Page 14 of Elemasters

But even the strongest dam can’t stop the current forever.

“Leader? Him?” Chris scoffed, pulling Dustin out of his thoughts, “no disrespect, but Dustin’s more ‘behind the scenes’ you know? It’s just how we work,”

Dustin shot him a look, his jaw clenched.

“It wasn’t always like that,” he mumbled, barely above a whisper. If Chris heard it, he didn’t acknowledge it.

The projection of constellations faded, and Sima Yao’s body started to flicker like an old TV with a busted antenna. He still looked incredibly calm, as if he was expecting this to happen.

“Until your connection to your power is strengthened, I cannot maintain this form for very long,” he explained, “for now, I will return you to the beach where you previously stood, and we will commune again when the correct moment arises,”

“Wait, hold on!” Chris called out, “were you the one who sent us back to our rooms before? You somehow fucked up our parents’ boat!”

Sima Yao’s expression morphed into one of dread; like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“My apologies Master Ying,” he said with another deep bow, “when I returned you all safely to your homes, I attempted to carefully place the boat on the beach… unfortunately I did so with more force than intended,”

“Great. Now I gotta explain that an Ancient Chinese ghost is responsible for the damage,”

With another apologetic glance, Sima Yao completely disappeared, and a thick fog slowly filled the chamber from the floor to the ceiling. Dustin held his breath and closed his eyes, still uncomfortable by the sensation of being lost in the mist, but thankfully it was over quickly, and he found himself standing on the beach once more.

“I can’t believe this shit is real!” James said as soon as the group got their bearings, “if I wasn’t going through it with all of you, I would be checking myself into the psych ward,”

“Well, we’re all gonna find ourselves there unless we keep a lid on all this,” Chloe said, “we still don’t even know why this is all happening. I’m not so ready to trust Sima Yao,”

“Come on, don’t be like that,” James waved her off, “the Power Rangers didn’t distrust Zordon, did they? The X-Men didn’t distrust Professor Xavier! Clearly, we’ve been chosen for something big!”

Chloe narrowed her eyes on James and stepped in closer to him.

“In the first episode of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, the group left the Command Center because they didn’t believe what they were being told. They only changed their minds once they got attacked. The lesson? Seeing is believing, not being a mindless sheep that just does what they’re told,”

Chris smirked and leaned over to whisper to Dustin.

“She acted like she hated watching those Mighty Morphin’ reruns with us, but look at her now,”

“Touche,” James replied, “but I just think we should keep an open mind,”

“What we need to be focused on is getting the speedboat repaired as quickly as possible,” Bailey cut in, “the last thing we need is for the twins to be grounded if something else happens,”

“Bailey’s right,” Dustin turned to Chloe, “we need that mechanic’s number so we can get this taken care of,”

As Chloe dug through her purse to find the guy’s business card, Dustin glanced down at the ring on his pinky, and Sima Yao’s words echoed in his head.

Did he really have what it took to become a leader? And what was the mural in the palace truly meant to depict?

He could only hope that more answers would come soon.

Chapter 6

For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic

It seemed like Monday rolled around again before Dustin even had time to process the fact that the weekend had arrived.

He’d spent the majority of Sunday trying to wrap his head around meeting Sima Yao, keeping his parents distracted long enough for Chris to get the speedboat to and from the mechanic, and still squeezing in time to prepare himself for his third period science test.

Needless to say, he was fucking exhausted, but he’d still managed to drag himself out of bed early so he could get to school and practice his diving some more. However, he was currently just standing outside the shower as the water ran, trying to work up the courage to step inside. On any normal day, it would’ve just been water, but after talking with Sima Yao, nothing was the same.

As the water rained down from the showerhead, Dustin swore he could sense every individual droplet, every bit of vapor filling the air, every bit of spray on the tile wall. It all echoed in his bones, like it was resonating with his spirit. He wasn’t exactly afraid to step into the water, it just seemed like… a lot. Where he normally found peace in the shower, this time it felt like it was calling out to him; like he was standing on the precipice of something major, and if he got into that shower, he’d be pushed over the edge.