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.

_____

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

Chapter 16

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 16

Sup Walema cursed to herself. That bastard Santuric had gotten away again, like he did back in April when she was attacking that new entity. But now, a vital thing had changed. She now had the Fyre Orb, and whatever little trouble they had had with those Fyre morons would soon be gone. It was just a matter of finding and eliminating those last stragglers now. And that guy, Firr too obviously, but that was an entirely different problem. They had found their headquarters, obviously easier with the help they’ve got but they still managed to kill almost all of them without resistance. Sup looked around. This place was now completely encrusted in Yce. She walked down the empty hallway. Her minions had already searched and cleared this place; no one was left and the important writings in the study had been burned, so Sup conjured a power core to keep the minions activated and able to keep this place, and then Yce’d out, enveloping herself in fog and then disappeared.

She reappeared at their lair, the frozen tower. Located somewhere on the mainland ice of Greenland, this place lay well hidden from the rest of the world and kept a constant cool. The layout of the tower was so that the lowest ranking was at the bottom and then it worked up till the frozen throne in the top where The Master ruled from. Sup was a higher ranking general because of her many deeds. She walked in through the main door. She entered a grandiose hall with two curved staircases leading one level up and some doors on the walls. One of these doors led to the living quarters, the place where new people were born, raised and indeed forced to serve the Yce. This technique did not create as focused members as Fyre, but it created a lot, and with every cannon-fodder soldier that completed basic training, who were each as strong as the basic Fyre apprentice because of the rise in Yce these later years, the Yce got even closer to dominating the contrast.

She walked up the stairs, into the central hallway where the barracks for soldiers were and up the central spiral staircase. The tower had eight levels, excluding the basement. There was the first floor, entrance with access to the breeder basement, second floor with the barracks for trained soldiers and the base of the stairs, third floor with training facilities, fourth floor with the offices for squad leaders, fifth floor for the lieutenants, sixth floor for the generals such as Sup, seventh floor for the scholars and the eighth top floor for The Master on the frozen throne. Sup reached the top floor and approached The Master.



Sup slowly walked up beneath his throne and kneeled. “Master, I have brought you the Orb of Fyre.” The Master looked like a statue, carved out of the Yce in the throne. He was completely grey, had a long beard with icicles in it but with, when he opened his eyelids with a loud cracking noise, like an ice flake breaking, you could see his bright blue eyes. “Let me see child” he slowly said. Sup reached for her Yce gloves so she could touch the Orb. When she had first seen it, she had tried to grab it and gotten a nasty burn. But these gloves shielded her from it. She Yce’d a pedestal of fog, took the Orb out from the makeshift bag she had created from the flexible material her suit was made of and placed the Orb there. The Master let out a sound like an iceberg shifting, piercing the Orb with his eyes. “You have done well child. This may teach me many things, but I will need time. I trust you have also taken care of their apprentices?” Sup nodded. Looking as pleased as a rock could look, he waved his hand and said “You may go.” Sup bowed, backed out and went down the stairs to her quarters.

Her room, like every other persons room here, was very modest. The only noteworthy things here was a desk, bookshelf and higher quality bed, but otherwise very modest. Sup lay on her cold bed, rested her back from carrying the heavy Orb. Her suit, made of a navy blue material called Mistsatsu, retracted to the form of a belt. Your skin did not breathe well underneath the dense material, so she had to retract it once in a while. Mistsatsu, when activated by the wearer, acted somewhat like water, but could be molded into basically anything. From weapons to shields or to simply grab or punch a close range foe. Only higher members were granted Mistsatsu. It took a long time to extract it from the deep Yce, a long way beneath the surface of Greenland and was therefore very valuable.

Sup rested her eyes. She zoned out her mind, though of nothing, let the cold fill her. An image appeared, a memory, the earliest she knew, around fourteen years ago, when she was fourteen. It was when she had met The Master for the first time; he had had a hand on her head. The first time she could remember the chilling touch of Yce. Before that, there was nothing, as if she had been created at that moment. She had pondered it much the last years, but she had not remembered anything, and so came to serve the only purpose she knew of, serving The Master, fighting for the Yce.

Meanwhile, three figures appeared in a flash of Fyre in an African field. One of them fell to his knees, clutching his shoulders, with the largest one kneeling and tending him, but one of them just stood there, staring into space, unable to forget those blue eyes.

_____

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

So, now I'm just waiting for someone to comment on what that white stuff is... Lolwecs...

Anyways, hope you enjoyed learning more on this new character Sup Walema... And don't comment her name, I KNOW! It is an important part of my fiction, even before I got to know of the expression 'sup!

Savvy?

- Ting

Chapter 15

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 15

“Come on, let’s find an empty place” Sates said. We walked into the hallway and found the Dojo to be empty, almost empty at least. Deff was sitting in the corner, reading a fyreball. When he saw us coming in, he quickly rose, hid the fyreball and stormed past us out of the dojo. “Hey, what’s u…?” Sates said, but Deff bumped into him which cut him off. “What was that about?” I said. Sates looked after Deff for a second. “I don’t know. He’s been gone most of the time lately. Well, let’s get you taught.” We went to the middle of the room and sat.

“You see” Sates said “Vulkanadon is a concentrated form of Fyre extracted from Vuulk, that volcano just outside. You must extend the Fyre inside of you; become one with the Vulkanadon, and then… Create.” The Vulkanadon from Sates’ sleeve seemed to come alive and form a pair of handcuffs. “Could be useful eh?” he said and winked. We went over the basics for a while. Most of it was much like the basic meditating I had done with Santuric, only that this had to be done faster for combat practicalities. I soon learned to create minor items, but Sates seemed to be impressed by the speed at which I learned. So was Shaw the next day, he stopped for a full second when I conjured a handful of perfectly balanced throwing-knives.

So went the next two months. Days continued on with most of the same routine. I learned quickly in both martial arts from Shaw as well as achieving a focused mind with the help of Zentharim. Firr rarely appeared, he probably had a lot to attend to, and Santuric was often gone too. Since Sates had been here longer, he had the lead in skills for some time, but I quickly caught up to him and even got better than him. It didn’t seem to bother him that much; he had accepted that I was ‘the chosen’ although even I didn’t quite know what that meant yet, other than I seemed to learn faster than anyone else.

On October the 1st I woke early. 5:10 the clock said. I didn’t know what had made me wake, but something seemed… Different. I threw off my thin blanket and stood out of my bed, but where I had previously been used to just stand in my underwear no problem, I was now freezing. I grabbed some clothes and looked around. Sates were sleeping silently next to me, so was all the others, but Deff was nowhere to be seen. I shook Sates. “Something is wrong” I said. He got up too. “Whew, isn’t it colder?” He said. “I don’t know. Let’s go get something to eat, maybe Zentharim will explain later.” So we donned our cloaks and went into the hallway.

As we started to walk down the silent hallway, deserted because of the early hours, we heard a loud noise from the dorm. It sounded like a wall falling followed by the sound of something crystallizing. We ran back to the dorm only to find half of it, including our beds, to be covered in Yce and the far wall to have been toppled. From the gap in the wall and out into the plains of Vuulk, a layer of Yce covered the ground and a horde of those Yce minions advanced on us, and in front of them walked a tall figure, a very pale woman looking to be in her late twenties, with blue hair and donning a tight, blue full body suit. She pointed and the minions advanced at us.



The others who had not been frozen at first had already gotten up and running, but half of them were quickly felled. Some fell twitching with a huge spike in the back, some stood frozen in place, trapped in a block of Yce and the rest, those closest to the door, just got out. Before we could react to all this, a cascade of spikes flew towards us. Then my instinct kicked in. A shield of Vulkanadon formed in front of me which repelled the spikes. Sates did the same but as we ran out, he caught one in his left arm.

“What should we do?” He moaned. “Let’s get the hell out!” I answered but as we tried to fyre away, the approaching cold prohibited us from doing so. “Damn!” Sates said. “Uuh… Come on, we’ve got to find the council then!” We ran up the hallway, but someone pulled us into the study. “Ssh!” said the person I now recognized to be Santuric. “The council is gone and safe, just wait.” He whispered. We waited as the sound of Yce forming in the hallway passed and the screams of those who had no Vulkanadon to protect them came and passed.

After a while, the noises passed and an eerie silence fell. And then, amidst the already creeping cold, it was as if some part of my mind disappeared. “It was as I feared then” Santuric said “They’ve taken the Fyre Orb.” Footsteps broke the silence in the hallway. “Come on, we’ve got to go!” Santuric placed his hands on both our shoulders and Fyre started to envelop us. The last thing I saw was the blue haired girl breaking the door open. Our eyes met for a brief second, mine red, hers blue. A smile cracked across her face, and then we were gone.

_____

Original post: http://www.fyreball.com/d/BBuw8N

Again, I'm sorry this was delayed. From now on, the plot is gonna pick up speed. Also, I plan to rewrite chapters 1-10, but that's not gonna happen till the holidays.

Enjoy

- Ting

Chapter 14

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 14

“Well…” Sates started. “I’ve been here a year now after I finished training with Santuric. He found me about two years ago and I’ve spent about a year with at the hut before I passed his test… In fact, how long did you spend with him?” he said and looked curiously at me. “About three and a half month I think…” Seriously?! Most people don’t manage it in under about 18 months. Deff did so in 15 and I thought I was something because I managed it so fast, but you’re something special… Chosen, huh…” An awkward silence fell for a minute, which I was eager to break. “So, how did Santuric find you?” I asked. Sates, who had been staring into the table, looked up, a bit perplexed. “Well… Uh… Well, I have always been that special someone who knows he’s something special, but don’t know how, and is therefore a bit lost, you know. Then, in January ’03 Santuric showed up and dragged me with him. I had thought that, since I lived alone and didn’t really know anyone, I might as well try and go with him, and that’s how it began… Well, that’s my story, how about yours?”

“Well, I have had that feeling too and then back in late April I was sitting at my office when I was taken to this other plane. Here there were some voice talking to me before I was sent back and straight after, my boss apparently possessed by Yce attacked me. I only survived because of Santuric and my instincts… And then I was taken to the hut and had it all explained…”

Sates looked dumbstruck for a minute before he exclaimed “You’ve seen battle already?! None of the apprentices arriving within the last couple of years have even been allowed a sparring match; we only have the dummies till we’re deemed worthy…”

We continued eating breakfast till we heard a bell sound throughout the complex. “That’s our queue to go to lesson.” Sates said and rose. I followed him, and all the others streaming into the hallway to a large dojo looking room. Mats lay on the floor, light emerged from the torches on the wall and messages written on drapes hanging from the walls in some message I didn’t know, but otherwise the room was empty. Shaw stood at the end of the room waiting silently. He had donned a Vulkanadon cloak too. We walked further into the room and I now saw slightly darkened spots on the mats, indicating were we were supposed to stand. Sates and I found a place to stand where Deff quickly joined us and after a minute, I could count that there was actually 37 persons excluding the mentors. When everyone had found a spot, we were standing in a U shape following the walls, with the open end facing Shaw.

When everyone was settled, Shaw took a step forward and said aloud in his usual angry tone “Today! We start with some exercise, 50 of each!” Everyone seemed to know the routine, and so fell down to do crunches. I tried to keep up, but as I strained to do my 50th crunch, everyone else was already doing pushups. This continued for a while until Shaw yelled “That’s enough!” I was much winded at this point, more than everyone else in the room, but I tried not to show it. Shaw then yelled “Alright, now I would like to see a staff!” Some of the older looking people managed to draw a staff from their cloak, some younger ones, like Sates, took longer but finally managed it. I was left staff-less as the only one in the room. Shaw noticed this and walked towards me.



He looked at me for a second and then said “So… You’re that new guy eh? Let’s see just how good you are, shall we? Craft me a Vulkanadon sword!” He stared directly into my eyes, but I didn’t look away or say anything. “What’s the matter? Are the CHOSEN too fine to answer to the council?” Several people began muttering at this, but Shaw quickly silenced them with a raised hand. “How would I know?” I said. “Santuric never to…” but I was cut off by Shaw raising a finger in front of my eyes. “I am going to tell you this only once, boy! I don’t care if you are the chosen or not, you will NOT get any special privileges! So you just get in line and know what every other NORMAL apprentice knows!” Shaw then walked back to his spot and continued the lesson. I was not able to craft anything and I could feel the burning stare of Shaw on me and the curious looks of the others.

When the training was over, we were allowed to run off. Looking at the big clock in the dorm, I could see we had had training for about 7 hours as it was now 3:05. I sat on my bed and Sates came and sat on his. “Well…” He started “That didn’t go to well. Don’t worry though; Shaw is always in that mood.” Silence fell for a bit. Other people came into the dorm and started reading, playing games or talking. Some even fyre’d away to whatever destination they had. I looked at Sates. “Could you… Teach me how to use Vulkanadon?” Sates looked at me like he was surprised that the ‘chosen’ has asked for help, but then said “Okay. We have free time from now to 7pm anyways.”

_____

Original post: http://www.fyreball.com/d/Ae6dqc

So, a slightly delayed chapter 14 for ya.

I had planned to include the part where he learns of Vulkanadon in this chapter but had to cut it out so I could lessen the delay and plus I have to be ready to host the Fyrefight in and hour.

BTW, the guy with red hair is Sates.

- Ting

Chapter 13

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 13

I didn’t get much sleep, as tired as I was, and when I got up, it was still red outside, although, it was probably always red outside. I looked at the clock with dark wooden arms hanging at the wall at the end of the twenty meter long dorm. It was only 5.38 AM, which was not any earlier than I had done with Santuric, but these time zone changes had thrown my rhythm off. There were no visible wires connected to the clock. Maybe it ran on some refined form of Fyre. Some of the other beds were already empty, and Sates next to me were standing with his head down in his trunk. “Great, you’re up!” he said. “Get in some clothes ‘cos the day begins soon.”

At first this confused me. In the past months I had only had the clothes I had had on when it all began, and these had gotten pretty dirty and tattered over the months, but I now saw a trunk like Sates’ at the end of my bed. I opened and saw a neatly folded orange cloak made out of a thin material on top of clean regular clothes. I looked at Sates, who had already donned one of his cloaks. He looked at me and nodded, and I hurried to get something clean on and then the cloak. It was surprisingly light and completely airy so I didn’t get hot in it. “Come on” Sates said “I’ll explain on the way”

We went out into the hallway and started walking out. “First of all, you need to learn to go about this place on your own. All the doors look the same for defensive purposes. The sooner you figure it out, the better.” Now that I could look at him better, I saw he was about the same age as me, in the middle 20’s. “These cloaks are made out of a substance called Vulkanadon, which is summoned and manipulated with the Fyre.” He stretched his arm out and the sleeve seemed to come alive and formed a sturdy dagger in Sates hand. “That is part of these studies we are having here, which you got to learn. Here we are.” The dagger molded into his sleeve again and we went in though a door on our left.



We entered a very dark room with nothing on the walls, no windows or decoration. Instead, torches hung from various places on the wall and mats covered the floor. “This is the meditation room” Sates whispered “We come here every morning to focus our minds on the day ahead.” My night-vision started to kick in, and I now saw a few persons scattered around the room all facing the far wall. In the far end sat a person turned the other way. I squinted for a second and then recognized Santuric. “Yeah, he’s one of the guiders” Sates said when he saw I was looking at Santuric. “Yeah, it’s great he’s here but… I thought he was going away.” I said. “What do you mean?”, “Well, you see. When we arrived yesterday, the council said they had a ‘special request’ for him, so I assumed he was going to leave.” “Interesting…” Sates said and gazed in space for a moment. “But we don’t have time now, let’s discuss it during breakfast.

While we found a spot to sit down, I looked towards Santuric to try and catch his eye, but to no avail. Soon the room began to fill up, and when everybody seemed to be inside I counted around 35 people. Nobody was talking, like this was a ritual they had done hundreds of times. Sates had his eyes closed too, so I used what Santuric had learned me, and started meditating. At first it was just like what I had done when I live at the hut with Santuric, but my mind and body soon filled with an extraordinary energy that seemed to revive me like I had been dead until now. I didn’t know how long this took, I just sat and let the energy fill me, but after what I later found out to be an hour, Sates pricked my shoulder and we rose and left along with everyone else. But Santuric was now gone.

We walked along the hallway, probably to the mess hall. “You felt the energy?” Sates asked “Yeah, it was like I had been drained right till now” I answered. “That is the doing of the Fyreorb; I guess you saw it when you met with the council. Here we are, let’s get some grub!” We now entered a long room with big windows on the left showing the red-hot volcano outside. Wooden tables were stationed around the room and people were already beginning to find their places. Now in a well lit room I could see them properly. Most were older than me all with their special features and all wearing the orange Vulkanadon cloak.

“This is where I usually sit” We sat at a little table and soon another person joined us. He was around 20, a bit lower than me, was quite pale and bald, had thick mustache and donned a black top hat. “This is Deff” Sates said “Deff, say hello.” We shook hands and nodded. “Sates, I’m just going to shove it down, I’ve got a lot to do” Deff said with a peculiarly deep voice and an accent I couldn’t quite place. He conjured a bowl of soup and gulped it down in one draught. He then fyre’d the bowl away and left the hall. “Yeah, that was Deff, I hang around with him. Well, that also shows you how we eat. I hope Santuric showed you how?” “Yeah, he did. Otherwise we wouldn’t have survived” I replied. “It’s excellent to keep your training fit too.” Sates said while he conjured a plate of French toast. I made a big pile of eggs and bacon, and then started to shove it down, because I was starving.

“So, if I tell you my story, will you tell me yours?” Sates said after eating for a while. My mouth was full, so I just nodded. “Alright then” he said.

_____

Original post: http://www.fyreball.com/d/Amz1MZ

Remember to also check out my new series called Fyre!

- Ting

Chapter 12

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 12

A bit later in the day, Santuric and I prepared to leave. I didn’t really have any possessions here, so it didn’t take long for us to be ready. We went out of the hut and turned towards each other. “Here we go” Santuric said, and laid his hand on my shoulder. Soon Fyre enveloped us both and again all I could see was flames. When I could, I was on rough and bumpy ground and the heat hit me square in the face. I looked around and was surprised to see a huge volcano to the left of us with crevasses filled with magma showing up all over the ground. In front of us was a big black-smoked wooden door. Santuric started to walk towards the door, and I hurried to follow.

The handle on the door was black metal, and from the looks of it, it was very hot. Nevertheless Santuric nudged me to open it, and I carefully grabbed the handle. I didn’t get burned surprisingly. I heard Santuric behind me “I does not burn people aligned with Fyre, thus keeping trespassers out. In fact, the whole location of this place is to help defend against Yce.” We now walked down a snaking hallway with doors on either side every few meters. “The hallway is shaped like a giant S for the symbolism of a flame, and to make ambushing intruders easier. We only saw few people in the hall, all looking like they had a purpose even though none of the doors were marked. We then reached the end of the hall and stood in front of a carved wooden door. Santuric opened it and a red light streamed out from the crack.

We entered a medium sized room, and the first thing I saw was the source of the red light. It emitted from a fist sized red orb sitting on a thin column. I could feel heat coming from it, but also a rejuvenating energy. On the ground in front of it sat two old men and an old woman, the woman with thin white hair and a wrinkly face on the left, a man completely bald and with a scar under his right eye on the right and a man with long grey hair and beard in the middle. They all wore red robes and had kind faces but undoubtedly with much wisdom behind. I saw Santuric bow his head in a nod and say “Greetings council.”



We sat on two pillows on front of them, and I had a second to look around. Two windows on either side of the room showed the barren landscape outside. Except for the column with the orb and the piles of pillows on the floor, the room was empty. Although on the wall, signs I didn’t know the meaning or purpose of was painted on with red paint. “So, you must be the chosen” said the bald man, and looked at me. “I am Shaw, and this is Zentharim” he pointed at the woman. “And this is Firr” he nodded to the man in the middle. “How is he coming along Santuric?” Zentharim asked. “He is doing very well. He passed the test on his first try.” He said. “Well, obviously! He’s the chosen!” Shaw blurted out. “Well, he may be chosen but he still needs training! And I suspect Santuric to have done a good job!” Zentharim replied. They continued to bicker for a minute, but Firr didn’t say anything and just looked quietly at me. His eyes was grey but with a deep fire burning behind. This was both fascinating and terrifying.

When I finally tore myself from his gaze, I interrupted Zentharims and Shaws argument. “Excuse me?” I said. They quieted and looked at me. “What does it mean to be chosen? And why am I it?” Zentharim leaned forward and caught my gaze. “You see. Every few thousand years, the best of the Fyre aligned offers some of their power to have an individual chosen. This individual has no boundaries when it comes to power. Normal humans can only channel so much, but the chosen has unlimited potential. This has happened twice before, once on every side of the contrast.”

I didn’t really understand this, maybe because it was so unnerving I couldn’t quite believe it. “But even a chosen must still have training” Shaw said “So we are taking over from now on!” I hadn’t expected this, what about Santuric? As hard as it had been with him, I had still formed a bond with him. “We have a special request for you Santuric” Zentharim said. “Which we need to do alone” she said and looked at me. “If you continue down the hall, take the 7th door on your left. There you will find a dorm for you to stay in.” I rose and but hesitated a split-second. “You should prepare” Shaw said. “You training begin tomorrow, and that won’t be something you can prepare for.” I looked back to try and catch Santurics gaze, but he didn’t look at me, only Firr did. I walked out of the room and closed the large carved door behind me.

I walked down the now empty hallway. I found the 7th door on my left and opened. It led into a long room with beds stacked all the way down. Some people were already asleep; we’d probably had a time zone change when we went here. Others were still up though, sitting on their beds meditating or reading a book. No one really noticed me, except for one guy who rose and walked smiling towards me. “Hey, I’m Sates” he said. He had brown hair and a slim face, and he was about 1.85 tall, around the same as me. “So I guess you’re the new guy we’ve been hearing about. Come, you can bunk next to me, there’s an empty bed.” We walked over to the beds, and sat down. “So you’re….. The chosen?” he started. “Yeah, apparently” I answered “But I still don’t understand much very well.” He looked at me for a second and said “It’ll all come in time, but if you think time with old Santuric was tough, you’re in for something much, much worse. But I guess even chosen must train too.” I hear a bell sound from somewhere outside. “Oh, it’s lights-out now. You should try to get some sleep. Keep to me in the morning and you’ll get off your feet well enough.”

I lay back on the rugged pillow and pulled the thin blanket over me, but soon had to throw it off because of the heat. This was probably part of the training, living on top of a volcano.

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Original post: http://www.fyreball.com/d/As0SgI

So here's the chapter of the week.

Enjoy

- Ting

Chapter 11

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 11

For the following 4 months we trained like this, only each day was getting more and more tough. But it began helping, and after just half a month of running to the woods each morning, I could already feel my stamina getting better. Santuric said it was not as much my strength that needed boosting as it was my stamina, channeling the Fyre did more than just take your breath away. And after two months I could do the run in double-time without any problems.


The mental training was the hardest part though. For quite a while I had trouble finding this feeling that was actually driven by impulses. Then one rainy day, about 2 months in, sitting in the semi-cover of the tree, this strange emotion appeared within me. It wasn’t unfamiliar and I was able to keep it for a while. Santuric had apparently sensed this and turned towards me. He’d said: “Good. Now you are finally making progress on this point too.” After this it had accelerated. Where I had had to make myself a bow-and-stick to light a fire in the previous months, I could now conjure a fyreball within my hand to light it, and Santuric told me I was emitting a heat without akin.

This was where it all started to pick up. Soon I was able to stand even in the heaviest downfall and meditate, and the rain would just vaporize before it hit me. My fyreballs were getting larger and faster too. I soon learned to throw them and hit a target very precisely. And in the beginning of August, Santuric said I’d have my final test before I’d have to move on. “There is not much more I’ll be able to teach you, so we shall go to see the council when you have passed the test” He had said. So on August 7th, I woke early out of being nervous.

I woke and got out of bed with the dawn of the sun, but Santuric was already gone. I went outside to look for him, but saw only a wooden pole in the open terrain, about a meter above the ground. Walking closer, I saw Santuric sitting behind it, waiting. “It’s time to begin your test” he said. “The objective for you is to stand here” he pointed at the pole “and not fall down while I send various things to knock you off it. You may try to stop them any way you can except for attacking me. Did you get that?” I nodded and mounted the pole.

It was only wide enough for me to stand with my feet together, and then only just barely. Santuric walked about 20 meters away and closed his eyes. For a whole minute, nothing happened. I looked around, somewhat anxious, until a large rock appeared out of nowhere in front of me, flying towards me at a high speed. In the short time I had to react, I raised my hand and launched a fyreball that hit it and threw it off course. For the next minute, about 50 rocks kept appearing launching towards me. I either dodged them or sent them away. After the last one had been sent and dismissed, there was a break. This part hadn’t been hard for me, hadn’t even lost wind.



Then the ground started to tremble, seriously testing my balance. Right when it began, I almost fell off, but thought fast and used a small burst of Fyre to send me straight again. Then, while still quaking, pebbles began bombarding me from all sides. They were not very big, but they were fast so I shielded my face and focused on raising my heat till it was hot enough to melt them before they hit. Then the pebbles and the quaking stopped and almost before I could react, a huge wall of water appeared above me. Before I could come up with a rational way out of it, I raised my arms and let go of a stream of Fyre, vaporizing a column of water that I could just barely fit within. I had to keep this up for around half a minute whilst the water kept roaring besides me, and the constant stream of Fyre started to tear on my energy. Just as I started to loose balance, and scrape the stream of water, it stopped, and my arms fell down, exhausted. I began to topple in the pause, but made a last minute thrust of Fyre to correct myself. I had a little time to look around; the ground wasn’t wet at all. But I didn’t have time to ponder it much.

Now a soaring wall of stone appeared, only with a narrow slit for the pole to pass trough. In my exhaustion I hesitated for a moment, and the wall started moving slowly towards me. If I didn’t do something, I was probably going to be knocked off, and would have to stay and train more. As much as I had learned, it was very hard work for someone who had been in a cubicle for 7 years. I forced myself to raise my arms and throw a fyreball, but it only dissipated with no effect. I tried a couple more, but to no avail. The wall was picking up speed; at this rate it was going to hit me in a couple of seconds. I tried conjuring a stream of Fyre again, but my energy was too low to call much more than a tiny stream. The wall came closer, and just as I reached out towards it to push in panic, flames appeared around my head, and I couldn’t see anything.

When they dissipated again, I was still standing on the pole. I turned around and the wall was now moving away from me, I had somehow teleported on my own. Santuric walked towards me. “Good. I didn’t expect you to pass the wall first time. You may dismount now.” I half jumped, half fell off the pole, and sat down besides it. “Get rested for we are going to the council soon.”

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

Weeks chapter, enjoy.

It might have been slow going for now, but in 1 or 2 chapters, the plot is going to pick up a lot. Remember, if you have a friend that could be interested in joining in on the story, then please tell them. They might even join Fyreball.com


Enjoy

- Ting