The Fire Sorceress

Chapter Seven

An arrow swooshed past me and I shuddered. I crept silently into the bushes, watching as the burglars lifted their masks. I stifled another gasp. "Where'd he go? I know someone was spying on us," a man with a checkered jacket and a bow and arrow growled.

"Relax. It was probably just the wind," another one wore deep black sunglasses and an amulet around his neck, along with a battle cape. He had curly brown hair.

"It pays to be careful..." The third one murmured. He had brown hair with a bang covering one of his brown eyes and headphones atop his head. A guy with a blue suit and an orange helmet stood silently. I knew these people...

Carefully, I drank some milk and stepped into the clearing. "Ty? Adam? Mitch? Jason?" I asked softly.

"Ha! I knew I was right!" Mitch danced around randomly.

"Seto...why are you here?" Adam growled softly.

"Um, I happen to kind of live here," I opened my palms in a duh! gesture.

"Seto? You live here with these hybrids?" Ty said, disgust lacing his tone. Anger was boiling in my stomach. Were they referring to my friends as animals? Were they thinking of them as objects, or toys to mess around with?

"You guys had better get out of here..." I whispered threateningly, a ball of purple fire appearing in my hand.

"Oh yeah? Why should we?" A voice came from the trees. A brown, furry, humanoid figure jumped from the branches and cackled.

"Shut up, Jerome," I hissed, whipping my head in the direction of the fluffy. "Oh, and did you know that, in Japanese, bacca means idiot? So basically an entire language agrees with me."

Jerome growled angrily and took a menacing step forward. I hurled the purple fire at him and he flew backwards, dazed. The smell of singed fur filled the air, and the war had begun.

Fueled by anger, I threw potions everywhere. Adam doubled over as the poison took effect, Mitch stumbled backwards as harming's immediate damage made way, and Jason's blow hardly inflicted pain as weakness flooded him. They got up, potions writhing in their systems, but fought me valiantly. With a laugh that was more than a little hysterical, I threw a purple ball at Adam and Ty. They grunted as it hit them, but didn't fall too far back. I drew a small sword attached to my belt and fought 1v1 with Ty.

"We used to...be friends," I panted as I parried desperately. "Please, Ty! Don't do this to me!" Heh...the begging tactics always work with people that are good in the heart like him. Ty hesitated and I used the moment of weakness to my advantage. I kneed him into a tree, his weapon clattering to the ground. I held my saber to his neck. "Ty...I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to," I growled.

"Seto. I made a mistake voting you for the team," Deadlox said casually. "You were a nuisance, a weak link the the chain. It's good you were kicked. You always were a do-gooder."

I roared in anger and stabbed the knife into Ty's gut. Stab, stab, stab. A red haze enveloped my eyesight. When it cleared, I was horrified at what I had done. Several puncture wounds dotted Ty's flesh, all oozing blood. His throat was cut open mercilessly. Ty struggled for breath. Blood bubbled as he took each paining breath. "Oh my god," I whispered. I fumbled with my zipper and got out the healing potion. "D-drink this," I murmured, feeding Ty the healing potion. His weak hands grasped the bottle and he drank slowly, painstakingly. Adam, Jason, Mitch, Jerome and I watched silently as Ty heaved for breath. He finally gasped. The wounds were slowly healing. Instead of 10 punctures, Ty only had 7. The long gash in his neck was being covered. Tissues reconnected. Skin grew over and Ty sat up.

"You both saved and killed me," he croaked wryly. We laughed, suddenly friends once more.

"I only said that so you could survive fighting them," Ty muttered.

"Is that an apology?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Sure."

"Okay. Why are you guys criminals, by the way?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"Ask Sky," Ty ducked his head and walked away.

I walked up to Adam, who was talking to the band of thieves. "Adam. Why are you and the rest of some of TC criminals?"

"It's a long story. All that matters is that we can't support ourselves anymore...so we have to steal." Adam sighed. "Trust me; I don't want to, but we have to survive."

I changed the subject deliberately. "It's getting late. Do you have a place?"

"No."

I sighed and grabbed my wood out of my backpack. I made a small house with 5 small beds in it. "Here. Sleep here for tonight and keep these materials. You can build a shelter when you're done...raiding," I spat out the word, "for the night."

"Thanks Seto," Ty gave me a firm handshake.

"I hope our pathways align soon--and next time, don't try to kill me."

I ran to the door and fumbled with the lock. The moon started to rise and I swung the door open, hoping the mobs wouldn't catch me.