Playing With Fire

by Jordan Mendez

  “I personally think that was a very nice attempt,” she said truthfully.

  “You were eavesdropping?” he asked in an emotionless tone, yet venom leaked from his voice slightly. Kyra shrugged, and Ed and Scarlet’s brothers walked in with a hint of guilt. “Does the word ‘alone’ mean anything anymore?”

  “It was his idea,” Kyra said while pointing jokingly to an innocent Ed. He shook his head frantically, but didn’t dare to point out it had been Kyra’s idea. “Besides, you were alone. We were just standing at a close-‘ish’ distance outside listening.” Vaze rolled his eyes and covered his face with his hands. Darren walked over to him while shaking his head and smiling. He sat down next to him and laughed.

  “Dude, you are such a beginner!” Darren laughed, and Vaze looked at him. “First, you don’t kiss the girl. You let the girl kiss you! And you shouldn’t go and give the girl some honest crap like you did, you butter her up until she kisses you! Just lie, like tell her she’s beautiful or some crap like that.”

  “But if I told her she was beautiful it wouldn’t be a lie,” Vaze replied, and Darren laughed until tears came out of his eyes.

  “Dude, Scarlet’s gone, you can drop the act,” he said while rubbing the tears from his eyes. Vaze only stared at him, and Kyra kicked him square in the crotch.

  “Thanks,” Vaze said to Kyra as Darren fell to the ground in pain.

  “No problem, I would have done it even if you didn’t want to,” she replied.

  “Vaze, don’t feel bad about it,” Al said. Vaze was shocked. The look Al gave him told him that he could see right through his barrier. “If Scarlet didn’t hit you it probably means she doesn’t hate you. She can get over anything, even though she doesn’t seem like that, so just give her time. Who knows, she might even forget you kissed her.” Vaze sighed.

  “Alright,” he said, but he felt like saying the complete opposite. Once again, Al saw through this. He looked up to Vaze quite a bit, so to see him so depressed made Al feel depressed as well.

  “As I said, if she didn’t hit you it probably means she doesn’t hate you, so maybe that means there is a small chance she does feel the same,” Al paused for a second. “A very small one.” Vaze sighed again and shut his eyes.

  “Can I please be alone?” he asked in a dead tone. Kyra nodded and corralled Scarlet’s brothers and Ed out of the room, dragging the thick headed Darren out by the back of his shirt.

  “Sleep well Vaze,” Kyra said as she poured water onto the fire. Kyra left, leaving Vaze alone in the darkness with only the hole in the top of the tent to let light in. Vaze stared up at the starry night sky through the small hole. Smoke drifted from the extinguished fire. He was angry with himself, but his heart fluttered with happiness. Not only had he kissed the girl he loved, he had also been able to tell someone how he really felt, for the first time in his life. Someone had finally gotten into his world after the five years that he had closed it off.

  “Now I guess I’m not alone anymore,” Vaze said softly. Despite being borderline rejected, he was happy. After hours of waiting, he was taken into sleep’s loving hand.

  I woke up a really crappy way. For the first part, I was sore all over from sleeping on the ground, and extremely cold from sleeping by water, which unfortunately made mist in the morning. And on top of that, I was attacked and thrown into the pond. Not my best wake up call.

  I was minding my own business sleeping, when all of the sudden, BAM! Somebody tackled me into the pond. I woke up when the icy water touched my skin, causing me to panic. I was never a good swimmer, and at the moment, I probably looked like a joke. I was splashing and spluttering like a drowning cat. I only stopped when I realized the water was just up to my knees. Up on dry land, my attacker stared at me with intense, angry brown eyes. I crawled back on shore coughing up water.

  “What the heck!” I screamed at them, and looked up to find the wolf girl, Yuki, staring back at me with the same amount of anger I had. “Why’d you do that?”

  “You stole my fight!” she yelled at me as I stood up shivering. “I was doing just fine at fighting my sister until you budded in!”

  “You call passed out ‘doing just fine’?” I argued. “If it weren’t for me, you’d be dead right now!” Yuki glared at me with her hateful eyes. She threw a fist at me, but I grabbed it before it hit me.

  “You don’t get it!” she said suddenly with tears. “That witch killed my entire family, and then she killed my baby brother Elijah. He was just a baby! You have everyone in this camp, and I have no one! I wanted to die! If I killed her, I would have gone and killed myself. By killing her and saving me, you gave me a punishment worse than death! You’ve condemned me to a life alone!”

  I blinked in surprise as Yuki fell to her knees in tears. I had no idea how to comfort her, but I knew I had to. This girl was broken. Everything she loved had been ripped away from her. I sat down next to her and awkwardly patted her on the back.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, and regretted I couldn’t come up with anything more comforting. “I know how it feels like to feel alone.” Yuki looked at me with tear filled eyes and sniffled.

  “Yeah right,” she growled while wiping away her tears. “You have everything, family, friends and somewhere to live.” I laughed.

  “In reality, I’m an orphan,” I said, actually realizing it for once. “My brothers aren’t really my brothers, and I used to live in a broken down warehouse before I came here. At least you knew your parents.” Yuki looked at me in confusion.

  “I thought that lady was your mom,” she said, and I laughed again while shaking my head.

  “If anything, Kyra’s my mentor,” I said and Yuki began to sniffle less and listen more. “She’s been forcing me to learn how to fight since I got here.”

  “Then where did you come from?” Yuki asked, making me tell my entire story again. I was starting to think I should just learn to write (if I ever bothered to) just to record it and tell anyone who asked about my past to read it.

  Yuki didn’t ask questions, and she didn’t interrupt. She sat quietly and listened, hardly moving other than to breathe. When I finished I sighed. I was starting to get tired of telling it orally.

  “How did you manage knowing you had no true family?” Yuki asked when I finished. It was an easy enough question to answer.

  “I have my brothers,” I said. “We take care of each other, and that’s all we need.”

  “But aren’t you upset you don’t have parents?” she asked. For some reason, I felt a small pang of pain in my brain, but I haven’t felt it since I let go of all the childish dreams I used to have.

  “I don’t need them,” was my plain response, but I couldn’t shake the feeling. It was the same feeling I had when I was little and saw other kids when I walked the streets of Laetus at night. Little children rushed to greet their father when he came home, and their loving mother put them to bed at night. Jake used to put me to bed at night too when I was little, but as I grew older, I refused it. I used to be jealous of the other kids who had parents. But I wasn’t like them. I didn’t need them. I didn’t want them. Yuki didn’t say anything for a while, and it started to get awkward.

  “So, why are you here?” I said trying to break the silence. “You were knocked out in the medical tent last time I saw you.”

  “I didn’t know where to go,” Yuki said distantly. “When I woke up, I freaked out. I didn’t know where I was, so I ran. I got lost when I ran into this forest, and then I saw you sleeping. I remembered you, and remembered what happened.”

  “You know, you didn’t have to tackle me into a freezing cold pond,” I pointed out while drying myself with fire. “You could have talked about it like a normal person.” Of course my words did not apply to myself. I noticed the irony thank you very much.

  I stood up and looked around. I didn’t know how far I ran, but I was lost too. It suddenly dawned on me that running away aimlessly into the forest wasn’t the best idea.

  “D
o you remember which way you came from?” I asked, trying to find some land mark to find where we were. Yuki shook her head. I sighed. I had no idea if the barrier that protected the camp went around the whole forest, and it would be very bad if it didn’t. Inside the barrier, we were safe. But outside of it, we were like sitting ducks.

  “Well, you might as well help us get back to camp,” I said. “Can’t you sniff out the camp or something?”

  “That’s racist!” Yuki spat. “I’m half Blood Wolf not blood hound! Just because I can turn into a wolf doesn’t mean I’ll submit to the same wild instincts of one!”

  “Sheesh, sorry I asked,” I said back. I looked around and picked a random direction. Since little miss sensitive wouldn’t even try to sniff out the camp, we followed my horrible sense of direction. We walked until the sun was at its peak in the sky, and Yuki collapsed from exhaustion.

  “Break,” she said between gasps. “Please.” I was tired too, so I nodded in agreement. I leaned on a tree putting a hand on my chest. My pulse was racing, but not just because I was tired. Something wasn’t right, despite everything looking completely fine. I couldn’t shake the feeling that we shouldn’t be there.

  “Can’t you send up a flare with your fire?” Yuki asked breathlessly. I thought about it for a second. It wasn’t a bad idea. My palm caught on fire and I tossed it into the air. The fire acted like a solid object as it rose higher and higher. Kyra had made me train myself to make my fire take forms, everything from a simple ball of fire to a blade. The fire blade technique was incredible, but unstable. It was the only time I had ever had trouble controlling fire. I had only used it once, to kill the She-wolf, but I had used the dagger already in her chest as an access point so it wouldn’t blow up like it did when I made the blade entirely out of fire. But a simple ball of fire was easy to control.

  The small flaming ball rose higher and higher into the air, until it was above the trees. Once it was burning in the sky alongside the sun, it exploded into an array of flames, dancing in the sky. Its light outmatched the sun. It was so bright, the whole camp must have noticed. Unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones who noticed.

  An ear shattering screech rang through the air and Yuki and I threw our hands over our ears. I was too shocked to react. Before I could scream at Yuki to run, we were ambushed by Shadows. The Shadows looked even more horrible in the sunlight. Foam frothed from their mouths, as if they were rabid. They hissed and growled at us. Yuki and I scrambled to each other until we were back to back. The Shadows stalked closer. My mind was racing and I really wished I had the ability to count so I would know how many we were up against. There weren’t too many, but they were different from the other Shadows I had fought. They were more eager, and more bloodthirsty. I felt fur on my back as Yuki changed, and she growled back at the Shadows.

  “What are they?” Yuki growled in her wolf voice. A Shadow lurched toward her, but she swiped it with her claws, sending it shrieking in pain back into the crowd of Shadows. Deep raspy cackling reached my ears as a dark figure drifted into view. My heart almost stopped.

  “Not good,” I squeaked as Enzio walked into view with a smug look in his eyes. He was exactly the same as I last saw him. His face was wrapped up in shreds of red cloth all except for his eyes, and his raven black hair still reached his shoulders. His blood red eyes were trained on me.

  “Look how big you’ve gotten!” Enzio said chuckling. “You killed a She-wolf with a technique only your mother could perfect. I must congratulate you. You’ve really managed to be a pest to Velkire and I. Running to that little camp protected by that witch Gale was a nice attempt to prolong your miserable life. I would have gone after you when you went on that mission, but Velkire insisted to let the She-wolf have you. I knew she would fail, but Velkire allowed it any way. I couldn’t come after you when you were within the barrier, but now that you have stumbled out of its protection, I can take care of you.” My hand drifted to my dagger hilts, only to find I didn’t have any more. I cursed and flicked my hands. Fire laced my fingers and made a perfect match to my palms. Enzio laughed again.

  “You’re so foolish,” he said, getting closer. “You think you can beat me just because you learned some new tricks? You are sorely mistaken.” Enzio put one hand in front of him, and immediately, metal claws whipped out from the fingers. I tried my best not to show fear, but Enzio didn’t fall for it.

  “You ready for a fight, Yuki?” I asked hesitantly, not turning to face her. She growled in response. She crouched low to the ground, daring any psychotic Shadow to attack her. Enzio laughed.

  “You’ve picked up quite the pet, Scarlet,” he mocked, and the hairs on Yuki’s back stood up in anger. She whipped around and snarled at him, teeth bared and ears practically pasted onto her head. It was exactly what he wanted. A Shadow pounced on her, biting her tail. Yuki yelped and slashed its throat open with her claws. It fell off of her, screeching in pain as it bled to death. Other Shadows began to close in, forcing Yuki and I to get as close as possible back to back.

  “Kill them,” Enzio said, and Shadows raced at us. A Shadow was about to slash me with its claws, and I had no room to dodge. I waited for the pain, knowing I could still fight after it, but it never came. A flash of silver and gold whipped by me, and the Shadow fell dead. Before I could even blink, half the Shadows were dead. A second later the rest were either drowning in their blood or drowning in other’s. Enzio looked around in confusion. Yuki and I were dumbstruck. Suddenly, a small girl holding a bloody sword appeared between Enzio and me.

  “You!” Enzio said in disbelief. “You should be dead!”

  The little girl stabbed her sword into the ground. “Kasclle!” Suddenly the ground opened up under Enzio’s feet and before he could react, he was swallowed by the earth. The little girl grabbed her sword from the ground and snatched my hand.

  “You must come with me now,” she said calmly, but rushed. I didn’t argue. The small girl dragged Yuki and me along as she raced through the forest. What really shocked me was how old she seemed. She only looked like she was seven or eight, yet she single handedly defeated a bunch of Shadows and subdued Enzio. She wore a grey bandana over her head, covering one eye. Her golden curly hair was short, above her shoulders but slightly beneath her chin. Her shirt was cut at the sleeves, and hung loosely over her dark green pants that stopped above her small ankles. She was a lot shorter and younger than I was, but she acted like an adult.

  “Where are we going?” Yuki asked, once again human and trying to keep up. The girl ignored her and kept running with her sword sheath bouncing on her back as her feet hit the ground. A familiar hut drifted into sight like smoke. Yuki gasped, and the little girl dragged us inside. The girl stopped us at the entrance and disappeared into the maze of string.

  “What is this place?” Yuki asked looking around.

  “This is the home of the psychopath, Madam Gale,” I responded.

  “I heard that!” The crabby little blind woman was being escorted by the little girl out of one of the far off bedrooms. I threw my arms up over my head to protect from an oncoming smack, but it never came. I looked back at her in confusion. The little woman had sat down at the table with a solemn look on her face. “Come here child, there is much to tell you, but we have little time.” I hesitantly made my way to the table, forcing Yuki in front of me as a shield. I took a seat, farthest away from Madam Gale, and relaxed a bit. Yuki sat next to me, not knowing what was going on at all.

  “Do you remember that little rock you had the day you first came here, Scarlet?” Madam Gale asked. I nodded.

  “You said it was junk,” I said, and the little girl crossed her arms over her chest, offended. Madam Gale chuckled, even though nothing about the situation was funny.

  “At the time it was,” she said focusing on nothing. “But it was not completely useless. Do you remember that squirrel I had whenever you came? That was your little rock that you had left with me, and finally that little squirrel had become i
ts true form. Your Guardian has been awakened once again.” It took me a while to actually process that.

  “My Guardian’s a squirrel?” I repeated in disbelief. This had to be some cruel joke. A small bare foot came flying at my face, catching my cheek and sending me flying back into a hard cold unforgiving wall. The little blonde girl stared down at me with her angry purple eye.

  “You’re an idiot Scarlet!” the little girl fumed. “Madam Gale said it changed into its true form! That means it isn’t a squirrel anymore!”

  “Okay, you don’t have to kick me in the freaking face!” I rubbed my sore cheek and looked up at the small girl. She was really angry. “So if my Guardian is back to normal where is she?” The girl face palmed her forehead.

  “You’re so dense!” she fumed. “I’m your Guardian!” I stopped trying to get up and looked up at her in disbelief. After a few minutes I reacted. I started laughing my butt off.

  “That’s funny, kid!” I laughed through tears. “You really think I’ll believe that?” I started rolling around on the ground clutching my aching sides. It hurt, but I couldn’t stop laughing. Madam Gale shook her head and Yuki shifted uncomfortably.

  “Scarlet,” Madam Gale groaned. “This is Siren, your Guardian,” I laughed even harder.

  “You’re in on this too?” I managed to say between howling laughter. “I didn’t know you were even capable of pulling pranks!” Madam Gale sighed and shook her head.

  “Scarlet, I don’t think they’re kidding,” Yuki said nudging me. I sat up giggling, trying to recover from my laugh attack.

  “Oh please,” I said while rubbing tears from my eyes. “You really believe them? It’s total crap.” I looked at Madam Gale and the girl with a smile on my face, only to get dead serious stares back. Slowly, my smile faded.

  “You’re not serious are you?” I asked hesitantly.

  “Honestly, I wish I wasn’t,” Madam Gale said. “I could not return Siren to her full power in the little time we had, and as an animal she would be utterly useless. I could only make her take human form again, though I could not make her in her adult form.”