Chapter 17

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 17

Sates were on the ground, heavily bleeding from his shoulder. Santuric had leant over him and started mending him with healing Fyre; he was going to recover well enough. I was standing up where I had landed; staring across these African plains we had arrived at. Those eyes… Those deep blue eyes… Who was that girl? My line of thoughts was broken as Santuric laid a hand on my shoulder. “Come on.” He said quietly “We need to get to safety.“ Sates now mended but with a heavy scar below his right shoulder blade, we followed Santuric down a gravel road. At first I had no idea where we were, too many thoughts in my head to think about it, but I soon recognized the old road I used to jog on when I was still training with Santuric.

Sates gasped and grabbed his shoulder. “You’re going to be fine” Santuric said “But there are inevitably splinters of Yce embedded.” Sates looked scared at Santuric. “But… How will that affect me?” “I don’t really know, not many people have survived an Yce attack, but ask Zentharim when we find her, she’s all about studying the Yce.” We kept walking and soon saw the familiar sight of The Hut. And outside of it, standing in a circle was the three council members. They had their arms raised towards a common spot right above the house, and soon a fine flow of liquefied Fyre flowed from their hands. This flowed outwards on its own and formed a small dome around The Hut. This was one of the techniques I had leaned lately; it was a protective barrier that repelled all other than people of The Fyre. Firr was nearest to us, and so turned towards us in greeting.

His face was as inquisitive as I remembered him from last, but he still looked somewhat worried. “Obviously” I thought to myself. “What’s the status?” he asked Santuric. “We’ve lost practically every apprentice we had, except for those who were not in the headquarters. Sates here was wounded, I think Zentharim might want to have a look at him.” Zentharim, having heard her name, came over and lead Sates into a chair inside. “The Chosen is unharmed.” He continued. Firr looked at me. “Good…” he said. “I will need to talk to you my boy. Follow me please.” I followed Firr while Santuric went in to check on Sates. We passed Shaw who grunted and said “I’m surprised that you haven’t gotten yourself killed yet kiddo! In fact…” but Firr cut him off with a single glance. Shaw hurried to the front side of the house.

We sat in the outer rim of the dome, about two meters from The Hut. “How are you doing?” he asked. “I’m doing alright counting out that my entire life was taken away from me, I’ve been close to death several times, almost all the people I’ve just gotten to know are now dead and on top of that, I don’t even know yet why it was me!” After being relatively calm while we fled, all the emotions now broke through. I looked sternly into Firr’s calm eyes, breathing heavily. “Why is it me? I know I am ‘the chosen’ that exceeds everyone’s talent, but just… Why me? Wouldn’t it have been better with someone who was already into the whole situation, someone who was already trained in Fyre?” Firr’s eyes sparkled. “No” he said “It couldn’t have been anyone else, by fate. You will have to figure out yourself, but that will come in time. Follow your instincts, and it will come.” Firr’s words got me quiet for a while, so we went into The Hut.



No one talked for a while whilst Santuric fyre’d us some breakfast and Firr sent out warning fyreballs to anyone out there still alive. After an hour, a few more people arrived. Three long-time apprentices called Shirr, Sang and Trish. They had been at a mission in Norway, and had returned here when they’d gotten the fyreball. They had the situation explained and then sat down with us. Zentharim was then all over them, checking for injuries and the like. “Please ma’am, we’re not injured, we can take care of ourselves” Sang said. “Sure you can my boy, I am just curious if you have any new marks to show after being up in the mountains for half a month.” “We wouldn’t have. We had to abort just now and never attempted to infiltrate their outpost.” Trish said. “How much did you lea…” Shaw said, but was cut off by the sound of something heavily steaming, like water poured right onto hot embers, coming from the outside. We all ran outside to look, except for Sates who had had grabbed his shoulder again.

There was Deff, standing outside of the dome, covered in a fine layer of Yce. He had apparently tried to cross the barrier, but was rejected. “What happened to you?” Santuric asked startled. “I… I was h-h-hiding in th-the b-base” he whispered between his clattering teeth. “Well, come inside dear!” Zentharim said and lifted a part of the dome so Deff could enter. Zentharim got him to sit on a chair, and started heating him with concentrating Fyre in her palms. We all sat inside and Firr sat across from Deff. “Tell me what happened” he said. Deff was now heated enough to speak. “I had gotten up early, to get ahead. But when I heard the attack, I hid in this tiny room, a supply closet or something, from the attackers. They began Ycing the entire place, and when some of those minions found and started to freeze me, I only just barely escaped!” Firr looked deeply into his eyes. “Is that the truth?” Deff hesitated for a long second before answering. “Yeah, it is! What was it that happened Firr?” “The Yce attacked, killed almost everyone and took the Orb.” Deff raised a hand before his mouth, saying a silent swear. “I do not know of anyone who would be alive still” Firr said to the crowd “So we will have to rest for a few days and try to make this a safer outpost. Then we will need a party to go out and learn what they can of the location of the Orb. It is VITAL that we obtain it again, or we be unable to channel the Fyre as well as usual!”

Those who could spend the rest of the day setting a perimeter and repairing The Hut and I got to know Shirr, Sang and Trish better. They were in their thirties, and had been stationed in Norway for some time to attempt an assault on an Yce outpost. They had almost been ready to attempt it when they now had to abort. That mission would also have had graduated them from apprentice level to Fyre User level. We got sensors put up within a two kilometer radius and made fixes to The Hut to repair the damage to it. I chuckled when I saw that hole in the wall I had made being fixed. Santuric, the one living person who knew this place the best showed us an underground room that was kept secret for newcomers. It contained several beds, a fairly good Vulkanadon supply (Although we all had out Vulkanadon cloaks with us) and basic shelter. We bunked there for the night, Sates’ shoulder kept hurting throughout the night.

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Original post: http://www.fyreball.com/d/AdE7k6

Sorry for the big delay. There prolly wont be any chapters next week due to exams, so sorry readers.

Enjoy

- Ting