Later, rolling across the Martian desert, Brooks remarked, “Mars is really different then Europa.” He looked around at the red sand and scraggly trees. “Very different.” He sighed and muttered, “I hate deserts. Hardly any moisture anywhere and everything’s so damn dry!”
“What was that?” Momj called to him, not having heard the mutters clearly.
"Nothing at all!” Brooks replied smoothly.
“I wonder how badly I broke the local Pac Man record?” Silas inquired, laughing.
“Oh, you probably smashed it,” Brooks answered.
“Yeah,” Momj agreed, “into little bits and pieces!”
They laughed and continued onward, as the sun set in the pink tinged sky.
The three friends arrived home just in time for dinner. Aria had cooked up some scraggle fruit soup. The scraggle tree was one of the first fruit trees to grow on Mars, and the fruit was an Old Mars Reserve delicacy.
Momj, Brooks, and Ikan sat together at one end of the table. After most everyone had finished, Brooks was outlining his time in town to Ikan while Momj drained the last of the broth from his bowl.
“By the way,” Brooks was saying, “that’s an interesting way to eat soup, Ikan.”
Momj laughed. “I know it! You froze it solid, then sucked on the frozen broth! How’d it taste?”
“Well enough,” Ikan replied.
“Do you always freeze your soup?” Brooks asked.
“I don’t like warm things,” Ikan stated.
“Well, duh! Your element is ice, c’mon!” Brooks laughed.
There was an ahem from Aria at the head of the table. She stood up from her chair and lifted her juice glass. “I have an announcement to make,” she said.
“Duh,” Ikan muttered.
“I know we don’t celebrate birthdays, but I just wanted to say that we Elemental Masters have been in existence for about 15 millennia.” Momj’s eyes widened. He didn’t know Aria was that old! “This is an approximate date for our birthdays, and also the birth of the human race’s acknowledgement and first fumbling uses of the world around them.” Aria closed her eyes and her pet breezes whipped her purple hair in front of her face. “15 thousand years is a long time. For much of this, we barely had couscous minds.” There was nodding around the table by the other Elemental Masters. “And now, we toast.” Aria raised her glass. “To windmills.”
Lynna, Master of Water, was next. “To water wheels.”
Misha, Ikan’s teacher, toasted, “To freezers.”
The Elemental Master of Fire, Candice said, lifting her glass, “To campfires.”
Barak, Lightning Master, said, “To generators,” as he lifted his glass.
Kaikura, Master of Ground, said as he lifted his glass, “To mines.”
The Master of Plant, Sylvana, remarked, “To gardens,” lifting her glass.
“To solar panels,” said Epifanio, Master of Star and Sun light.
His sister, Aysel, the Master of Reflected Light toasted, “To mirrors.”
Finally, Tynan, Master of Darkness, said from a shadowy corner, “To stealth.”
The Elemental Masters solemnly drained their glasses , then filed out of the room, leaving their apprentices in awed silence.
“Woah,” stated Adish.
“Agreed,” Fonda murmured.
There was a clatter of chairs as the apprentices stood up and stretched. Adish and Mika immediately left, standing very close together. Fonda stood up, declared she was exhausted, and wandered off. “Don’t forget meditation!” Silas called after her. She waved a lazy hand in reply.
“You know what we’re doing after meditation, sis?” Fai asked.
“Video games?” guessed Lucine.
“Yeah!” Fai shouted and they rushed off.
“So noisy,” came a soft murmur from the corner that Tynan was in earlier.
A large grin made itself apparent on Momj’s face. Darice! He hurried over to her and whispered, “Hi, Darice. Why are you up so early?”
“Master wanted me to see the toasts. How are you?”
“Oh, perfectly fine. Went to town today and broke a few pinball records,” Momj said, blushing.
“Heh heh, that’s great. Do you… want to meat me on the end of West Wing tonight? About 2300?” Darice offered.
Momj grinned wider. “Of course!” he agreed.
“It’s a date then,” Darice replied, reaching up to touch his cheek softly. Then she slipped out of the room.
Blushing bright red and grinning ear to ear, Momj walked back to where Brooks was still babbling at Ikan. Brooks stopped talking when he saw Momj’s bright red face and big beaming grin. “Well,” he chuckled, “a date with Darice tonight?”
“H-how’d you know?” Momj demanded his grin fading.
“Simple!” Brooks replied, “Your face is really red, and you look so happy, plus all of us know you’ve a big crush on Darice!”
“Good luck,” Ikan stated.
“Yeah,” Brooks said, throwing an arm around Ikan’s shoulder, “what he said.” And so Momj walked off to evening meditation.
Silas caught him on his way up the stairs to the third floor. “Say Momj!” he called.
“What is it?” Momj asked, turning around.
“I really liked that scraggle fruit soup,” Silas remarked, and asked, “Do you think that I could bring a few seeds home with me? I’ll ask my master too, but I think you should put the idea to Aria.”
Momj considered. “I don’t know how the tree would do in Earth gravity, but yeah, I’ll tell Master you asked.”
“Cool,” Silas replied. “Thanks Momj!” He hurried off.
Yawning from the large meal he had just had, Momj slipped into the bathroom to splash his face with water to wake up. Then he hurried to his room for meditation.