He hadn’t talked to his charge last night.

At first, Mettan was going to announce himself as soon as the two humans walked in, but the older one was having trouble standing, and he didn’t want the surprise to cause them to drop Alex.

As soon as the younger one had left, the dark-skinned Elf had planned on announcing himself to his charge, but by the time he opened the door, the human was already asleep.

Rather than wake up his charge, Mettan had drained the water out of the man’s clothes and gone back to the guest room and slept. The bed wasn’t anything like what he was used to, but it had served its purpose.

The water Elementalist got up and walked to the door of his charge. Someone was talking in the room and it wasn’t the human that was supposed to be inside. He opened the door and saw that it was the television.

“Do not fight against the military.” The news anchor warned, “They are there for your protection. Please cooperate and submit yourselves for registration if you think you might have powers.”

“They will never catalog everyone who has powers.” Mettan crossed his arms.

The human dropped his phone on the floor. “Who are you?”

Mettan tried to smile. “My name is Mettan Cascade. I am with the Earth Defense Fleet and have been dispatched to train you.”

“Dispatched? By who?” The red-haired human scooted to the other side of the bed.

“The Elders gave me the order.” He knew that he was dropping a lot of information on the human, but he had already wasted a whole day and the Dark Legion would be free soon. Elves would spend years, sometimes decades training with the Elements. He knew that he could teach them the basics in a few days, but he wondered how much good it would do. But what he did know was that every moment he did have was precious.

“Who are they?” Alex shook his head, “How did you even get in my house?”

“The Elders govern those who use magic. Someone like you, who is an Elementalist, would fall under the authority of the Council.”

“Okay…” The human stood up on the other side of his bed and turned off the television, “And what did you mean by ‘they’ll never catalog everyone’?”

Mettan nodded at the television. “People are going to resist any new rules that put restrictions on them. Those without power or strength are going to resent having limits put on something they weren’t taught to respect.”

“What’s going to happen then?”

“Humans will abuse their powers until the Dark Legion arrive.” Mettan shook his head. “Then some will try to fight, others will try to run. All will be conquered by the Dark Legion.”

“What’s the Dark Legion?” Alex began looking through the dresser beside him. “Are they like Elves or something?”

“Yes.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Alex scrunched his brow, “So they are Elves.”

“Some of them.” All of the questions were reminding Mettan of nights with his daughter when she was little. “It’s mostly made up of races that enjoy bringing harm to others. The few Elves that are in it can barely be called Elves at all.”

“How so?”

Mettan took a deep breath, “The Elves that are a part of the Dark Legion practice dark magic or fled there to escape justice for their crimes.”

“Dark Magic is bad?” Alex stated as well as asked.

“It is.”

“How?”

“Dark Magic is channeling demonic energy. That energy works its way into your flesh. Into your very soul.”

Goosebumps appeared on Alex’s arms. Mettan would’ve smiled if it wasn’t so serious. “Using Dark Magic will even taint an Elf or Dragon’s eyes.”

“It can?” wonder was replacing fear in Alex’s voice.

“An Elf’s eyes are linked to their power.” Mettan pointed at his eyes, “Elves with blue eyes are Water Elementalists.” He watched Alex’s face light up, “Brown is Earth, Silver is Air, Red is Fire, Gold is magic.” Mettan lowered his voice, “Black means the Mage has used dark Magic.”

“There are people with Red eyes?” Alex’s smile brightened the room

“Yes.” the infectious smile almost spread, “But they are becoming rare.”

“Why are they rare?” Alex leaned forward

“Earth has a population of eight billion.” Mettan looked up and did some quick math in his head, “Spread across the Universe there are only about twelve billion Elves. Of those only, about five hundred million are Fire Elementalists. Most are kept on the front lines of ground campaigns.”

“Five hundred million,” Alex whistled, “That’s hardly rare.”

“Compared to the other races it is. There are ten billion Dwarves. A couple thousand Dragons.” Mettan allowed himself a small grin, “A few million Gnomes, they blew up their homeworld to try to get rid of the Thizzers.” He frowned, “It didn’t work.”

“What else is there?” Alex’s lips curved up in anticipation.

“Only the three races that are under the authority of the High Elf Congress submit census information.”

“The High Elf Congress?” Alex asked, “What’s that?”

“The High Elf Congress is the leader of the Military and the voice for the powerless Elves. They work with the Elders and the Council to protect the Universe.”

“From the Dark Legion,” Alex asked

“Among other threats.” Mettan agreed

“What other threats?” Alex inquired

“Right now it is the Dark Legion. In the past, it has been the Dark Tribes, the Weres, the Camadt, and even civil wars within each of our nations. There have been many great wars. The first major war ended with the banishment. To save humans from themselves the Elders of that time cut humans off from the Conduit and banished most nonhumans from Earth to the far reaches of the universe.” Mettan paused, “It cost them their lives though.”

“Wow.” Alex whistled, “They were badasses.”

“They were.” Mettan agreed. He glanced at his pad. He was behind schedule for going to get Paige. It looked like Alex was about to ask more questions about High Elf history, but there wasn’t time. He walked out of the room, “We need to leave.”

“What’s there?” Alex asked. The sound of a shotgun pumping followed his question.

Mettan turned around. Alex was standing behind him, trying to look around him. “No one.” He grabbed the barrel and firmly, but slowly pushed the end down.

“I have two more charges that I have to pick up.” Mettan looked from the gun to Alex, “Leave that here.” He saw that Alex wasn’t going to want to part with the gun, “I have better guns.”

Alex tossed the shotgun on the couch, “Do they shoot lasers?”

“Some,” Mettan opened the door and motioned for Alex to go first.

“I can’t leave.” Alex didn’t move, “I need to check on my siblings and my parents.” His voice trailed off.

“You can check on them once we’re on my ship.” Mettan motioned for the human to leave.

“It will just take a second to…” Alex’s eyes lit up, “Did you say ship?”