The Half Breed

The three of them were in the garden when Adam sensed her. It wasn’t the first time he had felt this strange presence only this time is was too strong for him to brush off. He smiled at the ground as he practiced his watering technique on the plant. It had been a year since Calla’s grandfather made the offer of a mentor to come their way. Evan was resistant because he felt he was doing just fine on his own although everyone else felt very differently. Adam, like his grandmother, had the gift of intuition. When he first sensed the mentor he could tell she was struggling with her decision to step forward although Adam couldn’t tell why. What mattered most was that she was kind and incredibly smart. She would be good for them, this he was completely sure of.

As per usual Calla and Evan were arguing. Calla twisted the end of her long braids with each hand, “Earth is every where, even deep within the seas. Obviously we have a clear advantage over fire.”

Evan was perched up on a boulder half playing and half eating his apple. “Fire will destroy your Earth. Fact.”

Calla’s face turned red and she pursed her lips together. Evan was the only one that could get the temper out of an even keeled child of earth. Evan could very skillfully read people, just in a very different way than Adam could. Evan relied on people’s expressions and actions while Adam followed his intuitions. His brother had an unfortunate habit of using this gift to push people’s buttons by testing their boundaries. Adam hoped he wouldn’t do this with their mentor.

Slowly she walked out from behind the trees. A raven haired beauty with pink streaks in her hair. Her eyes black and slight, her skin as pale as the moon. She wore leather boots, torn faded jeans, and some sort of mesh top with a hot pink tank top underneath. She surveyed each child without saying a word although a small smirk played along her lips. She was older than the three of them, but still pretty young. Adam figured she was probably around thirteen or fourteen years old. Visually she was nothing like he expected, her essence was of someone much older.

She nodded at Calla, “You lack confidence.” Then she turned to Evan, “You lack discipline.” Lastly she turned towards Adam, “I haven’t quite figured out what your issue is yet.”

Evan jumped down from the boulder, walked right up to her, and looked right up at her. “First of all we don’t know you and you definitely don’t know us so back off.” Then he took a defiant bite of his apple right in her face.

Calla meekly questioned, “What makes you think we have issues?”

Evan snarked, “We don’t Calla. She’s clearly a Common and has nothing better to do with her time then bully a bunch of kids half her age.”

The mentor cocked her head to the side, “Common?” Suddenly there was a static electricity to the air. Goosebumps appeared on all their arms. The mentor raised her outstretched arms to her sides and a small gust of wind began to blow. The wind quickly picked up encircling all four of them. They were in the middle of a small tornado. Calla ran into Evan’s arms. They both had tears in their eyes, but Adam was not afraid. He knew she would not cause intentional harm to them. This was just her way of putting Evan in his place.

Sarah and Allan ran into the garden yelling at the mentor to stop. She lowered her arms and the wind slowly stopped. The smirk never left her face. “My name is Layla and I am NOT common.”

While Sarah scolded Layla for putting the fear of god into small children Allan jumped to her defense. “Sarah please place your trust in me. I did warn you she was unconventional.”

All of them sat in a circle while Layla explained her background to them. Her father was born of air, but ran away from home when he was around fourteen years old to discover a life other than what he had been shown. Along his travels he befriended both mystical and non mystical folks. He naturally had a thirst for knowledge and it was this thirst that led him to her mother, a young girl working in a library. She was a Common. They did what most do when they fall in love: married and had children. Layla inherited her father’s thirst for knowledge as well as his natural abilities. From a very young age she began to accompany him on his travels, specifically to the villages of other elements. Although she would never be able to duplicate their natural abilities, she grasped a strong understanding of it. In some ways it was her outsiders perspective that allowed her to teach someone of a different element something new about their own craft.

She looked Sarah straight on, “I am going to show them how each of their abilities will work with and against other elements. You cannot master your own element fully without a complete understanding of the other three.” Then she scowls at Evan, "And don't ever underestimate those born into the Common way of life." She looked down at the ground after that last remark.

Adam sensed something in Layla, a past hurt she was trying to hide. She looked at him and for a brief moment he saw a softness in her eyes. As quickly as it appeared it faded away and she turned her face back towards Sarah. Why had it taken her an entire year to come to them? Why were her methods so extreme? Her soul was so old for someone so young. There were all these puzzle pieces about her that Adam had no clue how to put all together to form a clearer picture.