relax. They’re probably just taking a moment to consider their options.”
“I hope so,” she says. She sits there with Stig for a minute before her eye catches sight of a dust devil swirling atop the ground not ten feet from where they sit. “Isn’t that odd,” she suddenly says.
“What?” Stig asks.
Pointing to the swirling dust devil she says, “It sits in one spot. I’ve never known one to do that before.”
“Either have I,” he replies. As they continue watching it, the feeling that something is odd about it grows stronger by the second. It’s not moving, not growing smaller or larger, it just continues to twirl.
Just then Miko comes to stand beside them, his attention too is fixed upon the dust devil. “Strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” he says.
All of a sudden, it moves in an erratic pattern then dissipates. Miko’s eyes widen when he sees upon the ground where the dust devil had just been, a design roughly similar to the Star of Morcyth.
Grabbing a stick off the ground, he moves over to it and writes ‘James?’ in the dirt. Then as if an invisible finger is writing in the dirt, letters form. B…u…i…l…d.”
“They’re alive!” Aleya exclaims.
“Hey!” Miko calls to the others. “You better get over here.”
Scar, Potbelly and the others come over quickly and watch as the letters continue to form.
Zyrn and those he’s with see the commotion and come over as well to find out what’s going on.
Letter by letter, the message appears in the dirt:
Build fire, then get far, far away!
“What do you suppose that means?” Reilin asks.
“Just what it says,” Miko replies. To the others he says, “Gather what material you can. We’re going to make a fire.” Then he bends over and uses his stick to write once more in the sand.
When James sees Miko write, ‘Ok’ in the sand, he relaxes. Getting what rest he can, he continues to watch Miko and the others in the mirror. They scramble about gathering what combustible items as can be found. Dead bushes, roots and a few sticks are all that’s readily available.
He watches as they pile those items together and then Scar kneels down beside it. Taking out his flint stone, he begins striking sparks then bends close to where a spark has fallen on a dried leaf and starts blowing softly across the red spark. After a moment a little bit of smoke appears, then a flame.
Once the fire has caught and doesn’t look as if it’s about to go out anytime soon, those who have horses mount while the others who are on foot begin moving away as fast as they can. James waits for them to put some distance between themselves and the fire before he begins.
Putting away his mirror, he looks to Jiron.
“Over the top magic again?” he says with a grin.
Returning the grin, he says “Something like that.” Brother Willim looks from one to the other wondering what they are talking about.
This time, he lies down on the ground before beginning. “Hope this works,” he says then closes his eyes. Sending out his senses, he first checks where the void had been and is happy to discover no evidence of it. Next he sends his senses over to the fire Scar had made to make sure it won’t go out anytime soon. Satisfied that it will last a sufficient amount of time, he begins.
Using the magic, he forms a second barrier that completely encompasses the creature. Not nearly as strong as the one he created to protect them from the grayness, just strong enough to keep the air within from passing to the outside. Never has he created something so massive. The creature must cover over six square miles radiating out in every direction. Just creating the barrier took longer than he anticipated. The hardest thing was checking the perimeter to make sure the barrier extended several inches past the creature so that not even the slightest part of it was outside the barrier.
Next, he works to remove everything from the air within the barrier but the oxygen molecules. A hard enough job to do when you aren’t trying to maintain two barriers at the same time, but with what he’s already doing, it’s incredibly difficult. Slowly, the concentration of oxygen within the barrier increases. At one point he allows additional air to seep in to augment the supply of oxygen.
Keeping an eye on the fire Scar built, he continues to intensify the concentration of oxygen. When the fire is on the verge of going out, he determines that he’s done all he’s going to be able to do with increasing the oxygen content within the barrier. He’s not entirely sure but the air within the large barrier has to be pretty close to almost pure oxygen.
In a voice tight with strain, he says, “Get ready.” Sweat is now beading down his face and his teeth are grit together in response to the great strain he’s under.
“For what,” Brother Willim asks.
Unable to respond, James puts as much magic as he can into the protective barrier surrounding them to strengthen it. Then, while maintaining both barriers, he extends the larger one to encompass the fire. And when the fire hits the almost pure oxygen within…
Ke-Pow!
…it ignites the oxygen in a massive fireball.
The blast hits the larger barrier with such force that he’s unable to maintain it. Letting it go, he puts everything he has into maintaining the protective one around them.
The grayness that covered their barrier is burnt away as fire completely consumes it. Even the ground beneath their barrier turns red as the heat from the blast melts it into a smoldering slag. James’ back is scorched, his hair begins to smoke as the heat from the blast enters through the barrier.
“James!” exclaims Jiron. The heat burning and scorching his flesh brings intense agony, then soothing comfort comes as the green glow surrounding Brother Willim moves to envelope him. Easing his pain and soothing his burns, Brother Willim works to protect them both against the heat of the fire. For James, Brother Willim is unable to offer much help, it takes all he can do just to protect him and Jiron.
The ground starts to settle down and the heat subsides as the fire begins to diminish. James continues to lay there in agony, trying with his last ounce of strength to hold onto the barrier. When at last he can no longer hold onto it, he releases his hold on the magic and passes out.
“My lord!” exclaims Shorty when the fire ignites the oxygen. Even as far away as they had managed to reach the heat could be felt, then the concussion wave hits and almost bowls them over. Rising into the air, a gigantic cloud of fire reaches to the sky.
“Nothing could have survived that,” breathes Scar.
When it’s observed that the flames are subsiding, Miko turns his horse back and says, “Let’s get back there. They may need us.” Kicking his horse in the sides, he leaps into a gallop as he flies back to the scene of the explosion. The others are soon racing to follow. Zyrn and the villagers follow at a slower pace as they are on foot.
The area where the shimmering gray area had been still shimmers under the summer sun. “The explosion didn’t do anything,” remarks Stig.
“They may be out there in need of help,” Aleya says. “We have to go to them.”
At the edge of the shimmering field, Miko comes to a halt. Heat still radiates toward him from the blast, in some areas the shimmering has made way for red, glowing areas that give off tremendous heat. To their right and left, it looks as if the blast radius had begun a few inches past where the gray area had been. Somehow James had managed to encompass it completely.
“We don’t dare enter until we know if it’s safe,” Miko says. He wants to use the Star to locate James and the others, but the memory of how the grayness reacted when James used his magic causes him to refrain.
“Then what should we do?” Shorty asks.
While they sit there in indecision, Zyrn and the rest of the villagers run to join them. Zyrn comes to stand at the edge of the shimmering area and looks out upon it. Something is different but he can’t quite put his finger on it. Then he concentrates on the fringe to see if it’s still advancing. After a full minute he fails to see any sign that it is.
He looks around the ground near him until he finds a medium sized stone. Picking it up, he turns to face the shimmering area. Cocking his arm back, he throws it. The rock arcs through the air and lands fifteen feet past the edge of the shimmering area.
Crack!
