Soul Fire (13 page)

“No worries,” she said, standing up and brushing sand
from her knees. “You should really learn to do it yourself.”
“I’ve tried,” I said, and it was true, but I just didn’t have
the finesse that Dena had. My only hope was that I’d have
to heal myself, not others, otherwise they might end with
a finger too many if I accidentally reduplicated a finger
instead of healing its paper cut. Healing was best left to
those with natural talent, and I just didn’t have it.
Razor fish wound aside, the others had successfully
pulled the boat ashore, as had our classmates. I noticed,
disgruntled, that they all kept their boots on. Looks like
I’d be the only one to suffer a razor fish wound that day.
Only after I helped Dustin and the others pull our
equipment from the boat, strap it onto our backs and turn
towards the forest that seemed to take up most of the
island, did I remember the hair-raising howl from the
night before. I took my time pulling my boots back on,
very reluctant to walk amongst the shady trunks. Only
when Dustin and I were the last two to head into the trees
following Jett did I pluck up the courage.
We walked the path side by side, not speaking but
feeling comfortable with each other’s presence. I watched
the foliage around us for any sign of movement, but
despite my misgivings, I couldn’t see anything around us.
We reached our camp site, a clearing a good way into
the trees. I couldn’t see or hear the beach anymore, and I
desperately hoped that the boat hadn’t left us here. We
began to set up camp, and it was as I was threading the
poles through the canvas that I noticed what had been
bothering me.
“Dena,” I said urgently, and she looked up from
counting tent pegs. “Have you noticed there are no birds?”
It was true. No birdsong filtered through the trees, no
lizards rustled the leaf litter. It was as though the island
were dead. Theresa, having heard me, straightened up and
looked about; our classmates hadn’t noticed anything
wrong.
All of our classmates except Phoenix. I saw him
standing on the edge of camp, his one man tent in his
hand as he surveyed the trees surrounding the clearing. I
wondered what he thought of the whole thing.
We spent the day exploring the island in groups of five
or more. Eleanora had somehow managed to get Phoenix
to accompany her and her friends into the forest,
something I knew must be hell for him; I could barely
stand their giggling, how could he?
My group wandered along a long forgotten path which
was strewn with leaf litter. Petre and Ispin were having a
mock sword fight with long sticks while Dustin watched
on; he hadn’t been allowed to join in. As the scythe was
his chosen weapon, he was used to handling longer
weapons than the two, granting him an advantage. Rain
and the other girls were ahead and I brought up the rear,
meandering along behind the others. I knew we must be
getting close to the other side of the island, but there was
no break in the trees. I had my hands in my pockets,
watching the sky above me as the sun moved in and out of
the clouds scudding across the blue sky.
I stumbled, my foot falling into a depression on the
path. As I tried to lift it out quickly to regain my balance,
my toes caught on the dirt and I went sprawling.
“I envy your grace,” Theresa said, laughing as she
helped me up.
“There’s something on the path,” I said, more
concerned with what I’d fallen into rather than her
sarcasm.
I bent down, moving aside rotted leaves to reveal what
could only be
“Is that a
footprint
?”
A giant footprint. As I pulled more leaves away, the
boys came back to us, as did the girls.
“It’s not a footprint,” I swallowed hard, fighting against
the fear that was once again threatening to take a hold of
me. “It’s a paw print.”
A paw print that was longer than two of my foot
lengths. I stood up hastily, and Dustin caught me, grasping
my muddy hand in his. Petre and Ispin worked together to
clear the path with their magic, the squalls of wind they
had summoned making short work of the tree litter.
The whole path was covered in the prints. Yasmin
measured them out and then faced us, visibly pale.
“I don’t know exactly what it is,” she began, trembling
slightly. Petre caught her elbow and steadied her. “But it’s
a carnivore. And I think... I’m going to get Jett to check
these though,” she looked up at us, uncertainty sparking in
her eyes. “I think it’s the size of a horse.”
A brisk wind blew up the path, scattering the leaves
back over the prints. I knew I wasn’t the only one
contemplating running and screaming back to camp.
“Let’s head back,” Dustin said unnecessarily. “We’d
better show Jett these.”
As we hurried back down the path from whence we’d
came, the hair on the back of my neck prickled and I
knew, without doubt, that we were being watched.

“The size of a horse?” Jett repeated, doubt scrawled
across his heavy features. “A carnivore, the size of a
horse?”

“You can come with us to check the prints, Jett,”
Yasmin said defiantly, defending her measurements. “I
could be wrong, but I don’t think I am.”

Jett cast one look of longing towards the shore, and I
knew he wanted a second opinion. If Professor Alena had
been with us, he would’ve felt better for having someone
to discuss it with. As it was, he nodded curtly.

“Who will come with me?” he asked, and Dustin
volunteered, as did Yasmin and Petre.
The rest of us watched as they disappeared into the
woods. Immediately we were swamped by our classmates
wanting descriptions of what we’d found. I left the others
to it and headed to our tent, wanting food. I scowled as I
pulled out the empty bag, shaking it upside down. Unless
we’d grossly miscalculated how much food to bring, I’d
say we’d had a peckish visitor. My thoughts whirled to
Ispin who had a habit of stealing food and I sighed
heavily. My bets were that his and Petre’s food bag was
empty too.
I headed to the edge of camp, carrying the bag. I could
go and collect berries and nuts that I knew were edible,
but when I cast a glance over my shoulder to the others,
they were still talking to the class.
“I’ll go with you.”
I jumped, startled, as Phoenix appeared from the
woods.
“What were you doing out there?” I asked him, my
nerves humming.
He shrugged, completely unperturbed by my expression
and the class’ fearful demeanour.
“Alright,” I said apprehensively, wondering how this
was going to go. “I don’t want to go too far, though.”
The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon as we
set out together. I came across several berry bushes, but
didn’t recognize any, so I left them alone, Phoenix
wandering along behind me.
I was picking black berries gingerly, avoiding the sharp
spikes on the bushes, when I heard it. A huffing, not like
Echo did when she was exasperated with me, but like an
agitated animal preparing to charge. I turned slowly, my
heart hammering in my chest.
An enormous creature, indeed the size of a horse, stood
in the bushes behind me. Its red eyes glowed with anger,
and it snarled when I turned. Our eyes met for one
moment, and then, forgetting everything I’d learnt about
dangerous animals, I fled.
I dropped the food bag and ran through the black berry
bushes, not feeling the thorns that scraped my skin and
caught my clothes. I could hear that the creature was in
pursuit, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun it.
I headed for a tree with many low hanging branches.
When I reached it, I propelled myself into the branches,
pulling up my feet as the animal skidded to a halt at the
base of the trunk and roared its displeasure. I continued
climbing desperately, my sweaty hands slipping on the
bark.
The creature reared up on its hind legs and swatted at
me with an enormous paw. I pulled my feet up, tucking
them close to my body as I clung to a branch. I was getting
near the top of the tree now, the tree that shook as the
creature braced itself against it, and the branches were
thinning. I glanced down to see where the creature was,
and then immediately wished I hadn’t.
It was a creature of nightmares. It had the body of a
lion, was the size of a horse, but was covered in black
scales like armour. Steely claws dug into the bark of the
unfortunate tree I’d taken sanctuary in, and I shook with
the tree, almost losing my grip. Its hot breath reached up
to me, smelling like a thousand dead things.
I had no idea where Phoenix was. I could only hope
that he’d seen the creature and gone back to camp for
help. I certainly didn’t want him coming after me on his
own, not with this beast about to scale the tree for a tasty
morsel of mage.
Mage! I made a fist, letting my magic seep through to
its corporeal form. A fireball formed in my hand, and I
wasted no time projecting it downwards, engulfing the
creature in green flames.
While it certainly didn’t like the magic in its eyes, the
beast wasted no time regaining its footing, the rest of my
magic showering off of its armoured hide. That’s what it’s
there for, I realised. This beast is a mage eater.
I abandoned my magic, reaching for the small dagger at
my hip. I unsheathed it, feeling a bit better about having a
sharp blade in my hand. When the creature lifted a paw,
claws outstretched, trying to reach me in the branches, I
swiped at it with the dagger. The blade cut the flesh
between its toes, and the creature reared back and roared
in pain.
I didn’t have to worry about someone coming for help
now. People on the mainland surely had to have heard
that.
My dagger had come in handy. Now I needed to take it
up a notch.
I looped one arm around a branch, wrapping sweaty
fingers around the hilt of the small knife as the creature
began to attack the tree with renewed frenzy. With my
other hand, I carefully grasped the blade, hissing as the
blood of the creature burnt my skin like acid. I kept a hold
on it, whispering the spell we’d learnt in Magic Prac. The
blade glowed and then elongated. I now had a small
sword.
This part was tricky. I couldn’t rely on magic to hold
my aim true, and I wasn’t the best thrower as it was. I
looked down into the beast’s red eyes, fixing it with a
glare, letting it know it had attacked a force to be
reckoned with. As though recognising such a glare, the
creature snarled up at me.
“That’s my cue,” I muttered to myself, and bracing
myself in the branches, hurled the sword downwards,
point first.
My aim was true; the sharp point of the blade bit deep
into the creature’s left eye, and it dropped to the forest
floor, snarling. It howled, and I slammed my hands over
my ears as it built in pitch and intensity. The creature
rubbed its head on the ground, desperately trying to
dislodge the knife. With one desperate yowl that made my
vision swim, it collapsed to the ground, shaking the leaves
of the trees all around.
I stayed where I was, not believing it to be dead. I think
I would’ve stayed there all night if Phoenix hadn’t burst
through the trees, Jett and my classmates with him.
Together they took in the scene; me high up in the
branches of my life saving tree, and the creature crumpled
on the ground, the hilt of my dagger protruding from its
eye.
“Sky!”
Phoenix climbed into the branches and held out a hand
to me. I gripped it, steadying myself against him as I
climbed down.
“What is it?” I asked Jett, who was looking over the
beast.
“A Du’rangor,” he said, kneeling in front of it. “But
how-“
“A Du’rangor?” Phoenix asked. “But how is it here?”
“What do you mean?” I asked him, confused.
“Du’rangors are native to Gannameade, and only to that
country. They aren’t found anywhere else.”
“Except the Paw Islands of Lotheria, apparently,” I said,
unwilling to go near the thing.
Jett gripped the hilt of my dagger and pulled, wincing
as the blade refused to come free from the sucking mass of
what was left of the Du’rangor’s eye. When he did finally
get it free, only a small portion of the blade was left with
the hilt; the rest seemed to have been burned away.
“Du’rangors are poisonous,” Jett lifted the remainder of
the blade to show the class, who wrinkled their faces as
eye goo dripped from it in long strings. “And very difficult
to kill. How did you do it, Sky?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” I asked.
“You shoved a knife in its eye, but that alone shouldn’t
have killed it. What else did you do?”
“Nothing. I mean, I made the dagger a little longer
using that spell you taught us, because it was only a little
knife.”
“So you threw a blade soaked with magic into its brain,”
Jett concluded. “That would do it, and evidently, it has.”
Everyone gathered around the Du’rangor, but I didn’t
go a step closer. They hadn’t seen it in action, the way its
muscles moved like liquid steel as it reached for me in the
tree, death in its eyes. I looked at it slumped on the
ground, noticing how much smaller it seemed now that
one couldn’t see the two inch long claws retracted back
into its paws, the long teeth and the foul smelling maw
were hidden from view by its velvet muzzle, the only part
of the animal apart from its paw pads that was fur.
I hardly noticed when Phoenix left my side and Dustin
replaced him, too engrossed in my thoughts, reliving parts
of what had just happened.
“What will happen to it now?” I asked Jett.
“We’ll burn the body, and then we should leave the
island,” he said. “I don’t want to find out the hard way
that this wasn’t the only one here.”
I shuddered involuntarily.
“What were you doing out here by yourself?” Dena
asked, wrapping her arms around me as the rest of the
group came over.
“I wasn’t alone, Phoenix was with me. Don’t do that,” I
told her as she sent a very untrusting look to Phoenix,
who’d slunk behind the group. “I was collecting black
berries, because our food bag is empty.”
“No it isn’t,” she said, frowning, which sent her glasses
slipping down her nose. “It can’t be.”
I noticed Ispin behind her go bright red and begin to
shuffle from foot to foot.
“I must’ve misjudged how much food to bring,” I said
quickly, before anyone could look over at him and put two
and two together.
Dena admonished me as my mother would have, and
Ispin sent me a grateful look that I dare not acknowledge.
We packed up quickly and headed for the beach as the
sun dropped even lower. We rowed out to the waiting
boat, and I watched as the island dropped behind us, a
thin belt of smoke rising into the evening air as the body
of the Du’rangor burned.
Once safely aboard, we began to sail back to the
mainland. The jetty slowly came back into view, alight
with torches so we could find our way home. The sailors
moored it with expert ease, and we disembarked on
wobbly legs, tired from so much travelling over the day.
It was only this morning that we left, I mused in
wonder. A lot had happened in a day. I’d almost died, and
I’d spent time with Phoenix.
I grumbled to myself as we headed back to our old
camp. Why did he have such a strong grasp over me?
Maybe it was like this with all soul mates, though I
wouldn’t know as I hadn’t much experience with mine.
Echo greeted me with as much gusto as ever, which
faded quickly when she realised I didn’t have treats for her
this one time. I stroked her velvet nose, wondering how
the nose of the Du’rangor would’ve felt.
Suddenly a hot ball of pain wrenched my insides. I’d
just killed a creature. A large, living creature that was
trying to kill me. Suddenly everything rushed me at once,
how close I’d come to death. Jett said it had been
poisonous; if one of those razor sharp claws had so much
as nicked my leg and drawn blood, the blood in my veins
would’ve bubbled with acid and I would’ve died.
I sat in the sand dunes and curled up into a ball. It
wasn’t everyday one managed to succeed in killing
something that was threatening their life. I should feel
elated, even more confident in my abilities than before.
But I knew I’d been grossly outmatched, and had I had my
twin swords with me, I more than likely would be dead in
that tree. Because I would’ve thought myself a match for
the beast. I would’ve stayed on the ground to face it as an
equal, realising my grievous mistake far too late.
Cold sand brushed my cheeks and I shivered in the
brisk sea wind. Behind me, I could hear someone, Dena, I
think, calling for me. I didn’t answer her, instead hugging
my knees to my chest tighter, closing my eyes against the
grains of sand that sailed on the wind.
“You’re in shock.”
I opened my eyes and saw Phoenix sitting a little way
down the dune from me. How long had he been there?
“What?”
“In shock. You’re trying to deal with the fact that you
almost died.”
“So what if I am?” I said, moody and defensive. “Where
did you go, by the way? One second you were there and
the next I was being chased up a tree.”
“I saw you being chased by it and went to get help. I
left you alone for only a few minutes. Du’rangors are
intelligent; it would’ve waited for you to be alone.”
“Why? It could’ve killed us both, easily.”
“Yes, but it was also hungry. The Du’rangor is a cursed
beast; it poisons what it kills, and if it eats what it has
poisoned, it dies.”
“How does it kill without poisoning its prey then?”
He swirled a finger in the sand, not looking at me.
“It frightens its prey to death,” he said finally. “That
howl? It overwhelms the senses, drives its prey insane.”
Lucky I’d covered my ears then. I remembered its final,
desperate yowl, the way my head had swum and my
vision blurred. I thought back to the night Dustin and I
had heard it howl on the beach. Even at that distance I’d
been physically affected by its howl; the terror that had
pierced my heart had been the Du’rangor setting all of us
up for a tasty meal.
“Gannameade must be an awful place,” I mumbled. “If
there are creatures like the Du’rangor running loose all
over the countryside.”
There was no answer. I looked up. He was gone.
“Sky,” I looked over my shoulder at Jett. “Are you
alright?”
“I’m fine,” I lied, though my heart hung heavy with
Phoenix’s abandonment. Too bad, I thought, we’d almost
been having a conversation. “I was just coming back.”