Of Ashes

On March 22, 2190 Tein vas Pollum turns three years old.  Tein was born to Lunia and Frank vas Pollum both of whom are regular citizens of Reems Republic.  These two parents however never expected that their son would become a historical figure or to change the views of a new world so abruptly.  But most parents would never expect this to happen. 

“Lunia… Lunia… you need to wake up.  It’s our son’s birthday…  WAKE UP!” 

The sliver haired girl jolted from her slumber and bumped right into the head of her husband causing him to bounce off their bed and onto the floor.  “That’s what you get for yelling at Sleeping Beauty at…at … what time is it?”  Lunia asked as she slowly stretched out her arms and began pulling her legs over the side of the bed.  Frank scrambled to his feet while rubbing at the bruise on his forehead, “I can’t see the clock right now.  I seem to have blood dripping into my eyes.” He said as he pointed towards the holo-clock right next to Lunia’s side of the bed.

“Shut up.  I’m not bleeding.  So if I’m not bleeding you’re not bleeding.  Now buck up and tell me what time it is already.”  She looked at him in such a way that caused a single thought to brew in Frank’s mind ‘She is not amused!’ Frank then glanced at the clock next to his wife, “It’s one fifty-three and it’s only twelve minutes until your son is three years old.”  He held out his hand to his wife to pull her out of bed.  Lunia accepted his gesture and he yanked her out off the bed and into a quick good morning kiss.  “You should get dressed and go say happy birthday to Tein.”  Frank told her as he turned to leave the room nearly tripping on a pair of Lunia’s pants.  Lunia caught the pants as they were kicked into the air and began to pull them on as Frank managed to make it out the door.

Tein was playing in the living room while his favorite show “Tagger and Merry” was playing on the TV.  Frank walked into the room and plopped down beside his son and watched the increasingly annoying show on the TV.  Frank found the character Tagger to be the worst thing ever created in the history of children’s television shows.  But even though he found the show irritably dumb as any children’s show should be he still continued to watch. 

A piercing cry broke Frank’s focus on the children’s show.  The sound was so starling that Frank hadn’t realized that he had stood up and dashed half-way across the room before noticing the sound came from his son.  The small child was sitting in the same place as when Frank came in but a red liquid seemed to be coming from his eyes.  Frank quickly grabbed a tissue from a box nearby and rushed to wipe the liquid from Tein’s eyes. 

“Shhhhhhhh.” As he kneeled down beside Tein, “Daddy’s here.  You’re alright.”  Frank put the tissue to the liquid running down Tein’s face.  Lunia had just entered the living room and moved towards Frank, “Is he alright?” she asked.  Frank turned to her, “I don’t know, he started crying and blood was coming out of his eyes.”  Lunia’s eyes widened with fear, “That isn’t something that should be happening to a three year old.”

Frank nodded as he continued to wipe at red liquid pouring from his son’s eyes.  He then felt an extreme heat in his hand and he noticed that the tissue he was using to wipe Tein’s eyes was on fire.  He quickly threw the tissue on the ground in front of Lunia as she yelped and began to stomp the fire out.  Both Frank and Lunia looked at Tein whose face was now covered in the red liquid.  The liquid began dripping onto Tein’s shirt causing it to catch fire.  Lunia began to panic and grabbed at her husband’s PICA that was resting on the bookcase next to the TV.  As she called 911 Frank ran into the kitchen and grabbed the biggest empty container he could find a big silver bowl and filled it with water.  With his bowl filled to the brim with water Frank dashed back into the living room to find his son surrounded by a small pool of the red liquid.  The fire had disintegrated Tein’s clothes and had quickly moved from the carpet to the white couch Tein was sitting in front of to the opposite wall where the TV was.

Desperate to gain control over the now raging inferno of a living room Frank dumped the water over his son.  Steam erupted from where the water touched Tein’s skin causing the child to cry louder.  Some of the red liquid around Tein had turned black from where water had struck it and reminded Frank of cooled lava.  As the thought struck him Frank noticed that his son was not harmed by the lava flowing from his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears.
As Frank was standing dumbstruck staring at his son who was engulfed in flames Lunia had jumped into a patch of carpet near Tein that hadn’t caught on fire yet. Part of the ceiling crashed to the floor next to Tein.  Fear gripped Lunia's heart knowing that at any moment the ceiling could come crashing down.  She dashed to the fireplace adjacent to the TV and grabbed the fire poker from its stand.  Lunia hurried back to the edge of the lava pool and searched fervently for a way to move so that she could reach her child. She grasped the fire poker in both her hands and held it out towards Tein.  “Baby, grab the pole." Another piece of the ceiling crashed on the couch opposite the TV.  "Tein! Grab the pole!”  She yelled at her child hoping he would hear.

Tein’s crying continued and Lunia felt despair wash over her.  Desperate, Lunia spotted an area closer to Tein that was not covered in lava or on fire.  She quickly moved to the spot and attempted to put the fire poker under Tein’s arm.  The poker grew hotter in her hands as it touched Tein’s underarm.  The child squeezed the iron rod and the heat intensified causing Lunia cry out in pain.  But she didn't drop the rod.  Bearing the intense heat of the rod Lunia lifted Tein with the rod and called to her husband, “Frank go open the front door, now!” 

Hearing his wife yelling broke Frank out of his panic induced trance.  He nodded to his wife whom was struggling to hop between dry spots of carpet while carrying Tein.  Frank ran towards the front door still in the midst of a panic attack he struggled to turn the door knob.  Tightening his grip on the knob he pulled the door open just as Lunia dashed through and placed Tein in the middle of the street.  Lava still streamed from his head as Lunia dropped the rod after placing Tein in the street.  Her hands were bleeding and badly burned as she burst into tears not knowing what was happening to her son.  Frank rushed to her side and held her closely while looking over her hands. 

Ten minutes passed and a crowd had gathered around the pool of lava that encircled Tein.  A fire engine siren was now audible from the end of the block.  The fire engine came to a stop a good distance away from the lava pool.  The men inside slowly stepped out of the vehicle with their jaws on the ground.  The horrid spectacle before them rendered the firemen useless for but a brief moment before one of them began to care for Lunia’s hands and the rest attended to the flaming house.

Two hours passed and the only change was the size of the lava circle.  As the third hour passed an onlooker shouted, “Look at the kid!”  The whole crowd looked at Tein.  The lava that was covering his body had turned black.  Slowly the whole pool began to turn black as well.  When the firemen were sure the lava was safe touch they quickly made their way to Tein.  Two of the men began to tear at the lava that encased Tein. 

The crowd was held in suspense for twenty minutes.  Frank and Lunia slowly walked towards the center of the cooled lava circle.  As the couple looked over the shoulders of the men attempting to pull apart the cooled lava a small cry issued from the center of the men.  Lunia gasped and pushed the firemen aside to find her son sobbing in the lava encasement.  Tears of joy poured from her eyes and she picked up her son and hugged him.  The crowd erupted in cheering as Frank embraced his wife. 

Thus, the first elemental was born from the ashes of the strangest inferno.  Tein will go on to help Newborns and to found the Elemental Circle during his later years.  But those are stories for another time.