Secret Fire

Chapter The Second

Nia wasn't sure what happened. She felt herself Being thrown against a tree then being carried off...Blackness met her and she fell into its embrace.

When Nia came to a wind was roaring around her. Her hair flew about her face, stinging it. Nia slowly stood but paused halfway up from nausea. She narrowed her eyes to see better in the dim, weird light. It was dark when it wasn't meant to be. Like an eclipse, or a storm. She saw a mountain top scene before her. Nia looked and saw a forest below the ledge she stood on. Something shoved her from behind sending her reeling to her knees. A boom from the roiling, rolling, heaving, angry clouds shattered the steady roar of the wind. Cobalta appeared from the mist swirling around the mountain. Her dark hair was flying about her face in a thick, black smoke. She was tall and lean like a cat. She wore a loose cloak with a fur lined collar that swished and confused whatever she was attacking, though didn't hinder her an any way. She had to shout to be heard above the roar of the howling winds. "Hello Nia. My name is Cobalta. I'm going to have to make you disappear. Permanently" She broke off and drew a wicked knife. She lovingly traced a finger down it and drew blood. She then turned her slit gaze to Nia. "This will hurt you...but it hurts me to." Cobalta lunged then, screaming murder. Nia flung herself away and the knife plunged into the ground where she had been moments before. But as the knife fell Nia also saw a drop fall from the sky. It landed in her outstretched palm. Nia leapt, fell heavily and twisted sideways. She felt as if bolts of electricity coursed through her body. Cobalta had turned back to her. Her eyes glinted of the light of something unseen. The skies had unleashed they're full fury now. Wind and rain danced as one sending they're terrible fingers to touch the earth. Huge hulking beats growled in the mountain shadows, eyes glowing fangs dripping. "If I don't get you the Nixus will." Cobalta said in measured, even tones, pointing at the ominous shadows, her cold eyes boring holes into Nia. "Cobalta... Now listen, I have no idea what is going on and I just came here!" Nia tried to reason. But Cobalta again lunged with an unstoppable fury her face reflecting the angry sky's. Nia didn't think as Cobalta lunged. She screamed and raised her hands to protect herself. She had turned her head away, stomach tightening for the pain of a knife sliding into soft flesh. Cobalta let loose a yelp, and Nia looked, shocked to see her a good ten feet away on the ground as if hurled there. Cobalta slowly rose to her feet like a cat and stared at Nia. "Ah... You have it also. I should have known." Cobalta thrust her hands in front of herself. Her hands became red hot for one moment before fire was racing at Nia. She reacted, out of instinct to survive her mind still not comprehending Cobalta's power. She dove into the ground, and even as her shoulder hit the dirt sending it flying, her arms landed in front of herself. The inferno Cobalta had given to Nia bounced off the mountain a flew back to its owner. Cobalta leapt and flipped of the side of the mountain her wet hair flipping back. The ball of heat collided with the mountain side sending debris flying into the rain. Cobalta twisted using the shock waves for momentum and flying for Nia. Nia lunged at Cobalta diving for the dirt as a flame shot from Cobalta's hands and singed the tips of Nia 's hair. She felt Cobalta pass over her. Nia turned onto her back seeing Cobalta twist in air, landing on her feet. " Nia." She said raising her head. Her dark hair was wet and limp, covering some of her face. She had one knee on the ground the other up. Her one hand on the ground the other flung behind her. She looked up at Nia. " Go on. Kill me. I can't stop you." Nia looked at her. "No." "Why not? "She whispered her head sagging just a bit. "I can't Cobalta." Nia lifted herself up as Cobalta collapsed to the ground, her head sending drops flying. Red drops. Nia stood there panting. She held her hands and looked at them. Cobalta groaned and rolled over. At the sound Nia turned to look at her. Her eyes were glassy and huge gash ran down her skull ending above her right eye. Nia struggled for a moment. She was alive! The Nixus seemed to have been scared off by the flames being tossed around, but Cobalta was wounded, and by the look of the gash she would need someone to patch her up. A long list of remedies sang through her mind, in a jumbling waterfall, clambering for attention. Nia clutched at her head and grit her teeth against the tidal wave of information. All of it did not bode well for Cobalta. Dust flew around Nia as the rain battered the ground. Nia sighed and picked up her body, dragging it to the cliffs edge. Down below she saw a forest and guessed that that's where the tree top village lay. If she could get to the village! Surely they had healers there. But then Nia remembered what Cobalta was. She groaned. Silt had said that Cobalta's Trainer had been hated by them for being a man hunter. She looked around at the edges of the mountain but found nothing that Cobalta could have climbed up. She must be a mountain goat to climb that cliff. Nia bit her lip. "But with me on her back? Impossible. Wait... something... a roof? Oh Cobalta's castle must be built in the side of this mountain... a trap door! I need a door!" Nia shook Cobalta. " Cobalta! I need a trap door! Where is it?" She shouted into her face, so she could be heard over the roaring winds. Cobalta's eyelids flickered, she gasped and clenched her teeth, hissing with pain. Nia raised her soaking, stinging head to look at the cliff faces walls. The rain kept pounding and Nia found comfort in the fact that her heart beat with the same rhythm. She ran her hand over the hard, cold, and in some places, sharp stone. She finally found a place where it seemed unnaturally smooth and then a tiny hole. She pushed her finger in and the door swung in. Nia breathed with relief. But it caught in her throat. The passage was thin, low and winding, not to mention pitch-black. Nia shuddered and put a hand to her face. It came away red. Nia put the other hand to her face and the blood became less, so she must have cut her hand while feeling for the door. Nia looked back at Cobalta's still form laying, limp while the wind howled and the rain pounded the dirt around her. Nia raised her head for a sound was starting farther up the mountain. "A steady whoosh... Water...Flood! " Nia leapt into action. She raced to Cobalta grabbed her fur liner to her cloak and began to drag her towards the door. The whoosh was now an angry roar that ate anything in its path. "Anything in its path. Anything in its path. Anything in its path." Nia thought as she dragged Cobalta to the door. The force of the water hitting the plateau carried them into the tunnel. Nia slammed into the hard cold stone, nearly dislocating her shoulder. Stars flashed before her eyes and dizziness and nausea crept in. Nia blinked trying to clear her spinning head. Nia heard the water slam the door right off its hinges. She groaned and stared at the water fall not five feet away. The tunnel was nearly pitch. But Nia could see a flickering light father down the tunnel which she guessed was a torch. The darkness surrounded her. Cobalta's breathing was shallow and ragged. Nia breathed in, and coughed when the centuries old dust hit her lungs. She was sure to breath carefully after that. Nia trekked deeper into the tunnel leaving Cobalta in the tunnel away back. Nia used her hands to guide her through the tunnels turns and winding passages. As Nia made her way through crumbling passage she looked both ways for turn-offs, but the passage seemed to be a long, giant worm hole. Nia jumped as the water lapped at her feet. She turned to look back expecting a flood to rush in and sweep her away. But the cascaded poured over the door and only a trickle made its way into the passage. Nia walked back and dragged/carried Cobalta's limp form to the tunnels end. The water was coming faster now. Nia struggled deeper, deeper. It began to slope dangerously now. Nia came to a twisted stair case. She dragged Cobalta as gently as she could. The water was following, a relentless stalker. Nia tried to keep ahead of it and not slip on the stone stairs. Suddenly she heard it. A rushing, wet sound. " I really hate water." Nia inwardly groaned. She finally made it to the bottom, and a door! Nia fumbled with the handle. Her stiff, numb hands refused to work! The blood on them made them slip and make the handle slippery. "Come on! The water!" random water splashed from above like the buckets in the sky where soaking them. The water was on the stairs. Nia screamed then finally, finally the door opened. Water was at their heels and Nia slammed the door behind her. The shock of the water jolted down her arms but she held the door firm. Nia couldn't hold it for long. She knew that. The water was just too strong. She looked then sighed in relief as she saw a bolt. Nia braced her back to the door then pulled the bolt down. Jumping out of the way just in time. She turned, wet and weary, to see that they had come out in a room with roaring fire in a fire place with stone lions on either side. Bookshelves ran from one wall to the other and a four poster bed made up the opposite wall. Only one, long window on the book wall. Right in the middle. Nia lay Cobalta on the bed and set to work...