Songs from the DARK Jukebox

Fire (woman)
By
Kiix

Word Count: 3719
Date Completed: August 9, 2009


It is the duty of the Great Elemental to keep the world in balance. Just as there cannot be light without darkness and good without evil, each element is kept in check by their polar opposite; Earth to Air; Water to Fire. This is the Balance. The balance is so strong that when one of the elemental pairs falls, the other is dragged down at the same time. There cannot be life without death.

That’s what the Grand Water Masters have been telling to the Inducted, anyways. It was our duty to strive to be the best to have the chance to become the next Great Water Elemental. The death knell was ringing. The conch shells were sending out the Call for all the Inducted to come to the Great Water Elementals chamber to wait for her to die. I closed my eyes and my ears and my heart. Elenora was a great Lady. To be…killed by the link to the Fire Elemental was just so, so wrong.

Everyone here in the Water knew how long the previous group of Inducted had to wait to be chosen. Cyrilla and Ronan had been the longest reigning Great Elementals. Decades of peace and balance to the outside world. The Earth and Air had fallen twice before Cyrilla’s energy finally flowed away. The Inducted had waited almost fifty years for the next Great One to be chosen. Elenora and her counterpart – Great Fire Elemental Regan had only reigned for twenty-three years. Regan died and that link of balance was draining Elenora.

I made my way past the gates, ignoring the looks from the other Inducted who ran towards the heart of the temple. I never wanted to be here. I was seven when the inquisitors came to our house and made the mandatory tests. I passed. My little brother didn’t. I was hauled away in the back of a wagonload of other Inducted and in these past twenty-three years, I haven’t seen the outside world. Well, officially I haven’t. I’ve been buggering off every chance I got since I got here. Right now, when everyone was heading to be vultures on the headboard of our dying Great One, I was heading to the Murk. He should be there waiting for me.

Rand has always been there whenever I made it out to the no man’s zone. He was there waiting when I found the Murk. Whatever natural talents we had were muted out here in the Murk – no elemental land, a no man’s land. It was a twilight area, never really bright, never really dark. It was a place were all plains met and if you were lucky enough to find it, it was a place of warmth and permanence and peace. The constraints and confines of the Academy fell away in this place. If I didn’t need food, I could live here – free.

Rand and I have met here for twenty years. From the time we were shallow youth, through growth spurts, through temper tantrums, on my behalf, and through the different trials each of our schools put us through. I never asked him what Element he was because it didn’t matter in this place. We agreed that the outside world wouldn’t interfere here. This was a haven, a refuge. It was ours.

When I stepped into the Murk. Sure enough, he was sitting on a boulder that had been fashioned into a smooth seat large enough for two. The conch call faded from my ears as the Murk encircled me. It was like I had entered the foyer to a sacred place and the doors closed behind me blocking out all other concerns. My eyes greedily drank him in. Rand was a handsome man. His body was defined and strong, just as disciplined as his mind. He turned his head and looked over his shoulder at me. I could see his blue eyes twinkle as he took me in. We were different. He was refined. He never wore his Academy robes here but even in his casual clothes, there is a latent air about him that spoke of nobility. His dark eye brow cocked skyward. I glanced down. I was still in my sleep clothes.

“Glad to see you dressed for the occasion, Eaton.” There was a touch of humor in his voice.

“Piss off, you know what’s going on out there.”

“Yes, I know. We both knew that this day would come. Regan has never hidden her condition from the other Great Elements. Like you, I had hoped that this would be further into the future.” The slight smile dropped from his face. “This means that after today we won’t be able to see each other ever again. You’ll finally be free of this place.”

I walked up and sat heavily down on the bench. We had started off as kids looking for a place to rest. As time passed, our friendship grew pass the need for companionship. I hung my head slightly looking down at my hands. We’ve been lovers for ten years. A deep breath shook my shoulders. “Rand…”

I turned my head and found my head drawn up as his soft lips pressed against mine. “Don’t get all philosophical on me right now, sprite. Our time is limited. I don’t want to waste a moment of it.”

I suspected that Rand was Fire just as he has always called me sprite – short for water sprite. I’d never brought it up but the hint of desperation in his touch just brought home the fact that this was going to be our last time together. Once the next Great Element pairing was chosen, those Inducted would be released back to the public. Normal people didn’t get to the Murk. The Element Academies were the places of power that allowed for that type of joining to get this place. Once…once Elenora died. I would never see Rand again.

“I will never forget you.” I whispered to him.

“Shut up.” He hissed back at me. He stood up and ripped open the fastening at his neck then pulled the tunic up and over his black hair. I sat there looking up at him. He was beautiful. His tie that held his long black hair back at the nape of his neck was wrenched off with his tunic and his elegant neck was curtained with that jet tone. “Eaton?”

“I love you.” He deserved to hear it, even if it was only once. I was more of a deed not words sort of guy.

He froze.

“I really do love you, Rand.” I think he could handle hearing it twice.

“Now…you tell me this now. Anyone ever tell you that your timing sucks?”

I snorted. “All the time.”

“I want you inside me, Eaton.”

“Is this really the right time?”

“It’s up to you. No matter who gets chosen, we are done here today. I have great responsibilities waiting for me, Sprite. Responsibilities that I can’t turn my back on.”

“You’re a Noble aren’t you?”

“You’re not.”

I shrugged then reached out and drew his firm warm body back to me. I rested my cheek on his back between the notch of his neck and shoulder. “It wouldn’t matter if I was, we are polar opposites. Outside this place, we couldn’t touch.”

“So, love me while there is still time.”

“Don’t push me…you know how I react to authority.” I gave his neck a lick and a kiss then ripped my shirt off. What the hell did I care about sleep clothes? After today, I wouldn’t have to listen to any of the Academy elders. What were they going to do? Scold me? I’m thirty years old.

Rand’s body was perfection. His skin was radiant and supple. It was soft and yielding much like a woman’s but there was a strength there just unlaying the surface. He turned in my arms and linked his hands around my neck. He called me sprite and I was almost a full head taller than him.

“I order you to make love to me.” Rand’s blue eyes were dark with desire and there was that devilish little curl at the end of his mouth.

“Oooh, I think I can handle this kind of authority.”

“You can’t handle me at all.” I laughed then swooped in kissing his mouth with passion and desperation. I loved him. I really truly loved him. Rand was the only good thing that came out of being considered a ‘lucky one.’ I hated the Academy. I hated the strict rules and almost monastic living we were forced to endure. I was never going to be the Great Water Element. I had no discipline. I had no patience. I was a creature of emotion. I was everything the next Great Water Element should not be. I had tried to fail the teachings but they came so damned easy. It wasn’t until I found my friend here in the Murk as a boy that I changed my mind about getting expelled. If I wasn’t in the Academy I couldn’t get to the Murk and if I couldn’t get to the Murk I couldn’t meet Rand. So I did the minimum to remain. I still excelled others easily.

Hands cupped my bare buttocks. What? Rand pressed a sucking kiss to the hallow of my throat as my bottoms slipped off to puddle at my ankles. “Do I have to do everything?”

“If you could do that, you wouldn’t need me.”

“Sprite, you have no idea how badly I need you.”

Ours was a dance choreographed over decades. He burned me with his touch. I flowed over him and covered him. He was hard and weeping long before I pressed our bellies together. My cock slid alongside his as I pushed against him. I wouldn’t forget him. I couldn’t. The way his black hair would spread out around his head like a halo as I pushed into the heat of his channel. His eyes would glow in the Murk like a blue flame when his passion was in crisis. The cries that came from his throat as I thrust into him, I swallowed down into my own soul.

I loved him. I loved him as a friend. I loved him as a lover. Even though the Dons at the Academy had preached that Fire was our friend, the rest of the water world viewed the fire world as their enemy. I loved the enemy. No, I loved Rand, who just happened to be the enemy.

He climaxed. The heat of his cum stained out skin. His channel rippled along me and all my good intentions of holding out were lost in the maelstrom. I shuddered and came deep within him. My arms landed on either side of his head and they quivered with the tension of holding my body weight up off him. His face was flushed. I found him to be so beautiful.

He smiled up at me. “See, you can take orders.”

I let loose a tired laugh.

He tensed around me but it wasn’t a love invitation. A grunt broke his throat.

“Rand?”

He jerked again. This time his stomach lurched and his shoulders came up off the ground. His breathing turned into a heavy pain filled pant.

“Rand!”

His arms encircled my neck. “Come with me.”

“Rand, what’s wrong? Did I hurt you.”

“Come with me, sprite. I don’t want this to end.” I don’t know how he got that out as another wave of pain wracked through him.

“Rand!!”

He gave a guttural cry and began to thrash on the hard ground. His movements threw me off him. I scrambled around on the ground until I could pillow his head. The seizure intensified and I got hit a couple of times with flailing fisting. I was at a loss of what to do other than keep his head from slamming into the hard rock surface.

Suddenly pain like I’d never known ripped through my stomach. I screamed at the intensity of it. I doubled over just as Rand suffered another seizure. We slammed heads together hard. Explosions fired off in my head then I felt myself falling. And falling into a dark abyss. The last thing I thought I saw was Rand turn into a blue flame then there was nothing.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. It was bright. I winced slightly and hooded my eyes. It felt like I had just shot the rapids without a boat and was smashed against the rocks, repeatedly. Rocks…RAND! I opened my eyes fully and bolted upright. Wait…wait. Why was it bright? We were in the Murk where it was always a permanent twilight.

“You all right, sprite?”

“Rand?” I turned my head and found my love bathed in shimmering blue robes. I blinked. No, those weren’t Academy robes. He was dressed in blue fire. The brightness was him. My voice took on an awe of wonderment. “Rand…”

“Don’t hate me.”

What? My thinking was slow. My head hurt. I must have slammed it on the rocks. I raised my hand to my head then just froze. What the hell was this? I opened my eyes and brought my other arm up to compare them. My skin was tinted blue. Shell bracers encircled my forearms. A shell breastplate hung off my neck and was secured around my chest. What the hell was this?
“Rand?”

“You are the Great Water Element, Eaton.”

“You’re Fire?”

“Please, don’t hate me. I couldn’t bare it if you hated me.”

“I don’t understand…I’m not…”

Rand stood up from the bench and walked towards me. The robes were attached at two points of his shoulder then hung loose on his frame. A thing rope of gold wrapped his waist bringing the sheet of fire around him to flow to the ground. I thought he was beautiful before. Now, he was stunning.

“Fire World is straight forward. The day the Dons came to my house, they told me that I was the next chosen Fire Element. From day one, they have trained me to wear the fire mantle. Unlike the Water World, we try not to keep secrets.”

I frowned at him. “You’ve known you’re going to be the Great Element all along?”

“Yes.” His voice was quiet.

I was stunned. Slowly I pushed myself to my feet. Shell greaves were strapped to my shins. I was in stylized warrior armor. A pale green kilt hit just above my knees. How could I be the Water Element? I shirked everything I could. I fought against everything they tried to teach me.

“Did…did you know about me?”

“Yes.”

“You knew I was going to be the next Water Element?” Anger ripped through me.

“Yes.”

“How the hell could you know that? The Dons don’t know who will be chosen.”

“They knew. It’s just the way of the Water to make everyone strive. Those who are released from the Academy today will be well trained healers, administrators…”

“Fuck this…how could you know?”

“The Oracle.” I stilled. Aside from the Murk, the Oracle was the only other thing I had heard of that could contact all four elements. “She told me that I would meet my other half in the Murk. What I was to become, my other half would be to. She told me this when I was seven. I thought at the time I was looking for another fire spark to make into a friend.”

Rand turned his head and looked down at the bench. “I came here everyday since that prophecy waiting for my friend.”

Uh? I didn’t make it to the Murk until I was twelve. “You were coming here everyday?”

“1825 days of waiting for someone to come, for anyone to come.”

“Five years? You waited for me for five years? What if no one came? I didn’t start out to find the Murk. I just ended up here.”

“I knew what you were the moment I saw you. Why do think I ran away? I was waiting for a spark and a sprite shows up. I knew right then what the Oracle had meant. I knew you were the next Water Element.”

“You couldn’t have told me in the past eighteen years that I was going to be the next Great One!”

“Would you have wanted to hear it? Every time we met you bitched and complained or you were so angry about something that happened. How could I have told you? Even before this happened, you didn’t want to know.”

I closed my eyes and counted to ten…then to twenty. I stopped at fifty and took a cleansing breath. I opened my eyes and found Rand standing in front of me. He was bright and his robe burned but there was no heat. Hesitantly I reached out my hand. I felt nothing but fine cloth even though it looked like I hand my hand immersed in flame.

“Is this why you wanted forgiveness?”

“I should have told you. I should have along ago but I was scared that if I did you wouldn’t come back here. I love you, sprite. I think I’ve you since the first day I saw you. I couldn’t bear it if you hated me.” I heard his unspoken question hanging in the air between us. I was angry but that just seemed to be a constant. Was it directed at him? A little. It was directed more back at the Academy. If they knew why did they hold it back from me?

I looked down at Rand’s face. We were the same size all through beginning of the teen years but then I shot up a head over him. By the time we hit nineteen, I was broader and muscular. He remained slender.

“Why are you wearing a woman’s robe?” His face shot up with pink. “This can’t be because you’re a catcher?”

He turned rosy. “Idiot. We are balance. You are the warrior. I am the healer.”
“But healers don’t wear women’s clothes.”

Rand turned away but I caught him around the shoulders and pulled him back to me. There was a slight hiss of steam that caught us off guard and we both jumped back from each other. “Did I hurt you?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.”

“Regan was the warrior last time. Elenora was the healer.”

“Regan was the more masculine of the two.”

“Now that I think of it, I never did see Elenora in anything but dresses.”

“This is not a dress.”

My anger was dissipating slightly. “You’re not a woman now are you?”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“Let me check.” I cupped between his legs. Nope, he was still a man. I was ready for the steam this time. I leaned over and captured his kiss. He yielded to me. I stroked my tongue into his mouth and he entangled his with mine. I broke it pulling back. His eyes were closed for a moment then opened revealing the same desire as before.

“Fire and Water was the previous turn. This time it is Water and Fire. You are the Tsunami, Eaton. You are the destroyer. I am the cleansing fire that will burn the debris away and leave the fields fertile. You’re tears will bring gentle rain to allow all things to grow and I will keep the hearths warm for the winter.”

I pushed him back from me, my hands cupping his shoulders. “Sprite?”

“What else did the Oracle tell you?”

“We will be together for a hundred years.”

“That’s all?”

“She did mention that you would be an ass.”

I smirked at him then swooped forward stealing another kiss. “You’re lucky this ass is yours. You’re forgiven Rand.”

His smile was genuine and I was tempted, oh so tempted to drag him close and consummate the new pairing. But first, I had something to do. So had he.

“Hey, don’t we have a mansion now?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll met you there after we get done final rites.”’ Rand nodded and turned back to follow the path to the Fire World. “Hey, Fire Woman.”

He turned on his heel and glared at me. “Don’t call me that.”

“If I get there before you, I’ll wait. I’ll wait five years, hell if I have to wait one hundred years, I’ll wait for you.” I let my earnestness out into my words.

“I would never be so inconsiderate to make you wait that long, Great Water Element.”

“See you at home, sparky.”

“Love you sprite.”

Balance was secured once again until the next turn came.


______

Fire Woman by the Cult

This was playing in my car and I had a Kodak moment. Crisp and clear and steamy hot. Just didn’t have time to get it down until now….so enjoy!

Later Loyal.