Flame Touch

Chapter 27-Melody

I woke up to the sound of muttering.

My legs were dangling beneath me and I felt myself bounce up and down. It took me a while to realize that I was on Taris’s back and considered yelling “Boo!” to scare him, but then I heard what he was muttering.

“-and they hurt like hell those stingers, but someone had to do it right? I couldn’t let them take him, and I know it’s stupid for me to be talking to someone who’s unconscious, but I need someone to talk to I guess and if you were awake you’d probably be calling me a wuss right now. Though I don’t blame you, but- ah what am I doing.” He shook his head and after about a good five minutes of feigning unconsciousness, I pretended to wake up.

“Morning.” I said sleepily (the sleepiness, though, was not feigned).

“Good morning princess, had a good rest?”

“Ah, it was bit uncomfortable judging from the fact that you have a very hard back.” I replied as he let me off and rolled his shoulders.

“You are one heavy fish.” He groaned and I was about to make a very snarky reply (somewhere along the lines of ‘cry me a river’) when we heard a very odd noise.

KABOOM!

At first I was relieved because that wasn’t a sound that bugs made, but my head snapped back to reality as I realized that mountains hardly go KABOOM on purpose. Taris and I ran to the spot and saw something that almost made me think I was still sleeping.

Another one of Semba’s tornados was underway and a huge hole in the side of the cave we were in showed the outside world. Sunny had a piece of paper in her hands and Semba was clutching an unconscious Knox all the while yelling something incomprehensible at a boy with bleach white hair and cold green eyes. Sunny must have noticed us gaping at them because she beckoned with her hands for us to join them. My feet weren’t moving so Taris dragged me into the eye of the tornado as the wind continued to pick up. Then, an invisible force picked me up and threw me against one of the sofas that resided in the tornado and we were airborne.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“What,” I let out a shaky breath after a solid five minutes of dead silence, “What the hell was that about? Why is Knox unconscious, what is Sunny holding, and above all do you really think this is the time to be eating ice cream Semba?” I asked furiously as he helped himself to another spoonful and passed out ice cream to the rest of us.

“Never a better time to eat ice cream that the present, even if the present means we’re currently going over an ice land right now.” He amended as he continued to stuff his face and Taris nodded in agreement, “Amen brother.” He said lifting his ice cream cup like a chalice and Sunny laughed and started to explain to me what happened while Taris and I were out hunting down buggies.

“And then Semba realized the wind was picking up around the weird twins, so he used that to make the tornado!” she finished with another mouth of ice cream.

“Lunar is a Vent and a traitor?” I asked nonplussed.

“No, I think the Gemini twins actually have counter attributes, that why Caprin thought they could read the paper Libra left behind. When that failed, he realized Knox was the only one who could read it.”

“And that’s because…?”

“Because Knox is a Aquarius and a Luminist.” Sunny said with a concerned glance at Knox, “Though she won’t be anything unless she wakes up.” I poked her cheek and Sunny joined me until we heard a familiar growl.

“I swear, if you keep poking me and don’t let me sleep, I will kill you with my pomegranate.” She muttered sleepily, but got up anyway.

I wish she hadn’t.

Burn marks flared across half her body and snaked across her waist and downwards under her tattered clothes. Her outfit was more or less intact, but where what looked like a fire had burned her, the cloth was charred and blackened. She must have noticed us all staring at her, but she laughed at us. “Well, there goes my dream of being the cover girl of a magazine.” She laughed and tried to get us to laugh with her. When we didn’t, she let out a sigh, “Oh stop looking at me like that, I swear I’m fine, see?” she said and tried to do a flashy jazz hands, but stopped half way through the move and held her stomach wincing, “Say a word, and I will cut you.” She finally managed to gasp after what seemed to be a wave of pain subsided, “Would you give me the stupid paper that only I could supposedly read?” she asked irritated after we continued to stare at her and Sunny gave it to her shakily.

“Well? Can you-”

“Yeah, yeah. Plain as day,” Knox said and took a deep breath as she began reading,

“The madness continues

Straight through the night

Through blackness alone

Will I seek the light.

The next place lies

Where a land goes so vast

It plays tricks on the minds

Of the slow and the fast.

Where solace is only

What we take for grant

Where one can walk solely

Where the grains dance

Now throw into the light

What I have said

And then you maybe told

What you must do next.”

 There was an eerie silence after Knox stopped talking as we all tried to figure out what it meant. Semba was the first to speak, “Well, this is Libra we’re talking about, after sending us to a mountain, maybe now the clue is in a basin? To balance it out or something.”

“But that doesn’t fit the clue.” I reminded him and we lapsed back into silence. After what seemed like an eternity, Sunny spoke up.

“It’s a desert.” She said simply and we all looked up at her and she was forced to explain.

“Think about it. A land so fast it plays tricks on the minds? That’s a plain of some sort, the tricks are mirages, Where solace is only what we take for grant? What do we take the most granted of? Water, and the part about grains dancing, it all makes sense. Even the part about being a desert, we were just in a cold place, now we should go into a hot one!” she finished excitedly and I saw her point.

“But what about the throw into the light thing?” I asked, but this time Knox spoke.

“I think I know what that means,” she said smiling wickedly as she held out a burst of blue flame and put the piece of paper over it.

“What are you doing?!” I screamed, but she just held up her finger for silence and I heard Taris whistle, “What? What is she-” I stopped when I saw the piece of paper that I could have sworn was blank before.

“A map.” Knox said triumphantly as she waved the paper in front of my face, and then made a pained expression and stopped waving.

“Huh, that’s weird.” I said looking at the picture, “If I didn’t know any better I’d say that looks like India.” And I heard a little cough from behind me.

“I think you’re right, Melody.” Semba said with a voice that made me wonder what we were getting into.