Caleb and Ryan watched in silence as Kana sobbed into Sierra’s chest, blood still seeping from her nose and ears. Sierra looked up to them, then around at the chaos, her eyes wet. Finally, her gaze stopped on the growing blue flames and she looked down at the ground, still holding Kana close.

Caleb glanced to Ryan as he stood silent, his expression hard to read.

He’s in shock. We all are, he thought. He glanced back to the fire. I need to do something.

Caleb slapped himself aside the cheek and clenched his fists tightly as the others looked to him.

“W-we need to move” he said, looking to the still spreading fire, then back to the others. “The fire’s going to keep growing around here, and it’s magic so there's no way to know if the rain will stop it”

“But… to where?” Ryan muttered.

“I don’t know. Further downstream, maybe?” he said. “How long have we got left for objective one?”

“T-three and a half hours” Ryan muttered.

“Ok… ok. Let’s go” Caleb said, offering Kana a hand.

[What about Markus, Layla and David?] Kana muttered.

“Markus can come with us. Layla fell in the river and David ran off somewhere”

[We should look for him]

“I- we don’t have time”

[We have to at least try. We can’t leave him alone]

“Kana… he could be long gone by now. We don’t know where he went”

[No. We can’t just leave him here alone]

“Look we can’t fucking stay! Ok?!” he shouted. Kana wilted slightly and he immediately regretted the outburst.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he tried to reign in his emotions. His mind was a mess, but within the mess he found his mantra and repeated it to himself, the words a magic in their own right.

Kind like Dad. Strong like Mom.

He felt his trembling hands stop, his mind clearing slightly as the angered fear faded.

“S-sorry for shouting. We’ll call out for him, but you’re hurt and I don’t think we’ll be able to handle a monster attack. We need to go before more of them come, or at least get away from the fire” he mumbled.

[O-ok]

She wiped her eyes and took his still outstretched hand as he pulled her to her feet. Kana leant on Caleb, but with the newly invested stat points she felt light, easy to carry. He put her arm over his shoulder, steadied her, then started forwards barely affected by her weight.

“G-guys wait” Ryan said. Caleb turned back to see Sierra still on the floor, breathing heavily.

“Sierra? What’s wrong?”

“I- I can’t stand” she mumbled, the pain in her voice clear. “It’s my legs. I must’ve done something when I used my skill”

“Shit. Is it… is it bad?” Caleb said, his trembling returning slightly.

“I don’t know. I just… I can’t stand”

[I can heal you] Kana said.

“No way. You’ll have a fucking aneurysm” Sierra said, wincing. "I... just leave me. It's not worth it"

“No. I’ll carry you” Ryan said. “I put all my stat points into strength, you can’t be heavier than a boulder”

He scooped her up with surprising ease, Sierra wincing as her legs flopped uselessly. Ryan shifted his hold on her, then looked to Caleb nodding. Caleb looked at the now raging fire, the heat of the blue flames wafting toward him. He stepped back, then looked over to Markus, who still knelt over his brother.

“Markus?” he called out. The boy looked up from the two pieces of his brothers corpse and stared at him, eyes red. “I… we need to go”

“But… I….” Markus trailed off, mumbling something.

“What?”

“I… need to bury him” Markus said louder. Caleb looked to the body, then back to the boy’s face. He didn’t know what to do, caught between his desperation for safety and yearning for compassion.

Then there was a distant roar, followed by a shriek of agony. David's agony. Instantly the group all turned to each other and backed away from the sound.

“D-do we run?” Ryan said, looking to Caleb. Caleb looked back to Markus.

“Markus we have to go” he hissed.

Stolen novel; please report.

“I- I-”

Caleb didn’t wait for him to make a choice.

He picked Kana up, throwing her over his shoulder and rushed forward, pulling Markus off the ground easily, cradling him in his arm. Then he was running, the weight of the two, only an inconvenience as he sprinted away from the fire and the sound.

Ryan was rushing beside him too, his strides slower, but footsteps heavier. He took great leaps, each step covering at least eight metres as they raced away from the fire, running downstream through the low canopy. The raced through the forest with ease, leaving the fire behind in seconds.

Caleb looked down at his own feet, surprised by the ridiculous increase in speed and strength from only two stat points.

A small laugh escaped his mouth as he forgot himself, thrilled by the sudden power he now had.

Wind rushed past him, as he felt out his new sense of magic helping guide him through the darkness. Then the monsters burst out of the trees behind them. Three monsters, large wolf-like creatures with brown fur like a bears, glowing green eyes, and bloodstained mouths.

They roared at the two and continued chasing. Caleb cursed. Even with stat points, the wolf-like creatures were gaining, their bodies built for speed.

Caleb and Ryan raced through the shrubbery, the sound of the wind rushing past, and blood beating hard in their ears loud. Caleb could hear the throb of his heartbeat in his ears and feel the mass in his lungs sapping energy from every breath.

With every step the next grew harder and harder, even with the stat points. And the brown wolves only began to gain faster.

Lightning still rumbled in the background, and a momentary flash from above the leaves reminded Caleb of the darkness of his surroundings.

Maybe if we stop they'll run past, he thought. Maybe they won't see us.

Then the almost imperceptible blue hue of light behind them grew.

Caleb spared a glance back, his eyes widening as he spotted the raging blue fire that’d engulfed everything behind them. It tore through the jungle with a life of its own, its heat pressing forward, warning of its danger even from this distance. The wolves looked back too, and their snarls became yelps of panic.

Another flash of lighting came through the trees, and Caleb began to notice the patter of rain atop his head. He glanced up momentarily, and watched as the canopy faded the types of trees shifting and revealing more of the sky ahead.

He blinked rain out of his eyes clearing his vision as his feet pounded against the now wet ground. But as his vision cleared his eyes widened.

“What the hell?” he mumbled. Above, the storm continued to rage, but out in front of them, beyond a perfectly horizontal line, the sky was a bright and brilliant blue. The sun shone beautifully, and the blue, endless, stretched out onwards and onwards as far as he could see.

He didn’t have time to even try and understand what was happening, as another burst of heat washed over him, Kana and Markus gasping.

He pushed forwards faster, not daring to look back, or even question how the fire could continue burning in these now horrifically wet conditions. He only focused on maintaining his balance as he raced forwards, Ryan leaping in great bounds just behind him.

Suddenly he was plunged into near darkness again, the trees growing in density, shrubbery and fallen twigs littering the ground as he tried to race through it. It slowed him slightly, but he continued to push on, the knife of fear stabbing at his back.

He heard the wolves screech out, their howls of agony quickly captured by the roar of fire. Its blue hue grew, illuminating the space around him somewhat as its hands stretched out towards him, almost pleading for him to just slow down.

He could feel it. It's magical weight, and the almost whisper that emanated from it's flames. It’d catch him and the others soon. It was inevitable.

He shook his head violently.

What the hell? he thought. Is this some kind of magic? The fire's trying to mind controlling me?!

He cursed repeatedly as he felt the heat grow more and more.

He needed to get back to the river. At some point in all this chaos he’d lost it. It might not work, but it might also be his only shot. He glanced to his side and cursed.

The forest was too crowded to see any further than three or four metres, and his speed meant the landscape was constantly shifting, negating his ability to get a view of anything reasonable. He just had to force his way right and pray.

As he continued to race forwards, through the thick canopy above he spotted hints of blue. Light from the bottomless blue sky beyond the storm. The light helped extend his vision, only slightly but enough. He spotted the river, farther to his left than he’d first imagined, but there. He let out a small relieved laugh then pressed forwards.

“RYAN!” he cried, over the crackle of the flames. He continued, now racing diagonally towards the river.

But as he did so, the canopy above grew weaker and weaker, and so too did the density of the forest ahead. He focused beyond just where he’d take his next step and looked far further. His eyes widened. Light shone through the trees ahead, unobstructed.

The forest ends.

With a final burst of strength he pushed forwards, toward the blinding light of the day. He burst from the trees and instantly realised his mistake.

There was nothing beyond them. Just like how the storm ended with the line in the sky, there was only about five metres of flat grass before a sheer drop into a valley at least forty metres below. And he was moving too fast to stop. His steps grew short and quick, and then – with a shriek – he jumped, his legs flailing as he kicked at open air.

For a moment he flew forwards, heard Ryan shout out behind him, and then he fell. His heart shot into his mouth, his voice ripped away from him as he plummeted toward the valley of plain grass and the river below.

Instinctively he aimed himself for the river, clutching Markus and Kana as tightly as he could.

He pulled them together and spun aiming for the water with his back as an explosion of fire rocked the cliff above him. He clamped his eyes shut, almost blinded by the flame.

Then, there were a few seconds of nothing. He fell, weightless through the darkness, the wind roaring in his ears. It would've been peaceful if he wasn't the most afraid he'd ever been in his life.

Suddenly he felt a wave of heat. He barely had time to register the heat’s ridiculous potency before something crashed into him and the others.

Then he hit the water.

-

Caleb gasped, coughing out water as he sat up.

He coughed hard, flipping onto his side and accidentally rolled onto someone – Kana – before pulling away. He wiped water from his eyes as he continued to cough, when a hand clamped on his back. In his panic he tried to pull away, but only managed to succeed in face planting into grass.

Grass?

His panic began to fade and he looked up. Ryan sat beside him, drenched and breathing heavily as he smiled at Caleb, then hung his head, placing his hands on the ground.

"You... pull me out?"

"Yeah" Ryan mumbled.

"Thanks" Caleb said, struggling for breath.

“It's ok. I...that was fucking insane” he muttered. “You okay?”

Caleb looked around, watching Markus throw up into the grass as Kana stared dazed at him. Sierra lay in the grass next to Ryan, muttering obscenities to herself, a hand covering her eyes from the sun.

Caleb looked back up to the face of the perfectly flat cliff, the fire raging against some invisible barrier as the entire forest burned a white blue.

He took a deep breath, then clutched his side falling back to the ground.

“Yeah” he mumbled. “Just… great. Perfect”