Element. Flame of Elisar. Marie K. JETH

at me, distracted, her gaze blurred, and smiled absently.

      “I mean those two, wearing cloaks, I told you earlier today,” she murmured in a strange and dreamy voice.

      “Okay, we got to cross this field right now, as quickly as possible, too visible here,” I said and looked around.

      Some growl came from behind, my entire body got tense instantly, and I looked back still keeping Elcha with my one hand and bringing her behind my back.

      The two monsters were approaching, both growling and their eyes shooting fire in the dark.

      “That’s just perfect!” my sister said giggling again, which made me so mad I wished I had something heavy in my hand to bang her on the head.

      Apparently, I was losing my nerve, too. And she seemed to be right, the situation was just perfect – no weapon in my hand and no place to hide, open area around only.

      “What the hell do you want, finally?” I shouted, full of despair rather than courage. “Are we going to be so delicious or something? No more wild goats to eat?”

      Elcha gave another giggle full of nerve, then raised her hand and let another clot of fire into the creatures. They jumped aside still remembering the previous fight, yet did not intend to leave, just stood at a short distance.

      Okay, we’ll get to Elcha’s nervous breakdown later. The major part now is to survive…

      “Elcha, listen to me now,” I said, “you beat them with magic whenever I tell you, just don’t waste your power, okay? And we are moving now to the city, fast, just as fast as we can.”

      She replied with an estranged nod.

      But my plan failed. A few seconds later my sister fainted, so I got her hanging in my arms like a huge sack, completely exhausted. The only part of me still able to move fast was my thoughts rushing around in my head.

      I sat on the ground and embraced my sister, my eyes all sore with tears and indignation.

      The beasts brightened up and began to approach us feeling much more confident.

      Just another couple of seconds and it’s all over. I think I did have a chance to survive, alone, but I never – NEVER – even thought of leaving my sister behind.

      I was up already, watching silently them approaching us. Next moment, one of them rushed at me, knocked me to the ground and pressed down. The smell streaming out of its mouth hit my nose. Disgusting! I looked up and saw the monster’s face right over mine, its teeth bared in an ugly grin, and its tentacles nearly reaching my face.

      As they touched me it felt like electricity running through my body, and then I realized that I could make no slightest movement.

      But suddenly the beast lost all its interest in me. They both mover toward my sister, then one of them bit her arm and started dragging her away. Elcha moaned with pain. The other at that time was moving its head to Elcha’s neck, as if trying to pick the right spot for an assault.

      They are going to tear her apart, flashed in my mind. Tears were streaming down my

      face, yet I could do nothing. I screamed, but I could not hear my own voice. Despair, rage and fear overwhelmed my head and were burning me from inside. I was rushing through that inner heat looking desperately for a way out of that all, and then it came to me… It was the way out! The heat that I could feel with my entire soul was the way out. There was a fire tearing me apart as if trying to get out… a flame of incredible power… a flame, pure and naturally primitive. And I could no longer tell where it was me, and where it was the fire! I was the fire.

      The beasts turned sharply to see what was going on. As our eyes met, their tentacles began to move feverishly; they were both raging around the same spot, greedily catching air with their nostrils. One even began to whine with excitement.

      But I took no notice of that already; I was all burning from inside. I glanced at my hands – they were all in flames looking more like scarlet tongues, and then the fire spread all over my body, sweeping me from head to toe. My hair sprang up filled with a force struggling to break out. The grass around flared and crumbled in ashes, spreading the fire further down the slope.

      Some unearthly sensation of euphoria and invincibility filled me. There was nothing burning from inside – I myself was burning, just like anything else around.

      I stood up, stepped toward the monsters, and, imitating Elcha’s movement, sent all this fire their way, charging it with all my rage, despair and fear.

      A flash lit up all around. The light was so intense it looked like daytime for a moment. The space around seemed to be ringing and buzzing, and a deafening bang followed… and then darkness shrouded it all.

      That very instant, all the unearthly sensation vanished as if it had never been there, giving way to some deaf emptiness and complete impotence. It felt like I was going to turn into ashes and get scattered around like burnt grass.

      Semiconscious, I sank to the ground, curled up and drifted off.

      The Accident

      I came round feeling water poured on me. They must have poured more than a few glasses, actually. And then I felt on my lips that very nasty bitter taste that always made me sick, after which I saw Nargara’s face, all worried, looking me right in the eyes.

      “She’s back! Praise to the Worlds!”

      She waved her hand to somebody and I got seated. I spat out that sickening stuff and looked around. Mours again! Then I got surprised seeing I was covered in a blanket, and further then got terrified realizing there was nothing else covering me under that.

      Next to me I saw Truvle, who was keeping me from the back and expressing some smile that was too shy to be a real one, actually.

      The field around that was green once, was a desert, with all the ground cracked and burnt down to the last straw.

      A bit further aside, I saw my sister lying on the ground and covered with ash. But I could not see her face. Nargara and Yoos bent over her and were busy doing something. The only green piece was around her body. Unlike me, she had still the same clothes on, even though much shabby.

      “Elcha,” I sighed getting shocked with my own voice, or what was left of my voice, to be exact.

      “Alive, lost lots of blood though’” Truvle said sadly.

      “The beasts?” I continued huskily.

      “Dead,” the smith said and hugged me, which was quite unexpected. “It’s all over, calm down.”

      The sky was already getting bright as the first rays got out from behind the horizon.

      Mammy approached us quickly and helped Truvle get me up on my feet.

      “You can walk, can’t you?” she asked giving me a look full of concern.

      I shook my head.

      “Truvle, take her then. We got to leave right now, fast. Got to leave before a soul sees us,” the witch snapped, and that very moment the smith’s strong arms took me up.

      Yoos was already standing nearby, holding Elcha in his arms.

      She was unconscious, all pale, with sunken eyes and bluish lips. One of her arms was wrapped with a narrow strip of white cloth.

      “Sorry, Truvle. I lost your gift,” I complained as I buried my face into his shoulder, “lost the blades near the river…”

      “You really care about that sort of rubbish, baby? There, look! Your blades, I mean,” and he pointed at Yoos who was carrying Elcha. I looked out from behind his powerful shoulder and saw my weapon dangling at the old warrior’s belt.

      “Where did…” I was baffled.

      “When you got beyond the valley,” Truvle started, “Nargara could feel that right away. I had just come to Karun and was approaching your home when I met her. Then we called Yoos as we were rushing