The Dragon Games

Fire Run

Rule #3: no hydras arrive before final week

A scream rang out from the woods. We all went silent. Then another scream rang out, and this time it was obviously Bianca's voice. I broke into a sprint. The boys quickly followed, but before long, the air thickened with smoke, making it difficult to see or breathe. 

It coated my mouth and burned my eyes, and the deeper into the trees we ran, the heavier the smoke became, and the hotter the temperature. The fire was spreading fast. Brilliant flames of red and orange peaked from the tree tops, rapidly coming closer.

"Raven!" Gordo shouted. "Turn around!"

"Bianca is still out there!" I yelled back. 

She was far too valuable to give up, the only person in our group I could kind of tolerate. I might even dare to say I did not mind her. Suddenly, the grass in front of us caught flame, engulfing our pathway in fire. I made to jump over it, but Gordo caught my arm, hauling my back.

"Look!" he shouted, pointing at the skyline. A wall of flames consumed the marshes in front of us. "If we didn't turn around soon, we'll get trapped in it!"

"Better find Bianca quickly, then," I said.

I stepped forward, but Gordo tightened his grip on my arm, hauling me back. I turned around, my eyes flinty and narrow. He had a spilt second to panic, then I used my Divine to shove him into Elio's chest. I faced the fire again, crossed my arms across my chest, and flung them to the sides. 

The flames diverged in unison with the motion, forming a walk way a hundred feet long, framed with walls of fire twenty feet high. Gordo's mouth dropped open. Even Elio looked shocked as I walked through the fire.

I would have ran, but my head pounded like a bitch, and my legs trembled so hard I almost fell over. Suddenly, a flaming tree timbered right in front of my path, crashing against the ground in an explosion of sparks. 

I staggered back, narrowly avoiding a gust of fire to the face, and lost my grip on the divine. My strength returned, but so did the fire, snapping back into place to once again block my path.

"Okay!" Gordo shouted. "Time to go!"

"He needs me!" I shouted.

"You'll get us all killed!"

I stared into the heat of the fire, so bright it was almost blinding. I have lied, cheated, stolen, intimidated, and committed more crimes than I could count, but there was one line I had never crossed... 

I took one more look at the fire, then I swallowed the bile rising up my throat and turned around, following Gordo and Elio away from the camp site. It was only then that I realised my slip of tongue, saying he when I should have said she.

—------

We've been running for a few hours now, and the trees behind us have become a wall of torches, their smoke drowning out the stars in ugly black and grey streaks – smoke that showed no signs of slowing down. Elio grabbed my arm, jerking his head to the side, and I followed his stare just in time to see Gordo duck behind a bush. 

Normally Elio never went out of his way to touch me, but since the fire had long stolen our voices, touch was our best form of communication. Even tying torn cloth around our mouths couldn't save our throats, the smoke cooking us from the inside out.

"How much longer should we give him?" I rasped. 

As Gordo emptied his guts in the leaves, Elio and I caught our breath, doubled over on our hands and knees.

"Our lead on the fire won't last for long. We can't afford more than a few..." Elio's eyes unfocused, his eyes narrowing at the alarmed look on Gordo's face. 

I whipped around to see what Gordo was staring at so hard and spotted four figures running out of the smoke.

In an instant, all three of us were on our feet, weapons at the ready. A moment later, four Stewards emerged from the fog. One lagged behind, sporting a twisted ankle. The other three – tall, fit boys – were armed to the tooth. 

Bandanas covered their nose and mouth, and soot clung around their eyes, darkening their faces like masks. Elio and Gordo braced for combat, but I shoved between them to stand in front. I recognised the boy in the middle by his eyes alone.

"Atlas?" I exclaimed, yanking my mouth cover down to reveal my face.

Atlas lowered his sword, doing a double take. Then his eyes crinkled into a grin. "Raven bloody Black!"

Elio looked between me and Atlas, his sword wavering. "Do you know each other?"

"Not really," I said, just as Atlas grinned wide and declared that I was the love of his life. 

Apparently, not even the threat of burning alive could sober him up. Neither group seemed to know how to react to that, especially when I did not protest. Sure, I'd be his wife, his prince charming, his whatever got us out of this fire soonest.

"Are you a sight for sore eyes," Atlas said. "What say we lower our arms and escape the fire together as friends?"

Elio glanced at me. "You trust him?"

Not unless his name was Samuel Crenshaw. I nodded anyway.

Gordo did not lower his sword. He narrowed his eyes at Atlas, his bottom lip sparkly with vomit. "Do you have any water?"

"Uh, yes?"

Gordo lowered his sword. Just like that, three became seven. And the further we ran, the more our numbers grew. The fire had spread far and wide, herding the other groups scattered across the marshes into our path. 

Most of them were too injured or exhausted to reach for their weapons, and the ones that did quickly gave up when they realised that numbers were not on their side. Atlas became our defacto leader, running at the front of the pack and steering the way. 

He carried two injured pledge's bags for them but kept a steady pace as the hours wore on. That is, until we reached a hill. Atlas stopped at the top, his face going slack at the sight before him. 

When the other pledges reached his place, they also froze, the wall of fire roaring behind them forgotten in an instant. I paused, taking a second to call the divine to my fingertips. Then I ran up the rest of the way up, ready for a fight.

The top of the hill gave a clear view of miles of the arena. A few miles south of the marshes, a row of trees had been demolished, their trunks flattened into the ground to form a pathway leading to a huge black dragon keeled over on its side. 

Its jaw had fallen open, revealing rows upon rows of midnight black teeth. It was Blacktooth, the crown jewel, the most dangerous, most coveted beast in the arena... and its guts were spilled across the forest floor.

"It died," a Windsor gasped.

"No," Atlas said, his wide eyes tracking Blacktooth's wounds. "Something killed it."