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By the time I arrived back at my new residence, I could sense something had shifted within the air but I wasn’t able to tell what it was.
I could see a crowd converging around the woods, but the bodies were pressed so close together it was hard to tell just how many were down there.
I took off in a run towards the crowd, A few heads turned towards me but no one came to fill me in on the unknown situation. Until I saw Janelle breaking free from the swarm of bodies and we closed the distance between us.
“Marcus, thank the gods you are back. Ishira has gone berserk and we don’t know what to do, no one can get close without fear of her burning the whole woods down to the ground.”
I hadn’t bothered responding as I pushed my way th
rough the compressed bodies, but soon came to a sudden halt as the heat that was flowing outwards from Ishira hit me head on. I could feel my skin blister in a matter of seconds and my lips dried and cracked almost instantly. But I knew deep within my core I could not let it deter me, what kind of leader would I be if I didn’t try to rectify the situation. She was putting everyone in danger and I knew, despite the injuries I would sustain, I had to stop this.
By the time I came to a stop, I was mere feet away from her and it felt as though I had walked straight into an inferno.
“Ishira what’s happened? If you don’t calm down you could destroy this place and our people.”
“It’s too much Marcus, all that doubt cast upon Pearl and it wasn’t even her fault and how was she rewarded? By suffering and death, it isn’t FAIR.”
She screamed that last word and sent fire shooting free from her mouth, engulfing every tree that got in the way.
Luckily for me, I had remarkable people following me and David and Janelle soon took command of the situation, they were guiding the others to get the fires extinguished.
“Look I have no idea what you are talking about, but if you do not cease I’ll have to make you. I’m not threatening you Ishira, but I can’t allow you to hurt anyone.”
Her eyes were glowing profusely, but somehow, my words reached her and the heat of her flames began to subside.
The next moment she was falling to the blackened ground and weeping, I had no idea what to do in that moment. Maybe I was being a martyr, but despite the flames surrounding her frame, I wrapped my arms around her and offered her solace.
Her heat was melding the fabric of my clothing to my skin and the pain continued as it ravaged my flesh by third degree burns. Her eyes widened when she realised what I had done and for the first time, her flames disappeared.
Unlike when Unya let go of her shroud of fire, Ishira was not left in a naked state. Instead she was left in an orange strapless top and, what appeared to be, black leather trousers. How she stopped the fire from eating away at them was beyond me, to be honest many of us even doubted she had a true form beneath the flames. Believing her very being had been created in the flame and that was why we had only ever seen her face unshrouded before.
“Marcus you damn fool, you could have killed yourself, the state you are in, you could still very well die from your injuries. How are you not screaming in pain, better yet, how are you even coherent?”
“I’m tougher than I look,” I wheezed in reply, the air struggling to fill my failing lungs.
My skin had been completely charred and I was near enough blackened from head to foot, I could feel my skin flaking away and every movement caused me to lose even more.
No one dared to approach me, even though I had been able to tell they wanted to help me.
Ishira was the only one who didn’t shy away from my grizzly form, whether it was from a sense of guilt I couldn’t tell you, but she did not abandon me.
She summoned a few people to our side, who only hesitated for a moment before rushing over. She then ordered them to move me into the housing portion of our camp, telling them it would do me no favours to lose precious seconds trying to go slow.
The last thing I can recall before I succumbed to the darkness was Ishira vowing to not leave my stubborn side, as she called for the healers to fix me without delay. The moment their eyes fell on me I knew what they were seeing and trying not to say to the very volatile nymph. My injuries were far too severe for even their abilities, all they could do was ease the pain, to make my inevitable death occur more peacefully.
12
Malachi
By the time Unya had allowed me to pull away, she had relaxed a great deal.
“I should go love, I need to source some earthly food for you. It has been a while since you had any sustenance.”
“Will you tell me just one more story before you leave, I would like to hear another tale from our past,” she requested it so simply, I didn’t have the heart or strength to deny her. Truth be told, I doubted I could deny her anything and that little fact scared me half to death.
I sat back down beside her, but would not allow her to coerce me into resuming my previous spot. That said spot had found me lying beside her, our bodies pressed together so close, without a single inch between us.
“The third time we met you insulted my very nature, I’ll admit it pissed me off and I let you know it. You apologised afterwards but I decided there and then that maybe you weren’t worth the hassle. The guy you had been with the night we first met had done a number on my face. Leaving these ugly jagged scars, I couldn’t use a human to heal them without killing them in the process so I had been stuck with them.
