Oak

Chapter 1

"Oaak!" "Oaak!" shouted Aqua. They trodded slowly in Arizona. They being Aqua, Snowy, Kahoot, and Shracaw. "I'm fed up about this!  Let's just build a cottage here, and light a fire so we could eat and warm up!" screamed Shracaw. "Are you crazy!?  I could sense Aqua's sister's power from here!" shouted Kahoot. "Stop arguing. Shracaw's right. We don't have any water.  Besides, Aqua is dying of thirst." Snowy said. Aqua coughed. "Shracaw, could you make a stone bowl for Aqua?" asked Snowy. "Sure," said Shracaw grumpily.  "In this heat, my snow should melt in the bowl."  Let me tell you this. The little team is in a DESERT.  You hear me? After Aqua drank the whole bowl, Shracaw cut and hollowed out Saguaro cactuses' ribs and speared animals to make leather strings to keep the small hut together.  Next, he put the meat of the speared animals in a tub full of ice in the house.  Next, Snowy helped sew the fur into snuggly sleeping bags  for each bird there was in the team.  Kahoot built a warm fire.  Aqua and Shracaw conjured evaporites of salt to season the cooked meat.  Snowy had never experienced the cold in the desert.  It was far more powerful than any blizzard he'd conjured before.      

Chapter 2

That morning, they had seeds of the cactus they chopped down to make the hut yesterday for breakfast.  Since the hut was made out of sticks, they easily carried it to the forest, where there were mild temperatures and varieties of food.  In a hollowed out tree, Oak sat and listened to the teachings of a bald eagle named Hurscree.  "You must not go out into the night unless you are an owl, which I fear that we both are not, because there are raccoons, which could tear you apart." Hurscree had said.  But Hurscree did, for some reason.  Hurscree had a boy eaglet, who never knew that his mother was the master of light.  Soon, in spite of the trips in the night, Hurscree got killed.  The ghost of hers still lingered in the world, and she became the master of darkness.  The little eaglet sometimes walked around in his part of the hollow tree, lighting his quarter up.  But, he didn't notice, because since he still was an baby eagle, he didn't see very well.  

A hurricane snapped one of the cactus limbs of the little hut Shracaw had designed, so Kahoot and the rest had to roll up their sleeping bags and carry them on their backs. Soon they came to a tree with a door.  Aqua knocked on it and the door creaked open.  In the doorway stood Oak the green parakeet.  "Hello.  Come on in, Aqua and Snowy and whoever they are." Oak gestured toward Kahoot and Shracaw. "Oh, they're just our fellow teachers that have unique powers." Snowy answered.  "What kind of powers?" Oak asked. "The monk parrot's name is Shracaw. He is the master of rocks and anything related to that. Here, the owl is named Kahoot, and he is the master of fire." Aqua said. "Very well.  I do have a special ability myself.  It is the power of life." Oak said. The team's mouths hung agape. "That's the most powerful element of all!" Snowy whispered to his brother. "You know, life isn't the most powerful element in the world. Light is." said Oak. "Sadly, Hurscree, mother of the eaglet you see right here, she was the master of light, and she got killed in the night. And, she became the master of darkness. The little eagle has the power of light now. He could now feel it, because he is fully fledged and can fly." "Turn the lights off! Watch me glow!" giddily shouted the eaglet[ The eaglet's name is Keesgat.].  As Aqua turned the lights off, the room was pitch black.  Keesgat focused on bright places so hard that Snowy shuddered at the feeling when the light of the snowflake engulfed him.  But, Snowy knew that this was not the same light of the energy of the snowflake. It was Keesgat.  Keesgat let go of the energy so the light faded.  Kahoot lit the oil lamps again so the tree would be filled with light, but not as bright as Keesgat's.      

In the darkness, somewhere, Hurscree was ready to attack, waiting to fight...

Chapter 3  

Oak showed how she mastered the element of life.  First she must have a source of earth, water, fire and ice.  Aqua has to dump some water into a stone bowl Shracaw conjured, then Kahoot surrounds it with fire.  To prevent the water from evaporating, Snowy lowers the temperature by freezing moisture around the bowl.  Oak spread dust from her wings into the bowl, and then the water joins in with the stone, making soil and putting out the fire so the soil immediately becomes warm and melts the frozen moisture so the dirt becomes damp.  Oak waves her wings over the dirt and a sprout appears and she thinks about what kind of plant she wants to grow, so the sprout twists and turns to match a sapling.  Keesgat's eyes shine like a flashlight, projecting beams of light on the plant, making it grow quickly.  Aqua and Snowy looked back to see if Kahoot and Shracaw were paying attention, and they were not. They were too busy making a mirror to feed the plant light and making an emerald pot to hold the soil, and arguing how to hold the light Keesgat was going to conjure.

 That night, Hurscree flew in the hollow trunk, ready to strike.  She held a sword in one set of talons, and a ball of darkness in another.  Luckily, Keesgat was awake, and Hurscree first approached him.  Keesgat flashed a warning light so bright that the team jolted up.  "What now?" Snowy asked and groggily walked out of his room.  Keesgat yelled, "Get up!  Hurscree is here!" Snowy bolted to action.  He flung a series of ice spears that were taken by Hurscree and thrown back at him.  Snowy fell to the ground, and Kahoot took his place.  "We must not let darkness take over light!" he hollered.  He created phoenixes, and let them strike Hurscree with their flaming beaks.  As they approached Hurscree, the phoenixes melted away.  She came back with a swirl of glowing fire and pitch-black darkness shot from her sword, knocking out Kahoot.  Aqua stepped in, flooding the hallway, but not putting the kerosene lamps out.  Aqua was hit by a sharp, straight blast of water in the head.  Oak tried to spike Hurscree with a bush of roses.  Hurscree repelled the jinx, sending back a growth of roots that entwined around Oak.  Now, Shracaw was so mad, he picked up a boulder and hurled it at Hurscree.  Hurscree shattered it into pieces and threw the shards like arrows, sticking them in Shracaw's body.  By this time, she had absorbed most of the energy the team used for their moves and grown bigger, and some of the energy went to Keesgat also.  But Hurscree had the most of the power, and Keesgat was overpowered.  "ZZZZZSHLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!"  Hurscree was stunned by 6,000 volts of electricity.  She slumped into a heap on the floor.  Finally the team woke up.  A squirrel popped up, it's cheek pouches fizzing with static electricity. "You know, you're not the only ones living in this tree.  I do too, and I go by the name of Ziggy the squirrel.  I may not be a bird, but I do have some talents." Ziggy said. "Maybe you could be in our team!" Snowy said.  "Oh, I also found out we could summon the bird god Gruffen!  You combine the elements, because Gruffen is a manager of what happens on earth, and the elements that build up the planet. But first, we need Hurscree's trust to join our team.  He could help us with our difficulties." said Ziggy.  "It's easy as this to make a truce with Hurscree.  Watch."  Keesgat said.                                                                                                                                        

Chapter 4

Hurscree woke up.  Ever since she got shocked, she didn't remember a thing about wanting to fight the other element's masters.  She was looking up at Oak, Aqua, Snowy, Kahoot, Shracaw and her own son.  "Mama, why did you fight us?  You had no reason. Yet, you think you can gain more power if we are gone, but when you are with us you are truly powerful.  Be a part of our team, mom.  You could help us with cooking; we don't know how to cook like you did, mama.  Please."  Keesgat said. Now, be prepared for this.  Hurscree is still dazed by the shock of electricity.  "Wha-what?  Oh, that's right.  I didn't know what I was doing.  I guess the power of darkness overwhelmed me.  Sorry.  I believe what you said about the stronger we bond, the stronger the power we have.  I want to join.  You would need some quiet nights to have good dreams."  She replied.  "Well, we should settle down and fix your brain so you remember EVERYTHING and let the god Gruffen rest so that he wouldn't have too much burdens in the world."  Snowy said.