A thin spire of smoke rose up from the fire in front of the cave. A silhouette could be seen poking at it with a stick. I took off my outer coat and placed it round her frail shoulders. We were the owls, who couldn't sleep even if we tried. The others were snoring.
"Thanks, Cao," I could hear the blush in her voice. I shrugged.
"I don't need it. I can warm myself as I'm of the fire affinity,"
She turned to look at me. I brushed a strand of hair that had crept up her forehead away. Her green eyes shone in the darkness. They held a tiny tinge of fright.
"Do you think we'll make it?" She asked quietly. I smiled, reaching out and pulling her into my arms so she could get warm.
"Iris, we have gone through worse things. Do you think trudging through this dark forest is worse than escaping from Calbran? Or hoodwinking Alev Sunr?"
She shivered.
"Please don't remind me,"
"See? We'll be fine, Iris. Even Zin, who's the youngest of us, can manage. So why won't we be fine?"
She looked up at me.
"What about the seals? We're barely rank six mages. Can we break them?"
I laughed.
"Five rank six mages, Iris; and one of us of the fire affinity. We'll break the seal alright. And if we can't, we counterseal it!"
"Cao, you're too optimistic,"
"This team needs one, so I'll be," I looked into the distance.
.
We were five rank six mages. No, scratch that. We were five teenage tramps, ex-convicts who had participated in a prison break. In fact, scratch even that. We were Cao, Zin, Iris, Ruha and Oki.
Me. I was seventeen. Of the fire affinity. Arrested for resisting arrest. Or something of the sort. An orphan. My only existing family member was my grandfather, and he wasn't much use.
Zin. My sister. An orphan as well. Twelve years old. She was a mute, but communicated us through thought speaking. Communicated me, while I translated to the others. She was blonde, kinda pretty. Missing a finger on her left hand.
Iris. Sixteen. You could say she had a crush on me. She was the daughter of Calbran's former chief. Arrested to be executed with the rest of her family on the new chief's orders. Green eyed, with curly brown hair. Prettiest teammate.
Ruha. Another girl who had participated in the prison break. She came with us because she had nowhere to go. The only thing we knew about her so far was her name. She had white irises, which shot out Ice darts. I knew because I'd seen her do it. She didn't look Calbranese. She was dark skinned.
Oki. The only other boy on the team. He was a year younger than I was. Arrested for cursing the new chief. He was very strong, and could lift anything.
We were going to Axihome. To the Furhad Academy. They'd take in anyone as long as they were mages, we'd heard. Calbran was only a small village on the edge of Axihome. No one could come after us there, we were sure.
.
"Did you hear that?" Iris looked at me suddenly. I quickly listened. From somewhere east, far away but approaching, came deep roars that shook the ground.
"What-- what do you think that is?!" Iris' eyes were round with terror. I jumped to my feet. Putting out the fire with several stamps of my foot, I replied:
"I don't know! But I'm sure I don't want to face it! Wake everyone!"
She kicked and shook the others. I sent a bolt of thought into Zin's mind. She sat up in fright.
/What--??/
"I'll explain later, Zin!" I grabbed her hand and pulled her up. Ruha rubbed her eyes sleepily.
"That's a Djarnn!" Oki suddenly shouted, "it's coming this way!"
"We realized that as much, Oki! Everyone, move it!"
We started to run. Ruha, the fastest of us, was in front, while Oki brought up the rear. Zin stumbled several times, making me stumble too, as I held tightly to her hand.
Behind us, we heard trees crunching as the Djarnn closed the distance! It literally just smashed it's way towards us! With a terrifying screech, it leaped at sunk it's claws into Oki, dragging him along the ground.
"Cao! Ruha! All of you, save me!"
I had spun around. The Djarnn's bloodshot eyes locked on mine. It simply held Oki down with one great paw, not eating him.
"Spread out! Iris, attack it from behind! Ruha, over to the left!"
The Djarnn looked towards those two directions as if it could hear me!
Iris and Ruha did as I directed. I pushed Zin to the ground as I forced my raw magic into a spear shape. A spear of fire! I aimed at the Djarnn's eyes and threw!
All this while, Iris and Ruha had not been idle! A swarm of ice darts shot out of Ruha's eyes straight at the vital points of the Djarnn! Iris condensed her raw magic into a shining steel sword and ran forwards, repeatedly slashing at the Djarnn!
The howl from it reverberated within the jungle, causing Zin to become pale, as the sound assaulted her ears. In one moment of distraction, the Djarnn lifted his paw off Oki and he scrambled frantically to my side.
"How do we kill it? It's not dying!" Iris was covered in the blood splattering from the Djarnn as she hacked at it. It wasn't going to die that way!
I condensed my fire energy into a sword! With a fell swoop, I beheaded the Djarnn, falling to my knees as the sword disintegrated at the instant, causing me a backlash.
/Brother Cao!/ I heard Zin's agonized yell in my mind. It was the last sound I heard before I blacked out.