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I awoke to a soft hug and a contented vixen smiling up to me. Finally a pleasant morning I could wake up to, then I felt the cold chill of the air whipping about us. Oh yes, sleeping atop a mountain with naught but what we had on our backs for shelter. Wonderful idea, if you have a warm vixen to cuddle with I'd recommend it, otherwise, stay home.

Jeseia sat up slowly and turned the fire, stoking it some to take the chill out while I stood and stretched out. I almost felt more tired than when we went to sleep the night before. I knelt behind her and ventured a soft hug around her middle and resting my head on her shoulder. She cooed in turn up to me and giggled before patting my hands lightly with her paws. "Good morning, are you ready to start training?"

I groaned just a little and dug a pair of apples from the pack Jes and brought along for our trip, handing one to her and digging into the one for myself hungrily. "Almost, at least let me eat this. Then I'm all set m'lady"

Jeseia scoffed at me playfully before turning to her own breakfast. Apples make for short work and soon we were sitting face to face again with her relaxing and smiling to me.

"Air is like water, it flows, ebbs, and weaves. However, unlike water, Air likes to move around and soar in all directions. The trick is to hear how it plays through the mountains, dances along trees, and sings as it sails past your ears. Just like before, I need you to relax and concentrate. Leave your feelings of water behind, it'll be a distraction until you can feel the difference."

I closed my eyes and just let the air fly about me, the nagging sensation from the other night started again, teasing me just out of range. I could almost feel the playful attitude around me as the wind blew through our small camp.

"How long should this take? I can feel it there, teasing me and calling me already."

"No no, that's wrong. It should wait for you to call out to it. Air element is playful like that, if it is calling to you then something is very very wrong. I think you should stop. You can lose yourself if you're not careful."

"I have this, I think there is something wrong. I feel...concern with the air. It's playful and teasing like you said..but there's caution in there. It doesn't feel natural."

I closed my eyes and felt a warm paw hold my hand. It felt good to have an anchor back to her while I tried to sort out what was happening. I could feel the air almost speaking in my ears and it was concerned. Something was happening that it knew about and it needed help. Our help, help that I alone couldn't do. Feeling the air dance about me I carefully guided around us like a stone in a stream. The airs parted and finally our mountain top was free of the wind.

I slowly mouthed, "Why, why do you come to me. What is it that makes you come to me for help?"

Jes squeezed at my hand, "I feel it too, Something is wrong but I can't find anything there what we can do."

"I don't think its us it needs, you and me. I think its us, the other elements and myself."

With a shudder suddenly the air blasted straight down on us, laying us flat to the ground as it blew and moved with such force around us. This was definitely not normal as I could hear Jes actually whimpering scared as she moved next to me inch by inch.

I gripped her paw gently once more and held fast, I guiding the force of air around me, diverting it from blasting me to the ground. Slowly I stood in a pocket of a light breeze while a hurricane pounded into the mountain. There, slowly floating down to me was a single feather. It floated there at eye level until I gingerly picked it from the air, the gale stopped in an instant. The feather was light and I immediately knew that this was my token for communicating with the air element. Through this simple feather even as I tucked it into my tunic, I felt an urgency and need.

"I think we should go Jeseia, I think we need to get to the next training as quickly as we can. We need to get back to Granh and the forest. I don't know what the rush is, but there is certainly something going on."

Jeseia slowly stood and pressed against me as I spoke, whimpering just a little until I slipped an arm around her middle again and gave her a light squeeze. "I'm sorry I scared you Jes, Air was very determined to force itself into my service, and that's not something I could ignore"

"I understand, you did the right thing."

I calmly drew some of her rusty brown hair aside and with slight hesitation pressed a light kiss to her lips. The shape of her muzzle made it a very unique sensation to say the least. She calmed there in my arms and relaxed a bit, murring cutely at me then returning a soft kiss. "Come on, we should leave this mountain. I suspect we'll make good time getting back" I joked slightly, though a suddenly stout breeze pushed at my back to urge me on.

She nodded and quickly lead me to the path down the mountain, as we went a strong breeze always stayed at our backs. We were almost pushed down the entire mountain, all the wildlife seemed to feel something was wrong as well as none ventured from their dens as we passed. We made it to our camp from two nights ago from which I could see the smoke from Torrnal far to the south by midday.

"You've barely said a word all the way here Jes, I'm getting a little concerned."

"I am concerned too, I feel something wrong too but I don't know why it was so focused on you. And I'm worried about fire, its what killed the last man that we found. And things were not as odd as with you. I'm scared for you" She gently pressed against me and pressed a soft kiss to my lips, her paws roaming a little along my back before my arms even had time to wrap around her in turn.

"It'll be alright, everyone should be as lucky as to have a teacher like you."

"I have only one more lesson to teach you, and as much as I'd like to right now. I can't, you must finish with Granh first." She seemed honestly disappointed by that as she drew from me. "Gather some more of these apples and lets go. At this rate we'll make camp in the wolf clans woods by night fall"

"Couldn't you get some help from earth like when we first escaped together to speed the trip?"

"I've tried here and there, but the constant noise in the air is making it hard for me to sort things out." She sighed a little as she tossed some apples into the pack on my back, taking more from my hands and packing them as well.

We left the clearing in troubled spirits. Jes was worried about my trials with Granh, and if she was worried I was only more so. The trek east was quick, we were nearly blown there by the wind, each step taking us the distance of two with the effort of a half step each time. The sky grew cloudy and dark as we made our way back to the forest and followed the tree line towards the river we'd followed north. Water started to speak to me, a storm was coming, fast.

"Jes, where does lightning come from?" I paused our trek briefly to ask, " What element claims it?"

"Why do you ask?" Jes stopped a step ahead of me, "The storm shouldn't be that bad at all. And it's a combination. When the playful nature of air mixes with the steady flow of water, lightning can be made."

Both my tokens rang out suddenly in confirmation before everything went white. I heard nothing, felt nothing, and could see nothing. "Jes! Jes! Where are you, what happened?" I called out, my voice sounding weak and distant.

Minutes must have passed, slowly I found my own body could in fact still move, I rolled slowly onto my hands and knees. My eyes began to clear and the ringing in my ears quieting, I scanned nearby to find a blackened patch of grass just ahead of where we would been had I not paused a moment before. I found her not far from where she stood, breathing and weak, but alive.

The fury of the skies had nothing on the rage in my heart. The elements that were never to abandon us had almost struck us down there where we stood. The tokens at my chest rang out as my emotions poured into them. The rain poured, hail rained down like boulders. Air tore through the land unleashed and lightning danced widely above us. Water was the one thing I could hear, it was conflicted. I gradually calmed enough to listen, water was confused, it was not flowing where it wanted. Air was mad, like bird trapped in a cage and forced to sing for amusement. Everything was...Everything was out of balance! That's what had air so worried earlier, air was change and it knew something was happening.

"If you want our help, you need to get us to safety, now. We can't help if we're dead!" I called out to the heavens. I picked Jeseia up into my arms and held her close before I called out through my tokens for help. Confused and unsure I could feel the uneasiness in the air, but I found resolve and through me, so did the air about us. It pushed and bowed us hastily into the woods, shielding us from the worst of the weather. We still had a ways to travel west before the safety of our clearing, and I needed to tend to Jes now.

I gently laid her down in some soft dried leaves and quickly went to work. I gathered many leafy branches and underbrush, making a thick mat to keep her warm and dry for the night. I gently undressed her and then myself. I eased the unconsciousness vixen under the vegetation and then joined her, pressing close to share the warmth of my body with her.

There, she slept and I kept watch. No animals stirred, the same uneasiness of the mountain was here. An hour or so later, I lost track in the night, she stirred slightly. Her arms slipped around me and she pressed close with a content little murr. I tenderly brushed the bare pelt of her back, she'll be alright I was certain. With that thought, I to finally collapsed from exhaustion from our trials and succumb to sleep.