Thomas and Osman raced after Ngozi into the jungle. Ngozi frantically raced up the limbs of the trees, leaping from to another with nimble grace. Thomas was right behind him, leaping and sliding exactly in time with Ngozi, never getting too close. Osman trailed behind on the jungle floor. Ngozi peered down at the bumbling old man.
“Your partner will slow us down follow me,” he said as he began to move even faster.
“Wait,” Thomas sternly said as he grabbed Ngozi’s arm, the young man jumped in fear. Thomas let go of Ngozi’s shaking arm.
“That’s my partner we can’t leave him behind.” Thomas said as he balanced himself on the tree limbs.
“I’ll show him where to go, you go on ahead you’re just as fast as me,” Ngozi pleaded as Osman slowly caught up with the two young men.
“Alright” Thomas bravely replied.
“Follow the trees until you reach the marsh and the savanna, that’s as far as her energy could be tracked,” Ngozi said, the fear consuming his voice he pointed straight ahead into the jungle. Thomas nodded and bolted on through the trees, leaping through the branches as he moved. Ngozi dropped down from the canopy to the jungle floor to Osman.
Within a few minutes, Thomas could no longer see Ngozi or Osman. He continued moving through the trees, taking note of the energies he passed. Eventually Thomas could see a clearing in the trees. He came to the edge of the trees to see a marshland and a savanna. Thomas dropped down to the jungle floor. He looked around for a few moments before he noticed an arrow lodged deep into a tree.
Thomas saw marks in the dirt tracking back to the marshes from near the arrow. There was a small trail of blood within the dirt marks. Thomas raced up the nearby trunk of a tree, swinging from limb to limb as he rose. He climbed back up into the canopy, once again seeing the marsh and the savanna beyond. Thomas reached the tallest tree at the edge of the marsh and jumped off out over it.
Thomas curled himself into a small ball as he leapt. He put his hands behind him and the blackfire erupted from them, propelling the young man over the marsh. Thomas landed on his face, rolling until he collided into a small mound of dirt. As Thomas rolled, his head hit a large stone, rocking his skull. Thomas sat there on the ground fading in and out of consciousness as his head throbbed in pain. Thomas felt a warmness trickle down his face before he realized it was blood.
“No, I…” he struggled to stay awake as he lay on the ground. Thomas eyes’ fell shut for what seemed like a moment, yet when he opened them, he could see the sun was setting. He closed them for another moment only to notice he was now swaying, like a pendulum. Thomas struggled once more to open his eyes, where he saw a group of tribesmen carrying him by his hands and feet.
“I’m… I’m a lawman,” Thomas slurred as he spoke, his consciousness still loose after the collision with the rock.
Thomas eventually woke up and found himself in a small wooden cage. He began to take in his new surroundings. His gun was gone, as was his holster. Around the cage was a small campfire and a series of other cages. A few small tents circled the firepit and the cages. Thomas could see about five of the tribesmen walking around the small camp. Around them was dense jungle that blocked all light from getting through, making it impossible to look in.
Thomas could hear weeping and turned to see the cage next to his housing a young girl. She was maybe fifteen or sixteen, had long straight dark hair, and dark skin as well. She wore a skintight animal cloth over her chest, and a leaf skirt down past her hips.
“Sal’é?” Thomas whispered to the young girl in the cage. She spun around to face Thomas her eyes growing to the size of grapefruit. She grabbed the wooden bars of the cage.
“I’m Thomas, your brother sent me to save you,” he continued, making sure his voice never got too loud. Thomas could hear the tribesmen arguing over something by the firepit. He turned back to face Sal’é who now had a somber look on her face.
“Ngozi was right, I was not ready,” she coldly stated. Thomas paused for a moment before peeking a glance at the tribesmen arguing around the fire.
“That’s over now, we need to focus on getting out of here,” Thomas began as he turned back to Sal’é. He lightly lit his right palm as he held the wooden bar, seeing how hot he had to make his fire to burn it. Once the bar began burning, Thomas retracted his flames and placed his hand in his pockets.
“I can get us out, but we need to wait, once they’re all asleep we will escape.” Thomas said reassuringly to Sal’é. She turned back away from Thomas and crouched down inside of her cage. She pointed to the tribesmen who stopped their arguing, as two men approached from the dark jungle.
The two men wore black jackets, dark pants, spurs on their boots, and they sported pistols on their sides. They were outlaws, Thomas was sure of it. He watched as one of the outlaws, a fair skinned man, began talking to the tribesmen. The other outlaw, a long haired fat man, approached the cages. He eyed Sal’é as he stood before her cage.
“It’s a shame we have to sell someone as pretty as you,” he said as he ran his fingers under Sal’é’s chin through the bars. She pulled her head back and hissed at the man.
“I’d keep you for myself, but I like my women with a little less fight in em,” the fat man said as he backed away from the cage.
“Slick might like you,” he finished as he began walking over to Thomas’ cage. The outlaw took an immediate notice of Thomas’ jacket. His eyes glazing over with excitement.
“Oh, what do we have here? A lawman? What are you doing all the way out here boy?” the fat outlaw asked as he leaned his head in towards the cage. Thomas sprung forward and grabbed the man by his collar, yanking him against the bars. The man at first tried to pry himself from Thomas’ grip, but once he found that of no use, he drew his pistol and aimed it at Thomas.
Thomas saw the gun, but his anger consumed him. He felt his energy getting hot with rage, as he stared at the outlaw before him. The man shot his pistol, Thomas dropped instinctively, only realizing after he fell to the ground that there was no pain. Thomas felt the bullet enter, what had happened to it?
As Thomas lay, bunched into a ball on the floor of the cage, he noticed a small hole of fire in his abdomen. He could feel the fire was scorching hot, had he turned himself into fire to stop the bullet? He retracted the flames and stayed in a ball, hoping no one would notice what had happened. Thomas knew no matter what, the outlaw did not know what he knew in that moment. He lay there still on the floor of the cage, pretending he was dead.
“Stupid kid,” the outlaw muttered as he returned to the other outlaw and the tribesmen surrounding the campfire. Sal’é turned in her cage to face Thomas, her face covered in terror. Thomas noticed her fearful eyes, and slightly motioned to her. He lightly held up his thumb, telling Sal’é that he was okay. Her eyes changed from fear to relief as she sat back on her heels in the small cage.
Stolen novel; please report.
The tribesmen and the outlaws finished talking, ending with the outlaws handing the tribesmen a small coin purse. The men began walking over to the cages. Two tribesmen got on either side of Sal’é’s and Thomas’ cages. With a quick grunt and a huff, the tribesmen lifted up the cages to their waists. The outlaws began heading into the jungle, with the tribesmen carrying the cages right behind them.
The men carried the cages deep into the jungle. The whole time, Thomas still feigned death. Sal’é screamed and thrashed in her cage attempting to throw itself out of the grip of the tribesmen. She began rocking the cage violently, slamming her body into one side then the opposite. The cage began to tip, and the tribesmen quickly attempted to set it down.
The tribesmen holding Thomas’ cage were distracted by the ensuing ordeal, so much so they did not notice Thomas move his hands and place his palms against the floor of the cage.
In an instant, Thomas let himself loosen up and thought of the heat he had when he burned the bar. Thomas erupted into a ball of black fire, incinerating the cage, and scorching the hands of the tribesmen who carried his cage. Thomas retracted his flames as the he came crashing down, landing, and rolling towards the other two tribesmen.
Thomas waved his hands across in an x shape, low to the ground, sending out a small wave of fire from his hands as he did. The fire swept across the ground burning the bare feet of the two tribesmen attempting to pick back up Sal’é’s cage. Thomas stood up to one of the outlaws who was struggling with removing his pistol, before shooting him with a ball of fire. The fire stopped at the fat man’s chest, still badly burning his whole gut. The man dropped to the ground in agony. The tribesmen Thomas had scared, rushed him with his spear, something Thomas let the man dig deep into him. The tribesman looked down to realize his spear had been engulfed by the black flames where Thomas’ chest had been moments before. Thomas punched the man square in his jaw, knocking him unconscious.
The remaining outlaw was long gone, he had run from Thomas in fear moments after the fat man had been burned. The fat man lay on the ground moaning in agony clutching his chest.
“Wha…What are… what are you?” he fearfully stuttered as he watched Thomas approach Sal’é’s cage. He lit his hand and burned the wooden lock on the cage of the door, allowing Sal’é to open the door herself and exit the cage.
Thomas turned back to face the fat outlaw before approaching him. He stood over the man as his legs and feet erupted into flames.
“Who do you sell to?” Thomas sternly asked the man as his flames began to surround the outlaw.
“He’s another outlaw, big time, I swear I’m not worth anything.” The fat man pleaded as he began to cry on the ground.
“What’s his name? Where can I find him?” Thomas asked this time his voice beginning to raise.
“Six Shooter Slick!” the man yelped as he tried to sit up. The flames instantly wrapped the fat man up, restricting his movements but not burning him. The man slowly opened his eyes upon the realization that the fire was no longer searing hot. He struggled to move in the flames as they continued to engulf the man.
“Where is he?” Thomas asked once more, his voice holding back his rage. The fat man, realizing he could no longer move, only his head was free from the black flames, stared at Thomas. His eyes spewing tears that soaked his face as they ran down it. Sal’é watched as Thomas interrogated the fat outlaw, intrigued by his power.
“He’s rounding up his slaves, he pays us to pay them to capture them, I’m just a middleman I swear,” the outlaw said as he pointed to the groaning tribesmen. Thomas shook his head at the fat man, before a wicked smile donned across his face.
“I guess we’ll see,” Thomas menacingly said as the flames quickly covered the man’s head. Thomas did not think of heat in that moment, he thought of terror, of nightmares he had. He fueled those feelings into the flames as the man began to shout and scream.
“GET AWAY GET AWAY” he screamed out in terror as the flames continued to rage on. He thrashed about within the flames screaming terror for a few minutes.
“PLEASE MAKE IT STOP. I’LL TELL YOU JUST MAKE IT STOP” the man pleaded as he thrashed about. Thomas smiled and the flames retracted from the outlaw’s head still restricting him to the ground.
“Where is he?” Thomas simply asked as the man caught his breath.
“He’ll be in Agnan in a few days, we were heading that way now,” the fat man pleaded.
Thomas turned to Sal’é, her eyes still lit with intrigue, he could see that she was still shaking.
“How far is Agnan from your village?” Thomas questioned her calmly.
“About a day’s travel, but I cannot take you there,” She said, her tone raising into a scold as she finished.
“It’s a Ka’lie village, I cannot take you there,” she finished turning away and pointing to the tribesmen on the ground.
“That’s another one of the tribes?” Thomas asked Sal’é. She nodded as she removed a bow and quiver from one of the tribesmen.
“Well,” Thomas began as he retracted his flames from the fat outlaw. The man lay on the ground clutching his still badly burnt chest. Thomas turned away from him and began approaching Sal’é.
“Once they hear about these slav- “
“The Ka’lie are the slavers,” Sal’é quickly interjected. Thomas stopped and paused for a moment. He turned to get a good look at the tribesmen and could see slight differences between them and the men from Sal’é’s village.
These men had distinct tattoos on their well shaven heads, as well as more modern looking clothing. Still the loincloths, but rather than animal hide, they were made of a fine fabric. Their weapons were ornate and had detailed carvings all along them.
Thomas walked over to a small bag at the foot of a log. He fished within it before removing his gun and holster and fashioning them back on his hip.
“Lets’ get out of here before more show up,” Thomas said as he grabbed hold of Sal’é’s wrist and began walking back towards the small camp they had come from. Sal’é pulled her hand free from Thomas but remained following him. She watched the young man as he strolled through the dark jungle.
“Do you even know where you’re leading us?” she snapped to Thomas.
“Yea I can feel my partner’s energy, he’s this way,” Thomas said as he pointed out in front of him. Sal’é could feel a few energies far in that direction but could not identify who they were.
“You can feel them?” Sal’é questioned, her interest clearly sparked. She got closer to Thomas and peered around his shoulder after realizing he was too tall to look over it. Thomas turned to face her as a large grin swept across his face.
“Sure can,” he simply replied. He and Sal’é continued on towards Osman. Osman and Ngozi had given up their search shortly after loosing Thomas, Osman assuring the young warrior Thomas would return.
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Elsewhere in the jungle, the outlaw who escaped from Thomas and Sal’é arrived in a small village in a clearing in the jungle. The man was out of breath, having ran all the way to Agnan. A small group of outlaws convened around the man.
“Jonas is dead, some lawman, some burning lawman attacked us.” The man frantically began. The other outlaws comforted him and patted him on the shoulder.
“Come on Ed, slow down,”
“Yea a burning lawman?”
“That makes no sense,”
“Alright, alright. We found this kid in a lawman’s jacket, passed out at the banks of the marshes. We took him to our camp and locked him up easy enough,” Ed began. The other outlaws leaned in as he told his story.
“We start to head here, all of a sudden the kid is lighting up into these black flames. Faster than I could turn around, he already had all the Ka’lie who went with us out for the count.”
“No way,”
“That’s impossible, you had five of ‘em,”
“Five Ka’lie in seconds, that’s absurd,”
“No, it happened, it was real I swear. I thought Jonas shot him, but the kid was fine. Last I saw he had just shot Jonas with a ball of fire. I heard his screams as I ran, he’s gone for sure,” Ed cried as he finished telling the other outlaws. One of the men stepped back from Ed. He turned towards the large group of Ka’lie warriors.
“You guys believe that? Five of you taken out by a kid in a few seconds,” The outlaw said to the warriors as he held his hands out at his side.
“What do you say we go see what he’s really made of,” the man called out to the warriors, some of the outlaws began stepping next to him.
“You all want to be paid? Well, we got three days to get some slaves,” he yelled.
“Ed what village did you guys go pick slaves from?” he asked the crying outlaw as he stepped over to him. He bent down to Ed and lifted his head up to look at his eyes.
“Jasade,”
“Jasade!” the outlaw yelled as he stood back up straight. The warriors and the other outlaws all cheered out into the night as they began readying themselves for battle.