Chapter 2
					The Rose

Emerald and Jade walked into the forest not really sure where they were supposed to go. They just kept walking deeper into the forest in the hopes that Misty would find them. "Do you have any idea where we're suposed meet up with Misty?" Jade asked in monotone voice, showing no emotion towards what they had just been through. "Are you okay?" Emerald asked, concerened about Jade's lack of emotion. "I'm fine." Jade replied, and kept walking in silence. "Where's Nova?" Asked a female voice from behind them. Jade screamed and jumped turning around to see where the voice had come from. "Who's there!?" Emerald asked in a slightly frightend voice. "Calm down, it's just me." The voice said as the body it belonged to stepped out from behind a tree. The person the voice belong to was a very beautiful girl, she stood about 5' 4" and had bright green eyes, she had waist lenghth light blue hair and a slight tan. "Misty?" Jade asked as she looked over at the person who had been speaking. "Where's Nova?" Misty asked looking at Jade, she stared at Jade for a few seconds, "He's not coming is he?" She asked not taking her eyes off of Jade. "We got seperated in town." Jade responded in a quiet voice. "Oh, I see..." Misty responded. She stood there silently for a moment thinking of what to do next. "Okay, well we don't have time to worry about him now, we need to get you two to the temple as quickly as posable." "Wait...What temple?" Emerald asked looking up at Misty. "What all did Nova say to you before you got seperated?" Misty asked. "Nothing. All he said was that we had to get to the forest." Emerald replied. "Oh well, we don't have time to explain it all now, so I'll tell you what I can as we walk. Where to start, it's all to complicated. Okay so I guess I'll tell you about the temeple first." Misty said as she started leading Emerald and Jade toward the center of the forest. "Okay so the temple I keep talking about is the Temple of the Elements..." "Hey, I've heard of that." Jade interupted. "Yes, I had a feeling you might have. The temple is a thing of great power, it is the source of all the elemental powers on this planet. Long ago it gave it's power to a group of people that became the original Elementals. These elementals were once a very powerful and influential group. They were once the rulers of this planet untill one day when a very powerful fire elemental turned on the others and tried to take over the others, that's when the temple took back the power it had given them. Most people believed that the power was lost forever, after ten years of inactivity most people just gave up on the thought of the temple every retuning the gift that it had given. Untill fifteen years ago when the temple suddenly awoke and one young girl resived the gift of earth. The girl was taken to the temple for her training. The temple then went into another dormate state and didn't awake again untill eighteen years ago when it realesed the power of fire." Misty paused here and looked off into the forest for about a minute. "Everyone thought that this time it would release the last three elemental powers, however it only released the one. This confused most of the people that knew about the activity. Most thought that it was just some fluke acorance or something, the more knowlageable elders knew that the temple was preparing for something and that it was waiting for the right people to come along, the ones that could handle the power and would use it to protect the forest, and temple and use the powers for the good of the planet and everything on it." "So wait, this temple holds all this power and yet it did nothing when Elemex moved in and destroyed everything?" Jade asked in a slightly outraged voice. "Well the temple it's self can't do anything. It just gives others the power to help. Now the idividuals that are given this power are given it at birth and are usualy not trained how to use it untill they are at least 16, however due to the recent change of cercomestance that prosses is going to have to be sped up a little bit." Misty said looking over at Jade. "What? What are you talking about?" Emerald asked looking over at Misty. Without even realizing it they had walked into a large clearing with an large temple in the center of it. The temple mayan looking temple in the center of it. "You two are going to start your training today. We usualy try to wait a little longer to be sure that the person can handle everything they need to do. However we don't have that kind of time anymore." Misty said looking over at the temple. "This is The Temple of The Elements. This is where you will be staying for, at least, the next three years, being trained in the ways to control the power you have been given, and the sooner we get started the better, so let's go." She finished walking up to the door to the temple and pushing it open. Emerald and Jade followed closely behind Misty, not really sure of what they had gotten into and scared of what might happen next. As they walked into the temple they were taken into a very narrow very dark hallway, as soon as they were all inside Misty closed to temple door behind them and grabbed a torch off of the wall, she quickly lit it and started walking down the hall. Emerald and Jade stayed very close to her. It seemed like they had been walking down the same hall forever, Jade was just about to ask how far into the temple they were going when they walked out into a very large stone room the walls of which were lined with torches that had already been lit. Misty hung the torch she had been carrying on the wall next to the door they walked through to get into the room. Jade walked into the room and started looking at the drawings that covered the stone walls. They dipicted a time of peace when the elementals took care of the planet and the people and animals that lived on it. It showed the elementals training and learning how to control the gift they had been given. As she got futher along the wall she noticed the pictures got more and more violent and sad, they showed the fire elemental turning on the others, and the temple taking away it's power. when she got about halfway around the room she notice one perticular picture that stood out to her. It was split into three seperate areas, in the top right it showed a girl standing in a forest clearing, and it looked as though she was manipulating the very ground beneath her feet. In the top left a man who looked a lot like Nova was standing in the clearing he had his hands out in front of him and fire was burning in the air just below his hands. Jade's eyes lingered on this part of the picture for a moment before looking at the bottom half of the picture. She stared blankly at this half of the picture for moment before her brain seemed to fully comprehend what she was looking at. The pictue showed two young girls standing in the same clearing with thier backs to each other. In front of each of them there was a person that looked like some sort of teacher. The girls looked almost exactly like Emerald and Jade, the one that looked like Jade seemed to be manipulating the air, while the other girl was surronding them both in buble of water. Jade stared at this picture for a moment before turning around and looking at Misty. She was standing by the door watching Jade stare at the picture. Jade looked at the center of the room and saw Emerald sitting at a large rectagnluar stone table. Jade walked over and sat next to Emerald. Misty walked over to the table and stood across from Emerald and Jade. "You two stay here. I'm going to go find the others, I'll be back soon." She said then turned and walked through a door on the right of the room. "Do you beileve any of this?" Emerald asked looking over at Jade. "I don't understand how this could all be going on and we could be completely unaware." Jade said in a slightuyly distant voice. "I know. I mean I had no idea all this stuff was going on." Emerald said looking over at Jade. "Are you okay?" "What do you mean? I'm fine." Jade replied. "Are you sure? I mean are you really okay with all this." Emerald asked. "Yes, I'm fine." Jade replied looking away from Emerald. They sat there for in silence for twenty more minutes before Misty returned. She walked in and took a seat across the table from Emerald and Jade. "It's going to be a few more minutes before the others get here. When they do they'll explain everything." Misty said. "Who are they exactly?" Jade asked. "They are the ones that will be teaching you." Misty replied. "We have to wait for Pheonix." Came a female voice from behind the door that Misty had just come through. "We don't have time. They are waiting for us." Another voice replied. "We have to start without him." The door on the right opened and three figures walked through. The first one through was a woman standing about 5' 9" she had a tall slender build, she had light blue eyes, and deep blue water that waved in such a way that it looked as though it was made of water. The second one through the door was also a woman she stood at about 6' 0" tall and had the lightest blue eys, her hair was waved in the slightest breaze and was off white in color. She was one of the most beautiful women Emerald or Jade had ever seen. The third one through the door was a tall male with tan skin and dark brown hair, he was taller then the two women ahead of him, standing at aproxamatly 6' 4". He was the last one through the door. He turned and closed the door after he walked through it. The three new comers walked into the room and each took a seat across the table from Emerald and Jade. "Where is Pheonix?" Misty asked as they sat down. "He wont be joining us today. He's busy at this time." The first woman said. "Now let's get strait to business." She continued looking over at Emerald and Jade. "Your probably wondering who we are by know. I no your confused and probably a little scared but I'm going to have to be blunt. I am Hydria, this is Sky, and he is Seth." "Nice to meet you, I'm Emerald and this is my sister Jade." Emerald said. "We know who you are." Sky said in an annoyed voice. "Now then can we get on with this." "Yes, we need to hurry, you need some rest so you can start your training in the morning. Now then as you might have guessed by now you are both elementals. You, Jade, have been given the power of air, and Emerald, you have been given the power of water." Hydria said looking at Emerald and Jade in turn. "I will be training you, Jade. Hydria will be training Emerald." Sky said, "Now then you girls need some sleep." "Yes, it has gotten late..." Hydria started, but was inturpted by a loud noise as a tall man with red hair and eyes burst through the door. "Pheonix? What's going on?" Misty asked as she got up and walked over to the new comer. "Did you find Nova?" "We can talk all about that later. Right now we need to get these girls to bed." Sky said in a slightly annoyed voice. "I'll take Emerald and Jade to thier rooms." Pheonix said as he walked over to them and put his hands on thier shoulders. "Okay, when your done meet us back here, we have lots of things to talk about." Hydria said. "Follow me." Pheonix said to Emerald and Jade as he started walking over toward the door that Misty had gone through earlier. Emerald and Jade followed him through the door, it lead them into another long hallway, this one's walls were lined with doors on both sides. He lead them down the hall to the very end where he lead Emerald through the last door on the left, it lead her into a large bedroom, with a queen size bed in the center of the room, she walked through the door closing it behind her and went to sleep. Pheonix then turned to the door directly across the hall from Emerald's room he opened the door and looked at Jade. "This is where you will be sleeping." He said as he lead her into the room. "Now before you go to bed I have something for you." He added digging into his pockets. Jade looked at him confused, not saying a word. "Ah, here it is, Nova wanted me to give you this." He said pulling his hand out of his pocket and handing Jade a black rose. "He said to give you this and tell you to stay here at the temple, and not go looking for him." Jade took the rose with a sad look on her face, she couldn't seem to take her eyes off of the rose. "So you talked to him then?" She asked still not looking up from the rose. "Yes, he wants you to know that he's okay." Pheonix said putting his hand on Jade's shoulder in a reasureing way. Jade looked up from the rose and looked into Pheonix's eyes, a tear streaming down her face. She wiped the tears from her face and lead Pheonix out of the room. She closed the door behind him and walked over to the window sill on the oposite side of the room, she laid the rose on the window sill and looked out at the forest for a moment, before closeing the curtains and walking over to the bed and laying down to sleep.