Loralle, Her Journey Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

The Air Tribe

Loralle was on her own again, but this time she felt even more determined to finish what she had started.

She stopped for food, but not having anything or anyone close by, made her want to get to what seemed to be the ‘Air Tribe’, faster.

As she travelled, she had watched these people more thoroughly.

Noticing that previously, she had immunity to water, earth and fire. It had been a lot easier to obtain the rights to use that power. So, Loralle wanted to learn how to use it first. She was hoping that once she learnt it, she would naturally become immune to it. Of course, she hoped and hoped, because if immunity didn’t come naturally, she would not know how to gain it&h.e.l.lip;

Loralle was reluctant to let go of her hope. Especially when she might not even get into the tribe without the immunity, let alone get the approval from the giant cyclone.

This also made Loralle question the earth power. How was it that people were able to go into the barren, desolate earth and not feel something from it? Were they already immune from it? It really stunned Loralle, because, for so many years people left their tribes to fight across the earth place and easily stood there like they aren’t affected by anything. Over the long time of history, did everyone have earth inside them somewhere already?

Loralle had to admit, that out of all the powers, the earth power was the most mysterious out of the lot.

When she got closer, so that she was only a day or two travel time away. Loralle slowed down and decided to build a house and learn the air power.

Trying to imitate the Air Tribal members, Loralle desperately tried harnessing the power, but to no avail.

She asked the air many, many times but nothing ever happened.

Loralle, who had expected more, couldn’t help feeling a little downcast. Here she was, worried over gaining immunity, when she had already fallen before even gaining the power in the first place!

With no other idea in mind, she left her house and went closer to the Air Tribe.

She knew when she was getting closer, the air was notably winder. Stopping, she tried to harness the power of air once again and felt a little different.

Was it because there was no air before? She questioned.

She was honest with herself though and decided that she had only felt different, but had not seen anything to state that she had made the power work&h.e.l.lip;

Deciding to build a house there for the time being, Loralle continued to practice. And so that she wasn't alone, she made an earth 'person' to practice with her...

***

Another week went by and Loralle was unsure on how to feel. She continued to feel different but did not ever see any kind of change!

All this time, she had watched others in the Air Tribe but when she imitated them, nothing happened!

Giving up on following others, Loralle sat there instead and remembered how she had learnt the earth power.

When she had been very small, she had like the dirt, climbed the trees and watched the ground through sunsets and sunrises...Well, it wasn't like she had any other choice...

Smiling, she opened her eyes and patted the earth 'person' beside her. She had thought for a while that she was on her own&h.e.l.lip;How could she forget her most precious friends?

Feeling guilty, she apologized to the earth and looked towards the giant cyclone in the far distance.

They are all my friends and you will be too, she thought.

Loralle laughed, actually, she already felt better, even though she felt like she hadn’t accomplished anything yet.

Closing her eyes again, she tried to seek the air, to touch it and softly speak to it. Yet, it was so deathly quiet&h.e.l.lip;

Besides eating and sleeping, Loralle continued to sit there and ‘search’ for her newest friend.

Days had pa.s.sed, but she never moved closer or further away from the Air Tribe.

It was still strange to feel that something was going on, but she continued to see&h.e.l.lip;Absolutely nothing!

Until&h.e.l.lip;Finally, one day, a light breeze had surrounded her! How excited she was!

It was ever so light, but to Loralle, it was like she was being caressed. She felt like she had finally been accepted to use this power. Haha, another power!

There were two things that she hadn’t known, one was that, she hadn’t been doing ‘nothing’ all this time. For the most part of air&h.e.l.lip;It can’t be seen. Of course, she had to learn more, but the prelude to gaining the air power had already been accomplished, even though she couldn’t see anything change.

Not only that, the power of air starts with everyone on their first breath, when they are born...So, the very beginning of learning to use the air power...Is with everybody living on Mondal!

But...No one seems to know this fact...

The second thing unknown to her, was that she had been doing that for two months already. In these two months&h.e.l.lip;There was, indeed, changes. Having not watched the Water or Fire Tribes since she had left, she wouldn’t know that war was very close to happening once again.

***

Yet, another month went by and Loralle could now feel closer to what she did with her other powers before she had been approved by the elements.

It had become time to go elsewhere anyway, as the already scarce food in the barren, desolate earth had now become even scarcer.

What Loralle intended to do, was continue gaining the air power, inside of the tribe instead.

She was only slightly worried about how the Air Tribe would treat her, because they were different to that of the Water Tribe and Fire Tribe. It seems that personalities of the Air Tribe went with the power they wielded. They came across as free and strong. They also didn’t speak&h.e.l.lip;Loralle had not seen one-word uttered every time she uses the earth to peek on them.

They had a certain power that Loralle had not been able to use&h.e.l.lip;That was to become the wind itself. Their bodies became invisible, but wind was seen flowing around instead. Loralle thought this power was great! Oh, how she wanted it!

But for a whole week of focusing, she could not utilize it at all! It had made Loralle upset and she pouted for a whole hour!

So, after that...She decided to go into the tribe, so, she stood up and walked towards it on foot.

As before, when she went into the Fire Tribe, she also didn’t want to stand out&h.e.l.lip;Yet, it doesn’t work out like she planned at all!

What she hadn’t thought of, was that this tribe knew of her already because of the air&h.e.l.lip;The earth power and air power had the same similar feature of using their power and looking out, beyond of where they were.

So, if there was a tribe looking for a needle in a haystack, the Air Tribe would be able to find it!

They had seen her appearance already and had watched her every move curiously.

Learning that she was able to use the power of air, they have let her be. Even as she got closer to the tribe, as a stranger, they just watched and stayed out of her way.

But this didn’t mean they weren’t curious! On the contrary, she finds just how curious they are!

***

A few hours later, Loralle knew that she was somewhat surrounded by the Air Tribal members, but didn’t take offence. After all, she was trespa.s.sing onto their land! But, neither did she worry.

Their defences did slightly harm her, as the wind scratched at her tough skin, and now knowing that, she built a house and wanted to continue to learn the power.

But, first, she wanted to try their food!

What she found out in the coming months, kept her very busy!

The food they ate was probably the healthiest so far amongst the tribes&h.e.l.lip;They ate dried meat from birds and fruits from trees.

After some days, a child had come to her and searched her house. Loralle hadn’t taken offence and let her do as she pleased, as they had done to her.

But, then more people came!

It had sort of scared her for a short moment, as she hadn't thought they were this populated!

But, what she hadn't realized and forgotten, was that they hadn't been seen by her, because they had been the wind...

The Air Tribal members came freely and walked straight into her earth house, even if she was sleeping!

Loralle knew of their nature before she had arrived, but it did start to irritate her.

Since they hadn’t said anything to her, Loralle decided to build another house beside hers, to see if that would get them away from hers.

It...Sort of...Worked!

A family took residence in it straight away! But&h.e.l.lip;Others weren’t quick enough!

Loralle thought it was quite funny, as they had just stood there, looking at her expectantly!

She made another home and watched how they all flocked towards it wanting to make it theirs!

They really looked cute to Loralle and she decided that she liked it here very much!

Laughing, Loralle made several more earth houses and watched them happily.

So, in the end, they all got their own houses but got over the new idea a few days later and started to irritate Loralle once again!
 

For a day, she had wondered what to do with their curiosity, then she came up with a new idea! She made an earth ball and played with it with her air power. It would float from one hand to another, leaving the audience mystified!

Her earth ball was s.n.a.t.c.hed from her as a youth ran away with it!

The others crowded her and it became obvious that they wanted one too!

Her days become somewhat long after that. They always wanted something!

She continuously made earth b.a.l.l.s and even a waist length pool of warm water. In which they all loved!

She watched as the people played in it for days!

Loralle watched, as she was worried that they would drown, as she had become very protective of them!

But, after a few days, one of the elders took over from her, understanding what she was doing, to give her a much-needed rest.

They really were very different people! And she continued to like them even more!

...Probably the reason why she liked them so much, was because they were similar to herself...

Even their bodies were different. They were skinny and tall and their hair flowed nicely, as the wind itself was always brushing through it. All this, led to Loralle thinking of an answer as to why she couldn’t flow as the wind and become invisible...

Actually, the answer was quite obvious that she felt stupid for not coming up with it sooner! She literally hit her head over it!

These people only had the air power, their bodies probably helped also in being able to disappear and become the wind.

But, for Loralle, her body was tougher because of the earth, warmer because of fire and unexplainable better because of water. This, she was sure, would not let her achieve this one aspect of the air power. Which made her upset yet again! She really wanted this power! How cool would it have been!?

She was also opened to the idea that each power may have some kind of trick that only they could do&h.e.l.lip;Loralle wondered if the water, earth and fire powers had something like that too. And, oh so much, did she want to do it too!

So, the only thing left now, was to go into the cyclone to gain approval, as the wind didn’t hurt her anymore, which made her think she had gained immunity from it now. She had also gained the yearning that led towards the giant cyclone.

Loralle became serious, what would she expect this time? How much will it hurt?

She walked towards it, but didn’t enter.

The small child, that first entered her house a long time ago, had followed her and grabbed her hand and pointed at the giant cyclone. Bending down, to be at eye level with the little girl, Loralle nodded.

The child smiled and raced into the giant cyclone, totally stunning Loralle!

She watched intently, as the small child got swept up and flew around in a big, fast circle, then came back out and ran back to her, smiling.

All this time, she hadn’t spoken&h.e.l.lip;But this time, she was actually speechless&h.e.l.lip;

Does this mean that they all have the approval of the air power? Is that why they were so strong?

She remembered how often she had to make b.a.l.l.s for some of them. That they must have used too much of their power and destroyed the earth ball that way!

She knew, that her power was powerful because of being approved, and that it should only be destroyed by other approved powers! Of course! Their powers of air would be equal to hers! She, once again, hit her head in shame!

Loralle wanted to laugh and cry at the same time! No wonder they were so peaceful here! All of them didn’t hate other powers!

She never felt so proud of a tribe ever in her life!

The Air Tribe was great indeed!

How could she not go into the giant cyclone now! Even a small child had overcome it so easily!

Determination came through her as she strolled forward towards the cyclone.

Loralle was swept away immediately, the wind had been so strong that she turned both upside down and sideways. Her clothes were ripped to shreds and scratched her skin violently, like little knives all over her body.

There seemed to be no way she could get control over her body at all and she started to feel dizzy from the tossing and turning. What troubled Loralle even more was&h.e.l.lip;How could she leave?

She can’t just jump out...There was only two ways to get out of this, and that was to either die or to gain approval.

Trying to concentrate, Loralle remembered it was the same with every other trail she had to overcome and that she was just being scared! She had already known this before she stepped in!

She felt blood slide down her body and decided to try using air to surround her whole body&h.e.l.lip;But it didn’t work!

Why isn’t it working!?

Loralle panicked as she felt herself start to lose consciousness.

Suddenly, that small child from earlier, grabbed her hand and nodded at her in worry. Looking at this child, she saw they were now travelling with the wind.

She watched as they put out their other hand and showed her, then put it towards their feet. Trying not to lose focus, Loralle looked at the child’s hand then feet. For a moment, she saw nothing! But, then, after blinking a few times and squinting, she saw fluctuations, showing something different.

Loralle’s eyes widened, the wind, the child was using air to push herself along with the wind!

Now that she understood, Loralle did the same.

Focusing air at her feet and the palm of her other hand, she flowed even faster, within the wind.

The child nodded and let go of her hand, turning in a happy circle.

Seeing this child so happy, Loralle wanted to do the same but she already had troubles focusing and keeping herself from blacking out.

"The element known as air accepts you. From now on, you will not know the air vengeance!"

Unable to stop herself from smiling, Loralle couldn’t believe her luck to having this child next to her. If she hadn’t had help, she wouldn’t have known what she had to do&h.e.l.lip;She was very thankful!

Watching the little girl shoot out of the cyclone, Loralle imitated her and found herself flying through normal air very quickly. She landed at her house, but fell over straight away.

For a brief time, she was exhilarated but, suddenly, pain racked her entire body and she let out a groan.

With her eyesight blurry, all she could do was cover herself with an earth and water bound, before fainting into darkness.

***

While Loralle recuperated, she stayed in bed and decided to find out about the Fire and Water tribes.

At first, she didn’t find such a difference&h.e.l.lip;Until, she saw the front lines in between the two tribes. It totally astonished her as she saw that they had begun to fight again!

Water had filled in the huge, long line of empty earth, just as Daniel had mentioned, and several ‘magma bridges’ could be seen in random places.

Even at this current moment, they were fighting and the Water Tribe was being pushed back, even beyond their defences!

The Fire Tribe had indeed expanded a lot of effort to get this far&h.e.l.lip;They also seemed very, very happy.

Had it been so long? Could I not go faster?

Closing her eyes tightly, Loralle tried to think of how much time has pa.s.sed since she had left the Fire Tribe, but she really didn’t know&h.e.l.lip;

A whole year had gone by&h.e.l.lip;She may have lost track of time...But others had not.

The reasons why the Fire Tribe were so happy, Loralle finally found out&h.e.l.lip;

And all those reasons&h.e.l.lip;Were connected to her!

There were three, one was that Rick, a known Water Tribe protector was taken prisoner. The Fire Tribe told this news openly to the Water Tribe, adding to that the other two protector’s deaths!

Straight away, the Water Tribal member’s morale had declined.

Then the second reason, after the Fire Tribe had advanced, they had said that their leader had already been into the Fire Tribe village and never killed them!

The Water Tribesmen started to feel despair as they all knew that their leader had never returned to them. They didn’t want to accepted this news&h.e.l.lip;.But it all made sense&h.e.l.lip;Which led to the Fire Tribe to advance even further upon the Water Tribe’s land!

The last reason&h.e.l.lip;Daniel himself released the news of his third child being born under the most powerful eruption ever recorded in the Fire Tribe history!

Loralle was stunned at this news&h.e.l.lip;For a whole day, she thought about it and finally realized something, when she saw who the mother was&h.e.l.lip;Emily&h.e.l.lip;

The two people she had forced to accept the fire power, had a child, that made the volcano erupt the biggest eruption known&h.e.l.lip;

Even though the child had been a girl, Daniel was very happy and didn’t hold back telling the Water Tribe this pleasant news.

Loralle felt a cold chill run down her spine. The protectors had gotten caught because of her&h.e.l.lip;

She had stated herself, that she didn’t want to fight to the Water Tribe’s enemy&h.e.l.lip;!

Daniel and Emily’s powerful child, was also because of her!

So, what the Fire Tribe was actually fighting with, was the morale of the Water Tribesmen. And they had knocked it all out of them with true facts that they could only question and see some reasons on how it could be the right information! The war wasn’t really a war since they had started to fight again, it was practically overkill of the Water Tribe!

And she was the reason how these events all occurred!

Devastation ran through her. How could she have known things were going to happen like this? What was she to do now to fix this? If she hadn’t run from the Water Tribe&h.e.l.lip;All of this wouldn’t have happened!

No&h.e.l.lip;

If she hadn’t existed in the first place! My father, why did he do what he did to me!

Another realization suddenly dawned on her at that moment.

He had been able to see through the hate&h.e.l.lip;For him to be able to come up with an idea like me&h.e.l.lip;

She breathed in, shocked!

He must have survived the huge, menacing lake! For him to get intimate with someone from the Fire Tribe, he would have had to be accepted by the water element!

That must be it! That’s what changed everything!

Loralle put her head down in defeat&h.e.l.lip;

Her mother, who Loralle a.s.sumed that she had not been accepted by the fire element, would have hated her and her father very much!

My father gave me water powers, my mother gave me fire powers. She must have even tried to kill me in her womb! If she were still alive&h.e.l.lip;There was no doubt, she would not see me.

It all added up. It all made sense.

And Loralle cried for the first time in her life.

***

It only took two more days, for her deep wounds to become scratches, and for her to be able to feel normal again. Not that it was noticed to Loralle though.

Because when she exited her house, all who saw her, had a questioning look.

She looked sad, devastated, unhappy and lost.

The Air Tribal members didn’t run up to her, nor did they leave. They all just looked at her. She also looked a little different, as her hair was no longer messy. Now looking entirely feminine and beautiful, their response was a lot different to what Daniel would have reacted! His eyes would have bulged out and his hands would have wanted to touch! Whereas, the Air Tribe thought the change as normal, befitting of someone they had accepted.

“Leaving.” Loralle said, the first words she had uttered in a year.

The Air Tribesmen were suddenly stomped&h.e.l.lip;They had thought that she couldn’t talk, just like them&h.e.l.lip;

Sitting down, Loralle bowed her head, “Bye.”

And she left.

There were different emotions written on the Air Tribal member’s faces as Loralle went out of sight. For the most part, they were confused and sad. A lot had felt the urge to even hug her when she had came out of her house.

They hadn’t wanted her to leave! She was a part of their tribe!

But, it was too late&h.e.l.lip;Before they could find her, then stop her through the air, she was already on her way to the Metal Tribe.

Deciding not to go straight through to the Metal Tribe, as they had their own small skirmishes between themselves and the Air Tribe, she went around the side, which was even further away from the Air Tribe.

Loralle stopped a day travel's time away and started to do as she did at the Air Tribe to get the air power. But, there was a problem...It was like she had lost her heart&h.e.l.lip;

Many times, she had sat there and started to concentrate, but ended up looking out at nothing instead.

She wasn’t questioning what she was doing, how she was feeling, just continued to feel lost and without will.

Not looking at anything about the Fire or Water Tribe, not worried about the hate and she didn’t care that she had no appet.i.te.

Not even the recent advancement on being approved by the air element, and gaining its effects, had entered her mind.

Nothing&h.e.l.lip;At that moment&h.e.l.lip;Mattered&h.e.l.lip;

She didn’t care for anything&h.e.l.lip;