The Fire Queen

Chapter 5

Leom sat upright, gasping for air as he took in his surroundings. Somehow he had returned to the border, back where fire meets ice. He could see his ice world just beyond the sweltering desert. The hot sun was blaring down on him, making it difficult to breathe.

How long had he lain here, unconscious?

"The King awakes." A soft, smooth voice cooed from behind him. Leom scrambled to his feet and turned around to face that voice. It was the woman he had seen in Fiery Mountains, the one that had formed after the creature had disappeared. Leom suspected that he was eyeing the legendary bird of flame.

"Why am I back here?" Leom asked, surprised.

"I carried you here." The woman said. Leom looked at her aghast. There was no way this woman carried him through the barren waste land in her human form. She must have carried him as the legendary creature he had been searching for. "Who is Kera?" The woman asked softly. "You called her in your sleep."

The name gave him pause. A pain prickled in his chest. He missed Kera so much.

Leom looked away, refusing to answer her question. The woman shrugged her shoulders, as if she didn't care in the least who she was either. She scanned the horizon with her amber eyes, taking in the world of snow beyond.

"What do you seek little king?" She asked softly, her eyes on the ice land just within their reach. Leom swallowed the lump in his throat as he regarded the shimmering, golden woman.

"A wish." He said softly. "From a golden feather."

He was caught off guard by her laugh. It echoed in the dry air around us.

"Many have come to my mountains in search of a golden feather." She said at last. "What is your wish, little king?" Leom tore his gaze away from her and took in the icy terrain not even twenty paces from where he stood.

"A woman, Azle, cast a spell upon my kingdom and its people. I wish to lift it." Leom whispered softly. The woman of flame turned to look at him, her pupils dilating. Leom could have sworn he saw tiny flames tickling her hair as she regarded him.

"What is your payment?" The woman asked at last.

"Name your price." King Leom said, almost too eagerly. The woman took two steps to the left, as if deep in thought while she pondered his words. At last she turned her amber eyes back to look at him. Her eyes softened as she regarded him.

"Your price shall be truth." She said at last. Leom eyed her wearily but nodded his head in agreement. "Now, who is Kera?" She asked again. Leo wiped the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand.

"She is the woman I love." He answered at last. The woman's eyes warmed at his words. A soft smile began to form at the corner of her mouth.

"Bring me to her." She commanded in a soothing tone. "Show me this Kera, and I will free Relenia from its long winter, and I will awake its people from their deep sleep." Leom eyed the woman with suspicion, but he was out of options. If he wanted to save his kingdom and the people within it then he would need to listen to this mysterious woman of fire.

"Very well, bird of flames." Leom said, his voice parched from dehydration.

"You may call me Fiora."