Embrace the Fire
By: roroselle
She could hear herself breathing and feel the sun on her face. The water wraps her in its arms, embracing her, and rocks her back and forth. Roselle's eyes open and she finds herself looking up at the bright blue sky. "Peace," she thought, "this is peace." She let the waves bring her where it pleased as she tried keeping chin high up to keep water from getting onto her face. Suddenly, she heard a muffled, yet familiar, voice calling out to her. "Roselle, come out the water! There's mail for you!" Roselle flipped her body around and started to swim towards shore. Her body moved with the water like she was one with it. She reached the shore and runs into the cabin that she calls home. You can expect nothing less from a girl gifted with the powers of water from birth. Her cabin rests just feet away from the beach where she can call the beach her backyard. Before she stepped in, she snapped her fingers and all the water residue snapped away from her; she walked into the cabin dry as a desert.
"What came?" she asked her best friend that lives with her.
Kate replied, "It looks fancy, like some kind of invitation."
Kate was sitting on the couch holding up the invitation. Roselle snatched the invitation right out of Kate's hands and plopped down next to her. "Did the mermaids invite you to King Triton's ball?" Kate joked.
"As much as you'd like to believe, mermaids are not real," Roselle responded.
"Yeah and girls with water powers are," Kate said in her sarcastic tone.
"And here I am!" Roselle exclaimed while laughing.
Kate knew Roselle ever since they were in their mothers' womb. Kate knew about Roselle's gift and never stops reminding her about it. Roselle opened the envelope and began to read the invitation. Kate observed Roselle's eyes panning through the invitation. She scrunched her eyebrows in wonder.
"What does it say?" Kate eagerly asked.
After a moment of more silence Roselle responded, "Um, I've been invited to a Fire Festival."
---
Roselle was pacing back and forth as Kate followed her with her eyes. The air in the room became tense.
"It shouldn't be a big deal right?" Kate said to break the tension Roselle was creating.
"Of course it is! This the first year they're inviting other gifted elements!"
"Why are you freaking out? Shouldn't they be the one scared of you?" Kate chuckled.
Roselle tried to keep a straight face but couldn't help let out a smirk.
The Fire Festival celebrates the ones gifted with powers of fire. It's a big celebration that's held in The Woods, which is about half a day's travel. They hold it towards the end of summer. The fire gifted usually go there to show off their powers and use their powers for art, food, entertainment, and more. They commemorate the end of the summer by gathering to appreciate the last days of summer. As you can imagine, barbecue is real popular in the festival. There has been tension between all the element gifted people. "Gifted people" is only a recent concept the world had to grasp. By recent, I mean it only started 2 decades ago, which is recent in terms of the word getting used to gifted people. The world found ways to live with the gifted and to keep the world in order. However, the tension between each element always lingered. Despite the tensions, a move to eliminate tensions has been started by the fire gifted communities. And according to Roselle's invitation, they're opening the Fire Festival to all elements. Roselle wondered if it was a gesture of peace or a gesture of look-at-our-fire-power-it's-better-than-your-power.
"It's tomorrow night," Roselle said beneath her breath.
"Then it looks like you have to leave tomorrow at noon perhaps?" Kate suggested.
Roselle shrugged her shoulders and plopped back down on the couch next to Kate.
"What if I get...bored or something? I don't know that part of the land. I..I'm not comfortable around fire."
Kate let out a laugh and said, "Are you serious? You can put out fires!"
"Just because I can put it out, doesn't mean I'm comfortable around them! Besides, what if there's no water around? I can't just make water, smart ass." Roselle retorted.
Kate stood up, took the invitation and threw it at Roselle's face. "Leave at noon and I'm sure you'll get there by the time the festival starts."
She already knew that Roselle was going to decide she is going to go. She knew that Roselle just needed that push. She knew this was Roselle needed to face it. Kate then walked into her room and shut the door showing Roselle that she called it a night.
Roselle let out a sigh and a small smile as she picked up the invitation. She looked at it as she got up from the couch and headed towards her room to call it a night.
---
"Twelve," Roselle murmured under her breath. She swung her bag around and headed out the door. She was wearing a tan hat and a purple, sleeveless dress that went up to her knees. Kate stopped her before she stepped out, "It'll be great! Just... don't be that girl who puts out their fires." Kate smiled and then chuckled as she closed the door.
Roselle shook her head and laughed, she was thankful for a friend like Kate. And with that, Roselle began her adventure to the Fire Festival.
---
Twiddling her fingers, Roselle made drops of water dance around her as she was taking a break at a side of a river. She was only an hour or so away from The Woods. The sun is 3/4 of it's way down and so was Roselle's water supply. She was lucky to have found a river running through to replenish, and even play for a little while.
"My parents always told me not to play with my food, you probably heard 'don't play with your water at the table' right?" a voice said which broke Roselle's concentration sending the water floating around back into the river.
Roselle quickly turned her head towards the voice's direction and saw a young man, dressed in camo shorts and a plain white t-shirt. His black hair was tousled and his face was clean. Roselle tilted her head and gave him a confused look.
"My parents told me not to talk to strangers, you probably head 'talk to strangers and run the fun they're having' right?" Roselle thought she could be witty at times, though she only thought.
The young man let out a short chuckle before apologizing, "Exactly right. However I apologize, I love seeing people embrace their powers."
"You know a thing or two?"
"Might. You heading to the Fire Festival?"
Roselle's eyes grew big after his question, "Ye- Yes, how'd you know?"
The young man answered, "You're going in that direction and you have a water gift so through my keen powers of observation--"
Roselle interrupted, "Good job, Sherlock. So what element gift do you have?"
The young man looked down and snapped his fingers. The leaf that he was apparently looking at caught on fire. Roselle jolted back a little and glanced at the young man, "Fire," she thought to herself.
"I'm Ralph, and you are..." his voice trailed.
"Roselle," she answered sternly.
Ralph noticed her demeanor when he set that leaf on fire and developed a curiosity towards her.
"If we want to make it on time, we should get going," he stood up with the confidence that she'll follow.
Roselle looked at him and wondered if it was a good idea but he was right and she actually liked his company. She followed behind him and they began to walk. They hit small talk here and there. They showed off each other's powers here and there. Then suddenly, the sun was already set. Ralph grabbed two thick branches to make into torches and handed one to Roselle. They continued the path with the fire lighting their way.
"So, you're gonna tell me why fire makes you cringe so much?" Ralph asks.
Roselle was shocked that he noticed that, she tried her best to hide her cringe-face when he would show off his fire.
"If you must know," Roselle started, "my parents died in a fire." She gave it to him straight because she knew he would just keep asking her if she didn't. Ralph was silent, looking up at the flame of his torch. She noticed and she decided to continue.
"I panicked. I was young, I-- My powers weren't as developed. I could have saved them.." She looked over to her torch and glared at the flame. "All fire does is destroy, and I was too weak to put it out. I--"
Ralph put out his arm and stopped her from walking. He looked into her eyes and said, "It's not that simple."
He waved his arm and both flames were gone. Roselle gasped and looked around. Darkness filled the place, all she could see was the night sky above them.
Ralph began, "Without the flame, we would be walking through darkness right now. Yes, fire can destroy but fire also brings light. Fire can get chaotic but fire can also be tamed. There's a balance to everything but how can you see both if you don't embrace it?" He waved his hand once again and the flames appeared on the torches again. Roselle stayed quiet because she was in deep thought, she knew he was right. It was a simplistic concept, but sometimes we are too clouded to even see the simplest things in front of us.
They reached a field of tall grass. Roselle looked around and noticed little spots of light here and there. She turned to Ralph and asked, "What's going on? What are those?" Ralph smirked and said, "Fireflies. They like to come out in summer. They're called that because of the natural light they have. They illuminate the night, like fire." He grabbed her hand and pulled her through to the middle of the field. "Stay here," he whispered in her ear. He ran back and waved his arm through the tall grass.
Suddenly, a whole flock of fireflies came out of the tall grass and started to surround Roselle. She looked around in awe and wonder. She felt this feeling before, it was a familiar feeling. She pictured herself floating in the water, she remembered the feeling the water gave her as she floated, like the water was embracing her. But this time, fireflies were embracing her. She felt the tickle of the fireflies and the warmth of the torch embrace her. She held her arms up and wide. "Peace," she thought, "this is peace." She felt the fire embracing her because she had finally embraced the fire.
