G'day Alethea here.

This is the prologue to "History: It's Just One Thing After Another"... it may be confusing as these characters wont appear in History for a long time... so it may seem a lil off the topic compared to the other one. It is completely different (and a very bad prologue) because this is the beginning of the elemental children, the very start.

For a bit of insight into these chapters i must tell you a few things:

1: The elements have separated into 2 beings: a boy and a girl for each. (So a girl and a boy for fire, water, etc). It isn't until a few thousand years later when they realise that it would be far easier keeping track of 4 instead of 8.

2: Amergin and Candice do make an appearance, see if u can spot them ;)

3: Its is set around 20,000 B.C. ... please keep in mind that this is 8,000 or so years BEFORE Ciel's time in Atlantis.

4: These kids possess a different kind of power over the elements, so there are no party tricks or illusions magicians would love to get their hands on like in History. Lets just say, for the time in history they have no desire to get fancy with their abilities. Just basic.

5: And finally i must tell you that the kids are separated. The boys live on an island called Lemuira and the girls are on Mu.

I think that's it. Yep! Have fun!

The Beginning

'Stop hogging it Kai! It's my turn!' A black haired boy yelled out.

'No! I just got it Ryuu! Let go!' He gave the cart a huge tug causing the other boy to let go. Flying backwards he landed in a thud. The cart kept flying breaking off at the handle the boy in the ground was holding onto, and began rolling down the hill.

'Get it!' Ryuu yelled out.

'I can't!' Kai cried back stumbling to his feet. The two sped off chasing their cart, which was getting further and further away.

Running as fast as they could, faltering on the uneven ground, they tailed the cart until it met with a tree at the bottom of the hill. Smashing into four or five pieces the cart finally ceased its run. The boys skidded to a halt only to find there was nothing they could do.

'Smooth move, Kai! If you had just given me…'

'Me! You were the one that let go and made it go flying.'

'Hey guys!' Another small boy, with fiery red hair, yelled out from the top of the hill. 'Did you catch it?'

'Nah, it didn't survive Daichi!' Kai yelled back to him. 'Hey, come give us a hand! We may be able to fix it.'

'Wait! I'll be right there. I'll just get Hayato!' The boy ran off.

Ryuu turned back to the remains of the fastest cart in Lemuria, the Dacko. They spent all spring building the racer for it just to get smashed on the third run. Picking up a wheel, Ryuu began salvaging anything that could be re-used.

'Pisst! Kai… Ryuu.'

Looking up Ryuu spotted another young pale boy, with straight short blond hair, lying on his stomach a few meters away behind a bush. He waved them over before turning his blue eyes back to the branches. Kai and Ryuu joined him, both now on their stomachs, creeping to get a good look at what was beyond the bush.

'Hayato I can't see anything.' Kai whispered.

'Shh… look.' The boy urged.

Around a hundred meters beyond the branches of the bush and the few trees in their way was a small group of men. The boys recognized a couple of them from the village but there were a few they did not recognize. They appeared to be from the area and the clothes they wore told them that they were probably from the fishing village on the other side of Nimbu forest.

'Hey guys. I couldn't find… hey there you are… What are you…?'

'Shh Daichi!' Ryuu hissed. 'Get down.'

The boy crawled slowly in next to his friends now fighting to get a good look at the men.

'Who do you think the others are?' Daichi whispered.

'No clue,' Kai replied, 'but I'd like to know what they are up to. Hey Hayato, get closer.'

'What? No way! Make Daichi do it.'

'Me! But you're the best at hide and seek. You do it.'

'Yeah, just do it Hayato.' Kai urged.

'But… but… I'll get caught.' Hayato didn't like this idea much.

'Look if you don't do it I'll kick your butt.' Ryuu threatened.

'And if you do you can have my dissert tonight.' Kai offered. 'Come on.'

With all four faces looking at him, and one about to hit him, Hayato reluctantly got to his knees. He was going to get in so much trouble for this.

Creeping as softly as he could, Hayato managed to side step a few broken branches and sticks to end up behind a large tree. Popping his head above an up turned root, Hayato strained to hear what they were saying.

'I can't hear anything!' He whispered back to the boys behind the bush.

'Get closer!' Kai called sticking his head briefly above the bush.

Swallowing hard, Hayato gave a slight nod. Now trying to get closer, he managed to skip a few trees to come to one that was right on the edge of the meeting area. Daring to get a good view he waited until the men were in deep conversation before climbing up onto a low branch and swinging him self into the leaves.

Cringing that the men had heard him, Hayato silently got him self into a comfortable spot on a wide branch.

'Rock slide… they aren't safe… they have to go… tomorrow.'

Hayato leaned in closer, anxious to hear what they were planning, before he felt his weight shift. Crashing through the branches Hayato landed hard on his back at the base of the tree. Scared for his life he jumped to his feet and blew himself back to where the others were. They too jumped up to join him and all five of them bolted as fast as they could.

'You had to fall out of the tree didn't you!' Ryuu yelled out.

'Just shut up and run!' Hayato screamed back.

'Are they following?' Daichi asked as they ran up and over the hill back the way they came.

'Who cares? Just keep running!' Kai cried out. 'To Moniko!'

The four boys all headed off into the Nimbu forest, every one of them knowing the area like off the back of their hands. Scattering, they all split off in what appeared to be random directions. They all kept running until they all met up once again at an opening between two large boulders that rested against a cliff face.

Bent over and panting hard, it was Kai who spoke first.

'What happened back there?'

'Not… sure.' Hayato puffed. 'But I could kill Daichi right now if I wasn't so dead.'

Standing up straight Daichi was shocked. 'What did I do? I haven't done anything… yet.'

'They know!' Hayato roared. 'They know about the rock slide … and the other men from the fishing village probably have a problem with you Kai.'

'I haven't taken any this week!' Kai defended from his seat on the ground.

'So what now?' Ryuu asked still panting hard. 'Do we tell Nin Ishtar?'

'We should,' Hayato suggested, 'they are planning something for tomorrow.'

'Ok then let's go.' Daichi said now a little scared about what was going to happen next.

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The house was dead quiet. A middle-aged woman was softly walking around the rooms trying to find something to do. She didn't like it when the house was like this. She was used to the place being in disarray and chaos, not clean and quiet. The silence made her uneasy for it usually meant that something bad had happened or the boys were out. Ishtar had been looking after the four boys for eleven years and she still feared for them every time they left the house. They were good kids and they usually followed the rules but you couldn't be too careful. The boys were not allowed to spend a lot of time in the village as the other inhabitants didn't trust them much and they were forbidden to play with any other children for the same reason. They had only been out since the morning, Ryuu wanted to finish off their cart, but it wasn't like them not to come back every so often for a drink or one of them had hurt them self.

As Ishtar made her way to the kitchen still fiddling with her skirt she heard a crash coming from one of the rooms.

'Kai you had better show your self!' She called out.

'How did you know it was me Nin?' Kai called sticking his head out of the room. 'Nin' was a respectful title for any woman in a position of authority.

'Magic. Oh and you had better clean up that trail of mud you brought in with you.' She turned to the dishes in the tub and set out to work.

Kai stood there dumbfounded before looking back into the room to check. 'But how did you…' He went back to clean up the mess.

Ishtar smiled to her self; she always did love confusing the boys.

Ishtar and the boys always played this game whenever she or they came home. They either hid or tried to get in the house without her knowing. They loved to test her like this but so far she had managed to catch all the boys but Hayato.

'Nin Ishtar, I can I ask you something?' Kai asked as he came up beside her once he had hastily cleaned up the mud.

'Sure. What's on your mind?'

Kai's head fell as he began playing with the piece of cloth on the bench. 'The villagers don't like us much do they?'

'What makes you say that?' Ishtar thought this question was very strange, as the way the villagers acted around the boys had never troubled them before.

'Oh, no reason. Just wandering is all. Do you know if they know about us?' Kai looked up to face her.

She looked down at him and she knew that he had found out something. She bent down so her eyes were level with his. 'Just a moment Kai. Daichi! Wipe your feet before you come inside!'

'Aww man!' Came the sound of Daichi's voice from the front of the house.

'Now, Kai I'm not sure how much they know. But I do know for certain that they are scared of the unknown and unfortunately this means you boys as well. They know that you kids seem different to the rest of them and they don't trust what is different.' Ishtar thought the villagers were foolish in fearing a bunch of twelve and thirteen year old boys. She sat there quietly before calling 'Daichi! Could you help out Ryuu? He's stuck on the roof.'

'Haha! Sure. How did he do that?' Daichi's voice left shutting the door behind him.

'Nin Ishtar what about the people from the other village, near the beach? Are they scared of us as well?'

Ishtar's attention was once again returned back to Kai. 'I doubt it Kai. I don't think they even know about you boys. You shouldn't let it worry you.' Kai nodded still a little uneasy. Ishtar noticed that he was unusually fidgety today. 'Why were you wandering about the other village any way?'

'Oh nothing! We just… we just saw a few of them today. Thank you Nin.' Kai put on a big smile and walked away now more curious about how Ryuu got on the roof then about the villagers.

As Ishtar went back to the dishes she dwelled on Kai's questions. What had he seen today that caused him to become so self-conscious? This worried her, as even though she knew the villagers were of no real danger to them this didn't prevent her from mistrusting them. The sound of the boys entering the house came as Ishtar finally finished her chores. She was going to clear this matter up before it really started to scare her.

'Hey, good try Hayato but that trick is not going to work on me.' Ishtar called out as she came over to talk to the boys. But there was only Kai, Daichi, and Ryuu rubbing his back side, coming inside.

'I could have sworn I heard Hayato walk in.'

'What was that Nin?

Ishtar spun around to find Hayato sitting in his favorite chair at the table on the other side of the room.

'Haha! He got you again Nin!' Daichi cried running over to Hayato. The other boys joined in the laughter before Ryuu winced in pain.

'You had to drop me didn't you Daichi? You couldn't have held the platform for just a little bit longer?' Ryuu hobbled over to another chair only to find that sitting was more painful then walking.

'Hey I tried but I can't help it if I haven't had enough practice.' Daichi ran over and stole the chair Ryuu had abandoned.

'Practice? Daichi if you hadn't have caused that landslide we wouldn't…' But Hayato caught him self at the sight of Ishtar from the kitchen. She was fuming.

'Kai! Get in here and sit down!'

Kai had gone to the bathroom but now as he returned to the table the atmosphere had changed. 'What happened?'

'Sit.' Ishtar said forcefully as she waited for him to sit down. 'Now Daichi, what is this about a landslide?'

'I… I… I didn't mean it Nin.' He looked down to stare at the tabletop. 'We were just looking for wood on the other side of the village, you know, for the cart. I was just trying to up root a small tree and the next second…'

Ishtar's eyes grew wide at his story. 'Was any one hurt? Did any one see you?'

'No, no! No one saw or got hurt. But some of En Heng's crops will need to be replanted.'

'How many crops?'

Daichi coughed hard. 'Ah around half… just to be safe.'

'Half!' Ishtar had to take a seat to compose her self. 'Please tell me you're joking!'

All five of the boys shook their heads ashamed of the event.

'Did you fix the damage? Tell me you fixed the damage.'

'I'm sorry Nin I tried. I got most of it away but then En Heng started to yell. I panicked and started running before he could see me.'

'Oh Daichi.' Ishtar sighed. She couldn't very well send him over to Heng to help with the replanting as it would mean revealing it was her boy that did it, but then she couldn't let him get away with it either. 'I'm going deal with you later. Now I want you boys to tell me what you saw today. What happened?'

The four of them sat there silently not wanting to cause any more trouble by saying anything. But a few side ways glances later Kai opened up. 'We were just playing in the cart.'

'But it smashed.' Ryuu added, sad for the loss.

'But then we spotted En Chen and En Heng speaking with a few men from the fishing village on the other side of Nimbu forest.' Kai continued.

'But we couldn't hear what they were saying.' Daichi interrupted.

'So they sent me to go closer.' Said Hayato.

'But he fell out of the tree.' Ryuu muttered in annoyance.

'I didn't mean to! It was an accident.' Hayato said.

'Well if you'd just been able to sit there for a bit longer we would have found out what they were planning.' Ryuu retorted.

'Wait, wait. What is this about a plan?' Ishtar found it difficult following their story but the fact that Chen and Heng were planning something with the other village was intriguing.

'They were talking about my landslide, and then they said… what did they say again?' Daichi scratched his head for the answer.

'They said something like "they have to go" and "they aren't safe",' Hayato filled in, 'and they are planning something for tomorrow.'

The house went quiet. The new information weighed heavily on Ishtar's mind. No one wanted to disturb the silence. The boys just sat there until Ishtar saw fit to question them further.

'Ok,' she exhaled deeply frustrated with this news, 'what do you boys think they were talking about?'

Ryuu shifted in his seat uncomfortably, 'us.'

Ishtar nodded in agreement. 'So do I. It isn't safe here any more.' In a daze she got up slowly from her chair and headed for the door. 'Ok boys I'm going to need you to stay here while I'm gone.'

'Where are you going?' Kai asked.

'We are going to need some help.'