Page 27 of Crown of Flame

I cannot help but feel sorry for it, as I get to my feet and brandish the branch.

It snarls and lunges at me. I dance backward and dodge the swipes of its claws.

I whack it with the branch, and it yelps angrily. If I get the chance, I need to draw my dagger.

But where can I strike? I know from experience that these are tough-skinned monsters.

A whip of my branch doesn’t faze the creature. Instead, it becomes more angry and this time when it leaps at me, there is no more mercy.

I fight as best I can, but the branch ends up snapping into three pieces, and it grabs me by my wrist.

I shriek, kick, scream, and scratch. I do everything I can to make it let go.

But I am not strong enough. And I can’t reach my dagger.

A hole opens in my stomach and my chest. A hole filled with regret and sadness and fear. Fear because I know that my death will be painful.

You should have gone back to Cinis. Maybe he would have killed you, but at least you would have been warm and dry.

I keep fighting, even though I’ve accepted that there’s no point. I’ve been trained not to surrender.

My body sags to the ground when the creature claws me across my face and swipes at my head.

I am still conscious, but the creature is in complete control now. It keeps punching and clawing at me, and eventually, I stop screaming.

This is it. This is the end.

Fat, hot tears roll down my cheeks as I lay in the dirt of the forest floor. More waves of sadness and regret wash over me as I lay there.

Soon my eyes start to flutter closed, and my body starts spasming every few seconds. I need to cough, but I don’t have the strength to lift myself. Instead, I start to choke on blood, saliva, and dirt.

I didn’t even make it to the towers.

10

CINIS

Cinis. You have abandoned us. You have left your home. You have left us behind, with only the monsters for company.

Mostly when I sleep, I dream. But tonight, I get messages from my home plane. The plane of existence which I was dragged from. Messages filled with reproach and regret.

But then those messages fade away, unimportant as they are.

And then I dream.

When I dream, I dream of fire and rock. And I dream of a human woman, with eyes bright and sharp as a kaleidoscope.

I wake to the taste of fire in my mouth.

It takes me a few minutes to become clear-headed, after a night of flurried, senseless dreams, and this is something that never happens.

I have never once, on that other plane of existence - that plane of fire and rock and chaos - woken up confused before.

But this place called Protheka is something different. And while I may be a powerful creature, more powerful truly than those here who tried to capture me, I must admit that this planet is dangerous.

I know that I am alone almost immediately. I am still hovering in the air, and I let myself fall gracefully, gently, to the ground, before I look around.

Memories of the day and night before come back to me in a flood, in a rushing instant, and I look around for Serena, the human woman I rescued.