Fire On The Water
545 Words
The howl echoed off the river, bouncing between the banks until it was impossible to tell where it came from.
Brynn didn’t move at first. She just stood there, her eyes narrowing, the stick she’d been using to test the current still in her hand.
Then she said, “Right. Time to make choices.”
Caelen glanced upriver, then down. “We can head for the bridge”
“There is no bridge. Not one you want to be on when that thing catches up.”
“Then we cross.”
Brynn’s mouth twisted. “You first, Emberborn.”
“I told you”
“You didn’t have to. The way you carry yourself says it. The way it’s following you says it. Now move.”
The undergrowth on the far bank shivered. Two pinpoints of orange light appeared in the dark, not reflections, not lanterns.
Eyes.
Caelen stepped onto the first stone, water rushing around his boots. The current pulled at him immediately, tugging at his balance. Brynn followed, light on her feet, the stick now gripped like a weapon.
Halfway across, the wolf emerged from the trees.
It was larger than he remembered, or maybe the night made it seem so, all blackened bone and muscle wrapped in fire. Its paws hit the bank without a sound, the flames along its spine rippling like a banner in the wind.
The heat reached them even across the water.
Brynn muttered something sharp and foreign under her breath.
The wolf paced the shoreline, then crouched.
“It’s going to jump,” Caelen said.
“It’s going to try,” Brynn corrected.
It sprang.
Time slowed, Caelen saw the arc of its body over the river, the spray of water droplets turning to steam as they touched its fur, the way its eyes locked on him and only him.
The medallion burned against his chest.
He raised his hands without thinking.
Flame erupted, not from the wolf, but from him, coiling outward in a twisting ribbon that struck the creature midair. It howled, the sound like shattering stone, and crashed into the water between the stones.
Steam exploded upward, blinding them.
“Run!” Brynn’s hand shoved him forward.
They splashed the last few steps to the far bank. Behind them, the wolf thrashed, the river swallowing fire and replacing it with darkness.
Caelen stumbled onto the shore, chest heaving. The medallion’s heat faded, leaving only the pounding of his heart.
Brynn caught up, grabbed his sleeve, and dragged him toward the treeline.
Only when they were deep among the trees did she let go.
“You could have warned me,” she said.
“I didn’t know”
“Not about the fire. About how much fire. Next time you decide to light up like a midsummer bonfire, tell me first.”
He stared at her. “You’re not… scared?”
Brynn smirked. “If I were scared of every Emberborn I met, I’d never get anything done.”
Somewhere upriver, the wolf howled again.
Brynn’s smile faded. “And that’s our cue to keep moving. It’s not done with you yet.”
They slipped into the shadows, the sound of the river fading behind them, but the heat in Caelen’s chest refused to cool.
- Writer
