Globe Tracers 3: Heritage of Triad

Chapter 6: Genesis of a Trickster: First Deal

Xao:

September 8th, 1860.

We fought off bears, got people out of collapsing buildings, and even talked down an angry local tribe. We were heroes to the people. Many offered to just take us in-but even so, Darius was firm that we survive on our own, and after that day, I felt the same way. I had a respect for my own abilities, for myself. We did take odd jobs, but since we had saved so many people, our money wasn't really good anywhere, if anyone could manage it, they just gave us anything reasonable.

As the years passed, we made our home two stories tall... because Regent didn't want to stop.

That day I woke up at dawn, sleepily rolling over in my cot. I looked out my bedroom window and to the west to see a curious sight. Like the sun was rising on the wrong side of the planet.

It took moments for my mind to suddenly "click" and the message to reach my mouth. "WILDFIRE!"

Darius and Regent were up in seconds.

"We gotta stop it!" Regent shouted throwing on a jacket.

"What are ya gonna do, throw a rock at it?" Darius shouted. "C'mon, we have to raise the alarm!" I quickly grabbed a satchel Darius had sitting near his cot. "We can't grab anything bud, we gotta just g-"

I showed him the satchel. "What? Fires works DON'T solve everything now?" He smiled at me.

The explosions succeeded in getting the settlers awake. The farmers and city folks screamed and cried, but they were awake and moving out of their homes.

As the citizens tore out of the city, we watched in a field. "This whole area is gonna be kindling Darius, we gotta go," Regent said.

"Hold on!" Darius demanded. "We can run almost three hundred miles per hour, this isn't a problem for us. If it was a flash fire it would be here by now. Calm down..."

"Darius...it could pick up speed at any moment. The people are moving to a desert area not far away, where there's nothing to burn," I said, touching his shoulder. "Let's join them."

"There are two more families..." he said grabbing my hand. "Two more families still in there. We're waiting to see them out... I can't just leave."

I looked at the approaching flames- I could feel the heat as they got closer and closer- like a wall of fire moving straight for us and the town- with hundreds of buildings made of nothing but wood and straw.

I looked at the town, four people running out like rabbits from a den of wolves. "One more..." I said.

As I watched three more people came out of the town, a man pulling a woman by the arms as she screamed to go back, fire already consuming several buildings. "Derrick!" she screamed into the town as he kept pulling her out.

My eyes grew. I knew that family. "Derrick is a toddler... what's John doing!?"

"Saving what he can," Darius said. "Get those three to the open area..." he tossed a rock in the air and caught it. "I'm saving what I can."

"Their home is already in fla-" Regent tried to shout, but Darius was already gone, a blur of colors leading straight the town, which now was becoming an inferno.

Regent sighed, myself shooting over to John's family. I stopped just on their right, Maria starting to fight her husband. "I WILL NOT LEAVE HIM!" She screamed, slapping him so hard he actually let go and dropped to the ground. Regent appeared in her path.

"Get out of here. Darius has this."

John got up and took her by the arm again, the woman submitting as he pulled her and their five-year-old daughter away, moving after the crowd to the desert region not far away.