Fireborn

18 ¦ Horrors of Halden

"Don't go to Halden!" he yelled. "Go back to your dorms while you still can!"

"It's a bloodbath!" a Rogue shrieked as she hobbled past me, blood trailing along the cream carpet. "You'll die."

"The dragons torched everything," the Wizard wheezed. "There's nothing left."

He collapsed at my feet.

"Oh, gods, Peter!" I exclaimed, running a hand through my hair. "We have to help them to the infirmary first."

"No! We have to go and help the other survivors in Halden," Peter shouted as he placed his hands on a scanner and gained access to the Healer portal. "This way, hurry!"

"There's no one left alive!" the Rogue screamed. "Don't go back there!"

I ran towards Peter before I lost my nerve.

When I entered the portal room, a large metallic archway about twenty feet tall stood before me, its field thrumming with regular pulses. Both sides of the archway were covered in glowing panels, fueled by an unknown power source.

He ran towards the panels and checked the settings, nodding in satisfaction.

Closing his eyes, Peter morphed into a female Human Fighter form I'd never seen before. Her ebony skin glowed in the light of the forcefield, her skull clean shaven. She stood well over six feet tall with a broad frame and wiry musculature that made her both agile and strong.

After throwing me a medical pack, she grabbed a huge rucksack of medical supplies and heaved the bag over her shoulders with a grunt. From the wall, she grasped a giant broadsword.

"The coordinates are already set." Peter turned to me, her gray eyes determined and forceful. "Have you ever used a portal before?"

I shook my head, too stunned to speak. Had my worst terrors come to life? I took a deep breath and steeled myself.

No, it's impossible. My fiscas can't be real.

"Hold my hand," she commanded. My hand trembled with fear as I reached out for hers. "This is going to feel...a little weird. Just hold on tight, all right?"

I nodded.

"On the count of three," she said. "One...two...three!"

I jumped into the field of energy, squeezing my eyes shut and keeping a tight grip on Peter's hand. We were in a freefall, the same sensation that swept over me before one of my visions. A pulling sensation tugged at me, tearing me away from her grasp.

My stomach leaped into my throat when I landed on the dusty ground of Halden with a grunt.

The first thing I felt was searing heat. I whimpered, unable to catch my breath. A fierce gust of wind whipped across the fields, now naught but a river of fire. Raging plumes of black smoke rose to the heavens like the breath of a giant firedrake.

My visions! They weren't fiscas at all. None of them were.

I groaned in anguish. 

"Liselle!" Peter cried as she ran toward me. "Are you injured?"

The fire raged across the horizon as though the oceans of Hades had burst forth from the core of our planet. I fought to catch my breath, overwrought by the stench of burnt flesh, hair, and wood.

Distraught, I stared at the billowing smog rising from the rubble that dotted the landscape, blurred by silent tears. It looked as though a giant monster had smashed every house and farmstead as far as the eye could see. Lush grass and farmland had turned into nothing but ash and dust. The horizon glistened red like blood.