Firestorm

I looked at Cactus and pointed at my feet. I barely breathed the words, “Hold my ankles.”

“Lark don’t—”

But I didn’t give him a choice. I wriggled over the edge, forcing him to grab me.

He shimmied back and grabbed my ankles even as he grumbled, helping me slide over the edge. Peta said nothing, but clung to my back, digging her claws into my leather vest like a burr tangled in my hair.

Even those few inches closer to the lava, the increased heat made sweat pop out over my body in a vain attempt to cool my temperature. The heat dried the sweat as fast as it slid down my sides.

Gripping the granite cliff, I dug my fingers into the rock, imagining it softening enough to get a better hold. The rock gave under my hands and I stared at the granite, swallowing my surprise. I quickly shaped the rock into perfect handholds. Peta grunted, her voice in my ear, a bare whisper. “We need to discuss this later. You shouldn’t be able to mold rock like that.”

As interesting as that little tidbit was, I had more pressing things on my mind.

Using my handholds and trusting Cactus, I slid a few more inches until I could see underneath the platform toward the whispering I was sure I heard.

The shadowed overhang made it hard to make out what was going on.

A tiny flash of movement, the soft muttering of words I felt I should understand; a language I’d heard maybe when I was a child. Narrowing my eyes, I shifted another inch and then went still. My hair swept out around my head, dangling a good foot lower. Whoever was down there was bound to see it. I should have tied it up but it was too late now.

Pale white scales flickered up at me, and two pairs of eyes the color of amethyst blinked several times. The firewyrms were small, maybe the length of my legs at most and curled around each other. They looked like wingless, sinewy dragons. Their mouths had row upon row of needle sharp teeth I had no doubt would rip through armor, rock, and maybe even hardened steel.

The one in front had a scar down its left side, the scales missing in a long, jagged line. Scar stepped closer to me and let out a long, low hiss that ended in a gurgle.

“Cactus,” I said, keeping my voice as even and smooth as possible. “Tell me about firewyrms.”

“Oh shit, those bastards are causing problems. Nesting where they shouldn’t and then attacking when people—wait, why would you ask me that now?” His hands tightened on my ankles and he started to pull me up but I grabbed onto the rock. Scar’s eyes, they held a world of hurt and fear. A child lost.

I couldn’t help myself.

Jerking my feet out of Cactus’s hands, I swung my legs over and into the shallow notched space. Peta let out a squawk and her tiny body tightened as we landed in a crouch. The firewyrms scuttled backward, mouths open as they threatened, but no fire erupted, no flames came our way.

Peta bit my ear, her sharp teeth piercing the cartilage. “You idiot, I said I didn’t want you to die, and you drop into a wyrm nest? What’s wrong with you?”

Heart pounding, I didn’t move, didn’t even stand. “Hey, you two, I heard you talking.” On my shoulder, Peta went still. “You shouldn’t be able to understand them, Dirt Girl.”

I held a hand out to them. “Who hurt you?”

Scar looked over his shoulder, quickly to his sibling then stretched his neck forward. He squinted one eye as a long forked tongue flicked toward me. His scales were more than white, they were opalescent with rainbow colors dancing on them, as they caught a bit of light. With each step he took toward me, his clawed feet clacked on the stone.

His headgear was six long antelope-like antlers that arched back over his neck away from his long muzzle. The same pale white horns spiked from his elbows and the bend in his hind legs. With a whip-like tail that was barbed at the end, I had no doubt he could lash out for a distance. Topping it off were his claws. Five on each foot, and at least twelve inches long, they seemed oversized for his body.

Yet fear still didn’t touch me.

My heart pounded and the blood roared in my ears, like an oncoming storm that would be amazing. Or terrifying. Or both.

That long tongue flicked over my fingers and then he scuttled backward, his lips curling upward. Peta clung to me, breathing so hard she panted in my ear. “Dirt Girl, we need to go. He will fry us both.”

I put a hand on her in an attempt to ease her trembling. “Scar, what happened to you?”

He rolled his head so he looked at me upside down. “Vy do you care?”

His voice was pitched low enough that I knew now why I’d struggled to understand. He had an accent.

“I don’t like any of the mother goddess’s creatures to suffer,” I said, holding my hand out to him again. A show of trust, and faith that he wouldn’t fry us, as Peta said.

Peta meowed and buried her head against my neck, her whole body shaking. Scar slid forward and pressed his nose against the palm of my hand.

A quiet sigh slipped out of him. “You smell nice.”

“Thank you.”

His eyes flicked to his sibling and then back to me. “Vy are you being nice to us?”

I stayed crouched so I was at eye level with him. “I’m hoping you can tell me about your people.”

His head wove back and forth several times. “My people are dying out. The fire queen hunts and kills us. Ve don’t mean to attack, but ve can’t help it. The pink light fills our minds and ve must obey.”

His words couldn’t have shocked me more. “Pink light?” As in the light I saw when elementals were controlled by Spirit. Was that what was happening?