I stared at the clear reflection of myself in the mirror by the entrance. It was a face I hadn't seen in ages because I desperately tried to hide it. I smiled and touched the mirror tenderly. Look at you. You've made it so far. She smiled back as if congratulating me.
"I'm sorry," my voice came out in a whisper, "but I have to keep hiding you."
I grabbed my old baseball hat and place it on my head. It wasn't much and I was still missing my hoodie but it would attract less attention. I walked out of the women's shower to meet up with Arianna.
She blinked at me. "You're beautiful." Her eyes widened. "Not that you weren't beautiful before! I'm glad the sweatshirt fit you, though grey doesn't do you any justice."
I awkwardly hung my hands on my sides. I'm really missing my pockets. "Thank you." I muttered.
"Here," she handed me my backpack, "it's surprisingly pretty light!"
My backpack did not contain much, if it did it would only become a burden to carry much less run with it. It did however, felt lighter than it had originally felt. As I adjusted it into my back I secretly felt around for its content. My granola bars were there, including the mini-kit, my mini map, the water filter and bottle I had. The only thing missing was my pistol and my case of extra bullets.
It didn't worry me though, as I had managed to slip my pocket knife into my shoe before I showered. I'm better at using that anyway, I smiled inwardly. On the contrary of being angry, I was glad they were strict on outsiders.
"Let's us continue then!" Arianna smiled.
I followed her to the next area, which was the housing for everyone.
"This next area is housing, which is separated into two sections. The closest is singles, which is also separated for men and women. After that is the family and senior section. Since you're a single, I'll get you situated into one of the rooms that has space."
After giving a right, I was met with a hallway filled with doors. Most of them were shut but there were a couple that open and demonstrated minimal activity.
"A lot of the people here are teenagers, so you'll hardly find them in their rooms. There's nothing to do in there." She laughed while quietly peering into one of the rooms.
We went into a room that had a plate number 24. The rooms were surprisingly small compared to the other impressive rooms I had seen. They were spacey but not so much that there'd be empty useless space. This room in particular held three bunk beds with a small drawer that had four compartments.
"That bed in the far off corner is yours, there isn't anyone using either too or bottom bunk so feel free to choose which one you'd like." She pointed to the space that seemed to be unoccupied. "Have you've been taken for a tour yet?"
I shook my head.
"Great!" She grinned. "You can leave your backpack here and I can take you on a tour of the entire base! I hope you have stamina cause it's pretty huge!"
I headed towards my assigned area and looked into the drawers. They were all empty so I placed my backpack into the bottom drawer, putting it tightly into the corner. I stood back up and stole a glance at Arianna's left leg.
I had noticed it a while ago, that her left steps were heavy and her body tilted every time she took a step. Maybe it's better for me to explore on my own, I thought, she's probably uncomfortable right now.
"It looks like the girls have decorated their rooms quite nicely!" She pointed at the two other bunk bed which were decorated with paper flowers and drawings.
I was too busy mustering the courage to tell her that I'd go on the tour on my own.
"Come on." She was already out the door before I could say anything.
"I-"
"Ari!" A voice that came from a tunnel just ahead interrupted my small voice. Arianna and I both turned to look at the boy my age who came up to us panting. His burning red hair could be seen from a mile away. "I thought I was going to have to look for you everywhere!"
Arianna tilted her head. "Why? What's wrong?"
He shook his head, small wavy curls flying everywhere, "Ah it's just that they asked me to-"He glanced at me and his eyes widened.
"P?" Arianna raised her eyebrow as we stared at him.
The boy seemed to be in a sort of trance, unable to speak as his eyes were on me.
"Parker? Yoo-hoo!" She muttered. "Parker? Are you okay?"
She clapped loudly, pulling him out of his stare. Suddenly, he straightened his body out, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and tried to control his breathing. "What? What was I saying?"
"I don't know, you started to look like a fool after you looked at our friend here." Arianna laughed.
The boy's cheeks grew red. "I did not! I was just- it's just that I've never seen someone like her!"
Someone like her. His words echoed in my head. I was different from the rest, this much was evident.
In this world there were people with special gifts, whom were called Elementalist. These people had the power to bend elements to which they were connected to since birth. Some controlled fire, others water. Some controlled earth or the air. These people were distinguished by the color of their hair and eyes. For example, the boy in front of me had red hair and his ruby-like eyes were also hiding specks of orange. He then, was most likely a fire elementalist. It was the same for all the other elementalist.
An elementalist was not common, but also not rare. If properly sought out for they were in abundance especially in the empire of Kateelyna. With an exception of one.
I was that one.
Ice elementalist were the rarest of rare. More powerful than all of the elements combined but more burdensome to control. They exude nobleness and calmness, like the quiet winter but could also be as dangerous as a blizzard if they wished to. They for some odd reason were only found in Kateelyna, which is perhaps why all the nations around the world decided to take over the Empire.
"Parker that is rude!" She exclaimed with a large frown.
"I didn't mean that you were a freak or anything! It's just that your hair is white! I'm not calling you old either! I mean people your age don't have white hair unless they're an ice elementalist! That's why I was staring, it wasn't because you were beautiful or anything. I mean! You are beautiful and definitely not a freak, I just-" He continued to stumble over his words.
I felt something I hadn't felt in a while, a recollection of a hidden memory. "Shut up." I blurted to stop him from continuing his ramble. What is this? Why are they so alike? I clenched my fist and bit the inside of my lip.
He immediately closed his lips and Arianna let out the laughter she was holding. "You don't say much," she breathed, "but when you do, it's so impacting!"
Forget it. Don't remember.
The guy flushed red again and looked vacantly at the floor. "Sorry."
I closed my eyes and breathed in slowly, placing myself once again in the present rather than the past.
Breathe in. Breathe out. There you go.
As I struggled with myself Arianna finally caught her breath. "So, why'd you come P?"
"My uncle told me to take charge of showing our guest around!" The boy exclaimed. A small relief washed over me but also dread, as Arianna didn't have to over-exhort herself but I would be in the company of this guy.
After a few moments, she pouted. "I was going to do it!"
"We can do it together if you'd like?" He suggested with a smile.
"Deal!" She grinned.
I glanced over at her, then at her leg. Would she really be able to do it? I mean, I guess she knows her limitations. She wouldn't go if she knew she wouldn't be able to do it. Wait. Why am I worrying about her? Whatever she does shouldn't concern me. I placed myself back into reality, only to be staring at an outstretched and large hand.
Arianna pushed the boy's hand away. "Don't make her uncomfortable, if she doesn't want to shake your hand then she doesn't want to shake your hand!"
He glanced at his hand and then apologized, rubbing them against his pants. "I guess I should've washed my hands before coming huh?"
I missed his introduction, I thought but shrugged it off. It wasn't like I was going to keep seeing him anyway.
"Then let's start." He grinned.
The place was bigger than I had first thought. It was composed of a total of 12 different sections: the training area, the cafeteria, two separate infirmaries, an artilleries section, the laundry, the shower house, a garden, the powerhouse, the water room, the special section I had earlier entered, and finally the housing area. Most of it, excluding the garden, powerhouse, water room, and the special section, was connected through a series of tunnels that meet in the middle of the unconnected circle.
This place wasn't a rebel base, it was basically a small city! To think that I had been stomping above this place seemed unfathomable to me.
"It's truly magnificent isn't it?" The boy said proudly. "My uncle built it with the permission of the townspeople in case of a disaster. Who knew it would be useful in case of a war?"
To think that there could be such a thing is truly frightening, I wondered whether the former Emperor of Kateelyna knew about this place.
In fact, I'm surprised the rest of the nation knew nothing of this. Not even my father mentioned it, and he worked closely with the higher officials. Perhaps he did know and didn't disclose it for a reason, I figured.
"Stop that boasting P!" Arianna huffed. "You look unattractive."
"Since when were you so rude?" He pouted angrily.
Arianna shrugged. "I'm only rude to you."
"Of course." The boy scoffed but the corners of his mouth were softly curled.
"Parker!" Another voice called out and began to hold a conversation with the two of them.
Meanwhile I took the chance to look around the cafeteria, which was a large, spacey area. It was full of long tables and chairs, capable of carrying a capacity of at least 100 people. There were already some people gathered as they were enjoying their meals with their families.
My eyes landed on a small boy not far from me. His face was drowning in tears and he shook his head furiously. He seems to be saying something.
"No! It's nasty!" He sobbed.
"Baby, you need to eat it! They're healthy for you!" His mother moved a spoonful of peas near the child's mouth, which was shut tight.
"No!"
So this is it, I contemplated, this is the privilege to be able to turn away good food. In my heart I knew I didn't have the ability to do so if I were truly hungry. Looking through trash cans was something I had done before in the sake of surviving. So seeing the little boy refusing to eat such goods made my blood start to boil.
"Here we go!" Arianna's voice was directed towards me so I turned. I didn't expect to be meet with a plate of food.
I gave her a questionable look as my hands reached to grab the plate she was offering.
"I'm sure you're hungry! Besides the state of you is miserable, it looks like you haven't eaten a decent meal in ages."
A decent meal. My mind drifted back to the trash cans.
"Let's take a seat, Parker's waiting in line for his own plate!" Arianna guided me to an edge of a table, one that was completely clear of any surrounding people. "I told them that you were a newcomer which automatically gets you dessert! It's a luxury here to get dessert and we only distribute them in special occasions."
I stared at the little clear plastic wrapper, it seemed to contain chunks of something I hadn't seen in a long time.
"It's the cheap kind, but it's still good." Arianna laughed.
I picked it up to look at it closer. The last time I had seen chocolate was before the war, which was nearly eleven years ago. My mother would always buy us bars of chocolate at the store, my sisters-
"Oh, are we starting with dessert?" Laughed Arianna.
I quickly stop my hands from moving any further, as they were about to open the bag without my permission. It would be a waste to eat them here, I figured and instead placed the rarity into my backpack.
"Are you going to eat it later?" Arianna asked and I nodded slowly. "That's a smart choice. It seems like they're serving meatloaf today! Personally I love the meatloaf but I'm the only one."
Meat? That's also hard to come by. I stared at the tray in front of me. A mash of meat covered in brownish sauce sat along a not-so mashed potatoes and a handful of wrinkled peas. I couldn't understand why that boy couldn't eat such a meal. It all looked so good.
"We can start eating, it doesn't look like Parker is going to take long anyway." She picked up her fork and began eating.
Don't eat it.
His voice rang in my head. Why? I asked.
You'll get used to the luxury and you won't be able to live without it one you get back outside.
I bit my lip. It was reasonable, but to me, it made no sense. When was the last time I had something like this?
Disobeying his orders, my hand took the fork slowly and dug it into the mushy meat. I could feel Arianna's stare as my hand made it's way to my mouth. The flavors melted on my tongue and my throat felt stuffy. They beat the bland taste of granolas and fruits, as the gravy and meat mixed together. It was one of the best foods I have ever tasted.
"Is it good?" Arianna asked, concern decorating her facial expressions.
"It's-" I blinked a few times and mumbled, "It's delicious."
Arianna smiled softly. "That's good."
"Hey! Why'd you start eating?" The red-headed boy came back as loudly as ever.
"You were taking too long!" Arianna retorted.
The two of them continued their bickering and I looked back at the plate, its contents looked back at me. It's delicious.