Young Flame

“The katobles is just over this hill,” Jav calls over the strong wind.

It took us all day to get through the remains of the roaches. Even then, there were still thousands remaining by the time Tetsu became impatient and encouraged us to get back to hunting. Remus gave me the go ahead to fly around burning the left overs.

Now that I can effectively create the ritual with a wave of my hand… or wing, the others are keen to push further up the Titan Alps.

Remus makes sure we stick close together as we move through the mountainous ranges, not letting Tetsu run off on her own again. “Bunny, hold back a bit this fight, will you? Let the others get into the flow of things, it’s been a while since we’ve all fought.”

He does that weird thing with his eyes, where he looks at me through the top of his head without actually turning his body. “Solvei, it’s up to you whether you want to participate or not. You know what your job is. As long as you do that, you are free to sit out. If you want to fight, be careful. Katobles might look tough, but their true danger is in the toxic fumes they breathe. I don’t know if they are effective on áed or not, but watch out.”

I fly over the hill and it’s not hard to spot the creature we are after. A massive, grey, stocky beast stands tall over the line of trees a few hundred metres ahead. It is a quadruped and has a distinct similarity to the pholo used to pull wagons. The only visual differences I can spot — other than the obvious size difference — are the long, trunk like legs and the extended neck that hangs its head below the white canopy.

For now, I gain some altitude and watch the others sprint toward the beast. At about a hundred metres out, Remus flings Jav toward the katobles. The small volan’s wingsuit stabilising him and a glint reaches my eyes. He moves too quick to see, but as I watch the beast, small lacerations appear all along its neck. A hundred cuts, each with barely a trickle of blood.

I catch sight of Jav again. At an insane speed, he spins around the ankle of the katobles. Short, barely noticeable blades extend from his suit, continually cutting into the leg of the creature. Each pass barely digs into the skin, but the volan spins around hundreds of times a second, cutting ever so slightly deeper through the tough skin.

The katobles cries out in a low-pitched bellow as it pulls its leg away before slamming it down on the earth. The beast grunts with aggression as it backs up. With his remaining speed, Jav joins me in the sky, watching over the creature as the other three move toward it.

The katobles curls its head up between its front legs until it touches its underbelly, using its trunk like legs as protection.

In the time Jav was cutting through the creature’s neck and leg, Remus, Tetsu and Grímr position themselves around it. Tetsu rushes in from the front with a long halberd and strikes at the back of its head. The blade pierces cleanly into the neck of the beast and it lets out a deep bellow. The katobles brings one of its thick legs down, attempting to squash Tetsu, but she dodges by millimetres and springs up the other leg. She looks like she’s about to bounce off the leg even higher when Remus calls out.

“What did I say, Bunny? No taking it on yourself.”

She looks disappointed, but acknowledges by letting herself fall back to the ground. She dashes back to her position in front of the creature.

The katobles doesn’t seem to want to let her go though. It lowers its body and lets out another bellow before charging after her.

Tetsu dodges the beast’s large body with ease, and as I watch her, I can see her physically holding herself back from striking the beast as it continues its charge. It knocks down a good hundred metres of trees before it slows to a stop.

Remus and Grímr don’t give it time to prepare another charge. Remus’ whip like arms slam into the katobles front leg where Jav sliced deep into the skin while Grímr barrels through its rear one. With the legs on the right side of its body knocked out underneath it, the beast falters and tumbles to its side. The resounding crash shakes trees while the creature grunts and bellows.

The two are quick to capitalise on their downed foe and rush in to strike at its head. The metal gauntlets on Remus’ limbs pound into flesh with repeated cracks of air. Grímr takes full advantage of his claws and teeth by tearing through the thick skin protecting its skull.

“Gas!” Jav shouts from above.

“I see it!” Remus yells as he and Grímr dash away from the uncurling head.

From its place on its side, the katobles’ head moves away from its chest, breathing out a deep, opaque purple mist that soon hides the creature from sight. Trees wither and die as soon as the gas touches them. None dare approach the toxic fumes.

I fly closer to Jav as I hear heavy thuds of the Katobles rising to its feet.

“How do you deal with that?” I ask.

Jav glances at me before returning his sight down below. “We wait it out. It’s only dangerous when it’s dense enough to see. The wind will disperse it in a few minutes.”

I look down at the others below. Tetsu has walked a distance off and is practising her stances with the halberd and Remus is flinging stones into the obscuring fumes to little effect. Grímr is laying down beside him as if now is the perfect time for a nap. They are all very casual about this. Do they fight these katobles often?

I’m curious about this toxic breath that stops even people as strong as them from pushing through. I fly low over the cloudy purple gas and send down a small ball of my inner flame. If need be, I’m prepared to expel it, but I’ve never seen poison able to taint my flame, so I’m not too worried.

My flame lowers until it touches the fumes. I tense up, expecting it to be painful or something unexpected to happen, but none of that comes. My fire burns right through the gas without resistance. Well, that’s good. It feels a bit anticlimactic considering how seriously the others treat the toxic mist.

I might as well make myself useful. I spread my flames wide around me, then fly through the purple gas, scorching through as much of the substance as I can. It doesn’t take long before I can make out the katobles within the remaining fumes. My wings sweep the air beside me and I fall into a dive. I curve under the beast’s body and cover as much of it as I can in my flames before pulling back above.

The toxic gas sits in pockets around the area. While I can burn through the substance, it is not naturally flammable, so my flames don’t spread unless I’m close enough to do it myself. I rush down each of the remaining patches to burn through while I watch my flames spread over the head and forelegs of the katobles. The creature snorts and grunts as it rubs its head against the ground, trying in vain to remove my fire.

As far as I am above the creature, I don’t have full control over the flames, but I can still feel as it spreads over the thin, wiry hairs that cover its body with my minimal directing nudges.

When the last of the purple mist is gone, Remus and Grímr dash toward the exposed beast. The tall creature limps on the leg attacked by both Remus and Jav, while it continues to rub its head into the dirt below. It doesn’t notice the returning attackers until they throw themselves onto its head and start pummelling through its skull.

The katobles intensifies its efforts, now slamming its head to the ground and rubbing its forelegs over it, trying with the desperation of a cornered animal to remove those tearing into it.

Not much longer does the beast last. Both Remus and Grímr’s skilful avoidance of being squashed, and their continual beating and clawing has the katobles bellowing its last as it collapses.

I land on Grímr’s back as they approach to confirm its death.

“Good job, Solvei. Knowing you can burn through that toxic gas will be lifesaving next time a katobles wanders into inhabited land.”

I look at Remus walking beside us. “These are common?” that thing was harder to take down than a colossal-worm.

“Not common, but there are accidents every year. We don’t cull their numbers much because they eat the roots of many poisonous plants in the lower portion of the Stepps often frequented by people. Sometimes the katobles follow the scent of pollution right back to the cities. Joiak is the country most commonly hit by katobles.”

“C’mon, we’re burning daylight.” Tetsu rushes to my side. “Start up the ritual already.”

I go to complain about her constant nagging and impatience when I see Remus and Jav giving me pleading eyes themselves. I guess the energy they’ll get from this beast is a lot more than the roaches we dealt with before.

I take to the air once more and quickly spread my flame wide. I won’t be able to cover the entirety of the katobles with the inscription, but I can position it in the centre of its body so it will hopefully still take it in. It takes a little work to make sure it’s all correctly made before I start the ritual.

The heavy pounding through the air as it powers up is irritating, but I ignore it and focus on the inscription as the energy redirects from the disappearing corpse into the bodies of the three mercenaries.

As the ritual progresses, I notice that only the parts of the katobles directly underneath the large burning circle is vaporised. In the remains of the corpse is a massive cylindrical hole, cut cleanly through its chest.

So the ritual won’t take in anything but what is directly placed over or under it, even if it is a part of another whole. What would happen if I angled it to the side? How far would it be able to dissipate corpses?

As the first round of the ritual comes to its conclusion, I prepare to try it out on an angle, but I’m stopped by Grímr’s voice.

“Blizzard incoming, we’ll have to give up the rest.”

Everyone turns to a distant covering of white as it crawls over the mountaintop to the north. Remus and Jav immediately start trekking away from the corpse and I’m surprised to see Tetsu follow them with hardly more than a groan of disappointment.

Not wanting to waste any of the leftover katobles, I pass my flames over it and try to eat through it as quick as I can.

“Solvei!” Remus calls with concern lacing his voice. “You of all people should be worried about the blizzard. Hurry!”

Quick to abandon my attempt, I fly to the others, their pace set much higher than on our way up the mountains.

I cast my eyes back on the wall of white that appears to build up on the top of the mountain for a while. It doesn’t move any closer to us, instead growing over the entire ridge of the mountain. Much of the Titan Alps above the blizzard disappear behind the buildup of white.

Then it falls.

In moments, the mountain rising high above and behind us is gone, consumed by the snowstorm as it tears down the slope. The terrifying speed at which it tears down the mountain reminds me far too much of the ocean fog. I look away and pump my wings as hard as they’ll move.

Loud rumbling slams through me and sends shivers down my back. I don’t focus on anything but getting away as fast as I can. My head doesn’t turn away from the open air before me as the deep rumbling intensifies. I don’t look at the others running, nor do I turn to watch the frozen water barrelling toward me.

What am I doing? I’m not a terrified child anymore. I should think about this properly and not let myself fall into a blind panic. Forcefully dragging my head down to the group below, I see they are sprinting off to my left together. My head turns behind me and I have to suppress the panic that tries to overwhelm me as I feel my stomach drop.

The blizzard will be upon us in moments. Only ten seconds ago, it was leagues away.

The top of the snowstorm catches my eye. I take far too long to realise I can just fly up and avoid it entirely. But the moment I change my course from flying away to gaining as much altitude as I can, I hear Jav’s voice shout.

I’m barely able to turn my head in his direction before an impact slams me out of my flight. I flail, trying to get my wings straight again before I realise I’m being pulled along by something. My flames shoot out on instinct, trying to incinerate whatever is grabbing me.

“Stop it, you idiot. Stop fighting me!”

It’s Jav? I hate the feeling of being pulled along, but I hold myself back from burning the volan.

“Have you never heard of the matron of winter? Never fly over a blizzard.”

Jav finally lets go of me, and I crash into the fur of Grímr’s back. They are all still sprinting as fast as they can move and Grímr doesn’t acknowledge my presence.

“Solvei, we have only a couple of seconds. Cover yourself with your jacket and don’t let go!” Remus shouts over the intensifying rumbling.

I scramble to pull my jacket over myself and cling to Grímr’s back. My wingtips slowly begin their change into taloned fingers so I can better hold the coat around myself.

The blizzard hits.

I can feel the heavy impact as a wall of snow almost knocks me off my mount. I cool down my body as much as I can, hoping anything that lands on me won’t melt as we move.

A few minutes pass with constant pelting through the jacket. My body shivers from the freezing temperature, but I don’t dare raise my heat. The cold might be bad, but water is a thousand times worse.

The rumbling calms and the thrumming against my back stops. I wait, still grasping the jacket tightly around me as Grímr’s repetitive steps shake through me. Minutes pass until Remus gives me the all clear.

“Solvei, you should be fine now.”

I peek out before shaking off the buildup of snow covering my jacket. With the snow gone, I heat myself up again, revelling in the warmth after freezing for so long.

Behind us, the blizzard has slowed at the bottom of the valley. It still moves up the side of the mountain we are climbing, but at a far slower pace than before.

What a relief that’s over.