Where are you, Mattias?

Amara sat alone beside the fire, watching the darkened, empty clearing while anxiety gnawed at her. Night had fallen hours ago, and Evander was asleep in his bedroll close by. They’d agreed to sleep in turns, and after some argument Amara had secured the first watch. She was still shaken by the incident with the wolf, and was adamant about being the first to stay awake, doubting she’d be able to fall asleep even after her shift was over.

She lifted her gaze to the stars, searching for new constellations that might set her mind at ease. Nothing immediately stood out to her, which itself felt like a sign. Her future was completely up in the air.

What does it mean if the wolf really is Shaitan? she wondered anxiously. Why would he come for us personally?

The Seeker had told stories about the Seraphim and their children many times in her sermons, and Amara now felt like a complete fool for never paying any attention to them. If there was an answer to all the insanity that’d happened to her recently, it probably would’ve been in the scriptures.

An awful feeling had been clawing its way to the surface of her thoughts ever since she’d first sat down for watch. She’d been trying to suppress it, but with her mind fixated on the wolf it’d become unavoidable. What if the reason she hadn’t seen Mattias recently was because Shaitan had already gotten to him?

She squeezed her eyes shut, pushing down emotion. Please don’t let it be true.

Even after the revelation that he’d been aware this whole time, Amara still couldn’t help but think of him as both her pet and best friend. He’d been a source of joy for such a long time, and she simply wasn’t ready for that to change. But everything that’d happened so far felt like exactly that—her life had changed so suddenly and so much that it was hard to keep track of everything.

Sighing, she opened her eyes, and decided to scan the clearing for the millionth time. The forest was alarmingly dark at night, and the campfire beside her cast dancing shadows across the grass and nearby trees. Deformed black shapes bounced wildly across the trunk of the old oak tree, wavering to and fro like wheat beneath a steady breeze. Above the quiet crackling of the campfire, crickets chirped loudly all around the clearing, providing a cheerful sort of narration to the brooding darkness.

The air was pleasantly warm beside the fire, and it probably would’ve been comfortable enough for her to easily fall asleep if the thought of the wolf wasn’t enough to keep her wide awake. Somehow she knew it wasn’t done with them. Everything about it was too worrying for her to even consider the idea that Evander’s stones had scared it off for good.

A bird with telepathy, a massive wolf, soldiers and dead crops, she mused. There has to be some kind of connection between them all, but I don’t see it. At least, not yet.

The chirping of the crickets suddenly died down, leaving only the sounds of the breeze blowing gently through the trees and the quiet roar of the fire. Amara looked about the clearing with alarm, desperately hoping the crickets had gone quiet for some innocuous reason.

A single twig snapped somewhere in the forest behind her. She instantly leapt to her feet, spinning to face the noise, and her heart nearly stopped. In the shadows barely ten feet away, two bright yellow eyes peered at her from the pitch black darkness.

A bestial growl sounded from the trees the moment her gaze met the one in the darkness. The wolf slowly sauntered out of the shadows towards her, its white coat gradually illuminated by the orange glow of the fire.

Amara raised a shaking hand to the fire, readying herself to use her power, and hissed at Evander’s sleeping form.

“Evan! Evan!!!”

He reacted slowly at first, turning over to cast a bleary-eyed look at Amara, but after following her gaze he jumped to his feet and hurried to her side.

“How long’s it been there?”

Before she could respond the wolf let out an aggressive bark, then broke into a run, charging towards them. Evander threw something at it the moment it set off, but this time the wolf dodged out of the way with perfect ease.

With only a few feet remaining between them, Amara sent her flames at the wolf. A streamer of fire erupted from the campfire, snaking through the grass towards her target. Elation briefly passed through her when it looked as though her flames had made contact, but at the very last moment the wolf leapt high into the air, bypassing them before she could react.

Evander pushed Amara away just in time to save her from the wolf’s pounce, placing himself within striking distance. As Amara staggered backwards, the wolf snarled and lunged for him. He fell backwards to the ground, shouting as he raised an arm to defend himself, and the wolf’s jaws closed on it. They began to struggle within the light of the campfire, and Amara looked on with horror as bright red blood splashed across Evander’s clothing and skin.

His shouts of effort and pain and the wolf’s snarling flooded through her, terrifying her and making it so hard to think. Everything was happening so fast. With the wolf on top of him, there didn’t seem to be any way for her to send flames against it without also harming him.

Evander won a few moments of relief for himself by delivering a well-aimed punch at the wolf’s head with his free hand. It released his arm, and he attempted to scramble backwards away from it, but it was upon him again almost immediately. This time it lunged for his leg, locking its jaws onto his thigh and shaking its head as though it were trying to tear it off completely. An agonized, bloodcurdling scream left Evander as his hands scrambled for a grip on the wolf’s head, trying to stop it.

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How do I save him?!?

Perhaps it was spawned by her desperation, but a sudden, indescribable change then occurred within her bodily command of the flames. She could now feel the tiny amounts of fuel hanging in the air around the wolf. But would it be enough?

Without raising her hand, she willed the flames to launch upwards from the campfire. It reacted to her command instantly, leaping out and arcing through the air towards her target like a yellow-red bolt of lightning. Flames spread all across the wolf’s massive back, and it finally released Evander.

She tried to burn the wolf to a crisp, like she’d done to the soldiers, but there was a resistance pushing back against her, something she’d never experienced before and hadn’t expected. Her control over the flames was being counteracted somehow by the wolf.

Straining, she lifted a hand towards it, and pushed all her willpower into overcoming the strange new obstacle. She could feel the fire spreading across the wolf’s fur, but burning it was taking an unnaturally long time. It was as though she was trying to incinerate something not of this world—something that obeyed different masters than the ones which governed hers.

With a furious snarl, and flames still dancing all across it's back, the wolf took a few halting steps towards Amara. But she no longer felt any fear from its physical form. They were in a battle of wills, now—locked into an invisible struggle. And, she realized, one she was slowly winning.

An overwhelming smell of burning hair began to fill the clearing, and she could feel the exact moment when her flames finally burned through enough of the wolf’s coat to meet the skin beneath. Then there was a new and almost indescribable feeling, something akin to a twig snapping in half, and finally the wolf’s invisible resistance gave way.

In a flash, the flames across the wolf’s back spread all across it, totally engulfing it from head to toe. Wreathed in flame, it let out a mournful howl and turned about, fleeing back into the darkness of the forest. Amara stared at its glowing, retreating form as it appeared and disappeared between the closely packed trees, but once again something unknown was preventing her from burning it to ashes despite her concentrated effort.

Her concentration was broken by a pitiful groan from Evander. When she looked towards him she saw that he was trying to wrap a bandage across the wound on his leg, using clumsy fingers. She hurried towards him, unceremoniously pulling the bandage out of his hands in order to take over.

“Bleeding—bleeding,” was all Evander managed to say as Amara rushed to bandage his wound. A terrifying amount of blood was spurting from it, soaking his clothing and the grass beneath him in equal measure.

Her fingers were slick with blood, and the bandage was absolutely soaked in it, but despite everything she managed to get it into place above the wound. She knew that simply wrapping the bandage directly over it wouldn’t save him—she would have to cut off the flow of blood if he were to survive. Evander let out another agonized, heart wrenching scream as she tied the tourniquet’s knot tight, but once it was done the bleeding had finally stopped.

She then moved to check on his wounded arm, but he waved her off with it.

“It’s fine,” he groaned. “We have to find help. Get me up—”

Her vision was blurry with tears as she helped him up to his feet, and he instantly leaned on her for support once he was upright.

“Thanks,” he said simply, as though his life wasn't in danger. The injuries he'd sustained and his size made him difficult to help along, but nevertheless she began to lead him across the clearing.

“I let this happen to you,” she said, voice wavering with emotion.

“You saved me,” he replied, pausing. “Don’t forget your fire.”

Amara stopped briefly to look behind her. She raised a hand up towards the campfire’s flames, summoning them towards her. Within moments a line of fire was keeping pace ahead of them under her careful gaze, burning through the grass and lighting their way.

“I changed my mind,” Evander moaned. “I’m not a dog person anymore.”

“Save your strength, Evan, please!”

He surprised her with a weak chuckle as they trudged into the forest beyond the clearing. The traveling flames lit their way, but even so she had no idea where they were, let alone where to take him.

“Where do we go, Evan? Back to Shiloh?”

“Too far,” he rasped. She could hear the weakness in his voice, the effort it took to respond. “Just walk.”

She could feel him growing weaker with each passing step, and she realized with horror that he probably wasn’t going to make it if they didn’t find a doctor immediately. But they were in the middle of the wilds, perhaps just as far away from Lucyra as they were Shiloh.

Sheer desperation forced Amara to turn to the only person she knew might be able to help.

“Mattias!!!” she screamed into the night. “Please help us! Mattias!!!”

Mere moments after her plea a new light appeared in the forest ahead. A whitish blue glow, oddly similar to the stars in the night sky above, and finally she heard the voice in her head she’d been hoping for.

I’m here!

A swift shadow passed over the stars above, and Amara’s gaze shot upwards. Through the trees she spotted a familiar black bird circling high overhead, but something about it seemed wrong. It looked to be vastly larger than normal, so much so that she instantly felt uncertain. If it really were Mattias, then he’d grown at least five times his normal size since the last time she’d seen him.

Go towards the light, Amara. Safety lies ahead.

She watched as the bird suddenly broke into a dive, descending directly towards the light in the forest ahead. Even after nearing the ground it didn’t change its angle or speed. She braced herself for a tremendous crash, but after it disappeared from sight behind the trees, nothing happened. No sounds of collision, no broken branches, just silence.

Evander mumbled something on her shoulder. If she didn't do something he wouldn't have much longer to live.

“...No choice,” she told herself. “C’mon, Evan.”

She did her best to drag him along through the trees towards the light. A strange, quiet humming began to rise into the air as they approached, and after stepping out behind a tree Amara laid eyes on the source of the light and noise. A tall disc of pale blue light hung in the air before her, suspended several inches above the ground. She couldn’t see how it was being held up—as far as she could tell it was hovering in place freely, under its own power.

The trees around them seemed almost to be bending in towards the disc, and after staring at it for a while she saw the disc's center begin to transform. Radical new colors blossomed within it, greens, yellows, then brown and blue, shifting and swirling about chaotically.

It’s this or Evan is going to die, she realized.

Hesitating, she stepped forward with Evander into the disc, and a blinding light overwhelmed her vision.