Eternal Flame

~1~

Loud voices shouting over each other drew Trevor Wayne from a deep sleep. He snapped his eyes open to see two familiar figures standing by the window. He blinked multiple times, his eyes heavy with sleep. After a moment, his eyes finally managed to adjust, and saw that the two figures standing by the window were his two childhood friends, Tara and Victoria "Tori" Lewis.

"It's happening again!" Tara was crying, so much fear laced in her voice that it sent chills down Trevor's spine. "He's coming! He's coming!"

"Tara calm down!" Tori snapped and shoved a duffle bag into her sister's arms. "Calm down. Calm down, dammit!"  The fear that was laced in Tori's voice told Trevor she was issuing the order more at herself than at her sister.

Trevor scrambled out of his sleeping bag and rushed forward, stumbling slightly, his still half-asleep brain trying to process what was going on. He opened his mouth to ask when a flickering orange light coming from outside the window grabbed his attention. His breath caught in his throat when he saw the raging fire that had the little forest that was surrounding their cabin engulfed in flames. And it was heading their way at an alarming rate.

Tori shoved a duffle bag into his arms. "Pack everything you can. Quickly!"

Watching how fast the fire was moving, Trevor threw the bag down and grabbed both sister's by their arms and dragged them to the door. "No time! We have to move!"

They ran into the hallway and nearly collided with the other two Lewis siblings, Christian and Skylar.

"Fire--" Trevor began saying.

"I know," Christian cut him off. "We have to get the hell out of here!"

The five shapeshifters barrelled down the hallway, through the kitchen, and out the back door at a speed of light. The fire had reached the front of the cabin, and it was heading towards the back of the small building at an alarming rate. If they'd delayed just a few more seconds, they'd have been trapped in the flames.

"There's no time to run through the woods," Christian shouted over the roar of ever growing flames. "We'll have to fly."

No one protested; the fire was growing closer.

A silver mist swirled around each of the five shapeshifters as they underwent their transformations. By the time the mist faded away, there were five birds, each of a different species, that stood in the place where the five teenagers had stood just mere moments before. The birds soared into the night, leaving behind the cabin that was now completely absorbed in flames.

By the time the five birds found a safe place to land, the sun was rising over the mountains, showing promise of a new day.

Trevor had always loved getting up early at the crack of dawn to watch the sun rise, the rising sun always giving him comfort though he wouldn't admit to anybody, but the events that had recently taken place left him too tired and too wary to care.

They landed by a stream in a new forest territory as far away as they could before the use of their wings had reached their limits.

After scanning the area to make sure that there were no humans around, they shifted back into their human forms. Even in the middle of the woods, you had to be aware of who was around. You could never be too careful.

Once everyone was in human form, they kneeled beside the stream, cupped their hands in the cool water, brought their hands up to their mouths, and drank hungrily, all of them tired and dehydrated from their long journey.

After everyone was done drinking, Trevor wiped the water droplets from his mouth and asked, "Is everyone okay?"

Tori snapped her head around in his direction and snarled, "Yeah, Trevor, we're all just peachy keen. Our cabin's been burned down, we don't have any food--"

"Tori, don't take it out of him," Tara said sharply, shooting her sister a glare.

Trevor wasn't mad, knowing that Tori sometimes had a hard time controlling her emotions and was scared.

Tori took a deep breath and reached over to pat Trevor on the shoulder, her face apologetic. "Sorry, Trevor. I shouldn't be lashing out at you. I'm just--well, we're all scared as hell."

"It's okay," Trevor assured her and gave her a small smile, which she returned. "The question was meant to ask if anyone was injured."

"I'm not hurt," Skylar said softly.

"I'm fine," said Tara as she reached down to get more water.

"Ditto," said Tori.

"We're all okay," said Christian with an affirmative nod.

Trevor watched as Christian narrowed his eyes as he scanned the area they were currently in. "I have no idea where we are, though."

"As long as that Caius guy can't find us, it doesn't matter," Tori said, reaching back down to get some more water, but Christian shook his head.

"It does matter. We need to know if we're in another state, if the human population is anywhere near us--there's several factors that'll dictate how we live."

"And people back home will wonder what happened to us," Skylar pointed out.

Trevor let the conversation flow over him, his mind taking him back to three days ago, which seemed like another lifetime. . .