Elements...

I was enraptured by the warble of my flute.
Soul latched with the wind in a dance
Do spirits sing? Because I can hear their
Melody bonded in the wind.

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I was born weird; being born a human without a spirit guardian was known as dysfunction. My people are known as the spirit masters; they controlled the four elements that ameliorate our livelihood, and with such powers came a guarding spirit; they were little toddlers following you around. A high lord has a phoenix as his spirit guardian, while the fire masters, their spirit guardians, are like little balls of flames. Same with water, earth, or rock, and lastly, air or the wind elements. When we're under attack our spirit guardians fuse with us, that's when you see things like a flamethrowing phoenix, storm, flood, or earthquake,

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And our spirit guardians feed on our life essence because they are part of us.

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Oh, their life essence, because I don't have a spirit guardian who feeds on my essence.

I wasn't born with one.

I didn't have my spirit mark like everyone else did. Spirit marks are like tattoos, symbolizing the element you fall into. I didn't have a spirit guardian, nor did I belong to any element. I waited every year since I realized what elements meant, just to get disappointed. I just wanted to be normal like everyone else.

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The only reason I'm still alive and not yet banished is because of my grandma; she's the high priestess of all the elements. My parents died when I was little, leaving behind a flute that was passed on to me. My parents had gone against the law by falling in love with one another. A high lord of the fire element and a high queen of the wind element—a terrible reunion between both of them.

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But that love blossomed, and they had me, their human baby without powers, yet they loved me. They died in the first war that almost wiped out all the high lords. Now I live with my grandma.

"Alicia, if you don't get up right this instead, I will show why they call me the bald-headed witch." My grandma's thick accent startled me out of bed. Don't get me wrong, I love her more than life itself, but she could be so extra sometimes, and she's not bald; she's nothing like that; she just puts on a hood so much that people can't actually see her hair, so they assume she is bald when in reality she has the longest and most gorgeous white hair you could possibly imagine.

"Omma, let me sleep; I don't want to go to school." I grumpily responded, holding on to my fluffy teddy bear. (Omma in Korean means mom.)

"Okay. Wait for me. just wait for me, you lazy sloth."

That I couldn't do because I was dozing back into Wonderland. That's till I felt a whole bucket of water poured on me, startling me out of bed, I almost lost a tooth from the fall.

"Omma!." I yelled in disbelief.

"Don't omma be and get prepared for school." She scoffed. Walking away like a pro.

School. I rarely go to school; that's why my grades were so poor. I would rather stay in my hideout dancing with the wind and playing my flute than to face my bullies.

Since I have been labeled as dysfunctional, I have come to accept my disability as if it was normal.

I became the gloomy girl who hides in her hoodie, thinking it could shield me from my reality—from my bullies, the insults, the pain, and the mocking.

As I sat beside the lake, I pulled out the flute from my school bag. I found this place when I was 10, and since then it has become my secret hideout. This was where I found peace—peace in being myself. As I blow on my flute, my legs immediately follow in the rhythm, not missing how the wind collides with my rhymes, dancing and feeling the soft wind on my skin, like it was whispering soft appraisal and appreciation to me. It was telling me it would always be there for me.

I was famished; dancing so much can be so energy-draining. After my power nap, I was ready to head home using the narrow road I used to go back out. Well, that's until I saw them. Florence, Ozark, Levi, Noble, and Lena

I froze, knowing this wasn't good. My eyes l looked for an escape root but found none. My eyes bulged out of their sockets as I saw them walking towards me. My lips parted in a terrified grasp as my anxiety heightened. I try to hide my face by staring at the floor, but from the corner of my eyes, I could see them smirking.

Ozark was precariously close—so close I could see his feet just an inch away from mine.

"Isn't it the disabled chicken?" Ozark taunted.

Ozark is a master of the fire element. I heard his father used to work under my dad. Looks like things changed after Dad died. Ozark was just as wicked and evil like his father.

"Answer when you're asked a simple question," Noble said. His elbow rested on Levi's shoulder so casually, he had that nasty looking grin on his face.

"She's deaf now, wondering what her expression would look like once she sees what we did to her house with her stupid, bald-headed grandma inside." Lena smirked, looking at me disgustingly.

The last thing I remember was fighting my way away from my bullies; they didn't have any problem letting me go. That's when I knew they had done something really stupid. On getting home, I could see the fire eating up my house; the flame was too enormous for someone to miss, but guess what? None of the other masters came to help; some stood there just watching like it's nothing, like their priestess wasn't inside there, like my grandma wasn't in there. I knew they all hated me, but was it possible to let that hatred pass on to my grandma?

"P-please, somebody help me!" I stuttered. emotionally drained to think, my eyes were swollen from all the fat, ugly tears coming out of them, and I was running around the fire like I could jump into it. I felt faint from all the smoke I inhaled, my head spinning with dizziness. Why won't they help me? Nobody was even trying, the least they can do is pretend to want to help, but they didn't.

The little hope I had just died off, my legs quaked, and I gave up as I fell on my knee in front of the fire. This was it; I didn't have anyone anymore. They took my family away from me.

"They were all going to die anyway, bringing such an abomination into the world. Such a foolish act." I heard a lady's voice.

"I would have killed such a kid the minute I found out they don't have any elements." Another woman agreed.

"I heard her mother was going about sleeping with other_," the voice drifted off.

But that was enough to snap my head up. I felt a surge of hatred boil my blood; I saw red; I was beyond livid. I could barely think, and I couldn't remember the last time I felt this much anger. I wanted all of them to go through the pain I was feeling right now.

"You all will pay for this." I hissed, gritting my teeth. My skin was burning so hot, it felt like someone was using a knife to slice into my skin, my breath was uneven, and I didn't know what was going on with my body, but I felt stronger than I ever was.

"What's happening!" Someone yelled.

The clouds turned into an angry storm, thunder striking without warning, while the lighting passed through the air rapidly. The wind was harsh, so harsh that those with the element of wind couldn't control it.

"What's this power emanating from the wind?" One of the masters asked. I laughed when my grandma was in that burning house, none of them came out to play hero, but now look at them, terrified of losing their lives.

The cries of a phoenix were heard from the stormy clouds; its cries so elegantly yet they sounded like large caws. Then we all saw the phoenix, the highest of all spirit guardians, flying down towards where I was angrily, but I felt it's anger wasn't directed at me. Instead, its anger was directed at those who hurt me, It landed beside me; it was the biggest phoenix bird I had ever seen. Bigger than all the buildings around us.

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The awe expressions, the gasps, the shocking and terrifying looks—I saw them all. But that wasn't all because I felt another spirit guardian emerge: a soul dragon. Pure white in blue flames, its horns and wings were magnificent as it came down from the heavens, and the power oozing out of it was so ancient. I have only heard about soul dragons as a myth, but here it was standing in my right hand side as my spirit
guardian. All the element masters bow down to it, even those of higher powers. The high lords fell on their knees. But these mystical creatures bowed their heads to me.

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I finally had those things I was so desperate to have—my spirit mark, spirit guardians—that were more powerful than any other guardian, but at the expense of my grandmother's life.

"Oh dear, did anyone notice the change of weather, like there was something in the wind?"

I recognize that voice anywhere. My grandma, my omma. My eyes flickered with hope, seeing her walk out of a bush with her hood down, revealing her white long hair. A smile settled on my lips, knowing that she was alive.

Indeed, there was something in the wind... Hope.