Julius

I'm Julius, a 10-year old boy who lives a normal and peaceful life in the region of Tempus. I definitely enjoy my life, but sometimes I wish it was a bit more thrilling...

--

"Wake up!" I heard a voice say. "C'mon bro, we'll be late! WAKE UP!!!"

I fell out of bed and saw my twin sister, Sarah, dressed in her school uniform.

"Ah, what time is it?" I said, still half-asleep.

"7:30, and you're still not ready for school! It's not vacation anymore, bro!"

"Yeah, yeah." I groaned, not in the mood to go to school.

Spring recess sure went by fast. I'm going to miss sleeping in...

--

Where am I? What is this place?

I was in a strange, foggy place. There were these weird emblems floating all around me.

"You must learn how to control and master all of the elements... before it is too late!" Avoice of unknown origin said to me.

"What do you mean?" All of the emblems flew toward me. "Ahhh!"

--

"... It's time for you to wake up, Julius."

"Ungh... Five more minutes..."

"Young man, wake up this instant! Class isn't for sleeping!"

"Ow!" My teacher slammed a dictionary down on my desk, waking me up.

I must've fell asleep in class again...

"It's not vacation anymore! No more falling asleep, understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Some of the other students started laughing. I fell asleep in class a lot, actually; so much that I was famous for it.

"Quiet, all of you!" Our teacher said, then turned her attention back to me. "You fall asleep in class one more time, and I'll give you a detention! Understand?!"

"Yes, ma'am..." I sighed, slightly embarrassed.

--

I must've been sleeping for a long time, because school went by fast today.

"Yo, Julius!" said my best friend, Kene, while walking toward me. "Can I come over today? We can help each other with homework. And I'm sure you missed a lot of stuff. Heh."

"That's not funny, Kene." He likes to make fun of me a lot... although I did kinda deserve it this time. "Hey, after that let's go play at Destiny Lake."

Kene frowned. "You haven't heard? Some maniac dumped toxic waste in the lake."

"Really? Why?!"

"I dunno. 'cause he's a maniac."

"That's so stupid."

"I said the same thing when my dad told me."

"So I guess we'll have to find somewhere else to go..."

"Ah, watch ou-..."

"Ow!" I said, after getting in the head by something. That "something" being a book Sarah was holding.

"Never mind." Kene added.

"I can't believe you!" Sarah said, who was obviously mad at me. "Why do you always have to sleep in class!? So much so that you got a detention, even!"

"Well actually, I almost got a detention..."

"Whatever! And I bet you didn't even pay attention to the lesson today, as usual. Don't expect me to help you with homework!"

"That's okay. Kene said he'd help me, anyways."

Sarah shot a sharp glare at Kene.

"U-um, sorry gotta go. Bye, Julius." Kene then ran away as fast as he could.

"Kene!"

"Let's go home, bro." Sarah stated, dragging me out of school.

--

"Jeez, you're so embarrassing!" Sarah said as we walked home.

"I said I was sorry. Can you please help me with homework? I promise I won't fall asleep in class again."

"... I'll think about it."

"Thanks, sis." I decided to talk about something else. "Speaking of which, I had a weird dream in class today."

"Oh, really?" She didn't look amused.

"I saw all these different-colored emblems, with things like water and fire on them, floating around me. Then a voice told me I had to control them, or something bad will happen... Or something like that."

"Wow, that is a strange dream... You think it means anything?"

"Don't know. But it's just a dream... right?"

"Maybe. Who knows."

When we reached the middle of the forest path (a shortcut to our house), Sarah stopped for some reason.

"What's wrong?"

"Since we're here, let's stop by somewhere first."

"Where?"

"Destiny Lake."

"Why!? Didn't you hear what Kene said?"

"Yeah, but I want to see it for myself."

"But won't it be dangerous?"

"Stop worrying, we'll be fine. Besides, I love that lake; I want to know if I can help clean it if I can."

"Okay, okay..."

--

We ran to the lake. When we got there, we saw purple, smelly goop in it.

"Ew, it smells so bad!" Sarah exclaimed, covering her nose. "Let's get out of here!"

"But you were the one that wanted to come..."

All of a sudden, I saw something fall out of the sky. I ran up to it and picked it up.

"What is this?"

"It looks like a giant thermometer..."

It started to glow, which startled me and made me drop it.

"Why's it glowing like that?!"

After the thermometer stopped glowing, a small, red thing flew out of it. "Why did you drop the staff for?! That hurt!" The thing angrily asked me.

"What the?! What are you?" I asked, shocked at what I was seeing.

"I am Stat, an Element Spirit. I've been sent here by my master to help you use the elements to defeat the monsters that have appeared in the Tempus region."

"Wait, so that dream I had was...?"

"Yes, that was me contacting you. Anyway, it's good that you're here; there seems to be a monster in this lake."

"So that toxic stuff is a monster? No wonder."

"Um, bro..." Sarah cut in. "The icky stuff is moving..."

The sludge rose up, into the form of a monster. "TRAHHH!!!"

"W-what do I do?!" I asked Stat.

"I'll explain it to you, but first you have to place some element material in the staff."

"Element material?" I thought about it, then took a water bottle out of my bag. "How's this?"

"That's good, now hurry and place it in the staff!"

I poured water into the staff. "N-now what?"

"Shout 'Element Temp' to unleash its power!"

"Element Temp?"

"Louder!"

"Okay... ELEMENT TEMP!!!" My body started to glow, and when it stopped my clothes were different. "What happened to me?!"

"Oh right, I forgot to mention something; you have to activate your element as well first." Stat explained, who had apparently gone inside the staff. "Right now, your clothes are a grayish-white because you aren't using it currently."

"How do I use it?"

"Just yell 'Water'."

"Okay then... Water!"

My clothes changed again, this time to a bluish color.

"Um... Does this mean it worked?"

"Hey!" Sarah called out. "I don't know what's going on, but if whatever you're doing to my brother can help stop this thing, then hurry up and do it already!" She said, pointing to the incoming monster.

"Stat!"

"You're all set. Point your staff at it and say 'Water Bullet'."

"Alright, here goes! Water Bullet!" A powerful stream of water came out of my staff and hit the monster.

"TRAHHH!!!" The monster screamed in pain.

"D-did I do it?"

"Whoa!" said Sarah, astonished.

The monster recovered and kept on coming near.

"What happened?! Didn't it work?"

"You need to attack it a few more times!"

"Fine, Water Bullet!" I hit the monster with more water.

"By the way, if you use your element's power too much, it'll run out. Use it wisely!"

"You tell me that now?!"

"Don't worry, you still have 8 units of energy left."

"That should be plenty... I think."

"Trahh!" The monster shot some gunk toward me.

"Water Bullet!" I barely stopped it with water. "That was close..."

"Don't let up, Julius!"

"'kay!" I shot numerous bullets of water at it, all in different places, but it was still standing. "Nothing's working!"

"No, look. The monster's weakening."

"T-trahhh..." The monster exploded, and its body started to disappear.

"... Guess it was weaker than I thought..." As I said that, my body glowed again, and I returned to normal.

"That's good, since you used up all of the water's power." Stat told me, coming out of the staff.

"Bro!" Sarah called out to me. "The lake is back to normal!"

"Guess that means the problem solved, I guess."

"Well done, Julius. You successfully destroyed the monster. It seems my master chose well, even if you are a bit young."

"You have some explaining to do, bro!" Sarah yelled, after running to where I was. "Just what the heck was that all about?!"

"How should I know?! I'm just as confused as you are!"

"Since we have time now, allow me to explain." Stat responded. "An evil being has appeared who wishes to destroy Tempus."

"Destroy?! Why?"

"I... don't know. But since it is Tempus that they want to destroy, it's naturally the job of an Element Temp user to stop them."

"Um, why exactly?"

"I don't know the exact details, but your essence bears resemblance to the other two element-users of old, which is why you were chosen."

"That's not exactly what I asked, but okay..."

"My brother? Really? Shouldn't someone more capable have been chosen?"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?!"

"I'm not the one who chose, my master is." Stat coughed. "Anyway, the evil being has become aware of your presence, and has sent monsters to capture you. The monster you just fought was a lesser one, and must've got lost. It probably decided to wait at Destiny Lake since this spot is in the center of this region."

"That explains why a monster weak to water was hiding in a lake..."

"But the other monsters will definitely be much stronger than this one, so you'll have to be prepared."

"What? T-there's more of them?!"

"Of course! Since you killed this one, there's bound to be more looking for you."

"That's not good..."

"Don't worry. I'm here to assist you, so you should be fine."

"Should...?"

"This sounds really dangerous, but I'll help in any way I can too." Sarah added.

"Thanks."

"Anyway, we'd better go home. It's getting late, and we still have homework to do!"

"That's right, I almost forgot! Let's go!" I started to run home with Sarah.

"W-wait for me, Julius!" Stat followed behind us.

--

It looked like from here on out my life would be much more "thrilling". I groaned, thinking about all the work I'd probably have to do.

I want my peaceful life back...

End of Chapter 1

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Writer's Comments:

Here it is, the first chapter of Element Temp. It may seem boring since this is the first monster fight and because of my horrible-ness of writing fight scenes, but the next chapters will be amazing...

... Well, they'll at least be better than this one. I assure you!

Anyway, until next time; which is hopefully soon...

- CS-Masyet