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He completed the
shallow ditch, snuffing out the fireball with a simple wave of his
hand. The smoke was growing thicker, making breathing more
difficult. Although it didn’t affect him, he knew the animals would
suffer from lack of air. Pyre turned to ascend back into the sky to
summon Aeron, when a voice softly took him by surprise.
“Who the hell
are
you?”
He turned around
to see a woman standing in the doorway.
She was staring at
him.
She was staring at him.
She gazed
around the area, then held up her hand to cover her nose and
coughed. The coughing continued, and she was forced to retreat back
inside the building.
Pyre zipped
upward, flying past the smoke and above the clouds that were keeping
the heat and fumes close to the ground. “Aeron! Aeron, if you can
hear me, I need your wind to blow!” he called out to his brother as
he scanned the skies for some sign of the demi-god. “Aeron!”
A heavy gust of
wind struck him, sending him tumbling. Quickly correcting himself,
he dove down into the darkening air. The wind followed him, swirling
like a living entity as he returned to the building. By this time
the smoke was nearly all-consuming.
He instructed the
wind where to cleanse the air, and the pillar quickly disbursed the
heaviness. Once the area was clear, he entered the structure to look
for the woman.
A pale light
guided him until he found her in a far corner. She was bent over and
had pulled her shirt over her head to help prevent her lungs from
filling with smoke. Checking her more closely, Pyre realized she was
unconscious and barely breathing.
He picked her up
and ran outside, shooting up into the sky again until he was above
the clouds. Up here in the sunshine, he yelled again for his
brother’s aid. “Aeron! Help her to breathe! Siphon out the smoke and
give her fresh air!”
An almost
invisible hand surrounded her head and face. Pyre watched as a
rivulet of air streamed into one nostril. A moment later, grayish
air flowed out of the other side of her nose as her lungs were
emptied and refilled. He held her steady and allowed the
resuscitation to continue. Up here in the bright sunlight, he
studied her face and body. She had the shallow, sunken cheeks of
someone who had not eaten well in a while. There were bruises,
smudge marks, and burns she’d sustained. And dirty and tattered
clothing. She had all the signs of a mortal who’d been in hiding
ever since he and his brothers had begun their reign of terror on
the lands.
She moved
slightly. A soft moan came from her throat. Quickly, he lowered them
down to an area yet untouched by destruction and laid her on a bed
of leaves.
The woman moaned
again, then coughed, hacking up the last of the residue inside her.
Her eyes opened, and she gazed, unseeing, into the distance until
she turned her head and saw him kneeling beside her. A look of
surprise came over her, and was instantly replaced with fear. She
tried to back away from him, but her arms wobbled, her body
unsteady.
“Who are you?” she
croaked in a voice hoarse from the smoke. She coughed again and
heaved air into her body. She raised a dirty hand to grasp her
forehead as she bent over, bowing her face to the ground as if she
was about to faint again.
Pyre didn’t
hesitate to touch her shoulder. There was a small attempt to shake
it off, but he held firm. “You passed out from lack of air. Your
lungs were full of smoke. I had it removed.”
“You had it…” She
swiped the back of her hand across her mouth, leaving a black smear
on her lips and cheek. “Thank you…I guess.”
She glanced around and realized she was no longer at the building
where she’d taken refuge. “Where are we?”
“Someplace where
it is safe. For now,” he added.
Her eyes widened.
“For now? Oh, shit! Is that lava coming this way? Or the forest
fires?”
He tried to soothe
her. “They will not harm us. I promise.”
The young woman
eyed him as if she didn’t believe him. “How can you promise that?
I’ve seen what the cameras have shown us. This whole world is being
destroyed! When all is said and done, there isn’t going to be a
single inch of this planet that won’t be touched by all the
destruction.”
“Not all of it,”
he assured her. “We are making sure that the animals are safe and
have plenty of food to survive.”
She blinked. It was clear she didn’t believe him. “You’re
making sure?” She looked more
closely at him. More specifically, the brief skirt he wore around
his loins. “Who do you think you are? Tarzan?”
He cocked his
head. “I do not know of this Tarzan. I am Pyre. I am one of the four
gods of the elements. My element is fire.”
“You’re one of
the…” She burst out laughing, which became another round of raspy
coughing.
Pyre patted her on
the back. “You need more air,” he announced. Getting to his feet, he
reached down and scooped her up into his arms. She started to
protest when he lifted into the sky, twirling and swirling high
above the treetops. That’s when she began to scream. |