Eternal Fire

Chapter 33

  Wind ran over Ember's scales as her fire watched and felt through her eyes whilst she scanned the area for threats, from clouds to potentially dangerous dragons. The ground rose and fell below her, changing as she flew south. The air became warmer, unnoticeable but over time, if you could cast your mind back, it was easy to notice, she flew around the tallest of the mountains, flying over the rest, spending half of the time gliding over the ground which varied in itself, from lush green forests, murky green marshland, golden waves of tumbling sand, bare plains, the animals running away from the shadow she cast over the world as they ran, she flew wide around the rainbow wonders of the start of life and magic, not wanting to meet the dragons that lived there. Towards a land of - for most - death and bareness, but to her instincts, home.

After flying for a few days, she glided to a mountainside and wandered around, searching for a cave to rest her aching limbs in for the night. Mindful of what happened last time, she landed carefully, taking her time to feel the ground beneath her claws, claws clicking on the stone. She deemed it safe to support her weight and stood on the stone, ready to take to the skies if she was proved wrong. Nothing moved except for a few stones which tumbled down the side to the valley floor below, so Ember relaxed, her muscles ached as she stiffly walked inside and, without any grace present, flopped onto the floor, making the ground shudder in protest of her action. She closed her outer eyelid over the flying lid and fell into a sleep.
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Grumbling, the sky woke the previously sleep fire dragoness from her slumber. Ember walked over to the entrance of the cave and tried to look out but ended up not seeing much other than the moving droplets of rain and the darkness shielding the light from the sun somewhere in the sky. The sky flashed and Ember's eyes caught onto the sharp prongs of lightning as it danced to some hidden rhythm in the sky, occasionally leaping to the ground below. Sitting down, Ember watched the wind cause some of the rain to go horizontally across the sky before letting it drop before continuing the process, but she was safe in the cave. The heat around her rose before decreasing, a green inferno sat beside her, eyes watching the storm in front of them.

"I can protect you from the rain, so why aren't we going?" The rich and rumbling voice of the fire said, neither snatching their eyes from the dance of light, rain and wind in front of them.

"I would be smashed into the rocks, wings broken, from the wind, even you can't protect me from that." Ember said, speaking at a normal level but was probably barely audible to the fire next to her. She sniffed trying to judge how long the storm would be there, but rain, dry stone, wet stone and the faint smell of fire abused her nose.
"So, what do we do?" The fire said, not moving its eyes from the first lightning storm it had probably ever seen.

"We sit and wait it out." Ember said, trying not to worry about what could be happening to various dragons, whether some were trapped in the storm, being bashed, electrocuted or dying in one of the many ways possible.

"We are not just sitting for how long this takes. We are going to practice."

"I thought you wanted to see the world, welcome to a part that we will never be able to control." Ember said, she hadn't seen that many storms in her life, just the odd one at Humanyos, but not as many as she would have, she lived in one of the communities that were dotted around.

"I like control and order," the fire said, making Ember still, "I want to be able to control the weather, the world, everything." She looked at the dance that the weather was showing, if it was up to the fire, she wouldn't be watching it like she was now.

"I like control and order, but I also like keeping some things free and unpredictable, then you don't get bored as much." Ember said, but the fire was behind her, so it had probably not have been able to hear her. It was true, her eyes watched the dance for a few more moments whilst she thought of what it would look like if it was controlled by a dragon, probably nothing as unpredictable and elegant as what happened in front of her very eyes.