Playing With Fire

by Jordan Mendez

  “You’ve gotten so big,” she whispered happily while grabbing me into a hug. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to see you again.”

  “Um,” I said awkwardly. “Okay?”

  “Listen carefully,” she said with a sudden seriousness. “If you continue in the condition you are in you will be consumed by the demon that has been placed inside you.”

  “Who are you?” I interrupted, but the woman held up a hand to quiet me down.

  “Just listen to what I have to tell you first!” she scolded. “At the camp the prince is taking you to, there is a priestess. She can put a seal on the curse Velkire placed on you, and you might be able to use your powers again, but you have to be extremely careful to control yourself until she does.”

  “Why?” I cut in.

  “If you turn into that demon again, there is no guarantee you will be able to change back, or even distinguish friend from foe,” she continued. “Control your emotions and whatever you do, do not use your fire until the seal is placed.” The woman’s image began to flicker from solid to translucent.

  “Do not forget what I have told you,” she said as she began to fade.

  “Wait, who are you?” I asked in confusion. The woman laughed. The world around me began to fade to white, until I was the only thing left.

  “Siren,” the woman’s voice echoed as the last of the world faded.

  ~

  My eyes fluttered open gently and were greeted by the sight of a dark purple sky, heralding the coming day as dawn broke. I looked around and just as it had been in my dream, my brothers were all asleep, but the cart had not stopped. Vaze was riding the horse at a slower pace than before I had gone to sleep. The woman was nowhere in sight. ‘Why can’t I have a normal dream for once?’ I pleaded in my mind.

  I climbed onto the seat at the front of the cart where the driver was supposed to sit. We couldn’t use it because the reigns had been broken. I stretched my sore body out as much as the seat would allow and stared up at the sky. It was beautiful to see the dark contrast against the light orange yellow lining as the sun began to remake the sky like a painter’s canvas. It was a enjoyable sight I wouldn’t expect after a day of becoming a murderer.

  “Pretty, isn’t it?” Vaze said without turning his head to me. “I haven’t seen this place in a long time.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “We’re almost there,” he replied distantly. “I remember playing here when I was little. Time really flies when you’re running from the devil.”

  “You’ve never really told me about this camp. Mind shedding some light?” I asked, mostly wanting to pass the time.

  “It’s not really a happy place,” Vaze replied. “You might not like it.”

  “I haven’t liked any of the places you’ve dragged me to,” I said back. “I won’t really care either way.”

  “All right,” Vaze began with a smile playing across his lips. “None of the survivors were town people. Everyone who survived was either combat-trained or invulnerable to the Convergence. My mother was the only exception, and she was forced out of the city. Everyone has been training since they set up the camp—even the children they had have trained from the age of three. They send out search parties frequently to search for Moraj, but none have come back successful, if at all. Everyone helps in everything, and laziness is not tolerated.”

  “So does Velkire know where the camp is?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Vaze said gravely. “But he does not care about the survivors at all. He gives about as much thought to them as he does to the dirt beneath his feet.”

  “Then why are we going there for protection?” I pointed out. “If we’re there he’s just going to come and kill us.”

  “It’s a camp full of trained warriors, Scarlet,” he responded. “It’s the safest place I could think of.”

  I thought about the knowledge of his decision for a while and let Vaze have a little bit of silence. A camp full of warriors could be considered safe against bandits, but the son of the Devil? Even though I had encountered Velkire, I didn’t know what kind of power he possessed. But if a power house like Enzio feared him, I doubted I would be able to grasp how much power he had. I could hardly stand up to Enzio in a fight, and if it came down to a fight between me and Velkire, I would lose in a matter of seconds. As I thought to myself, the wagon lurched to a stop, but when I looked around, I saw no camp. I did see something that made my heart jump.

  A cloaked figure stood in our path, and immediately I assumed it was a Shadow. Heeding the warning from the mysterious woman in my dream, I did not use my fire. I let my hand drift to my pocket where I kept my dagger, but there was no touch of cold metal as I searched desperately. The sudden thought dawned on me that the bandits took it, and I cursed myself for not checking before we left. I had assumed that the bandits had forgotten to take our weapons when I had seen Vaze come to me, unbound, but he must have used his wings to break the binds or wiggled out. I could truly be an idiot some times.

  I jumped out of the cart and stood by Vaze, who had not dismounted from the horse. I didn’t feel any anxiety from Vaze. I looked up to him and found he was completely at ease. He was even smiling—though it was a regretful smile.

  The cloaked figure took a step towards us, and I tensed up. I was weaponless and couldn’t use my power. I didn’t know if I could defeat a Shadow with brute force alone. I usually was fueled by adrenaline in fights, but at the moment I was spent, which only left me my limited strength. The Shadow walked closer, and I started to coil up to attack.

  “Call off your guard dog, Vaze,” the cloaked figure said, making me stop half lunge. I’ve never heard a Shadow speak, and I never expected them to sound like a woman either. A sun tanned hand emerged from the cloak and removed the hood, revealing a woman with yellowish green eyes and black hair tied back in a long pony tail that fell all the way to her lower back. She had a welcoming smile on her face, but with a sense that kind of said ‘if-you-attack-me-I’m-going-to-kick-your-butt-faster-than-you-can-say-ouch’. She had darkish tan skin, but from her eyes I could tell she was once pale. Her long coal black hair was tied back, but angled bangs that reached her chin hung over her face.

  “It’s been a long time,” Vaze replied. “It’s good to see you again, Kyra.” The woman’s smile faded.

  “You’ve been gone five years and that’s all you can say?” she said with a slight annoyance. “You haven’t changed a bit.” Kyra snapped her fingers and immediately Vaze and I were tackled to the ground by two more cloaked figures.

  “What the freaking heck!” I screamed at her. “Is this your greeting party here or something?”

  “I’m really sorry about this,” said my attacker in an honest tone. “I don’t like attacking without warning, especially when my opponent is weaker than me.”

  “Shut up Ed!” Vaze’s attacker barked. “You talk too much!”

  “Sorry Cain,” he replied.

  “I said shut up!” Cain barked. I freed an arm from my attacker’s grip and forced him face down on the ground and held him there.

  “I could have sworn you said something about me being weaker than you,” I mocked. Cain laughed, but in more of a harsh mocking way rather than a light hearted one. The woman laughed too and walked over to us.

  “Impressive,” she congratulated me, and then looked at Vaze. “You really are the same. Release him, Cain.”

  Vaze’s attacker did as he was told and removed his hood. He looked the same age as Vaze. His eyes were a deep dark blue, and he had dark brown hair similar to mine. Vaze got up and brushed off his clothes, not looking the least bit embarrassed. I didn’t release the boy who attacked me—I wanted to make a point.

  “Scarlet, let him go,” Vaze said after about five minutes of waiting. I rolled my eyes and released him. The boy got up and took off his hood. He looked exactly like the other boy, except his hair went over his eyes and his cheeks were flushed red. He muttered a ‘thank-you’ and wou
ldn’t look me in the eye after that.

  “You sure took your time coming back, Vaze,” Cain sneered. I soon could identify him from Ed by the look in his eyes, cockiness and a sense that he thought he could do anything. And he was a jerk. Kyra cuffed him by the ear like a scolding parent. It shut him up, and I decided even though she had told these boys to attack us, I liked her.

  “Be respectful Cain, or you’re never going to be a general,” she snapped. “Vaze can explain when he’s good and ready, and both he and his friend are probably exhausted and starving. Vaze get in the cart with the girl, Cain and Ed do the same.”

  We did as we were told and Kyra mounted the horse. We did our best not to sit on any of my brothers, whom were still sleeping. Vaze and squeezed in on one end of the cart while Cain and Ed squeezed in on the other side. I relaxed a bit once I got into a comfortable position, but as I looked around, I saw that the others who were awake were grasping tight onto the sides of the cart. I was about to ask why, but I found out myself—too late.

  “YA!” Kyra cried, and the horse whined as it reared up on its hind legs. Before I could grab on to the cart for dear life, we were racing down the dirt road at frightening speeds and was thrown against a wall. As quickly as I could, I latched on to the side so tight that I knew if I fell off the cart I was taking that wall with me. My brothers each hit a wall and jolted awake, but I was too busy holding on for dear life to fill them in. The horrifying ride lasted around ten minutes, and ended when the cart violently jerked to a stop, making me lose my grip and hitting the front wall and Vaze in the gut with my head.

  We each got out of the cart, with me rubbing my head and my brothers staring around with wide eyes. Cain and Ed acted like it was completely normal, and Vaze was struggling to get a breath after I knocked the wind out of him. Kyra jumped off the horse smiling.

  “I must admit,” she said. “Even if that horse is horribly slow, he sure can keep a steady pace, even when lugging a cart full of children.” I took my first look around and saw…nothing. There was literally nothing around in the clearing cut in the forest.

  “Are we in the right place?” I asked, searching for the camp. Kyra laughed.

  “So young, and so naïve,” she said as she led me off the road into the grassy clearing.

  “Is the camp in the forest?”

  Kyra laughed at me again.

  “Just walk forward, my amusing new friend,” she said cheerfully. I looked at her skeptically, but did as she said. I walked forward, and had the strangest experience in my entire life. My vision rippled like water, and as I took a step forward, a completely new sight greeted me. I blinked in surprise. I rubbed my eyes for good measure, to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. Where the empty clearing and forest behind it had once been was a war camp the size of Laetus.

  Chapter Eight

  As I stared wide eyed at the camp that appeared from nowhere, Vaze stepped out of the invisible liquid wall that hid the camp, followed by Cain, Ed, my very confused big brothers, and eventually Kyra. People who passed by stared at Vaze, but looked away quickly, not giving the rest of us a second glance, except for Kyra. Everywhere I looked, people were busy. Some people were training, while others were making weapons, cooking, or doing chores. Even the children I saw were doing things that looked important. A little toddler doing target practice with a bow bigger than he was! My brothers were all observing with the same disbelief as I was. We only realized it when Kyra pointed it out.

  “Shut your mouths children or finches are going to fly into your bodies and make nests,” she said, and while most of us laughed, Al shut his mouth tight. Kyra led us through a maze of large tents, and I began to see things that made the camp even stranger. Women with faintly greenish skin and pointed ears passed by every so often, and they gave me and my brothers awkward glances as we gaped at them. I don’t blame them. We were the only ones doing it.

  “They’re nymphs, in case you were wondering,” Vaze said. I think he was starting to feel self-conscious leading around five dumbstruck idiots.

  “What other make-believe creatures do you have here?” Seth asked sarcastically. It was times like those where I could hit my brother, but I was too busy with being awestruck to do so.

  “Those nymphs seem to be all that is left, but we used to have quite a few actually,” Vaze replied. I wasn’t sure if he caught the sarcasm. “There were dryads, ogres, centaurs, Eternals, trolls, elves, griffins, and I think there were even some water nymphs left in the creek a little ways off.” Seth shook his head in disbelief. His mind had trouble believing things like that. He didn’t ask any more sarcastic questions.

  Soon we were standing in front of a tent that was ten times the size of the others. It was a deep purple with a golden accent. Kyra stepped through the flaps and motioned for us to follow. Vaze went first a little reluctantly and we all followed behind him.

  A small fire was burning in the middle of the roomy tent. Two old but strong men towered over a table with little figurines on it arguing quietly. A large hammock was hanging from the bowels that held the tent together, but it didn’t look as if it had been used in a while. Kyra approached the men fearlessly, but respectfully.

  “Excuse me, your majesty,” she said in a strong voice. The man with salt and pepper hair turned to look at her with his tired blue eyes.

  “What is it, Kyra?” he asked. His voice sounded exhausted. Stress had taken its toll on this old man, and it was written on his face. He completely ignored the ‘your majesty’ title that had been given to him, and addressed Kyra rather casually.

  “There is someone you need to see,” She said. She half guided and half dragged Vaze over to the king. The king’s glassy blue eyes widened as they met Vaze’s.

  “It can’t be…” The old man whispered. He walked closer to Vaze and touched his face hesitantly as if Vaze would disappear. A slight tenderness filled the king’s features, accompanied by overwhelming joy. Suddenly he threw his arms around Vaze and hugged his son so tightly that I thought Vaze would start choking.

  “It is my son!” he said joyfully. The other man by the table smiled, but still seemed to be more concerned about the table, eyeing the figurines every few moments. “Where have you been Vaze?”

  “It’s a long story,” Vaze said while his father released him. “But I need to make sure my friends are taken care of first.” The king looked to us and nodded.

  “Kyra, please find tents for each of them and see that they are properly fed,” He said to her. Kyra nodded and led us back outside again, leaving Vaze with his father.

  “Cain, find the boys a tent they can share, and Ed, you can leave,” she ordered. Cain took my brothers away and Ed wandered off, leaving me alone with Kyra. “You can share my tent with me, since saving space is a big priority. Maybe you can tell me a little bit about what happened.”

  Kyra led me to the outermost tent in the camp. Like the king’s tent, it was larger than the normal ones, but not as big as the king’s had been. It was a flamboyant ruby red, but with no accents or highlights, making it somewhat dull. The golden brown woman held the flap open for me, and I entered. It wasn’t very flashy; it had a hammock, a makeshift wardrobe (that through the slightly opened door weapons could be seen piled on top of each other), a table with a few chairs, and a small pit in the center for fires. Kyra took some dried wood from a corner and placed it in the pit. It didn’t take long for her to light it, and soon enough we were sitting around an open fire.

  “So let’s start with names,” she said while tossing off her cloak into a corner. I followed her example and took off my over coat, but found that my once feathery silk shirt was stained with dried blood. It was a shame, but nothing I’ve had in my possession stayed nice for long.

  “As you know, I’m Kyra, and I train any children I find with a special talent for fighting. Don’t worry, I always ask for parent permission first, so you can drop that horrified look.”

  “My name is Scarlet,” I said while huddling as
close to the fire as possible. I hadn’t noticed how freezing I was until I came close to heat.

  “Nice to meet you Scarlet,” Kyra said while shuffling through her wardrobe, which I saw doubled as a pantry. “Are you hungry?” I didn’t have to answer, as my stomach let out loud groan that resembled a growling lion. Kyra laughed and pulled some dried meat from the pantry. She tossed half to me and sat back down by the fire.

  “So Scar, how’d you meet Vaze?” She asked with a mouthful of meat. “You don’t mind if I call you that do you?” I shook my head. My brothers used to call me by the same name when I was little.

  “I tackled him, because I thought he was my brother,” I said as I nibbled on my piece of dried meat. It was a little salty but good. Kyra laughed at my statement—it was pretty funny now that I thought about it.

  “It happens to the best of us,” Kyra said with a joking smile. “Why did he bring you and your friends here?”

  “He said something about Velkire wanting to kill me after we got attacked by the Shadows and Enzio,” I said, hating to remember the horrifying man who would torment my dreams if I ever had normal ones. Kyra’s smile faded.

  “So Enzio is still alive even after the attack from Aaron, huh?” she said to herself.

  “What?” I asked confused.

  “Nothing,” she said quickly. “So why does Velkire want you dead? You look like a normal girl to me, even if you could counter one of my best students.”

  “I’m not all that normal,” I said. I began to tell her all that had happened, from when Al and I were playing our game at home to when we had seen her on the road. At first, I left out the dreams I had, but eventually, I told her about those too. She listened to everything I had to say, and only interrupted when she needed me to explain something. When I finished, golden light began to leak through the top of the tent that let smoke escape.