I wake to a scream.
My eyes fly open and a person runs past me, throwing sand up in my face as they scurry out of the tent. I sit up and look to Lolo's bed, but she's gone, everyone is gone or their getting out of the tent as fast as they can.
I fumble to my feet and follow after them. Not sure what's going on. Although I have a bad feeling about it. I hear people yelling outside the tent, and when I make it into the early morning sun, people are dashing about pushing each other out of the way.
"What- What's going on?" I try to ask a passerby but they don't listen to me. I try again, but everyone is in such a hurry, they're all either running toward the creek outside of camp or they're re-entering camp carrying buckets and bowls and everything else they can manage full of water.
I spot Lolo, she's struggling with a huge pale of water and I run to help her. "What's happening?" I ask her, although I doubt she understands.
She shakes her head as if she understands, and I know that whatever it is, it's not good. She says a word to me in her language, "Moto!" but I'm not sure what it means.
We struggle with the pale, water splashing from the edges and licking my knees. I follow Lolo's lead, and when we round a yurt, I think I know what 'moto' means...
"Fire."
My eyes widen and my mouth goes dry. A huge fire has overtaken three of the yurts. the flame's reaching toward the sky and giving off black smoke. Bundles of people huddle on the ground, some of them crying, others comforting. And the rest of the nomads are doing exactly what Lolo and I are doing: bringing water to try and douse the flames.
Lolo and I rush forward and she chucks the contents of her bucket on the growing flames. The fire is so hot and so big though, her little water doesn't seem to make a difference. Others do the same, but the flames only seem to lick higher.
~I have to help!~
But how? I search around myself fervently looking for some kind of basin that I can use to pick up water, but then it dawns on me.
~I'm a Water Mage. if anyone can do something, it's me.~
I turn and sprint back toward the stream, my legs not taking me as fast as I want to go. When I finally make it to the water's edge, I focus.
I do exactly what Cai told me to do, I put all my energy into my eyes and I stare at as much water in the creek as I can. I stare and stare, but I don't feel a click. I try harder focusing with all my might, but it doesn't work.
~I need to try less water.~
I turn instead to a small groove in the stream where water is pooling, I stare at it and.
~There!~
It clicked!
The water is mine, and I lift it from it's spot in the creek and turn back toward the camp. It's not nearly as much water as I had hoped for, but any amount is better than none. I feel the Earth Nomads watching me as I direct my floating orb of water through the air and back toward the burning yurts.
When I arrive, I'm pleased to see that the fire has been extinguished a little bit. Hopefully, my water will help too. I will the water to move toward the fire, but instead of splashing it onto the flames and losing the water forever, I slowly bring the water to the fire and extinguish it patch by patch. I soak the fabric of the yurt and I choke out the flames.
I hear the Earth Nomads beside me cheering as I go, and although I didn't get all the flames extinguished, a lot of it has died by the time my blurb of water is evaporated into the hot smoke.
I turn to run back to the creek when a hand grabs hold of my elbow.
"You!" I turn and see Willard. He's covered in ash and his clothes are singed. "This is your fault!"
"I- what?" confusion overtakes me, and I try to free myself from his grip but he's holding my arm with a death-claw. "I was just trying to help!"
Lolo comes up on my other side, she holds my shoulders, and begins speaking words quickly to Willard. Words I assume are in my defense.
~Yes, tell him, Lolo. Tell him I was helping!~
"Enough!" Willard yells, and he pulls me so hard that I fear my arm will come out of its socket. "I will not listen to this rubbish." He pulls me through the camp and Lolo follows after us, concern pinching her brows together as she watches me struggle. "I knew it!" Willard goes on talking as if he's speaking to himself, "I knew you were trouble from the moment I met you!"
"I didn't start the fire!" I yell at him, "How could it possibly be my fault?"
"You don't think it's your fault?" He asks, and laughs but he obviously doesn't find anything funny. Before I can answer him, he swings me by my arm and chucks me into a pile of dry grass. "Tell me again that you don't think it's your fault." He yells and points behind me, "You promised me you wouldn't hurt my people!"
I catch myself on my palms and look up from the dry grass toward the area where he pointed. But when I raise my eyes, every bone in my body turns into iron. My mouth drops open and my heart leaves my chest; It abandons me, because even it could not handle what it saw before me.
Fire.
More fire.
Rolling hills and hills of fire.
And a whole army.
An army wearing black and red.
An army of Ot Ulut.
And at the front of the army, just feet from where I sit on the ground.
Holding a flaming sword...
"Altan?" his name slips from my mouth in a whisper.
"Azul."