Okay, so I'm still not entirely sure that I'll be blogging consistently, however I have worked up the ambition to get onto the internet and type out a second blog post.
As my life has been me trying to get things ready for college over the past few weeks I haven't had the opportunity to post things that would expand beyond "I filled out paper work this morning, read a book in the afternoon, and played video games the same night." (there was also the week long trip to Mississippi which I only mention because I like spelling Mississippi.)
However I have been able to get a little bit of typing in, so I present the first chapter in rough draft form of what I hope to be the sequel to Element Keepers. Again, this is a rough draft, so if you spot any glaring error or typos don't make the bounty on my head too large.

What did you do last summer?
The piece of paper posing the question stared at Walter Miller. Walter glanced at his teacher. She can’t be serious, he thought. We’re in 7th grade, this is the kind of question you ask 4th graders. It was the last of twelve random questions that Walter knew were just given to them to give them something to do in the last week of school. He had answered the others quickly and without complaint, but this caused him to pause.
With a long sigh, he filled the blank space beneath the question: I went to Washington D.C.
“Hey, Walter.” Zack Kinder called to him from behind. Before Walter could turn around, a piece of paper appeared over his shoulder. He knew it was the same paper he had just finished filling out before he even read it over. Still he took it and glanced through the last few questions.
What’s your favorite summer activity?: Starting fires.
Who do you spend time with during summer?: Wizards, elves, a boy with too much hair.
What did you do last summer?: I found out that me and my friends Walter, Lenzey, and Ellean have really cool powers that we could use to like save the world. We went to this place called Garibain with this wizard, except we were kidnapped, but not by a wizard, it was an assassin sent by another wizard named Dassin who wanted to kill us. So when we got there, Zandar, the not-evil wizard, stopped the assassin. Actually it was this really big guy who stopped the assassin, his name’s Manokie…
Walter handed the paper back to Zack. “You know, there is such a thing a being too honest.”
“How did you answer it then?”
“I gave the answer that will keep me out of a psychiatric ward.”
“Oh, so the boring answer.”
“No,” Walter corrected, “the answer we all agreed on.”
From the front of the room the teacher—Mrs. Bowmann—spoke to her class. “Everyone, please hand me your finished worksheets as I walk by your desk.”
The sound of rustling paper filled the room as the teacher progressed through the aisles. When Mrs. Bowmann passed his desk, Walter handed her his paper without incident. When she came to Zack, the red haired boy’s freckled face stretched into a grin as he handed her his worksheet. She saw his smile and paused, her long graying hair settling uncertainly.
Mrs. Bowmann took the paper from Zack’s as deactivating a bomb. When it was safely out of Zack’s grip, her eyes scanned over it. As she read the classroom sunk into silent anticipation.
Mrs. Bowmann looked up from the sheet. “Zack.”
“Yes?”
“I’m glad to see your imagination is as vivid as ever, but I asked that you take this seriously.”
“I said that there’s a wizard from another world trying to kill me. What’s not serious about that?”
Laughter detonated throughout the classroom.
It took Mrs. Bowmann three tries to quiet her students. “Okay then,” she said, her wrinkled cheeks beginning to turn scarlet. “You mention Walter, Lenzey, and Ellean in this paper as well…”
Walter’s breath turned to ice in his throat. Uh oh.
“Lenzey,” the teacher turned to a paler than usual girl near the center of the room. “Would you care to verify Zack’s story?”
Lenzey Wright’s green eyes widened “Uhm, yes… I mean no... I mean…”
When Lenzey didn’t start speaking again, Mrs. Bowmann found someone else. “Ellean Brown,” (she pronounced the name like “Elaine” rather than “Ellen”, a mistake she had made almost daily over the past year) “do you have anything to say about Zack’s story?”
Ellean shrugged. “It sounds kind of ridiculous.”
“I know how it sounds. I want you to tell me whether--”
“Excuse me, Mrs. Bowmann,” Walter interjected, causing the teacher to snap in his direction, staring at him with eyes that barely kept back a flood of frustration. Walter continued. “I can promise you none of us have any idea what Zack is talking about.”
Mrs. Bowmann’s eyes considered Walter for a moment before refocusing on Ellean and Lenzey, both of whom were nodding in agreement. For a moment, Walter dared hope that the teacher would let the matter drop.
“Katrina,” said Mrs. Bowmann, turning to a girl sitting in the corner closest to the door. “According to Zack, you come from another world.”
Walter had to force himself to look as a girl, nearly two years older than everyone else in the class, stood up. “Mrs. Bowmann,” she said. “I’ve never even been outside the country of Michigan.”
Walter winced as a few scattered laughs drifted through the air.
“State,” Mrs. Bowmann said.
Katrina opened her mouth, then paused. “State what?”
More laughter.
The teacher’s hands tightened around her students’ worksheets. “State. You meant to say you’ve never been outside of the state of Michigan.”
For half a second, Katrina’s face was glazed with dread. She recovered with an awkward shrug. “You’re the teacher.”
Before Mrs. Bowmann could say anything else, the bell signaling the end of the day rang; Walter, Zack, Lenzey, Ellean, and Katrina where the first ones out of the room.

“Why would you do that, Zack?”
“Come on, Walt, it was funny, everyone laughed.”
“You made her call on Katrina. Things could have gone much worse.”
The two of them pushed their way through the narrow halls toward the exit. Zack almost had to shout to be heard over the clamor of the crowd. “You’ve said so yourself, no one’s going to believe us.”
“That’s the problem,” Walter said. “No one’s going to believe us. They’d think we’re insane!”
When the two of them emerged under the crystal blue sky outside, Lenzey, Ellean, and Katrina stood waiting for them among the crowds of their peers ambling about until their rides arrived. As the two boys grew closer to their companions, Zack began to hang his head. He smiled nervously. “I guess you guys are mad at me too?”
“I’m always mad at you,” Ellean assured.
“I’m not mad,” Lenzey said with some distress. “You… you told the truth…”
Katrina nodded. “It’s my fault; I should have known that Michigan was a state. I take responsibility.”
“No,” said Walter. “It’s not your fault. You’ve spent almost a year learning everything that’s common knowledge for us. It was a small mistake; you’re allowed to make those. Zack, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing and that it was a bad idea.”
“Well maybe things would have gone better if you had backed me up,” muttered Zack.
Both Walter and Ellean opened their mouths to respond, a sixth person joined their group. “Lenzey!” the new comer’s lime-green eyes glossed over the group before settling on her friend.
Lenzey forced a smile to her face. “Hey, Sara.”
Sara Hardstone bit her lip for a moment before speaking. “Those things Zack wrote on his paper in class today, about wizards, it’s a lot like what you were saying to me last year, isn’t it? You said I was, like, what was it, a soothsayer?”
“Sara,” Lenzey said, “can we talk about this later?”
The girl tilted her head. “Is there something to talk about? I mean it’s all made-up, right?”
“Well…”
“Guys,” Ellean interrupted, “if we’re going to walk home we should start now, my mom wants me home before five.”
Zack groaned. “We’re walking?! But--” Ellean silenced him with an elbow to the ribs.
“See ya later, Sara,” Ellean said as she pulled Lenzey away. The other’s followed them, leaving Sara standing in front of the school.

“I still think we should tell Sara,” Lenzey said over the sound of passing cars as she and her friends marched down the sidewalk. “Even if she doesn’t know it, she’s as much a part of this as we are.”
Walter nodded. He had never actually seen Sara use the power she, as a soothsayer, possessed to see the future, but Ellean and Lenzey had (he’d been turned into a field mouse at the time). According to them, whenever Sara came in contact with Zandar—or supposedly any Warlock—she recited a portion of a prophecy that proclaimed Lenzey, Walter, Zack, Ellean, and three unknown others as the saviors of Garibain. After delivering a portion of the prophecy though she would loose consciousness and wake-up with no memory of the event.
“You’re right,” Walter admitted. “Sara is involved in this. But if I know Sara, the moment we show her the truth, she’ll tell everyone. You know her better than me though, if you think I’m wrong…”
“No,” said Lenzey, “you’re probably right.”
They quieted themselves and stepped off the sidewalk as a biker zoomed by them. Once they were sure he couldn’t hear them, they continued.
Ellean vocalized the thought that had been on everyone’s mind for weeks now. “What about Zandar? He said he’d need us again. It’s been a year.”
Zack finished the thought. “And we still haven’t found the other three Element Keepers.”
“We haven’t looked,” Lenzey pointed out, her voice holding a hint of shame.
“Maybe Zandar won’t come back.” Even as the words slid off his tongue, Walter knew he couldn’t believe his own words.
He’d had a conversation with Lenzey on the topic. It had been months ago while their teacher had sent the two of them carry an extra table from an empty class room. Walter had said, “Do you know why Zandar sent Katrina here?” Lenzey had nodded, “He said it was so she could help protect us.” “I mean why he really sent Katrina back with us.” Lenzey had shot Walter a weary look; he didn’t blame her, after the way he had acted in Garibain his opinion deserved to be scrutinized. “He sent her here to make sure that we go back to Garibain.” “Walter…” “Think about it, she’s our age and Garibain is her home, she wants us to go back as much as anyone, except she’s been getting close to us all year. We won’t to be able to say no to her because she’ll be our friend.” “What are you trying to say, Water?” Lenzey had asked. “Are you trying to say that we shouldn’t make friends so that our consciences can be clean if people start dying?” Walter had flinched, feeling Lenzey’s eyes on him. “You’re right,” he’d said. “You’re right.”
Zack shattered Walter’s recollection. “Whose house are we going to first?”
“We’ll drop Katrina off,” Ellean said.
“We should be looking for them,” Lenzey whispered to herself, just loud enough for the others to hear. “What happens when they get their powers and they don’t know what to do with them?”
Ellean started to say, “Well Zack,” but spoke softer when she spotted someone walking down the sidewalk in their direction. “Well Zack can start fires at will, I’m not sure they can do much worse than him.”
“Come on,” Zack said, “I’m standing right here.”
Ellean ignored him. “I still think there’s a ninety percent chance he becomes a pyromaniac.”
Zack waved his arms as if he was a lone survivor on a desert island trying to get the attention of a plane flying over head. “Can anyone see me? Am I here right now? I know my superman-like appearance can make it hard to believe, but I can be hurt too.”
Try though he might, Walter couldn’t help but grin at this.
“Lenzey,” Katrina said with a volume that disregarded the approaching stranger. “Do you have the kingstone with you?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, if you give it to me I can start looking for the other Element Keepers.”
Once the on coming stranger had passed them, Lenzey began digging through her backpack for the kingstone, Walter had the mental image of Katrina wandering the streets, shoving the magical rock into the face of everyone she met.
“Uhm, guys.”
Lenzey’s voice drew Walter’s eyes to her. When he saw the look on her face, he followed her gaze to the item cupped in her hand.
His breath caught in his throat.
In Lenzey’s hands the kingstone lit with a brilliant light the color of the first leaf of spring.
An Element Keeper was near.