A Sea Of Flames (Part 2) 🌊🔥

This is Part 2 of the story, since the word count was too long. If you have not yet read part one, please do so by going to my account before proceeding. Otherwise, enjoy!

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I woke up the next day feeling like I had run a marathon the night before, and the first thought that had drifted in my mind was that he lied to me. I remembered feeling like my feet were glued to the ground after he had left. 

In a frenzy of panic, he had done something only select, well trained mystics could do. Breccan had teleported using fire, which should take a person decades to master. At least, that’s what I had learned in school. If my theory was correct, that meant that he wasn’t really a beginner. 

But that was only a small part of my worries. I didn’t remember much, but I knew I had looked, only to get lost somewhere in the town. By the time I found the place we were staying, I was tired to the bones, and I couldn’t think. 

Although the next morning, lying on my bed, gazing at the ceiling, I did wonder what exactly had happened the last night. I told myself the only way to possibly find out was to get up. And so I did, quite reluctantly.

A girl was supposed to be sharing the room with me, but the only trace that she was here were clothes strewn on the bed beside me, so I assumed everyone was preparing for departure from Sageshore.

When I had caught up with everyone, I tried to pay attention to the directions Azia was providing, but the only thing I could focus on was trying to find out what had happened last night.   

Just as we were about to set off, I saw someone running toward our group. It was a young girl, probably about ten years old. 

“Help! Please, there’s a fire!” She screamed, panting as she got to our side, holding Azia’s arm and pulling her towards a building in the distance, where barely noticeable tendrils of smoke began floating in the sky.

A feeling of dread cascaded over me as I sprinted down the road. I couldn’t exactly point out what had told me, but I had a feeling it was all connected to the encounter I had last night. Maybe it was the fact that the building on fire was right beside the clearing in the woods I was in last night. Or maybe it was the restaurant sign that hung off the wood, drowned in flames and smoking in the chilly air. Maybe it was both. 

“We need water!” Someone screamed. I remembered the decorative well from last night, and led every water Mystic in my training group there. 

Getting rid of the glass on top was a challenge, but the brute force of at least twelve people who had chimed in to help did the trick. 

We had to get a sip of the water in order to be able to move it, though, so all of us took turns scooping the water up in little bottles we carried with us at all times. I could see little particles floating in there, but I took a tiny sip anyway. We had to be ready to taste all kinds of water, in all kinds of situations. The very prospect of this made it so that moving water on a regular basis could be dangerous, at least until you could get the hang of it and just imagine the taste. For now, I had to stop myself from gagging on the salt water. At the same time, a feeling of hopefulness and worry swept over me, because, as I stood up and ran back to the burning restaurant, I realized that salt could stop burning easily, which was good, but I also realized that I was terrible at moving salt water.

I tried my best to concentrate on the taste in my mouth, and with that and the pure determination I had, I managed to lift what was most likely less than a cup of water. It was my new best, but not at all good enough. Every other Water Mystic in my group, except for Azia of course, the time we were back, the local fire department was already there and was leading people out. 

It was hard work, but the fire was out. The damage was done. 

Unfortunately, there were three casualties. I couldn’t see who they were because of the crowd, but grief struck me nonetheless. I saw the horrified faces of possible neighbors or loved ones, and I realized how terrible this actually was. . . I imagined what it would feel like if my own parents and brother were the ones under the white sheets. If I was the young girl moaning beside them. 

And me being the sensitive human being I am, I burst into tears. 

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I was breathless by afternoon, when we were finally departing. We were a few hours behind schedule, but that didn’t matter, since the only thing on anyone’s minds at the moment was the fire. I tried to help out in every way I could, but the work I did was insignificant in comparison to that of others. 

I still couldn’t let the all-too-mysterious Breccan out of my mind. . . I knew that I was going to find him someday, if he was still alive. I didn’t want to think of it, but I was worried he had started the fire. But why would he do that? To what was possibly his family, even?

I put the thought in the back of my mind to dig up later as I stepped into the ship, ready to keep going and find out the answers to all my questions. The rippling waves were waiting, and so were many uncertainties in the future.

Fin.

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(That should do it!)