The Fire Sorceress

Chapter Seventeen

*Ember's POV*
I woke up from the fall on a wet, hard rock. Toboe looked as if she had recovered a while ago. "Morning," she grinned.

"What happened?" I asked groggily.

"Well, we slept through the night like normal people. Luckily the mobs are so dumb that they thought we were dead bodies! Ha, we dissolve into code and everyone knows that." Toboe took a sip of something that looked like hot chocolate. "I was thinking we could take a nice outing to Pixellaria." She noticed me staring at the mug and her grin widened. "I went to a village and they were, like, chocolate obsessed! I stole some packets of hot chocolate and some water, and of course food. So hot chocolate for everyone!" Toboe threw her arms in the air.

My smile faded. "Uh, where's Seto?" We glanced around our unintended campsite and saw Poof, Sora, and ourselves. But there was no sign of the Ender Sorcerer that had accompanied us. We facepalmed and followed the faint tracks in the sand. Soon there were almost no tracks and we were thoroughly confused--well, at least I was. Toboe just turned into a wolf and sniffed the sand.

"This way!" She barked, wagging her tail. I followed her, treading upon the sand lightly in case any creepers would detect us.

*Toboe's POV*

I cocked my head, confused. "This is where the trail ends," I whined, shifting back to a human.

"What?!" Ember cried, shocked. "But that doesn't make any sense!" We heard a chuckle and looked up wildly. Seto was on the roof of a house in the village we were in. "Seto, what's gotten into you?" Ember sighed.

Seto's eyes widened. "Chill out, I was just having a little fun!" He jumped down from the roof and I shifted to a wolf. My ears twitched and my nose quivered.

"Guys, don't freak out, but there's a giant sandstorm forming in the--," I sniffed again, "east! We need to get home now!" (A/N: Haters out there *cough* Toby *cough* that strive to make Minecraft stories more realistic, I am fully aware that there are no sandstorms in Minecraft currently. My stories are usually pretty much Minecraft in real life--all the mobs, characters, etc. in Minecraft, but with all of the conditions that real life has. Just clearing that up.)

Ember held up a hand. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow your horses! We can't go out there! It's at least a 2 hour walk! We'll never make it!" Seto nodded in agreement.

"I want to try something...just trust me." I shifted back and linked hands. I concentrated on my powers and tried to shift with them. I felt my body changing and heard their yips of surprise as they began to transform. I opened my eyes to find myself staring at a blue eyed, dark russet wolf with orangish streaks down her sides and a black wolf with a white muzzle and paws, purple eyes, and hints of violet in his fur. "Alright," I yipped in wolf language. "Let's go!" Ember and Seto took off after me, sniffing the trail wildly, their tails wagging in excitement. A rush of adrenaline coursed through us as we heard the howling winds. I flattened my ears to my head and took off like a dart.

"Toboe! Wait!" Seto howled. The dust was beginning to catch up to them. I gazed sadly at them, powerless.

"Toboe, please! We need you!" Ember whined. In a daze, I lost my control on their forms and they popped back to normal. Seto and Ember were running hard, but they were no match for Mother Nature. Ember tripped on a stone just as they were about to catch up. She grimaced and got to her feet, limping fearfully from the storm. "Go on without me!" She wailed against the wind. Sand swirled around her and Seto dashed into the storm.

"Are you insane?!" I yelped. He grabbed Ember's hand just as they were consumed by the storm. I bowed my head and let my tail droop as I loped towards the campsite.

*Ember's POV*

Wind buffeted me and I strained to see past the whirling grains of sand. I tried calling for my friends, and Seto raced towards me and grabbed my hand. We crouched down, the wind howling in our ears and sand pelting our backs. Nature unleashed its fury on us; the more powerful the wind, the more we screamed. Finally, after what seemed like days but was probably an hour, the storm abruptly came to a stop. Seto was lying beside me, trembling. We were in a dune of sand, red and blemished with flying sand marks. I just lied there, until Seto shakily got up. "Wake up, Ember," he croaked. I staggered to my feet, and we slowly stumbled to the campsite.

*Sora's POV*
A long, mournful howl pierced the silence that I had feared would overwhelm us. "Ah, that must be Toboe and Ember!" I got up and stretched. "Hey, guys, what happened..." My voice trailed off as I saw the somber look that wolf-Toboe was giving me. She shifted back and kicked a rock sadly.

"Seto and Ember got caught in a sandstorm. I didn't want to die myself, so I couldn't help them." Toboe obviously felt guilty about her cowardice and hung her head.

Grief washed over me, and I could see Poof was hit by it too. We both stepped backwards in agony. "But...Toboe, how could this happen?" I asked numbly.

"Fate unfolded itself upon us, and this time there was a solemn turn of events," Toboe said grimly.

***

After about an hour of grieving, we heard crackles in the sand. Ember and Seto were scorched, blistered, and hurt, but alive. They walked into camp, leaning on each other and immediately collapsed. "Well...at least they aren't dead..." Poof shrugged, wiping the tears from her eyes. Seto's body began to glow with a fierce white light as he fell asleep. Being a skilled sorcerer, his body was healing itself whilst he slept. Ember engulfed herself in white flames. We watched, mesmerized, as the white lights flickered across our friends bodies. They were unknowingly healing our pain by healing their own.