Excerpt: The Last Elementist

A thick haze of ash and smoke filled the area. But all was deathly silent except for the occasional cough or moan. Kira attempted to move her broken body but the overbearing weight of a section of wall hindered her.
“What happened?” Blinking constantly to rid herself of the burning irritation in her eyes from the smoke, Kira managed to get a somewhat clear vision of the room, or what used to be the room. Time stood still. Her mind stopped. The entire ballroom that had just been filled with music and lively guests…was no more.
“ Le…st…errr…” her voice wouldn’t work right. Suddenly her mind snapped back into action.
“Le…ster…Lester?!” At the sound of her voice, others began crying out as well. People were still alive. Most were not. The horrid smell of smoke, blood, and burnt flesh. And something else. She couldn’t figure out what it was. It was…sweet…but at the same time it made her stomach churn.
“No…Lester, where are you?” Crawling forward, she managed to escape from pieces of wall that had fallen on her. Lucky for Kira, it didn’t seem anything was broken but her right side was bleeding profusely. Suddenly she noticed that her right area of view was dark. She couldn’t open her right eye. Kira hesitantly reached up to touch it but all she felt was something wet. Pulling her hand back down the battered princess nearly passed out then and there: blood, and lots of it. It was then that she finally realized what had happened. She and Lester had been just sitting there talking when the castle suddenly rocked to the core. People were screaming and running but didn’t get far as the roof came collapsing around them. Lester…Lester and her had jumped up but as their home began to fall apart around them…Lester, he had…Kira clenched her head as a pounding pain resonated through her skull. She fell to her knees.
“What had he done? Where did he go? What happened?!” Suddenly a strange ache came over her body. All the injuries Kira had sustained during that time started to burn and the pain began to get stronger and stronger over the next few minutes. Finally, it hit its peak. Screaming, she collapsed to her knees wrapping her arms around herself. Her hands were clenching her shoulders.
“It burns…”