Twelve: A False Dawn

Running Through Fire

Reine limped, her leg throbbing with every step. Keeping up with the others felt impossible, but stopping wasn't an option. Not now. Not when the sky behind them burned.

She glanced back. The horizon glowed a furious orange, smoke curling upward like the world itself was exhaling in pain. Birds fled in flocks, streaks of black against the dying light. Small animals darted through the brush, desperate for any escape from the creeping blaze that licked its way through the forest.

The air was thick, hot, dry, choking. Even breathing hurt.

"Keep it together," she muttered to herself, tightening her grip on her bag strap. "You've run through worse."

Ahead, the terrain shifted. Jagged canyon walls loomed in the distance, the ground turning to rough stone and brittle dirt. A narrow path wound upward, skirting along the edge of the cliffs. It was steep, exposed, no cover from whatever waited below.

The sky above darkened as thunder rolled in, echoing across the canyon. Fat drops of rain began to splatter against the dust, hissing as they met the heat rising from the fire.

Another trap waiting to happen, Reine thought. A death trap.

"K–KOIOS!" she shouted over the wind, her voice cracking. "TAKE THE PATH UP!"

Koios turned his head, scanning the cliffside. "Already planning on it!" he called back, his tone calm despite the chaos. Lightning flashed behind him, painting the canyon in blinding white for a heartbeat.

"Guess he already foresaw that," Fiyero muttered, brushing soot from his cheek.

"Guess so," Asra replied, squinting at the sky. "But we should hurry before we get drenched."

"Or shot," Ivy added dryly, loading another round into her gun.

"Positive mindset, Ivy! What the hell?!" Koios barked from the front, not even looking back.

"Realism is positive when you're me," Ivy replied.

Reine couldn't help but snort through her exhaustion. "That's one way to cope."

But then the smirk on her lips faded. She pointed two fingers to her temple, miming a gun, and whispered, "Bang."

Before she could blink, Twitch was there. He grabbed her wrist, lowering her hand fast. His expression was deadly serious, the usual spark in his eyes gone.

"Don't do that again," he said quietly. No yelling. Just the kind of voice that carried weight because it didn't need to rise.

Reine froze, guilt washing over her. The humor died in her throat. "Sorry..." she murmured, eyes dropping to the dirt.

Twitch held her gaze for a moment, then nodded, stepping back to rejoin the others at the front. Rain began to fall harder, soaking their clothes, blurring the world into streaks of gray and orange.

Reine swallowed hard, pulling her jacket tighter around her shoulders. The cold didn't bother her. The silence did.

She looked up the canyon path where the group climbed, each step echoing against the rock. They were moving fast, too fast for someone with a limp. Her leg burned, but she forced herself onward.

Every breath was a fight. Every step, a negotiation between pain and will.

Lightning split the sky again, and for a second she saw their silhouettes, her family, in the only form she had left of one.
People who yelled, bickered, and somehow made her feel like she wasn't just surviving.

"Positive mindset," she whispered under her breath, a tired grin tugging at her lips. "Yeah... sure."

The fire roared behind her, closer than before. The storm howled ahead. And between them, Reine kept running, half broken, half defiant, but still going.

Because stopping meant dying.
And she wasn't ready for that just yet.

They reached a narrow ridge where the path split in two, one winding sharply upward, the other descending into a shadowed gorge. The air smelled like wet ash and metal.

Koios stopped, scanning the area. "We'll rest here. Ten minutes. Then we move."

Reine nearly collapsed against the canyon wall, her legs trembling from exhaustion. Her breath came in ragged gasps, every inhale stinging with smoke. She looked down at her bandaged leg; the gauze was soaked through, tinted pink.

Twitch crouched beside her, offering a half-shrug "You know, for someone half-dead, you're doing pretty good."

"Thanks," she said dryly. "I aim to disappoint expectations."

He snorted, shaking his head. "You're impossible."

"I try."

Another rumble of thunder rolled over them. For a fleeting moment, the sound masked everything else, the fire, the fear, the pain. Just noise. Simple and clean.

Reine tilted her head back, rain mixing with the tears she hadn't realized were falling. For once, she let them. She didn't bother to wipe them away.

Maybe it was the exhaustion. Maybe it was the relief of still being alive. But as she looked out over the storm-lit canyon, she whispered to herself, "We made it out again. Barely."

And for now, that was enough.