Original - The 17th Realm (The Maniac Trilogy - Book 1)

12 - The Fire

HARUMI'S POV

We were on the border. Beyond The Sand was a patch of dead grass and then the eternally burning trees. Nimue's tribe went first, leaving us behind.

"Wait. Shit, guys!" I stopped and turned around. "Have you seen Lloyd and Emily today?"

"Well, yeah they were helping us pack-" Ryan said.

"But afterwards. They'd be with us, no?"

"Fuck. Do you think they've been possessed by Garmadon again??" Cole asked.

Nya panicked, "How the fuck did we not notice?? We have to go back for them!!" Me and her started running back. Ryan and Cole went to Nimue to inform her.

Luckily, the camp, or where it was, wasn't that far. The cloud was getting really close, really quick. We ran as quickly as we could. We saw remains of the camp in the distance and the darkness about to consume it whole. In the middle of the camp were Emily and Lloyd. They just tripped or whatever from the possession or something. They turned around and their eyes widened as they saw the cloud coming closer. Lloyd quickly grabbed Emily's hand and as they started running it was too late. They couldn't outrun the darkness. The darkness stopped.

"LLOYD!! EMILY!!" Nya screamed. We ran closer to the darkness. Nya was about to run in, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her back before she could do anything.

"ARE YOU CRAZY??" I shouted. "Do you want to turn to stone as well??"

"But we need to help them!" Nya cried.

"It's too late. They're stone. Do you understand? Stone! There's nothing we can do. If we were Oni then we could." I started tearing up. I held her hand and started walking back to The Fire, but she let go. 

She stared at the darkness. She turned around and started walking towards me. One of the vines grabbed her leg. "HARUMI!!"

"NYA!" I ran up to her and grabbed her arm before she could be consumed by the cloud. I tried pulling her out but the vine kept pulling her back. I almost let go. Nya tried kicking the vines but her legs turned to stone. I felt someone behind me. Cole grabbed my shoulders and we pulled Nya out together. We dragged her away from the cloud. Her legs were normal again. The cloud started moving closer. We started running to The Fire. We ran straight through.

"LOOK OUT!" Ryan shouted. I branch fell right in front of us, but we jumped over it. I looked behind me and saw that the cloud stopped. We kept running forward. 

Eventually, we reached a small patch of dead grass. We stopped there to catch our breath. Nya dropped to her knees and cried. "How could we be so stupid?"

"Nya, it's okay... It's just the way the cookie crumbles..." Cole tried reassuring.

Nya got pissed. She stood up and turned around.

"HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU SAY THAT??"

Cole stepped back a bit, "I was-"

"EMILY AND LLOYD HAVE TURNED INTO STONE, COLE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?" She pushed Cole. "WE HAVE JUST LOST TWO FRIENDS! WE CAN'T SAVE THEM NOW, THEY'RE GONE!" She continued crying. "They're gone..."

"It was just a really poor choice of words, I'm sorry! You're not the only one who's sad because of that. Lloyd was like a brother to us, a friend to Ryan and probably some secret lover to Harumi. And with Emily? Ryan was close to Emily as well. She's your cousin. Mine and Harumi's friend. You're not alone in this." Cole put his hand on Nya's shoulder.

I spoke up. "Cole's right. We all just lost someone. But we also can't stand here. We need to catch up to Nimue's tribe."

I took out the rope attached to my trousers. we all tied a knot so we wouldn't split. We carried on. The Fire was the shortest. We already saw some sky in the horizon. We didn't have to really run, we just had to watch our step because the entire place was filled with burning trees and bushes.