear as he could feel the steel grip the cold wooden hand had on his head. Raw power behind it was like he was standing next to the sun. Elias knew he was dead and there was nothing he could do. All his hopes and dreams ended here. It was all for nothing in the end.

Then the creature raised another hand and pried his lips open, confusion ripped through him as she touched his teeth. The grip on his head became painful to the point where it felt like she was about to crush his skill. Realizing what she wanted Elias slowly unclenched his jaw. The creature examined his mouth, it had no actual eyes so Elias wasn't really sure if it could see. It moved his tongue and examined his teeth running its wooden fingers over each tooth. His mind reeled in terror; the strangeness combined with the monstrous levels of power ripping off the creature numbed his limbs.

Then the creature withdrew its hand and released his head. He met the wooden eyes wondering what was going to happen. She slowly sunk into the grass, inch by inch, never losing eye contact with him. Soon enough her head and vines suck beneath the earth. Leaving Elias alone in the clearing. The massive waves of power slowly decreased to small pulses then finally all was still. Elias put sun to his left and ran for his life.

~

“Does he have to be such an ass?” Alicia said to brent. They were still in the middle of practicing. And Brent had yet to come close to hitting her.

“You know his type. Grew up poor and now he has a chip on his shoulder. It's almost cliche.” Brent said as he went for a surprise dive to tackle her to the ground, but Alicia flipped backwards and dodged his grab. He stumbled and fell. Chuckling, Alicia offered him a hand.

“No, he actively tries to prod me. You know this.” Alicia argued.

“Yeah, so why do you argue with him? You lose the moment you take bait.”

Alicia couldn't describe it; Elias was just so irritating. “He’s just so smug, walking around like he's better than everyone. Then you had to go pay him for papers.”

“You were ok with me picking him up and paying for papers before this whole feud started. And I was still willing to straighten him out but noooo. You won't have me fighting your battles.”

“I don't need you to. I'll deal with him.”

“All I have to do is knock him on his ass then that smugness disappears. He wouldn't be the first.”

Alicia was tempted but that was basically the same as admitting defeat to him.

“All I am saying is, don't feed him. We find our way to town, maybe we're on the news for a while and then we move on to college,” Brent said.

“Yeah, I get the feeling this won't be that simple. Something going on, Brent. I mean these abilities. It has to be for a reason.”

Brent sighed and looked towards where Elias entered the forest, “Hey, Becca, how long has Brent been gone.”

The redhead stopped her stone skipping and looked at him, “I don't know, like five minutes. Think he’s in trouble?”

“Not sure but, we're burning daylight.”

Becca shrugged, “I'm pretty sure he was being serious about yelling for help. Maybe bathroom problems? You don't think he would be stupid enough to wander off too far.”

Brent sighed again and considered gathering everyone up and searching for the guy. Turns out he didn't have to. Not ten seconds later Elias burst out of the forest in a full sprint towards them, he tripped, tumbled to the ground, and not even caring, got up again and closed the distance. Brent was about to laugh before he met his eyes. There was terror in them, beyond anything he could describe. He might enjoy the idea of kicking the guys ass, but this was too much. Elias looked traumatized.

Everyone gathered around as Elias struggled to catch his breath.

“What hap….” Brent didn’t get to finish before Elias practically screamed, “We have to go NOW.”

“Elias calm down. What happened?” Becca asked. Elias’s panicked eyes turned to Becca and said.

“I’ll explain later. We are leaving now. Let's go.” He marched off downstream without another word. Brent looked at Becca and Alicia who just shrugged. After a few moments of hesitation, they followed.

~

Elias at the moment did care if they followed his mind and was too focused on the wooden woman. ‘Was she still watching? What did she do to him? What was she?’ These questions echoed through his mind. He remembered feeling power entering him, but he didn't feel any different. He gathered some water and did a weak ice spike against a tree. Everything felt normal. He was just a bit winded from running.

A crushing reality began to set it, there was a growing suspicion deep within his core that was only beginning to take root. Now it was sprouting, and he dared not repeat it to the others. He barely wanted to acknowledge it as being true himself.

“Dammit Elias What’s going on?” Brent screamed at him. Power was rolling off his body. Elias was walking for several minutes; his mind was such a whirlwind that he completely ignored any inquiry and just kept marching. He turned to see Becca, Alicia and Brent's angry and concerned expressions.

‘Ok, I guess I am being a bit emotional,’ Elias clamped down on his worry and terror until calm reason took hold.

In an even, almost emotionless tone, he said, “I found something, at first, I thought it was a tree, then a carving of a woman. But then I opened my mouth. I guess I woke it or something. The wooden woman was powerful guys. I haven't mentioned this, but I can feel when you guys use your abilities it's like a warm wind coming from your direction. This creature was thousands of times more powerful. It was like I was standing in the middle of a hurricane. I'm surprised I didnt piss myself.”

“What happened after,” Alicia asked, she almost sounded sympathetic. Elias was surprised that she didn't question if he really saw what he saw.

“She started walking towards me and the power just kept growing. I just stood there like…..”

“A deer in the headlights.” Becca offered.

“Exactly.”

“But you're here and not dead. So, she? It? let you go?” Brent asked.

“Yeah, not before she used some kind of power on me, then grabbed my head and stuck her hand in my mouth like she was expecting an animal. After that she just sunk into the ground and the power disappeared after a minute or two.”

“Then you remembered how to run.” Alicia finished.

“Pretty much.”

“Well, shit.” Brent said.

“I guess that answers one question.” Becca said after the group was silent.

“And that is?” Alicia asked.

“Why we have these powers.” Becca explained, as if the answer was obvious.

Elias laughed, half in, mockery and half in despair. “Unless we drop a nuke on that thing, we don't have a snowball's chance in hell if it attacks us.”

“Is it really that powerful?” Brent asked.

“Yes, of that you can have no doubt. I recommend we stop talking and get the fuck out of here.” Elias said, pointing downstream. Every moment spent not getting away from that clearing increased his tension.

“So, it did not harm you in any way, are you really sure it was an enemy?” Alicia asked.

Elias gave her a withering stare and said, “If you want to go investigate, be my guest. I'm leaving.”

“You just met a mythical creature, and you just want to leave, you said it yourself she didn't harm you; it could have answers. Shouldn't we at least consider…..” Elias cut Alicia off before she could finish.

“I don’t give a shit, what you want to consider. Some of us actually value our lives.” Elias stomped off without looking back, not caring whether or not they followed. He was getting away from that thing and he was done talking about it.

They walked for another half hour, the greater the distance from the clearing, the greater Elias’s relief. Eventually he calmed down enough to explain in more detail what he saw and experienced.

“This makes less sense by the moment; there's no way some plant woman wouldn't be discovered by science.” Brent said.

“I wonder if it's a dryad. It makes sense, plant woman, pretty.” Becca offered. Elias was familiar with creatures from mythology; it made sense and it's not like he had any better name to call it.

“OK, if it is a dryad, then where in the world could we be, there's no way some mythical creature was living in Nebraska.” Brent said.

‘Were not on earth anymore,’ Elias thought. But he dare not say. Ever since his encounter with the creature. A creeping suspicion was growing in him. He didn't want to consider it, but the longer he thought about the situation the more it fit. At first, he assumed the alien feeling he felt was due to not ever being outside the inner city. But now after seeing that creature he was completely sure.

‘How did the others not notice yet? It's possible they have but are lying to themselves. I mean its crazy right. I’m in another world. No, it's impossible. I'm probably in a coma and this is just a vivid dream.’

Elias tried to deny the reality, but he was lying to himself. He glanced back at the rest of their group, actively discussing the dryad.

‘Do I tell them? How would they react? For that matter where the hell are we even going. There is nothing to find here? No home to return to.’ Elias glanced at the trees and surrounding flora. Trying to spot species that he knew.

‘Pines, ferns, nothing unusual. Ok that moth looks pretty weird, almost bioluminescent blue.Is that natural? Nothing else really stands out though. But I’m not biologist,’ He looked up at the sky that started to clear.

‘The sun larger than normal and a too orange for this time of day? Maybe I'm just reaching it but the more I look the more things look off.’

Elias thought about his family, his mother sitting by the phone, waiting for a call about her son that would never come. His sister, crying on his bed hoping for her big brother to come home. She did the same thing when he was in the hospital. His father, stern and blunt, forcing himself to be strong for everyone else, never allowing his emotions to show. Always suffering in silence.

Despair started to set in, and Elias wondered if it would have been better if the thing had killed him. He instantly banished the thought.

‘No, I can't give up yet. Small goals Elias, small goals. Find civilization then I work from there. I was brought here, there has to be a way back. There has to be.’

Elias steeled himself and decided not to tell anyone what he was thinking. It could break their resolve like it almost did his. They would have to figure it out for themselves. He needed them motivated. Their survival depended on it. He would deal with it when they figured it out for themselves or until they reached civilization, if that even existed in this world.

‘If necessary, I'll go it alone.’ Elias straightened and increased his pace.