Fiery Bonds

It was a warm, dark summer day and the constant clouds of smoke from the volcano did an excellent job of keeping out the sunlight. The landscape was the same as ever; dry and grey with hardly any life being visible and anything that was alive was clearly starving. This was all she’d ever known, all she’d thought was normal and right in the world. That all had been smashed up and thrown out the window once she’d seen the outside world beyond her territory. It had been almost beautiful and she felt sadness at the fact that most of her people didn’t even know about the sun, let alone a healthy looking plant. Her territory had lost its spark back then, so now there was nothing interesting her in this barren landscape.

Her thoughts went even further and only years of experience warned her of the swipe aimed at her. Instinctively, she backed away, avoiding the swipe and looked to see an expression of anger on her father’s face. “Are you listening to me Noctina?” “Yes, Lord Magor. Forgive me for my rudeness.” She replied, Magor standing normally before beginning to walk back and forth again. “I do not accept your apology. Can you explain why?” Noctina tensed and dared not take her gaze off her father, but avoided eye contact. She wasn’t his equal anymore. “Because I have disobeyed your orders and left our people to suffer even more.” “And?” Gritting her teeth, she continued. “And I went ahead and helped the enemy who seeks to destroy us by providing secret information.” “Go on.” “And I did not kill them when I had the chance.” “Good.” Magor said, satisfied though he knew she was just saying what he wanted to hear and didn’t actually believe what she said. That was changing though; he could see it in her eyes. He then continued from where he’d left off in his lecture but Noctina wasn’t listening, she never did.

Her gaze slowly drifted back to the lava pool in which her father used to see visions of other places, and she slowly saw the image of her territory reappear once more. Just like Magor, Noctina possessed the power to see visions but her ability was weak and she could only see a couple of kilometres away and only when using a large vision pool like this one. After what felt like a few minutes, her thoughts were interrupted again. “Noctina!!” Magor shouted angrily, his voice echoing off the chamber walls and Noctina visibly jumped from fright, her wings splaying out as though she were ready to flap them and fly away in less than a heartbeat. “Yes Lord Magor?” She asked instinctively, cursing herself in her thoughts for having blanked out and visibly displayed weakness. Her father sighed, seeing that he really wasn’t getting anywhere with this. “Do you want me to keep you away from food for another week?” “No Lord Magor.” She replied, her stomach growling loudly as though reminding her that she hadn’t eaten in over two weeks already and her last meal had only been enough to satisfy her for an hour.

She snarled angrily, hating this more and more with each passing day. She’d been grounded for what? Four months now? Five maybe? Whatever the number, she’d been growing increasingly restless. She wanted to eat. She wanted to go outside instead of being locked away in her room for an eternity. She wanted to do something, anything! That’s when it hit her; she wanted a purpose, a reason to live like before. But no, she knew she’d never have a purpose ever again. Her father was probably not even thinking about her outside these lectures, since he’d stopped visiting her just two months ago and when he’d found out about the letters she was writing to Piron… that had really ended badly. Now he was starving her and it was all because of that one time, that one moment of utter weakness, when she’d succumbed to her own fears and ran away.

The strike to her head caught her off guard, the force of the blow knocking her to the floor before tumbling to the wall of the chamber. She felt blood ooze from the wound and her head pulsed with massive pain, her body becoming numb as she breathed rapidly for air. “Get up.” He ordered and from his tone, Noctina knew he was going to teach her a lesson for having such thoughts cross her mind, as well as for blanking out several times. She obeyed and forced herself back to her feet, ignoring the dizziness that came as a result. Trying to focus, she saw he was allowing her the first move and something in her snapped. Immediately, she charged at him, her body lighting up in flames as she activated her Vulcanus Form, red shrouding her vision, both from the blood and the anger inside of her. She swiped at him, her claws lengthening but he easily dodged the attack, her mind registering the movement as a sign of disobedience and disrespect. This didn’t please her and the red in her vision deepened, her body now moving on its own accord as she swiped at him continuously, missing each time and every now and again, he would swipe at her and almost always land a direct hit.

By the time Noctina finally realised what she was doing, the red in her vision had become a deep ominous crimson. Her realisation costed her though, as she hesitated and was struck directly on the shoulder full force. The hit sent her flying and caused her to collide with the wall, large cracks spreading from the force of the impact. Defeated, she let herself fall to the ground and remain there, her gaze slowly shifting to see her sister watching them both from the entrance to the chamber. Her expression was one of shock yet also reluctance, knowing she had to remain out of this even though she would’ve liked to end it. For a long while, the place was silent, almost as if each was waiting for the other to make the first move. Finally, Magor turned his back on Noctina and looked towards Blaise. “Take your sister back to her room and make sure that it is cold.” “But father I-” Blaise started but stopped the moment Magor’s expression darkened. “Yes, Lord Magor.” She said, defeated and walked up to Noctina, helping her to stand back up before taking her to her room.

Once there, Noctina regained some of her attitude and forced Blaise to move away, opening the door herself and walked, or rather, limped into her room and over to her bed. The room was dark and cold, all the heat having been absorbed from it but orders were orders. Blaise walked into the centre of the room and focused, absorbing all of the remaining heat but what she couldn’t control was from where she absorbed the heat. The sound of a death sigh coming from behind her instantly broke her focus, her body swirling round so quickly that for a moment she became dizzy. Noctina was lying like she had before on the bed, but there was no breathing movement and the flames on her wings were gone entirely. Within a heartbeat, Blaise reached her and pushed her so that she could see the crystal on her chest. It was intact. A sigh of relieve escaped her and she walked out of the room, closing the door. “At least you’ll be strong and not so hungry again when you wake up.” She whispered and walked back to her own room.

The next day, Blaise walked into Noctina’s room to find her sister walking in circles from one side of the room to the other, and then back again. “Looks like someone’s feeling better.” She said, trying to ignore the cold temperature. Noctina looked at her before walking and, making sure no one was watching from outside, she grabbed Blaise by the shoulder and yanked her into the room, using her tail to slam the door shut. “Ow! You Moron! What was that for?” Blaise shouted angrily as she got up from the floor, though almost immediately Noctina forced her back onto the ground. This behaviour wasn’t uncommon between the two of them, especially when Noctina just felt like pushing someone around so that she could feel dominant over someone else. Her smirk showed this was innocent though so her sister decided to go along with it, getting up quickly before tackling her to the ground. For a few minutes, the two tumbled over each other, trying to settle the score but as always, it ended in a draw.

“Okay, get off me Short Stuff.” “Not until you promise not to pin me down first.” “Ha! Not happening.” “Then I won’t get off Faggot.” Blaise replied and Noctina tried to force her off, though it only resulted in them tumbling round the room. “Brat!” “Feather head!” “Tail head!” “Winged jerk!” “Snail brain!” “Poof ball!” “Curtain clothes!” “Maggot!” “Hag!” “Jewel breast!” “Lazy daisy!” “What’s a daisy?” Blaise asked and Noctina thought for a minute. “I think it’s a flower.” She replied and Blaise was instantly very insulted, since flowers were considered something of bad luck in their kingdom, except for red ones as they represented the colour of their tribe. She slapped Noctina across the face, whose expression turned ever so slightly sinister in humour. “Oh, now you asked for it!” She shouted and kicked her sister in the stomach, forcing her off and got up quickly. Blaise recovered quickly and shot a blast of lava at her, Noctina doing the same and both blasts collided before exploding.

The smoke was thick and Noctina saw her chance, as did Blaise though neither was counting on the other to charge into the cloud of smoke. “Ow!” Both cried out as they collided head first with each other, though they recovered quickly and started kicking and punching at each other, neither gaining the upper hand. Finally, the two ended up trying to push the other away, their hands holding as well as pushing on the other’s hand, both glaring each other in the eye. “Back down Short Stuff!” “Not a chance Moron!” Blaise shouted back and the two were so focused on each other that they weren’t paying attention to what was happening around them. “You’re backing down now or else!” “Or else what?! You’ll kill me? As if!” Blaise shot back and lava began to swirl around the two of them. “Ha! I bet you don’t have it in you to kill me! Since I’ll just come back to life!” “I do!” “Not!” “Do!” “Not!” “Do!” “Not!” “Do!” “Not!” “Do!” “Not!” At that moment, the lava surrounding them transformed into energy and spread rapidly through the entire volcano. The two were unaware of it and continued to argue; more pulses of lava like energy emanating from them and spreading even further from the volcano with each new energy wave.

Eventually, both grew beyond irritated and separated, glaring at each other. Suddenly, the two charged at each other and collided, but refused to be forced back and so leaned in against the other. Without thinking, they started running, simply breaking through the door with ease and kept speeding up more and more the further they ran. The lava like energy surrounding them became more shield like and formed a stream of energy behind them while allowing them to simply run through walls and other things by acting as a shield on the front. The two of them ran like this for some time, crashing through things and nearly crushing Firespitter while he was walking through one of the tunnels, though thankfully missing him by an inch or two. Eventually, they ended up in the main chamber where Magor was and both didn’t notice.

Their father looked back at the sound of something crashing through the wall, only to see the two of them charge in and past him before falling into the lava pool. He blinked several times, as though dumbfounded by their sudden charge into the place and sighed. “Not again.” He whispered as he watched the two burst out of the lava for air, before continuing to fight by forcing the other’s head below the lava’s surface and even biting each other and pulling at the other’s hair. “Lord Magor?” He looked back to see Sceven and Fume walk into the place through the hole in the wall, bowing respectfully though both looked at the two sisters fighting in the pool of lava. “What is it?” “We’ve retrieved the relic you asked for, my Lord.” Fume replied and Sceven took out a purple crystal like shard embedded in a flame shaped frame of gold, handing it to Magor who smirked evilly as he examined the relic. All three suddenly heard a cry of pain and looked to see Blaise yanking hard on Noctina’s hair, trying to force her to let go of her own hair.

The two generals looked at each other, not certain on whether they should think of an excuse to get out of the place. Magor though simply sighed and ignored his two daughters, knowing they hadn’t been given much of a chance to expend their energy so this was a good time as any for them to do so, even when they were fighting over something. “I take it there wasn’t too much trouble?” “Strangely not, my Lord. Those idiotic Lords of Nature didn’t even turn up.” Sceven replied and Fume continued. “We figured it’s probably because that stupid Fire Princess is still trying to learn the other elements. The traps in the place were the only problem and those were easy enough to overcome.” “Very well.” Magor said, about to continue when a blast of energy struck him on the back of the head. Both generals immediately backed away as they looked to see the two sisters who were now taking this fight of theirs a bit too far.

Magor glared at his daughters before using the relic’s power on them, a beam of purple energy emitting from the crystal and striking both at the same time. They cried out in surprise before the energy morphed into purple collars made of crystal around their necks, and the effect was immediate. Both tried to continue fighting but all thoughts of fighting quickly went away, no matter how hard they tried to continue they just couldn’t harm each other. “There, now you both can behave yourselves for once.” Magor said and both looked at him but knew there was no point in arguing. Instead, they swam through the lava and got out, waiting patiently while standing there. Eventually, the generals left and Magor turned to face them. “Are you two done arguing?” “Yes Lord Magor.” Both replied, their voices containing little emotion while their eyes contained a faint purplish hue. “Good. Now, you best go to your rooms, since you won’t feel motivated to do anything for a while.” “Okay.” They replied and both walked back to their rooms silently, their father watching them leave before returning his attention to the relic.

Smirking, he walked over to the lava pool and looked at it, an image slowly starting to form. It showed the Lords at what appeared to be the Forest Kingdom, though for a moment he fancied he could tell what they were talking about but that would be impossible. Turning away from the pool of lava, he then examined the relic a bit more closely. It was the very relic he planned to use on Noctina to gain full control over her link with Vulcanus, but now that he thought about it, he could use it on Blaise as well. After all, the relic had managed to stop both of them within mere seconds while it normally took an hour or so for him to end a fight between them. He knew of several spells that would grant him full control over both of them but those required energy and would go against their will. With the relic, he was merely bending their will to suit his own. Those crystal collars would last as long as he wished and didn’t need to be removed for the effects to, in a way of speaking, dull down to unnoticeable levels.

There was just one small problem. Neither was so easy to fool anymore and seemed to know he wanted to use them, but they were obedient as far as he was concerned. Plus the two of them hated wearing anything like jewellery so he’ll just have to bend their will into having them willingly choose not to remove the collars of crystal. His thoughts suddenly shifted to the time Noctina had gotten into a fight with Obscurio and she had shouted, or rather, yelled for him to force the Lord of Darkness away from the volcano. He’d never really seen that side of her personality before and the way she’d acted was like some frightened, cornered animal. He didn’t know why but the colour of the purple crystal collars reminded him a bit of the Lord of Darkness, yet he wasn’t any of his concern at the moment. Magor had simply decided to send him to search for another kind of relic, one which could remove one’s powers entirely, theoretically speaking that is.

Looking at the relic again, he felt slightly hesitant. He was using his own children to gain control over all of Gorm, was he taking this a bit too far? He shook his head in annoyance. Of course he wasn’t taking this too far, it was normal and they were the only ones in the tribe who were strong and healthy enough to fight against the Lords of Nature. The rest of the tribe was weak, many having simply starved to death and those that did survive barely even understood the language spoken by the other tribes. They had known nothing but starvation and darkness, which made them distrustful of anything or anyone new. He figured afraid would be a better word but he’d made up his mind long ago. The tribe only had 250 individuals remaining, compared to the 1000 there had been ten years ago. He didn’t care much about it but something in the back of his mind forced him to at least consider their welfare, to consider the tribe’s future. The hard reality was, there isn’t a future for them. Placing the relic on a large shelf at the far end of the room, he turned round to look at the pool of lava again, grinning a wide sinister smirk. “Time for the final showdown to begin.”