The car idled in the driveway as Xander leaned back against the driver’s seat. He lifted his head and stared at his parent’s house. The lights in both the living room and dining room were on and he assumed they were sitting around the table after dinner. A sense of betrayal washed over him as he stared at the unassuming house. His parents had gotten him ready for school every day of his life, sat around the table during meals, and tucked him in at night. The entire time they knew what he was and hadn’t told him.
It’s passed down through your family, Sammy had told him. As much as she had betrayed his trust as well, he had no reason to doubt her.
He turned off the engine and climbed out of the car. The night air seemed far cooler than it had been during the spring formal. A wind gusted around his legs, pulling at his suit pants. Xander frowned, suddenly not sure if the wind was natural or if he was creating it as a response to his bad mood.
The porch steps creaked as he climbed to the front door. He knew it would be unlocked; his parents rarely locked it until they were going to bed.
He turned the handle and the door swung open. Xander could hear the chairs being pushed back from the dining room table as the door opened, his family curious about their unannounced guest.
His father was the first one around the corner but his mother and grandfather followed closely behind.
“Xander, thank God,” his father said. “We’ve been worried sick about you.”
“Have you?” he replied harshly.
His father seemed taken aback. He stopped in the hallway and stared at his son. “Of course we were worried. We haven’t heard from you since you left the other day. We wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m not okay, Dad. I’m angry and I’m hurt.”
“What are you talking about?” his mother asked, stepping up beside her husband.
“What’s a Wind Warrior?”
The silence in the house seemed deafening. No one spoke but their expressions confirmed what Xander suspected all along. Slowly, his father turned toward his grandfather and they shared a knowing expression.
“Where did you hear that?” his father asked, surprisingly calm for the situation.
“From a Fire Warrior who tried to kill me tonight!”
“A Fire Warrior,” his grandfather said, though his inflection didn’t turn it into a question as much as a statement of fact.
Xander turned his attention back to his father. “You knew what I was this whole time, didn’t you?” He didn’t wait for a response before he continued berating his father. “I could have been killed tonight all because you were too egocentric to bother to tell me the truth! You could have been training me to use my powers! You could have been helping me prepare before something like this happened!”
“No, he couldn’t,” his grandfather said sadly. “He couldn’t because he’s not the Wind Warrior. I am.”
Xander felt deflated. “You?”
“It follows family lines but not every member of a family becomes one. It skipped your father. He’s just a normal man, like you were until a couple weeks ago.”
“Why?” Xander asked, unable to find a more articulate question. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
“Because I asked him not to,” his father said. “I grew up the son of a Wind Warrior and it was a living hell for me. Your grandfather had a perpetual obligation to save the world but he never thought about what his responsibilities did to our family. We’d settle somewhere new and your grandfather would go off to right some wrong in the world. Next thing you knew, someone would claim they saw him flying through the air or making a hurricane to put out a forest fire. And just like that, we’d have to pack up our things and move somewhere new, somewhere where no one knew us so we could start a new life. I moved six times during high school alone. Six times!”
His father looked exhausted and aged. “I didn’t want that for you, Xander. I wanted you to have a normal life. You don’t know how hard it’s been for me since I found out you were one of them.”
“How hard it’s been for you?” Xander replied. He empathized with his father’s sadness but couldn’t ignore the fact that everyone seemed far more interested in controlling his life then letting him choose for himself.
“What else did the Fire Warrior say before you killed him?” his grandfather asked.
“It was a she and I didn’t kill her.”
“You let her go? Even weakened like the Fire Caste is right now, she’s still a danger.”
“She’s not a danger to us. But she did say there were others with her that are looking for the rest of the Wind Warriors.”
“If there’s more,” his grandfather quickly said to his father, “then we need to get out of the house.”
“This is exactly what I didn’t want,” his father replied angrily. “Even now, after all these years, your life is ruining everyone else’s. Have you ever thought that maybe we don’t want to pack up our lives and leave? We have a good life here!”
“Don’t be a fool, Jack! You think the Fire Warriors care about the life you have?”
Xander shook his head sadly and turned back toward the front door. He slipped back outside before anyone even realized he was gone.
“Xander!” his grandfather yelled as the elder man hurried down the street to catch up.
Xander stuffed his hands deeper into his jacket pockets and kept walking. His grandfather caught up with a huff of exertion and fell into step beside his grandson.
“Come back to the house.”
“I don’t think so. You all have been lying to me my entire life. You, more than anyone.”
“Then where will you go?”
“Anywhere but here.”
“Quit being such a little kid, Xander. I know you’re angry right now but your life is in danger.”
Xander stopped walking and turned toward the old man. “Don’t you think I know that? I took a girl out on a date and she tried to set me on fire. No one knows the danger I’m in better than me.”
“I’m… I’m sorry. You shouldn’t even be going through this yet.”
Xander furrowed his brow. “That’s the second time you’ve told me I’m too young.”
“That’s because you are. Wind Warriors are born with our powers but they don’t manifest until you turn twenty-five. I don’t know why you suddenly got your powers so early. It doesn’t make sense. But if you got them, there’s a reason.”
Xander’s thoughts drifted to Sammy. He knew some people looked deceptively young but he doubted she was twenty-five either.
“What reason could there be for ruining my life?”
“Quit being a drama queen, boy,” his grandfather growled. “You may not appreciate it but you’ve been given a great honor.”
“I don’t appreciate it because I’m apparently the only person that doesn’t know what the hell is going on.”
“Sit,” his grandfather said, pointing to a bench on the outskirts of a city park. “Sit and I’ll try to explain it to you.”
Xander hesitated as the older man took a seat on the bench. With a sigh, he walked over and joined his grandfather.
“So what is a Wind Warrior?”
“You’ve already figured it out. We can control the wind—shape it into whatever we want it to be.”
“No, I understand that part. I mean what is a Wind Warrior? Why do we even exist?”
“To explain it in the simplest terms possible, we’re the guides for humanity. We’re part of one of the four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Those four elements exist in the four elemental castes. You’re a part of the Wind Caste.”
“And Sammy is a part of the Fire Caste.”
“Exactly. The Wind Caste served as the spiritual guides for humanity, inspiring them to reach for the heavens. We were the wise old men sitting on mountaintops dispensing advice.”
“No,” Xander joked, his humor serving as a defense mechanism when he grew increasingly nervous. “You’re just an old man sitting on a park
bench.”
“I used to be so much more. I gave it up.”
“Why?”
“Because your father was right. I was a terrible dad to him growing up, always putting the duties of the caste above my duties as a father. I think he knew that I was disappointed when he didn’t become a Wind Warrior. I swore that it wasn’t too late to be a decent father, so I became a father and grandfather rather than a warrior.”
Xander was surprised by the depth of his grandfather’s answer. He never considered the sacrifices the elder man had made—first for the caste and then after for his family.
“So if we’re Wind and Sammy is Fire, then there are whole other groups of Earth and Water Warriors running around too, right? How come I’ve never heard anything about them?”
His grandfather shook his head. “Because there are no Earth or Water Warriors left. There wasn’t even a Fire Caste until a few decades ago.”
Xander sat forward on the bench. “Where did the others go?”
“They died.”
Xander looked mortified but his grandfather dismissed his concerns with a soft chuckle.
“No one killed them, if that’s what you’re thinking. Each element serves its purpose, helping the evolution of the planet, but no two castes ever exist at the same time.”
Xander remembered something Sammy had said in the dilapidated house. “Earth gives way to the sea, the sea bows before the wind—”
“—the wind feeds the flame, and the flame burns the world of man back to the earth. I see you’ve heard it before.”
“Sammy said it to me—the Fire Warrior.”
“Well, she’s a smart girl. Dangerous but smart.”
“If no two castes can exist at the same time, how can there be Fire Warriors now?”
His grandfather looked solemn. “I think you can figure out that answer.”
“It’s because our time is coming to an end, isn’t it?” he sighed.
The old man nodded. “There used to be thousands of us but we’ve slowly been growing old and passing on without leaving new Wind Warriors to take our place. You’re the first new Wind Warrior in over twenty years.”
“How many of us are left?”
“Too few,” his grandfather replied sadly. “Far too few. The Fire Caste has been born because our era is nearing its end.”
“Wait, the prophecy says that the flames burn the world of man. What does that mean?”
The elder shrugged. “Exactly what it says. Don’t look so surprised. Nearly every religion has a prophecy about the end times, when the Earth as we know it is destroyed and reborn anew. Christians have Revelations. The Norse had Ragnarok. This is just our version of the same story.”
Xander stood and turned toward his grandfather. He couldn’t believe the man he’d known all his life, the man who showed so much compassion for everyone he met, was so calm about the end of the world.
“They’re planning on destroying the world. How are they not our mortal enemies?”
“Because they’re not,” his grandfather replied gruffly. “They’re not evil people. They’re fulfilling their role in the natural cycle of evolution.”
Xander leaned forward until his face was inches from the old man’s. “No, they’re not. They’re trying to kill us. There’s nothing natural about that.”
“I will admit that trying to kill us isn’t part of the plan. It sounds to me like there’s an offshoot of the Fire Warriors who don’t want to wait their turn, especially with a new Wind Warrior being activated after so many years. Before you, they might have just been content waiting out their turn for a few more decades.”
“How do they even know about me?” he said, walking away from the bench and staring up at the clear night’s sky.
“The same way I knew about you. We’re all connected through the elements. When one of us uses our abilities, everyone else can sense it. We used to use that ability whenever a new Wind Warrior reached the age so that we could bring them into the fold. I guess it makes sense that Fire Warriors have the same connection to us, though that’s just speculation.”
Xander cursed himself quietly for being so stupid. Everything made a lot more sense now. Sammy had shown up to his class the day after he saved that man from being hit by the bus. She had to have sensed his power and was sent immediately afterward. How could he have been so blind?
He sighed and turned back to his grandfather. “So what do we do now?”
“We run. We get as far away as we can and we keep you safe.”
“And then what? Never use our powers again? We know they can track us—so we just all live to a ripe old age until we die of natural causes and the Fire Caste takes over?”
“I didn’t say it was a good plan.”
“And what happens when they do take over? What happens to the Earth?”
His grandfather shrugged. “As each of the Wind Warriors die, I would assume volcanoes would erupt. There would be city-shattering earthquakes. When the last of us pass on, the Fire Warriors will be able to fully escape their prison and roam the Earth.”
Xander shook his head. “Then I’m not running. I can’t hide and save myself while knowingly damning the rest of the world.”
“You’re a stubborn mule of a boy, you know that?”
“I’m sure that’s hereditary too,” he replied with a smile. “So where do we find these Fire Warriors?”
His grandfather’s smile washed from his face. Xander felt it too, a sudden surge of energy like the static charge just before a lightning strike.
From out of the trees in the park behind them, dark-robed men emerged. In their hands, burning orbs danced in the darkness.
“I don’t think finding them will be a problem,” the old man whispered.