Thane, a young boy from a rough part of nowhere, catches himself in a wildfire bred for bleeding, until something in the inferno finds him, something that never intends to let him go.
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All I could hear was the roar.
I immediately fell into an incline. The valley was steep and rocky, and the smoke of the fire forced me to crouch down, choking and blinded by the heat and the black and the burn. Oh, how it burned.
I stumbled into a clearing, a momentary plateau in the valley's side, trying to hear past the crackling of wood and fire and dead air. I hit the ground, desperate for a full breath, and I found a footprint, I didn't even know if it was Ariadne's, but I followed it anyway. I fell back into the incline, leaning back far enough to get below the layer of smoke, then tripped on a rock and went tumbling forward.
I caught myself, rolled, found my feet, so full of adrenaline, I didn't question how I managed it. The fire was getting hotter, somehow. The smoke denser. I dove head-first into it.
"Ariadne!" I roared, my shoulder finding a tree to keep me in place. "Ariadne come back! I won't let them hurt you! Just come back! Please!"
It was so loud. The fire had come faster than I'd realized. Faster than what Mr. Faithe had said. It was all around me, blistering my fingers, melting my shoes to the dirt. It was all I could do not to turn around and head back inside, back to safety. Except, I couldn't. I couldn't see two feet in front of me. I could barely see my own hands. And if I couldn't, that meant...
"ARIADNE!" I bellowed, my throat raw. She was out there, alone and afraid and sorry, I knew she was sorry for what she did because I knew her, and this would be eating her up inside, no matter how cold she seemed.
I had to find her.
"Thane!"
"Thane, come back!"
"Thane! Ariadne!"
"Thane!"
Too many voices. They were looking for me, looking to stop me from finding Ariadne. It must have been some heroes who thought they could help me, save me from saving her. I felt an impulse to run.
"Thane, buddy!" That was Bear.
"Bear!?" I called back.
The voices crescendoed. "Thane!"
"Where are you?!"
"We have to get back!"
I saw them. A group of shadows through the smoke, fighting against the incline. They were holding hands in a chain, crouched low and frantically looking around, coughing coughing coughing. Again, I felt the urge to run.
But my buddy was with them.
"I'm over here!" I lifted my arm, my other gripping the tree. "Hey! I'm over here! Guys!"
I knew the moment they found me. As one, the all let go of eachothers hands. Through the haze, they seemed to float closer, and for a moment, I felt like I was hallucinating them. Their forms slowly got bigger and bigger, wider and taller; but their lines were wavy and distorted, their corners too soft and their edges too round. I watched them turn into something they shouldn't have been, until all at once, they were on me.
