Elements

Twisting the faucet to get the water running, D looked
down at his left hand and said, “I’ve got some soil ready, too, but what
would you like first?”

“Don’t ask dumb questions,” a voice quickly answered. At the same time,
a human face complete with eyes and a nose mysteriously surfaced in the
palm of the Hunter’s hand. Forming a scowl, it said, “You’re splitting hairs
with all this talk about fire first or water first, when the truth is nothing’s
been all that tasty lately. After all, I’m the one who’s gotta eat them. Oh, my
—we’ve got a nuclear reactor today? That looks positively delicious. None
of that alcohol lamp or dried werewolf dung, thank you. That stuff’s the
worst!”

Taking a handful of dirt from one of his coat’s inner pockets, D put it
beside the lamp. “Be quick about it,” he said. “The corpse should be waking
up soon.”

“Hmph. Well if it does, you can just put it back to sleep again. Day in and
day out, you’re always pushing me around.”
“Fire or water?” the Hunter asked.
“Hmm, I’ll take the dirt.”

D held his left hand over the blackish pile. There was the intense squeal
of air being drawn in, and the clod of earth broke apart into a powder that
was inhaled by the palm hanging over it.

“That tastes awful!” the voice said after sucking up every last grain of
dirt. “This soil hasn’t known the usual ups and downs, or been part of the
natural circle of life, death, and rebirth. It doesn’t take its life from the
planet. It’s just a decoration laid down over steel. You’re not gonna be very
satisfied with the kind of results you get by feeding me crap like this!”

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