Chapter 8: From Fire to Ash

Basically one grand battle with Korbin, the superpowered kid, pitting himself against three massive beasts of fire.

My fists made a wet resonant sound every time they connected with the Igna’s body. Lava flew every which way and formed rapidly cooling puddles of molten rock all over the deserted clearing. Aura and Cyren were hidden a good distance away behind a thick tree trunk, watching closely at the battle ensuing before their eyes. Nadari was high in the sky, searching for the openings in the Igna’s defenses and filling them with flurries of heavy bursts of air. She would frequently strike a blow when my fist collided the Igna’s. It left openings, but it was able to recover quickly with a counter strike.

Given its bulk, it was faster than I had expected. The Igna looked as if it could go forever without missing a stride, while I was progressively growing more and more weary. I had already expelled a lot of energy keeping the mountain from crushing me. Being knocked out for a short time didn’t help either. I needed to rest, but I didn’t have the time to. This would be a test of will.

The Igna discharged a jet of fire from its mouth and released a guttural sound emanating destruction from within. I crisscrossed my arms at the wrist in an attempt to defend against it, but it made little difference. The flames curled around my arms and set my clothes aflame. I was completely oblivious to the heat. It didn’t bother me, but my shirt was gone, leaving my chest awkwardly exposed and vulnerable.

I made the mistake of blinking; within the split second it took to close and reopen my eyes, the Igna had sprinted towards me, and its giant fist collided powerfully with my face in a sickening crunch, flinging me onto my back. I couldn’t tell if the sound came from my face, or the collision of his hand. All I know is that it hurt. I felt the air quiver as the Igna’s other fist moved to intercept the other side of my face. I sped up my body, leaving its fist to approach me in slow motion; I refused to offer the Igna the opportunity to move any faster.

            My hand shot up, gripping its fist within the palm of my hand, surprising it. I gazed into its eyes with the most threatening expression I could assume. I rose swiftly, kicking up off of the ground and over its head, twisting its arm in a direction it wasn’t supposed to go, and wrenching it behind its back. Its other arm flailed in an attempt to grab at me as I jumped and perched menacingly on its protruding hip bone. I reached forward and grabbed ahold of its other wrist with all my strength. Its wrist snapped the moment I clenched my hand around it, unable to withstand the weight of my crushing strength.

The Igna wailed, thrashing its body from side to side in an attempt to throw me off. I ignored its flaying movements, dragging both of its arms painfully down to the small of its back. My face scrunched up as I pulled as hard as I could in defiance to the Igna’s will. I could feel it fighting against me mightily, but there was nothing that it could do. I was stronger. It tried to jerk away, to remove its arms from within the hold of my titanium grip, but it had no chance of escaping, not when I put forth my full strength, the strength that could lift mountains.

Its arms began to give way. I heard them pop as they pulled from their sockets. The Igna immediately released a full throated wail; I could hear the agony in its cries. With one last jerk the Igna’s arms pulled free from its body and it fell face first to the ground with no way to stop its fall. I flipped off of its back as lava spouted from both sides of its separated arms and torso, while it lay limply on the ground, breathing hard. Its arms quickly cooled and turned to ash in my harsh grip. The ash floated slowly in the slight breeze, eventually falling lightly to the ground in sparse, unrecognizable piles. Nadari landed in front of the moaning Igna and fluttered close to its distorted face, unafraid of what it may be able to do. She knew it had no strength left in it. She touched her beak lightly to its forehead, chilling it with streams of wind that glided from her mouth and into the magma veins coursing through its body. In a few silent moments the surging lava cooled into obsidian. She then summoned a current of wind that dissipated the midnight black remains of the Igna’s cold form. Whatever flakes remained settled on the dead ground. They would help to fertilize it and make it green again once I freed these lands from the Igna’s hold. The lands would soon be brought back into the fold of life.

“I’ll be back,” I said, directing my words at Aura and Cyren who stood beside the thick trees they had been watching the battle from. I am unsure if they heard it, but they would hopefully understand what I was about to do. I shot into the sky, arcing above the mountains for a short time before diving back down to weave between their peaks. I was headed towards one of the other not so distant mesas that broke their way above the summits of the adjacent mountains. I moved swiftly through the skies, knitting my way between the thick mountains. None of them were snow peaked like you would expect on mountains so tall, which was probably because of the Igna. The heat they omitted kept natural weather from having any effect on the surrounding areas. Their presence kept the mountains desolate.

The mesas were each surrounded in a dark cloud of smoke. One of the clouds was far larger than the other, and so dark that not even my vision was capable of penetrating through the deathly fog. As I pressed closer into the smog of the nearby mesa, I stopped and hovered, still a fair distance away, staring in reverence at the smoldering creature perching on the edge of the mountains top, barely visible through the dark haze. What stood before me, with mighty wings outstretched, was a massive bird, and not just any bird. It was a Phoenix.

The Phoenix stared at me, tilting its head sideways with glaring eyes that pierced my soul. I was awed by it, so much so that I almost forgot what I was doing and gaped at the flaming beast before me. I luckily came to my senses before the Phoenix was able to make any move towards me and zipped forward, aiming for a head on collision with the firebird. The Phoenix seemed to smile in ecstasy as I sped forward, opening its mouth wide, showing me its flaming gullet. I was unconcerned by it, there was nothing that it could do to me, or so I thought.

The Phoenix released a screech. I could feel static energy pulsing as the sonic waves reached for me. I saw the sound waves pass through me like rings of smoke, activating some switch within. My face contorted in agony as the shockwaves hit, knocking out my power. I continued to hurtle forward, persisting in my uncontrolled flight path as momentum, caused by my speed, took ahold of me, flinging me continuously forward. I crashed hard on the flat mesa, rolling all the way to the other end, almost careening out into open air, but just barely slowed to a halt just before the fatal edge.

The Phoenix wasted no time in attacking me. In a single flap of its wings, it bridged the gap between us and gripped its mighty talons around my throat and lifted me up off of the ground, releasing another full forced screech into my face for good measure before throwing me off the mountainside. I plunged through the air like a bowling ball and slammed into the center of an adjacent mountain. My head pounded against the mountainside. I couldn’t move. My vision became clouded from the impact and further darkened by the shadow of the Phoenix circling above.

For the first time in my life I had become prey, like a fish to a ravenous eagle. I couldn’t understand why sounds like that immobilized me. Maybe it was a trigger, or something in my brain that shut down at higher frequencies. Maybe these creatures had some underlying factor that played into the frequencies, like the static I felt when the waves pulsed through me. Either way, at this moment there was little chance of me finding out.

I wasn’t going to give up yet. Since I couldn’t fly I would try a different tactic, maybe it didn’t knock out all of my power, so I would try the ground. Dislodging myself from the mountain wall, I found a foothold and sped off down the slope at super speed. I hadn’t run much since the day I had learned to fly. On occasion I would use it just to make sure I was still capable of doing do, but, for the most part, I had given up its use for the better power.

The Phoenix began to follow as I sprinted forward, staying close behind. It had an easier time keeping up with me in the air; hopefully it wasn’t close enough to incapacitate me again. I could hear it screeching above, but it wasn’t the same. It sounded more like a call to arms, but I couldn’t think on that yet. I had to keep running until I could come up with a way to fight this Phoenix.

I turned a corner and glimpsed a small cave in the side of a nearby mountain, but the phoenix was right above me. I sped up, whipping around the mountain in an attempt to outrun the Phoenix and return to the cave entrance without it noticing where I had disappeared to. I zipped into the cave moments before the Phoenix made its way around the peak. I stood a few feet behind the entrance with my arms wrapped around my chest, waiting for my chance to escape, if that chance ever came. Maybe I had met an opponent that could actually beat me.

I heard the loud screeching of the Phoenix circling high above around the cliff’s peak. It was signaling its position. Loud thumping sounds emanated from everywhere, drowning out the sound of the Phoenix’s screeching. I poked my head around the edge of the little cave, but pulled back instantly, backing up as far as I could until my back hit the cold stone of the wall behind me, simultaneously gasping in fear.

A clawed appendage stomped in front of the caves entrance, matching the cave’s height with just the spiny foot. The creature was half the size of the mountains and armed to the teeth with deadly spikes and spines. It was nothing like any creature on Earth. The other ones at least looked like things I had seen there, but this…nothing.

“I would hate to have given birth to that,” I said under my breath. The Igna snorted as if it had heard me. It lowered its snout, sniffing me out. I didn’t want to give it enough time to trap me. I sped out of the cave, kicking up dust as I sped across the ground and ran halfway up the adjacent mountain side. The Igna had one massive foreleg placed centrally up the mountain and the other on the ground in front of the cave I had been in moments before, both of its hind legs were gripping the mesa of the neighboring mountain. So that’s how it got there so quickly, I unknowingly hid right beside its home. Its glowing deep-set eyes looked at me amused. It looked like it was smiling, baring its teeth. Its head was as big as a house, with a beard of spikes flowing down beneath it and dripping lava. Magma trailed in thick spirals around them. Its gigantic mouth opened to reveal row upon row of razor-sharp teeth. It released a bone-chilling roar, followed by what could almost be considered laughter.

“Are you laughing at me?” I asked it, expecting no answer. I had been too distracted by the unusual laughter. Suddenly the Phoenix dropped out of the sky, slamming me into the mountain yet again. I was beginning to get annoyed at how frequently this had begun to happen to me, and I decided that I wasn’t going to stand for it again, ironic because I was on my back. I swiped at the Phoenix’s legs and severed them, instantly dissolving them into nothingness. The Phoenix opened its flaming beak to screech in pain as it fluttered its wings in an attempt to stave off its fall, but, before it had the chance to trigger the switch again, I grabbed its beak, silencing its cry with one hand and crushing its neck with the other. I whipped it around to ram it into the mountainside.

One of my hands remained on the firebird’s beak, keeping it closed and harmless. I released the hand holding its neck and began to wreak destruction upon its unprotected chest. I could barely see my own fist with the speed of my rapid punches. The Phoenix writhed beneath my death grip, squirming to escape my fury and trying in vain to open up its beak to shriek. I began to slow down after about a thousand punches, give or take a few hundred, I lost count. The Phoenix’s chest had caved in, and lava flowed freely out onto the mountainside, drenching it in a thick orange liquid which swiftly cooled into black obsidian.

I brought up my fist for one final stroke, aiming the blow straight for the Phoenix’s head. I had desired to show it mercy after everything I had just done, but I was unable to make impact before my legs were swept out from beneath me, once again, and I landed on my back a few feet from where the Phoenix lay dying. I watched the tail of the giant Igna in surprise as it arched around, preparing to crush me beneath it. I brought myself to a kneel, with my arms up and my palms facing the sky to brace for the impact of the massive spiked appendage.

The tail fell on me with overwhelming force and a barrage of spikes, which slammed against my shirtless and exposed body with a sound comparable to that of an atomic bomb. One of the spikes had actually hit hard enough to puncture my skin, but just barely. I felt a bruise forming on my abdomen where the spike had broken through, with a slow trickle of blood flowing out from it. I neither had the luxury, nor the time, to think about the small amount of pain I was feeling. The tail swept up again, rising twenty feet above my head. For a few seconds I was able to see the Igna’s face turned towards me, glaring with hatred filled eyes, before the tail crashed down, crushing me beneath it for a second time with most of the spikes falling on my unprotected back.

The tail rose once more, relieving the pressure from my charcoal colored back, which, thankfully, sustained no open wounds. I rolled out of the area before it fell for a third time, standing quickly and sprinting up onto the ridge of its colossal tail, running between the spikes that were trailing on either side of its massive form. The Igna began swishing its tail back and forth, ineffectively trying to fling me off or destabilize my movements.

It became more and more difficult to keep my balance with the frequency I had to skip from left to right to avoid catching my foot on one of the many magma filled crevices scattered along the Igna’s body, as well as the constant movement of its tail. I took a moment to glance over to where the Phoenix had been. The ashes of its body had begun their slow dissolve out of this plane of existence. The cooled blackness of its body lacked a knowledgeable form; it could no longer be recognized as the powerful firebird that threatened the skies only minutes before. It had passed slower than I would have wished, but at least now it could no longer be the cause of this planets desolation.

I had finally reached the creatures back after speeding up the expansive tail; the spikes in the center line of the Igna’s back rose up like the spine of a stegosaurus and lethal spikes erupted from everywhere else on its body. I was trying my hardest to avoid making contact with them, but I couldn’t always help it. They were too many and too close between to continuously avoid. The Igna’s head still wavered back and forth, trying to catch sight of me on its oversized back. I guess there was one downside to it being so large: its line of sight sucked.

Randomly, the Igna’s body began to vibrate and rumble as its flame burned as brightly as a sun beneath me. I slowed to a halt, ceasing my movements along the side of the Igna’s spine and looked down at my frayed pants. The fringes near my ankles had lit on fire as the Igna’s body began to immolate, engulfing itself in bright flames. The fire climbed up my pants. It must have been hot, because my pants were incinerated up to my knees in the blink of an eye. I was given no other choice but to burst into the sky or risk the embarrassment of having no clothes left on my body. The air was different somehow, not that I’m saying that it was peaceful standing on top of the flaming Igna, but it  felt dangerous to be in the sky, even more dangerous than it would have been simply standing in front of the Igna’s smoldering jaws.

I was shown why shortly after. I had highly underestimated the speed at which this creature could move. Its large size had seemed to suggest that it was slow moving. I had assumed incorrectly. The Igna flashed like a streak of crimson lightning, bolting to the top of the mountain faster than I was able to follow without focusing incredibly hard. We were moving at the same speed. It pushed against the mountains top, severing the peak as it leapt out to meet me midflight. Time slowed to a crawl as the beast’s massive form swept a gargantuan taloned foot at me, the talons were stretched apart, slowly inching their way towards my slowly approaching form.

I began evasive maneuvers, then realized that were I to try and move in any direction other than towards the taloned claw, that I would have no chance of evading something so large, and would merely be swept away to, yet again, be slammed on my back into a mountain. So, I countered instead with another tactic. I would go through.

I shifted my flight path towards the taloned foot, moving no faster than a slug in the speed flux. I began to weave my way between the two talons that stretched the widest, the only ones that could offer me enough room to pass through. My head breached the gap. I turned my head downwards, looking perpendicularly down my body to see the rest of my almost naked form caterpilling its way through the increasingly shortening gap. My feet barely had enough time to pass through before everything sped up again. The claws shut rapidly; closing their vice like grip around the exact location I had occupied only moments before, releasing a resonance like that of a slamming door, but much louder.

We moved in rapid bursts, barely evading each attack we threw at each other. I rushed towards its head, but the Igna countered by spinning around and opening its mouth. I could see down the mass of its flaming throat, row upon row of blazing fangs stuck out, each one hungering for a taste of my blood. I whipped around rapidly, planting my feet on either side of the lowest place on its mouth, between the upper and lower jaw, and pushed off forcibly, reversing my momentum and rocketing away from the impending danger, and simultaneously pushing its head backwards. The Igna seemed to keep its temper in check, showing neither anger nor annoyance. This battle was thrilling to it, a challenge. I could tell by the way it reacted to my movements that it was amused by my tenacity.

It was faster than I was, but only by a little, enough to catch me off guard at the very least. I made the mistake of attempting to escape. My plan was to shoot up and away and avoid the creature by my altitude. But the moment I ascended above its head it stood on its hind legs and brought the full weight of its foreleg upon me " and I fell " my momentum had switched directions and propelled me straight towards the adjacent mountainside. I slammed into it with the force of a missile. The mountainside shattered, opening a gaping hole visible only until the entire mountain began to crumble on top of me, the second De-Ja-Vu moment of the day. I looked up to watch the crumbling pieces of rock pile on top of me and break, cracking apart against my forehead.

I sat beneath this pile of rock much more patient than when I was beneath the mountain. This time I was fully aware that I could lift these stones; this beast may be faster, but, as large as it was, I was still stronger. It was time to end this. It was time to push myself beyond the limitations I had placed upon myself. I knew I could move faster, and I knew I was stronger.

I pushed mightily against the pile of mere stones, propelling them outward. Many of them broke against the hard exoskeleton of the Igna, who turned to face me once more. It rushed forward, closing the distance with one step and attempting to crush me with the next. Its foot smashed into the ground barely a foot in front of me. I flushed out all of my speed and sprinted around its leg to its ankle. I slammed my fist into one of the few weak spots on its body that lay between its leg and foot. The force of my blow cracked the fiery metallic plating. I sprinted away, finding my way to the middle of the Igna’s underbelly and propelled myself up into the air, colliding with the thick carapace of its gut. I lifted it into the sky, bringing it straight to the upper ranges of the atmosphere.

“You should not have tried to fight me,” I said to it.

Its throat began to rumble, and sounds formed within, “I…thought…less of…you.”

It didn’t surprise me that it could actually talk, Cyren and Aura had enlightened me on their existence. I knew they were sentient. Maybe it was that they only spoke out of respect for their adversary when they knew they were defeated. I could be wrong; I know I’ll never be an expert on them. I didn’t dwell on it.

I swung the Igna in a wide semi-circle above my head and then flung it down, watching its rapid fall back to the surface of Adjutor for a short time before I began to follow. I flew fast, pursuing it closely. It turned to me and gazed at me for a split second before it slammed into the ground as a wall of dust and dirt surged up around it in a tight circle.

I landed lightly beside its head in the blurry fog of the dust storm the impact had created. Its eyes had shut and its fire was silenced. There had been no malice in its eyes as it gazed at me; there was peace, satisfaction. It was a weird realization. Why would it be satisfied with death? Its other kin had fallen and yet it had still looked up at me peacefully. Not the joyful peace, it wasn’t happy that it was dying, but it was satisfied for other reasons. Had I just awoken yet another danger?

Something was wrong. I suddenly had a strange feeling that these creatures were here as some sort of sentinels, placed here for the sole purpose to guard and challenge all comers who would stand against their rage. But, why? The only life on this planet was primitive. The creature’s placement on this planet seemed almost like a punishment, there was no glory here.

I stared sadly down at the massive form of the Igna as it began to slowly dissolve. I wasn’t a fan of death, even for warring creatures such as these. The tiny pieces of ash drifted like snow, eventually settling upon the ground in huge drifts that would soon disperse amongst the dirt and dust of the mountain range. The Igna would soon be barely a memory.

The sun’s touch was beginning to enter into the mountains; its rays flooding passionately through the gaps between the peaks, illuminating the disintegrating carcass of the megalithic Igna. I hadn’t noticed before, but the sun itself was a deep crimson, and it hung in the sky, lording over the entirety of this galaxy. It was surely a beautiful sight to behold, one that I had frequently taken for granted back on Earth.  

I forced my attention away from the dissolving Igna and raced back to where Aura and Cyren were resting. They had a small fire going.  I had been gone for at least half an hour; the battles had taken longer than I thought. They felt like they had been mere moments. Nadari was close by, perched high up in a tree not too far from the fading embers of the fire. She had seen me long before I had set foot in the quiet camp, but made no motion to draw near.

Aura was curled up near the fire, her head resting in her hands, which she was using as a makeshift pillow. Cyren was stretched out on the opposite side of the fire with his back towards me. Aura’s usual strong composure was again missing, replaced by the young and frail appearance she often displayed while she slept, far different from the strength and fierceness she portrayed while she was awake. There was also an odd cooked creature lying beside the fire. I didn’t pay much attention to it besides noticing that it was there. As I came into the light of the fire Aura opened her eyes and gazed over at me pacing into the campsite. She stood and stretched, walking towards me silently, careful not to disturb Cyren as he slept. Aura picked up the cooked creature as she passed by without missing a step, handing it over once she reached me.

“This is a Padara,” was the first thing she said as I took it. “They’re burrowers. This one happened to be looking for food when we got ahold of it, so we saved it for you.”

I looked at her gratefully; the fights with the Igna had made me hungry, not to mention the long days we had been spending without much rest, “Thank you.”

She watched me as I ate. Somehow it didn’t make me feel uncomfortable, her watching me eat. When I finished she handed me a small skin full of water. I hadn’t seen her use it before. In fact I hadn’t seen it all.

Aura saw me contemplating it, “We made it while you were…busy. It’s a water skin from the creature’s stomach. It’s clean,” She said encouragingly.

I took a few drinks from it. It tasted normal. “Where’d you get the water?” I asked her.

“Most of the trees here have water reservoirs in their centers; my blade is sharp enough to cut through and tap into them.”

There was silence for a while, neither of us had much to say. I knew Aura knew what I had been doing; I was debating whether I should tell her what happened or just wait for her to ask. In the end I decided not to wait.

“They’re dead.” I said definitively. “I watched them shrivel away into ash.”

She looked into my eyes, shocked, “Even Kataya?”

I didn’t know who Kataya was, but I was going to assume she meant the biggest one. It was a safe assumption, seeing as there wouldn’t be much question to me taking down the Phoenix. I wasn’t going to tell her that some shockwave had knocked out my power and immobilized me, nor was I going to let this weakness be known. She probably assumed that I had rid the mountains of the firebird easily, but maybe not. She didn’t bring it up, so neither did I.

“Yes, even Kataya.” I said

She paused, giving it time to sink in, “How?”

“…I dropped him from space.”

“Her,” Aura laughed, correcting me. “Kataya was female.”

“What?”

“Yes, Skyboy,” Aura laughed again. “Most male Igna will never be that Large, Kataya and Sheirk were both female.”

“Oh, that’s…different.” I said, my voice sounded confused, but it wasn’t really anything to be confused over.

“Yes. Remember that these are not your worlds; clearly there are many things you are not used to. You should not misunderstand me, however. The males are still exceedingly strong, much stronger than they may look at times.” I would keep that in mind if I ever ran into another Igna, though I hoped not to.

“We’ve told you many things about this planet and those surrounding, but no matter how much we tell you there is still more to learn, more that even we do not know. There are still creatures on this planet you have not seen, creatures in the deserts, creatures in the waters, creatures that hide themselves within the infinite skies, even creatures in the forest that we will soon travel into. And I warn you, the creatures that were in the forest on the other side of the mountains are nothing like the creatures in this one. There will be an Audra here. The one that has chosen to be with you is young, but the one in these woods is much older, and that much more powerful. I doubt you would be able to stand against the force of its gales as well as you could Nadari’s. She will grow in both size and power, and she will remain with you. She chose that. She bonded herself to you because she believed you to be worthy.”

I don’t remember ever showing myself to be worthy. I know of the mistakes that I’ve made. If they knew of them would they still feel the same way? I ran from my home. I released creatures that could potentially tear my world apart. I almost ran from Cyren and Aura before I even gave them a chance, and even now I still have that pull to run no matter how long I am with them, and I feel that, were I to run, I would feel no remorse towards leaving.

I felt powerful when I killed the Igna, especially Kataya. When I let my power flow, she crumbled before me, falling through the sky like an unstoppable anchor. And it felt good. The one thing I didn’t want to become, though, was greedy, greedy for more power; I didn’t want to hunger for destruction.

I didn’t want to become like the Igna, to have that constant pull for war and death. That is the reason that I choose to stay. Aura and Cyren may yet be able to teach me humility, to keep me from becoming like the Igna, because if there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout my life, it’s that power has the potential to corrupt, and, if I let it do so, it will eat away at me, and there may be no turning back, no hope for a revival, or a way to stand against the tyrant I would become. The death that would flow from beneath my fingertips would be immeasurable. I would stand against becoming that. I know that I can’t let it happen. Maybe that is the purpose of my rings inscription, just maybe.

“Today has been a long day for you, hasn’t it?” Aura asked, pulling me out of my reverie and drawing my attention away from the blank stare I had fallen to.

“Did you just speak informally?” I asked surprised; she had never said anything so casually.

“Yes, it seems I did.”

“…and it’s gone.”

“What?”

“Your informality, it’s gone. For a split second I thought we’d finally have a normal conversation.”

“Have the conversations we have been having not been normal?”

“Does your normal imply that there’s always going to be talk of war and stuff?”
            “And stuff? What do you mean ‘stuff’?” she emphasized the final word.

“Oh never mind.”

She shrugged, bringing the conversation back to her informal question. “You still did not answer my question.”

“Yes, yes, today has been a long day.” I said, and it was beginning to wear on me. As strong as I was, it did not make me any less sleepy, my body still needed sleep.

“Well then, I will give this to you now, before you fall over.”

“Wait! Hold on, did you just make a joke too?”

“I may have done so, but that is not the point. Here,” Aura said handing me a single, forest green, diamond shaped scale.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Place it here,” She touched the small indent in the center of my chest.

It was now, in front of her, as I had been for a little while now, that I realized I had almost nothing on, and she hadn’t said a single word. My cheeks were turning red, I could feel it. Aura acted like she hadn’t even noticed, purposefully oblivious once again. I placed the object in the little nook as she had directed and watched as it began to expand instantly; a vicious flash of green enveloped my chest. I felt it weave underneath my armpits and around to my back, curving and twisting around the length of my arms, covering even my hands in the powerful green of the armor. Spike-like tendrils flowed out, creating tight edges just behind each white knuckle. It seemed to intertwine with my muscles making them seem much more firm. The armor continued to spread to my legs, and, as it did, it shredded the remnants of my pants while simultaneously covering what it had just destroyed, thankfully leaving no room for an awkward encounter. It continued to do this until my entire body was covered, even my face.

“Ok,” I said, “Now…this is cool, but…how do I get it off my face?” the question became unnecessary the moment the words left my mouth. The green mask folded in on itself, creating a loose ring around my neck and allowing the ashy features of my face to be seen once more. I really needed a bath. I bet it looked good. I couldn’t see all of it, but it felt like it was in perfect harmony with the entirety of my body. It had melded faultlessly. “Never mind,” I said. I had clearly figured it out on my own. I was in awe of this armor; whatever it was made of, it felt wonderful. Aura began striding back to the dying fire. I followed close behind.

“Aura wait, you have to explain to me what this is…and why you gave it to me.”

She turned her head, but continued walking. “You can control the Armor with your will, as you have figured out on your own. Besides that, I will explain more in the morning.”

Ugh, why, I whined in my head. She was lying down beside the fire now, “Aura come on.” I egged on in a loud whisper. I waited, but no response came, “Aura…” still nothing. “AURA?” I released a louder whisper, but she continued to remain silent, to my frustration. “Ugh, fine.” With that I laid down in the middle of the freshly dawning day and fell fast asleep to the slight rustling of the morning breeze. The trials of the night had drained me, and I had discovered but one thing, Igna suck.

Author's Note

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