James knew none of this of course. His hooded hopeful eyes were popping out of their sockets. His imagination could never have invented all of this, could it? It was real. All of this was happening here, in his valley. But why had he never seen it before? Just then a black cloud shaped not unlike the sprites James had been following, shot over his shoulder towards another sprite shaped cloud. The two flew together at a tremendous pace exploding into flame on impact and suddenly there were two flaming sprites dancing around cheering, delighted to see one another. �Remarkable.� James remarked as the sprites greeted each other with enthusiasm. �Bhanu my old wisp!� the smaller fire sprite cheered, �how do you keep yourself looking so fierce?� �Ah Ain you silly old camp fire, don�t you remember? My family has grown by one.� Bhanu the larger more brightly burning sprite grinned a flaming grin and whoomped Ain, the smaller, on his billowing back. �Cigar Ain?� he asked proffering an already badly burned Cuban cigar. �Ain Searing actually� said Ain Searing. �What?� Bhanu chortled, �you�re not one of these double name nuts are you?� he sighed shaking his head. �An insider has one name Ain, be proud of it!� hearing this Ain shrugged off his old friends embrace and quite pointedly said. �I am Ain Searing and surely I have a right to choose a second name when some of the Elvin council themselves have two?� saying this he trudged off, his flame dimming with every step, like he didn�t believe himself, until he was a black cloud again floating through the air. �Sorry� whispered Bhanu; �I was just�� he stopped. His old friend was already hovering nervously over the water beast�s platform. Bhanu looked depressed. �WOW!� shouted a tiny voice from right behind James, making him jump with fright. Another black cloud shot past James colliding with Bhanu causing him to smile that huge fiery smile again. �It�s a big worm!� said Bale to her father, pointing at Turtle McTurnips in amazement. �No no, that�s Turtle! He�s water!� said Bhanu. �Water?� asked Bale �Yes, the same way you and I are fire, Mr McTurnips is water� �Mr McTurnips?� Bale laughed, �aren�t they�?� �Yes little spark of mine, but Turtle doesn�t know about land things, he thinks it�s exotic. Everyone seems to be taking a second name these days. At least Turtle picked his because he liked the sound of it and for no other reason,� Bhanu watched his old friend Ain board the watery hand, �unlike some others.� He said, sounding unhappy. �I wanna go on the turnip thing!� Bale flashed a smile at her father. Bhanu smiled she was twenty-five in the Human Year System (hys) but she was already becoming a full sprite. �Off we go then!� he laughed and the two flew forwards to the platform, still burning brightly chattering away to each other, looking forward to the weirdness ahead. As James was jostled and bustled up the steps to the top of the platform, he was finally able to close his mouth and get a hold of himself. Though he was dumbfounded, as we all would be if we were witnessing such a completely peculiar episode, James wasn�t thinking of the Weird and Wonderful Carnival Circus, no. James was thinking of the fiery girl he�d seen and how beautiful and wild she was. And, he was also disgusted that he felt this way about anybody, or anything for that matter especially a girl. A million miles away from what was happening James wandered across the platform and straight off the other side, landing with a tremendous splosh in the river. Unfortunately James found it extremely difficult to struggle to the surface. The Jacket around his head was suffocating him and stopping him from swimming so he had to take it off before he made a break for the surface, but is was so far away and he had so little breath that he thought for a moment that he wasn�t going to make it. He would drown before he could find out what sort of adventures this Fair would have for him, before he could see the fiery girl again. His lungs emptied long before he reached the open air and James Wilder, only for the tiniest moment, gave up. Then he was saved. �Sorry about that� said a voice above James, as he coughed and spluttered his life rushing back into him. James could feel himself being lifted high in the air and was mightily relieved, �Thought you was a stone or a rock or something,� said an angle winged boy hovering above James, �I couldn�t feel your magic, are you ill?� The strange creature smiled at him. James still couldn�t speak, he was too busy breathing. �Your face looks funny!� said Penna, which was the air sprite�s name, �will I call one of the earth healers?� Again, James was still too busy to answer, so Penna went on chattering as he placed James on the riverbank. �No wings, no flames, nearly drowned, you must be of the earth?� Asked Penna, not seeming to care whether his questions were answered or not. �I�m ok,� said James glad to feel the ground underneath him once more, �thank you.� he said looking directly up at his saviour who landed easily in front of him, folding his wings back and grinning largely. �Dear me,� said Penna. �Your eyes are ruined!� he looked shocked and surprisingly human now that his wings were behind him. Except the eyes James thought. �Oh!� James exclaimed, �broken, no no I�ll be fine.� James lowered his gaze realising that his eyes were betraying him. �I hurt them earlier, but I�ll be fine� he began to walk away but kept bumping into people, or more accurately, things. �Let me help you, poor blind earth thingy, we lucky wind sprites need to look out for our lesser�em, I mean you� lesser� I mean you other beings�� Penna stopped speaking. It was hard for a wind sprite to understand why every creatures would not just live in the sky and forget all this mother earth rubbish but he did realise he was insulting the funny little cave dweller. �Sorry,� he said. �Let me get you a hat or a veil or something to help your eyes with the light.� Penna darted off and came back with a dark blue strip of cloth. It felt like silk but was much softer and thinner. |
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