James felt a wave of unbearable heat smother his body, causing a layer of sweat to cover his body. The blinding smoke dispersed as he entered the building. Most of the surrounding walls contained dozens of scorch marks accompanied by near translucent flames that flickered like sheets rippling in the wind. James blinked, trying to clear his vision. A door was open in front of him. He charged through it, emerging into a room that wasn’t faring any better than the one before. Through the smoke and ripples of heat, James saw the girl crouching in the middle of the room. He ran up beside her and realized she was crouching over someone, frantically trying to help them to their feet. It was her mother. Even in the chaos of the room, James could see her violet eyes. With no time to question or decide, James threw her arm around his shoulder and began hoisting her to her feet. The girl did the same on the other side. The woman was trying to speak, but the constant breathing of smoke had made her voice raspy and undecipherable.

They had nearly made it to the door when a sickening crack shook the building. James was sent tumbling to the ground with a burning pain in his arm. Adrenaline surged him back to his feet. Part of the roof had collapsed, puncturing a small hole in one of the side walls but blocking the main entrance entirely. He scanned his surroundings and found the young girl unconscious on the ground. The debris must have hit her on the head as it came down, James figured. He knelt down, gripping her body. But where was her mother? He had been carrying her just a moment before. As if to answer his question, a set of violet eyes locked with his. She seemed unhurt by the falling debris, yet still a wave of dread washed over James, momentarily overpowering the heat of the room. She sat slumped over on the other side of the debris. Burning pieces of timber jutted out in every direction in front of James, making reaching her impossible. Despite all this, she was smiling. She looked at her daughter, at the hole in the wall, and then back to James. She nodded, and that nod told James more than a million words ever could. He clenched his eyes shut and tried to suppress the surge of shame he felt as he grabbed the girl and carried her through the hole. They emerged into an alleyway between buildings that blazed just as fiercely as the room they had come from. Though the air was slightly more breathable, smoke, flames, and charred wood still surrounded them. James quickly lost sight of the hole, becoming disoriented in the alley. He could hear distant yells, but nothing concrete enough to give him a direction. Just as it was beginning to feel helpless, James spotted something through the smoke. A pulsing blue glow, and not the faint kind that the trees gave off. This was a deep strong blue. James ran towards it and found himself out of the alleyway and into another. Fire still raged around him, but it was less than it had been. He looked around. The blue glow had vanished, but he spotted a pulsing green light towards his right. He ran towards it, and again he emerged into another alleyway that was less damaged than the one before.

James darted through alley after alley, allowing the pulsing colors of green, blue, and violet to guide his way when he needed them to. In a final burst of energy, he emerged from the burning village and collapsed onto the ground near the river. He laid there catching his breath for what felt like an hour before rolling over and checking on the girl. She was breathing, but it was faint. He looked around for help but found no one in sight. What he did see was a violet pulsing bridge that crossed over the river. He knew how ridiculous this was, but they had led him to safety so far.

James hoisted the girl onto his back with a grunt. Her feet dragged on the ground behind him and her faint breathing tickled his ear. With lumbering movements, James made his way to the bridge. As he expected, a tree not far off started to pulse. He walked in that direction. James continued through the forest for several minutes, getting lost in his own thoughts as he followed the pulsing trees. His mind flashed to his sister, who was probably boiling over with anger. James didn’t know how long he had been beneath the clouds, but he was quite sure that he had missed her deadline. He hoped desperately that she wouldn’t follow through on her promise to tell Bron. What would Bron do if he found out that he was beneath the clouds? James’s mind flashed with the image of Bron cutting the rope he had used to descend, leaving him stranded on the surface. James shuttered at the thought. He would have to hurry back, but first he needed to figure out what to do with the girl on his back. He couldn’t just leave her. She was barely breathing. He focused again on his neck where her breath tickled the skin in faint gasps. A breath out. A breath in. A breath out… Then nothing. James panicked, flipping her off his back and onto the ground. He placed his hand in front of her mouth. She wasn’t breathing. James whipped around, looking for help. He peered back the way they had come. Nothing greeted his eyes except the faint glowing of the forest. He looked forward and realized the trees were pulsing much more quickly now, as if urging him along. Helpless and without anything else to guide him, James threw the girl back on his shoulder and hurried towards the light. His legs ached under the weight, but he gritted his teeth and pushed forward. Now wasn’t the time to think about his own pain. After several minutes of stumbling and maneuvering, James emerged out into a small clearing. It looked oddly familiar and the faint outline of a dangling rope told him why. This was where he had descended. A small wave of relief came of him seeing that the rope was still hanging from the ship. It reached the ground and coiled around itself several times. Just beyond it was the body of water that he had fallen into. James winced as he remembered the pain. He couldn’t dwell on the memory for long, though, as the water began to pulse rapidly. James hurried over to it and, without thinking, submerged the girl in it, leaving only her face above the water. The water began to pulse more rapidly causing James to take a step back. Right as James was beginning to feel that the body of water couldn’t possibly pulse any quicker, the light faded, and the entire forest was plunged into darkness. James stumbled backwards. The trees, the water, the plants, everything had gone completely dark. His mind flooded with thoughts and worries. Was he responsible for the darkness? A shiver went down his spine. The darkness had an air of finality to it, as if something had just occurred that could never be undone.

Finally, as if to ease his mind, a faint glow came from the water—no, from the girl herself. Her body glowed lightly with a blue hue that spread to the water around her. It started slowly at first, but quickly shifted to a rapid spreading, sending a wave of color through the water and onto the land. James watched as the blue glow lit up the ground beneath his feet and carried on behind him. James looked around. One by one, the trees reignited their glow. Within seconds, the forest was just as it had been before. In his awe, James nearly forgot about the girl floating in the water. He rushed back over, dragging her from the water and placing his hand in front of her mouth. She was breathing again, a fact that James noted with clear relief. If she hadn’t made it even after her mother’s sacrifice… James cringed, thinking of her violet eyes in the smoke-filled room. He shoved it aside. There would be time to think about it later, but right now he needed to figure out what his next move was.

I have the rope, James thought to himself. I suppose I could take her on the ship. Though, it might be better to find her people. James looked around at the trees, hoping one of them would have the answer in the form of pulsing light. They provided nothing but a steady glow. Though, he did feel something. A faint tremor in the ground. At first, James thought he was imagining it, but it slowly became more palpable. The ground is shaking, James thought in alarm. And it’s getting worse.

His instincts told him that something was approaching, something big. Before he could drag the girl onto his back and flee, he saw it. A beast on the far side of the water. James paled at the size of it, his skin growing cold in the otherwise warm forest. It towered over the water, rising up to half the height of the surrounding trees. Its fur was the color of ash and it had a large snout that contained razor sharp teeth that seemed to glow by themselves. What scared James the most, however, were its eyes. Pure white and all-knowing. Both empty and full at the same time. It paralyzed him in every sense of the word. He could only watch as the beast lumbered forward, the body of water a mere puddle to him. His paw splashed down, sending ripples through the water and causing another thunderous tremor to run through James’s body. The beast stopped in front of the girl and slowly glanced down, letting out a slow rumbling growl. James yelled internally. This is what he always did. He froze. He couldn’t allow that to happen. He couldn’t just wait for the fear to pass. He needed to act right now! The beast lowered its head towards the girl. James clenched his fists and in an act of sheer desperation, bit down on his lip. He tasted blood, but the jolt of pain seemed to be just what he needed to awaken his body. James leapt forward, placing himself between the girl and the beast that loomed over them. He looked up at it and found himself staring directly into its pupil-less eyes. Something loomed in them. Was it curiosity? Before he could think further on the topic, a booming voice shook his ears.

“Why do you not run, child of the sky?”