The Fire Inside

18. Through Fire and Water

"Ahhh!"

Varun, Maria, and Emmalynn jumped into the darkening pit. As they fell into the void, wind rushed past their ears. They looked down and began to see an ominous red light encompassing the three. Maria tried to move towards Emmalynn and grabbed onto the little girl. She looked to make sure Lynn was ok, but realized that she was laughing.

"You're enjoying this?" Maria asked, flabbergasted.

"YOLO!!!" She hollered back before letting out a hearty laugh.

Varun stares at the two in concern, "Are you high?"

"Do I seem high?" Maria countered.

"Of course I'm not high! I'm just feeling low!" Emmalynn started with a high pitched squeal and brought it down to a low grumble.

Maria and Varun exchanged looks.

"Now I'm concerned," Maria said.

"Lynn! Cut it out! You do realize we could potentially lose our lives, right?" Varun screamed against the wind that muffled their sounds.

She just giggled. Maria noticed the red light fading away till they were shrouded in a murky darkness. She heard Emmalynn squeal and whimper. She tried to wave her hands around and caught two arms.

"Maria? That you?"

"Yeah. Is the other one Lynn?" Maria asked, tapping one arm then the other.

"It's me," Emmalynn whimpered.

"Guys! Brace yourself!" Maria hollered.

They all clenched their hands and tucked in their head in anticipation for the hard fall.

*splash*

They fell into water—least they hoped it was water. Maria surfaced followed by Varun and Emmalynn. Varun splashed a bit, but got his footing. Emmalynn's choppy hair was plastered to her face while Varun brushed all of his back.

"You're soaked," Maria observed.

"Yeah. You're right. I thought I'd be completely dry after falling into the water, but I guess I got wet. Wow," Varun deadpanned.

Maria rolled her eyes before realizing where they were. They had fallen into a huge lake that was surrounded by what looked like a crystalline cavern. The rock had gems gleaming within the cracks and for whatever reason, the lake floor was shining with bright neon lights. This sent shivers down Maria's back. She didn't want to think what lived in this cavern. She heard another rumble.

"I t-think we need to get out of here," Maria stammered, "and fast!"

~~~~~

The rumbling wouldn't stop. Jimin kept bracing herself for a sudden drop of rubble, but the sounds were annoyingly erratic. Julien felt a pebble hit his head. He looked up to see a somewhat larger ceiling that bore a huge rock. It was held by a slab of wood which, he noted, seemed ancient. Jimin, Who'd walked ahead without him, stopped and made her way back.

"What's wrong?"

She peaked into the ceiling space and gasped.

"Julien! We gotta move!"

Julien saw what she did. There was a small cat-like creature eating away at the wood.

"Run!" He yelled.

Isadora, who had been resting in puppy form, jumped out of Jimin's arms and dashed forward. Julien pushed Jimin to make her run faster, which evidently made her faster than him. He groaned before running forward. They heard the rumble of rock again and watched the huge boulder drop from the large crevice. It began rolling its way towards the unfortunate kids. Jimin's eyes widened as she pushed her legs to run further. She could hear Julien's pained gasps right behind her. Isadora began to slow down, panting hard. Jimin bent down and swooped her up without stopping for a second. She watched as Julien ran ahead of her.

"You're slowing down!" He cried.

Jimin, realizing something, slowed down further. She planted her feet flat on the floor and turned around. Julien stopped as well, but kept shouting at her to move.

"C'mon! Jimin! What are you doing! We need you to live! Don't risk it!"

Isadora quickly turned human.

"It's ok. I think I know what she's planning on doing, but we need to move!"

Julien and Isadora moved back a bit. Isadora clung onto Julien in hopes of keeping the young man safer. They looked towards Jimin who was standing still. She had her legs out, crouching. Her arms seemed like she was ready to catch something. They could feel confidence radiating off of her. Without warning, Jimin shot out a huge flame from her palms. It went and burned right through the aging rock, but the boulder wouldn't stop. It kept barreling towards them.

"Jimin!" Julien cries aloud.

He noticed that he had tears streaming down his face.

"Julien! Don't distract her!" Isadora scolded.

Another flame. Another attempt. Again and again. Finally, Jimin let out a fire larger than the space. Julien felt the hairs on his arms singe. He gasped as all the oxygen in the air seemed to move towards the girl enveloped in flames. She had the fire dancing around her as it lashed out to strike the earth. There was so much dust around them that Julien and Isadora couldn't even see their close friend. When the smog cleared, they saw Jimin standing straight with her hands by her side. The young girl fell to her knees and almost fell on her side, but Julien had ran up to her by then. He grabbed her shoulders and kneeled in front of her. He watched as the orange flames in her eyes dissipated to the opal black he was used to seeing.

"Did it work?" Jimin weakly asked.

Julien laughed, "Of course you idiot!"

Jimin sighed in relief but then realized what Julien had called her, "I'm not an idiot."

"You're a genius!" Isadora squealed. She wrapped her arms around the exhausted girl.

"C-Can I sleep?"

Julien nodded. He kneeled down and Isadora helped him get Jimin onto his back. Jimin didn't waste a second before curling against him. That was too much work and she was exhausted.

"Will she be ok?" Julien asked Izzy.

"Yeah. She'll be just fine. That was the first time she'd overused her power like that, but she can handle it."

"How do you know?"

"Boy! I was in her head! I literally know everything that went through her mind and she hasn't exactly changed."

"Then tell me one thing."

"Ok, what do you want to know?"

"What does she think about me?"