The Liberator
Matthew James Parsons

 

Gregory Fords is a skinny, timid boy who attends Ruthford Middle School. His brown hair is quite a mess, and one could almost expect that some animal would land there and make a nest. His eyes were a dark brown, almost as black as his pupils. His clothes are too large for his diminutive frame, especially his shirt, which flaps in the breeze like the sail on a ship in irons. His skin is as white as the snow which envelops the city of Rutherford.

Rutherford had been a sunny, balmy town in the state of Georgia, but now it lies under a frosty blanket, like the rest of the world. Scientists were struggling to explain this phenomenon, and every promising lead they got turned out to be a dead end. The world economy was suffering as well. Ships were frozen in ice at the ports and airplanes could not fly through the eternal snowstorms that ravaged the planet surface. People could not even grow plants, for the cold killed any fruit or vegetable before it could even sprout.

Gregory walked to his home in his jacket, which was also too large for him, and his boots pounded against the snow. He looked at the beggars in the streets. The beggars were the people who had houses that had been destroyed in the first storm. Many of them had been rich people with extravagant possessions and comfortable lodgings. Now they just sit there begging for food. Money had no real use anymore except to burn to keep your house warm.

Gregory had some bread and an apple in his jacket pocket. Normally, he would have just had a piece of bread when he returned home from the school, but today was special. Today was Gregory’s thirteenth birthday. In this solemn world of snow and ice, no one could make a cake, and it was considered a good day if you had two loaves of bread in the richer parts of the world. If you had an apple and people knew about it, they would stop at nothing to get it from you.

Gregory reached his house and knocked four times, then one time, then two times. He waited, and the door opened. His mother rushed him in and shut the door behind him, padlocked the door, punched in a code to the deadbolt lock, and weighted the door shut with a box full of snow before she left. His mother, a skinny woman like her son, sat down at the table.

“How was your day today, Gregory?” His mother asked, awaiting his response eagerly. “Was it good?”

“Aye Mum, today was fine,” Gregory told his mother as he fiddled with the zipper on his coat, which had frozen again. “I have something special today, if I could just get my zipper unstuck… There, got it!”

Gregory removed the loaf of bread and the apple he had in his jacket. His mom looked at the food, looked at Gregory, looked at the food again, and smiled.

“Happy birthday, Son!” Gregory’s mom cried, and she embraced him with her twig-like arms.

“Mum, you’re smothering me,” Gregory managed to mumble as his mom hugged him even tighter. “Please let me enjoy my birthday without having to turn blue from lack of oxygen.”

His mom let go of him, and right when she did, there was a knocking at the door. Gregory got up and looked out the peep hole in the door. Standing outside was a young man with wild red hair and green eyes. The stranger could only be twenty-five, and he was grasping a medallion in his hands like there had never been anything more important in the world. The man had no jacket, only a few rages to protect him from the foul weather outside.

Gregory’s mom pushed Gregory aside, looked out the peep hole, and undid all the locks on the door. The man fell over into the hallway right as the door opened. Gregory dragged him away into the kitchen and his mom redid all the locks on the door. You could never be too safe in this cutthroat world of ice and snow, where people would kill you for a can of meat.

The man was shivering violently, and his teeth were chattering so hard, it was surprising that they didn’t break. His hands grasped around the medallion even tighter, his bony fingers turning blue from the combination of cold and how hard he was gripping the disk of iron around his neck. Gregory reached out to touch it and the strangest thing happened.

When his fingers brushed the surface of the medallion, the medallion started to glow and emitted an intense heat. The four patterns on the front, a blue pattern, a brown pattern, a white pattern, and a red pattern began to move around the medallion. When the light was gone, only the red pattern was left. For the first time since they found him, the stranger made some sound. His chapped lips parted and he said the strangest thing.

The man said “I finally found you.” The man then closed his eyes and fell asleep. Gregory and his mom watched him, waiting for some form of conscious life to spring out from the odd man who suddenly became intermixed with their own lives.





For three days Gregory and his mom took turns watching the stranger, making sure he was alright. On the fourth day, the stranger woke and began to move around, but he still didn’t talk. On the sixth day, he began to talk, and asked questions about where he was. On the seventh day, Gregory asked the stranger a question.

“We found you and took you in to our house without knowing who you were, and we still don’t even know your name. Would you mind telling it to us?” Gregory inquired, gesturing to his mom and himself. His mom had an expression of shock on her face, and opened her mouth to rebuke her son for being so impolite when the stranger raised his hand.

“You are a brave and curious boy, aren’t you? I can tell you my name if you tell me yours. My name is Halmond, but you can call me Hal. And your name is?” the stranger asked, his calm voice relaxing both Gregory and his mom. “I need to know as much about you as I can before I can make my decision.”

“My name is Gregory Ford, and you are in the city of Rutherford, Georgia. We have been stuck in a never-ending winter for eleven years.” Gregory told Hal, who was listening attentively. “The medallion around your neck, what is it that it can change by itself at one touch?”

“This is what led me to you, Gregory. This is a special medallion, and I have more if you come with me. This winter is no act of nature. It is the Council’s attempt to bring our kind back to the surface world. To kill those that drove us underground long ago, before America was even found by the European explorers. This medallion is an amplifier of our powers, Gregory.” Hal recited the story with sadness in his voice, tears trickling down his face. “But most of all, it is their last, futile attempt to kill me. I am the only one that can stop them. However, I cannot do it alone. I have been searching for all those that can control the elements that aren’t in Colony. That is why I came here. To ask for your help”

“What will the council do to me if they find me here?” Gregory asked in a stuttering voice, his fear plainly visible on his face. “What will they do to my mom and my friends?”

“The Council will kill you by turning you into a statue. I’ve seen it done before, and it isn’t pretty. If you want to live, you can come with me. It is your choice though, and I do not want to force you into anything you don’t want to be involved in.” Hal told Gregory, and for the fist time during this conversation, Gregory’s mom talked.

“If Gregory goes and you finish this whole business with the Council or Colony and whatever else, will you bring him home?” Gregory’s mom asked with tears in her eyes. “If he can survive by going with you for now, he can go, but just promise me that you will bring him home afterwards.”

Halmond looked Gregory’s mom in the eyes and he said “He will come home. I will make sure of it. He will be safe with me, Gwen.” Hal looked to Gregory and nodded. Gregory nodded as well. They stepped outside and a cave rose out of the ground, inviting our two brave heroes in.

“How do you know my name? Who are you really?” Gwen shouted after Halmond as the cave began to sink back into the ground. “Halmond, how do you know me?”

Halmond looked back. “14 years ago in Chicago, one Halmond Smith disappeared on the thirteenth day of September. He was described to have white skin, green eyes, and red hair. Last sighting was at his house, 9:48 A.M. that day. He walked to school that day. Teachers say he never arrived.” Hal shouted out, just as the cave sank into the ground and the road was back to normal.

Gwen went back into the house, her red hair flowing down past her shoulders, and her blue eyes were full of tears. “Hal, my dear Hal,” Gwen cried as she locked up the house. “So he wasn’t killed like everyone said. He was still alive. He still loved me.” She cried herself to sleep that night.










Hal and Gregory stepped into a roomy cavern. The cavern must have been as large as Gregory’s house, if not larger. There were people of every race, nationality, and religion in this cave. They were all practicing some kind of elemental manipulation, from starting small fires to flying. Hal showed Gregory to his room, which technically didn’t exist until Hal made a cave with a bed, washbasin, and a mirror.

“So we can control the elements?” Gregory asked, looking around his new room.

“Well, you can control the element of fire,” Hal told Gregory as he drew the Fire Sigil on the wall. “Technically, I’m the only one that can control all of the elements. Those medallions that we wear denote our elemental affinity. That is why when you toughed the medallion, it changed the sigil on the front. Let us see how good your skills are.”

Halmond produced some dry twigs from his meager robes and set them on the ground. Hal told Gregory to focus on the twigs, to feel the internal heat of the sticks rising until they burst out into flame. Gregory focused, and when he opened his eyes, there was a healthy fire burning on the floor.

“Now try to manipulate it.” Hal told Gregory, tossing some more sticks over by the doorway into the room. “Use hand gestures to move the fire from this pile that is already burning to that pile over there.” Hal made some hand gestures and got the fire to go into the air, spin into a ring, and disperse.

Gregory’s hand gestures were not as broad as Halmond’s had been, but more precise, almost as if he was building a ship in a bottle. He got the fire to snake around the room, create an image of a snake, and then lit the other pile of tinder on fire. Halmond smiled and patted Gregory on the back.

“Now you should go and meet some of the others.” Hal told Gregory. “You should get to know those you’ll be trusting with your life when we make the Council pay for what they have done.”

“How do you know my mom?” Gregory asked as he was leaving. “I’ve never seen you before since I’ve been living with her.”

Halmond looked up at Gregory, his green eyes seeming to glow in the half-lit cave.

“We can talk about how we are connected later. Now go and talk to the others, I need to think.” Gregory left the room, and Halmond reached into his robes again. He pulled out an old letter, the paper it was written on was turning yellow from age, and the ink had faded, but Halmond still knew every word of that letter. It was Mr. Fardell’s last words for his student. Halmond put that back into his robes and pulled out a picture. The colors on the picture were fading like the ink on the letter, but the picture was older by three years. It was the last picture he had with Gwen before he was spirited off to Colony.

“My sweetheart,” Halmond murmured as he looked at the picture. “After this, both Gregory and I will come back, and we shall never part. My sweet Gwen.” Halmond cried by the light of the fires, his tears glistening with light.









Gregory did not know who to speak to first. There were so many people, and they were all different. But it seemed that those that could control the elements could understand each other, for they were all laughing and talking in clear, unaccented English. Gregory guessed that if he spoke French, he would be hearing all of this in French as well.

Gregory approached one boy, who had skin as black as the void of space.

“Hello, Brother, and what can I do for you?” The African boy replied in a heavy accent, most likely from the central areas of Africa. “On second thought, I have not met you before. What is your name, Brother?”

“My name is Gregory, and what is yours?”

“My name is difficult to pronounce, but it means panther, so you may call me by the name Panther.”

“I am honored to meet you Panther, so how did you come to be here?”

“Ah, Brother Gregory, that will be a long story, so let me make you a seat.” Panther made some motions with his hands, accompanying the gestures with a song from his homeland. Gregory found himself sitting on a stool made from stone. He made himself as comfortable as he could, and then Panther began his story.

“It was a bad time for me and my family. We lived Sudan just as the civil war began. My foster parents were separated from me and my sister, and my sister and I were capture by rebels from one of the southern countries. We were put in a dark cell, and we thought we were going to die. The morning came, and two big burly men came up to us holding pickaxes. We were both given these pickaxes and were sent to work in the mines.

“My sister was brave and thought she could escape. She tried to sneak out by night, and the soldiers caught her. They cut off her hands and moved her to a different cell. Every day when I saw her before they put us in the mines to dig for diamonds, I would have to tear of a strip of my clothes and tie the pickaxe to her arm, because she had no hands. She tried to sneak out again, and the soldiers shot her. There was blood all over, and her faced had been marred beyond recognition.

“I was angry at the soldiers for killing my sister. I wanted to kill them. That is when my power first surfaced. As a group of the soldiers went down into the mine to make sure that everyone was in their cells, I used my powers and collapsed the mine down on top of them. At least 30 of the soldiers died by the time Mr. Hal found me. He used his powers to contain the guards and he came up to me, and handed me one of the medallions we all have. You know what happens next.

“So he sits down and asks me would I like to go with him, and he asks me if I have any family that didn’t want me to go. And I said to him ‘Sir, my family is either dead or missing.’ When he heard this, he asked me why, and I told him what they did to my sister. He got really mad then. He made all of the slaves leave the camp, and then he burned the soldiers alive, still held in place by the earth wrapped around their feet.

“He tells all the people to walk north to where there is a refugee shelter. All the people listen because they are afraid of him, with his magic powers. Then he takes me and brings me here. I have been here for eleven years now, and they have been the best eleven of my life.”

Panther had finished his story, with a bead of sweat flowing down his bald head. Panther looked up and smiled.
“It was a long story, wasn’t it? Many people fall asleep halfway through.” Panther laughed, his brown eyes like Gregory’s shining in the dim light. “I wish that after I help Mr. Hal do what he needs me to do, I can help everyone else being hurt in Africa. I also wish I can use my powers to find my parents.”

“Well, Panther, I will talk to you again later.” Gregory yawned. “No offense, but I almost did fall asleep.”

“None taken, Brother Gregory,” Panther replied. “If you just got here, it has probably been a long day for you. Go to bed. And you won’t get lost, because your amulet glows brighter the closer you get to your room if you are trying to find it.”

“Thank you!” Gregory yelled to Panther as he was running off, looking at his amulet to see if it was glowing any brighter. Panther looked in the direction that Gregory ran, and yawned.

“I need to sleep as well, even though I did not think it,” Panther said to himself. “I hope he survives when we fight the Council. He is an interesting boy.”

Panther slid off his own stone stool and sank both stools into the ground. He walked off in his bare feet, still scarred from when the soldiers had made him march from Sudan to the south-eastern coast of Africa. He began to sing another of his homeland’s songs.








Gregory had woken up to his third week in the Compound, as Hal called it. Gregory had met many people, but his best friends were Panther, the African Terranite, Louis, the French Aquanite, and Madelyn, the English Aeronite.

Louis is a boy built like a truck, with wide shoulders and blonde hair. His skin is tan, and he can lift two-hundred-and-fifty pounds well above his head. He had been an athlete before he had come to the Compound, and before the winter came, he was the best track runner at his school. When winter came, Louis had competed in cross-country skiing, ski racing, terrain park on snowboard, and ice hockey. Then Colony found him.

Louis had fought against the citizens of Colony that came to kill him when Hal arrived. Hal had frozen the Colonites and used his powers of earth manipulation to send them back to Colony Council. The Roi de Council was furious at this insult. Louis agreed to help Halmond to fight against the Council.

Louis may seem like all brawns, no brains, and cares about no one but himself, but he is a compassionate fellow. He also got class valedictorian in his school several times. Louis had just mastered how to control the sub-element Ice when Gregory had arrived. Louis was Gregory’s advisor, giving Gregory helpful advice when ever Gregory needed help or asked for help. Louis was found on the doorstep of an orphanage when he was a baby. It seemed that all of the people in the Compound were orphans.

Madelyn had black hair, and the freckles on her face spread out like the stars in the night sky. Her blue eyes had joy in them, and her skin was as white as Gregory’s, if not whiter. Madelyn was gifted for an Aeronite, and she was Halmond’s favorite pupil to teach in Compound. Her very presence seemed to instill all those around her with joy and happiness. She was kind to everyone, and often resolved conflicts between any of the residents. She is not short, but not tall either, and she speaks with an American accent, with a bit of a slur on the “s” sound in words, not really noticeable, but if you were to listen close enough, you could hear it perfectly.

Everything about her just melded together perfectly, like a fine piece of art. Her skin had no blemishes or pimples upon it, and her teeth were a brilliant ivory color, as if they had just been polished. She is, in Gregory’s eyes, the human incarnation of Heaven on Earth. Gregory had been bowled head over heels when he fist saw her, and her story was the most unique of them all.

Madelyn had been living in a cottage with her two parents when the winter struck. She and her parents had been hunters all their lives, so for them, food was not a problem. Every day, her father would go out and bring home a deer to cook on the spit, and perhaps a bear so they could take the fur and make it into jackets, and the fat for oil lanterns. Then another storm hit, and it was truly violent. It ravaged the countryside around England, and tore straight through the cottage’s walls.

The cottage had collapsed, and as Madelyn dug with her bare hands to reach her parents, Hal had appeared. Hal stood back, watching Madelyn dig. Her hands were turning red from the cold when she managed to find her father. Her father told her everything about her, from how she was left on the cottage’s front porch to her power over air. She cried, her tears freezing before the landed on her dying adoptive father’s face. Hal chose this moment to reveal himself and told Madelyn how the Council was causing this eternal winter. Madelyn joined him without hesitation.

She hated the Council with every fiber of her being, and her resolve was definite. The Council must be defeated, humiliated, tortured, and killed. Whenever the raid on Colony was talked about, Madelyn’s emotions got the better of her. She became irrational and angry. She did however have the best plans to go about rescuing Colony and its citizens. She was unrivaled in ideas.















Gregory had awoken to his second year in Compound. He knew that today was the most important day he had been waiting for since he left Ruthford. Today was the raid on Colony. Recruits had stopped coming in one year ago, and nine months ago, Halmond began everyone on how to use their powers as weapons. Panther was the first to become a squadron leader. Madelyn was the second, and her promotion came only a few days after.

There were 10 squadrons, each with a variety of elements at their command. Louis had become part of Panther’s squadron, and rose to the rank of second in command. Gregory was part of Madelyn’s squadron, where he did a lot of the tactical work. He sat with Madelyn for hours, devising stratagems and paths to take during the raid. All this time, Gregory’s feelings for Madelyn grew stronger. Gregory had managed to become his squadron’s second in command as well. Today, Hal was opening up the tunnel that would take them to Colony’s front door. Gregory had one last talk with Louis before they left.

“Louis, I have one last question to ask you before we leave.” Gregory silently said to Louis as they stood in the main hall alone, while everyone else was preparing to leave.

“Aye, what is it? Does it have to do with the sub-elemental powers again?” Louis responded in his light French accent.

“No, I just wanted your advice on something.”

“Well, what is it?”

“What is your advice for falling in love?”

“My advice? Don’t.” Louis laughed. “But if you already have, my only advice is good luck, mate. Perhaps if we are still around after this, I’ll have a better answer for you.”

“Thanks.” Gregory murmured, not wanting to offend Louis.

“Oh, don’t be so sad,” Louis told him. “If we do kick the bucket, you won’t have to worry about love anymore.”

“One more question. Did you ever fall in love?”

“Aye, and she was a pretty lass.”

“What happened that you are so opposed to love, then?”

“Oh, she broke my heart when she ran off with another man because of the weight of his wallet. The world is a cruel place, lad, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.”

“Thanks again,” Gregory said even more resignedly. “You’ve really helped me a lot.”

“Don’t mention it” Louis laughed again. “But seriously mate, good luck.”

Gregory marched off to his room to get what he needed. All he really needed was a pouch full of sticks so he could light a fire when he needed to. He also took his journal with him, full of everything he had seen and heard in Compound. In his journal were all his conversations with Panther on morals and values and human emotion, all of Louis’ advice to him, and how Gregory fell in love with Madelyn. He took one last look through his journal, put it in his sack, and left for the assembly.





Halmond had gathered everyone here for the final rally before Colony was saved. He looked over everyone and began his speech.


“For all of you, this will be a proud day. You will help to save the entire world. For eleven years the world has been encased in ice by the Council of Colony. Today, they shall pay for what they have done.

“Some of you have been here for eleven years, others of you have been here only one year. But you are all masters of your element. You will find that the power of council is nothing compared to ours, because we have something that they don’t. it isn’t numbers, it isn’t strategy, it is emotion.

“The citizens of Colony have been stripped of their emotions, and that has made them weak. Our emotions are what lend us strength in our times of greatest need. It is emotions that allow us to push onwards towards the future. It is our emotions that allow us to fight for what we believe is right. Colony’s citizens live in a sterile world, not feeling happiness, sadness, or anger. They are hardly human, they are moving statues. Those are the crimes of the Council against humans. The removal and prevention of all emotions. We shall make them pay dearly for what they have done! Long live emotion!”

“Long live emotion!” all the recruits cheered. Even some children younger than ten had been drawn into the conflict but they were prodigies in everything. They were all cheering, adults as old as Hal to children barely finishing the fourth grade. Halmond opened the cave and they all went rushing in, screaming the joys of all emotions.






The forces of Halmond entered into Colony, and the squadrons split up. The Council members had all taken stations along the streets and alleys of Colony, attacking the invaders, but the Council members were quickly disposed of. The citizens of Colony watched as the wild eyed, whooping attackers with wonder and awe. The citizens made no move to stop the squadrons as they all headed for the largest structure in Colony, the Council Chamber.

The Roi de Council was waiting patiently when the first squadron entered. The Roi smiled and he summoned up flames from the torches. The squadron had several people who controlled water, but there were no pools and the heat had dried out the air. The first squadron fried like bacon on a hot pan. The next seven squadrons suffered the same fate. The last two squadrons, those led by Panther and Madelyn entered the Chamber at the same time. Halmond entered with them.

The Roi summoned up the flames again, and Gregory had an idea. He summoned up his own flames and pitted them against the Roi’s.

Gregory screamed over the roar of the flames, “Madelyn, blow some air through the door we just entered through! Quick, before the flames eat all the oxygen in here!”

“Okay!” Madelyn cried. She summoned the winds into the room through the entrance and everyone began to breath easier than they had before. The air also intensified the flames Gregory was producing. Gregory bellowed out again.

“Louis and Panther, mix some earth and water into mud and coat the Roi with it!”

“I can’t summon any water! The air in here is too dry!” Louis screamed back. Hal began making large gestures with his hands and declared “Leave the moistening to me!”

Hal split the floor of the room, and made even more gestures than he had made before. Water began to fill up the hole in the floor! Louis took advantage of this and summoned all the water he could, mixing it with the earth Panther had manipulated. They both synchronized their hand movements, and the mud began to cover the Roi de Council. The mud got in the Roi’s eyes, and the Roi panicked and tried to wipe out his eyes.

Gregory saw his chance and intensified his flames even more. The flames enveloped the Roi, and Madelyn caught on what Gregory was doing. Madelyn blew the winds onto the Roi, and the clay began to harden and become like the stone it had once been. The Roi had one last trick up his sleeve. Using his one free had that wasn’t covered in mud, the Roi created a fireball and threw it at Gregory. Gregory was too busy focusing on the flames he was creating that he didn’t see the fireball. Hal saw the fireball, and did something heroic, if not overly clichéd. Halmond threw himself in the fireball’s path, saving Gregory by sacrificing himself.

The Roi had finally been enveloped in his clay prison, and Gregory, Panther, Louis, and Madelyn stood victorious. Even though they stood among the corpses of their allies, they didn’t pay any attention to them. The only watched Halmond as he writhed on the ground, burning. These flames were different from the others that the Roi hade made, because the more the last four survivors tried to put out the flames, the more intensely the flames burned. Halmond reached into his robe for one last time and handed Gregory two things. Gregory held the letter in one hand, the picture of Halmond and Gwen in the other. He watched helplessly as Hal burned. When the fire had finally burned out, there weren’t even any ashes left to be buried.


Gregory and Madelyn stood on the sidewalk in Ruthford. They were saying their goodbyes to each other till the next day, when they would see each other again. Madelyn kissed Gregory on the cheek, then walked away. In the three years after Colony had been freed, the citizens had all gone their separate ways, becoming distinguished citizens of new cities.

Louis had gone on to become an Olympic athlete, setting several records. Panther had disappeared after the citizens of Colony were freed, but sometimes news stories about slaves being set free in Africa and entire rebel companies being destroyed by sudden and violent earthquakes reminded Gregory that his friend was still there in the world. Madelyn and Gregory were living together in Ruthford, where they both went to college. Gwen had cried when she had heard the news of Halmond’s passing. When Gregory told Gwen about how he was to marry Madelyn in a year, Gwen cried again, but this time, with tears of joy. Colony had been destroyed, but news of those with elemental powers being everyday ‘superheroes’ reminded Gregory that there was still a long way to go. Gregory turned around, and walked home. He pulled his journal and a pen out of his pocket, and began to write.

“July 15, 2058, Today…”

Ending of the Second Installment of the Nature’s Kings Series

 

 

Copyright © 2008 Matthew James Parsons
Published on the World Wide Web by "www.storymania.com"