The room was blazingly hot, a fact that was emphasized by the two colors that adorned every nook and cranny of each surface of the furnishings.

A ruby-red scarlet, garnished with an emerald green, was woven and intertwined in every corner of the room. The walls were repainted in a deep burgundy and the floor, which at one time was polished wood, was now a hard, Hooker’s green, granite tile. The furniture was of red velvet secured with golden nail heads over a hard teak wood frame. The wardrobe, vanity, and dresser chests were carved of cedar and extravagantly painted with swirls of greens and more gold. The huge four-poster bed in the center of the back wall was pieced together so that the cedar and teak woods that made up its frame seemed to blend together. The pine green drapes hanging from the top contrasted sharply with the bed’s rose colored comforter and golden sheets. The low headboard rested against the wall across from a huge window facing the wilderness that bordered the Anildyfris’ villa-like home to the east.

For Cedric Anildyfri, it was torture to look at.

“Gah! Mum! What the bloody hell is with all the Christmas colors!” the teenage male screeched at his mother who was in the process of stocking the golden shaded crate by the brick fireplace with various, scented hardwoods.

“Cedric! Mind your tongue or I’ll be using soap to wash it off!” Eliza Anildyfri snapped at her only son, arranging the last of the firewood in the bin.

The mother stood up and brushed flakes and splinters of wood from her midnight blue day-gown. She turned to look toward her son, placing her hands on her hips.

“You are already aware we are adopting, dear. I thought your father and I had made that perfectly clear one month ago darling?”

“You did mother but I—” Cedric stuttered out.

“No ‘buts!’ It just so happens that the child we have selected is very partial to the colors of the sun and the earth.” Mrs. Anildyfri cut in. “Come now and lower your arm. There isn’t a thing that would require you to guard yourself from,” she chided before continuing to decorate the large room.

Refusing to lower his arm but a slight degree, Cedric complained, “So when exactly are you going to tell me more about the kid? I don’t even know if they’re a girl or guy!”

“Oh don’t fret. All will be revealed when the time is right, which will be in one week,” Eliza said, brushing her son’s questions off with a wave of her elegant hand.

“A week?!” Cedric exclaimed, appalled at the astoundingly short, previously unknown time in which he would have a new sibling.

“Hush now, dear. As I said, don’t fret. Everything will be fine.”

Cedric could have sworn he heard his mother chuckle to herself as he walked away, closing the door, “I do promise you will get a whiplash with this one though.”

Continuing back to the balcony, Cedric once more blew open his glider and pushed off, soaring to the very top floor before flattening his 90 degree angle and landing smoothly on the soft carpet.

Letting out the sigh of someone far older and wiser than himself, Cedric retracted his glider and walked down the desolate hallway to his sanctuary: his bedroom.

Flinging open the pure white, wooden door, Cedric stomped into the beautiful room.

His own room revolved around hues of oranges and blues. The ornate four-poster bed carved of Spanish cedar in a swirling build was located on the wall opposite the large French window that faced west. The sheets were a pale blue which contrasted pleasantly with the navy of the bedspread and the cobalt blue of the hangings. The cherry wood of the bedside table and various chests and closets that were scattered about the room gave off a similar orange glow to that of the bed frame. The last piece of furniture lay on the bare wood paneled floor beneath the French window. It was a rectangular chest. The antique wood was chipped, splintered, and slightly rotting but that simply enhanced the look of elegance and superiority tat seeped from the casket. A crest was the only decoration on the entirety of the box. The carved image identical to the blue and orange tattoo-like markings located on Cedric’s wrists and at the base of the back of his neck.

Cedric removed his clothes, walked into his personal bathroom to shower, before exiting and pulling on his boxers and cotton pajama pants, throwing himself onto the grand bed. He lay there just staring at the ceiling for three minutes before sitting up and shifting his gaze to the chest.

I wonder…

Cedric shook his head to rid it of the thoughts.

Nah, that’s impossible.

He chuckled to himself at the stupidity of his ideas before turning over and falling into a deep slumber as the moonlight illuminated his pale skin.

* * *

Cedric stood in the center of a crystal clear lake. The small mass on which he stood was nothing more than a circle of ice, a mere five feet in diameter. Winds ruffled his oceanic hair and whipped the robes of ginger and sapphire that adorned his being. Opposite of him stood a female with emerald hair and scarlet eyes. A long gown of ruby and jade hung stunningly on her petite but lithe figure. She stood on a small square of dry earth that floated on a sea of fiery lava. The two pools of liquids were separated by a mysterious fog that spanned the distance of no more than eight feet between them had an ethereal quality as it ebbed and swirled in the middle.

The teenage boy felt oddly at peace in the strange setting and something inside of him, something leading back thousands of years, pulled him toward the girl.

The scarlet eyes closed as the girl removed a small ring from her finger and blew on it. As if it were nothing but a feather, the ring floated across the expanse of space separating the two teenagers and Cedric reached his hand out to catch it. Without thinking, he slid the ring onto his right hand.

As if his body was on autopilot, Cedric reached behind his head and removed the necklace he had previously been unaware of wearing. Catching a glimpse at it, Cedric recognized the ancient pendent immediately as the one of the Anildyfri legend. The tear-shaped, never-melting ice encasing a forever-blowing wind was the sacred symbol of the water-air bender. The pendant that Cedric kept locked in the chest opposite his bed with the book of the Anildyfri bender.

He had no control over his body as he raised the pendant to his lips and blew softly over the side. The object drifted easily from his fingers over to the girl. Much as Cedric had done with her ring, she grasped the jewel in her hand before unfurling her fingers and hanging the necklace in place around her throat.

Abruptly a bright beam of sunlight descended on the female whilst a column of moonlight danced around Cedric’s body.

The girl smiled slightly and said in a tone so beautiful, so melodious, it could only be compared to that of a tinkling wind chime, she spoke.

“We will meet soon, oh Wind of the Water.”

And she vanished as the mist separating them overtook the scene.

* * *

Cedric awoke with a start, shooting straight up into a sitting position.

Holy sh—

Cedric ran his hand through his tussled hair in frustration when he suddenly froze.

He felt an odd weight on his hand.

Quickly withdrawing his hand from his wavy locks, he stared wide eyed upon his fourth finger.

What the hell?!

There, on his right hand, rested a gold band with a quarter-sized, bottle green crystal with some sort of smoldering, crimson substance blazing within.

The teenage boy stared in awe and fascination at the ring for a full two minutes before something in the back of his mind clicked into place.

Cedric leapt from the bed, the sheets flying back immediately as the boy literally flew to the chest that lay across the room.

Flinging open the box, Cedric hastily lifted the ancient, silk pouch from its confined and nearly ripped the bag in half as he yanked on the drawstrings. Looking inside, he saw nothing.

The heirloom was gone.

Here is chapter 3 and please visit my profile. Review! Just five and I’ll update.

C.K.