Oliver had a hard time grasping that he was an Element User.

Ella had explained everything when everyone had woken up. All his life, he'd despised the Elements. They had killed his parents and ruined his life. Oliver's family had been the most important thing to him.

Before the world had turned upside down, Oliver had been happy. His parents loved him, he had lots of friends and no work was needed to be done by children.

His neighbours hated him, though. Oliver hadn't minded. They were close friends of his parents so the neighbours never dared insult or complain about his parent's precious angel.

After the Element Users came, things changed though. Oliver had witnessed his mother shot down in front of him, bleeding out to death. His father had disappeared out of the blue and wasn't seen again. Everyone assumed he'd been killed.

Oliver's old neighbours had taken him in, pretending to care for him, but in truth just using it as a way to punish him. Oliver had learned to keep silent about it. No one would believe a nearly elderly couple would ever do anything wrong to their friend's child.

Surprisingly, he didn't hold a grudge against his caretakers. They'd been corrupted by hate and sorrow. Oliver understood that. The ones he detested were the Element Users, for making them that way.

“Tell us the story from the beginning. The very beginning.” Noah's words jarred Oliver from his stance. He had been sitting near the bed rolls, and had zoned out.

He looked up now, interested suddenly. He still bore deep scars from the Element Users, but he knew he had to trust Ella for now.

Oliver walked over to where everyone was gathering in a group. Mina sat close to Noah, keeping a cold eye on Ella. Amber did the same, sitting on Noah's other side.

For some reason that made Oliver mad. Amber was still after that stuck-up loser who thought he was the leader, even after everything with Mina.

Oliver sat down beside Amber, completing the semi-circle on the floor around Ella. Said girl sat down as well, exhaling and trying to unwind.

She sighed. “Alright. It's a long story, though, so try and relax,” she commanded. She took a deep breath and began.

***

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a tree called the Divination Tree.

Back then, there were no Element Users, just plain humans. The Divination Tree held all the powers of the Elements. Once a year, it let bloom a beautiful flower, one with all the colours in the world.

It was a forbidden object, everyone was instructed not to ever go near it.

At that time, war raged throughout the world, everyone wanting the power of the Divination Tree, which grew in a land called the Land of Bounty.

A small village lived there, one who was bountiful in peace and harmony. The citizens hated war, but were drawn mad by the pull of it.

The village was targeted for years, until it eventually revealed the location of the tree and was annihilated.

One woman and her family survived. They ran to the tree and seeing the flames of war burn down their home, were driven by the rage of revenge.

They ate the fruit that had grown from the flower, which was a huge taboo. In turn, they were gifted with the powers of the Four Great Elements; fire, water, air and earth.

There were five people in total. Two got the fire element. The husband and the wife.

The husband, Jake, died later on, not being able to handle the Element's power. The wife, grieving and lonely, took her husband's power and slipped it into her locket.

She then took the rest of the tree's powers and locked them in her necklace as well.

The other lands retreated, afraid of the woman with all the power in the world. She became known as Kanaya the Fire User.

Kanaya paid no attention to the enemy, focusing on resurrecting the rest of her clan.

She gave them the powers of Life, Death, Shadow, Light, Sky, Emotion and much more, all using her locket.

Eventually, Kanaya bore another son, this one with the power of fire as well. Kanaya had taught the Element Users to stay out of the affairs of the humans, but her son, Heron, was against that.

He ended up falling in love with a human girl and they got together. The woman had a baby, and Kanaya was enraged.

She tried to kill her son, wanting to remove his powers. Before she could, Heron transferred the spirit of his Element to his son and died while doing so.

In anguish and rage, Kanaya killed the mother, leaving the child on his own.

Guilt filling her, she raised the child as her own grandson, secretly despising him all the way. The child, named Tonoko, realized this, and fled to the human world.

Years passed and he had a daughter with a human lady as well. Afraid that his baby girl would be hurt, he left and went to kill Kanaya.

He found her on her death bed, babbling about not mixing with humans and names such as Heron, Jake and Tonoko. He killed her quickly, taking her locket and stealing the amulet. He rose to be the leader of the Element Users, and let them run with the humans.

Eventually, things got too mixed up and he was forced to kill his wife and daughter, proving loyalty to the Elements.

Years passed, and the Element Users stayed out of the human way, driven into a corner. Mina's father, the current leader, fell in love with a Star User, but she left him after Mina was born for a human.

Heartbroken and angry, he set the house on fire, making Mina immune with the fire spirit first. He killed her mother and her step-father, raging war on all the humans to take control like a madman.

***

“This is where you three come in. Oliver was imbedded with the power of air, Noah got water and Amber was given earth.” Ella's words were choked.

“Oliver's mother was killed and his father dragged away as an experiment. Noah is sort of a war orphan. Your mother died giving birth to you and your father ran away when the Element Users came. And Amber, your mother witnessed horrible things. She was forced to watch your father experimented on and changed into a zombie Element User.” By then Ella was crying silently, overwhelmed with the details.

“I had always looked up to your father!” she cried, facing Mina. “He was a gentle soul, truly! He became corrupted, hurt and betrayed by your mother.”

Oliver glanced at Mina. She was absolutely still, looking shocked and terrified. He had never known there was so much behind the covers the four put up. Perhaps there was still more secrets to be revealed.

Was this why he was so connected to the air? Was this why he could always sense the general feeling in the atmosphere? Even now, without looking, he could tell everyone was unsettled by this news.

“How do you know all this?” he asked, his voice hollow.

Ella wiped her tears, her makeup smudged, making her look like a raccoon. “I'm his assistant. I know all the details.” she replied quietly.

Oliver closed his eyes. Suddenly, he felt very tired. Getting to his feet, he exhaled, trying to put the new information to the back of his mind.

“Well,” he started, feeling everyone's eyes on him. “That was cheery. So, when does the training begin?”