The night was cool, and calm, in a secluded forest, a small castle stood. It appeared empty, and spooky.

It stood, its grey walls gleaming, as if someone had merely misplaced it, and intended to find it again.

With a great gust of wind, a figure stood in front of then castle. And waited. Soon, with a shaking of earth, she was joined by a man. Shocking flames lept up, for the dou to become a trio, with a second man joining the party. With rain, a fourth joined, a female, and suddenly they were paired.

With gleaming light, a fifth joins the foursome.

"So. Wind, earth, fire and water. You are all here" the man said, stepping out of the gleaming light, his voice deep and rich. "The six students-"

"We sent out letters to at least thirty!" Earth complained

"And six have started to us" the man replied.

"That doesn't seem like enough" wind mused, worried

"We will just have to make them enough" fire said hautitlyy

"And teach them to survive" water added

"As we will" spirit said softly

"So mote it be" they coursed.

---

Shakuntala watched over her brother, bundled up in blankets and as close tl the fire as he could get safety.

One more day. She was sure of that. Their two week journey would be over, and they would nave arrived.

Where that wss, Shakuntala wasn't sure. She had mostly been leading them in the directin thatnfelt right. Thats what the letter said in any case.

She oulled out their two letters, both made of the same paper, and yet both written by different people.

my child,

Ou have been chosen, child, for a task. We, that is, water fire, earth, wind and spirit, have chosen you to train, we invite you to mae your way to our school, where we shall teach you magic.

Follow your heart, and it shall lead you fo us.

Blessed be.

That was it, yet it had been the hooe Shakuntala had been waiting for. A chance to get out. A chance to live. To let Pakuna live. And she had taken it. Better to die out here, then back home.

At a noise, Shakuntala had jolted up, but in seconds an orange cat had appeared. This cat was larger than some dogs, yet still managed to be graceful. He turned yellow eyes on Shakuntala, gave a shrug, then went to lie across Pakunas feet. "Rhyme, ylu scared me" shakuntala said with a sigh.

"You have every rjght to be afraid, Child" a soft, almost musical voice said, "I" they formed out of water that appeared, "am water" the woman stood in from of Shakuntala, a kind smile on her face, her hair long and flowing, as if it too were wafer. Her eyes were a deep green, her skin pale. She stood tall, taller than Shakuntala. "Wake your brother. We will head to the school now, my dear. With any luck, my partners would have found others"

Shakuntala stared at the woman. Water. She finally forced herself to move, waking ng Pakuna up, quickly gathering their gear.

"This way, children"

They didn't argue. They followed silently.

They soon entered the forest, and both Shakuntala and Pakuna stopped to stare at the castle. Shakuntala turned to say something to Water, but she had disappeared.

"What now?" Pakuna said sleepily, the massive Rhyme in his arms. Pakuna was strong, and never seemed to tire of lugging tne great cat around.

"We wait" shakuntala said

---

Water had left, to reappear in front of sage, collect the students, bring them together. Those were their orders. "Sage, child. I am water"

Earth appeaered before Mathias. Earth was a large man, well muscled, tanned brown, with short brown hair, and deep blue eyes. "Mathias Parker" his voice resonated, "I am here for you. To bring you to the school. I am Earth!"

Fire apoeared before Johnny, and causally put his hands in his pockets, "Johnny,, I take it? I am fire, and I hsve been told to bring you to the school" fire was a skinny man, and quite tall. His hair was strawberry blonde, his skin black, his eyes pale.

And finally wind appeared before Eric. She was a willowly woman, with long white hair, and white eyes. "Eric, dear child. My name is wind. I shall bring you to the school"

Sage opened one eye at the sound of the mysterious voice. "your one of the ones who sent me that letter arent you. so what now?" he opened his other eye and stood up, wiping the sleep from his eyes. he looked around to see if anyone or anything was around. but looked back at water eventually in expectation.

"Now?" Water said, her tone musical, "why, now Sage, I show you your new home" Water smiled, "Spirit wjshes to give you his apology for not collecting you himself. He recognises that spirit is the strongest magic you will weild. Unfortunetely, Spirit is busy with preparations. He will glady talk with you later"

She held out her hand, "take my hand, and I will lead you to the school"

Sage makes a face of slight confusion but doesnt say anything. he just wipes his hand on his pants before extending his hand and taking hers

Water had powerful magic. All lf the five did. "Viaxe terra" it literalll meant travel the land. She pictured the forrest outside the school, and within seconds, both she and Sage were there.

She led the way through the trees, to the school.

pakuna looked up, moved closer to his sister at the approach of Water and Sage.

Johnny was sitting on a log beside a campfire, he raised an eyebrow at Fire as the being approached, Johnny's own dark brown hair flickering by the light of the campfire Johnny had made, he looked the strange man up and down and raised an eyebrow from his position on the log, he pointed to a piece of paper that was quickly being burnt to cinders by the fairly large fire in front of Johnny "You wrote that? You're Fire I take it?" Johnny scanned the man one more time, after running over Fire's words in his mind one more time

Again Sage looked around. taking in his surroundings, or so it seemed. he noticed the other two people but didnt pay them much mind at first. after he was satisfied with looking around he looked at the two. he assumed they were students as well but the boy looked about his age. he grinned, "hello. my name is sage."

Fire leaned against a tree, laying a hand on it, "yes, I wrote that. If you wish to learn, come with me. If you don't....well, I will just have to take you to the school by force. You, and the other students are needed Johnny" he said,

"So, Johnny. Do you want to learn magic?"

---

Water walked up tk the castle, turning when she reached the door and facing tne trio of students.

shakuntala odded at Sage, "I am Shakuntala, and this is my brother Pakuna"

pakuna was a shy child. He gripped rhyme closer

(Edited my above oost in case you don't see it, not showing uo on my subscriptions)

"a pleasure to meet you both" he looked at water next "as much as i love the great out doors, might we be able to go inside please, i havent sat on anything soft in forever and a shower would be heavenly. you have those here right? please tell me you have them....oh and food. thats important too" despite his jovial tone Sage was asking serious questions.

Johnny eyed the man for the what seemed to Johnny to be the world's slowest moments, deciding whether to take this man up on his offer or not, he did not like strangers particularly well but there was something inside of him that was yearning to take up this mans offer, a sense of adventure Johnny chalked it up to, as he kicked dirt onto the fire and slung his backpack over his shoulder, sticking his hands in his pockets as he did, walking towards the man. Fire stood at least a head taller than Johnny, who had been somewhat short his entire life, but he was sinewy, filled to the brim with small rolling muscle under his dark tanned skin. Clenching his jaw, Johnny stuck at Fire, knocking the man over, and then stuck his hand into his pockets "Yes I wanna learn magic, we going or what?" Johnny asked as he leaned against the same tree the man had seconds earlier

Fire barely made a movement, but in seconds he had the tree on fire. It did not burn. Fire used the magic to try and cool Johnny down a bit, he would not tolerate this disrepect, but nor would he harm the child. He stood, casually brushing himself off.

"Lets get one thing straight, kid" fire said, "you do that to me again, and I can not be responsible for my actions" he stared at Johnny. And then laughed, "come. We are clkse to the school. You were close without realising I" he started to walk, not even looking back to see if he was following,

Fire walked uo oassed the trio of students when he broke through the barrier that surrounded the school seconds later, and up to stand by Water. Water took Fires hand, and steam rose when warm skin touched cool.

"A pleasure to meet you too" shaku tala said. Maybe this kid would be good for Pakuna, she thought.

"When all of you have gathered, than you shall have what you desire, Sage" water said calmly.

Johnny gave the man a fierce stare through sunglassed eyes, perhaps that somewhat ruined it, but somewhere, deep down, Johnny felt that perhaps here wasn't the place to assert his dominance, sure he was lonely, but as the man calmly spoke to him Johnny got the idea that he had somehow come very close to awakening some kind of primordial beast. Johnny followed the strange man as he led him deeper into the woods, laughing with the large man as he did, suddenly falling into bewilderment by the castle as he approached it Johnny's draw dropped, but only internally, externally he took a deep breath and stared at the magnificence of the thing.

"Johnny" He said by way of introdction after regaining his composure and turning to the others gathered there, holding his hand out to no one in particular.

Shakuntala took the offered hand, frowning slightly. "Shakuntala" She said, "my younger brother Pakuna" she nodded to Pakuna "the massive orange beast in his arms is Rhyme, his cat. And this boy is Sage" she took care of the introductions. She looked over at Fire and water, "I wonder how many more of is there will be"

"Two" Pakuna said softly

Sage barely acknowledged Johnny's presence. In fact it wasn't until Pakuna mumbled something that he looked away from the castle. it was only a curious glance before his eyes drifted back to the formidable looking structure. He tilted hi head back and looked up to the sky before letting out a long yawn.

Eric was crouched next to a fire, his bow resting on his legs, his quiver on his back, his hood up over his face. His eyes flickered in the light, amazingly still even as he was on his knees. However, when he heard the movement of Wind, in a second his bow was up and an arrow as pointed at Wind's face. Once he realized who it was he hastily lowered his bow. He then stood up, returning his bow and the arrow to its proper place on his back. He then said," my apologies, my reflexes tend to go to fight when something appears. Let us go then." His eyes glowed briefly and a gust of air extinguished the fire.

"No, dear child" Wind said with a musical laugh, "it is always good ti be prepared, yet one shoukd learn to know ones enimies, from ones friends. You don't want to go shooting a friend"

She stared at the fire when itnwent out, "ah, you know some control then. Interesting"

She walked around Eric as if studying him, then shrugged and said, "lets go" she held out a hand for him to take

Eric nodded," only basic things like that. My father wasn't too afraid of my abilities so he let me use them when I was hunting." He watched her walk around him but otherwise kept still for her. When the hand was offered he nodded and placed his hand in hers. His hand was covered in callouses. Particularly where his bow would pressing against his palm, and also on the knuckle of his index finger from his knife.

Wind didn't wait for anything else. In a flurry of air, they disappeared then reappeared by the others. She let go of Erics hand, walking up to Fire and Water.

"One more" Pakuna said, but didn't say anything else.

Shakuntala looked over. She was use to Pakuna's short sentences, generally holding a lot of meaning. "Hello"

Eric nodded," hello." He pulled his hood back, fully revealing his face. Especially in the dark it was nearly impossible to see his face under his hood. He folded powerful arms across his body. His nearly constant training gave him a very fit body.