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A full-chapter version of my Thursday Prompt response written following a burst of inspiration. Enjoy!

(Marked mature due to mimic birds.) Edit: You know what? Verbal stories should get a pass on this sort of thing. The mimic birds bit is just as bad as something I saw in BIONICLE Legends #1: Island of Doom, and that book was written for kids. Violence and gore are available to read in print as soon as you"re 13, which is at least how old you must be for an account on here last I checked. So you know what, FurAffinity? Yarf your content filter suggestions!

Also, the story bible has changed quite a bit since I wrote this, so expect some edits in the near future.
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In the world of Ryperna, a land not so different from our own, there are four main elements, each having a fundamental force of yin and yang tied to it. Those who weild the forces as well as the elements are called the Prime Wielders. From the plains, deserts, and badlands of Mesartis comes the Wielder of Earth, Space, and Time; from the lava fields and ashes of Caldéara rises the Wielder of Fire, Light, and Shadow; out of the depths of the Mermayan Ocean and its rivers surges the Wielder of Water, Life, and Death; and last but not least, the lushly forested Eustromian Mountains hold the Wielder of Air, Creation, and Destruction.

"Though the role has been handed down from generation to generation, one thing has never changed: To use the forces of the universe to benefit oneself to the detriment of those around you is tantamount to playing Pawd. Thererefore, young Trevor, you must never use the powers of Time and Space to undo a mistake, benefit yourself with future knowledge, nor even to stop and compose yourself. The consequences of doing so are grave; the least of them is a sudden, painless death as you find yourself in Eternity, where judgement is swiftly rendered upon you. There have been those who have tried to fix things, to prevent them from happening, only to find they are inevitable, and the world worse off for it. You have had a great responsibility thrust upon you at a young age, and though the act of turning back your mother"s clock to bring her back from death was noble, you must never attempt such a feat again." The thunderbird Brontus held the gaze of the bassarisk tike for a long moment. Even without his enhanced vision he would have been able to see the emotions flickering across his face: wonder, shock, awe, and even a bit of guilt at having done something that could have gone horribly, disastrously wrong.

Beyond the door, he knew his young thunderyote daughter Sylvia was listening. It had been three years since her mother"s death, and now this young ringtail had opened old wounds, just as she had begun to move forward in her life, as he arrived in the arms of a mountain lion of Shadow. A Deuteron Wielder bringing a young Prime into the city of Pueblosa, drenched from a dip in the flooding Gaia Canyon, was omen enough of things to come. The fact that her hands already bore the telltale signs of corruption from overuse of her power fresh from the Eustromian Festival was greater cause for worry. It may only have been her digits, but already rumors were seeping through the cracks in the secrecy required for such matters that she would bring about the eruption of Mount Draconas should she succumb to the shadow and become an Elemental, worse than a Wieldless, for her power would become unrestrained, tainting anything it touched. Brontus sighed. Calling for Sylvia to bring Trevor to his quarters, he gazed forlornly at the Serpent Staff, the weapon of the Prime Weilder of Earth, and prayed that Umbrina would not be like most 16-year-olds when it came to subjecting herself to responsibility in use of such a power. "Umbrina, come in!" he called.

Umbrina entered the room with her head bowed in shame. It was not unusual for Deuterons and Primes to possess some form of telepathy, though it was only to Psionic-gifted Wielders that the full range of such power was available. No doubt she had heard his thoughts as she stood outside waiting for her punishment that would come with abandoning the Mesartis caravan in the middle of the night because she thought she heard a cry for help. Even though it resulted in her finding the new Prime Weilder of Earth, she still would be punished due to how she could have been killed by mimic birds.

Any Rypernan of Mesartis knew of the danger of the mimic birds. They would sing during the day, following trade caravans and travelers along the roads connecting Pueblosa with the lands beyond its walls, only to use the voices of the travelers against them when they would camp for the night, mimicking the voices of those that lagged in the group: the young, the old, and the weak, luring those who cared for them into a trap. Had it actually been the mimic birds that Umbrina had heard, she would have been attacked ruthlessly when she reached where they were nesting, torn to pieces by their back talons and sharp, serrated beaks. Flightless and the size of roadrunners they may be, but no one would mistake these for their more docile cousins, corrupted as they were by a Weilder of Void so long ago. Those that did, and those that tried to kill them in the daylight, would meet a brutal, bloody. and gory demise. See it happen to someone once, Mesartisans said, and you"d never forget the sight of the blood painting the ground red.

Umbrina reflected on all this as she stood before the Deuteroy Wielder of Storms that would only cede his position beneath the Serpent Staff when the Prime came of age. But I"m a Deuteron, she told herself. I"m more powerful. If I so wished, I could challenge him for rule of Mesartis and possibly win the title.

She knew she was being foolish. After the Corrupted Wielders were sealed in Mount Dracona centuries earlier, the challenging of rulers of tribes was abolished, as it would eventually lead to rulers who were powerful because they dabbled in the forbidden Wieldings: the Void that consumes Space and Time, the Twilight that is neither Shadow nor Light, the Undeath that is a bastardization of Life and Death, and the Control that allows neither Creation nor Destruction. That had happened once, and it would not happen again. She was stirred from her thoughts by the voice of the thunderbird that sat in the iron-clad throne before her. "Nigra, do you know why I summoned you here?"

She looked up in shock. After a Wielder emerges from the Eustrom Plane, they were referred to by the name given them by the entity within, derived from the element they held within. To be referred to by the name given them at birth was one of the worst of insults, for it meant that the person deemed you a mere child or worse, a Wieldless unworthy of Wielding power. Composing herself, she did not talk back to him, instead saying, "Because I put my life in serious danger going after what could have been a mimic bird." Holding up her hands, she added, "And because I used an ability before I was prepared for it, leading to corruption of my body."

"Indeed that is part of it, but I also called you in here to let you know you shall be leaving Mesartis."

"What?! Chief Brontus-"

"Let me speak, Umbrina!"

She quieted her tongue, knowing her objections of having known nowhere else but the plains, deserts, and badlands surrounding Pueblosa would do no good. She had been taken in by Brontus and Terra Mawwed after the death of her parents in a grass fire hunting bison. The bison had survived; her parents, trampled in the stampede to escape, had not. Despite Brontus" kindness, she knew that she was now of age and would have to leave sooner or later. Maybe on her way out of her home nation, she could visit her parents" grave. At the request of Brontus, the spot where they died had been marked by Aquillar, the late Prime Wielder of Water, with a weeping willow that shed water from its trunk every time it rained, as though it mourned the loss of two of the greatest friends a thunderbird could ask for. "I"m sorry, Mawwed," she said sadly, respecting his ancestors with the utterance of his surname.

"Thank you, Cacomi," Brontus replied, returning the gesture. "You and I both know it was not without good reason you ran after the voice. I was there as well, and there was no such voice in our group. You and I both know it was not without good reason you shadow traveled, for if you had gone down the walls in the usual manner, both Trevor and his mother would have been swept into the rapids before we could save them. For this reason, I am sending you to Caldéara to be instructed by Ignis, whom you met at the festival, in the use of Shadow."

She nodded. She had seen him there, dancing with his wife Glacia in a show of love for each other. The two foxes had been childless for years and no one had the heart to tell them that Fire and Ice did not mix, for doing so would create a Weilder of Water. Though it would not be a Prime, they still knew that it was impossible, for you couldn"t get a base element by mixing two others. Still, the couple was happy, and she suspected they knew they couldn"t have one. After all, Ignis was a eunuch after trying to ask Glacia"s father permission to marry. "Does he know I am coming?"

"He"s known since I told him of your element at the end of the Festival before the closing ceremonies. He will be expecting you by the end of the summer." Descending from his throne, he gripped her in a hug with both his arms and his wings, taking care to avoid the 4 mouthed tentacles that had sprouted from her back in the Eustrom, a mark of her status as a Deuteron. "Pawdspeed, Umbrina Cacomi. I am proud to have been a father to you, and I wish you only the best in life."

As they parted, Brontus wiped a tear from his eye. "You needs must travel alone, for the mimic birds will not bother you then. It is best you leave now, while most are indoors, so that you may be far away when the sun sets beneath the horizon."

Umbrina nodded. It was time to go. A servant came in with her meagre belongings in a backpack and bedroll, and not for the first time she wondered just what telepathic ability Brontus had as a Deuteroy. Hoisting it on her back, she gave a silent farewell to Brontus, to the city of Pueblosa, and to Mesartis, for words could not adequately convey her feelings as she stepped outside the city gates, map and compass in hand, and out into the heat of midday in early summer. Every long journey began with a single step, and this one would take her farther from home than she had ever been before. As her steps took her farther away from the city walls in the midst of the steppe, they quickened until she was at a steady gait, her eyes set on a willow beyond the horizon. Mother, Father, I am coming.