Lion's Flame

Chapter Eleven

Malda roared viciously, tucking his wings down and nose-diving to the ground. He flared his wings out, flapping them in a flurry to clear the blinding smoke.

"That's him!" Gwen shouted. She pointed to a cloaked figure moving calmly away from the blazing buildings and terrified people.

"Get the people to safety." Gwen said, she stood up and jumped off the dragon's back.

She landed heavily in the courtyard, leaving an indent in the flagstone. She straightened her body quickly, smiling sheepishly at a shocked woman who was watching her from afar, and then she ran into the fire.

The chase was on; Gwen climbed up a wall and ran along the roof, Hood seemed to notice she was following him as he visibly picked up speed. Gwen started to confuse him, she ran in circles and constantly changed directions, eventually trapping Hood in a ring of fire burning in the courtyard.

Gwen laughed manically, she entered the circle of flame, walking through the fire. It cleared away as her body came towards it, and as she walked through her arch of fire the flames flashed blue. When she was inside the ring with her opponent, the opening in the flames closed up, and the blue fire returned to orange.

"Hello, princess." Edward Hood snickered. His face was covered by the shadow of his hood, but his smirk was visible in the light of the fire.

Gwen smiled sweetly, showing her perfectly straight, pearly-white teeth. She tugged her gloves off, tucking them into her belt. As her favourite gloves she would prefer if they didn't get burnt by her fire.

"Quite useless; coming after me with no weapons." Edward Hood said mockingly. Gwen pursed her lips and tapped her cheek with her index finger, showing off her 'thinking face'.

"A dragon? Not a weapon?" Gwen chuckled sweetly, Hood's smirk faded. "Magic? Not a weapon?"

Hood chuckled, "so you're a clever assassin?," he said, Gwen narrowed her eyes. "But even assassins have hearts and mothers."

Gwen stared at the man in front of her. He had found her weakness, she had never met her mother, she only knew why her mother left her in the care of Victory. "Oh, I see." Hood said.

"You don't have a mother, do you?" He smiled cruelly, shoving his hands into his coat pockets.

Gwen gritted her teeth in frustration, this man was really getting on her nerves. "You can bad mouth me all you want, but don't you dare say a word against my mother!" She growled.

She clenched her pale hands into fists, glaring at Hood as her fists burst into balls of flame. She could feel the fire, clawing at her skin as it always did; but it didn't burn her. She had learnt, over her many years of training, to resist the flames and balance her magic power.

She threw a blue flame, letting out a cry of fury as Hood stepped sideways to avoid the fire. Gwen threw another blue flame at the man, gritting her teeth in annoyance as he calmly dodged it, again.

She threw more flames, growing more and more frustrated when her enemy wasn't affected by any of her attacks. Breathing heavily; Gwen fell to her knees and stared down at her charred skin, black and burnt. Her anger wasn't enough.

Edward Hood laughed. A laugh devoid of any humour, it was a dry laugh. An evil laugh. Hood stalked up to Gwen and crouched in front of her, he held her chin in his hands and lifted her face up.