The girl took a breath while, playing with her hair as she spoke. Her tone went from happiness to a hint of boredom as she said, "The elder brother and sister held the fangs of the dragon. At the same time, the younger brother climbed onto the dragon's neck and jumped on it. This caused the dragon to spit out its fire, and the three brothers managed to catch it. But the older brother and sister. They had taken the fangs of the dragon… so after that…."
Neferet's uncle clapped his hands loudly as he said, "Very good, my girl."
The man turned his back on her while drawing a flame on the blackboard with white chalk and, without looking at her, said, "You can stop now. The rest is more complicated and has nothing to do with the class. That fable wants to give a reason to the flame that lives in all of us."
With a smile, the man turned to look at her and said, opening the book again, "Our power is known as flame or fire because of how it looks and because it's hot." Looking at the girl over the book, he said, "But it's not really fire. It's an expression of our soul. It is hot because it is energy, and although it can burn if the user dies or is no longer aware of its flame. It disappears."
Neferet could feel and remember how she crossed her arms in a pout as she said, "Uncle, I studied this in school. If that's what I'm going to learn from you, then why can't I go back to school?"
Feeling her eyes fill with tears and a feeling of fear run through her chest, Neferet began to sob when her uncle knelt in front of her as he said, "The foundations are important to build for the future, dear. You always have to study the basics."
The man gently took out a small handkerchief and, wiping his niece's eyes, said, "This story says that we stole our fire, but really. Fire is an expression of our soul, and that is why it gives us power. Strong and trained souls only live in the body of determined and prepared people."
After getting up slowly, the man said, "Our flames have two main functions, first the emanation and then the manifestation."
Neferet finished drying her tears and staring at her uncle. She kept silent, and while her uncle turned his back on her again. She said, "The emanation is when our flame interacts with the outside of our body without form and without breaking free. In this category is the touch of the beast and the terrors. Those natural spells they have to weaken us and be able to devour us."
The man began to write slowly on the blackboard while he said, "The manifestation is when we make our flame burn, and it leaves our body taking shape and allowing us to control it."
These memories filled Neferet with happiness, a calmer time, and before she had to be in trouble, she was.
Sighing softly, the view in front of her had changed. She was no longer in her uncle's pristine study.
But in a small office, full of dust, the furniture was wooden and worn, construction could be seen through the windows, and the breeze from the river had been exchanged for intense and dry heat.
In front of her was her uncle. But he was no longer shaven. He had short gray hair and a large scar on his left eye, his brown pupil was now white, and he had a delicate gray beard.
The man was staring at her, and with her expression of happiness at seeing her, he told her.
"I see that you have not forgotten what I taught you. You continue to use your memories and your mind to turn off your brain, avoiding fainting."
Neferet couldn't speak, her body began to ache, and she began to feel a breeze washing over her body.
Her uncle spread her hands on the worn wooden desk and, opening her hands, said, "It's time to wake up, dear; you'll have to survive so you can come to see me again."
Feeling a sharp blow to her side, Neferet opened her eyes quickly. To see how she was falling down a hill full of stones with runes written.
Beside her, the furry, wounded body of the creature leaves pools of steaming black blood.
Raising her arm, Neferet released one of her fire bandages to brace herself against a tree.
She stretched herself, tossing another bandage to another tree, holding herself suspended in midair.
Feeling pain in her shoulders, she began to let herself fall slowly, slipping the bandages, when a strong blow followed by a painful roar sounded from her back.
Neferet dropped completely, and she was hurt. But her flames were brighter than ever.
The creature was swaying in front of her, wounded and giving off thick black smoke. Neferet stares at the creature, and causing her bracers to glow a shimmering yellow, and she asks quietly, "How can I get out of here?"
Out of the corners of her eyes, Neferet saw that the hill ended near one of the labyrinth walls. She was cornered in a small corridor with the beast in front and a thin corridor with an uncertain destination in the back.
On the left side of it was one of the walls of the labyrinth, and on the right side, the hill of rocks marked with unrecognizable runes.
Facing that creature, Neferet was afraid, but the memory of her uncle pushed her to fight.
Seeing the beast so wounded, Neferet herself was confident that she had a chance to subdue the beast enough to kill it or escape from it.