Elementalist

12

Talon manages to hold back the tears. He had been prepared for the loss of the home by Stephanie earlier, but it was still a blow. All they will have to remember the last year by are the memories now. Not even the house. One tear manages to escape and he wipes it away but not before the sheriff notices it.

That one simple tear makes the officer subtly relax. He doesn't believe that they have anything to do with the fire at their house.

"How was the house when you left it earlier?"

Talon, Jet and Ethan look at each other then back at the sheriff and shrug. "Just like it always was. Ethan turned off the gas last night, that's why we were having breakfast here. We were just going to get Stephanie's train ticket then head over to the cafe for breakfast. One last breakfast together before she leaves us."

The sheriff looks at the three boys sharply, "You are sure that you turned off the gas?"

"Yeah, would've turned off the electricity too, but didn't like the idea to coming back to a stinking refrigerator." Jet says more than a little upset himself.

"I double checked it this morning before we left," Ethan says softly.

"Why the sudden urge to go on vacation?" The sheriff asks a little more sharply.

Talon hesitates before answering and looks at the other two. He nods, "We didn't want Stephanie to know this. She's had a hard enough time as it is. We've been getting some threats. Low key, but aimed at us. We were planning on going on vacation with the intent to de escalate tensions, that's why we didn't bring the threats to you. Had we believed that our lives were truly in danger we would have come to you sooner. We had no idea that they would burn our home."

Talon looks anxiously at Stephanie to see if she is waking up yet or not. He is pretty sure that she is awake and just pretending at this point, but isn't sure.

"You think that whoever was threatening you is the one responsible for the fire?" The sheriff demands.

Talon nods slowly. "I don't see how it could be any one else. The house was fine when we left it. By the time we get here it's on fire and nearly fully burned down. Whoever it is just missed us or waited for us to leave. I'm not sure which it is at this time."

The sheriff nods his head and says, "I'll ask the neighbors if they saw any one suspicious out and about after you left this morning. Many of them are looky lous and might be able to give us a description that we can put out. Not sure if we'll be able to bring any one to justice, but I'll try."

"Thank you officer." Talon says heartfelt but sorrowful as well. The three boys shake hands with the officer.

"Would you like to go out to your house to see the damage?" The sheriff asks gently.

"Yeah, better get it over with now." Talon says and shivers. There will be no leaving in time now. All they can do is try to get rid of the humans before the others show up.

"What about Miss Stephanie?" The sheriff points at the girl.

"We can't leave her here like this and we don't have room in the SUV for her to lie down." Talon says a bit distressed. He is more than a little distressed that they will have no choice but to have the showdown with Stephanie there.

The only question is, is it the government agents, hunters or the private sectors that hunt them for research?

"We can place her in the back seat of my vehicle. She should be waking soon and I'm sure that she wouldn't want to be alone when she does. One of you boys can ride with her if you would like?"

The three look at each other before Ethan bends down and gently picks her up.

"I'm sorry, Stephanie. I didn't mean to hurt you earlier. Forgive me?"

Stephanie doesn't move or respond and Ethan carries her over to the cop's SUV. The sheriff opens the door and Ethan carefully climbs in with Stephanie in his arms.

The sheriff stares at him. "Show off." Talon and Jet jeer at him.

The sheriff looks at them in confusion and then back at Ethan.

"Ethan likes to show off just how good of balance he has. Neither of us would have been able to do that and he was wiping it in our faces." Jet says disgustedly but with an underlying smirk at the sheriff's incredulous look.

"I see."

"We'll follow behind you, sheriff." Talon says giving Jet a light slap on his shoulder. They climb back into the car with a great deal of trepidation. Just what are they walking into and how are they going to protect the humans from whatever it is?

"Stephanie?" Ethan asks as he holds her before the officer enters the car.

"What?" Stephanie asks more than a little upset with Ethan still.

"Did you hear what was said?"

"Some if not most. Enough to know that the house did indeed burn down but you three are now going straight to the fire fight."

"No real choice. Not if we want to escape human detection."

Stephanie sniffs. "It will be a bit hard to avoid when the fight starts at ground zero."

"Yeah, we're still working on that one." Just then the sheriff opens the door and so the other two shut up.

"Officer, what's going on?" Stephanie asks.

"Going to look at the fire, Miss Stephanie." Stephanie uses the time to locate the electronic recording device in the car and sends a slight electrical current to it so it is useless. At least for the duration that they talked.

"How bad is it? Do you know?" Stephanie asks holding back her tears. She really hated firing the house.

"A total loss I'm afraid. I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you, but it wasn't your fault." Stephanie says then turns to the window to look out at the scenery, much like she had done less than half an hour ago heading into town.

"Looks like the fire men will have a bit of help with the fire shortly." Stephanie says clinically looking at the storm almost upon them.

"The winds are likely making things more difficult for them, but I'm sure the rain will be welcome." The sheriff agrees partly with her.

Stephanie turns her head so the sheriff can't see her partial smile. Oh, the firefighters are going to get a lot of help from that storm. Starting now.

Ethan stares at her. He felt the wave of power she let off and then suddenly there is the pounding of water on the roof top and the windshield is covered in water.

The storm reminds him of the day they found Stephanie before she learned how to control her powers, with out the lightning and thunder of course.

"Now that, will be a huge help to the firefighters. Too bad it didn't come an hour ago."

"Had it come an hour ago, would it have made that much of a difference? We left the house a little more than an hour ago. With in minutes the neighbors called the fire department and still the house was mostly gone by the time they got here."

"It certainly wouldn't have hurt, had it been pouring like this earlier." The sheriff replies absently concentrating on the suddenly slick and treacherous roads.

Stephanie shrugs, "If you say so, sheriff. I don't know much about things like this."

The sheriff laughs a bit nervously, "I only know what I've learned through the years working alongside the fire department. I'm not much more of an expert than you are." After that the only sound heard is the rain pounding on the vehicle and the occasional crackle of the sheriff's radio.