Chapter 6

Flame

Kye jumped a creek his back legs splashing in the stream. The chilly water ran down his fur causing it to bunch up. He didn’t slow though and kept running, forcing his legs to work overtime. Mist and smoke swirled around him, forming spirals behind him. The terrain beneath his paws was squishy in the midnight dew. The air was thick and wet, making it hard to breathe. Still he didn’t slow to catch his breath. When they’d carried Caspian to the barn they had to remain flameless, it had taken more time. Kye knew he could make it to Elm and back in less than half the time it took them the first time.

Sure enough in around five minutes Kye could see Elm clearly. The lytors swayed high above the stone buildings, their light touching the tops of the homes. He hoped that one of the illuminated houses was an unlocked medical store. He knew Caspian was in bad shape. His brother had tried to hide his worry but Kye saw past it. He could die. His eyes narrowed and he forced himself to run faster, “Please just hold on until I come back.”

§

Resh’s hand hovered above Caspian’s wounds, flames flickered restlessly on his palm, “I have to do this. There’s no other way.” He tried to convince himself the pain he was about to put the being before him through was the right thing to do, “I have to do this.” He watched warm blood trickle toward his feet in small streams, “No other way.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he let it out he flipped his palm over causing fire to envelope Caspian’s whole torso. Resh couldn’t feel the warmth of the flames or the burning and blistering on his skin that he knew Caspian would be feeling. His kind was immune to fire’s wrath. They could focus their flames and make them hotter or colder without having to feel it.

Resh had gotten quite good at warming his flames. He’d become fairly experienced at perfectly cooking fish in less than five minutes, of course he had charred about twenty before getting it right. Slowly, he opened his eyes again calmed by the thoughts of warm food and simple times. He steadied his heartbeat and stood up slightly taller. For a moment everything was silent and Resh focused on making the flames hotter around the wounds.

But then, as all things do, it went wrong. Caspian’s eyes shot open glowing a viscous red and a bloodcurdling scream left his mouth. He sat bolt upright on the cot and started to pull at the stitches again. He was wild with fear and pain. His movements were surprisingly quick, his fingers tightening the stitches and loosening others. Once his panicked mind realized pulling at the stitches wouldn’t help and was only burning the skin on his hands he began to claw at the flames. His eyes were full of terror and his only focus now seemed to be to disperse the flames.

Resh pushed him roughly down to the table with one hand, causing Caspian to realize another person was in the room. His fear turned to anger as he realized his pain was coming from someone alive. Resh locked eyes with him for a moment, a chill ran down his spine. There was nothing even vaguely alive in them, just darkness. Resh’s heart beat faster and fear filled his chest.

Caspian didn’t seem to recognize him and tried to stand up. Resh broke the flames, deciding he should show Caspian he wasn’t trying to hurt him, “Its okay I’m trying to help!” he shouted, throwing up his hands, Caspain paused, “It's me, Resh.” he steadied his voice and spoke in a warmer tone, “See,” he said pointing to Caspian’s chest, “You’ve stopped bleeding.” that much was true but his skin was bubbling and browned, “It might hurt but you’ll heal.” he tried to reason, “When Kye gets back we can wrap you up again.” He said slowly lowering his hands.

Caspian’s brows knotted together and his eyes flickered restlessly from blue to red. His head snapped downward and Resh saw the red glow fade out slowly. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking he’d convinced him everything would be okay. He took a wary step forward but, Caspain’s head whipped up, the red glow back in full. He growled and a cloud of dark smoke seemed to gather around him. He stood up wobbling slightly on weak legs.

Resh backed away, scolding himself for thinking everything would be fine, “Caspian I’m a friend I wasn’t trying to hurt you.” he took another step forward, a sadistic smile playing on his lips.

Resh didn’t retreat this time, his legs stayed rooted in place, held down by fear or stupidity. He didn’t care either way, he wouldn’t back away like a beaten dog any longer, “Fine don’t listen to reason, I can be violent too.” he thought narrowing his eyes, “Caspian snap out of it!” he shouted, his hands catching fire.

Caspian paused, fear washing over his face. He didn’t seem to be afraid of Resh but instead stared, terrified, at his own hands. An inky mist gathered in his palms and he clenched his fists shut forcing it away. His hands shook and his whole body seemed to be trembling. His eyes flickered from red to blue and his teeth ground together. His face had lost most of its color and bags were growing beneath his eyes.

He shut his eyes, shaking his head back and forth. He fell to the ground, hands scraping at the dirt. His breath became ragged and choked off. Blood mixed with tears fell to the ground sinking into the dirt. Resh was completely frozen in place, this time with confusion, as he watched as Caspian’s fingernails bled while he grated them against the soil. He screamed, it was pained and full of sorrow. The sound shook Resh out of his fear. Worried, he took a small step forward and Caspian’s head snapped back up, watery red eyes glaring into his own, “Run.” he whispered, jumping forward.

§

Kye had made it to the city and was standing outside of a light blue two story building. He was far from the center square so the houses around him were rundown and unpainted. The store was dark but he could see the outline of selves inside, “Its been awhile since I’ve robbed a place.” He thought to himself. As kids they did what they had to, to survive. They had felt no remorse for it. Their want to stay alive kept them moving.

Yet, Kye was slightly hesitant to enter the building. He had stolen seemingly hundreds of times but, something was nagging at him. A bell was ringing in the back of his head telling him not to enter, telling him to go back and help Resh. He felt a pit growing in his stomach and his heart beat rapidly in his chest. He took a breath and sighed, “I guess I just thought I’d left this life behind.” hesitantly, he stepped forward.

After glancing left and right, to see if anyone was watching, he wearily reached out for the handle. It turned a quarter of the way around but stopped, suddenly unable to move any further, “Locked, great.” Instead of madly rattling it back and forth he stepped back slightly. Cautiously, he checked to see if anyone was watching again. He took a quick breath in a futile attempt to calm himself and grabbed the handle with both hands. Slowly, the copper heated up under his hand. Kye’s eyes were locked on the metal, completely focused on keeping the magic surging through his hand and not exploding into the world.

Kye knew the fire magic that came naturally to them still took energy and a circle to carry the magic through. The circle was created in his very blood so it seemed like the fire came from nowhere normally. But, if he was able to force the circle outside of his body he would be able to heat something without a flame.

Once it was nearly melting he focused on creating a small popping flame inside the lock by directing the circle inside the door. A small chink rang out from the handle. Kye smirked and pushed the door open. Resh and him had learned that little trick ages ago, but it had come in very handy on many different occasions. They’d stopped using it when a piece of metal shot out of the lock and nearly went through Kye’s hand, luckily it only grazed him. Kye knew they had been lucky though and didn’t want to test their luck again.

This was an exception. Cautiously he walked inside, slowly pushing the door closed behind him. It didn’t close all the way, do to the broken latch and sent cold air into the room. Kye didn’t notice it and walked quietly to a back shelf. He was relieved the floor was tiled and didn’t have to worry about creaky floor boards. The smallest of noises seemed like thunderclaps in the dead of night. Wood paneled floors were his worst nightmare as a hungry kid.

Kye could see the outline of a staircase in the corner and a cashier's booth off to the side of it. Quietly, being sure to not bump anything, he made his way to the back. The shelf full of medical supplies wasn’t in the best of shape. It was nearly empty and the whole top shelf was coated in dust, “Bandages, I need bandages.” he rummaged through the shelves shoving the thin stripes of cloth into his jacket.

They’d learned from a young age that the things touching their skin were taken away and given back when they shifted. Resh had tried it with dozens of items. Soon they realized that the weight of the items stayed with them if they tried to move. They could only take as much as they could carry. Kye was at first disappointed, for his young mind had made a great plan of how they could use their new found talent to rob places and carry out hundreds of expensive items.

He still didn’t particularly know how it worked though, “Maybe Caspian knows, I’ll have to ask him when he wakes up...If he wakes up.” his mind corrected him. He shook the thoughts away and walked to the back side of the shelf. He grunted as gleeful get well soon cards smiled up at him. He turned away from the shelf and something caught his eye. A silver rack stood to the left of him, clothes loosely hanging from it, “Clean…”