Guilty, or at least feeling guilty Gordon looked around at the devastation. Most of the elementals who had come to the temple seeking their Matriarch were gone. Dust in the wind with their queen. Even the trees and brush near the temple, not to mention the temple itself had been ravaged by the tornado.
Yet strangely the elementals did not blame him for what had happened to their leader. One elemental who had just arrived inspected the scene and took command. It was larger than the others. In fact it was larger than Renier had been. Standing at about 4 meters tall it was also bulky being almost completely composed of solid rock. Having stone as its body it moved significantly slower than many of the other earth elementals that had more of the nature aspect.
Once it had communicated with the other earth elementals and they had all settled into new jobs cleaning the temple and tending the plants the large rock elemental turned to Gordon and speaking in the common tongue asked him to follow.
"Human! My name is Jult, its is a pleasure to meet you."
The giant introduced himself, but then instead of waiting for Gordon to reply Jult said.
"Come, return with me to the hut. I think you should see something."
Solemn because of their loss Gordon followed the larger rock form elemental back to the clearing where the hut was.
Along the way they were met by Jessica on the back of the silver bearded behemoth with the rest of her eight her pets in divine animal form their human looks slightly off hinting at their animal birth rights riding.
"Gordon! What happened? We saw the twister even from over here!"
Jessica exclaimed.
Looking at her and her pets Gordon could see that they already knew. Especially the bunny was looking terrified, huddling into Jessica's arms even in human guise.
"Yes we lost her. Renier wasn't even able to put up a fight. The dark mist just swirled down and took her away."
Since the rock elemental didn't say anything Gordon felt he had to provide some kind of explanation.
"I am so sorry! I didn't know that upgrading her rank would cause something like this to happen."
Continuing by trying to admit his guilt and begin to make things right Gordon look down refusing to meet their eyes.
Surprisingly bunny responded first.
"Oh, it isn't your fault!"
Forgiveness came the the rabbit.
Startled he looked up, only to have the rock elemental put a rough arm around his back.
"Yes, you gave us a gift. One that we never thought we would have. Our Lady evolved! From purple diamond to verdant mercury all the way to pink palladium. It was more than we could ever have expected. And even though we had so little time with her, she spread her power to all of us. We all have been able to grow so much. We have to thank you! Why would we blame you!"
By the time he was finished the rock elemental was practically shouting in joy. These elementals seemed to be able to express emotions at high levels, but at the same time they didn't take anything too personally. But maybe this was because they were earth elements and had a strong foundation. It was very laudable, they weren't easily blown in the winds of change.
"But what about Renier? Isn't she gone? Didn't she die?"
Asked Gordon.
Instead of answering the rock elemental picked Gordon up and started running towards the hut. At least that is the direction that Gordon thought he was going since he still couldn't gain his bearings well in the forest.
The elemental was slow getting started and had to slow down way ahead of the clearing, but they were there within a minute or so. It was a testament to the power of the rock elemental which. Ostensibly slow, once it got going its speed was incongruous. Of course Jult was still over shadowed by Jessica's enormous behemoth who seemed to be casually jogging along to the side.
Once they were back in the clearing he noticed that there were already hundreds of elementals gathered many ranks deep in a circle at the very center of the clearing. The rock elemental carefully let Gordon down while the behemoth let Jessica and the others climb down from its head before turning back into the old grandpa and following behind.
Whispering Jult informed them of the significance of this clearing.
"This place is the very heart of the mountain."
He put a massive finger to his face where a normal human would have lips. Jult just had a crack in the hard stone below his craggy nose.
Spots were made for them as they sat down and proceeded to wait with the elementals. For what they were waiting for Gordon was only now starting to understand. Renier was going to be reborn?
Not really understanding the elemental birthing process Gordon looked over to Jessica who smiled at him and then put her fingers to her lips. Pointing to the heart of mount Renier where everyone was gathered, quietly she also waited intently staring.
Shrugging Gordon also decided to wait as suddenly the sound of something breaking echoed up from the ground. It wasn't a harsh noise, more like a huge bell was ringing more than anything else and then the ground shook beneath their feet and little pebbles started to dance on the surface of the cleared area. While the shaking beneath his own butt died down for the most part the intensity of the vibrations continued to rise in the middle. Until a slight mound of earth spontaneously arose.
Shocked he couldn't not compare this with the way a human woman's body changed during pregnancy!
Staying that way for about a minute while still vibrating every single elemental was had their eye sockets or whatever passed for eyes among elementals trained on the scene. Then the vibrating stopped and within a few seconds the slight mound became a great protrusion. Rising up to about a meter in height all in one rush. Then nothing. The soft dirt remained still for another few minutes.
The tension and anticipation only built as the elementals leaned in. They seemed to know something expecting something to happen so Gordon continued to watch becoming caught up in the moment.
Everyone was silent motionless except a few cries of infants and young elementals back behind at the fringes of the crowd.
And then slowly the dirt fell away. A little at first, but then cascading more and more dirt fell revealing a cute little baby elemental with skin of ivory and black curly hair fully formed framing her face.
When the last speck of dirt finally merged back down into the clearing a roar went up from the rock elemental. Quickly joined by the rest of the crowd the elementals broke out into a celebration. Leaving the baby to lay there in the dirt they all went away and literally started a party that lasted the rest of the day and far into the night.
As for Gordon and Jessica they stood there together looking at each other.
For his part Gordon was hoping that Jessica would pick up the baby. But after a full minute Gordon realized that Jessica was leaving this responsibility up to him. She folded her arms under her breasts and switched her weight to one foot so that she could tap the other. Besides these displays of impatience she only looked at him kindly waiting for him to figure out on his own the situation.
Finally Gordon shrugged reached down and picked up the baby elemental. As soon as he did the baby made a face and blew him a raspberry.
Wiping the slobber from his face he looked down at her and said.
"I think I am going to call you Ren."
This time the baby giggled and gave him a joyous smile.
Somehow the rock elemental had come back and stood behind Gordon. Jult intoned as they turned to him.
"Renier came to me and told me that she would die. I was sad, but she told me not to worry, that in her place a new elemental would be born to support the spire and that she would entrust a human to take care of her."
Gulping Gordon turned a little white.
"Uhmm, she asked me to protect her... I didn't know she meant to have me raise her from infancy!"
But the rock elemental shook his head.
"This is not Renier. While Renier became powerful, she was not so powerful that she could directly reincarnate. This baby only has the bloodline of Renier which carries the foundation for the mountain outside of this spatial pocket."
Describing what was happening to a human was impossible. Gordon just looked at the rock elemental in confusion.
"Are you saying that the mountain outside and this baby are one and the same?"
Trying to understand he furrowed his brow and tried to figure out these elemental complexities.
"Ha, ha, ha, human you tease me. This baby is not a mountain. But she does carry the mountain and if she dies the mountain dies with her."
To Gordon this rock dude was talking in circles.
Fortunately Jessica stepped in.
"What does it matter, come on, we just have to take care of this baby. Can you tell us anything more to help us?"
"Yes, she is of the red gold rank, and therefore will require much nourishment and care to ensure her smooth rise to purple diamond."
Saying this the rock man seemed to think he was done and started to turn away.
"Wait! Excuse me great elemental. Please tell me what she likes to eat. How much should she sleep? Does she need to go poop?"
Confused himself now the rock elemental just looked at Gordon.
Having lived a full life in his previous incarnation Gordon knew how much care and attention an infant needed. Food, sleep, and excretion were key to nourishing a happy healthy baby. And while he would have been set to raise a human baby, raising an elemental was something that he had no clue about.
"She is an elemental, not a human. Just give her good food to eat and she will grow. What are these things sleeping and pooping?"
So saying he broke off his right arm and placed it directly on the baby.
It was so heavy that Gordon had scramble not to fumble the baby from the weight. Thankfully he was able to successfully shift the Jult's arm to fall at his feet.
"Thank you?"
He said after navigating that crisis Gordon watched as the rock elemental shrunk a little after reforming his arm again shifting stone from the considerable mass of the rest of his body.
"Live long and enjoy the earth!"
This time the rock dude walked away purposefully. Resolutely he didn't look back even when Gordon called out to him to wait.
Then sitting down on the arm Gordon held baby Ren as the earth elementals started randomly coming up to him and just like the rock dude broke off some of their bodies as offerings to the baby. For the rest of the party that day and the night Gordon sat there and just continuously fed Ren with the little bits and pieces the earth elementals gifted.
From one point of view it was macabre. Feeding Ren the pieces of her people was mind numbing to a human. However, Ren loved it! The gluttonous child greedily consumed every little bit of sustenance. By the end of the night she must have consumed more than ten times her own weight in elemental essence. And while it wasn't apparent at first she started growing little by little. By the end of the night she was mostly into her toddler years and growing strong.
Jessica sat next to him only occasionally getting up to talk with various elementals. Or she would go talk and chat with her new pets. During this long day and night Gordon told her of what had happened to him on the plane. She was surprised at first, but then surprisingly nodded.
"So now you know. I thought you would be more surprised."
He said.
For a while she seemed to waiver, but then finally explained.
"You know, we 'haves' as you call us aren't really so privileged that we don't understand what happens in the pits. There are even some of us that support the rebellion."
She dropped a bomb on Gordon.
"Wait you support the Starfire Alliance?"
"No! Actually, ..., well maybe. I have only ever heard of the Starfire Alliance once or twice. The group I am involved with is called the rebellion. I know they are connected somehow, but from what I know of the rebellion these groups are only loosely organized. They have no true leader, only individuals who rise up within certain groups. Then these groups sort of talk every once in a while."
Hesitantly Jessica gave a rough explanation.
"Are you saying that we might be on the same side?"
Laughing Jessica giggled a little at his childish understanding.
"Yes, I suppose you could say we are on the same side. Ha, ha!"
Wondering why she thought this was funny Gordon stated the obvious conclusion, at least to him.
"Well, then I can just tell the Starfire Alliance that your on the same side and then I don't have to die!"
While he had lived forty plus years of another life, that life had been the life of a desk jockey, he had never even been aware of the great games played by the elites in his own society back then. It had been enough and more then enough just to get by.
Suddenly serious Jessica frowned and then looked over at him.
"I don't think that it will be that easy, Gordon."
She used his name. This was serious, Jessica only used his name when she was about to pull rank as one of the 'haves'.