Free The Order of the Elements 01 - Breaking Point by Jess Bowen

a Water bear. He’s still young now, though, and it’s hard to tell how much power he actually has. Companions also innately have the ability to be incredibly small or incredibly large,” Jared explained.
    “This is all so confusing,” Phoebe said. Her eyes saddened, and her brow knitted in confusion and frustration.
    “You’ll get used to it,” Evan said, grinning at her and taking the bear from her lap.
    Jared raised his hand to his own companion mark, and Ethan watched in awe as another tiny animal crawled out of his arm and grew to the size of a small cat. It was a Bengal tiger.
    “This is Sadie. She’s my companion, and she’s a Fire tiger,” Jared said as the tiger bounded off across the room, chasing a butterfly that had flown in through the open window.
    “Amazing,” Ethan breathed, watching the two animals.
    Meanwhile, Bree had climbed back onto Phoebe’s lap and was rubbing his nose into her cheek. Phoebe laughed, and it appeared she had finally overcome her fear of him. Just then, six small figures burst into the room. Three were rather rotund with long noses, red hair, and wearing pointy hats, green shirts, and pants. Each bore a tray of food. Three others each carried a stack of clothing. This second group was slimmer and a bit taller than the others with long, full beards but no hair on their heads. They wore blue shirts and black pants and waddled slightly as they walked, rather like penguins. They set a stack of clothing and a plate of food on each bed and then bowed themselves out of the room.
    “I suppose it’s dinner time,” Evan said to no one in particular. Turning to Phoebe, he said, “You should probably get back to your room before the food gets cold.”
    “Oh, right,” Phoebe replied, handing the cub back to Evan and rising to leave. Turning back at the door, she said, “By the way, thanks for everything you told us. I hope we can all be friends.”
    “Sure thing. I’m glad we could help,” Evan said, and then as she was turning the door knob, he added, “Do you want to go to the celebration with us tomorrow? I think Bree would like you to join us.”
    Indeed, Bree had escaped from Evan’s arms once again and was trying to climb up Phoebe’s leg. She knelt down and played with the cub for a moment before answering.
    “Yeah, all right,” she said. “Thanks.” She picked the cub up again and handed him back to Evan. Then she smiled and stepped out the door and across the hall to her room. After she crossed the hall, Ethan could see two other girls in her room. They introduced themselves to Phoebe as she closed the door.
    The twins hastened over to their beds to grab their bowls of food. Ethan’s mind was still spinning as he walked over to his own bed and looked down at his bowl. What was inside didn’t look bad, but it didn’t necessarily look good either. It looked like watered down porridge.
    “What is this?” he asked, unsure if it was actually edible, however Evan and Jared seemed to be enjoying it.
    “Whatever you want it to be,” Evan said between mouthfuls.
    Ethan looked down at his bowl doubtfully. It hadn’t changed. It still looked gray, lumpy, and unappetizing.
    “It’s part of the gnomes’ magic,” Jared explained. “It tastes like whatever you want it to. You just have to think about what you want it to taste like. And you can change it whenever you want. It’s called glume. They serve it because it conserves our food resources and because it’s an accurate way to make sure everyone gets proper nutrition. You know, vitamins, minerals, proteins, that kind of thing. Because no matter what you make it taste like, it still has all the healthy stuff inside.”
    That sounded interesting. Ethan took a moment and thought of how much he would like to have some of his mother’s spaghetti and meatballs. Looking down at his bowl he brought the spoon to his mouth. He paused for a moment. It seemed a bit farfetched, but so did everything else here. Besides,