Worried, he accelerated his pace even more, wanting to confirm if his fears were real or not. The closer he got to their cabin, the more he felt like he was nearing the source of that ominous light, causing his discomfort and anxiety to grow, as did the pounding of his heart:
*Thump-thump, thump-thump...*
Having run as fast as he could, he was now just a few meters away from their home. As he passed the last tree blocking his view, he came to a sudden stop. In the clearing where their cabin stood, a terrifying scene unfolded before his eyes. He stood there, frozen, pale-faced, and wide-eyed, watching as massive flames engulfed their home.
A flood of thoughts rushed through his mind like a tidal wave. But he quickly gathered himself, remembering that he had the power; the power to control flames. He stretched out his hands toward the fire, trying to recreate on a larger scale what he had done that morning with the candle. Then...
Shwoooooooow
A large amount of fire began to gather in front of his hands, gradually forming a huge ball of flames. Soon, it grew to an enormous size, and for Nate, it felt as heavy as a boulder weighing hundreds of kilos. Feeling he had reached his limit, he directed all the flames he could collect into the sky, releasing them all at once.
Bwoooouuuuvvvvv
After this, Nate found himself gasping for breath, drenched in sweat.
*Panting... panting... panting...*
Though he had nearly extinguished the fire, a few flames still lingered here and there, threatening to reignite the blaze. Before that could happen, he summoned the strength to rush into the cabin, now half-destroyed by the flames. Once inside, he immediately started shouting:
"Zad, where are you? Answer me!"
Desperate, he frantically searched the different rooms of the cabin, still calling out with all his might:
"Zad, I beg you, answer me! Zad! ZAAAAAAAAAAD!!!"
Then, a sudden thought hit him:
"Wait... what if... what if he's just not here?"
As this hopeful thought crossed his mind, a small, relieved smile started to form on his face. But at that very moment, he heard a heavy, muffled groan coming from one of the back rooms.
*He jumps* !!!
"What was that..."
Nate began to move hesitantly and fearfully toward the sound. As he got closer to the room, dread gripped him, and all he could do was pray with all his heart that his worst fears wouldn't come true. Finally, when he entered the room, his already wide eyes opened even more, as if they would pop out of their sockets.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
Before he could even realize it, a scream of pure despair and terror escaped his lips. The horror of the scene before him justified his reaction, if not more. Inside the room, bathed in a suffocating stench of burnt flesh, lay a mutilated body on the ground. The corpse, covered in severe third-degree burns, seemed to be the source of the nauseating odor that filled the room like an invisible veil of smoke. Nate quickly realized that this charred mass of flesh and bones was none other than his mentor, Zad. Then...
*Collapses*
Tears began streaming from the young boy's eyes like rivers during a monsoon as he desperately pressed on the gaping wound, clearly inflicted by a blade, in his protector's abdomen. Panicked, Nate began to ramble, not even knowing what he was searching for:
"W-why...? How? What happened? Who did this to you?"
On the verge of death, Zad, despite barely being able to see or hear, recognized the voice speaking to him. Summoning his last reserves of strength, he spoke to his young protégé in a faint whisper:
"R-run..."
But Nate, lost in his panic, could only respond:
"What? What are you saying? I don't understand, I don't understand anything..."
"G-get out of here... You're... in d-danger..."
But Nate, snapping back to a semblance of lucidity, shouted:
"No, stop talking. Hold on! I'll cauterize the wound, and then we'll..."
He abruptly stopped mid-sentence, sensing a threatening presence behind him. He immediately tried to turn around to see what it was, but it was too late. A violent blow to the head from a metal object knocked him unconscious.
Everything went dark.