The Fire Prophecy

by Megan Linski

  I wasn’t about to let that happen. I was the firstborn son of the Water Chief, dammit. I could die in this tournament, but later. Not now.

  It took everything, but I used my powers to put myself upright in the churning ocean and stop the spinning. I was running out of air, fast. I couldn’t tell how long I’d been under, but I was starting to see stars, and my vision was growing dark.

  I put what I had left into pushing myself upward. I worked with the wave instead of against it, summoning my magic so the upwelling surrounded me and rushed me back to the surface. My head broke, and I took a deep gasp of air.

  My waterspout was still spinning, but it was smaller now. The island was gone, engulfed by water. The tsunami was no longer there, yet the ocean was churned in its place.

  Where there once had been light, now there was only darkness. Huge black clouds covered the sky, and rain was falling down torrentially. The wind picked up. The sky looked like glass as dozens of lightning bolts shot across it.

  They were using Yapluma Elders to create storms and Koigni to make lightning, as if we didn’t have enough to worry about. I looked upward to where the waterspout still was. My team was dangerously close to the storm.

  Sophia was a First Year. She couldn’t handle lightning.

  With my right hand held up out of the water, I started to bring them back down. But before I could, a colossal roar got my attention.

  The Green Team’s water boat had a large tentacle wrapped around it. The team members scattered as the tentacle cracked down on the boat, and a giant squid rose up out of the water.

  A fucking kraken. To make things worse, the Elders were sending their damn Familiars after us!

  The Pink Team was running on their earth bridge from a megalodon that swam beside it. The oversized shark chased after them and blocked the way, preventing them from creating another bridge and forcing them to reevaluate.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw that a few other teams, though I couldn’t be sure which ones, were trying to defend themselves against a gargantuan blue crab and a killer whale.

  Haley’s team was fighting off a leviathan from the back of the liopleurodon, and though they’d been making fast progress, I could tell the creature was giving them a hard time and blocking the way to the beach.

  Nothing had gone after us yet, which meant we were lucky. We needed to move.

  I lost track of who was on whose team as bodies started flying around. People were thrown out of the air and tossed into the ocean, either by the storm or whatever creatures they were fighting. Somehow, the red dragon from the Silver Team was knocked out of the sky and sent crashing into the sea. I lowered my team back to the ocean’s surface while directing the rest of my power downward. The churning ocean split, and we were carried downward until our feet hit the ocean floor and I was holding up two separate walls of water on either side of us.

  The shore was at least another mile off. My arms were starting to wobble under the effort of holding the ocean apart.

  “Liam?” Sophia turned and looked at me.

  “Don’t dick around,” I gasped. “This is hard.”

  I had to keep the ocean parted so we could get back to shore. My team started to run. They raced toward the beach while I walked forward steadily, my arms held out in front of me.

  It felt like I was bench pressing the Pacific. My entire body screamed. It was incredibly painful, but I was used to pain, and I was fucking stubborn. The whole damn ocean was going to have to kick my ass before I’d let my team die.

  Then a spasm wracked through my back, and I let out a gasp of agony. I fell to my knees, unable to control my body’s reaction to the sheer effort of holding up my magic. The walls still held, but water was starting to splash over the sides and onto the sand.

  I could do this if Nashoma was here. But he was gone. I couldn’t pull from his strength. Just another reminder that I was doing this alone.

  “Guys, Liam needs help!” Sophia shouted. She’d noticed I’d fallen. She, Imogen and Jonah came rushing back, instead of pressing ahead like I wanted them to.

  No, don’t come back for me, I wanted to scream, but even talking took too much effort. I gritted my teeth as my upper body started to go numb. Water was pouring in over the sides of the walls now.

  “We’re not going to abandon you!” Sophia said. She and the others stood around me, their faces pale with fear, but also set in a determined way that told me they wouldn’t leave me behind no matter what.

  I couldn’t do it. The two walls came hurtling back down, and as the water started rushing in I screamed, “Everyone grab onto me!”

  They didn’t fucking hesitate. Jonah, Imogen and Sophia latched onto my arms, and as we were submerged underwater I used my magic to propel us forward like a bullet.

  I rocketed us toward shore. And damn, it wasn’t easy, the fatasses. We were easily going hundreds of miles an hour. We’d reach the beach in less than a minute, but already, I could feel Sophia’s grip on my arm start to loosen. I glanced to the left and saw that her eyes were half-closed. She was Koigni. She couldn’t last as long in water as Imogen and Jonah. I had to go faster.

  It hurt, but I urged my element to give me just a little bit more. The beach was in sight— but then I ran out. There was just no more magic left.

  We started to slow down. I tossed Sophia upward, and Imogen and Jonah let go. We broke the surface. The two of them started paddling to shore.

  Sophia was sinking. She was about to pass out. I swam up behind her and put my arms under hers, grabbing her shoulders so both of us were tilted upward. I swam backward until I was able to pull her onto the beach. She came to, coughing up water once we hit the sand. I let her go and rolled onto my back as the earth rocked like the waves.

  Everything hurt. I’d pushed my limits far past what I knew I had the ability to do, and I was paying for it. Little needles were pricking me all over my body, while a steamroller mashed my insides. It was so painful I really wanted to cry.

  But we were probably still on TV, so I sucked it up and forced myself into an upward position, even though it made my eyes water.

  I took a shuddering breath. We were safe. For now.

  Squeaks raced up the beach with Esis and Sassy on her back, giving a happy squawk as she head-butted Jonah.

  Well, at least someone was having a good time.

  “Esis!” Sophia scrambled up and got Esis from off of Squeaks’ back, while Imogen held Sassy. I was too weak to dry everyone, so we stayed wet.

  I looked back at the ocean. What about the people who had been behind us? What was their fate?

  The Yellow Team had to be gone. There was no way. They were in the water when the tsunami had crashed onto shore, and the Toaqua freshman had been struggling before then. I’d barely made it out alive, and I was a Third Year.

  The rest of them had no chance.

  A deep cavern of dread started eating my insides. That had only been the first challenge. What kind of hell did we have still waiting for us?

  “What do we do now, Liam?” Imogen asked weakly. The team looked at me, expecting an answer.

  Shit. What did we do now? I wasn’t sure. I was supposed to be Captain. What did Baine say?

  Protect the pack. Protect the pack. Right. “We have to get a sense of direction,” I told them. “Then we can start heading toward the flag. We’re sure to run into the other tasks along the way.”

  We couldn’t see the sun. Clouds blocked them out, no doubt an effort from the Elders to prevent us from figuring out which way was north.

  “I can do that,” Imogen suggested, kneeling down to the ground. “I can feel the earth’s magnetic poles.”

  “Me too,” Jonah said. “I can sense which way the wind is blowing and use the currents to judge where we are.”

  “Fantastic.” I lay back down on the shore and closed my eyes. I needed to rest. Just for a minute.

  Sophia walked over to me, then knelt on the ground. Esis chattered in her arms. “Li
am? You okay?”

  “Peachy, pawee.” It hurts to literally exist right now.

  Esis made a mewling sound and put a tiny paw on my arm. For some reason, once the little guy touched me, I felt a little bit stronger. Everything went from being unbearably agonizing to mildly tolerable. I was able to sit up easier this time.

  “The flag’s this way,” Imogen said, walking toward us with Jonah by her side, pointing north. “Though it’s really, really far away.”

  I got to my feet. “Good. Let’s get moving. We’ll walk until nightfall.” I tried not to wince, but it was hard, and I was pretty sure the team noticed.

  “Liam, get on Squeaks,” Jonah suggested.

  “No way.” A rolling, sharp pain went through my gut. I involuntary clutched at it, bending over. This sucked.

  “Liam.” Sophia stared at me. “You have to.”

  “You’ll slow us down,” Imogen said gently. I know she meant it to be kind, but it stung.

  “There’s no way I’m hitching a ride when the rest of the team is walking,” I told them sharply.

  “Liam, just do it,” Jonah said. “You saved our asses back there. Quit nursing your pride, or I’m carrying your ass. And I’ll make sure it looks as gay as possible for the cameras.”

  I figured we’d all have to take turns riding on Squeaks sooner or later, so I just gave up. “Fine.” I climbed on Squeaks, though it was no easy effort, and held on to her feathers as we headed into the forest.

  Sassy and Esis led the way, chattering. I think I fell asleep on Squeaks’ back, because I closed my eyes and everything went numb.

  By the time I opened them again, it’d gotten dark and we were in a clearing. I felt a little better, but where the pain once was, now there was soreness.

  “We just stopped,” Sophia told me quietly. “We haven’t run into anything so far.”

  “Glad I didn’t miss any action.” I slid off of Squeaks’ back. Imogen and Jonah both looked exhausted. Esis’ eyes were drooping.

  “We have to find drinking water,” I told the team. Right then, I couldn’t draw up a droplet out of the ground if I wanted to.

  “There’s a freshwater spring nearby that we passed,” Jonah said. “We can drink from that.”

  “Okay, good,” I said. “We also need shelter.”

  “Imogen can do that,” Sophia offered before Imogen said anything. “She’s good with roots and things.”

  I looked expectantly at Imogen. She blinked, then nodded. She raised her hands. A few roots popped out of the ground, but it was nothing monumental. Sassy played with them before looking at Imogen and giving a bark.

  “Come on, Imogen,” I said in frustration. “This should be easy for you.” I’d seen her do harder things at home.

  Imogen grimaced, then a large collection of roots rose up out of the earth. I stepped forward and started weaving them together. The rest of the team followed suit, bending the roots into something that would shield us from the elements, creating a dome that would encompass the four of us fully.

  Imogen looked embarrassed. I wasn’t sure what was coming tomorrow, but I was pretty sure Earth was next. I worried Imogen wouldn’t be up to the task.

  “You’re not weaving it tight enough. It looks sloppy,” I said to them. Imogen and Jonah glanced up at me, but didn’t say anything.

  “Liam, it doesn’t need to be perfect,” Sophia shot back. I went to open my mouth, but found myself too tired to argue.

  Sophia moved her way over to me on the other side of the shelter. “Liam, you’re being hypercritical,” she whispered to me. “You have to stop.”

  I noticed that both Jonah and Imogen looked a little down. “I just… I want everyone to make it out of here,” I told her. Some Captain I was, demoralizing the team.

  “I get it, but you don’t have to be that hard on them,” Sophia said. “They’re doing the best they can.”

  Sophia brushed my hand before going back to twisting the roots. Esis gave me a little pat on my leg.

  About an hour later we had a shelter made, but it was obvious we were all starving. Squeaks’ stomach was making rumbling noises, while Sassy had her nose to the ground, sniffing. Esis rubbed his belly and stuck out his lip.

  “I’m going to look for something edible,” I said. “You guys stay here.”

  It took another hour, but I managed to scrounge up a few cattails, conifer bark, and acorns for us to eat. It wasn’t much, but we had to consume something. I passed it around. Jonah took it with a wrinkled nose, but the girls didn’t complain. We sat in a circle outside the makeshift shelter and ate in silence around a campfire Sophia had made.

  Squeaks ate a majority of the acorns. Esis sniffed at the conifer bark I offered him and turned his nose up at it.

  Jonah sighed as he chewed on his bark. “This blows,” he complained. “What I’d do for a burger right now.”

  “If you talk about food, I’m going to kill you,” Imogen said. Sassy put her ears back and hissed at Jonah.

  “Come on, people. Our ancestors lived like this every day for thousands of years. We can suck it up for a few nights,” I told them.

  “Uh, wrong,” Jonah said. “Our ancestors lived like this, but they didn’t have giant monsters chasing after them, or other Elementai out there literally trying to kill them.”

  I flipped Jonah off, because he ruined everything.

  “That guy with the dragon is probably at the finish line by now,” Sophia said glumly as she munched on a cattail.

  “There are rules against flying,” I told them. “You can fly through one of the challenges, but for the rest, you have to walk, to make it fair. Otherwise people with flying Familiars would just race to the ending, fly over all the challenges and win easily.”

  I shivered. I suddenly realized it had gotten very cold. Small white flakes began descending from the sky. It was snowing, and we didn’t have much in terms of clothing.

  “Snow,” Jonah said, looking upward.

  “It doesn’t snow in this part of California, except for the mountains,” Imogen protested.

  “During the Elemental Cup it does,” I replied. “Everyone, get inside.”

  We huddled inside the shelter, but it was still fricking cold. The light snowfall outside was quickly turning into a blizzard.

  “Sophia, we need warmth. Before we freeze to death.” I told her.

  She nodded. She reached outside to gather the firewood we’d harvested while I poked a hole in the roof through the roots. She lit a fire and we gathered around it, arms wrapped around our forms.

  Even with the roaring fire inside, it was still really cold, and we didn’t have blankets or coats. It looked like the Water part of the challenge wasn’t over yet.

  “Can you regulate the temperature any more, Sophia?” I asked. My teeth were almost chattering. I was pretty sure I was turning blue. The cold couldn’t hurt me in Water form, at least, but the temperature certainly could.

  “I’m trying. I’ve never been met with this much… resistance before.” Sophia shivered. “It’s almost like someone’s blocking my powers.”

  Damn Elders again. On the ground, Esis waddled up to Squeaks. He nestled against her feathers like a pillow before pulling Sassy to him, using her tail as a blanket. Esis sighed happily, totally cozy. The rest of the Familiars huddled up together, unbothered by the chill.

  “Hey, Esis has the right idea,” Jonah started. “Let’s cuddle.”

  “No,” I said flatly. Ancestors, this tournament was pushing every button I had.

  “We’re supposed to survive, and that means not becoming an icicle,” Jonah shot back. “But if you’re opposed to the cuddling part, there are other ways to keep warm.” Jonah winked.

  “I’m gonna hit you,” I growled.

  “Jonah’s just playing around,” Sophia said. “Besides, it’s not like these outfits are exactly sexy.” Sophia pulled at her suit.

  “Baby, unisex still has the word sex in it,” Jonah said.

 
I was getting real tired of Jonah’s shit.

  “Jonah’s right,” Imogen said. “Not about the orgy thing, but we will stay warm if we share body heat.”

  “Nothing shares body heat like a big love-pile,” Jonah added. “What do you say, Liam?”

  I shivered again, and Imogen said, “Well, I’m not waiting around for your approval.”

  She lay on the ground next to Squeaks, and Jonah followed her. He reached out and grabbed Imogen, crushing her to his giant chest. She giggled. Sophia was usually shy, but it must’ve been so freaking cold she didn’t care, because she lay next to Imogen and scooted against her.

  “Come on, Liam.” Sophia raised her eyebrows. “Your turn.”

  “Uh-uh.” I shook my head. “Nowhere in the rulebook did it say in order to make it through this, I have to spoon my teammates.”

  “You can be little spoon.” Jonah wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Hell to the no.” I really was cold. My body was giving in.

  Sophia looked really concerned about me. She and Esis were mirrors, both big eyes that were adorable and sucked me in.

  Fine. If I was cuddling with anyone, it was going to be Sophia. Because we’d already done it once, and to be honest, I kind of liked it. Though having Imogen and Jonah here was really killing the mood.

  I got down on the ground and slid my body against Sophia’s, so that my head was resting on one of Squeaks’ legs. I shivered when she put her arm around me, though it wasn’t because of the chill.

  “This doesn’t leave the hut. Ever,” I said. I was glad the cameras couldn’t see us inside the hut, because this was taking things a step too far.

  “This is like a porn I watched once,” Jonah spoke up.

  Ancestors help me. I was going to murder these people.

  “Relax, Liam.” Imogen spoke up. “We’re all friends here.”

  “Reluctantly.”

  Sophia giggled against my back. I smiled. It was warmer, at least. And I was glad Jonah was on the other side of the hut, because I didn’t trust him not to make it weirder than it already was.