Fierce Of Flames (Wrath Of Gods Precursor 3)

Four: That Time When You Regret A Fight, If Only You Knew It Was The Last Fight

QASSIANNE:
I wasn't sure how long it was, how long we'd been running. From our father, from the government, from everyone. All we knew was to keep moving Northeast. We'd hit something eventually. Then again, it didn't help that we kept moving through grasslands and woods more than cities. To be fair, it wasn't like we couldn't hop from city to city till we got to D.C. It wasn't like we couldn't take the trains and or steal cars or anything like that. It was, well, I felt more comfortable in the trees than in the train stations. I not only felt more at peace, but felt like we had more ground to fight on. If we were caught in a train, in a moving tube, we were absolutely done for, and not to mention the people around us. And, there was no way, absolutely, no, way, we'd play subway surfers. There was no need to take the iPhone app game to actual levels. Especially since I had the lovely gift of fire.
Then of course, there was something else, there always was. Maybe it was just a part of my power over fire, but when I looked at myself, whether in a mirrored surface like water, or saw my shadow on the ground or against something really, I could've sworn I had a different face and body. Could've sworn I saw something that was even too believable for my eyes to see. Whenever Qass let me get that far on my speculations, he'd just say, "We'll figure it all out when we reach the Symbol." And so, I was stuck staring at my shadows, trying to see what I would see if I wasn't paying attention to it. Something, something, just, something. Oh, and another thing, that whole fire power, yeah, it's been getting stronger and stronger by the hour. Whereas I could only produce somewhat of a forest fire. Now, I could create a gigantic fire that could spread for miles on end. I felt it in my gut like a second stomach. A pit of roiling flames that couldn't be quenched. And, stranger still, I was able to heal with those flames too. After running from our father and his squad, Qass had gotten a bullet stuck in his gut. Yet, with a small fire, it hadn't hurt him, instead, it had healed him, pushing the bullet right out of the wound and numbing it so he wouldn't hurt as it healed.
I dumped a pile of logs in the middle of Qass's fire pit, and smirked. I breathed a breath and fire poured from my mouth in a dramatic swell. "Seriously Qassie, do you have to?" "What, I never got to try that before, I saw it on Avatar so I wanted to try it. And it worked." "Ok, first off, when in Avatar do you ever see that?" "Um, you see Zuko breathe fire to keep warm, you definitely see Korra breathe fire in the third season of the Legend Of Korra. And well, all through out the show you see all the fire benders do that at one point or another." Qass sighed dramatically. "Besides, it got the job done didn't it?" "I guess." Said Qassian. "Did you take care of our trail?" "Yes." "Did you plant the mines?" Qass just stared. I stuck out my tongue. "Ok fine fine fine, no land mines, you always suck the fun out of everything." "Wasn't our plan not to commit murder?" "I mean, a few dead bodies can brighten up anyone's day don't you know?" "Why are you so macabre?" "Because a bit of macabre can brighten up anyone's day—"Forget I said anything."
Qassian sighed as he sat near the fire, his eyes on the forest around us. "We do need to venture into a city though, at some point." "No," I said. "Qassie we don't have a choice, we need to if we're going to be able to figure out anything relevant. The day of the week, what month this is, where, we, are." "No Qass." I said. "I know where we're going, we're going in the right direction, that's all." "Qassie," my brother's voice was gentle but clearly stated no arguing. "We need knowledge, we need to find a way to contact the indigo so they can find us. We need to know things we can't just assume we're going in the right direction." "We're doing fine Qass." I said, my heart beginning to pound in my chest as the mere thought of traveling back into a city terrified me.
"Qassianne how are we fine? We're running out of food, we barely have any water, and we can only trust that we're going Northeast on what, a compass? We don't have one. Our phones are dead and have been. We need help Qassie and a lot of it." "Just fucking trust me already." I snapped spinning away from him as the fire lashed and snapped in response. "Why can't you just ever trust me on anything huh? Ever just trust my judgement, my call, my theories? You always have to question everything—"I'm just trying to look out for us Sissy, we have barely anything left, we can't just keep moving in one direction on just a hunch if it's even the right direction—"YOU JUST DON'T TRUST ME DO YOU?" I yelled as the terror spiked even more. "Qassie enough—"No YOU ENOUGH. YOU NEVER WANTED TO DO THIS WITH ME DID YOU, YOU NEVER WANTED TO GO TO THE SYMBOL WITH ME EVER?" My terror lashed out and the fire roared in response climbing higher.
"Well maybe I would if you weren't so bullheaded and would just listen to me for once. If you'd just trust I know what's best for both of us. If you'd stop treating everything like a joke and be serious for once, stop being so immature about everything, maybe if you hadn't pulled that stupid fucking ass stunt all those years ago maybe I could trust your judgement, and then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation." "So, that's what it is, all this time." I said, my voice icy and quiet. "That's where it all is huh?" Qass's eyes were wide with shock, as if he couldn't believe his words, well that would make two of us. I wanted to lash out with a huge breath of flames, just spit it out over the fire. Instead, I took a breath and the fire rose and flew into my mouth. I swallowed it, feeling no pain what so ever. "Start your own fucking fire." I said coldly. "Come find me when you're done being a cruel bastard." I stalked into the trees, needing no help in the coming darkness to find my way at all.
I kept moving, finding the terrain just fine to walk over, easing through the trees with no sound at all, easily avoiding fallen twigs and leaves. Also, needing no help in hiding my own tracks thank you very much. I should've known all this time that he'd still hold that shit against me. Should've known he'd hold that over my fucking head. He couldn't even had the balls to tell me that, no had to bring that up now while we were arguing. "Well fine, guess we'll just have to travel there separately, you can go into the damn city yourself and find out all the details you want. I'm not setting foot in any besides Washington." I punched a passing tree, and, the, tree, shuttered, and, began, to, fall. Mouth gaping wide, I stared. I looked down at my fist, seeing no scratches, feeling no broken bones, nothing. "Well fuck me." I murmured.
I stared at the fallen tree, a huge thick tree that shouldn't have been that easy to make fall. Yet I had. I turned and began to keep walking, my head racing. I wasn't sure how much time passed, but I was sure that I was being followed. I sensed them, distant, very, very, distant eyes on the back of my neck. Trying to spot me within the terrain. I smirked and began to pick up the pace, leaping over small bushes and weaving around trees. I felt my hunters begin to pick up the pace behind me. I started into an easy bounding jog, a kind of run I hadn't done in forever, but a run that felt so easy and normal. Alive, I felt so fucking alive and untouchable, unstoppable.
I leapt over a huge bush and snickered as I kept flying through the trees, leaping as I had never done before, bounding through the undergrowth, feeling my feet barely touch the ground. I was a part of the forest, the forest was my home, it was me. I flipped over a stream and landed, turning to face the Northeast. I flew through the trees, bounding easily through the woods. I could barely hear them now. Hear the two that were chasing me, their footsteps not as steady as mine. My father's men, which meant he was after Qass. Regret stabbed my heart at the idea that Qass was on his own, but it was overruled by the hatred and anger he'd caused. I spun almost lackadaisically around a tree, and something icy and cold pressed against the back of my neck. I froze, mid bound, and sensed it under my feet. A small razor thin wire set across the path. If I had bounded like I had been doing, I'd have landed right on it with my weight, and though I was fast, I wouldn't have been fast enough to escape the trap. Gritting my teeth in rage at the trick, I took a slowl step forward, and leapt over the wire, only to find more and more the deeper I trekked.
Cautiously, I moved through the trees, feeling the traps all around me now, and sensing my hunters gaining on me now. As if they knew I was in their mine field and they wanted to see the trap I was in. Gritting my teeth in rage, I started to move faster. Trying to sense the wires as I bounded over them. In mid leap a gunshot lashed out and I twitched in mid air and almost landed on another wire. I leapt up and grabbed a branch, and felt the wire as my wrist slammed into it. Something whipped around my ankle and lifted me upside down. I held in my scream as bullets lashed out in a signal.

PANDORA:
I woke with a gasp as the dream faded. I rolled out of bed and hurried to my dresser, the lines of the prophecy roiling through my head. I searched in the dark blindly till I found the crown Wenzi had outfitted for me and the glasses to go with it. A month, a month since the prophecy was given to me, and a month of training with Wenzi. Now, now I saw the very thing Brooklyn warned. "I found you, I know where you are." After dressing, I set the crown on to my head, and the glasses in place. I didn't have a pendant, but, I knew, exactly, where, I could get one. I made it to the reception desk and a girl asked, "Are you ready?" I nodded, knowing Brooklyn would've warned her. There was still a part of me that really didn't want this, didn't want anything to do with any of this. But lives were at stake, more than one, I had to do something, right? The girl lifted a pendant off the wall and handed it to me. I snapped it around my neck and turned to face the wall, and paused, as I saw Wenzi waiting there.
She had her arms crossed, and her armor on, yet I could feel the readiness in her. And, another figure stood by her side, shorter, though Wenzi was small, so she couldn't be but a few inches, maybe five feet even. But her body was strange. Where Wenzi was a half-blood, so she could pass for human, this one, had to be full-blooded, her horns curled back from her hairline, purple eyes, different from Kitana's, stared with deep knowledge. And, her dracon body, was completely purple, so purple it was almost black. Her armor was fitted to accommodate her wings and tail. Wenzi beckoned me forward. "I wanted you to meet her before this day came, I wanted you to learn something from her I can't teach you, because I feel you'd be able to achieve it, but we're out of time. They need your help, and you'll need us both." I opened my mouth, ready to ask questions. "Pandora, meet Azule, Azule, Pandora." THe dracon nodded and said, "We should leave, now. After you Pandora." Her accent was exotic, sounded like Italian, but more, well, harsh. Nodding, and ignoring the nerves in my stomach, I reached out, and remembered where the girl was trapped. Remembering how the portals worked, I had Wenzi and Azule touch my shoulders, and, summoning a portal, stepped, through.