Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend (22 page)

“Big talk. Fortunately for everyone here, that’s all you can do, and very unfortunate for you,” she added as the flame in her hand grew, forcing DiNiya to take a step back. “Seems unfair, doesn’t it, DiNiya? But we both know it’s not as unfair as it would be if you could ignite what’s lying dormant in you.” She took another step forward, and DiNiya took another in the opposite direction.

DiNiya’s mind was racing with thoughts fueled by rage and frustration.
Things had been going so well
, she thought. She had finally felt like she had met someone she could begin to open up to even if it was for reasons she did not fully understand. Now this girl, this thorn in her side, reared her ugly head to complicate things for her once again by reminding her of the day she tried to forget every day since.

Rex watched the surreal scene unfolding before him. Who was this mysterious girl, and why did DiNiya hate her so much? Since he’d arrived, she always seemed to have all her faculties together. Seeing her so disheveled was a real switch for him, and something told him it was for her too. Regardless, seeing her backed into a corner like this triggered yet another new impulse from him. As he was about to step forward, however, he heard a low rumble come from high above their heads.

“All right, that is enough, you two,” VayRonx said, lowering his head to them. “DiNiya, any past transgressions notwithstanding, LyCora and her mother are our guests and will be treated as such.” DiNiya did not move for a moment, but then quickly stood up straight and took an emboldened step towards LyCora. “And LyCora,” he continued. “I take the task of keeping the peace amongst my tribe very seriously, so I would appreciate it if you did not go out of your way to create unwarranted strife amongst it.”

“Threats or acts of posturing will not be tolerated here, young lady,” KyVina added. “We ask you to kindly remember that.”

“Of course,” LyCora replied, bowing her head. “My apologies. It was never my intention to start a fight.”

BaRone stood back up. “Perhaps it’s best if you two simply just…stay out of each other’s way.”

“I give you my word, BaRone,” VoRenna stated firmly. “I will see to it myself that this one here remembers her manners. Especially after being treated so kindly by our gracious hosts.” She looked down at LyCora and let out a barely audible growl.

LyCora, on the other hand, just rolled her eyes and sighed. “I don’t think that will be a problem,” she said. Turning back in DiNiya’s direction, she added, “After all, I would not want to be responsible for someone getting hurt…don’t you agree, DiNiya?”

DiNiya opened her mouth slightly in what looked like a silent gasp. Rex could see tears ready to fall from her eyes before she turned and walked briskly to the main doors.

“DiNiya, wait! It’s storming outside,” her father called out after her.

Stopping abruptly, DiNiya turned with a look of anger and great pain that instantly rendered him silent. It was a look Rex recognized all too well, and he suspected her father did too.

“It would seem that it is storming in here, too,” said TarFor as he took another swig of ale.

DiNiya ran through the pouring rain, rage swelling inside born of a pain rooted in the deepest part of herself. One which lay almost always dormant but never failed to make up for lost time when boiled to the surface.

Back inside, Rex looked at the door then back to everyone else. “You’re just going to let her go?”

“He’s right,” said VoRenna. “LyCora, that was extremely rude! How could you have said something like that to her?”

“Oh, don’t treat me like I was in the wrong,” LyCora said as she attempted to untangle two of her braids. “I have every cause to be uneasy around her and you all know it! After all, it’s only by a stroke of luck that I’m even here today, given what happened. Besides, she was the one who started the fight tonight. You all saw the way she looked at me as soon as I stepped through the damn door! Some host.”

“That is beside the point,” VoRenna scolded. “We are her guests and as such must treat her as well as the rest of her tribe with the utmost respect.”

“Well, what would you have me do? Apologize?”

“What good would that do?” Rex asked angrily.

“Pardon?” she replied.

“What good is saying sorry after you insult someone? You knew exactly what you were doing, knew exactly what to say to hurt her. That was the point of that little stage show you were putting on, was it not?”

“Now listen here, boy,” she said nastily. “Do not stand there and pass judgment on me when you are not in full possession of the facts! You might not be so quick to speak to me that way if you knew what all this was even about!” She walked up to him and slowly leaned forward, peering deeply into his eyes. “You have red eyes, Rex. That means you are of the red flame.”

“And?” he said, feeling a strange sense of hostility from her.

“And are you able to ignite your flame?” Crimson fire suddenly lit up around him, startling her as she jumped back a step. He immediately noticed a shift in her demeanor as she backed up quicker than he was sure she would have liked to in front of everyone. Studying her for a moment, he closed his eyes, and with great effort, extinguished the flame around him. With an audible sigh, he reopened his eyes and gave her a satisfied look. “Not bad,” she said thoughtfully. “Still, I could not help but notice how much effort you had to put into that. Someone of your age should be able to ignite and extinguish their flame with no effort, meaning you have not been able to ignite yours for very long. Am I right?”

“What the fuck are you going on about?” he forcefully interjected, startling her in the process. “What does any of this have to do with her or me?”

“Why don’t you ask her?”

“That is enough,” her mother said, bringing her head down next to the both of them. “Rex is new here and does not need to be burdened with such matters.”

“No,” replied LyCora, growing angrier. “Why shouldn’t he know? Ask her, Rex! Ask DiNiya why she has not been able to ignite her flame in four years, why she feels the chill of a cold night?”

“Perhaps I will, or I could just figure it out for myself by gauging your reactions,” he said as he brought his hand close to her face and focused intently, igniting his flame around it. Panic swept over LyCora’s face as she stumbled backwards, bumping into VoRenna’s leg. “As I thought,” he said, studying her with an inquisitive look. “You’re afraid of the red flame.”

“Keep away from me!” LyCora hissed.

“Tell me,” he asked, taking a step towards her, “what fun is it really to push someone who can’t push back?”

“I mean it, stay back!”

“How bored you must be going after someone whose bark is worse than their bite?” he continued, drawing nearer. “Well, I assure you, I’m all bite.” His lips parted as he menacingly flashed a smile filled with serrated sharp teeth.

“All right, you two, that’s enough,” BaRone said, placing a hand on Rex’s shoulder.

Rex allowed his flame to fade before glancing back up at BaRone, who in turn gave him a pleading look. Looking back at LyCora, he said, “Then again, I suppose it’s only respectful to give DiNiya the opportunity to set the record straight. If you’ll excuse me.”

Rex walked past the frightened girl, emitting an ominous red glow from his eyes as he briefly glanced in her direction before moving off through the crowd, which cleared out of his way.

He pushed through the smaller set of doors and immediately found himself in a torrential downpour. He looked in every direction but saw no sign of DiNiya.

“Where would she have gone?” he asked himself. He remembered the night he had climbed to the top of the house and found her sitting under the stars.
Would she really be there now in this weather?
he wondered.
She probably just went home
.

Rex took off at full speed through town back the way they had come earlier. Water splashed with every step, while lightning streaked across the sky.
What is happening here?
he wondered. A few days ago, he was just some kid from an anonymous town, and now he was running through the streets of a town in a fantasy world chasing after a girl he barely even knew.
What else does this place have in store for me?
he wondered.

He ran through the streets, looking in every direction and asking everyone he came by if they had seen her. After questioning seven people who were in a hurry to get out of the rain, he came across a small ceratopsian that said he had seen her run through the cave that led out the way they had come in earlier. Rex thanked him and took off in that direction.

Once through, he stopped as a warm sensation in his chest took hold of him. Placing a hand over his heart, he felt it pounding like a drum. At first he thought it was because he had run the entire way, but soon he realized that it was not from exertion, but a yearning—a pull, but for what? DiNiya suddenly popped in his mind, and the warm sensation in his chest turned to one of burning, and his heart began to beat even faster. Something was guiding him, he did not know what, but he could now clearly feel it. Every time he thought of her, he would feel a pull telling him to go in a certain direction. He took off in the direction of her home, his heart now burning within, but strangely enough, not uncomfortably. He ran and ran until he could see his bedroom window emerging out of the darkness, but still he did not know what was driving him forward. He could feel a fire, not his, but that of another…DiNiya.

His legs began moving faster and faster as his eyes began to glow. His muscles grew until his clothes were tight against his skin and red flame flowed off him. He was practically at the front door when, without even thinking, he pushed off the ground into the air and landed effortlessly on the roof. He stood for a moment with the rain turning to steam as it fell on him. Breathing heavily, he could still feel the rush. Then, slowly, it began to subside. His heart rate slowed, and the rain turned back into cool droplets against his skin as his flame subsided before disappearing entirely. He looked down and saw that his muscles had shrunk back down to normal as well. He could still feel the pull, however, the other flame that had drawn him here. Looking up, he saw DiNiya standing in the rain, staring up at the sky, her fists clenched and trembling. Rex went to call out to her but stopped when he felt a rush of air pass right through him, sending him staggering backwards.

He looked back and saw DiNiya rear back and scream savagely up to the sky. The sound cut through him like a knife and stirred something deep within. It was at that moment the rain stopped falling. Rex looked high above and saw the clouds opening, creating a circle of clear sky above them. DiNiya’s scream became lower and lower and sounded less like a fifteen-year-old girl and more like…something else. He had heard all the cries and calls of the DyVorians of the land, but this was not among them. Still, it seemed strangely familiar. Driving itself deeper into Rex’s psyche, he began seeing flashes in his mind, like sparks of a fire trying to ignite; fragments of memories rising to the surface in a sea of black before disappearing into its depths once again. He found himself captivated by the outpour of such raw emotion from this girl. Driven to it like a moth to a flame, he put one foot slowly in front of the other.
Is this it?
he wondered.
Will I finally see her flame…will it be like mine?
He prepared himself to finally witness with his own eyes what everyone was so afraid of in him, but instead, her scream gradually turned back to that of a normal girl, and the clouds moved back in to fill the empty space, causing the rain to immediately resume its cascade down on them. Rex did not know what had just happened but he could still feel the rush in him; he could still feel…her.

DiNiya dropped to her knees and began to cry. She could feel an all-too-familiar pain swelling up inside her. It was like hopelessness; a pit of despair she could never fully climb out of. There she sat, motionless, as her tears mixed with the rain. Rex just stood and watched her for several minutes in silence. DiNiya felt utterly drained. Her body was exhausted and her mind felt like it was floating lazily in a pool of water. Before long, there was a break in the rain just above her head. Looking up, she saw Rex standing bareback, holding his shirt over her.

“Hi,” he said simply.

She just stared back up with a look of defeat before quickly standing up and pulling the shirt out of his hands. “Put this back on before you get sick again,” she said, wiping her eyes as she tried to pull his shirt over his head.

“Hey, hey, I’m fine,” he protested, pulling away, a little embarrassed by her reaction. “Besides, I’m not the one standing out here in the rain.”

DiNiya turned away from him. Rex did not know what he was supposed to do in a situation like this. He had never actually tried to cheer someone up. After all, he was the one usually feeling tortured by living in a world where no one understood him. Being on the other side was a switch, to say the least, and one he was still growing accustomed to. DiNiya stood in silence with her back to him. Neither one of them knew what to say to the other. The rain began to thin as hints of the sun crept through the grey sky.

“Aren’t you going to ask me?” she spoke at last in a soft tone.

“What do you mean?” Rex asked, pretending to be ignorant of her meaning. “Ask you what?”

“Don’t play dumb, Rex,” she said, turning around to face him with a look that said she was too tired to cry and too disheartened to yell. “I know she told you why she hates me. It was only a matter of time before someone did.”

Rex looked at her curiously, studying her solemn expression. “I know what hatred in the eyes of another looks like all too well,” he said, crossing his arms. “It’s not hate that’s responsible for the unpleasantness between the two of you.”

“But you saw how she spoke to me back there. Of course she hates me. What else would you call it?”

“Fear,” he replied bluntly.

“Fear?” she repeated in disbelief. “You really think she’s scared of me after having watched her go on the offensive like that?”

“People often try to put up a loud front to cover up the fact that they’re scared, but no matter how convincing their performance, they can never hide the stench, the smell of fear,” he added, bearing his teeth slightly.